Living in a yurt and eating a diet of beets, potatoes, flat bread and horse sausage might not sound like a lot of fun to most Americans, but that is what 2003 West Salem High School graduate Merri Stowers will soon be heading off to as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Stowers, who recently spent two days as a guest presenter at West Salem High School, leaves March 27 to begin her 27-month tour of duty in the country of Kyrzygstan in central Asia.

Stowers and her fellow recruits will have three days of training in a U.S. city before they depart for their overseas missions. “Most likely mine will be in Philly,” Stowers said. “After the weekend we head to Kyrgyzstan for our pre-service training in-country. Here we will do hundreds of hours of language training, learning about the culture and job training — for me teaching.

The intensive training goes on six full days a week for three months. “During this time we will each live with a local family to help develop our language skills and understanding of the culture,” Stowers said.

Peace Corps volunteers are encouraged to take on secondary projects, and many teachers like Stowers will teach community English lessons, set up summer camps and debate teams and more, she said.

Stowers will live in a yurt, a large round tent with a wooden frame covered in felt made from the wool of sheep many natives herd. Instead of central heat, Stowers said, most people use simple stoves and fires to heat their homes, which means living in a yurt could be challenging because the winter temperatures typically range between 0 and 20 degrees in the part of Kyrgyzstan where she will be staying.

Because of its location on the old “Silk Road” — trail for commerce between the East and the West before sea routes were discovered, Stowers explained that many different cultures converged there, which has influenced them in many ways. They have imported popular foods like naan bread (flat Indian bread) from India, tea from East Asia and the national drink of fermented mare’s milk. Even the Kyrgyz language is an import, very closely related to Turkish.

Stowers further described Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, as a mountainous country in central Asia featuring the Tian Shan and Pamir Alay mountain ranges.

“It is about the size of Minnesota with a population of nearly 5 million,” Stowers said. “It is about the same latitude as Illinois and the climate varies depending on altitude and latitude. Parts of the southwest are sub-tropical, but most of the country has a climate more similar to ours in Wisconsin. Officially they speak Russian and Kyrgyz, though most people in the villages speak only Kyrgyz.”

By comparison, even the ruggedness of the places she has visited in Africa and South America will seem Westernized next to the remote mountain villages of Kyrgyzstan. “A large percentage of the population is still nomadic, following their sheep and goats through the mountains, living in yurts,” she said.

Stowers said she hopes her presentations to West Salem students will inspire them to some day explore for themselves the wide world and varied cultures that lie beyond their hometown. Travel is a fantastic opportunity to learn about other cultures, as well as a great adventure, she said. And that wouldn’t necessarily mean having to commit to the length of service required by the Peace Corps.

She began her presentation by describing the study abroad program in which she enrolled while a student at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. During that year, Stowers lived in an Ecuadoran village where she did an ethnographic field study, learning the techniques they use and understanding the importance of corn (their main staple) in their culture.

She worked directly in the fields as part of a “minga,” or work crew, which did everything from harvesting crops to the making of corn tortillas.

After graduation, Stowers returned to South America to continue her travels. She taught English to the citizens of Cuzco, Peru, and also traveled through Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, where she found the city of La Paz to be a “giant melting pot of people.”

While there she enjoyed learning the real “tango,” South American-style.

When she finished her stay in South America, she discovered her urge to travel was not yet sated. Deciding to tour Europe and Africa next, Stowers came home just long enough to sell her car and some other belongings to make her next adventure possible. Her European highlight was participating in the running of the bulls in Portugal, which she described as one of her favorite places, not only because it had great food and reminded her of South America, but also because “the people were wonderful.”

In Africa, Stowers spent most of her time working in the countries of Kenya and Uganda. She described rugged travel conditions that often caused abrupt stops, one time as long as five hours when her group’s truck was mired in mud.

While in Africa, Stowers’ daredevil spirit led her to try whitewater rafting at the head of the Nile River, camping outside throughout her entire travel, rappelling, bungee jumping and rock climbing. Stowers’ trip came to an abrupt end, however, when she broke her ankle in Spitzkoppe, Namibia, and had to fly back home after some rudimentary surgery overseas.

An anthropology major in college, Stowers hopes to head to graduate school when her time with the Peace Corps is up. In the meantime, she is just eager to get on with her latest adventure.

Her advice to her young audience: “Study abroad if the opportunity comes your way. Travel when you’re young. If the opportunity comes, take it.”