Swift says she applied for the Peace Corps on a whim. "I called my parents in 2008 on spring break. They're like, ‘Wait. What?' I told them it was a two-year commitment." The extensive application process involved interviews and medical testing that took Swift 2½ months to complete. Healthy habits are a life-and-death issue in Guatemala. "The number one cause of death of children is respiratory disease, because when the women cook, they cook with wood," she said. "The kids also get diarrhea and they get so dehydrated, they die. That's why my main focus is hygiene. Statistically, my boss said personal hygiene - washing hands before they eat - would eliminate 40 percent of the deaths in Guatemala." Swift has found the people of the rural Guatemala villages where she lives and visits to nice and friendly, greeting her on the street in a way uncommon in the United States. "Every person you pass says ‘good morning, I hope you have a good day,'" she said. "The greetings here are something I'll miss when I'm done with my service. They're not afraid to open their houses and give whatever they have, even if they don't have enough for their own families."
Alicia Swift has been in Guatemala most of this year as a Peace Corps volunteer, working with schools and school children in the rural villages surrounding Aguacatan, Huehuetenango
Playing it clean in Guatemala
By Kathy Ursprung
The Chronicle
When Alicia Swift sets off to work in the morning, she doesn't get into a car or board a bus; she hikes up to three and a half hours into the mountains of Guatemala.
Swift, 23, a 2005 graduate of The Dalles Wahtonka High School, has been in Guatemala most of this year as a Peace Corps volunteer, working with schools and school children in the rural villages surrounding Aguacatan, Huehuetenango. She returned home to visit her parents Ray and Wendy Swift on Dec. 23.
"My work is with three elementary schools and my program is called Healthy Schools," Swift said. "I work on infrastructure projects, building bathrooms, kitchens and hand-washing stations at schools."
Other aspects of her job may include health workshops on everything from basic personal hygiene to environmental education.
"I'm really just kind of here as a guide," Swift said. "They tell me what they want to learn and I try to provide them with the resources they need to do a project."
Swift graduated from the University of Oregon in 2009 after majoring in journalism and minoring in Spanish.
"I was at that time in my life where I wanted to do something selfless," Swift said. "I went to college for myself. I studied abroad for myself. It was time to set aside myself."
Swift wanted to use her Spanish skills, help others and learn about a different culture.
"Guatemala is one of the most interesting cultures in the entire world," she said. "They have 22 spoken languages in a country the size of Tennessee."
Swift says she applied for the Peace Corps on a whim.
"I called my parents in 2008 on spring break. They're like, ‘Wait. What?' I told them it was a two-year commitment."
The extensive application process involved interviews and medical testing that took Swift 2½ months to complete.
Healthy habits are a life-and-death issue in Guatemala.
"The number one cause of death of children is respiratory disease, because when the women cook, they cook with wood," she said. "The kids also get diarrhea and they get so dehydrated, they die. That's why my main focus is hygiene. Statistically, my boss said personal hygiene - washing hands before they eat - would eliminate 40 percent of the deaths in Guatemala."
Swift has found the people of the rural Guatemala villages where she lives and visits to nice and friendly, greeting her on the street in a way uncommon in the United States.
"Every person you pass says ‘good morning, I hope you have a good day,'" she said. "The greetings here are something I'll miss when I'm done with my service. They're not afraid to open their houses and give whatever they have, even if they don't have enough for their own families."
Swift lives in a separate small apartment in a family home. When she has to travel to the regional Peace Corps office, seven hours away, she boards a "chicken bus," so named because small livestock are a common sight on the colorfully decorated modified U.S. school and transit buses connect villages along the winding mountain roads of Guatemala.
"They're scary," Swift said. "You feel as though you are going to die. They take corners so fast you feel as though they are going to roll."
Swift also rescued a small dog, "Mania," during her stay. The small light-brown dog's name means peanut. She finds him to be a conversation-starter in her travels.
On the down side, as a young, blonde, white woman, Swift has had to deal with whistles, cat calls and general rudeness from some men.
"Mostly it's a younger population and the teen-age boys, or in their 20s,' she said. "They cat call, whistle and say things to me in English and Spanish - sometimes really offensive things. It's really demeaning. The men here have all the power. They think they can treat people however they want. I'll never think that's OK; I'll never just let it slip by."
Swift has also had to deal with illness during her stay.
"I've been really sick," she said. "I've had three different parasites. It' hasn't been fun."
The Peace Corps has been supportive in that regard. The volunteers have full health coverage, including dental, vision, and doctors that meet the standards of the developed world. The Peace Corps has more than 250 volunteers in Guatemala alone.
Swift says her service in Guatemala has changed her perspective on life.
"I won't ever take anything for granted, ever again in my life," she said. "I will live much more simply. What I thought I needed in life has changed substantially."
In another year, once she has completed her program in Guatemala, she plans to return home to pursue graduate studies. Completion of a two-year stint in the Peace Corps opens up a range of educational opportunities, Swift said.
"I'm looking into a lot of public health programs, and international and nutrition programs," she said.
After speaking Spanish all day, every day in Guatemala, she says she refuses to let the language leave her mind.
"I've thought about working for an organization like Doctors without Boarders as a translator," she said. "If I have the chance to travel, I would take advantage of that opportunity. I want to do something health related - hopefully international health."
Returning home, Swift said she is looking forward to being invisible.
"I am constantly stared at all day long, so I'm excited to be invisible for a couple of weeks and not have people stare at me because I'm blonde and white," she said.
Even though they talk via videoconference on Skype, she hasn't seen her parents for a year, so she is looking forward to spending time with them, as well as her boyfriend, Cory Lescher of Ashland.
And she misses seafood.
"There not anywhere where I live that you can get fresh fish."
