She explains that she has only agreed to discuss her service not to bring glory on herself but in the hopes that others at her station in life will consider a similar choice. It’s a choice that is not as common as one might think. The Peace Corps reports that of its current 8,079 volunteers, 406 – approximately 5 percent — are age 50 or older. The Peace Corps values older volunteers for the life experience and practical knowledge they bring to the table, according to Gates. What exactly Gates will be doing in Mongolia will remain up in the air until she is trained and her skills are matched with a need in the area. Gates said that while she had visited China a few years ago as part of a tour group, that trip “didn’t have much influence on my decision,” said Gates. Instead, she said she told the Peace Corps simply to send her where she was needed.
Judy Gates to serve as Peace Corps Volunteer in Mongolia as a business-development volunteer.
At 65, Peace Corps beckons for Gates
By Kris Olson
Wed May 28, 2008, 02:42 PM EDT
Marblehead - More than 40 years ago, Judy Gates graduated from college and began building a life, one that would include getting married, having two children and working in the communications department of Putnam Investments. Some of her classmates set off on a different course, joining the fledgling Peace Corps, but that path “just didn’t seem right for me at the time.”
Four decades later, however, Gates’ time has come. On Saturday, Gates will depart for Mongolia. Soon thereafter, she will begin training to be a business-development volunteer. By August, she will be ready to go to work.
Gates is reluctant to call attention to her imminent adventure. After all, she figures she has filled her days with volunteer work since retiring in 2000: as an Abbot Library trustee, a member of the town Web Site Committee and the board of Symphony by the Sea. Her stint overseas with the Peace Corps is merely “an opportunity to spread my wings a little bit and try to contribute to the world in some way that’s a little bit broader.”
She explains that she has only agreed to discuss her service not to bring glory on herself but in the hopes that others at her station in life will consider a similar choice. It’s a choice that is not as common as one might think. The Peace Corps reports that of its current 8,079 volunteers, 406 – approximately 5 percent — are age 50 or older. The Peace Corps values older volunteers for the life experience and practical knowledge they bring to the table, according to Gates.
What exactly Gates will be doing in Mongolia will remain up in the air until she is trained and her skills are matched with a need in the area. Gates said that while she had visited China a few years ago as part of a tour group, that trip “didn’t have much influence on my decision,” said Gates. Instead, she said she told the Peace Corps simply to send her where she was needed.
During the first three months of her service, Gates will live with a host family in Mongolia to become fully immersed in the country’s language and culture. Wherever she has traveled, Gates explained that she likes to read up prior to departure and learn as much as she can about her destination. This trip is no different. She jokes that one thing she has learned is that she will be eating a lot of mutton in the weeks ahead.
The Peace Corps has sent 660 volunteers into Mongolia since 1991, shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed, and has 96 there currently. Mongolia’s democracy and free-market economy are still in their infancy after decades of dominance by the Soviet Union and China before that, Gates noted. The country is “definitely moving forward,” she said, but noted that about 40 percent of the people are herders, and many are nomadic.
After acquiring the necessary language and cultural skills, Gates will serve for two years in Mongolia, living in a manner similar to the native people. She will be taking a laptop with her but is prepared for having to live without the Internet for the next couple of months during training. When her access to the Web improves, she has promised to keep family and friends up to date through her blog, http://skyetalk.wordpress.com.
Asked what she will miss most about Marblehead, Gates replied, “what I am looking right now (the ocean), and my friends, of course.”
But she added, “I hope to make lots of new ones.”
She will also be deprived of regular visits with her two grandchildren in Brooklyn, N.Y., but Gates has already found a creative solution: becoming a virtual presence in their classrooms through the Peace Corps’ World Wise Schools program.
Gates’ journey will begin Friday, when she flies to San Francisco for her and other 65 or so Mongolia-bound volunteers. On a blog post last week, she confessed that a bit of apprehension was mixing with her excitement to depart.
She concludes, however, “But I think I’m ready for this and, after all, if not now, when?”
