j Monday, March 28, 1988n~he Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
Volunteer discusses challenges,
pportunities of Peace Corps life
By Ashley A. Bailey
Reporter
The Peace Corps offers a wide
[range of personal and social oppor
tunities that test a volunteer’s ability
to take his knowledge and adapt it to
foreign situations in developing
countries, a Peace Corps volunteer
| said at Texas A&M last week.
Steve Long, a graduate student in
[the soil and crop sciences depart
ment and a returned Peace Corps
volunteer from Niger, West Africa,
spoke to the International Devel
opment Forum in Rudder Thurs-
|day.
Long spoke in the place of Coleen
jMcGarrity, Texas A&M’s Peace
(Corps representative, who was ab-
Isent because of a personal emer
gency.
Long said social and personal
[challenges of the Peace Corps test a
person’s innate ability to adapt and
function in a different society.
However, Long said, volunteers
[from the United States should be
(open-minded about Peace Corps
[travels.
“When in a developing country,
lit’s important to remember that
[things are done differently there,
[and they are done for very good rea-
|sons,” he said.
“It’s the Peace Corps volunteer’s
[duty to know and accept those rea-
|sons,” he said.
As a volunteer, a person has the
Ichance of making a beneficial impact
Ion a society as well as gaining many
limportant experiences himself,
Tmg said.
While in a foreign country, a vol
unteer has the chance to learn one
or more foreign languages and cul
tures. He also can meet many inter
esting people and develop many
strong friendships, he said.
“Volunteers must realize that the
degree to which they will adapt will
depend on their own preconceived
views and their willingness to
change,” he said.
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Local residents
view light show
of ‘space trash’
Steve Long, a returned Peace Corps volunteer
and a graduate student at A&M, discusses the re
wards and trials of being an American volunteer
Photo by David Elmer
in a developing country with Abdov Hane, a ju
nior entomology major, and Allison Case, a ju
nior animal science major.
“I recommend that volunteers be
very careful of the ‘cultural baggage’
that they take with them into a for
eign country,” he said. “Don’t ever
assume that our way of life is supe
rior to theirs because we are worlds
apart — literally.”
Comparing foreign cultures to
that of the United States is like com
paring apples to oranges, he said. A
volunteer must be open-minded
enough to view a new culture as dif
ferent, not wrong, and he must be
willing to learn from it, he said.
“Peace Corps is an important
group and the people that represent
it in foreign countries must be will
ing to uphold its standards,” he said.
“Public drunkenness and drug
use are strictly prohibited, and as
U.S. citizens the volunteers are ex
pected to abide by U.S. laws while
abroad,” he said.
The pay is not great and the hours
are long, he said, but the knowledge
gained and the friendships that can
be made outweigh the disadvantages
of Peace Corps.
“Being a Peace Corps volunteer
can give you a whole different per
spective on the United States and
how it relates to the world, and it can
be a great prerequisite for students
that want to travel or work over
seas,” he said.
From Staff and Wire Reports
Residents across the Brazos
Valley and Texas who saw a bur
ning object streak across the sky
Friday night weren’t quite sure
what they were seeing — but they
knew it was spectacular.
The blazing trail that lighted
up the Texas sky would have
been the highlight of any July 4th
fireworks event, but it was no
more than Soviet space garbage,
military officials say.
A cargo rocket used to resup
ply a manned Soviet space station
disintegrated shortly before 11
p.m. Friday as it re-entered the
atmosphere over San Antonio,
said Lt. Col. Ivan Pinnell, a
spokesman for the North Ameri
can Air Defense Command in
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Ramona Warren, a staff assis
tant in A&M’s Department of
Business Analysis who was fishing
at Lake Summerville when she
spotted the object, said there was
no doubt in her mind that it.was a
rocket. She said she and the peo
ple around her all thought it was
an airplane at first, but were able
to make out fins and a tail on the
object from the moon’s reflection.
“It went across the sky very
quickly and it started breaking up
like fireworks,” Warren said,
“and the fire fanned out wide
across the sky and lighted up the
sky.
“It was descending at a pretty
good rate. But we all agreed that
it was a rocket... It was huge.”
Pinnell said the rocket — flam
ing debris from which was seen
across Texas and in Oklahoma
and Arkansas — was the second
stage of the Progress 35 satellite,
launched Thursday from the So
viet Union. NORAD had tracked
the rocket since its launch and ex
pected re-entry, but didn’t know
when or where, Pinnell said.
John Waller, a pilot for Ever
green International and a former
resident of College Station, was
flying a DC-9at an altitude of
30,000 feet when he saw the
rocket.
“It was really something to
see,” Waller said. “It started as a
streak, then as it got closer to
earth it separated into two balls of
fire and then after that it broke
up. It was like fireworks going
off.”
Waller, who was about 75 miles
northwest of San Antonio when
he saw the light show, said his ra
dio immediately was buzzing with
concerned pilots trading stories
about the object. He said pilots as
far away as Florida reported
sightings.
Most of the pilots thought it
was a big meteor, Waller said, and
they were told from ground
sources at first that it was rem
nants of Halley’s comet.
Friday night’s sensation was
visible for 75 seconds as it blazed
across the sky in a southwest-to-
northeast trajectory.
Within minutes, curious callers
lighted up the switchboards at the
National Weather Service and po
lice, fire and radio stations across
Texas. Someone in Houston
called in to report an apparent
explosion.
For safety and security reasons,
the North American Air Defense
Command tracks about 7,000
pieces of “space trash,” Pinnell
said. Throw-aways from space
fall all over the world three to
four times a month, and most
burn on re-entry, he said.
Although the rocket was bigger
than a railroad boxcar, it is un
likely that it caused any damage
on the ground or left any souve
nirs, Pinnell said.
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