December 8, 2009

I’ve had several friends wonder what kinds of “old gals” join the Peace Corps. This post is in response to that query.

I asked each of these women, laughingly, how old they were so that I would get it right. What is funny about this question is that it is the one that I am asked most, if not directly, then neighbors, friends, and family ask it of my host family in my presence. So age and your marital status are the first questions asked.

So let me introduce you to my far-flung fellow older volunteers in Armenia:

(Judy, Barbara C, Ann, Lora, Barbara H, Olga) (Next: Marilyn & Rebecca)













Olga (65) is from New Jersey. She came to the States from Romania in 1980. When applying to the Peace Corps she had decided that she wanted to serve in a post-Soviet country to see how those countries had changed. The Peace Corps offered her a spot in the Philippines where she served for three years on an island landed on by MacArthur at the end of WWII. In the Philippines she worked in water and sanitation. Before she left the Philippines she inquired again about serving in a post-Soviet country and after a very short trip home, she found herself in Armenia. Here she works in a small town (20,000) in the NE in environmental education. Olga has two girls (29 and 31) who think she’s “weird” and don’t question her because they know she won’t do anything they expect. She spent 32 years working and raising the kids and is now enjoying the freedom to travel, experience new cultures, and enjoy the apricots in Armenia. Olga has a wickedly droll sense of humor and makes a good verbal sparring partner.

Lora (63) is from a tiny little town in Colorado and has two daughters (44 and 40). After leaving the corporate world where she worked in IT, she was in business for herself for twenty years: running a craft business, and doing bookkeeping and taxes. When she was a child she visited an old family friend who had a wall covered with National Geographic posters, which started her thinking about traveling and seeing different cultures. Lora lives in a small town (10,000) near a large lake, and is working at the local YMCA and at a small (400 students) state college. She finds the history of Armenia fascinating and likes the people and their attachment to their Christian heritage. Lora loves to walk and hike and has met many backcountry sheepherders.

Rebecca (65) is from Florida and spent 35 years nursing in an intensive care unit. She has two boys (29 and 31). Over the years she went on several medical missions, including two trips to Haiti and four to Honduras. She currently lives in a small NE town (8,000), and works with a non-profit helping disabled children, and, doing what she really likes, making the rounds with a doctor in the surrounding villages two days a week. She is hoping to start a medical lab in one of the villages. Rebecca finds the Armenian people “wonderful.”

Barbara C (61) is from Florida and really dislikes the cold. She is the envy of all other PC volunteers though because she has an ELECTRIC BLANKET! She has a daughter (41). Barbara taught reading, math, and industrial arts (among other things) for 33 years. She “retired” to the Peace Corps. She now teaches at two different schools, has two Girl Scout troops, four student English clubs, and three adult English clubs. She says that she is “overly busy.” The Peace Corps has been something that she always wanted to do, since 17 or 18. She feels as if her life prepared her for this; she’s been a long-time Girl Scout leader and volunteer, and her role-model 84 year-old mother volunteers at a local hospital two days a week. The Peace Corps feeds her love of travel. She loves the friendliness of the Armenians who “would give you the shirt off their backs.” Barbara thinks that being in the Peace Corps is like camping out for two years. She has struggled with the language and laughed as she recalled that she taught swimming in New York one cold summer and never got in the water. So she has not conquered the Armenian language but feels she has been effective in her community.

Marilyn (59) was raised in New York by immigrant Germans, and so she taught German for years in the schools. She has a 28-year-old daughter. She was involved in teacher training across the US, then worked as a professional fundraiser, and realized that she missed the classroom. She now works in central Armenia in a town of about 25,000. She is a secondary English and foreign language teacher and a teacher trainer. She works with the National Institute of Education and with 16 schools. She likes the fact that she feels appreciated for the work that she does, and loves the relationship she has with an outstanding teacher she works with. Marilyn has struggled with the language and tells me that she suffers from neural atrophy of her brain pathways, a factor of age. (We’d all agree!) But Marilyn also thinks that as older experienced volunteers, we bring important skills to a country with an educated population.

Sue (61) is from North Carolina and is the mother of seven children. She has a PHD in Theology and when she retired from ministry, she needed something to fill her time. She feels that she has been very fortunate in life and felt it was time to give back. She saw an article mentioning that the Peace Corps was looking for older volunteers which spoke to her sense of adventure, and she decided she could see herself doing it. She liked the structured support offered; training and medical. She had always been very accessible to her children, so this has been an adjustment for all of them. But she e-mails regularly with her twelve-year-old granddaughter and has listened to the wails of her four-year-old granddaughter who misses her. Her oldest son has just been transferred to Dubai, so she will have the closest relative. She lives in a very small village (800 people) in the far south and heats her small house with a wood-burning stove. She works in a school that has 43 students and thirteen teachers, and really likes the fact that she knows everyone and that it is easy to interact. Sue really admires the women here who work so hard and with such fortitude, accepting what they have. She finds them warm, hospitable, and with a strong sense of who they are as a people. Sue radiates energy and warmth herself.

Barbara H (61) is from Washington State. She is a CPA, has an MBA, and worked as a corporate CFO, mostly for manufacturing companies, after an early career as a VISTA volunteer in West Virginia, a blackjack dealer at Lake Tahoe, and an auditor in NYC. She has two daughters (24 and 21.) She decided to take the Peace Corps plunge after nursing a desire since President Kennedy, and after listening to a presentation at the University of Washington for “over 50” potential volunteers attended by 400 oldsters. And her large Irish family made it possible to leave the girls in good care! She had volunteered for many years including building homes in Mexico and Africa, cooking for the hungry, facilitating JustFaith, PTA, etc. She thought she could handle anything, but is finding it harder than she thought to adjust to bucket baths in a 48 degree bathroom for a potential two years! Barbara works as a business volunteer in Gyumri, the second largest Armenian city (150,000). Her primary assignment is at an NGO that works to develop businesses in the Gyumri area. The feeling of over-whelming depression in the Gyumri area where unemployment is 70% is a primary concern. She is amazed at how well the Armenians have handled very difficult conditions, with incredible resiliency. Yesterday was 21 years since the earthquake of 1988 that claimed 25,000 lives, and destroyed housing, schools, hospitals, gas lines, electricity lines, and water pipes. And the evidence is still everywhere.

Judy (70) is from Washington State. She has two daughters and worked in the mental health profession for many years. She lived in Germany for four years and has traveled extensively. She joined the Peace Corps because it was “more interesting than sitting home retired.” From 1998 to 2001 she served in the Peace Corps in Ukraine, became fluent in Russian, and promised herself that she would do the cultural immersion experience again. Judy currently works in and outside of Gyumri, and lives in a village outside the city. She teaches English composition and critical thinking through writing at a state university, and assists in the village with English classes by providing games and activities for students to use their English. Judy loves the warm and generous hospitality of the Armenian people and their silly humor. Judy has an advantage most of us don’t with her Russian language which most Gyumri residents are fluent in. She is always up for a trip (currently Turkey or Egypt?), a symphony or the ballet, and buys Armenian music for her pleasure.