Growing up in one of the historic “peace churches,” I naturally registered with Selective Service as a conscientious objector.
I grew up hearing the stories of young men who had volunteered overseas, so I very much wanted to experience something similar whether or not I was drafted.
In the fall after graduating from college, I took passage, with five other conscientious objectors on a South African freighter that sailed from New York City to South West Africa and then Cape Town, South Africa. From there we took a train north to Bulawayo, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and a car further north to Choma Zambia.
In Choma I worked for a couple months in a bookstore and then, for the rest of my two-year term, taught English and math in a government high school (Choma Secondary School). During school breaks we traveled cheaply in Zambia, Rhodesia, and Tanzania. On the way home we made a few stops in Europe.