Engineer, 66, Will Join Peace Corps
Volunteering is his hobby, said Ashraf “John” Khan, and he will have a major chance to indulge in it Aug. 10.
That is when Khan, a 66-year-old retired Defense Department engineer, will begin his two-year stint with the Peace Corps in the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan.
While in Uzbekistan, which is south of Russia and north of Iran, Khan will teach basic business and economics.
As a senior volunteer for the Peace Corps, Khan will become a mentor in a country where half the people are younger than 19.
The average age for a Peace Corps volunteer is 29, said Dede Dunevant, a Peace Corps spokeswoman. Only 7% of its volunteers are older than 50. The oldest volunteers are 79 and are serving in Jamaica and China, Dunevant said.
Khan’s wife, Renate, and his two sons, David, 37, and Rodney, 34, support his decision to go but consider him brave to venture 8,000 miles to volunteer, he said.
Khan will immerse himself in the Uzbek culture. He will draw a teacher’s salary. When he returns, he will have $6,075 from the Peace Corps waiting for him as a means to help him readjust to American life.
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