Without worries or despair, Susan Engelke is proud to call herself homeless at 27. She has voluntarily sold many of her personal belongings, donated most of her clothing to charity, and now spends her nights sleeping on the couches of family and friends.

All this, she admits, for nearly two million people she has yet to meet.

Beginning in May as a new volunteer for the Peace Corps, Engelke will commit two years atop the highest mountains of South Africa, in a region overcome with poverty and agricultural defeat, in hopes of answering the desperate cries for help from the Kingdom of Lesotho.

“I went back and forth on it for a while,” Engelke said of her decision to volunteer. “But I know it’s the best way for me to really live and experience something different.”

Prior to graduating in December from Sacramento State with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, Engelke said she learned of the Peace Corps through a chance meeting with a friend more than two years ago.

In October, while preparing to graduate, Engelke said she checked the Peace Corps Web site, www.peacecorps.gov, and was attracted to the bright, flashing banner that specifically urged December graduates to apply.

Now accepted, Engelke has the task of sharing her knowledge of improving environmental conditions with the people of Lesotho.

Although the Peace Corps, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, “hasn’t changed much in terms of its grassroots development, the organization has,” said John Clausen,

Regional Recruiter for Northern California. As each host country must request the service of volunteers, one of the major changes in the Peace Corps of today is that requests for certain types of volunteers have been modified over the years, with a growing emphasis on technology and computers.

“Back in the ’60s, we didn’t have an information technology sector like we do now,” Clausen said. “The teaching of English, which has become so global, has increased.”

James Craft, a student at Sac State, is still readjusting to life back home after returning in January from his volunteer assignment as an English teacher in Romania.

“When you get back there’s a honeymoon stage,” explained Craft, 27.

For Craft, his “honeymoon” was a combination of Mexican food and movies.

“It’s difficult to adapt back,” admitted Craft, who added that in the second stage of readjustment “you start to miss your experiences abroad almost instantly.”

When he applied in April of 1997, while a student at the University of Notre Dame, Craft said his “real attraction to Europe” was one of the main reasons that drove him to apply.

“I wanted to leave my country and learn a new language,” Craft said, “and experience a new culture, a new people.”

Unlike Engelke, who seeks “to get some experience in the world” and expand on her limited travel background, Craft is no stranger to Europe. During his junior year at Notre Dame, he studied French abroad in Angers, France, before returning back to Indiana to obtain his degree in liberal studies.

“Studying abroad earlier gave me a taste of it,” said Craft of adapting to a new culture. “I wanted more?to an extreme level. That?s what really motivated me.”

Shortly after he interviewed with the Peace Corps in Chicago, Craft was offered an assignment in Sri Lanka that required him to leave in September, but he deferred, stating it was too soon.

“In general, volunteers don’t choose,” said Dennis McMahon, a public affairs specialist with the Peace Corps, “but there?s no forcing. Nobody benefits by obligating someone like that.”

In June of 1998, Craft had accepted his assignment and arrived in Pitesti, Romania, with 70 other Peace Corps volunteers.

For the first three months of their assignment, Craft and the other volunteers began living with host families and began a rigorous pre-service training that involved studying the language as well as the services they would perform in the field.

“That really helped us to slowly integrate into the country,” Craft said. “You had this whole support network around you of administration and other volunteers. You had this kind of security net.”

During his first months in Romania the adjustment was difficult, Craft said.”It?s this really intense experience and the way to adapt is to socialize. There was a lot of social drinking those first few months.”

At the end of his pre-service training, Craft was then sent to Beclean, a small town in northern Romania that is approximately four and a half hours by train to the Hungarian border.

“I asked Romanians where Beclean is, and they had no idea,” said Craft, who finally found a woman who described it as a “very beautiful small town.”

Upon arrival, Craft learned that the town was indeed small, with a population of 12,000. Within Beclean he found the physical reminders of a beautiful country in the “old, preserved traditions such as dances, foods, and language” as well as the rolling green countryside that surrounded him.

Craft lived alone in a modest apartment near the high school where he taught conversational English.

“I became a bit of a sensation,” said Craft, who was known as “The American” by the Romanian townspeople. “I was the center of attention.”

After receiving a few marriage proposals, said Craft, it became clear that Romanians are “a great example of people who want to go somewhere desperately, like America, but can?t do it.”

Craft?s wages were below American standards, at $186 a month, but made for a comfortable lifestyle in Romania, where the average stipend is $70 per month.

With all living expenses paid for, Craft?s monthly wages allowed for certain luxuries.”I missed Mexican food intensely,” said Craft, who made fresh tortillas from scratch to satisfy his craving. “And I know a girl who made her own catsup.”

During his last year in Romania, said Craft, he began to play his own music on an acoustic guitar he purchased in Beclean for $15. After auditioning, he began to perform live for the Romanians in the bars of larger cities as a hobby that earned him “lots of free drinks, food and a good amount of conversation.”

By the end of his volunteer service, however, Craft wasn?t ready to leave because he had “truly gotten used to the place.”

“It was too soon,” said Craft, who extended his stay by seven months. “You wanted to go on your own time.”

Now home in Sacramento, taking classes at Sac State and enjoying his time with his family and a readjustment allowance of $6000, Craft realizes that his approach to the Peace Corps was different than most student perspectives.

“A lot of people come into the Peace Corps as idealists,” said Craft. “I didn’t come with too many preconceptions?because what you expect is never what happens.”