Rich Thacker says: "The Peace Corps experience has opened my eyes to a culture and a lifestyle that before I arrived in Kyrgystan I knew absolutely nothing about"



After school, Thacker chose to go into the Peace Corps because, "I wanted to experience another culture," he explains. He receives $80 a month and lives with a host family on a farm on the Silk Road connecting Europe and Asia. "The family treats me like a son," he said. After a visit back home in August 2005, Rich Thacker concluded: "America is a land of choices and opportunity. The quality of life is far better in America, but the people work too hard. Kyrgyz people have very little money, very few jobs and have very few choices in life, but they aren't as stressed out as Americans. I guess it comes down to what you value to decide which life is the hardest to live. I'm torn between the two."

Rich Thacker says: "The Peace Corps experience has opened my eyes to a culture and a lifestyle that before I arrived in Kyrgystan I knew absolutely nothing about"

Lessons taught and learned: Decatur man gains as much as he gives during Peace Corps service

By BOB FALLSTROM - H&R Community News Editor

Caption: As a teacher in the village of Temirovka, Kyrgystan, Rich Thacker had as many as 150 students a day. Here he is with a few of them.

What's it like to be in the Peace Corps in Central Asia?

If you're like Rich Thacker of Decatur, it may change your life.

"The Peace Corps experience has opened my eyes to a culture and a lifestyle that before I arrived in Kyrgystan I knew absolutely nothing about," said Thacker. "This experience has changed my life in ways I can't begin to imagine or explain."

Thacker has been teaching English in a school in Temirovka, a lakeside village near the Chinese border, seeing as many as 150 students a day. The first American in the village, he's training his replacement in preparation to leave in November.

Here's how this experience has changed him:

* "My patience with people and situations has increased 10-fold."

* "I've learned to control my temper."

* "I walk and talk with a little more confidence."

* "I'm not afraid to get in someone's face if they have a problem."

* "I can speak Kyrgyz and Russian, I've forgotten how to speak English."

* "Although I have missed two years of being with my family and friends, I have gained a lifetime's worth of experience."

Thacker, 26, graduated from Stephen Decatur High School in 1999. He played football.

He gradated magna cum laude in mechanical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute. Ind., in 2002. He then graduated from the bioengineering master's program at Clemson University, S.C., in 2004.

After school, Thacker chose to go into the Peace Corps because, "I wanted to experience another culture," he explains. He receives $80 a month and lives with a host family on a farm on the Silk Road connecting Europe and Asia. "The family treats me like a son," he said.

Although there are computers and TVs, things are vastly different there. There is no running water. The school is not heated and the windows don't close. Teachers are paid $27 a month. Meals include bread and tea, meat is mostly mutton, goats and horses prepared in an outside kitchen. The national game is polo, played with a dead goat. About 70 percent of the marriages involve kidnapping the bride.

Aside from teaching, Thacker put together a dictionary of about 1,000 words in Kyrgyz and Russian. This was after he learned the Kyrgyz language and then took up Russian. He obtained donations from the U.S. to improve his classroom with new chalkboards, desks and a paint job. Rose-Hulman donated books.

Kyrgyzstan is a predominantly Muslim country. It was annexed by Russia in 1864; it achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and has a republic form of government. The United States has an air base in Bishkek, the capital city, about a five-hour drive from Thacker's location.

Thacker's parents, Richard and Mary Jo Thacker, and his sister, Emily, visited in Kyrgyzstan in September, arriving after about 20 hours of flying time. "We found the people to be warm and friendly, they walk arm-in-arm," Mary Jo Thacker said. "It's a beautiful country. The Russians train for the Olympics there."

After a visit back home in August 2005, Rich Thacker concluded:

"America is a land of choices and opportunity. The quality of life is far better in America, but the people work too hard. Kyrgyz people have very little money, very few jobs and have very few choices in life, but they aren't as stressed out as Americans.

"I guess it comes down to what you value to decide which life is the hardest to live. I'm torn between the two." He expects to visit India after leaving Kyrgyzstan and plans to be back in Decatur in January.

Once he returns to the United States, Thacker plans to keep his options open.

"I'm not going to teach again," he said. "I'm going to keep playing life like a game and see what plops up. The amount of time, energy and patience it takes to be a teacher has blown me away."

Bob Fallstrom can be reached at bfallstrom@herald-review.com or 421-7981.

Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: October, 2006; Peace Corps Kyrgystan; Directory of Kyrgystan RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Kyrgystan RPCVs

When this story was posted in January 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:




Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

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