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Peace Corps Volunteers Find a Wired World

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I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Education Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglishNext year, the Peace Corps will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. Peace Corps volunteers are Americans who teach and work on projects in developing countries. The United States created the Peace Corps during the cold war with the Soviet Union. Today, technology has changed how the volunteers dotheir work and stay connected with friends and family back home. In the early nineteen eighties, Gordy Mengel served in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Letters from home would take weeks, or months. As a result, he socialized more with people in the local community. He lost contact withfriends and family back in the States. Today, Gordy Mengel is a Peace Corps programming and training officer in Rwanda.He says these days are different because of the Internet and cell phone service. When volunteers go back to their homes in villages, they can get on Skype or they give a quick callto Mom and Dad back at home. Sonia Morhange is one of about one hundred Peace Corps volunteers in Rwanda. She talks with a friend in California on Skype, an Internet calling service. She talks with her mother on the phone and e-mails her father. She says: "I can't imagine having been a Peace Corpsvolunteer in the seventies or the eighties or even the early nineties. I'm just so used to everyone having a cell phone that works internationally. I'm very, very lucky in the fact that where I live I have wireless Internet and that makes it a lot easier." Peace Corps volunteers receive a living allowance and other benefits in return for twenty-seven months of training and service. John Reddy is the country director in Rwanda. He says fairly easy access to the Internet means that volunteers can do more than just call home. They can research subjects to help their communities. And, through thePeace Corps Partnership Program, they can get donations online for their projects.But John Reddy admits he sometimes misses the old days, before the Internet and good phone service. He says volunteers had more independence then. You can comment on this story and find other Education Reports onlineat voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and iTunes at VOA Learning English. For VOA Special English I'm Alex Villarreal.

(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 23Sept2010)
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