Culture Day
Former Peace Corps volunteers share the joys of time in service

Nicholle Kovach and Kelly Niedermeier talk about their experiences in Guatemala with an attendee at Western New Mexico's culture day sponsored by the Peace Corp. Former members gathered to share their experiences and display traditional items from the countries they visited. [Photo by Brian Leddy/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

Matthew Guillen, 9 and his cousin Susan Cizek, 9, take a lesson from Leslie Schenko on an African djembe drum during Tuesday's culural day at Western New Mexico University. Former Peace Corp volunteers gathered to share their experiences and traditional items from the countries they worked in. [Photo by Brian Leddy/Independent]

GALLUP — The names don't exactly slide off the tongue.

Names like Vanuatir and Kiribati. Places that are only mentioned on the Final Jeopardy question.

But area residents had a chance Tuesday to visit these places via photos or tapes and talk to some area residents who had spent one or more years in these locations as part of their involvement in the Peace Corps.

For the third year now, officials at Western New Mexico University here in Gallup and the Peace Corp Fellows Program opened up their campus to allow 19 Peace Corps veterans a chance to mingle with the community and explain the joys they had in working for the Peace Corps.

People like Glen McCabe.

He's been in Gallup for the past two years teaching at the junior high in Gallup. Before that he was in Vanuatu, which is near Fiji.

"I loved it there," he said, "I made a lot of friends when I was there."

His job for the Peace Corps was in computers, teaching computer courses at two of the three schools in the country that had computer classes, helping people learn about the tool they could use to make their life better.

He's typical of the Peace Corps volunteers who come to Gallup to take part in the WNMU program, which began several years ago.

Pat McGuire, who helped create the program, said the Gallup WNMU program is one of 33 at colleges and universities across the nation. The Gallup program attracts a number of Peace Corp volunteers after they leave the service and still want to provide a service to their nation.

It's the third aspect of the Peace Corps program: Bring back to the United States what you have learned.

Many of the he ex-Peace Corps volunteers here, she said, chose Gallup rather than the other schools because this is a multi-cultural area and many of the volunteers like working in these kinds of areas, which is why they joined the Peace Corps in the first place.

All of the ex-volunteers that came here are teachers; in other areas, they may work in health fields.

But here they teach either in Gallup or places like Window Rock.

Susan Cizek, who spent two and a half years in Mongolia, came to Gallup, liked it and now works with WNMU to help other ex-Peace Corps volunteers to cope with not being in the program any longer.

The program, she said, gives ex-volunteers a chance to meet with each other on a monthly basis and she and others with WNMU are there to help get over the rough spots.

The people in the program also benefit by the fact that special school discounts are provided by WNMU to help the ex-volunteers out as they continue their education to get master degrees.

"It's basically a support network we have here," she said, adding that when an ex-volunteer first arrives in Gallup he or she is given a "buddy" who is also a former ex-Peace Corps volunteer, but someone who has been around for a few years and knows the ropes.

So how do they find Gallup after they have been to places like Vanuatir and Mauritania which is in Africa?

Well, said McCabe, Vanuatir and Gallup are nowhere near alike.

"It's very hot in Vanuatir," he said, "and it gets very cold in Gallup."