2006.03.27: March 27, 2006: Headlines: COS - Lesotho: The Wayne Independent: Maia Longenecker spent two years in the Peace Corps, working at improving curriculum and classroom management at 25 preschools in Lesotho
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2006.03.27: March 27, 2006: Headlines: COS - Lesotho: The Wayne Independent: Maia Longenecker spent two years in the Peace Corps, working at improving curriculum and classroom management at 25 preschools in Lesotho
Maia Longenecker spent two years in the Peace Corps, working at improving curriculum and classroom management at 25 preschools in Lesotho
Longenecker lived in a thatched hut with a 65-year-old woman and her two children, ages 10 and 4, and another woman and her two daughters, 18 and 14. There was a garden and small field, but no running water or electricity. Longenecker and her housemates got water by sharing a communal tap with five or six other houses. “It took a long time to adapt,” she said, noting that it took her about three months before she felt comfortable navigating through the village and before she started recognizing villagers in the streets.
Maia Longenecker spent two years in the Peace Corps, working at improving curriculum and classroom management at 25 preschools in Lesotho
Local Woman Tells Peace Corps Story
By KEVIN KEARNEY
BERLIN TWP. - The journey took her from her home in Wayne County to a place where automobiles are for the wealthy and running water is a luxury.
“It really opened my eyes to a new perspective,” said Maia Longenecker.
The 26-year-old Beach Lake woman spent two years in the Peace Corps, working at improving curriculum and classroom management at 25 preschools in Lesotho, an enclave of South Africa.
Longenecker, who was a substitute teacher in the Wayne Highlands School District and has a bachelor's degree in ceramics and art education, also instructed teachers in HIV/AIDS education and assisted in an AIDS Day in which 30 villagers were tested for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Thirty-percent of the some 300 people in the village are HIV positive, she said.
“It's a big crisis right now,” Longenecker said.
Longenecker also undertook the delicate job of discussing HIV and AIDS with preschool-aged children whose parents were infected by the virus and disease. “Everybody needs hugs,” she would tell the children, stressing that the disease cannot be transmitted by way of casual physical contact.
She also headed workshops aimed at instructing teachers how to care for a person with HIV. She said medicine is not widely available in the village.
Also, Longenecker partook in a nine-month project in which 19 playgrounds were built at preschools, complete with swings, climbing walls and monkey bars.
Longenecker's days began long before she was in class with her students. She had to embark daily upon long walks to get to her schools, some of which were a half-hour walk away while others took around 2 1/2 hours to get to on foot. Then, after a long day, she had to retrace her steps back home.
“It was great exercise,” she said with a laugh.
The walks were a necessity because public transportation wasn't efficient and private vehicles were a rare sight in the village. She had a bicycle, but because a good section of the terrain was mountainous and rough, she usually didn't ride it to school.
Longenecker lived in a thatched hut with a 65-year-old woman and her two children, ages 10 and 4, and another woman and her two daughters, 18 and 14. There was a garden and small field, but no running water or electricity. Longenecker and her housemates got water by sharing a communal tap with five or six other houses.
“It took a long time to adapt,” she said, noting that it took her about three months before she felt comfortable navigating through the village and before she started recognizing villagers in the streets.
While she missed her family and friends back home, Longenecker got to the know the villagers, particularly the children, quite well. She attended village-wide celebrations which, as a custom, took place after weddings or graduations or other similar events. The children she taught frequently visited her at home and spent time coloring with crayons and markers she brought with her from the states.
“I miss the children in the village,” Longenecker said.
Other entertainment included reading and listening to public radio. “I did a lot of reading,” she said.
She also said she had to adjust to the fact that she was never alone, whether at home or at school, and had little private space. “I miss that now,” she said.
Longenecker, a 1998 graduate of Honesdale High School and a 2002 graduate of Edinboro University, decided to join the Peace Corps a few years after college because she wanted to experience a different culture. Lesotho seemed like the logical place to go because her parents, Dennis and Anita, had volunteered there in the 1970s.
Before being placed in Lesotho she had to undergo two months of training, during which she learned to speak Sesotho, the first language of Lesotho. “You get better at it after being there for years,” she said.
Longenecker said English is Lesotho's second language and the school books for her preschool children were in English.
Just as it took her time to adapt to living in Lesotho, she had to reintroduce herself back to the American way of living when she returned in December. “Going to a restaurant was like a new experience,” she said.
She's adapted, though, and is applying for jobs in art education.
Longenecker is among 182,000 Americans who have served in over 138 countries since President John F. Kennedy signed the executive order creating the Peace Corps, according to Molly Jennings, public affairs specialist with the Peace Corps regional office in New York.
Today, the Peace Corps has 7,810 volunteers working in 75 nations on developing self-sustaining projects in education, business, health, environment and agriculture.
For more information on the Peace Corps visit www.peacecorps.gov.
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Story Source: The Wayne Independent
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Lesotho
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