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Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Katie and John Zawacki recently returned to their home in Roanoke after spending two years and three months with the Peace Corps in St. Lucia, a small island in the Eastern Caribbean.

At 69 and 59 years old respectively, John and Katie Zawacki should have been in retirement bliss.

They had been married 37 years, raised five children and lived in the same split-level home for three decades.

So when the Roanoke couple decided to join the Peace Corps, their daughter couldn't believe it.

"I thought they were crazy," Larisa Zawacki said. "My parents are hippies, and this was proof."

The Zawackis returned in late May from a two-year, three-month stint in St. Lucia, a tiny Eastern Caribbean island about 3¹₂ times the size of Washington, D.C., where they worked for the Peace Corps, a federal agency designed to promote world peace in developing countries.

Having lived in South Africa, Holland, Spain and France during the early years of their marriage, the Zawackis were ready to experience another country.

And the Eastern Caribbean was their first choice.

"We had raised our children -- they were all gone," John Zawacki, now 71, said. "We had this big house, and we wanted to sell it anyway."

After training for a month in the nearby island of Dominica, the couple lived with two St. Lucian families in "home stays." Thereafter, they made their permanent home on the second floor of a St. Lucian cottage in the city of Vieux Fort.

Life in the Eastern Caribbean was certainly different from Roanoke, John Zawacki said.

Besides walking about three miles each day to buy groceries for dinner, the couple shopped for vegetables at an old tire store and purchased four loaves of bread for one East Caribbean dollar, or 37 American cents, from the neighborhood baker.

Other times, the Zawackis enjoyed pumpkin ravioli from an Italian pasta shop down the street from their cottage.

The Peace Corps pairs its volunteers with community partners in the host country. Katie Zawacki, a retired prevention specialist at Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare, was matched up with a local secondary school counselor.

Together, they introduced "Character Counts," a program based on six pillars of character -- trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship -- to the district's 13 schools.

Katie Zawacki, now 62, also helped develop a support group for young mothers, as well as girl power groups for local fourth- and fifth-graders.

"I felt like I did less there than I did here in my 40-hour-a-week job," she said. "But we saw results and growth in the young people."

"We saw the fruit of what we did right in front of our eyes," she added, her hand resting on her face. "It was one of the most gratifying experiences I've ever had."

John Zawacki, who worked for General Electric for 34 years prior to joining the Peace Corps, spent most of his time with teenagers who attended a local vocational school.

From beekeeping projects to electricity classes, he did it all.

"And the only experience I had with bees was keeping them off of me," he said jokingly.

Over a three-week period, John Zawacki taught a group of about 10 teens how to wire a small cottage. They made only one tiny mistake, he said, his eyes beaming with pride.

He also taught carpentry classes in which students built small stools and picture frames for the local hospital.

Still, the couple had slightly different views on returning to Roanoke.

John Zawacki said being in a developing country is interesting at first, but he would not do it again.

"I enjoyed the challenge of living in another country, but I've been there and done that," he said, his contagious laugh echoing throughout the room.

Katie Zawacki disagreed.

"I'm kind of grieving," she said. "It's a shocking thing, looking around and seeing how much people don't appreciate what they have here."

Since returning home, the couple have moved into a Southwest Roanoke apartment. Katie Zawacki is looking for employment, and her husband will finally enjoy being retired.

Despite not having the conveniences of home, the Zawackis said their time in the Peace Corps was extremely rewarding.

"The most wonderful thing was to be accepted in the lives of the people, not as just Peace Corps volunteers or white Americans, just people," Katie Zawacki said.