“Peace Corps was the transforming moment in my life, when I went from being a caterpillar to a being a beautiful butterfly,” Primus said. “I can now do things I thought I never could do before I joined the Peace Corps. Working in the community health program was an uplifting program for me, but hard since I worked as a medical technician and a nurse in (America). It was very hard to see the children sick and dying from some of the diseases, but with my medical experience I was able to teach the villagers how to prevent some of the diseases from happening to other children in the family or the village so that they may be saved.”
Betty Primus entered the Peace Corps at age 58 and served in Zambia as a healthcare volunteer
Peace Corps volunteer finds experience both sad, rewarding
Mountain View woman plans to return to African country in November
BY JENNIFER MENSTER
RECORD STAFF WRITER
Monday, February 18, 2008
Caption:Betty Primus of Mountain View entered the Peace Corps at age 58 and served in Zambia as a healthcare volunteer. Now 65, and with the Peace Corps trying to recruit seniors, Primus said she thinks she could motivate people her age to volunteer. Photo: Alan Rogers (Record Photographer)
MOUNTAIN VIEW - Betty Primus witnessed toddler’s deaths. She saw moms dying of AIDS, and she herself got sick from the food and eaten up by rat fleas.
Still, the Mountain View resident says her time in Zambia was rewarding. Primus was a volunteer with the Peace Corps for 27 months. She later returned to Zambia for another six months with the Crisis Corps within the Peace Corps.
Primus, 65, worked with community health education. While it was extremely sad to watch so many dying of AIDS and other diseases, it was encouraging when young girls listened intently as she talked about the dangers of HIV. She still smiles every time she thinks of the three young girls she took into the city to show them that women do work and are more than housewives and moms.
“Peace Corps was the transforming moment in my life, when I went from being a caterpillar to a being a beautiful butterfly,” Primus said. “I can now do things I thought I never could do before I joined the Peace Corps. Working in the community health program was an uplifting program for me, but hard since I worked as a medical technician and a nurse in (America). It was very hard to see the children sick and dying from some of the diseases, but with my medical experience I was able to teach the villagers how to prevent some of the diseases from happening to other children in the family or the village so that they may be saved.”
Primus started considering the Peace Corps early in the 2000s. She was going through a rough time and said all her focus was on herself. She wanted to do something for others. She looked at several options and finally decided on the Peace Corps, although it didn’t happen quickly. Primus said she spent five months trying to decide whether or not to fill out the application. She spent another six months before turning it in. Primus just wasn’t sure how comfortable she was with leaving her country - for one she didn’t know the language. But Primus didn’t want to give up. She hadn’t followed through with a lot of things in her life. She wasn’t giving up on this one.
“I always felt I never follow up with anything,” she said. “This was my opportunity to help someone and follow through with something.”
She left for Zambia in April 2002 and was about to turn 59 years old. She retuned home in August 2004. She would later return for six more months.
Primus had to learn the language, Bemba. She can still speak several phrases. Primus also had to change her frame of mind. She was worried of the Zambians attitudes toward African-American in Africa, but she learned quickly that the people were nice and friendly, especially the children. Primus said they taught her so much - from the language to traditional dances to patience.
Primus said the trip was a life-changing experience because she realized how lucky Americans have it. Families in Zambia are on welfare, but there’s no money for welfare services. Some families can’t even afford milk.
Primus remembers one young infant whose mother died during childbirth. The father couldn’t afford milk for the infant, Primus said. The baby later died. Yet, here in America everyone complains about the price of a gallon of milk, Primus says.
Primus said, although it was challenging, joining the Peace Corps was “the best decision I’ve ever made in my lifetime.”
Primus plans to return to Zambia in November, but not as a Peace Corps volunteer, but rather as herself. She’s financially stable to go, and she has plans to help finish a library and classroom she helped pay for at one of the schools, but it’s nothing like Oprah Winfrey’s school, Primus jokes.
Now living back home in Catawba County, Primus enjoys semi-retirement. She spent her adulthood in health care, and now works with Curves and is a substitute teacher for Catawba County elementary schools.
Primus does recommend the Peace Corps, but insists it’s not for everyone. If you hate your fingernails being dirty, Peace Corps is not for you. If you need a shower every day or even every week, Peace Corps might not be your best options. And, if you think Peace Corps will be a nice, long vacation, Primus says to guess again. It’s hard, she said, but rewarding.
“It’s not for a dainty person,” Primus says. “You can’t always call home and go to the doctor.”
jmenster@hickoryrecord.com | 322-4510 x5409 or 304-6916
