Article updated: 3/3/2011 11:00 AM

Suburban Peace Corp volunteers reunite at Harper

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Rich Johnson, with one of his host family's kids in Western Africa.

Courtesy Rich Johnson

Rich Johnson, sometime between 1984 and 1986, in the West African courtyard where he stayed. "I lived with a family that had two wives and five kids between them," he related.

Courtesy Rich Johnson

Vern Risty, left, uses a big knife to cut a wooden pole as he helps a Bolivian farmer build a chicken coop.

Courtesy Vern Risty

Vern Risty, right, and a Bolivian farmer survey the progress of the farmer's chicken flock.

Courtesy Vern Risty

Kristie Smith with a student at a teaching seminar in Chengdu.

Courtesy Kristie Smith

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Kristie Smith of Palatine, with the Peace Corps in China.

Courtesy Kristie Smith

Former Peace Corps volunteer Richard Johnson with his students at Harper College in Palatine.

Bill Zars | Staff Photographer

Rob Alexander, right, with a local community leader in Colombia.

Courtesy Rob Alexander

About this Article

The world seems like a very small place. But in the 1960s, when Vern Risty took a Peace Corps assignment to Bolivia and Rob Alexander went to Colombia, their travels were considered exotic.Twenty years later, when Rich Johnson was teaching English in West Africa, he lived in a cinder block structure with a tin roof and no electricity or running water.