Tales from the Peace Corps-Dyer speaks of experiences to Breakfast Rotary Club

McMinnville’s Breakfast Rotary Club was recently treated to an interesting program from Susie Dyer, the daughter of Jim and Julia Dyer, who is home for her first visit since joining the Peace Corps and traveling overseas to serve in Mali, Africa.
Dyer says she chose this as her first job after graduating from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in part because of her involvement in local community service organizations.
‘I have been thinking about this since high school, where I was active in Rotary Interact serving others above self,’ Dyer said. ‘This volunteer work led to the Peace Corps and to my choosing International Political Economy as my major at Georgetown University. I also prepared myself for international work by taking French and Spanish in high school at Webb School in Bell Buckle.’
Dyer and Robert Bratcher were offered the opportunity to go to Hungary by Breakfast Rotary while still in high school, which also strengthened her desire to work abroad. Dyer started the long process of applying to the Peace Corps more than a year before graduation, realizing acceptance into the Peace Corps was a lengthy process of applications and interviews.
Since the Peace Corps is a voluntary organization, they spend time trying to ensure the skills, the location requested, and time availability match well with applicants.
Dyer requested Africa as her first preference, and after a three-day training period in Philadelphia, she and 83 others left for their assignment in Africa.
Dyer’s projects are in small business development for women, which is particularly challenging in an area that has almost no electricity or plumbing, and the homes have dried mud walls and ceilings. Some of the businesses women establish involve things like making soap and preparing dried fruit. Some of Dyer’s assistance in these endeavors include helping with accounting or looking for ways to get more revenue for the business.
One of her new projects, creating a radio station, is expected to grow but is challenging in a relatively primitive environment. Listening to the radio is a very popular pastime in Mali, but with no electricity, solar or battery powered radios are a necessity.
The official language of Mali is French, but the most common language used is Bambara, an African language. The radio station broadcasts programs in both languages.
Dyer is glad she learned French, which is necessary in Mali for written texts and is also sometimes spoken, whereas Bambara is a spoken language only. Dyer has learned enough Bambara to communicate with her host family and to go to market and negotiate for her food supplies.
Conditions are also primitive. Dyer sleeps under mosquito netting in a country where the temperatures can go as high as 120 degrees in the hot season. Like many African countries, Mali has dry and rainy seasons. Malaria is one of the largest health problems, especially during the rainy season.
In this land-locked country, getting a bucket of cool water for a bath from the well is a real treat. It isn’t safe to swim in the river because of microorganisms that can cause a variety of illnesses. Health care is not easy to find with very few community health centers, which primarily give vaccinations and deliver babies.
In Mali, 90 percent of the natives are Muslim and are allowed by law to marry up to four wives. Dyer’s host family is Muslim and sells gasoline, Coca-Cola’s and other seasonal products such as rice. Around 75 percent of Malians are farmers who grow various crops, both to sell and to feed their families.
Dyer will complete her Peace Corps assignment in September 2009. To learn more about this work, or to donate to the Peace Corps, visit the Web site at www.peacecorps.gov. The Peace Corps’ three goals are developmental work, representing the American culture around the world, and representing the other cultures in our country.
‘Serving in a Third World country is a constant reminder to feel thankful and blessed to live here in our lovely town and for the life we are able to live,’ Dyer said.
McMinnville Breakfast Rotary Club members commended Dyer on her accomplishments and her willingness to share her life and skills with others less fortunate.