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

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Icenogle recalls sometimes feeling bored while attending “beautiful schools with science labs and art classes,” so she certainly understood how her students could get bored, too. “They don’t have books. They’re sitting on the floor with one teacher and a chalkboard,” she says.

She thought explaining her native language would be easier than it sometimes was. How do you describe a barn to someone who is unfamiliar with the word? How do you describe anything?

Icenogle lived along the National Highway, so buses were always available (there was also hitchhiking, which she explains is safer than public transportation there) to go the 30 miles north or south to find the nearest Peace Corps volunteers. Volunteers are sometimes put together, but Icenogle experienced Mozambique alone – which she preferred.

“I’ve always been independent. It was exactly what I wanted,” Icenogle says. And by no means does she liken the experience to roughing it – “Peace Corps coddles you,” she says.

Icenogle returned to Oregon in December and put visiting friends and family in Beaverton and Tualatin high on her list, before going back to Scappoose.

“It’s a small town, like my town in Africa,” she says. “You see people in the streets and you wave to them, even if you don’t know who they are.”

The next step for Icenogle is a master’s degree in education. She is currently looking at a program in rural New Mexico, which would put her on or adjacent to a Native American reservation. She has a newfound appreciation for a slower life pace, although she says she was surprised to learn one thing about herself.

“I discovered I am an American,” she says. “I left America thinking, ‘Ah, this country.’ I was fed up with everything: the politics, the lifestyle. I thought I was not meant to be born here. Then you go to another country and it’s like, ‘OK, actually I am an American.’”

Her time in Mozambique is an experience she’ll carry with her – and one that may have lasted longer, had she not been coaxed back by her home state.

“I love Oregon,” she says. “If I had been from some state like Ohio, I never would have come back – I would have just stayed there. Oregon holds a certain appeal.”

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