2008.12.31: December 31, 2008: Headlines: COS - El Salvador: Service: Oscoda Press: Patti Koenig has not counted how many times she has traveled to El Salvador since first journeying to the Central American nation with the Peace Corps in 1969

Peace Corps Online: Directory: El Salvador: Peace Corps El Salvador : Peace Corps El Salvador: Newest Stories: 2008.12.31: December 31, 2008: Headlines: COS - El Salvador: Service: Oscoda Press: Patti Koenig has not counted how many times she has traveled to El Salvador since first journeying to the Central American nation with the Peace Corps in 1969

By Admin1 (admin) (141.157.6.23) on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - 8:03 pm: Edit Post

Patti Koenig has not counted how many times she has traveled to El Salvador since first journeying to the Central American nation with the Peace Corps in 1969

Patti Koenig has not counted how many times she has traveled to El Salvador since first journeying to the Central American nation with the Peace Corps in 1969

Koenig shows a photograph of the 15 graduates and points to each student, explaining what has happened to each since graduating a little more than a year ago. Ten have embarked on and continued with college careers and five have chosen to start families or help with family businesses. Most keep in touch with their mentor through letters. Koenig reports that she has encouraged individuals to sponsor El Salvadorian youth to keep them in school. Holan sponsors four other students and an Oscoda couple donates $20 each month to one student. She attended the Joateca graduation in November of 2007, surprising students, parents and the government of El Salvador. The El Salvador Department of Education was so excited about her return to support the graduating seniors, Koenig said, that representatives picked her up in San Pedro and drove her to Joateca and back by car. Normally, she would have taken the seven-hour trip by bus. When she departed for the states, she was asked by department of education officials to follow them into a conference room. She thought she was saying goodbye again, yet when she entered the room, she saw many people and cameras and was awarded a brass certificate of appreciation signed by Minister of Education Darlyn Xiomara Meza. “What an honor,” remarked Koenig. Koenig said the certificate was for her efforts in working with all levels of education in El Salvador, including teaching crisis resolution skills with the Crisis Corps in Joateca. She has organized a youth reading club and other educational activities, working with students, teachers, parents, staff and the community.

Patti Koenig has not counted how many times she has traveled to El Salvador since first journeying to the Central American nation with the Peace Corps in 1969

Peace Corps trip turns into lifetime of service for Oscodian

by Karen Rouse

Caption: Patti Koenig holds up a shiny pink princess costume that she will be taking to El Salvador in January. Koenig says that costumes are her favorite items to give to children. - Photo by Karen Rouse

OSCODA — Patti Koenig of Oscoda has not counted how many times she has traveled to El Salvador since first journeying to the Central American nation with the Peace Corps in 1969. She does, however, remember details about the people that she has served and worked with in Joateca and San Pedro Perulapan on health and social service projects. Most have remained lifelong friends.

Koenig, a retired social worker, will again reunite with the people of Joateca when she visits the town for a five-week trip beginning on Jan. 7.
This time she will be accompanied by friend Nancy Holan of Waterford, who is making the trip for the first time. Holan wants to surprise a young lady named Elisabeth, a nursing student, in whom Holan has a special interest.

The Waterford woman, a nurse herself, is sponsoring Elisabeth’s higher education, having responded to Koenig’s initiative of matching educational sponsors with El Salvadorian youth.

“I don’t think that you can go any place without an education,” contends Koenig. She is the person responsible for challenging the Joateca High School Class of 2007 to further their education.

A mere three people from the town have ever gone on to attend college before.

Koenig shows a photograph of the 15 graduates and points to each student, explaining what has happened to each since graduating a little more than a year ago.

Ten have embarked on and continued with college careers and five have chosen to start families or help with family businesses. Most keep in touch with their mentor through letters.

Koenig reports that she has encouraged individuals to sponsor El Salvadorian youth to keep them in school. Holan sponsors four other students and an Oscoda couple donates $20 each month to one student.

She attended the Joateca graduation in November of 2007, surprising students, parents and the government of El Salvador.

The El Salvador Department of Education was so excited about her return to support the graduating seniors, Koenig said, that representatives picked her up in San Pedro and drove her to Joateca and back by car. Normally, she would have taken the seven-hour trip by bus.

When she departed for the states, she was asked by department of education officials to follow them into a conference room. She thought she was saying goodbye again, yet when she entered the room, she saw many people and cameras and was awarded a brass certificate of appreciation signed by Minister of Education Darlyn Xiomara Meza.

“What an honor,” remarked Koenig.

Koenig said the certificate was for her efforts in working with all levels of education in El Salvador, including teaching crisis resolution skills with the Crisis Corps in Joateca. She has organized a youth reading club and other educational activities, working with students, teachers, parents, staff and the community.

Koenig’s biggest claim to fame, she said, was the establishment of a garbage pick-up system during her first trip to Joateca. She painstakingly went to each household to collect 10 cents a month from residents to have trash collected by workers who guided oxen pulling a cart.

“The system is still in place today, but with a garbage truck that plays ice-cream truck music,” updated Koenig. She pointed out that the truck drivers take pride in their work and will rake areas clean of debris along the route.

Living conditions have not changed much, she pointed out. She dug latrines during her first years in El Salvador while performing rural health education. Koenig showed photos of the outdoor showers and latrines she used daily on her last trip. Temperatures in the mountainous region will warm to 80-90 degrees in the daytime and chill to the 60s at night.

She says that she, at first, felt very isolated in Joateca, a rural, agricultural town in Northeast El Salvador that is just five kilometers from the country of Honduras.

“I felt everyone was looking at me and I felt very bad, thinking they were looking at how bad I thought I looked,” she remembered of the awkward time.

She decided to “make lemonade out of lemons” and made it a point to get to know everyone.

“After that, I felt accepted,” she remarked.

She said that she looks forward to walking into the school in January and watching the looks of the children’s faces when they recognize her.

Two plastic crates were overflowing in Koenig’s living room, stuffed with gifts of clothing, books, toys, pudding, candy and costumes to present during her stay.

“Everything has a name on it,” said Koenig, rummaging through the bounty. She smiles when she finds a pink princess costume. “My favorite thing to give away are the costumes I find that are discounted after Halloween.”

Koenig said she had thought that she would have traveled to the homeland of her grandparents, Switzerland. She said that, as a young girl, she had a dream seeing herself walking in the mountains. She says that she now knows that the mountains in her dream were not of Switzerland, but the ones she now sees in El Salvador.

“I just feel lucky I am able to do what I’ve done,” Koenig said.

The energetic retiree has reapplied to the Peace Corps to serve in Africa in 2009.




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Story Source: Oscoda Press

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - El Salvador; Service

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