Those are twenty-two scales...
My decision
to apply to the Peace Corps, actually
was a fulfillment of a younger person's dream.
You know, I'm a Baby Boomer and very much part of
the, "Ask not what your country can do for you,
but ask what you can do for your country." So we were very
service-oriented when I when growing up.
In 2007 my husband died,
but our children were raised and I had to ask, "what do I want to do next?"
And that's when I went back to
what I've always wanted to do, and that is to
work in Peace Corps.
Right now I'm working for the National Food Nutrition Commission,
and we are rolling out a
campaign called, "The First 1000 Most Critical Days,"
where we concentrate on nutrition for children starting with conception up to
their second birthday
in order to prevent the stunting of children from chronic undernutrition.
And so they have asked me to write the nutrition guidelines for them and help them.
"You will find that there are a lot of micronutrients which are efficient"
Yes, zinc and iron.
The women and my community reacted so favorably to me,
my age is definitely a benefit to
working in Zambia, or I would even say probably most traditional societies
where age is honored and considered equivalent with wisdom.
In fact, Peace Corps had asked me to come to meet the new trainees
and tell them how did I cope with my diverse situation at being an older
American, and I told them I wasn't going to come
because I could sum up the way I cope: Is it was actually a plus
to be older.
Peace Corps gave me a new career.
I was retired for a full year and decided that
I probably needed to do so something more active.
The program here in Columbia had opened up recently and I said,
"I'm going to apply for that."
Our focus is to get bilingualism in
entrenched with the kids here in the public schools so that they might get
better employment.
As an older Volunteer it's been very interesting because
at least at my school most the teachers are older. So I don't have that
problem that many younger Volunteers have of credibility.
My living situation here is with the Cabana family,
and I have my own room and I share a bathroom with my host brother.
He and I are good friends and its worked out very well.
I work particularly
in a lower socioeconomic area of Santa Marta.
Some kids are, what they say and in Spanish, "desplazados"
"Desplazado" means that they've been displaced from wherever they were from by the war.
And they bring their own set of problems as you might imagine
having experienced war, so I consider my job
that much more important for the kids here. That if I do my job correctly
three, four, five, six years down the line they're going to be able to take that test and
get in to the University and and have a free education.
My age hasn't limited me from doing the things that other Peace Corps Volunteers have done.
Now I just don't choose to do some of the physical things
that some of the younger Volunteers do, but
and aside from that, there's been no constraints.
In September we had approximately two weeks
of very, very cold weather
unexpected for this time of year.
We actually had to use the "soba."
A "soba" is a type of
fireplace oven. The hot air flows into these
tubings that are built into the wall and does very much do a good job.
It certainly kept us warm during the night.
The Moldovan people tend to look at older people with
more credibility and respect.
My primary assignment is to provide consulting services to
provide training to young people and to women
who are interested in launching their own small businesses.
There've have been about 150 people who actually started their own businesses.
I have had a career in Human Resources for over 30 years and worked primarily in corporate America,
and I think that I can educate people about how to look at human capital in a different way.
I feel that their purpose, their mission, resonates with me.
I really wanted to do this. It's been something I've been thinking about for a while
so I'm here.
I've done a lot of traveling in my life, and
it's always just been traveling through places and I always knew I wanted to go
somewhere and live somewhere.
It was on my bucket list and life got to a point where
I needed a career change so...
I'm the oldest Volunteer in my group
and really excited to be here in Kyrgyzstan.
One of the reason I got assigned to this particular village is because
they have a puppet theater, which is something -- clowning and theater
puppetry -- is something I was interested in before I came.
The school is doing
presentations and kind of building up the idea
learning English and Russian, and so we're doing this play in English this week.
It talks about this bunny who think life is terrible and if you can be something
else it'll be better.
And he becomes a bear and then discovers the Bears don't really have it any better.
They have their own problems.
"You want to be a bear? All right, I turn you into a bear!
But, I am not responsible for you after that."
I think anyone at any age can get something out of being part of the Peace Corps
I have a different perspective on the world and no regrets at all.
My biggest challenge has been language learning,
but I didn't learn languages well when I was in high school or college so
I don't think I can blame that on age.
I think I have a different relationship with my
host family and my counterparts.
My host mother and I have bonded over doing
crafts together.
And for me coming into Peace Corps
at my age I'm actually thrilled to be doing it now and not when I was right out of college.
I think one of my roles here
is I'm 53 and I'm not married, I never have been
and I'm very happy and I'm doing things that the kids think is just awesome.
A lot of the girls here, it's expected that they'll graduate
and they'll get married, even if they go to college, they're just going to get married.
And I think they have really good role model in this village out my host
My host mother who's a teacher,
my counterpart, are strong women without losing femininity.
I like the idea that I'm here as an older woman who
has a very happy life without having gotten married and I think that
just my being here is a role model.