| JMU
Grad Will Serve in Nicaragua |
By Rebecca Plevin
Observer Staff Writer |
| When Herndon resident Megan Mahoney left her home to join
the Peace Corps on Monday, she brought just two bags. She
will be living in Nicaragua for two years and the organization
recommends that volunteers bring very little, so that they
blend in with the local community. She did manage to squeeze
into her bag some essential items, including a set of iPod
speakers, mosquito netting and ear plugs. |
| Mahoney had spent two summers volunteering in Costa Rica
and Honduras and learned from those experiences that crowing
roosters are not conducive to sleeping through the morning.
She said she had to "have ear plugs or I'll wake up at the
crack of dawn." |
| Mahoney, 22, will serve as a health education volunteer
in Nicaragua, where she will implement preventative health
education programs that focus on nutrition, HIV and AIDS,
drug and alcohol abuse, infant healthcare, vaccinations and
malaria, according to the Peace Corps. She said she is "excited
to live over there and experience everything." |
| Mahoney said she has always enjoyed speaking Spanish and
has developed a strong affection for Hispanic culture, based
on her two summers in Central America and her experience studying
abroad in Spain. And after volunteering at a free clinic in
Harrisonburg, Va., during her senior year of college, where
she served as an interpreter between Hispanic patients and
the nurses, she said she became interested in pursuing a career
in nursing. |
| So when she was deciding what to do after graduation, Mahoney
said she realized the Peace Corps would be a perfect fit.
Mahoney, who studied Spanish and health communications at
James Madison University, said she was interested in joining
the Peace Corps because she wanted to travel and live overseas
for a long period of time and wanted to improve her Spanish
skills, while also working with Hispanic people in a health-related
field. |
| Mahoney will spend her first months abroad completing a
volunteer education program that provides new participants
with health, safety, cross-cultural and language training.
After that, she said, she would live with a host family for
two months in a Nicaraguan community and spend time getting
to know her new community and establishing trusting relationships
with the people. She said would later begin collaborating
with the country's health ministry on various health projects. |
| The one thing she is nervous about, she said, is being away
from her family, including her two brothers and three sisters.
She said she has "never been gone from home for that long
of a time," and the distance is "probably going to be the
hardest thing for me." |
| "I'm very proud of her for even wanting to do this," said
Jeanne Mahoney, Megan Mahoney's mother. Jeanne Mahoney said
Tuesday she was sad that her daughter had left, but knew her
daughter would benefit from the "personal growth that she
will experience as a result of being there." |
| She said her daughter will likely be living without electricity
or hot water, using latrines and eating meals consisting mainly
of beans, but Jeanne Mahoney was still confident that Megan
Mahoney would have a "wonderful experience" in Nicaragua.
|
| "This is her calling," Jeanne Mahoney said. "She loves what
she does." |
| When she returns from Nicaragua, Megan Mahoney said she
would like to take advantage of the Peace Corps' Fellows/USA
program, which provides financial assistance to returnees
pursuing a graduate degree at more than 40 universities. With
the aid of the program, she said she would like to study nursing
at The Johns Hopkins University. |
