August 14, 2005: Headlines: COS - Panama: Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Heather Ballance left her Pine home to spend two years doing what she can't quite explain in a village she cannot name under conditions she can only imagine

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Panama: Peace Corps Panama : The Peace Corps in Panama: August 14, 2005: Headlines: COS - Panama: Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Heather Ballance left her Pine home to spend two years doing what she can't quite explain in a village she cannot name under conditions she can only imagine

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Heather Ballance left her Pine home to spend two years doing what she can't quite explain in a village she cannot name under conditions she can only imagine

Heather Ballance  left her Pine home to spend two years doing what she can't quite explain in a village she cannot name under conditions she can only imagine

Her work, according to the Peace Corps, will include restoring, constructing and expanding rural water and sanitation systems as well as training local residents to serve on rural aqueduct committees.

Heather Ballance left her Pine home to spend two years doing what she can't quite explain in a village she cannot name under conditions she can only imagine

From Pine to Panama: Woman enters Peace Corps

Sunday, August 14, 2005
By Maureen Byko

Heather Ballance doesn't consider herself to be the adventurous type.

Yet she left her Pine home Monday to spend two years doing what she can't quite explain in a village she cannot name under conditions she can only imagine.

Ballance, who has spent most of her 23 years in the suburbs, has joined the Peace Corps. After a two-week orientation in Washington, D.C., she will head to Panama, where she will volunteer as an environmental health extensionist.

"I hope to help a lot of people," she said. "When I come back, hopefully I'll have some good stories about a new experience with another culture."

A 2004 graduate of the University of North Carolina, Ballance has a dual degree in psychology and Spanish. She was not sure what she would do with her degree, but she knew when she graduated that she wanted to serve in the Peace Corps.

So she applied in her senior year of college and waited to see whether she was accepted. Not everyone qualifies, and Ballance was worried that the Peace Corps would not take her.

According to its Web site, the corps has only two firm requirements: volunteers must be 18 or older and U.S. citizens. Candidates' education, volunteer experience, work experience and language proficiency are all considered.

Ballance had something to offer in each of those categories. She is fluent in Spanish and spent a semester of study in Seville, Spain. She learned about construction as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity while in college, and she recently worked in a microbiology lab at the Community College of Allegheny County.

Those qualities came together to land Ballance in the Spanish-speaking country of Panama.

Her work, according to the Peace Corps, will include restoring, constructing and expanding rural water and sanitation systems as well as training local residents to serve on rural aqueduct committees.

She does not know where she will be stationed, or with whom. Her specific assignment will come during training, Ballance said.

But she is not concerned. She is happy just be able to go.

She originally was supposed to leave in January for an assignment in Guatemala. Shortly before her departure, though, her eardrum ruptured because of a cold and she lost her medical clearance, Ballance said.

"I was originally disappointed," she said. "But I really like the Panama assignment."

Her mother, Carol Ballance likes it, too. At one point, her daughter was hoping to go to Jordan.

"We were alarmed," Carol Ballance said.

Eventually, Heather Ballance was convinced that the danger would be too great in Jordan, and she requested an assignment in a Spanish-speaking country.

Carol Ballance is sure her daughter will adjust well to her new environment.

"She's very open minded about learning about other cultures," her mother said. "She picks up languages very easily."

In addition to Spanish, Heather Ballance has studied French, Arabic, Chinese and Italian.

And although her life has been one of suburban comfort, because she has traveled extensively, she has learned to adapt to her locations, her mother said.

"She has a very good idea that most people don't live like people in Pine Township," Carol Ballance said.

(Maureen Byko is a freelance writer.)





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Story Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette

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