Peace Corps Polyglot

Taking Trips and Lasting Friendships

Moose-spotting may not be your typical post-Peace Corps activity, but when have RPCVs ever been typical?

A unique group of RPCVs became friends during their initial training in Bulgaria and since their return from service, their friendships have only grown. The group of of women, who affectionately call themselves "the old f-rts," range in age from their 50s to 80s and say that the friendships they made during PC service are some of the longest lasting they have.

The group meets up at least once a year for a week or longer to share stories and adventures, catch up with each other's lives, and celebrate the bond they have as friends.  This year's trip was a drive from Southern Maine to Quebec City, making a stop on the way back to explore Maine's North Woods, where the exciting moose-spotting occurred!

They've gone to Atlanta, Santa Fe, and even Southwest France, but no matter where they go, they now know that one of the most valuable things PC service can give is lifelong friendship.

In the photo (L-R): Marcena Pollitt (Fanwood NJ); Jean Perkins (Phippsburg ME); Carolyn DePalma (Somers NY); Patricia Morin (Kennebunk ME); Marilyn Purdy (Palm Springs CA); Trudy Taylor (Orlando FL); Kathy Stewart (South Portland ME); Kathy Harnig (New York NY); Kitty Coughlin (Cape Elizabeth ME); Colleen Sanders (Freeport ME)

Missing from the 2008 reunion and picture:  Mary Smarr (Atlanta); Eileen Deal (Southwest France); Amy Ramm (development consultant in Armenia).

Photograph courtesy of Kathy Stewart (taken on deck of The Katahdin, Moosehead Lake, Greenville ME)

Peace Corps Comments on Planned Office Closings

Today, the National Peace Corps Association contacted Peace Corps requesting more information on reports of the proposed closing of the Minneapolis and Denver Regional Recruitment Offices and potential impacts on Peace Corps recruitment.  The following response was received this afternoon from the Press Office:

Thank you for providing the Peace Corps an opportunity to explain the office mergers.

The Peace Corps Office of Volunteer Recruitment and Selection (VRS) is proposing to merge the Minneapolis regional office with the Chicago regional office and to merge the Denver regional office with the Dallas regional office, by January 1, 2009.  I assure you that any changes the Peace Corps makes to its recruitment structure will in no way have a negative impact on the agency's ability to recruit and that all decisions have been made carefully and after thoughtful consideration.

The merger will move more recruiters into the field with a field-based recruiting model, providing more direct and personal access to applicants.  As the majority of Peace Corps recruiters spend significant time out of the office traveling throughout their regions, the agency has determined that streamlining and decentralizing its operations will enable recruiters to visit campuses and other potential recruiting sites more frequently. We expect the merger will promote better recruitment strategies and will increase the number of recruited applicants. The merger will also provide a significant cost savings to the Peace Corps and create more efficiencies.

Fourteen staff members will be affected by the merger, and the Peace Corps will give priority placement consideration to them within VRS or provide the employees with outplacement assistance from the office of Human Resource Management.

We are committed to a smooth transition for both the applicants and the affected employees.

Inspector General Reports on Peace Corps Medical Clearance

The National Peace Corps Association has summarized the findings of an Inspector General's report on Peace Corps' Medical Clearance System (MCS).

The recently completed report includes 55 recommendations to improve the MCS, as well as agency responses to the findings.

Follow this link for our summary.

In the coming months, NPCA will continue to provide updates on efforts to address concerns related to medical clearance for Peace Corps applicants.

Senior Moment

Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter is making increased recruitment of the 50-plus demographic – Baby Boomers, active seniors and mid-career professionals – a central theme of his tenure. He spoke of this at his confirmation hearing a year ago, and more recently he dropped in on Evangeline “Van” Shuler, an old friend from his India days who just happens to be the oldest living returned Peace Corps volunteer. Click here for the Peace Corps press release. 

It’s a wise move. To a younger generation, Peace Corps is just one among countless overseas volunteer opportunities available these days—and most of those don’t require a two year commitment. It can be a hard sell.

But for older Americans, Peace Corps resonates. They remember Kennedy’s inaugural speech, the pictures of the first volunteers shaking the President’s hand in the Rose Garden, the days when there were 20,000 volunteers in the field and talk of tens of thousands more. Perhaps Peace Corps didn’t fit in their life plans then, but it was something they always hoped to do. Now many are doing it. Peace Corps offers the chance to fulfill a dream, give back, have an adventure, but with the reassuring safety net that a government agency can provide.

Older volunteers are not a new phenomenon in Peace Corps, just one that hasn't received a lot of attention.  I remember fondly the spunky cohort of women who served in the nursing education program in The Gambia in the late 1980s. One had retired as Dean of Nursing from the University of Minnesota.  Another went on to consecutive Peace Corps stints in Nepal and Jamaica. In each case they brought invaluable experience to the job and garnered deep respect from their host country counterparts. They also served as inspiration – and occasional check to – many a younger volunteer. The 78-year old female trainee who piped up “Marcus, put a condom on your tongue” during a lecture on sexually transmitted diseases became something of an in-country legend.