It’s goodbye SA for Peace Corps’ Lynda

POLOKWANE – Lynda Burt is a Peace Corps volunteer who will never allow a little thing like age stand between her and making a difference in the world.

Lynda says it all started when her granddaughter asked her: “Grandma, does anything important ever happen to older people?” The question made her rethink her life and what was left of it.

Ever since she was a young girl of around 12 years old, Lynda had dreams about becoming a Peace Corps volunteer, travelling to other parts of the world and doing good.

The Peace Corps programme was initiated by the US president, John F. Kennedy when Lynda was a young girl. It entails Americans who graduated from universities to go out in the world and serve their country wherever they were posted in a non-military way, applying their skills and experiences and learning from other cultures and then return and share their experiences at Rotary Clubs, schools and other organisations.

Thinking about her granddaughter’s question, she realised now was her chance to join the Peace Corps and she applied.

She says she waited a year and a half before being contacted for an interview. Some 20 000 Americans apply annually to be accepted as Peace Corps volunteers and only 4 000 are chosen. The youngest volunteer is 22 years old and the oldest 80.

Lynda says she was overjoyed to be accepted. Her first choice was to go to Africa, but she was sent to Eastern Europe to run a girl’s programme. Later she was sent to South Africa.

“I had such a good career. I got married, had a daughter, held top level positions, earned a great salary, but something was missing. When my daughter took me to the airport, I answered my granddaughter’s question, telling her important things do happen in older peoples’ lives,” Lynda says.

She says nearly five years after her retirement at 62, for the first time in her life, she feels fulfilled, that the missing piece within her is gone. By helping at the Sebotsi Combined School in Bergnek, about 30km from Polokwane, she has found her calling. “Helping at the school and in the community, I felt I was fulfilling God’s purpose for me on earth for the first time in my life,” Lynda says.

“I first lived with a host family in a small village just outside Mokopane who taught me the language and about life in a village. I fell in love with South Africa and its people and knew this was where I was meant to be. I was sent to the Polokwane Municipality to join the special projects unit and I find myself doing what I have been doing my whole live: working in an office, wearing smart suits and high heels.”

While working on a project in Bergnek, Lynda says she realised this was where she wanted to be. She asked to be “on loan” to this community. She first worked at a drop-in centre, then a crèche and then volunteered at the combined school. She applied for her work period to be extended and taught English for two years at the school.

“I became mother to 450 children at the school. I spent around 10 hours per day at the school. I’ve grown to love the children and they responded in kind. Now it feels as if I am leaving one home for another home,” she says about her return to the US.

She says at her farewell party, the mothers of the children also came to bid her farewell. They gave of what little they had: a R2 here an a small token of appreciation there.

Lynda intends to form a foundation to raise funds for the school once she returns to Kansas, where she originates from. Already the school boasts a library with 1000 books, computers and dictionaries to assist the children in their school work. Lynda hopes to visit the school annually to see the children grow up, “but it is so expensive to travel to South Africa.” She will never forget them though. “They will stay in my heart forever.”