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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 2000)
Time in Peace Corps ‘rewarding’ ■ A UNL professor encourages his students to follow in his footsteps. ByCaraPesek Staff writer Peace Corps proves to be life changing, say some Nebraskans. When he was young, Dave Wilson kept a scrapbook of the Kennedy presi dency. Among the newspaper clippings and other mementos of the Kennedys’ years in the White House, was informa tion about the Peace Corps, a program started by the Kennedy administration in 1961. Wilson, now an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at UNL, decided he wanted to eventually join the organization. Then he went to college and forget all about it Years later, Wilson said, a conversa tion with a friend in a bar changed that. They talked about future plans, and the friend mentioned he was joining the Peace Corps. Wilson said he remembered his childhood goal and decided he also wanted to join. “Something just clicked,” Wilson said, “and I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, dial’s what I want to do.’” In January 1977, Wilson left the United States and began his Peace Corps assignment in Afghanistan. Although his family had expressed concerns about Wilson’s leaving, Wilson said he didn’t realize what he was getting himself into until he was on the plane that took him to the Peace Corps assignment Wilson said he remembered sitting between two businessmen on the flight Eventually, one of the men asked Wilson where he was going. When Wilson explained he had joined the Peace Corps, the man asked Wilson to stand up. “He announced where I was going and what I was going to do to everyone on the plane, and everyone stood up and applauded me,” Wilson said, “and I was appalled.” Wilson said it was at that moment he realized he would be spending two full years away from home in a com pletely foreign place. After two months of training and a short period of teaching English in the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, a Peace Corps teaching position opened in a province. Wilson applied for the posi tion and got the job. He taught English at a boys’ high school. Although he was respected by the students and other teachers, Wilson said he was often lonely. He decided he needed to take action. “I was sitting in the teacher’s office one day, and I decided I was literally going to pick a friend,” Wilson said. So he did. He began to bicycle home with another teacher after school each day. Eventually, Wilson said, he and that teacher became good friends. Later, Wilson became close to that teacher’s entire family. Then, communists took over Afghanistan in 1979, and Wilson’s life, as well as the lives of everyone around him, changed completely. Because he was an American, Wilson was looked at suspiciously as an outsider. “I was pulled off my bike and ques tioned with a gun to my head or my stomach,” Wilson said. Worse, Wilson said, was that his new friends were tortured because of their association with him. Still, they remained his friends. “They always took me in as one of their own,” Wilson said. Despite the danger and violence all around him, Wilson was able to find beauty in his surroundings. He said the time he was able to spend on his own helped him realize who he wanted to be. And of course, there were the friendships he formed. “The coolest things were the rela tionships and a totally different sense of self,” Wilson said. “I sort of grew up there, I think. I was one of those people who always thought I was weak. If I was captured by the enemy, I would be the first to give away the secrets. But I’m not. I’m strong.” When Wilson’s time as a Peace Corps volunteer was up, he didn’t want to go home. However, he made the dif ficult decision to leave. “At the end, I knew I needed to leave because I was hurting the people I loved,” Wilson said. “I knew I would never see them again, so I didn’t want to go.” And because of the chaos caused Cancun becoming top spot for college students on break . CANCUN, Mexico (AP) - His hand gripped a Corona longneck, and his wrist was bedecked with fluores cent plastic bar passes, including one that said “Extreme Party Package.” On one side, the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. On the other, a beach front bikini contest Chris Viveiros, a 22-year-old sen ior at the less-than-tropical Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., opened up in a broad grin. “This is unreal, dude,” he said. Not really. It was just another day of spring break in Cancun, a resort that has steadily grown into a world capital of the mid-March binge of sea, sand, spirits and sex that is a rite of passage for American college stu dents. Leaving behind traditional spring break spots like Daytona Beach, Fla., and South Padre Island, Texas^a record number of U.S. college stu dents have descended on Cancun this year, turning the resort into the hottest party spot there is. MTV films kids wriggling in then bikinis. E! Entertainment Television scours the beach for lurid footage. Jose Cuervo and Corona sponsor events at discos that compete for the word-of-mouth title of the least inhibited party. “There’s no place to party like this, in America or anywhere else,” said Kate Roberts, a 21-year-old jun ior at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. j\ - Cancun has been building 1,000 