Atkinson residents heads to Lesotho today

From the Eagle Tribune;

Atkinson residents heads to Lesotho today Woman starts 2-year Peace Corps stint in South Africa today
By Meghan Carey
mcarey@eagletribune.com

ATKINSON — Nicole Evans is about to call a round mud hut with a thatched roof home.

The Atkinson resident leaves today for Lesotho, a small South African country where she'll serve in the Peace Corps for two years. She applied for the program a year ago, but found out just six weeks ago that she'd been placed.

Evans, 25, said she's had the Peace Corps on her mind since she attended Central Catholic High School. Max Shaw, her art teacher there, shared many stories with her about her own time serving in Bolivia in the 1990s.

Evans wanted to go to Asia, but was offered the South Pacific or Africa.

"I just figured, when else would I get to go to Africa?" she said.

But when she started researching Lesotho, she soon found that the country is mountainous and has four seasons. That's sure to make an avid hiker from New Hampshire feel a little more at home.

Evans went to Plymouth State College, where she graduated with a degree in childhood studies and a minor in art. She's worked as an at-risk teacher at Timberlane Regional Middle School and a paraprofessional at Epping Middle School since graduating in 2006. She's certified to teach elementary and middle school, but said she purposefully didn't do so after college.

"I knew in my head I was leaving," she said. "And I knew if I took a classroom job, I'd get stuck."

In Lesotho, Evans will use her education and experience to train teachers and teach HIV/AIDS awareness.

More than 2,077 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Lesotho since the program was established in 1967, according to spokesperson Asha Michener. Many of those volunteers work through the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program to address HIV/AIDS issues, Michener said.

Evans' mother, Lori Silva, is proud, but said she doesn't want her daughter to leave.

Vance Evans, her dad, is planning a trip to visit her next fall. And, in the meantime, Evans has set up a blog so she can share what's going on with friends and family at home.

Of course, she'll have to travel into the city to an Internet cafe to blog, since she won't be guaranteed hot water or electricity in her hut.

"I'm not getting my hopes up about having much," Evans said.

There are 23 other Americans in her group, and Evans said she's been in touch with many of them over the Internet. They'll train together for three months, then each separate into his or her own two-year assignment.

"They are freaking out, nervous, excited, too," Evans said. "So it's a big help to know that."

This trip won't be the first time Nicole has been to a Third World country. She has one other friend from high school who is serving in the South Pacific, and Evans visited that friend last year.

But it will be the first time she's lived outside New Hampshire.