July 20, 2005: Headlines: COS - Uganda: Chicago Tribune: Rose Marie Larocca recently returned from Uganda in eastern Africa, where she trained primary school teachers for two years.
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July 20, 2005: Headlines: COS - Uganda: Chicago Tribune: Rose Marie Larocca recently returned from Uganda in eastern Africa, where she trained primary school teachers for two years.
Rose Marie Larocca recently returned from Uganda in eastern Africa, where she trained primary school teachers for two years.
Initially, Larocca also worried that it might be difficult to "make friendships with Ugandans, who came from a culture" so different from her own. Yet she said she soon grew close to her Ugandan family, and "it only took a short time to realize that my fears ... were unfounded."
Rose Marie Larocca recently returned from Uganda in eastern Africa, where she trained primary school teachers for two years.
Peace Corps tour is all about heart, not age
By Claire Landes Altschuler
Chicago Tribune
July 20, 2005
Life in the Peace Corps is not for the faint of heart. It's hard work under challenging conditions--anything from digging ditches to planting crops to teaching in primitive facilities. Volunteers must live the way the locals do, which often means in a one-room hut or concrete building, sometimes without electricity or indoor plumbing.
Such demands have long meant that the Corps was a young person's pursuit. But increasingly, people 55 and older, who are generally healthier and better educated than previous generations, are signing up.
[Excerpt]
Rewarding experience
Former Peace Corps volunteers may well be the best champions in that effort.
"The Peace Corps has a motto: `The toughest job you'll ever love,'" said Rose Marie Larocca, 57, of Mundelein. "The truth is, it really is."
Larocca recently returned from Uganda in eastern Africa, where she trained primary school teachers for two years. Larocca had previously spent three years as an elementary school teacher in Chicago.
Larocca, a divorced mother of two adult children, lived in a family compound in Kabwangasi, a town of about 300 people. The compound was headed by a patriarch and his two wives. All but two of their 16 children were grown and living elsewhere in the country when Larocca arrived.
The compound consisted of four small concrete houses with metal roofs and had no electricity or running water. Meals were composed of what the family could grow themselves, mostly grains, corn and matoke, a boiled and mashed banana that is a staple of Ugandan meals. (Although she was not malnourished, Larocca said this diet made her lose 50 pounds during her stay.)
Weather was a challenge too. Larocca said temperatures could reach 100 degrees during the two dry seasons (December to February and June to August). "The scorching equatorial sun ... felt as though it was piercing my skin," she said.
Initially, Larocca also worried that it might be difficult to "make friendships with Ugandans, who came from a culture" so different from her own. Yet she said she soon grew close to her Ugandan family, and "it only took a short time to realize that my fears ... were unfounded." Larocca keeps in touch with the many friends she made there.
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Story Source: Chicago Tribune
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