new hotel rooms a year for years, but still hit a record 100 percent occupan cy a week ago. That means many stu dents showing up with confirmed reservations had to be bused off to nearby resorts. CC We ve had 70,000 spring breakers in the last four weeks. We have 26,000 rooms, but we need at least 33,000.” Laura Fernandez de Gordoa Cancun’s municipal tourism director As spring break begins to wind down, Cancun is at 85 percent capac ity - extraordinary for late March, tourism officials say. And by any esti mates, next year will only be busier. “We’ve had 70,000 spring break ers in the last four weeks,” said Laura Fernandez de Gordoa, Cancun’s municipal tourism director. “We have 26,000 rooms, but we need at least 33,000.” Florida is still the top spring break destination in terms of sheer num bers, travel agents say. But that’s because it’s easy to pile into a car and hit the beachlln terms of spring breaks that require planning and a lit tle more money, Cancun is now king. The routine is pretty standard: Wake up by 1p.m., hang out on the beach, shower, eat and hit the discos until 5 a.m. After that, there’s the obligatory after-hours party at the hotel, sunrise on the beach and bed time at 7 or 8 a.m. “I’ve been to many spring breaks - Florida, Jamaica - and they ain’t nothing compared to Cancun,” said Victor Garcia, a 21-year-old junior at the University of Illinois. “Without a doubt.” Some of the revels can get out of hand, but Cancun officials said more police, education campaigns and an agreement by discos to make last call \ ■ at 4 a.m. have reduced the number of problems this year. “We’ve made about 60 arrests this spring break. That’s less than last year,” said Angel Lopez, spokesman for tiie state police office in Cancun. “Even so, the kids drink alcohol in industrial quantities, and they go crazy.” Most of those arrested are fined and let go. But the great majority of students don’t get into trouble. With a drinking age of 18 and an anything-goes atti tude, it’s pretty hard to. Besides, most ofVthe students are just here to have fun. “Ninety-nine out of 100 students don’t pee in public places or dance in front Of MTV cameras with a string bikini on,” said Kirk Riley, president ofhotspringbreaks.com. “Most hang out by tiie beach, buy little brother a T shirt and buy Mom a hammock. They’re here to dance and lie out in the sun.” The best part of it all, said Nick Doerr, a 19-year-old from Chicago saving up for college, is that “no one’s in a bad mood here.” No one, that is, except him. He checked his watch to make sure he didn’t miss his bus to the airport after a week of revelry. “I’m going to go home,” he said, “and cry.” I- 1 j '• ■ . 'V .A .'V. www.dailynefe.com it is time for the truth. by the political turmoil in Afghanistan, Wilson said he never did see most of the people he met through the Peace Corps. “Almost everyone I taught with is dead now,” Wilson said. “The school where I taught was bombed.” When he returned to the United States, Wilson said he found it difficult to relate to Americans, and he had a hard time talking about all the things he experienced. “For years, I didn’t talk about it. I couldn’t. It was just too powerful,” Wilson said. “I just sort of spoke in gen eral terms that it was a great experi ence.” Then Wilson encouraged his broth er to join the Peace Corps. His brother was accepted and also loved the chal lenge the Peace Corps provided him. Now, Wilson invites Peace Corps recruiters to talk to his classes each semester, in hopes that a few of his stu dents will make the same decision he did. And several have. Courtney Wickham, a 1999 gradu ate of the Teacher’s College decided to join the Peace Corps after Wilson and others encouraged her to do so. Wickham teaches English as a Foreign Language in Ternopil, Ukraine. She is one of 64 Nebraskans currently serving in the Peace Corps. Wickham said she is glad that Wilson and others encouraged her to join before she got tied down with other things. “I’m loving it,” Wickham said of her Peace Corps assignment. “It’s hard, but I’m learning so much. I have no doubt that this is the right time for me to be here.” Peace Corps volunteers spend two years in another country doing jobs, such as teaching English or helping residents start John F. Kennedy persuades University of Mich igan students to petition fa Peace Corps. March 1 , 1 9 6 1 Kennedy issues execute order creating the Peace Corps. D ecember 1961 First Peace Corps programs set up in South America and India. June 30, 1980 First Peace Corps fellow program is established at Columbia University to recruit, prepare and place volunteers in New York City public schools. March 1, 1996 35th Anniversary - 3,500 projects in 80 countries. Melanie Falk/DN She said the most rewarding thing about her experience is the feeling that she is making a difference in many stu dents’ lives. “My students know that I believe in them or else I wouldn’t have traveled so far, leaving behind my friends and fam ily who I love and miss so much,” she said. Wilson and Wickham agree that their decisions to join the Peace Corps were among the best decisions they ever made. “It was the coolest thing I’ve ever done,” Wilson said. “It completely changed my life.” "I PXPN'T Know TtUT /k«OUT pl/kNNFP pMtFNTHOOP.1' “I discovered that Planned Parenthood is more than birth control. 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