…by Ed Oshiro
When I retired from the University of Washington School of Medicine in 2000, I joined the Peace Corps. That decision felt like coming full circle, because I was also one of the first Peace Corps volunteers in the early 1960s when John F. Kennedy was president.
Serving as a Peace Corps volunteer changed my life. I changed my career to public health and spent several years working in Micronesia and Botswana. The overseas experience also positively affected my wife and two daughters.
After I retired, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer again, this time for eight years in South Africa, Samoa, Uganda and Malawi. As a senior with a lot more patience, maturity and experience, I believe I was a much more effective volunteer than when I was 21. The native people respect and venerate elders so it made it a lot easier the second time around. Plus, we seniors adjust much better than the kids in living the simple life without electricity, running water, mattresses, inside toilets, cars, iPods, computers, and all the other trappings of modern life.
All the over-60 year old Peace Corps volunteers I met overseas were very effective, healthy, and happy. They also expressed interest in serving another two year assignment. I certainly plan to spend my 70s and 80s in the Peace Corps. Incidentally, I met Lillian Carter, mother of the president, in India when she was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s. I believe she was around 75 years old then.
I have written a book for my family and friends that document a lot of my memorable experiences. Below is an excerpt from the book.
When I retired, I joined the Peace Corps and became a volunteer in a village in South Africa. I was assigned to a shelter for homeless street boys and an orphanage for babies affected by AIDS. Beverly, another senior Peace Corps volunteer was also stationed in my village. She worked with an organization that trained volunteers that visited AIDS patients.
Due to the high prevalence of AIDS in South Africa, every month one or more of my acquaintances’ family members passed away due to headache, fatigue, chest pain, TB… (AIDS was never stated as the cause of death.) During the early part of our assignment, Beverly and I were invited to attend the funeral of a co-worker’s brother. We did the slow African stroll with twelve women up the hill, and upon entering the one room bungalow we noticed a body covered by a sheet lying on the floor in the middle of the room.
We all sat on the floor around the body and the twelve women began singing a solemn SiSwati prayer. Bev nudged me and directed me with her eyes to look at the body which was moving slightly up and down, indicating that the corpse was breathing. We nervously looked around and noted that all the women had their eyes closed and were singing mournfully. We tried to point out that the corpse was still alive but no one paid attention to us. Spooked, Bev and I continued to observe the body which occasionally twitched and even moved its toes! The dirge went on and on while Bev and I endured, with great anxiety and dread, the thought that the corpse had come back from the dead!
Finally, after about an hour, the singing stopped and we all stood up, walked around the body and out of the house. As soon as we were outside, Bev excitedly told the women that the man was not dead. One woman assured her that he was indeed dead and that he will be buried in an hour. Bev insisted that the man was still alive because we saw him moving under the sheet. The women looked at her quizzically and one finally said, “That wasn’t the dead man on the floor. That was his wife who is still alive. In our culture, the wife of a deceased man must not be seen in mourning so today she covered herself with a sheet and laid on the floor.”
“Oooh,” we said, with great relief.
PHOTO: Ed Oshiro with another Peace Corps volunteers (Jennifer Galvin). They are sitting on Robert Louis Stevenson’s tomb after a long, strenuous hike up Mt. Vaea in Samoa
This article first appeared in the April 2010 edition of Northwest Prime Time, a publication celebrating life after 50 in the Puget Sound region. For more information, visit www.NorthwestPrimeTime.com
The Insider’s Guide to the Peace Corps
What to know before you go
…book review by Elinor Nuxoll
Americans of all ages have been called to service in the Peace Corps. The author says it can be the most rewarding experience of a lifetime. Volunteering at age 50+ is one feature of this guide which provides answers to 70 frequently asked questions about what to expect if you become a Peace Corps volunteer.
Banerjee said he served with several older volunteers in Cameroon and they absolutely loved it. He said in many ways they had an easier time with adjustments and hurdles their younger colleagues often stumbled through. They were more assured of their reasons for being overseas, more open to new people and experiencing hardships, and more comfortable with relinquishing the luxuries of life in the states. Often they had thought of joining the Peace Corps for years and came with professional skills that could be readily applied to the program area they had chosen.
The Peace Corps is as competitive and receives 12,000 applications a year for 4,000 volunteer positions. The average age of recruits is 27 years old but five percent of volunteers are age 50+ and the oldest volunteer at present is 80.
Many chapters in the book answer questions: Am I qualified to join? How do I apply? What will my experience be like as an older volunteer? How do I pack for a two-year trip? What should I bring? What is the training like? What languages do I need to learn? How will I get paid and where will I keep my money? Will I live in a mud hut? Will I have electricity and running water? If I get sick, what medical services are available? How will I receive mail? Can I make phone calls? Will I be able to use a cell phone/? Should I bring my laptop? How often will I see other volunteers? Will I be overseas the whole two years? Many more questions are answered about housing, travel, dating, safety, illness and even joining as a couple.
The appendices include an overview of programs where your skills, education and experience may be valuable and include wide variety of categories.
The Insider’s Guide to the Peace Corps: What to know before you go by Dillon Banerjee, $14.95 at bookstores and online, Ten Speed Press
