Tualatin to Mozambique, Peace Corps volunteer has lessons to spare

“At first, they were terrified of this big, tall, white woman,” Icenogle says of how the students took to her

By Kristen Forbes

The Times, Feb 19, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Kristen Forbes / Times Newspapers

OUT OF AFRICA — Peace Corps volunteer Jacki Icenogle is back in Oregon after two years in Mozambique.

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While attending the University of Oregon, Jacki Icenogle talked to a friend about the Peace Corps program and decided it seemed like a natural fit.

“As a history major, you spend all this time with your nose in a book, reading about places like Mozambique. To actually go there is pretty impressive,” the native Oregonian says.

After graduating in 2006 and going through the yearlong application process, Icenogle was sent to Mozambique, where she taught eighth-grade English.

“Their ages were very varied,” Icenogle explains. “In Mozambique, it’s normal to fail. Fifty percent of the students fail on a regular basis. So, my students were anywhere from – I had an 8-year old who was so tiny. I had an 18-year-old in my class. For the most part, they were 11 to 14.”

Icenogle, who previously lived in Scappoose, Tualatin and Eugene, called Mozambique home for two years. Seeing the reed houses with thatched floor pads felt like stepping back into time, which Icenogle says was a good thing. Miles of footpaths led to “beautiful, beautiful” scenery. She enjoyed gaining access into the lives of those who lived in a town literally located on the other side of the world. People were hospitable and let her in. She mastered Portuguese, a new language for her.

But the experience wasn’t always easy.

“Working there was more challenging than I ever expected,” Icenogle says of the experience. Teaching an advanced curriculum to underprivileged students, trying to maintain her director’s policy of passing 80 percent of students when 50 percent were accustomed to failing, disciplining students on long, hot days with no lunch breaks – there was nothing easy about the task at hand.

“At first, they were terrified of this big, tall, white woman,” Icenogle says of how the students took to her. “They had a tendency to be really shy, especially the girls. I’d ask a question and they would shut their mouths and look at the floor – that was the respectful thing, to look at the floor. I would go crazy! But after a while, they got used to it.”

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