First steps

One of the things we talked about was the possibility of serving in the Peace Corps for a couple of years when we were ready to retire.  This idea appealed to both of us and sounded like an ideal way to begin our retirement.  Initially we had planned to retire in our early sixties.

We looked long and hard at the Peace Corps and found positives and potential drawbacks.  We could serve together and it wasn’t unusual for people with more “life experience” to serve (5% of volunteers are over 50).  After attending a couple of recruiting meetings we were more or less convinced that this was something we could do.

As we evaluated other parts of our lives including downsizing our home and simplifying  our day-to-day existence we started to think: “Why not now?”  We could sell or lease our house while serving and restart our lives when we returned.  Perhaps the perspective we would gain while serving in the Peace Corps would help us determine the next direction for us. 

The application process; what can I say?  The Peace Corps application process is designed for the recent college graduates that make up the vast majority of their applicants.  Imagine finding dates, locations and physician names for vaccinations or surgeries that occurred 35 to 40 years ago, and getting transcripts from every university where you ever took a class. Then there’s the reference letters.

Reference letters are supposed to come from recent work or volunteer supervisors, kind of difficult when you been self-employed and haven’t had one for over 25 years.  Additionally, a personal reference letter is required, that’s the easy part…just gang up on your friends and see who is willing to put in the time required to fill out the online reference form sent out from the Peace Corps and answer all their questions about you.  Our friends, well you’d have to know our friends.  They could do more damage than help all in the name of humor or, alternatively, would be very uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the type of evaluation asked for.

We fought our way through the application process completing and submitting them in less than 5 weeks.  Las, our wonderful recruiter, explained many things to us about serving together and having significant “life experience”. Turns out it is difficult for the Peace Corps to place a couple together because they must match both of your skill sets with positions that come available, simultaneously.  This can take some time.  Although we both have quite varied skill sets the programs only classifies or needs a few.  To facilitate the selection process we decided to add to our skill sets whenever possible.

But what skills do you add to a lifetime of business and non-profit experiences?

As part of our research into retiring and living abroad we looked at ways to earn money or make a living overseas.  There are more alternatives than we originally thought.  One thing that made a lot of sense for us and that fit into the Peace Corps model was obtaining a TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) certificate.  Teaching English, especially the TEFL method is utilized by the Peace Corps and is in demand worldwide.

TEFL certification courses are taught all over the world.  From a personal growth standpoint, we wanted to spend some time on the ground, living in a different culture where we didn’t know the language and would be required to learn some, and where we had never been before.  Kind of a “stick our toes in the water” approach before taking on a Peace Corps assignment.

We had always wanted to go to Spain….