7th Annual Alumni Newsletter - School Web sites hosted by Eugene ...

ALUMNI CORNER
Peace Corps Volunteer in Azerbaijan
By Carolyn Williams, Class of 1999
I remember waking up one morning in a Soviet concrete
apartment building to the sound of the local mosque’s call
to prayer. I had to ask myself, is this really my life? Am I
really living here? How did I get here? People have many
different reasons to join the Peace Corps. I have to admit
my reason was mostly selfish. While I looked forward to
helping a community and teaching, I was most excited
about immersing myself in a totally different culture in a
country most Americans have never heard of.
A few months after my husband and I were married, my
cousin came home from Peace Corps in Chad. We devoured
his photographs, and were riveted by his stories.
That night, June 24 th , 2006, we went home, found the three
unfinished applications we had started over the years and
had the “it’s now, or never” conversation. We looked at our
lives – at our comfortable apartment, our corporate ladder
jobs – and finally submitted our application. A year, three
interviews, endless amounts of paperwork and a week of
frenzied packing later, on June 24 th , 2007 we were on a
plane to the other side of the Earth.
I remember a moment on that plane – I looked out the
window and saw a foreign land. I panicked. I had an
intense feeling that’s hard to explain – it was dread, regret
and anxiety mixed with joy, excitement and anticipation.
As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Azerbaijan I had countless
moments just like that. I would get this awed and confused
feeling whenever I would leave my house and walk down
my street – a street lined in high walls with persimmon and
Let’s learn about Africa!
Parents, guardians, and alumni, the Eugene IHS 9th grade team needs your help. This year’s annual
Africa Celebration for all Eugene IHS 9th grade students will take place on April 22, 2011 at the Wheeler
Pavilion on the Lane County Fairgrounds. This event simply couldn’t happen without the generous gifts of
time and effort we receive from people like you. (Thanks again to our volunteers from last year!)
This year, we need help with the following: booths, supervision/general help, and our panel of judges.
If you : * are a part of, or know of, an organization that would like an educational,
interactive booth at the event;
* have experience traveling, volunteering, or working in Africa and would
be willing to staff an educational, interactive booth at the event; or
* if you would like to volunteer to be on our panel of judges or recommend
a judge for our panel, or just help with supervision/general help;
Please contact Wade Powell at powell_w@4j.lane.edu.
If you would like to make a monetary donation to help fund the Africa Celebration, please contact
Wade Powell at the e-mail address above, or any of our Eugene IHS offices.
We’re looking forward to hearing from you soon!
14
pomegranate trees peaking over their tops. I would feel it when
I was teaching my students in the dead of winter, wearing gloves
and hats because the gas was off in our school and we could see
our breaths. The feeling would come when I would put a pizza
in our little red oven, a pizza that took five hours to prepare and
visits to at least five different shopkeepers in the bazaar. We
would feel a collective wave of this unique feeling whenever
a group of volunteers were together in one place, sharing and
comparing stories by the light of candles and headlamps. It’s
a feeling that’s difficult to describe, but so common that I’m
sure every Peace Corps volunteer has experienced it.
Even though we had to come home after only a year due to
circumstances outside our control, I feel like I was able to
make a small difference in my community and in my school.
Though I know that I made an impact on my community, I
know that the biggest change that occurred during my service
was within me. I learned that family means so much more than
the people who raised me. The host family my husband and I
lived with changed from people with whom we could hardly
communicate, to people it was heartbreaking to leave. I learned
how much I am capable of. My strength and resilience was
constantly put to the test – just walking through the bazaar was
an adventure where I had to stand my ground when bartering
for food, ignore harassment from men and children, and present
myself in a culturally appropriate manner. I learned how
small the world is and how connections can be formed in spite
of cultural, religious, and linguistic differences.
As Mary Anne Radmacher said, “I am not the same having
seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” I am not
the same, nor would I ever want to be again.