Peace Corps Volunteers Find a Wired World

22 September 2010

Technology helps Peace Corps volunteer Sonia Morhange, seen here in Rwanda, stay in touch with family and friends back in the United States.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Next 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 do their 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 with friends and family back in the States.

Today, Gordy Mengel is a Peace Corps programming and training officer in Rwanda.

GORDY MENGEL: "These days with the advent of the Internet and cell phone service and so forth, I still see volunteers having some of that experience. But again, when they go back to their homes, instead of turning out the kerosene light and going to bed, they can get on Skype or they give a quick call to Mom and Dad back at home. And that part of the experience, I guess, has changed."