But Bailey Crandall, 22, Deerfield, has years to go.
As a sworn Peace Corps volunteer, Crandall will spend a total of 27 months in Ethiopia, a developing country in east Africa.
Crandall left in May for training and lived with a host family for 10 weeks to learn about language, health, safety and Ethiopian culture. At the end of September, she will begin her job as a primary teacher trainer. She will be working with teachers, and her goals include improving English education, implementing modern teaching techniques and teaching active learning for large groups that can be used in a wide variety of study areas.
Thursday night, Crandall was at her home in Wukro, which is her Peace Corps site and is in the northernmost region of the country. She's about 50 miles from the border of Eritrea and figures Wukro has about 30,000 residents.
Although she's been in the country since May, her adventure is just beginning. In addition to teaching, Crandall plans to travel to different countries in Africa, and hopes to better her language skills. She said about 80 languages are spoken in Ethiopia.
Crandall's love for adventure and international travel began when she was a sophomore at Deerfield High School. She took a month-long trip to Russia as part of an exchange program.
"It definitely did spark my interest for international travel. Before Russia, I'd never been on a plane," she said.
Crandall said she liked seeing different places. When she returned to the United States, she did a research project on the Peace Corps as part of a class project on government organizations.
"World travel has been on my mind since," she said.
Crandall graduated high school in 2007 and attended Seward County Community College, where she played basketball for two years. After that, she enrolled at Newman University in Wichita and did distance learning in teacher education programs, taking classes in Liberal and Garden City, then completing student teaching.
Now, she's anxious for school to start in Ethiopia.
"I'm definitely ready to start," she said.
Although being overseas in a developing country has been difficult, Crandall is finding Ethiopia is a country full of mostly friendly and helpful people. She said she will sometimes be called out on the street for being "ferenji," or a white person. But most of the time, children just want her to wave or smile at them.
"It makes their day," she said.
When Crandall was in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, she said it was difficult to see the level of poverty and disabilities so many of the people faced.
"Seeing the rock bottom of life, the poorest of the poorest and the disabled like you've never seen before, it was hard for me to see. I realize I've never had a bad day in my life. That was pretty hard. I wish I could help everyone in this country. But that's not possible and what I'm supposed to do," she said.
But even through poverty and hardships, she said, Ethiopians are happy.
"I've just learned it's very simple to live a happy life. People here are so happy, and they have so little. It's very humbling. Life seems so much more challenging, but I really think it's more simple here. Life is slow-paced, and everything revolves around friends and family, as opposed to America where it's work, money and technology. That's what I really like about this country," she said.
Crandall said she keeps in close contact with her friends and family via Facebook and Skype. She's close with her family and can relate to the Ethiopian focus on family.
One night in Ethiopia, Crandall ate popcorn and watched a Disney movie, which are her favorites. She realized she could be happy doing that anywhere in the world.
"I've learned to appreciate the simple things a lot more," she said.
Read more: http://www.gctelegram.com/news/crandall-peace-corps-8-26-11#ixzz1WDZe7262
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