SPECIAL TO THE PVT The landscape around Torstenson's base would seem strikingly familiar to hikers in Nevada. SPECIAL TO THE PVT Among the gear most teachers here don't lug around is the AK-type assault rifle assigned to the Beatty High grad. Advertisement

David and Mary Torstenson recently welcomed their son David home from Iraq. But unlike most young Americans who go to that country these days, the younger Torstenson's mission was educational rather than military.

The Beatty High School and University of Southern California graduate was living in New York City when he saw an ad in a magazine seeking volunteers to "help rebuild Iraq one child at a time."

Torstenson says he had been involved in a church outreach program, working with Muslims in New York, and wanted more cross cultural experience.

"I'd been thinking for a while of doing something like the Peace Corps ... humanitarian relief work of some sort," he said.

Then he saw that ad. "It immediately grabbed me. It was very timely." He said he couldn't think of any place that needed assistance more than Iraq.

Torstenson contacted Servant Group International, the Christian evangelical organization that placed the ad, and told them he'd like to volunteer. He said that his parents, despite their nervousness, were very supportive.

After three weeks of training in Nashville, Tenn., Torstenson was sent to the school in the northern, Kurdish part of Iraq for a week last November to allow him to assess circumstances firsthand.

"The Iraqi style of education was basically all memorization," he says, and the original concept was to mentor Iraqi teachers and teach them newer methods. But the organization was in the process of changing its approach and sending volunteers to work as teachers in the classroom. Torstenson and another volunteer were the first to go in the role of teachers.

He returned to Iraq in January and taught for a semester, finishing in late June. The school, where classes are taught in English, uses what he called a classical curriculum. His main assignment was to teach seventh- and eighth-grade science, but he also taught some math and music.

Although the area was relatively peaceful, and the children told him that the American media's violent image of Iraq was not true of their home area, Torstenson was issued an AK-47 assault rifle to carry for protection whenever he traveled from city to city.

He said that wherever he went there were signs scrawled on walls saying things like "We love America," and "Thank you, Bush."

The people are so grateful to Americans that they were continually trying to give him gifts and asking him to personally thank President Bush for getting rid of Saddam. "They're more pro-American than we are," he observed.

He'd always heard from his teacher father how gratifying teaching was as a profession, and now he says that his best memories of Iraq are his times in the classroom with his students.

One challenge was being put in charge of the school's annual science fair. He said it was difficult to teach the students that they needed to do more than simply build a project. He wanted them to learn that they needed to apply scientific method <!-- 2013(unknown) --> to form hypotheses and design their projects to test them.

Sometimes their approach to science projects caught him totally off-guard.

For example, there was the day he walked into class and had a couple of excited boys show him their bleeding fingers and tell him they were having their blood tested. He found a couple of girls happily poking fingers to perform tests to determine blood type.

They were using no protective gloves or other sanitary measures and were probably poking everyone with the same needle.

Torstenson enjoyed learning about Kurdish culture and customs. He said their biggest holiday of the year is Newroz Day, March 21, the first day of spring. They celebrate with picnics and dancing and the wearing of traditional costumes. They will dance for hours to the music of drums or CDs.

Actually, Newroz Day is the kick-off for the picnic season, and the people like to go on picnics in the countryside every weekend. Torstenson described the landscape there as mountainous with beautiful green pastures.

He also enjoyed visiting bazaars, which he says are just what you'd picture Middle-Eastern bazaars to be like, with vendors calling out their wares from their stalls, and sales carts loaded with fruit. "All very exotic for someone used to going to a mall," he said.

Whatever other plans he may have for his future, Torstenson enjoyed his work in Iraq enough that he hopes to be able to return for the fall semester.

Movers and Shakers to meet Thursday

The regular meeting of the Pahrump Valley Movers and Shakers, a support group for people with Parkinson's disease, will be held at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Desert Greens Clubhouse, 350 W. Wilson Ave. (next to hospital).

Jodi Servin, M.S.W., L.S.W. from the National Parkinson Foundation, facilitator and consultant for the group, will show a video on DBS surgery. Plans will also be discussed for a group bus trip to Las Vegas Sept. 30 to hear an expert on Parkinson's disease.

Anyone with Parkinson's disease, as well as their caregivers and/or family members are welcome to attend this group. It is open also to anyone with a movement disorder. Light refreshments will be served.

Call Donna or Steve Marsh at 537-1015 with questions or concerns.