Darnell and Sarah Morris-Compton spent the majority of their first three years of marriage without electricity or indoor plumbing.
The Ball State graduates enrolled as volunteers in the U.S. Peace Corps and left one month after they wed. This was definitely not a honeymoon, he said. The couple began the extensive application process a year and a half prior to their departure.
"I wanted to be challenged in a way that I could not be in U.S.," Sarah Morris-Compton said. "I wanted to be pushed by helping people and learning another language and living with another culture."
She graduated with a degree social work, and he graduated with a degree in journalism.
Sarah Morris-Compton said she wanted to volunteer since junior high school when she saw an advertisement on television, and it just stuck with her.
Darnell Morris-Compton said he thought volunteers consisted of doctors and nurses, not journalists. After deciding to volunteer together, they began to figure out what was the best thing to do in terms of working there, he said.
"The thing about the Peace Corps is that you don't live the life of the rich or fancy person, you live the life on par with the locals," he said.
They were given different choices of countries to work with, but the choice would change because of issues such as political unrest, he said. They finally ended up in Turkmenistan, a primarily Muslim country. The Peace Corps gave them information about what to bring, and they researched the culture online. They knew it would be hard work, but they did not have any preconceived notions.
"It's nothing like you expect," he said. "Whatever expectation you have, the experience will be different from it."
They were the ninth group of volunteers to arrive in Turkmenistan, a place in which he described as a desert country with scorching sun and little vegetation. While working as health volunteers, they learned Turkmen and a bit of Russian. Sarah Morris-Compton worked in a clinic dealing with women's health issues, while he helped students by explaining health problems and how to prevent infections.
"I got more out of it than I thought I would," he said. "It wasn't just a big dramatic changed, I took notice of the small changes that affected my life."
Darnell said they spent three months of training in the country and were supposed to have two years of service at the site. They did not serve a full term because of Sept. 11. This was a major concern for the couple because the Turkmenistan borders Afghanistan. He said they stayed in clusters for about two weeks receiving updates until they were finally told to leave. He said five countries with volunteers in that region were evacuated.
"After hearing what happened when the planes attacked, we were worried about putting more Americans on a plane, but they made sure every precaution was taken, " Darnell Morris-Compton said.
After leaving, they returned to Fort Wayne only to leave six months later to volunteer in Kenya, a definite change from the desert climate of Turkmenistan. Their volunteering focused on HIV and AIDS education in schools by teaching young people about prevention. Sarah worked with widows who were HIV-positive by teaching them how to care for themselves and staying healthy. In Kenya, he made a juice for patients who were too weak from the disease to eat solid food.
He said the experience is not the same as a tourist experience. Tourism allows the visitor to see all of the beautiful places and eat the best of foods. He said it turned his world upside down even with daily experiences. Although in America he would be considered African-American, the people of Kenya called him a "mzungu" or a white person because he is from America.
"Little things as well as monumental cultural differences, help to highlight my own cultural upbringing," he said.
Her advice for interested students is to not have any expectations of what it will be like.
"The world is a lot less black and white, things are a lot more gray," she said. "You get a different set of values, the world is a lot more complex to me now."
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