The upcoming 2011 Reunion is a chance to catch up with each other but also to connect with PCV's celebrating one of the most important experiences of our lives. I hope to see us all come togther .
September 21-25, 2011 Washington DC
BiosThe best part about finding each other is learning what each of us is doing these many years later, so send me something about yourself along with a picture.
All of these Bios were written and posted in 2008 unless otherwise noted. Please send me your Bio or Bio update and I will happily post. LINDA
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September 2010 - Linda, Jeannette and Chip . |
2010 Update: Chip and I visited with Jeannette at her apartment in Hamburg N.Y. this past September. She looks, sounds and acts just like the Jeannette we all knew and loved in our PC days (see photo!). She has a million stories about her 28 years in Lesotho. Hope she can come to the 2011 reunion!
2008 note: I have been communicating with Jeannette on and off the past few months but never got her official Bio. So, I called her and asked if I could use her e-mails to me and she said "My life is an open book, go ahead!" so here they are, Linda
January 9, 2008
Dear Linda,
Baring Alzheimer's, which I could never remember how to spell, what makes you think I could ever forget you. I have to admit Linda Henry did gave me pause, but Linda Blommer sent me right back to the parking lot of the biggest shop in Maseru, Spar Market. You were more than upset because some man had stolen either your groceries for the farm or the money to buy them. After the initial shock you handled yourself in such a mature way I was impressed. I remember much much more. That situation just happened to be first.
I am thrilled that you want to have a reunion. I would love to attend. I would also love to run a marathon. Well the marathon aint gonna happen, the reunion, maybe.
My situation is I have good days and bad days. Good days are great and I can go. Bad days are in fact bad days. I prefer, no, I have to be home. And sadly, there are more bad days than good. However, I have batches and batches of hope so my answer is if it is going to happen I will try to be there.
I don't know if you know, I returned to the States after 26 years minus time to get a degree in the eighties. I stayed too long for me, not long enough for my students. I headed up a scholarship program for 15 years as well as teaching. It got to be too much and I didn't want to give up. You may remember I am a little stubborn. I returned in Oct of '06. Luckily I have children who helped me thru the transition. I live in a high rise retirement bdg. I am still suffering from culture shock. It took me months to learn to turn on the computer and at least a few months to turn it off. OK, a slight exaggeration. I will keep in contact. I remember those wonderful days with you wonderful people.
Lots of love and hugs, Jeannette
February 4, 2008
Dear Linda,
How wonderful to know that PC Lesotho 1980 will come together again. Sadly for me I wont be able to be there. If I were rich and good-looking maybe, but since I am neither I have to pass on this one. Truth is I am having difficulty walking and no way can I accommodate a camping arrangement. And I would not stay at the lodge because I know Jack Nickleson is waiting to do me in. That's not true about Jack Nickleson, I just wanted to write it. When we were there before I did walk on the other side of the street to get past the building.
OK, truth! I returned from Lesotho in October of 2006 after 22 years. I was a mess. Besides teaching I was involved in a scholarship fund for High school students. From $ to M sometimes went as high as a quarter million Maluti. It got to be too much. I had too many orphans and that old earth mother took over and drained me of energy and health. Also the Fund had no support for me which was at my own request. I was living on my social security and it just wasn't enough. Then surprisingly enough over night I just got too old. Until that time I thought I was 45. What a big surprise!
I loved the job. It was too difficult, too tiring, too much for one person, no retirement. I loved it. Example: one kid out of school for two years at form B level was accepted by Lesotho High School and wrote number three in the nation on the Cambridge Overseas Exam at Form E. He is presently at the University of Cape Town. I lost some students to Aids, TB, pregnancy, and some were murdered. But the good times made it all worth it for me and over 200 kids who became students and got a better chance at life.
If I weren't so lazy I could write a book and be rich. Actually I wrote two children's books but am having difficulty getting them published. So, I am going with lazy for a while and calling it regaining my health.
