In Class With Peace Corps Volunteers in Africa, Asia
[MP3]https://server1.vnkienthuc.com/files/3/Media/se-ed-peace-corps-50th-03mar11.mp3[/MP3]
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
This week marks the fiftieth [A]anniversary[/A] of the Peace Corps. President John Kennedy began the [A]program[/A] in nineteen sixty-one. The Peace Corps sends American [A]volunteers[/A] to provide technical assistance in education and other areas in developing [A]countries[/A].
Amanda Pease is one of almost forty volunteers serving in [A]rural[/A] schools in Sierra Leone.
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Ms. Peace teaches science at Saint Joseph's, a high school in [A]eastern[/A] Sierra Leone. She studied chemical [A]engineering[/A] at the University of California, Los Angeles. She decided to serve for two years in the Peace Corps after she finished her [A]degree[/A].
AMANDA PEASE: "I was trying to decide between going the [A]academic[/A] route and doing a postdoctoral degree and go into [A]industry[/A], and then I had been doing some volunteer work and the idea was kind of always of floating around."
Peace Corps volunteers left Sierra Leone in nineteen ninety-four because of civil war. But now they are back.
Science teachers are in especially short [A]supply[/A]. Efforts in Sierra Leone to get more children through primary school have led to [A]crowded[/A] high schools.
Amanda Pease is the only chemistry and [A]physics[/A] teacher at her school. She says she has to work hard to get students more interested in learning, as she thought they would be.
AMANDA PEASE: "I kind of had sort of a [A]romantic [/A]idea coming to a developing country where everyone is super motivated but just does not have opportunities, and that is not exactly how it is. Not that I am saying the [A]opportunities[/A] are so great, because of course there [are] limited opportunities if you compare it to America, but I think one of the biggest things is literally just [A]motivation[/A]."
What she loves best about her [A]experience[/A], she says, is the magical moment when students understand a chemical process or ask her for more exercises.
More than eight thousand Peace Corps volunteers are currently serving around the world. Volunteers become part of the community where they work and live. Travis Bluemling from Pennsylvania teaches English in a rural Indonesian [A]community[/A].
TRAVIS BLUEMLING: "Even if some of these kids can't get to college, learning English and at least having some [A]knowledge[/A] of the language can separate [A]themselves[/A] from the people next to them when they are looking for a job or meeting people."
Mr. Bluemling's family expressed concern for his safety in a country where Islamic militants have sometimes attacked Westerners. But what [A]concerned[/A] him, he says, was the thought that leaders in his village might not welcome him.
TRAVIS BLUEMLING: "However, I could not have been more [A]wrong[/A]. They have allowed me to enter their house. I joined them in their Muslim meetings. I joined them with fasting and I have even entered the [A]mosque[/A]."
In addition to Indonesia, Peace Corps volunteers in East Asia [A]serve[/A] in China, Thailand, Cambodia, Mongolia and the Philippines.
