Peace Corps Becomes Family Affair

UWG has been named as one of the Peace Corps’ top 10 colleges in Georgia that contribute to the number of Corps volunteers. John Stogner, interim Director of Infrastructure, has had a part in that ranking with two sons, both alumni from the university, serving in the Peace Corps, and a daughter considering joining after graduation.

Blake Stogner joined the Peace Corps after graduating from UWG in May 2005 with a degree in Early Childhood Education. At 26 years of age, he has been serving in Vanuatu, a remote country of many small islands in the South Pacific, for more than three years.

The Stogner family visiting in Vanuatu.

Brian Stogner, 28, joined the Peace Corps last fall after graduating from West Georgia with a degree in geosciences and is now serving in Cameroon, Africa. Brian is assisting the natives in agriculture projects and learning the culture and how they do things is his biggest challenge.
 
He has better access to the Internet than Blake and gets in touch with family approximately once a month and sends e-mail and letters. Only when Blake travels to the capital city of Port Vila does he have access to technology to communicate with the outside world. He’ll call home every three to six months using a computer at an Internet café and sends letters and photos to Carrollton. John Stogner has compiled those communications, photos and other interesting links here.
 
“Cameroon is very diverse and the summer is their rainy season,” said John. “Brian currently is stationed in Pete in the Northern Province of Cameroon, which is closer to the Sahara Desert-type environment. Actually, right now it is very dry in Cameroon. Brian told me we wouldn't believe how much dust a herd of animals stirs up over there during the dry season. Monkeys about the size of squirrels are the most native wild life he has experienced in Africa so far.
 
The Republic of Vanuatu’s economy is based on a small-scale agricultural system and most people there earn about $1 a day. When the Stogner family traveled to Vanuatu two summers ago to visit Blake, they stayed for several weeks in a remote village where Blake is a Peace Corps volunteer and lived in a hut with no running water or electricity. It was an adventure that included foresting for food.

“When we visited him, it wasn't that unexpected to me that he has thrived there because he has always been self assured and self reliant. He has always had a caring spirit for other people and he seeks to make the world a better place by giving of his time and efforts to ones in need. His patience in working with people and overcoming the lack of resources to teach the basics of budgeting, economics and self-discipline has been his most amazing accomplishments to me.”
For information on the daylong visit on campus by Peace Corps representatives on Wednesday, Jan. 24, read the media release in More News, or view a PowerPoint of the South Pacific Islands.