By John Dunphy, The Packet Group
You have just retired after a long and successful career and developed a large cache of experience. Yet, with long, open days now staring you in the face, how can you utilize that knowledge?
What about the Peace Corps? Do you think you’re too old? Try telling that to Merle Rubine, who went to the Ivory Coast in her 60s.
Ms. Rubine will share her experiences in the federally run volunteer program and encourage others over 50 to learn more when she speaks Thursday at Terhune Orchards at 330 Cold Soil Road in Lawrence. The program will run from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
When Ms. Rubine, of New York City, retired from a long career as a broadcast journalism producer, she said she was “ready for something fresh and new and challenging.”
Conceived in 1960 and established the following year, the Peace Corps came about when then-Sen. John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries, according to the program’s official Web site, www.peacecorps.gov.
Today, more than 190,000 Peace Corps volunteers have been invited by 139 host countries to work on issues ranging from AIDS education to information technology and environmental preservation, according to the Web site.
Ms. Rubine was first exposed to the program during its formative years. “One of my first roommates in New York went shortly after it started. I instead chose the career path.”
By the end of the 20th century, with retirement looming, Ms. Rubine asked herself, “What will really make my heart beat faster? I made a list of things I would love to do, and the Peace Corps kept proving out,” she said. “It turned out to be very much the right decision.”
In May 2000, Ms. Rubine began her initial two-year contract on the Ivory Coast, in West Africa. There, she served as a community development worker.
Projects ranged from educational — a literacy program for adults, the establishment of an early learning center for preschool children as well as AIDS educational outreach programs — to the practical — the development of latrines for residences.
Ms. Rubine described the village with a population of about 2,000 as a farming village.
”They grow what they eat and eat what they grow, with a little to sell,” she said. “There are two roads, one going east to west, the other north to south.
”Refrigeration wasn’t usual, so everything was for the day of the day,” Ms. Rubine added.
After her initial two years, Ms. Rubine was reassigned to Abidjan, the largest city on the Ivory Coast, where she continued her AIDS educational outreach until “they had a coup.”
She added, “I was evacuated halfway through the third year.”
Yet, the overthrowing of a government could not keep Ms. Rubine away from the Peace Corps. She returned to Africa, to Tanzania, to work with a television station for almost a year as its producer.
”It turned out to be fantastic,” she said.
After a stint as a journalism teacher in Sierra Leone and producer of a Tanzanian rendition of “The Vagina Monologues,” Ms. Rubine finally came back to the United States in summer 2006.
But she wasn’t ready to give up the Peace Corps just yet.
At 70 years old, Ms. Rubine is still singing the program’s praises, serving as its 50-plus recruiter. “I really stand behind the product,” she said. “I’ll tell anyone, the best thing they can do for themselves is spend 27 months overseas as a Peace Corps volunteer.”
Pam and Gary Mount, owners of Terhune Orchards, can relate. Forty-one years ago, the couple served as Peace Corps volunteers on Satawal Island, one of the most remote islands that make up The Federated States of Micronesia, in the Pacific Ocean. She served as a teacher while he helped with health and construction projects.
Ms. Mount, who is also on the Lawrence Township Council, said she and her husband “as well as many others see it as a seminal moment in their lives.”
She added, “It was so different and so exciting. We all thought we’d made a difference. For us, the Peace Corps was a really important part of our lives. And there’s so much need out there. Of course, life moves on. But, there’s always a sense it would be great to do it again.”
Ms. Rubine said she’s certainly not ruling out another assignment. “It’s on my mind,” she said.
Though she is the 50-plus recruiter, Ms. Rubine said everyone of any age is invited to attend the program and see if the Peace Corps might be something to consider.
”Everyone is equal once you’re in the Peace Corps,” she said. “You start from scratch and no one cares if you were a Phi Beta Kappa.”
She added, “How can you not enjoy jump starting your motor. After a career, it was the most invigorating thing to tap the same energy and resources I had when I came to New York from Milwaukee with a suitcase.”
For more information, contact Blanche Brann at 609-620-0450 or [email protected].
