The Peace Corps Wants You!

Fritz and Ginger Morrison at home in Washington, D.C. — Charlie Archambault

Editor's note: Ginger and Fritz Morrison spent two years with the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian republic eager for programs that teach English and sound organizing and business practices. From planning for their commitment to breaking away from it, the Morrisons offer a practical example for those considering a volunteer experience abroad. Today, they live in Washington, D.C., where Fritz is a placement officer for the Peace Corps and Ginger pursues job and volunteer opportunities.

Over the course of a year, Ginger Morrison has endured heat stroke, severe food poisoning, a scorpion bite, a broken leg and an earthquake. That's about par for the Peace Corps, an institution founded on a culture of self-mortification. "The toughest job you'll ever love" remains the Peace Corps' most memorable slogan — so macho that it's often mistaken for a U.S. Army jingle.

The suffering may be typical Peace Corps, but everything else about Ginger Morrison is not. For starters, she is 61, which makes her a good 34 years older than the average volunteer and places her in a tiny minority — 7 percent — of all recruits. She has joined with her husband, Fritz, 63, and as a married couple they occupy an equally small slice of the Peace Corps pie.

The Morrisons, volunteers in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, are not merely outliers. They represent one possible future of the Peace Corps as the federal agency, which was founded by President John F. Kennedy 50 years ago, gropes for new relevance.

You still hear a lot about the "magic" of the Peace Corps experience. A kind of cross-cultural alchemy occurs when people of vastly different cultural backgrounds spend a lot of time together. Worldviews do change, not immediately and (usually not) profoundly, yet undeniably.

But the number of Peace Corps volunteers peaked in 1966, at 15,000. Today, it's roughly half that amount.

That's one reason the Peace Corps is trying to recruit aging boomers such as Fritz and Ginger — people with skills and not merely youthful exuberance. It's not the first time the Peace Corps has tried this — the late Lillian Carter, mother of President Jimmy Carter, being the most famous older volunteer. This time, however, there's a greater sense of urgency: The boomer generation is reaching retirement age and more developing countries are requesting skilled volunteers.

The Peace Corps calls it the The 50 Plus Initiative.

The program has no budget for advertising, but it has dispatched recruiters to AARP conventions and launched a special website designed to lure older volunteers. It features photos of older volunteers in exotic locales and words that deliberately echo Kennedy's. "Still asking what you can do for your country? The Peace Corps wants you. It's not too late."

The push for experienced volunteers represents a radical departure from an unspoken assumption that has informed the Peace Corps since its inception in 1961: that Americans, even young, inexperienced ones, know things that the rest of the world (the developing world at least) does not. That assumption, though, is under strain.

For starters, many of today's developing countries suffer from a surplus of college graduates, not a shortage. That's certainly the case in Kyrgyzstan, where the security guard at the Peace Corps office has a law degree.

"You have someone with no teaching skills trying to teach someone who has 20 years experience and an education degree, simply because that first person is an American," says Sam Tranum, a former volunteer. "It's arrogant and counterproductive."
 
The Peace Corps needs to get rid of its "Peter Pan" mentality and grow up, says Robert Strauss, a former Peace Corps country director in Cameroon and now one of the agency's toughest critics. It cannot continue to send well-intentioned but green volunteers abroad when that's not what the developing world needs, he argues. The people there need expertise. They need experience.

In other words, they need people like Fritz and Ginger Morrison.

Find out whether they need you — and whether you need the Peace Corps experience.

Next: Are you ready for the Peace Corps? >>