I also am in that age group that finds their friends dieing whether they want to or not. I have lost too many of my good friends including Carol. We had planned on collaborating on a book, drawing on our PC experience and what ever else it took to make a good read. I stayed too long in Africa. She died about four weeks before I returned to the States. You may remember that one of my children died in 1977. I thought of Carol not as a replacement but as a gift to ease that pain. She was a good friend. She made me laugh.
I guess that I got a bit long winded or worded to decline.
Sala Hantle, Jeannette
March 2, 2008
Dear Linda,
At this point in my life any hint of camping, walking, living on a mountain or any other health(y) plan besides Medicare is beyond me. Now that could be the truth or it could be the result of spending a winter in Buffalo, NY. Buffalo, New York in the winter without being able to ski, ice skate or go sledding is an exercise in futility and possibly the seed of my seeming depression. I came here after living 22 years under the African sun. The Buffalo area has the same number days of sun as the rainforest in Washington State. This place is not nice. Now Spring is on the way and things will change but before it changes too much, winter will be on its way again. So there it is. What makes me stay? My children live here.
I returned here after Peace Corps and a 6 week walk, hitch, train, plane as far north as Moscow and back to Buffalo in 1984. In 1986 I returned to New York State University at Buffalo, and In June 1988 graduated and returned to Lesotho, Masiankeng and the rondeval facing Maseru. The rondo condo now had changed and not for the better for the students but great for me. I had money for a remedial math room which was more than difficult to organize but wonderful when it was completed. However, in true Basotho fashion of jealousy overflowed. It was my job to dodge it. The facilities in that room raised the understanding and marks of students enough so that the upper level Math teacher asked me straight out, "What did you do to those students?" Those particular students wrote better on the COS Exam than any other school in the country except Machabang. The room was vandalized, the other teacher quit and was hired by Machabang. I stayed. It was tough. It was fun. My students were doing well. I was losing money by working for the Ministry of ED, but the sun was around almost every day making the weather near perfect. The money scale finally out weighed the climate and I forced myself to leave again.
Some months later the Office of Overseas Ministries contacted me and asked if I would be willing to return to Lesotho earning more money than I had ever earned in my life. I am not all that religious, but, who am I to say my prayer wasn't answered. And it was back to Masianokeng.Now things were getting weird. I served the four years and left for the last time? Nope! I was asked to return to Masianokeng in 2006 after four years in Morija. I worked in two primary schools and lived near 6 PCV's. Those were FUN days. I finally found 3 others who could play bridge and one even knew how to keep score. I didn't tell you about working for Lyle Jaffee or the student with two broken legs. I wish I could say, "Read My Book." I am too lazy. But, this you can read now,
Peace Corps provided me with the best years of my adult life.
I have to mention Carol. I miss her and wish you would extend an invitation to her sister Laurie to attend in Carol's place. She needs to know how dear Carol was to all of us. Just a thought. I love you all, Jeannette
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Patrick and Carmen |
Smil'n Patrick |
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Patrick, Nakai and Patrick's Dad |
Nakai |
Dear Peace Corps Mates-
I really hope you are all doing well! I met a lot of wonderfully people over 25 years ago. 25 years..wow...like a handful of marbles scattered about...hidden under the couch in the corner... only to be discovered by chance while moving vacuuming the carpet! In retrospect, Lesotho was a “life changing event,” no? For better or worse, I left Lesotho like a billiard ball bouncing off the right rail looking for something to collide with. Not really such an apt analogy, but it sounds good. In fact, my direction was not so random. I was motivated by the same basic principal that had brought me to Lesotho and directed my youthful life: the avoidance of responsibility and the maximization of freedom (in other words, self-centerdnes). Where better to pursue this than in school?
