Young Roseville Woman Heads to West Africa With the Peace Corps

While there are many rights of passage to which young adults aspire, Roseville resident Maeghan Cobbin had just one primary goal – to join the Peace Corps.

The 21-year-old Loyola Marymount graduate achieved her dream this week as she begins a 27-month odyssey that will take her half a world away.

After a staging period in Philadelphia, she will wing her way to Benin, West Africa, where she will serve as an English teacher in a country that speaks a variety of native languages, as well as French.

Cobbin said she is excited for the challenges ahead.

“I am most excited about immersing myself in a completely different culture, and know this will be an experience of a lifetime,” Cobbin said.  “It will be fascinating and humbling to live in a new culture, learn new traditions, and observe new social phenomena.”

Cobbin is brushing up on her French, but said her host village may speak in a native tongue only, rather than the national language.

“I might find myself struggling to learn one of the many tribal languages of Benin,” she said.

But cultural experience is what she’s after.

“Benin is the birthplace of Voodoo, and the area is known historically for its fierce women warriors, who were known as the Amazons of Black Sparta,” Cobbin said. "Benin is what’s left of the Dahomey Kingdom, which gained fame and fortune due to the slave trade.”

Cobbin will train with a host family that will ease her through any culture shock, then will move to another host family, or an apartment where she will begin her job working with children.

Schools in Africa, according to Cobbin, are quite different than in the States. 

“Class sizes can be huge.  I’ve heard that some volunteers have classes of 90 or more students,” she said.  “I won’t have the materials that we take for granted in the States.”

Materials like notebooks, textbooks, white boards, and essential supplies are scarce in Benin, a country that Cobbin said is the size of Pennsylvania, and is located near Togo, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria.

“It’s ultimately a teacher in front of 50 or more students lecturing, hoping that pupils can absorb what they are listening to,” she said.

Cobbin’s interest in the Peace Corps stemmed from a seminar she attended at college, and she applied immediately after learning about the program.

“I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study in graduate school, and figured I would take a year off," she said. "Once I was accepted in to the program, I decided that it would be a great opportunity and one that I would regret passing up."

Cobbin said she is most excited to help promote cross-cultural relations and help those who don’t have the resources to help themselves.  She hopes to bring back a more enlightened view of the Beninese people as well as Third World countries.

“I can study these countries all I want, but books can’t show you the reality of these people’s lives,” Cobbin said.

Cobbin’s parents, Cheryl and Simon Cobbin, of Roseville, said they are happy with their daughter’s choice, though Cheryl admits to being a worried mom.

“I have mixed feelings, as a parent, as she is my first born. But we are so proud of her for taking this on, and it’s a tremendous opportunity for her, and a mature decision," Cheryl Cobbin said. "She’s going to come home a totally different person – in a good way."

The Peace Corps currently has 8,655 volunteers serving in 77 countries.