I served in the Peace Corps with my husband, and while we were overseas, we helped to establish a group of the married volunteers who were serving with us. Many couples were in the 50-plus age bracket, and they were having very positive experiences together and individually.

I'm working right now on recruiting another 50-plus couple, my mother and father, who visited us during our service. They loved their trip and started working on their Peace Corps applications as soon as they returned.

Scratching the Skin of the Universe

I didn’t need to own dust anymore.

I had turned 50, become the mother of a high school graduate, and earned a Master’s degree in Education Leadership. I joined the PEACE CORPS and learned how to scratch the skin of the universe while helping a small West African island nation start a kindergarten program.

The first six months at my site I created DO lists of analytically identified tasks; tasks specifically chosen to create a desired effect once all had been checked off. I quickly discovered that at this new latitude DO lists were only amusing my host country peers.

A paradigm shift was evolving. It began with emphasis on the big picture, the ultimate vision, not the DO list tasks. Whatever the front burner vision was for the month – workshop themes, kindergarten visitations, resources – the materials for realizing these always seemed just beyond my grasp, held back by the invisible skin that separated my world of need from the world of resources. Skin, when scratched and poked in the same place repeatedly, will tear. I poked and scratched by talking to everyone about my vision-ideas; the baker, the garbage truck driver, my neighbors and the business owners of the small shops that lined my walk to work, perfecting the language of explanation. I would then visit the town’s power base, infecting the mayor, the superintendent of schools, the head of social services, the director of women’s programs with my big picture plans for taking the national kindergarten curriculum to the rurally-based, untrained masses.

A germ, when introduced into the body, is toyed with, ignored, and passively-aggressively jostled before the body deems it acceptable. I was the foreign entity dropped into the living organism of Assomada, Cape Verde. Their toying, ignoring, passive-aggressive behaviors taught me about difficult gifts. The address of my desk changed three times during the first six months of my service before finding a permanent home with the Presidente of the Camara (Mayor / Governor). In the moment of the third transition I was dejected with rejection; I was questioning my work, my purpose, my nonexistent success rate. Then the gift in this difficult gift began to emerge. In moving three times I had tripled the base of my professional acquaintances-with-resources in just six short months. Difficult gifts do not always take on the desired format but they can bring about the desired effect. It became a quest to find the gift within every difficulty.

A pattern was emerging. I was selling the big picture idea to my community by giving away the DO list items to my host country peers to identify, complete and check off. The power of TEN was becoming a theme and a benchmark. Infusing ten different sources with a common focus was producing the desired effects. In moments of discouragement I would reassess progress only to discover I had not asked ten times yet. Then the energy needed to scratch just three more times was easy to find. Vital resources began to trickle in from the other side of the invisible sky-skin, matching themselves with identified needs, attracted to each other like polar opposites. Workshops were taking place. Transportation to kindergartens three mornings most weeks was materializing. Two grants put chalk boards in every kindergarten, furniture in ten, repairs in others. It funded math manipulatives, consumable materials, a word processor and two more years of workshops utilizing a myriad of local, expert presenters. Tenerife built three kindergartens in Assomada’s district of Santiago. A team of a dozen kindergarten teachers was trained in workshop presentation. The majority of my kindergarten teachers never saw wisdom come out of my mouth my third year of service because the team presented. We created, wrote and published a collection of 200 best practices; each of the individual lesson plans authored by the kindergarten teachers of Assomada, employing national curriculum objectives. Shortly before I left, the National Ministry of Education named a host country national Coordinator of Assomada Kindergartens, a position made equal in stature with the other curriculum coordinators of the different disciplines, and located with the others in the Superintendent’s offices.

As a PEACE CORPS Volunteer I helped a small West African island nation begin a kindergarten program. The experience changed my relationship with gratitude forever. In 1996 I knew gratitude, intellectually. It was a noun that gathered dust on an internal vocabulary shelf. In 1999 I returned to the United State with gratitude as an action verb, singing, dancing, gurgling, laughing and skipping through all of my nows, strengthened every moment by the powerful mantra of THANK YOU! Thank you, Assomada and Cape Verde. Thank you for all the difficult gifts.10

No dust here.

Jean Kern

When I was a Volunteer in Nepal in 1991-93 two of my favorite volunteers were 63 and 66 years old. Having them along with the mostly 20's and 30's volunteers added a wonderful dimension. Having worked in Peace Corps recruitment and policy analysis, I would first say that the radio piece I heard today quoted some seriously errant volunteer termination statistics. The Peace Corps has had a termination rate of roughly 30% for many years. This considers medical evacuations, voluntary and involuntary early terminations and is based on volunteers who depart before the full 27 months of service; it's not an annualized rate.

This being said, I would advise any potential volunteer of any age to try to get good information on the types of projects (or lack thereof) at the post you are being considered for, get the names of recently former Peace Corps volunteers from that country and get a realistic idea of the challenges and opportunities at that post. Recruiters, or better Placement Officers, at Peace Corps can try to give you names of former volunteers who may be older, of the same ethnic or racial background, sexual orientation, religion, etc.

