Coming Home: Zambia
Zambia | Amber Cohen Home: Washington, D.C. Area In the village of Itinti, a 15-hour bus ride from the capital, Amber Cohen assembled a meeting of the farmers with whom she’d built 27 fish ponds during almost two years. “It didn’t really hit me that this was the last meeting I’d be having.” Her work as an aquaculture Volunteer was small-scale, in-person, and hopefully long-lasting and sustainable. In training she learned to speak Bemba, one of Zambia’s 72 languages, and gathered resources to teach fish pond construction and management. She lived in the compound of the “head man” — a...
Coming Home: Togo
Togo | Sarah Bair Home: Bethesda, Maryland The village of Alibi II is in the center of the country. “It’s basically the Muslim capital of Togo,” Sarah Bair says. Working with a clinic, she focused on maternal and child health, serving some 3,000 people. “I went to mosque every Friday. I learned a lot about religion and how that affects health — and how to be conscious about health education through religion.” For attending mosque, she wore a headscarf; walking to work, not necessarily. That led to conversations with people in the village about personal choice. She coached two girls’ soccer teams,...
Coming Home: Cameroon
Sasha Kogan | Cameroon Home: New York City Photo: Unbridled joy: kids in the village. Photo by Sasha Kogan January 2020 In the earliest hours of the morning, when the air is still somewhat cool, the sun brings with it the sounds of roosters calling and the cries of baby goats, indistinguishable from the cries of baby humans. The mosquito net slightly filters the incoming light as I rise up from the rectangular piece of foam on which I sleep. Furniture here needs to be made by the village carpenter; I still don’t have a bed frame. Calvin the kitten...
Coming Home: Rwanda
Rwanda | Ana Santos Home: Atlanta, Georgia Ana Santos had been serving as a Volunteer teaching English since September 2018. After hearing about the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Rwanda, Santos started packing that Sunday, before getting the official evacuation order on Monday. And she began the emotionally taxing and logistically challenging process of saying goodbye. The government had banned large gatherings and had closed schools. Colleagues had returned to family homes; she couldn’t find many of her students. “I had to go to each of my teachers’ homes individually to greet them and tell them the news. They...
Coming Home: Namibia
Namibia | Charles Castillo Home: Medford, New Jersey Watch the video I put together about my unfinished business as a Volunteer and you’ll see and hear me speak a few different languages. The messages all begin: “How are you? My name is Charles Castillo.” First, in American Sign Language. In Namibian Sign Language. In Oshiwambo, a language spoken in my community in Northern Namibia — where the question “How are you?” changes depending on the time of day: “Wa lala po” (morning), “Wu uhala po” (afternoon), and “Wa tokelwa po (evening) amuhe?” Edhina lyandje oShali. My name is Charlie. And in Afrikaans, also spoken in Namibia: Hoe...
Coming Home: Malawi
Malawi | Danny Herres Home: Tryon, North Carolina Danny Herres found out about the evacuation at 4:30 a.m., via group chat on WhatsApp. Malawi is a landlocked nation split by the Great Rift Valley and the massive Lake Malawi, which nearly runs the length of the entire country. Herres had been serving as a community health specialist in a village of about 1,000 people near Lilongwe since June 2019. He was the first Volunteer in the area. “No one had ever come in as a foreigner, built relationships, been a community member,” he says, “and then found other motivated individuals...
Coming Home: Madagascar
Madagascar | Danielle Montecalvo Home: Rochester, New York I had been serving since September 2018 as an English educator at University of Mahajanga. Here’s what I left behind: My 200 first-year engineering, computer science, and applied language students, as well as 275 university students returning for their second and third year. My host family: Papa, Mama, four host sisters—Vesna, Johanna, Fifa, and Anyah. My host cousins, Tafar and Zela. My counterpart, Mrs. Jemima Johnson. University colleagues and staff. Neighbors, market sellers, store vendors, and friends throughout the city. And here’s the unfinished business I’d like you to know about:...
Coming Home: Ghana
Ghana | Meg Holladay Home: Amherst, Massachusets I was serving as a Peace Corps Health Extension Volunteer in southern Ghana, in a farming community of about 1,200 people. When we were evacuated, I had been in my community for a year and had one more year to go. I was the first Peace Corps Volunteer there. I felt like I was just starting to hit my stride, to identify the projects that would be truly helpful and the people who were the most committed to working together for the long term. I was working with community members on a...
Coming Home: Kyrgyz Republic
Kyrgyz Republic | Jae Cho Home: Gloucester, Virginia Hello, my name is Jae Cho, and I'm from Gloucester, Virginia, and I've been serving as a Peace Corps volunteer since July 2019 in the Kyrgyz Republic. I've been serving as a TEFL teacher, teaching English as a foreign language at J. Mukambaev Secondary School in a small village called Kurmonty, in the Issyk-Kul oblast. There I've been working with five other counterparts or who are also English teachers and lovers of the English language: Meerim Eje, Asel Eje, Darike Eje, Symbat Eje, and Saltanat Eje. Through countless hours of training, scheduling,...
Coming Home: Mozambique
Mozambique | Stacie Scott Home: Louisville, Kentucky My community, Metangula, is in the northern province of Niassa. I was a community health services promoter for 22 months, working in the community health center organizing HIV patient files. I formed an English club, an English theater youth group, and a Grassroot Soccer youth group. I also trained high school students in HIV/AIDS and malaria prevention. When we were evacuated, I left behind my adored Mozambican family, friends, and students. I had to leave behind my two cats, whom I love dearly and planned on bringing home with me. I left behind...