Monkeys and Snakes

When Rosalyn Lezberg found out she would be spending the next two years in Gabon, she knew exactly two things about the country: it lies on the equator, and it has lots of oil.

The encyclopedia she turned to next was not too helpful; printed before a slew of African nations won independence in the 60s, it still discussed Gabon as a colony. "What it did say was not very comforting," she recalls. "Something about a prevalence of snakes and large cats."

The last bit of information came from her section leader in her primate course. "It's evidently the last, great frontier for primates," says Lezberg. "He called it 'monkey heaven.'"

In July, Lezberg will join the snakes, the large cats, and the celestial monkeys as part of the Peace Corp's Teaching English as a Foreign Language Program. "English was just made a requirement in Gabon secondary schools," she says, now well-read in Peace Corps literature on the country. "I'll have three months of intensive training in Gabon, and then I guess it's likely that I'll be teaching in a secondary school."

Lezberg will bring a long career of teaching experience to her post in the Peace Corps: a summer teaching high-school students French and Mayan culture at Wellesley's "exploration' program, a stint as a Spanish instructor for teachers at Boston middle schools. and occasional substitute teaching in Spanish at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy.

"I'm interested in teaching," she says, "but I'm also interested in developing countries--in basic human rights, like the rights to food and shelter, the right to ethnicity."

After studying developing countries in her special concentration in Latin American Studies. Lezberg wrote to several agencies asking for a volunteer position dealing with international development--agencies like A.I.D., Amnesty International, C.A.R.E., and the United Nations.

"I thought a volunteer would be really welcome," she says. "But they all said I should get foreign experience first. A lot of them said I ought to try the Peace Corps.

The prospect of two years in an unfamiliar and remote country does not faze her in the least, although she cites two concerns that have plagued Peace Corps volunteer for years. "It's going to be hard to leave my boyfriend," she says. "And its very difficult for my parents that I'm going away for two years to a place that can't be reached by telephone." She shrugs and adds. "But my mother tells me I'm probably safer in Gabon than in New York City."