May 25, 2005: Headlines: COS - Thailand: Humor: RPCV Local Groups: Beacon News: Linda Seyler spent two years in Thailand digging latrines. At least, that's how the Montgomery woman explains her Peace Corps experience to Americans who seem interested. "People ask how it was, and all they want to hear is 'fine,'‚" she said. "They want to hear one sentence."
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May 25, 2005: Headlines: COS - Thailand: Humor: RPCV Local Groups: Beacon News: Linda Seyler spent two years in Thailand digging latrines. At least, that's how the Montgomery woman explains her Peace Corps experience to Americans who seem interested. "People ask how it was, and all they want to hear is 'fine,'‚" she said. "They want to hear one sentence."
Linda Seyler spent two years in Thailand digging latrines. At least, that's how the Montgomery woman explains her Peace Corps experience to Americans who seem interested. "People ask how it was, and all they want to hear is 'fine,'‚" she said. "They want to hear one sentence."
Linda Seyler spent two years in Thailand digging latrines. At least, that's how the Montgomery woman explains her Peace Corps experience to Americans who seem interested. "People ask how it was, and all they want to hear is 'fine,'‚" she said. "They want to hear one sentence."
Peace Corps veterans find home for their stories
Filling a need: Volunteers say they have found a place to share experiences
By Angela Fornelli
Beacon News
Aurora, Ill.
May 25, 2005
Caption: Digging pit latrines - far from glamorous! The woman in the photo is *not* Linda Seyler. Photo: Global Vision International
AURORA - Linda Seyler spent two years in Thailand digging latrines.
At least, that's how the Montgomery woman explains her Peace Corps experience to Americans who seem interested.
"People ask how it was, and all they want to hear is 'fine,'‚" she said. "They want to hear one sentence."
But Seyler has a lot more to say, and she recently finally found people who want to listen. This year, nearly 10 years after returning from Thailand, Seyler began participating in a local group of returned Peace Corps volunteers who meet every few months to talk, volunteer and raise money for a current Peace Corps project.
"It was the first time I was able to talk to someone about what it's like to come back home," she said, "and about what it was like to be in a strange place for two years on your own."
The group, the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Northeastern Illinois, met last weekend in a home on Aurora's far East Side to socialize and auction items from around the world, including a bone necklace from Tibet, a scarf made in India and drink coasters from Africa.
The roughly $400 they raised will go to a Peace Corps volunteer from the Chicago suburbs to aid the funding of his or her project overseas, said Rick Barbieri, president of the group, which has about 250 members from DuPage, Kane and DeKalb counties.
Many of the nearly 20 returned volunteers who gathered served in the same countries at different times; three of the volunteers met during their service in Jamaica in the mid-1970s and have kept in touch.
Even if they didn't serve together, these returned volunteers have a lot in common.
"Even though we were in different parts of the world, we all know what it's like to live in a fish bowl - where everyone knows you're different, and everyone's looking at you," said Dave Gorman, of Downers Grove. He said he finds it refreshing to talk to others who have a global perspective on life.
While many people join the Peace Corps after graduating college, more and more are seeking the opportunity later in life.
After spending many years as a teacher at Edna Smith Child Development Center in Aurora, Helen Haugsnes decided to join the Peace Corps at age 68. The Naperville woman traveled to Paraguay, where she started early childhood education through training teachers and creating educational videotapes about good teaching practices.
She now creates staff training videos for the DuPage Children's Museum in Naperville.
Gorman, who worked as a development engineer in South Africa in the early 1990s, said the group tries to "bring the world home" by educating children at local schools about the Peace Corps.
"The more we talk about the Peace Corps to children, the more we can get children to grow up into adults that care about the world .‚.‚. and not be so isolated to the U.S.," he said.
If there's one thing these returned volunteers all have taken from their experience, it's a "can-do" attitude, said Jan Mortensen, who hosted the party in her Aurora home.
"Once you've done the Peace Corps and gone half way around the world and thrown yourself into another culture," Gorman said, "you don't have to be afraid of much anymore."
When this story was posted in May 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Beacon News
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Thailand; Humor; RPCV Local Groups
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