Duluth Budgeteer News, MN
Aug 26 2005

Johnson proves the Peace Corps is not just for 20-somethings

More and more retirees are opting for ‘no RV required’ travel

Sarah Fleener
Budgeteer News

After Marlene Johnson retired, she was free to do as she pleased: sip
lemonade, play bridge and winter in Arizona. Instead, she joined the
Peace Corps.
`I wanted to do something active,’ she said. `The idea of classic
retirement just didn’t appeal to me.’
Johnson said there is a trend of older folks joining the Peace Corps
because of healthier lifestyles, early retirement and financial
stability.
Johnson was inspired by a traveling peer to look into the Corps and
once she decided to go, she said her family supported her fully.
`They were so supportive it was almost anti-climactic,’ she said.
“Go,’ they said. `You’ll love it, and they’ll love you.”
So with their blessing Johnson began her service in Lithuania in 1998
and stayed for three years. While there, she taught English in a
college setting to Lithuanian students. Before retirement, Johnson
had taught business communications at the University of Minnesota
Duluth.
And while she was the teacher in the classroom, she too was schooled
by the Lithuanian people. `The mission of the Peace Corps is to help
us understand others and well as help them to understand us,’ Johnson
said. When Johnson was there, she said most Lithuanians drew their
impressions of Americans from the TV show `Dallas.’
When Johnson was in Lithuania, it had only been seven years free of
Soviet reign. Many of the challenges Johnson ran into sprang from the
fact that Lithuania was just beginning to gain some identity.
During this crucial growing time, Johnson did what she could in the
classroom and even raised money to bring text books into the
classroom – a learning tool rarely granted to students.
After her time in Lithuania, Johnson returned home to Duluth for a
quick year and then in 2003 she was off again.
This time, she went to Armenia to teach English in the secondary
schools as well as provide teacher training.
In Armenia, Johnson’s teaching strategies of participation and
comprehension resonated with both teachers and students. In the
previously Russian occupied Armenia, rehearsal and memorization were
the common classroom practice. Johnson wanted to liven things up.
`It is the custom in Armenia to put the weaker students at the back
of the room and ignore them,’ Johnson said. But she made every
student participate in the language exercises. `Pretty soon, every
one was speaking English on their own.’
The daily life in Armenia was virtually another world for Johnson.
Pizza was a piece of bread with mashed potatoes, corn, peas and
ketchup; every window in her apartment had a view of breath-taking
mountains; and traffic jams meant there was a sheepherder going
through town.
Another challenge was communication. The phones, Internet and mail
service were all unreliable. `Things we take for granted here, are
big problems there,’ she said.
Even bigger problems included political turmoil all around the
country. `While I was there, there was a revolt in Georgia to the
north, they deposed their president in Azerbaijan to the east and
there were poor relations between Armenia and Turkey to the west,’
Johnson said.
Johnson just returned from her travels a few weeks ago. She said the
trip gave her a lot more self-confidence, insight on America as well
as other counties and taught her how to think on her feet.
Since she’s been home, she said she’s shocked at the convenience of
food, and she is relieved that she can cross the street without
worrying about a reckless driver.
Johnson said she would like to stay home now and work on some
genealogy, but she’s already received a call, asking her to teach in
Ecuador.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress