Contaminated Water in Kazakhstan Pushes David Hunter into Public Health

David Hunter, public health advisor, (LTJG, USPHS) with the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, assists with the development of training and education activities for CDC staff and external partners that include Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, state and local health departments, and airlines. He’s been with CDC for over a year. He served in the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan from 1999-2001. "I graduated college unsure of what I wanted to do, but eager to get out and get my hands dirty working somewhere far away. I wanted to tackle the challenge of working in a foreign language within a different culture. I figured Peace Corps would give me the satisfaction of contributing to a foreign community, as well as the adventure of international travel and discovery."

So he taught English as a second language for his primary assignment. Hunter also developed and directed after school programs which included an environmental awareness group and a cinematography group. "The film club wrote, directed and edited short films in English. The project was designed to provide the participants (high school students) progressively more control over the production of the films."

Hunter lived in a small village with heavily contaminated water. "As I taught English to middle and high school students, half the class would be out sick and I began to think that the health of the community was a much larger and more important concern. At the same time, I met a USAID employee (also a former PCV) who was working on HIV/AIDS issues and I found that we shared the same values of public service and commitment to public welfare and community wellbeing. The combination of these two factors pushed me toward a career in public health."

There is nothing more valuable than working within a society that thinks and operates in a completely different way, Hunter explains. "It´s helpful when working among others with perceptions, understandings, and ways of thinking that are different from my own. The bottom line, in my opinion, to successfully work in a different cultural setting is to be flexible and patient."

Hunter says, "Unfortunately, I´m losing my Russian language skills each day." But of his Peace Corps experience he says, "I´d do it again in an instant."