International

and appreciate the importance of education. Kabey Fo is proud of their school and literacy program, as should you be. The many donors organized by Lucy Spoerk (Virginia’s sister) of Muskego, Wisconsin, the Peace Corps Partnership, and the hard work and commitment of Alhadji, Ibrahim and Aklinine have forced the languid spirit out of Kabey Fo. You all have given the people of Kabey Fo a chance! Isuf would not be prancing about the village as the prize student, Mariama would be spending her days pounding millet, Akmut would pass his life sitting under the shade trees looking blankly into the desert, and Hamid would still have to wait for a literate villager to arrive before he could make a sale at his boutique.

Day after day I have watched these village activities become rituals. Children running from school to the class garden, walking to the well seeing what new design or word will be etched into the concrete surface, Alhadji giving me a tall two-handed wave from the soccer field during the 10 o’clock recess, maroon-uniformed kids running about, and nightly conversation with a previously illiterate man who will nonchalantly scribble his name in the sand. This village is forever changed, even if the drought takes away their animals, or the government takes away their land, if the rains don’t come and the crop fails. The people of Kabey Fo will not fail, and no one will be able to take away what they have learned. Thank you for that, and know that none of this could have happened if it weren’t for each and every one of you. Thank you!

Return of the aged hippies
Here’s an idea I recently submitted to Lloyd Pierson, the Bush Administration representative at Peace Corps Headquarters, whom I met in Washington during the vacation trip:

The generation of Volunteers who joined Peace Corps in the 1960s is now at or nearing retirement age. Most of them are probably in good health, and many have surely retained the willingness to serve and the taste for adventure that led them to Peace Corps as young people. And now they have a lifetime of experience and great technical skills that they would enjoy sharing with others.

A new category of Senior Volunteer could be created to reenlist members of the first generation of Peace Corps Volunteers, those who served in the 1960s. The terms of service would need to be different, perhaps along the following lines:

• One-year tour of duty following training.
• Posting only in places where reasonable medical care is available (i.e., in larger towns, not in remote villages).
• Provision for accompanying non-Volunteer spouses.
• Upgraded housing, comparable to the more senior people who would be the Senior Volunteers’ local counterparts.
• Otherwise, allowances and benefits could be the same as for other Volunteers.

In terms of jobs, there should be considerable flexibility in order to match Senior Volunteer skills to country and post needs. They should not necessarily be integrated into existing Peace Corps "projects." Here are some illustrative examples for Niger:

• A teacher/administrator to work with the Ministry of Education on improving English teaching.
• A veterinarian to work with the national zoo on upgrading its collection and increasing outreach programs for environmental education.
• A senior businessperson to assist the Government in its current efforts to privatize state-owned enterprises.
• A public health worker to serve as coordinator of Peace Corps HIV/AIDS projects.
• A tourism professional to advise the Ministry of Tourism on promoting Niger as a tourist destination.
• Medical professionals to work at the national or regional hospitals.

A new Volunteer program of this nature could make an important contribution to development in host countries and would make Peace Corps an even