Lastly, it's what you make it. So if you are ok with the possibility of having to work outside of, or in addition to, your primary assignment, you have a greater chance of feeling satisfied and giving and getting the most you can as a volunteer.

Best of luck to all! Bill AKA Dil Bahadur

I was posted in Togo, West Africa when I was 23 and loved it so much I stayed an extra year along with 5 other from the same group. Peace Corps is unique in that the volunteers really get to immerse themselves with the host country nationals and that leads to a clear understanding of their counterparts needs. PCVs who are older will benefit by having their life experiences to share and the respect that comes with that. Peace Corps will be a geat adventure no matter what your age.
That was a great interview with the woman who went to Africa at 65!

Mike Nolan, RPCV Togo 95-98
E.D. African Education Project 501(c)(3)

PS: Marco Werman - Leonard MINGOUBE would like to say hello to you!

Thank you both for sharing your stories. I am former Peace Corps Volunteer, but I served when I was right out of college. I'd like to add my two cents from the perspective of a younger volunteer who benefited immensely from the older volunteers in our group. I served in China and we had several volunteers over 50 years old, including one who turned 80 during our two years there. All of the 50+ers were dearly loved and valued by the younger volunteers, so if anyone has any concerns about what it may be like to be an older volunteer in the midst of so many youngsters, I would say that shouldn't be a concern. As long as you've got the flexibility and spirit, you'll be great! I hope to serve again when I retire and I think it's probably the best time in your life to do it.

I celebrated my 60th birthday while serving in Uganda 2003 to 2005. It was without a doubt the most significant experience in my life. While I hope I helped to make sustainable changes in the village where I lived, the changes in me were even more profound. I certainly have a different perspective on what is important in my life and try to live a more deliberate life. I hope this rubs off on the folks I hang out with who are the folks that I hung out with prior to Peace Corps. I had no idea of the strong friendships that would be developed with the Ugandans I met. I am in touch with them frequently, still involved in their lives, still trying to help with their lives, have returned once and am planning another trip back next summer. As to being a part of a group of much younger folks - that is no issue. There were 2 of us over 50 and I am amazed when I look back at the relationships the two of us developed with the younger volunteers - I am old enough to be their Mothers. I too am in touch with them and just returned from a weekend visit with 2 of them - a 30 and 40 year old. I am working again here - this time in the non-profit world - but my heart yearns for a return and just maybe when I "retire" again; I may be on the road again with Peace Corps. It is a leap of faith to pack up and leave family, friends, animals, and everything else that is familiar, but do it - you will not regret it.
Bede Campbell
Uganda
2003-2005

Peace Corps is a GREAT way to spend retirement years. I served in Peace Corps right out of college in the 60's in Colombia and served again when my youngest went to college in the 90's in Slovakia. It was a fantastic experience both times. I learned a lot, had a wonderful time, made life-long friends and maintain strong ties to both countries. While we ostensibly join Peace Corps to help others, most of us will tell you we gained far more than we gave. Throughout my working career, I drew on lessons I learned in Colombia. Living in Eastern Europe during the transition from communism to a free market economy was a unique learning opportunity.

I did feel that I had more to offer the 2nd time around. Aside from my regular job at a community foundation, I had fun working with young people to make and sell (and sample) chocolate chip cookies as a fund raiser. I also worked with Model United Nations, toastmasters, organized a country-wide essay contest and a post-flood cleanup, set up a budget for the foundation and helped organize community cleanups. It is not rocket science. It involves really getting to know a community and figuring out how you can contribute.

Do not be intimidated by the foreign language aspect. Peace Corps makes learning a language fun.

While it takes courage to leave your family and friends and jump off into the unknown, in Peace Corps you will find a new family and new friends of all ages. You will have a broad support system. I must say, it was much harder leaving my kids than leaving my parents, but with the wonders of the internet, I was able to stay in touch and 3 of my children came to visit. We all benefitted from my Peace Corps experience.

For baby-boomers and people of any age, just do it. If you stick with it, you won't regret it. It's not easy, it has its ups and downs, progress is sometimes slow to non-existent and you will likely question why you are there. As an adult it is frustrating to struggle to express yourself and to deal with cultural values that are so different from your own. But as your service comes to an end, you will want the clock to slow down and make the experience last. Few jobs in life will allow you the freedom and creativity of your Peace Corps job. You take it as far as your drive, talents and imagination will let you go. At the same time, you are experiencing a new culture, eating new foods, exploring a new part of the world and learning a lot about your own country by viewing it through the eyes of your new friends. And if you get sick or have any problems, there is a whole Peace Corps staff to take care of you. Peace Corps is a great adventure with a safety net. Just do it.
Helene Dudley.. Colombia, Albania/Slovakia

I have lived for 3 1/2 outside the USA, and our prestige has deminished to almost none. So, friends, Baby Boomers and new College Graduates, if you want to still help those who do not like us (by our fault) alays say: I am Canadian, ey!

Never have been a member of the peace corps but recommend it, would be nice if we could follow the Mormon way which requires their young males to serve a year on a mission, probably would have a lot less crime here as a result.