Gueydan woman gets Peace Corp assignment at last

The Peace Corps and Mary Andrus-Overley have both been around awhile. At last, they meet.
“And so, off I go on the most profound journey of my life. I will take each of you with me in my heart and look forward to seeing you again in 2016,” so said Andrus-Overley, the valedictorian of the Gueydan High School graduating class of 1961, as she prepared last week to depart for South Africa.
Fulfilling a decades-long dream, Overley, 70, finally received the letter of acceptance, several years after starting the first steps of joining the Peace Corps.
Her assignment is with the Community HIV/Aids Outreach Program in South Africa, where she will provide some mix of preventive life skills developments services for youth and young adults.
She will be living in a rural village with a host family for three months while completing intensive language, cultural, technical, and safety training.
After the formal swear in-in she will receive her final site assignment- most likely in a rural village or small town for two years of service, returning to the United States in May 2016.
Andrus-Overly said she has dreamed of health care work in African since before the Peace Corps was created.
She is especially humbled and honored to be posted to South Africa, and expects this to be the most challenging and rewarding of the many work opportunities that has comprised her long and varied social work career and sees it as a fitting capstone to her professional career.