Creative Connections, By Sara Aeikens

My first awareness that the Peace Corps could have anything to do with my life occurred when I found my mind wandering with thoughts of what I might like to do after completing my first year of teaching high school in a rural Minnesota community. The groundwork for the idea most likely surfaced during my last year of my two years at Macalester College, when I gathered enthusiasm for world travel after seeing how many fellow students reflected their unique culture and customs of their far-away birth places.

I recall phoning home during this time period to hear my parents’ opinions about my idea to join the Peace Corps. I believe if my father had not answered the phone first, my mother would have convinced me to stay at home in North Dakota, working with the local Indian tribes, and I might not have joined the Peace Corps. My parents already provided services in various ways to the local reservation populations. They also helped several college students obtain financial aid and tutored some of them, as well as foreign students. My father had a global attitude due to his five years of teaching in Iran starting in 1926.

My struggles with my choice of serving subsided significantly when I decided to fill out the application, had a background check completed, accepted their offer to place me in Venezuela and headed for training in Denver. Highlights of the Denver University training program included daily treks up and down hundreds of stadium steps. My amazement over the skills of our eldest volunteers included a 70-year-old woman out-climbing many of the rest of us in our 20s. I also recall a few long group discussions with her about the importance of being able to decide for herself when to die and how.

During the weeks of training, what impressed me the most was what the trainers termed the deselection process. Both peers and psychologists voted on each trainee’s status for program selection. My conclusions evolved after experiencing that those who survived the entire training procedure tended to be what we labeled moderates. Being outspoken or very soft-spoken is not how I would describe our final selected Peace Corps groups, which I found rather interesting and workable when we actually started serving our country.

I felt fortunate to be chosen for the rural program, especially one that involved developing a handicrafts co-op in a mountainside village about an hour by van up a zigzag gravel road. The women we worked with and trained ended up earning more money in a week than their husbands made in a month. We met weekly and encouraged each other to develop creative ideas that they could see at the town markets. They departed from creating the simple, black, woven cotton and leather-soled sandals that everyone wore and purchased cheaply. Even though some had mutal husbands, and the wives had disagreements, they continued to learn to solve problems for the benefit of the entire group and formed a profitable business.

The two of us stationed in La Mesa de Ejido, Venezuela, also taught English, both to school children and adults. Besides helping with the local handicrafts co-op, we also were able to take the products to other cities and Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and aided in the development of the village credit union to help members obtain individual housing. When we were able, we had time off to travel, not only to other parts of Venezuela, but to other South American countries. The Peace Corps transformed how I saw the world and responded to it.

 

Sara Aeikens is an Albert Lea resident.