By Kevin Coughlin
Peace Corps service has been described as “the toughest job you’ll ever love.”
The love part of that equation shines through in Spirit, an exhibition opening on Saturday, July 16, 2016, at Morristown’s 70 South Gallery.
It showcases more than 120 photos by 15 present and former Peace Corps volunteers. One of them, Sarah Sandrian, just returned in May from Zambia.
Like many of the photos in Spirit, Sandrian’s depict poor people with million-dollar smiles.
“Mostly, I photographed children. They don’t have what kids have here. But they are so full of joy.
“They’re just kids who want to live life. They don’t have much, but what they have, they really appreciate,” said Sandrian, whose family sold the camera shop that became the 70 South Gallery in 2014.
She is working on a master’s degree in public health from the University of Pittsburgh.
THE SPIRIT OF JFK
The idea for the show came from 70 South owner Ted Baldanzi, who was a high school student when President Kennedy created the Peace Corps.
Some of Baldanzi’s friends joined. Yet to his dismay, many of today’s high schoolers know nothing about the organization, said Gallery Director Ira L. Black.
Spirit is an attempt to change that, at a time when the Peace Corps is “re-branding” itself to reach younger audiences, Black said.
He hopes to interest area schools in sending students to the exhibition, which runs through September 2016. Then, 70 South envisions sending the show to galleries and public buildings across the country.
Some 100 past and present Peace Corps volunteers submitted photos to 70 South Curator Gina Cerbone.
Hoyt Smith served in Ethiopia in 1962. Bill Owens started in Jamaica in 1964.
Other volunteers represented in the show served in Afghanistan, Benin, Chile, Gambia, Guinea, Honduras, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda.
GREEN MAMBAS AND CELINE DION
Sandrian, 27, spent nearly two years establishing a clinic in Zambia’s small southern village of Muzoka, where she lived in a two-room hut with no electricity or running water.
Her visitors included a deadly green mamba snake. Malaria and Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic flatworms in contaminated water, were constant concerns.
Few Zambians in rural areas have Internet service or even television. For entertainment, they play soccer, enjoy communal meals, and listen to the radio. (Covers of Celine Dion and Shania Twain songs are popular, Sandrian said.)
“They love dancing,” she added, her face lighting up at the memory.
Zambia is a nation of 73 tribes, Sandrian noted, and while English is the official language, many villagers speak in the native tongue, Tonga.
Some of her favorite moments, and keenest insights, came from attempts to communicate non-verbally, via observation, gestures and laughter, without any modern technology getting in the way.
“Wherever you go, whoever you meet, people are people. Every person has their own quirks and eccentricities…their own set of problems,” she said. “But at the end of the day, you will find a way to relate to each other.”
Spirit, a free exhibition of photos by past and present Peace Corps volunteers, opens at 10 am on Saturday, July 16, 2016, at the 70 South Gallery in Morristown. Volunteers will perform story slams at 1 pm and 4 pm. At 5 pm, dignitaries will speak about the organization.
