Family Afar

Earlier this year, Wendy Steiger and her mother, Muriel, were in Guatemala riding one of the “chicken buses,” their name for the noisy motor coaches so crammed with children, adults and flapping fowl there is barely room to stand.

Muriel fondly recalls how her daughter turned to her during the ride and shouted above the din, “You know, you’re the only person I could do this with.”

The Ventura daughter and mother, ages 42 and 74, always were close. But their common experiences in the Peace Corps--although their stints came 17 years apart--strengthened their bond. In May, when Muriel visited Wendy in Guatemala and rode the “chicken buses,” the relationship seemed to come full circle.

“Her having gone through it, I know she knows everything I’m feeling,” Wendy said. “When I’m frustrated or I ask myself why I’m doing it, she’s been there. I have way more respect for her.”

In the past it was unusual for two generations of a family to have served in the Peace Corps, said Dana Topousis, a spokeswoman in Washington. “But it’s becoming more common, with the baby boomers having Generation X kids.”

Muriel and her daughter arrived separately at their decisions to join the corps, but their experiences intersect on many levels, as mothers’ and daughters’ lives so often do.

Muriel had wanted to join since 1961, when President Kennedy inspired thousands of young Americans with the creation of the program. But she said her husband, a clothing manufacturer who had provided a good life for his family on Long Island, had no interest in giving it up to live in the Third World.

“My husband said, ‘If you go, you’ll go alone. It’s not for me.’ ”

After he died in 1975, Muriel once again thought of joining the Peace Corps. “It was the sense of adventure,” she said. “It was always in the back of my mind.”

Despite her efforts, it would be several years before Muriel was placed.

In the meantime, Wendy inherited the urge to join the corps. A nursing student just shy of her certification, Wendy applied to the Peace Corps in 1979. She was accepted and offered a placement in Guatemala. But she couldn’t go because she didn’t receive her nursing license in time.

She began a career as a nurse’s midwife and eventually moved to Ventura. She, like her mother, would put the adventure on hold for years.

Muriel finally followed through on her dream and joined the corps in 1981. She was sent to Belize, where she cared for Salvadoran refugees for two years. Upon her return, she moved to Ventura to be near her daughter.

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In 1997, Wendy was driven to action, much as her mother had been years before. “I thought, ‘I want a change. I want to see the world while I do something for somebody,’ ” she said in a telephone interview.

Last September, the Peace Corps sent her to Guatemala, which borders Belize.

Wendy is now teaching agricultural skills and nutrition to many of the 20,000 residents of San Juan Comalapa, which sits 6,890 feet above sea level.

Before nursing school, Wendy earned a degree in agronomy, which has come in handy as she teaches residents how to minimize soil erosion and cut down on pesticide use. She plants carrots, beets and greens to provide vitamins that can combat the anemia that many residents develop on a diet of tortillas and beans.

In San Juan Comalapa, Wendy said, some villagers speak Spanish but most speak Cakchiquel, one of 68 Mayan dialects.

“My Spanish is excellent. My Mayan they’re laughing at,” she said. “But I don’t mind because these people don’t have much to laugh about, so I like to hear them laugh even if I’m the brunt of it.”

Since her placement, Wendy and her mother have written often and mailed one another audiotape letters as well.

“We were always close,” Wendy said, “but it’s a whole new dynamic now.”

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Editorial librarian John Jackson contributed to this report.