U.C. Davis in California became my next stopping point. I enjoyed a pastoral existence in the heartland of California's central valley; living in a post-hippie University subsidized co-op called the Agrarian Effort where I learned to appreciate bicycle riding, tofu, organic food, and Bob Marley. Ah what a sweet and lazy life it was! I wore flip-flops to class (I remember once shuffling them under my major professors desk hoping he didn't see the fluorescent toe nail polish I had put on for a lark) and studied on the lawn after going for afternoon swims in the rec pool. To survive I worked at part time jobs....even a stint as the campus Peace Corps recruiter for two years... and once selling suits at Macy's in Sacramento during Christmas break. This went on for six years folks..and could have gone on longer had I not finally succumbed to the ruin of all male freedom: females.
Who better to teach me about the joys of spending money, credit cards, nice restaurants and debt than girlfriends! In other words, I began to grow up and contribute my part to the American way of life! So I finally had to get a “real job.” At first I went to work in the Environmental Consulting business in California but it became abundantly clear that I was not prime corporate america material. When my future was at its bleakest Uncle Sam stepped in to rescue me: I was offered a job in Coos Bay, Oregon working with the Bureau Of Land Management (or Bureau of “Grazing and Mining” as some like to think of it!). Which brings me to NOW. Turns out I liked scrounging about in the wet forests of Western Oregon and writing reports on what I found. I've been doing it now for 15 years and I still look forward to going to work on Monday morning (well, most of the time!). Along the way I became a “Hydrologist” (my official title) which means that besides helping to prepare timber sales I also get to “restore” streams and improve salmon habitat. But my full entry into adulthood only came at the age of 42!
11 years ago Carmen and I had a baby girl who we named Nakai del Carmen Colmenares- Hawe. Carmen is originally from Oaxaca, Mexico so I insisted on tagging on the exotics to remind Nakai of her heritage. Just to make sure, she grew up speaking Spanish at home with her mom and we make a lot of trips to Mexico. We have a comfortable and quiet, domesticated life here in Salem, Oregon! By the way, Oregon is a great place to visit and you are always welcome ..we have lots of space. But don't even think about living here or anywhere in the Pacific NW...you'd hate it!
Peace and love, Patrick
Ah, what have I been up to for the last 25 years? For lack of other options after returning from Lesotho, I went to grad school at Kent State and got a MS in geology. After leaving Kent, I worked for a little over a year and a half as a geologist for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in their Dayton office where I learned that I wasn’t cut out to be a regulator. Then I went to work as a hydrogeologist for the consulting firm Ground Water Associates in their Westerville, Ohio office. While working there I spent a small amount of time working on ground water supply projects (my main interest) and a large amount of time at landfills finding out what kind of revolting substances were oozing out of them. I have been to landfills and industrial waste sites in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Texas, Missouri and California, and have discovered the curious fact that all landfills smell the same.
In 1996 I decided that I had spent more than enough of my life at dumps and went back to school for another MS, this one in geographic information systems from The Ohio State University; where I can attest from personal experience that it is easier to get into graduate school than it is to get tickets to a football game. While I was back in school, Hydro Group, the parent company of Ground Water Associates, went belly up. My old boss and a few of the other former Hydro Group people started a water supply contracting company called Collector Wells International, whose main business is, not surprisingly, installing collector wells. They asked me to come to work for them as a hydrogeologist, which I did when I finished at OSU. Mostly, I work on water supply projects for municipal and industrial clients. For some reason when there is field work in the winter in say Kalamazoo, Michigan, I get to go, whereas when there is field work in Puerto Rico, my boss takes care of it. Occasionally, I might be in a working in a place near you. I dropped by to visit Michael Metzler a few years ago while working on a project in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In spite of the name, Collector Wells International has done only a very small amount of work outside of the US. We did submit proposals on a project in Maun, Botswana, but we would have had to charge a ridiculous amount for the work to make it worth our while, and the people in Botswana wisely chose a less expensive option.
In 1993, I married Debra Hull, who I met while we were both doing volunteer work for the Nature Conservancy. We now live in, what is for the moment, a rural area east of Westerville, Ohio, which is on the northeast side of Columbus. Debbie recently completed an MS in wetland ecology from Ohio State and now works as a hydrologic technician for the US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service.
