Free Valley of Thracians by Ellis Shuman

contrary to public opinion, it was not actually President John F.
Kennedy who had first proposed an American government-led corps of volunteers
serving around the world.
    “It was Hubert Humphrey, then a
democratic senator from Minnesota, who in 1957 first introduced to Congress a
bill that would establish an organization of students volunteering overseas.
Even so, Humphrey didn’t fully support his own initiative, citing in his
autobiography that traditional diplomats hesitated at the thought of sending
thousands of young Americans to different locations across their world. Many
senators, including liberal ones, thought it was a silly and an unworkable
idea, Humphrey wrote.
    “During the 1960 presidential campaign,
then-Senator Kennedy, speaking at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor,
challenged the students to give two years of their lives to help people in
developing countries. Later Kennedy would dub his proposed new organization as
the Peace Corps. His opponent, Vice President Richard Nixon, reportedly said in
response that the Corps would serve as nothing more than a
government-sanctioned haven for draft dodgers.
    “And of course, we all know of Kennedy’s
famous inaugural speech, when he stated in clear reference to his proposal,
‘Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your
country.’
    “In March 1961, Kennedy signed the
executive order that formally established the United States Peace Corps, and he
appointed his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, to be the program’s first
director.
    “Since that time…,” Peters said,
preparing to continue relating the organization’s history, but Simon
interrupted.
      “Can you please give me details of what my
grandson did here in Bulgaria? Where he volunteered? Whom he
helped?”
    Peters seemed a bit disturbed with the
interruption. “As I told you when you first contacted me by email, Professor,
your grandson served in the Peace Corps three years ago. That was before my own
arrival in Bulgaria, so I never had the opportunity to meet Scott. What I can
see in our records is that he arrived in Bulgaria in 2006 as part of group B19.
That name is due to the fact that it was the nineteenth group of Peace Corps
volunteers to serve in Bulgaria. I’m sorry, Professor, but I can’t tell you
anything else that you don’t already know about his service in the country.”
    Simon was disappointed. He had expected
someone from the current Peace Corps staff to have personally known Scott from
his time in the country. “What about the other volunteers? Maybe someone who
knew Scott from that time is still working in Bulgaria?” he asked. “Is there
someone I can see to get more information about Scott, his activities and
travels during his volunteering stint?”
    “You could possibly talk to his host
family.”
    The host family. The mention of that element of the training program shook a memory in Simon’s
mind. What was it? Host family . There was
something significant with this, of that he was convinced.
    “Just a few days after their arrival in
Bulgaria, trainees are assigned a local host family and go to live with them,
to become fully immersed in Bulgarian culture,” Peters explained. “Trainees eat
meals with their families, interacting with them as much as possible. The
families are encouraged to reinforce the study of Bulgarian by speaking with
the trainees in that language at home. I can assure you that all our host
families are carefully selected and trained specially for this role. We inspect
their houses in advance to make sure they have a private room for the trainee
and that they are located within a short distance of where we conduct our
training sessions.”
    “Yes, I would like to meet them, Scott’s
host family. That would be very helpful, indeed. Do they live here in Vratsa?”
    “They live in Montana,” Peters replied,
looking up from the file on her desk.
    “Montana!” The knowledge that Scott’s
host family was