Volunteers give the Peace Corps a chance

Reimer, for example, who has background both in AIDS nursing and in accounting, was considered a perfect fit for her new job. She is part of a pilot program that is working to help make small AIDS Non Government Organizations (NGOs) - many of which were founded by people with little or no experience running such organizations - into sustainable projects.

When Reimer and others in her program depart two years from now, they hope to leave behind an administrative foundation to make their organizations financially solvent.

Edith Harrington, the deputy director of health in Mpumalanga Province, where an AIDS project is running , said the new corps program is important because it is helping the government provide better, more cost-effective health services through community-based organizations.

"The AIDS epidemic is starting to really strain our capacity. We cannot cope with the patient load in the hospitals and, as long as people can be taken care of in the community, that's what we would like to see happen," she said. "The Peace Corps is helping to make sustainable the kinds of organizations that can provide these services."

Hubbard, however, says programs like the Mpumalanga AIDS project are made possible largely because of older volunteers with years of professional experience - such as Reimer - who bring with them management and other much-needed skills. She adds that community members are often more receptive to elders, who are accorded respect in South African society.

Ed Oshira is a two-time Peace Corps volunteer. In 1963, he spent two years in Ghana, teaching science and health classes in a high school as part of the second class of Peace Corps volunteers. This year, after his recent retirement, Mr. Oshira returned to the corps to serve in the same program as Reimer, in part because he felt that this time he had more to offer.

"Back when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the very beginning, Kennedy was still president, and it was a heady time. We felt that we were always being watched and that we had to prove that it worked," he said. "There was a real sense of dedication and sacrifice. Now, they're more realistic. They want skills, not just enthusiastic people."

"One reason I'm here is that I don't think I was a very good volunteer when I was 22 years old. I was too impatient. I wasn't very sensitive."

For people like Oshira and Reimer, serving a Peace Corps stint, being a gogo volunteer, is a chance to stay active and give something to the community.

While Reimer misses freshly squeezed orange juice and sometimes even her car, she says the experience has given her a new attitude about life. "I enjoy simple things, like a flush toilet," she says. "Would you ever think of that as a luxury?"

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