I got back to the states and got a computer job in San Francisco to enjoy big city life. Got married to Paul and moved to San Jose and began work with the local Transportation Agency to build Light Rail for the Santa Clara Valley. I have been working for the same group since 1985! If I didn't know that you were all as old as me, I would be worried!
"Here’s a photo taken about two year’s ago of Evelyn and me with Al, a friend of ours who passed away last January. We’re hanging out a bar called Coyote Joe’s.
I’ll try to send some more stuff later." Michael
I lifted this photo and text about Jack from his website www.dyr.org
"The head of the Human Rights Action Center is Jack Healey, the world-renowned human rights activist and pioneer.
An effective and innovative leader in the human rights movement for over 25 years, Jack helped move the topic of human rights from closed-door diplomatic negotiations to widespread awareness, public debate, and direct citizen action. Colleagues credit him with making human rights a major focus of governments, advocacy organizations, and individuals around the world."
This website is an eye-opening experience, please give it a look and respond if you can.
Upon my return to the states in 1982, I spent the next two years at Ohio State University and earned master’s degrees in International Affairs and political science. I used that time to help me transition back from the Peace Corps and took many classes dealing with Africa and the Third World in an attempt to put my experiences in a big picture context.
I spent the next couple years as a daily newspaper reporter in northern and western Illinois, and married to a great guy named Dan Stout. I’ve spent the past19 years as a writer for Prairie Farmer magazine, based in Decatur, Ill., and became the first woman to serve as editor of the 167-year-old publication for Illinois farm families in 2003.
I have a confident and talented 16-year-old daughter named Kim, who shares my passion for horses. We have four cats, and six horses on 10 acres near Argenta in central Illinois.
On the brink of hitting the big 50 at the end of this year, I’ve found myself seriously contemplating what I want to do with the rest of my life (a.k.a mid-life crisis???). Tired of decades of copy deadlines, I’m turning in my resignation at Prairie Farmer in February, and am starting a new career. I’m launching an equine-assisted therapy program – targeted to at-risk youth in the local community and women who have been victims of sexual abuse. I even have a website --www.threeoakstherapy.org.
I figure if I could create a niche for myself at the Basotho Pony Project, I can create a niche for myself now in the horse industry in the U.S. Looking forward to seeing you folks in Colorado this summer....Cherry Brieser Stout
I'm living way up on a hill in the Vermont woods, part of a land coop, off the grid - windmill and solar panels. I've made my living working on industrial ink jets since 1986, and I'm currently running a lab we started a year ago in White River Junction, VT. Lots of fun toys. After a decade of rock and rolling for funand profit, I switched to racing in 2000. Currently I am rebuilding an old race car to run as a bio-diesel in endurance races. 
My wife Nellie (yes, we finally got married after being together 18 years) still works part-time as an Oracle guru, but also is a frequent quilter and serves on various boards. My son Cale, who was 2 at our last reunion, is working as a high-falutin' computer geek at Endeca in Cambridge. My son Amos, now 16, picked up the gearhead genes and hopes to go to University in England to study motorsports engineering. Below is a photo of me and Amos after one of his racing kart victories. 
Sherry’s life after Peace Corps … As you can probably figure out, I’m “50” now. Not that I’m self-conscious or anything, but I am feeling a little bit fuzzy about the highlights of the last twenty-six years. I know that Joel & I are still happily married. Joel hasn’t changed a bit, so you can surely imagine that life is interesting and unpredictable! I also know that we raised three children, who are on the brink of being launched toindependence. Colette (Mpho) has lived in El Salvador for 2 ½ years and works forvolunteer wages - working with gangs and community development; Jake (Letsatsi) just graduated from college last spring, is working with foster kids, and is looking for his next big adventure; and Emily (Ngoanesu) is a sophomore in college in Seattle, working toward a Speech Therapy degree.
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28th wedding anniversary |
Most of those 26 years were spent focusing on those three great kids. I was “the” soccer mom that the politicians are always talking about. Now I’m just the soccer wife. I also worked all those years, attempting to balance my career and my family. That is never easy! My career has been in accounting and finance jobs, working for a variety of non-profits and manufacturing companies, and now for Weyerhaeuser – a forest products company. I still absolutely love trees, but I believe the company mantra that trees are a renewable resource. Our company is well respected for its sustainable forestry practices, and for partnering with developing countries (through CARE) to help others utilize those sustainable foresting ideals. I am now managing our import/export regulatory compliance, and learning new things daily in the tax department at Weyerhaeuser. I hear it preserves your brain if you challenge it in new ways. I’m sure the Spanish class that I’ve recently started will help, too.
Travel is still our favorite thing to do. Joel & I went back to Lesotho/South Africa in 1994 right before the elections. It was a great trip and we were excited by what we saw. Joel and I took our family to the World Cup in France in 1998, and used that as an excuse to travel and visit relatives and Matsieng friends living in Germany. Joel has done soccer ministry to Japan, and a coaching trip to Brazil. I also went to Brazil for work this past summer.
We had a great family trip to El Salvador last year and celebrated our 25th anniversary in Mexico. The World Cup is in South Africa in 2010, and we’re saving now to have one last family vacation. We’ve been blessed with good health, wonderful friends and family, interesting jobs, and adequate resources. Life is good, and I look forward to sharing our life stories with each other!
Message from Joel:
I am not going to say anything to anybody. I don’t give a rip about this crazy reunion idea. I am into my own thing and find little value in others. I live in our garage and get a plate of food slid under the door every so often. “Thanks again Sherry for the same noodles as last time.” As for Michael Gill and Mary Ellen and Mike Savino: I double dare ya to show up!
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| This is me about a year and a half ago in the Kwazulu Drakensbergs near the Sani Pass. The hat is to stop the top of my head from getting sunburned, so draw your own conclusions. |
I'm on a short-term contract in Khartoum for USAID right now and so won't have access to any pictures until early March. The short bio is that I got married the year after leaving Lesotho to a Motswana woman -- Faith Galetshoge -- who I knew from Botswana but who had left for university in the States in 1982. We have three grown children who lived with us first in Arlington, Virginia and then, in decreasing numbers after I joined USAID, Pakistan, Thailand, Russia, Egypt, and South Africa. My USAID work was all as an "executive officer", pretty much the same as a PC admin officer except on a much larger scale. I retired as a Senior Foreign Service Officer a year ago and am now living in Cairo where Faith has a training management job with a USAID contractor.
Linda Henry (Blommer) 
We have 2 great kids, Adam “Thabo”, 22 years old, and Kim “Palesa” 19 years old. Adam is living in Denver and working for a winery. Kim is a sophomore at Ohio University. I worked for a pediatrician for a lot of years but a couple years ago I started a graphics/web design studio with a friend of mine. Check us out at www.ohiophotographs.com. Life is very very good, I feel I truly am “livin’ the dream”.
After returning from Lesotho I immediately entered Law School. On my first Christmas break I traveled to Idaho, met my in-laws, and got married the next day! Upon graduating from Law School in ’85, I practiced law for a brief time before taking a job as an assistant county prosecutor. In ’88 I was elected to the Ohio State Senate. At the time it was considered an upset that I had beaten a four term incumbent. (I did not consider it much of an upset, ‘cause I had Frank Weyer as my Campaign Manager.) In 1993 I was appointed as Geauga County’s Probate-Juvenile Court Judge by then Governor (now US Senator) George Voinovich. I have been elected and re-elected to the position and have continued to serve in that position ever since. I particularly like to work with kids.
Along the way, Linda and I have had the pleasure of raising two great kids. Now one is out on his own after graduating from college and the other is in her second year at Ohio University. It’s just Linda and I again. With all our spare time as empty nesters we are looking for things to do with ourselves. Who knows, maybe we’ll join Peace Corps!