March 25, 2005

The Villages

Peace Corps volunteers strike common chord

By Tom Harney
Special to the Times

Gertrude “Trudi” Odbert, a Villages resident since 1995, and Dr. Greg Payne, guest speaker for the Sirs 114 luncheon at the Clubhouse at the Villages on Tuesday, March 1, enjoyed comparing experiences they had as volunteers in the Peace Corps. The two met after the Sirs Luncheon, when Payne mentioned that he had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Venezuela.

Peace Corps veterans Greg Payne and Trudi Obert strike a common chord at the monthly “Sirs” luncheon at The Villages.

Both agreed that serving in the Peace Corps had been a memorable experience.

Odbert signed on as a Peace Corps volunteer at age 75. She’d spent her adult life as a United States Navy wife for 30 years. Her academic career includes a bachelor’s degree from San Jose State University with a major in Spanish and minor in English and a master’s degree in education with a teaching credential from Stanford University.

She later retired from a 13-year teaching career at Gunn High School in the Palo Alto Unified School District where she taught English and Spanish and headed the English as a Second Language Department for the district.

Payne served in the Peace Corps from 1972 to 1974 and taught physical education teaching methods to elementary school teachers in Barinas, Venezuela.

“It was a great, great experience,” said Payne. It was certainly one of the highlights of my life. As I’ve always said, I think Peace Corps volunteers end up being the ultimate recipient of a good experience.”

An excellent speaker in the field of kinesiology—the science dealing with the interrelationship of the physiological processes and anatomy of the human body with respect to movement—the dynamic professor’s luncheon topic was “Busting the Myths of Physical Activity and Aging.” Payne is now the chair of the Human Performance Department at San Jose State University.

Odbert’s time with the Peace Corps came much later. From 1993 to 1995, she used the English teaching skills she developed at Gunn High School to teach classes at Szprem University in Hungary.

She taught three types of students. They included students in training to teach English, teachers who were converting from teaching Russian to teaching English and engineers who were learning English.

“I have a good feeling about having been able to contribute to another country’s efforts to establish itself after having been occupied by another foreign country. It helps one feel very patriotic,” said Odbert—the mother of four adult children, 10 grandchildren and 13 grandchildren—about her experience in the Peace Corps.