After the Peace Corps pulled out of Kenya last week due to continued post-election violence, Hering sympathized with the volunteers who had to leave. “When I was there we had some security instances, but I can’t imagine how they must feel to leave,” she said. “A lot of these volunteers have made close friends. Some of them are probably halfway through their service and have developed programs ... They may have found relationships there." Hering spent her second two years in Mombasa, a more metropolitan city, where she helped Peace Corps volunteers with training and on assignments. She said they had several high-security alerts, including a hotel bombing. She was involved in calling volunteers if there was an emergency and said the Peace Corps was good about keeping her notified about what was going on in the country. Hering said she was never too worried for her safety because she knew where to go and what to do in an emergency. “I think my mom was more worried than I was,” she said.
Danna Hering was in Kenya when President Mwai Kibaki was elected in 2002 and remembers the parades in the streets and the overwhelming joy of the Kenyan people because previous President Daniel arap Moi had been in power for more than 20 years
To Kenya and back again: 48-year-old woman's Peace Corps adventure
By KJ LANG / La Crosse Tribune
Caption: Danna Hering of La Crosse volunteered for the Peace Corps in Kenya from 2000-2004 and her home is loaded with items from her travels. Even her bed is Kenyan.
Danna Hering’s life changed after a decision she made on her lunch break.
Hering, 48 at the time, was working in corporate America, where she had been for 11 years.
A divorce, a daughter away at college and her company changing ownership left her thinking more about her future. Over lunch, a co-worker from South Africa suggested that Hering sell her house and her car, and join the Peace Corps in Africa.
Hering, who lived in Madison at the time, decided to walk over to the recruiting office after lunch.
“I took the stuff home, filled it out, had my interview and never looked back,” she said.
Hering found out in February 2000, she would be going to Kenya. She ended up staying for four years.
When Hering’s 82-year-old mother, Beverly, found out her daughter was leaving, at first she didn’t believe her. But later she embraced the idea and got a tattoo of Africa on her arm.
“My daughter was always adventurous,” said Beverly. “I kind of lived vicariously through her.”
The first two years, Hering lived in Wundanyi, a village in eastern Kenya, where she taught people how to manage small businesses, worked with local librarians to start children’s programming and began a couple girls’ book clubs. She said the library program eventually was instituted nationally.
After the Peace Corps pulled out of Kenya last week due to continued post-election violence, Hering sympathized with the volunteers who had to leave.
“When I was there we had some security instances, but I can’t imagine how they must feel to leave,” she said. “A lot of these volunteers have made close friends. Some of them are probably halfway through their service and have developed programs ... They may have found relationships there."
Hering spent her second two years in Mombasa, a more metropolitan city, where she helped Peace Corps volunteers with training and on assignments. She said they had several high-security alerts, including a hotel bombing. She was involved in calling volunteers if there was an emergency and said the Peace Corps was good about keeping her notified about what was going on in the country.
Hering said she was never too worried for her safety because she knew where to go and what to do in an emergency.
“I think my mom was more worried than I was,” she said.
Hering was in Kenya when President Mwai Kibaki was elected in 2002. She remembers the parades in the streets and the overwhelming joy of the Kenyan people because previous President Daniel arap Moi had been in power for more than 20 years. The people thought change would come, and it did at first, Hering said.
“I’ve read news reports since then and there were improvements, but there was still that corruption,” she said.
Hering said it is not the corruption in the Kenyan elections that surprises her so much as the violence and killing between neighbors.
“When I was there, you had people from a variety of tribes living together in communities,” she said. “I know there were some tribal animosities, but there was never any outright violence during the time I was there. With this kind of ethnic cleansing that is going on … that shocks me.”
While Hering learned about the political climate, she also learned about living life.
“I don’t think there was a day that went by that I didn’t say, ‘My God — I’m living in Africa,’ ” she said.
Halfway through her trip, just before Hering turned 50, she decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. She said the five days it took to summit were the hardest thing she’d done in her life.
“I think about that a lot now — my experience in Kenya — but also just how hard that was, and when I am faced with really difficult things, I think of it,” she said.
Right now, at age 55, that mountain to climb is completing the nursing program at Western Technical College, which she joined a few weeks ago. Hering is living in La Crosse near her daughter and even moved in with her when her daughter’s husband was deployed to Iraq.
“I never quite knew what I wanted to do when I grew up until I was living with my daughter and was reading all of her nursing magazines,” Hering said.
She plans to finish nursing school and become a registered nurse. And she’ll be a grandma in August.
Hering says throughout life “doors just kind of opened for me.”
“Every step along the way has led me down the right path,” she said. “I don’t regret a thing.”
KJ Lang can be reached at (608) 791-8226 or klang@lacrossetribune.com.
