Golden chance for graying boomers

While living in Africa, Bob Hager found that his hair color brought him more respect and admiration – and pregnant women would give up bus seats for him.

“People with gray hair are highly regarded,” he said of his experience in Tanzania as a Peace Corps volunteer. Hager, who was 57 years old at the time, remembers having to convince the women to sit back down. He said he had to get used to the way people respected him as an older member of society.

“Then I had to get used to the fact that older people are not treated this way in our country,” he said of his homecoming. Hager, now 67, told his story last week to a room of about 65 Peace Corps hopefuls, most of whom had gray hair. The meeting at the Spokane Valley Library was directed toward baby boomers.

The Peace Corps has found that 5 percent of their volunteers are over 50, with the oldest being 84, said Catherine Swanson, a regional recruiter for the Peace Corps and a former volunteer.

Swanson said the aim of the baby boomer-centric meeting was to encourage more of them to join by sharing the experience of other older volunteers.

Hager and fellow volunteer Peggy Green, 61, discussed what they called a life-altering experience. Green was one of five women volunteers who were more than 50 years old. She taught English at schools in Jordan.

“Wow,” she said to the room. “I still haven’t come down from those two years I have been there.”

Green, who was 53 at the time, also remembers the respect the locals gave her.

“We felt we had a distinct advantage over some of the young people,” she said. Since Jordan was a Muslim country, the younger American girls were considered harlots for not covering up. Frequently, they would have eggs thrown at them while trying to get into the village. But Jordanians never treated Green in the same manner.

“I think because they respected age and I didn’t threaten them,” she said, adding that she developed a deep bond with the people there.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., Green’s children wanted her to come home. But she refused.

“I’m safer (in Jordan) … because I was family as far as they were concerned,” Green told her children. “I wasn’t Muslim, I wasn’t Arab, but I was family.”

Both Green and Hager are still in contact with people from their volunteer sites. Green has even paid for the college education of some of the children.

They said their perceptions of the world have completely changed.

“I just had a viewpoint from National Geographic, with images of people jumping around drinking cow’s blood,” Hager said.

Lily Essex, 60, said she has been to several Peace Corps meetings, but they were usually filled with young people.

“They were ready to go at that drop of the hat,” she said, adding that Wednesday’s meeting addressed very different concerns, such as receiving health care and medication, keeping in contact with families, or leaving in case of family emergencies. She found the issues much more relevant to her age group.

Nancy and Bob Crotty, both 61, said they’re ready for a change. Nancy Crotty said the meeting helped to quell many of her concerns.

The application process for volunteers can take from nine to 12 months to complete. Although the process for a couple takes a few months longer, the two are not deterred.

“We’ve sort of been fat and happy for lots of years,” Bob Crotty said. “It’s time to stop and rock the boat a bit.”