Taking the Plunge Into Ethiopia: Tales of a Peace Corp Volunteer

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Peace Corps volunteers are supposed to live like the people in the countries they serve. That's what William Hershey did for two years as the only American in a small Ethiopian town. He ate the local food - pancake like injera and spicy wat - drank tella - the local beer -, spoke Amharic as well as he could and shared a house with an Ethiopian teacher. His first priority was teaching seventh and eighth graders the English they needed to continue their educations and brighten their futures. He got them out of their textbooks and into lively conversations by modifying a high school dialog that had helped him learn Spanish. There were cultural gaffes. Disgruntled students stoned his house after protesting an assignment to clean outhouses. He nearly caused an international incident by clashing with a teacher from a rival school during a heated basketball game. He navigated the blunders, sometimes with unexpected help. A local soldier had his hand on his pistol, ready to provide protection had the basketball spat escalated. He developed bonds strong enough to help bring one student to the United States after the student became a refugee during Ethiopia's civil war. Back in the United States, his Peace Corps experience informed the newspaper commentaries he wrote about immigration and the goodwill and hope the United States should share with the world"--