Editor’s note: “Where Are They Now” is a Muscatine Journal series written by former Muscatine Journal editor Gil Dietz, who welcomes comments and suggestions. You can contact him at 563-263-5499 or  gvdietz@machlink.

McSHERRYTOWN, Pa. — Mary Furlong, a semi-retired high school teacher, has spent six of the past eight years in the African nation of Zambia as a volunteer teacher and humanitarian aid worker.

Mary, 68, is the daughter of Edward and Catherine Furlong, who are both now deceased. She grew up in Seventy-Six Township near Letts.

She was the salutatorian of her 1959 Hayes High School class in Muscatine. She started Catholic school at St. Mary’s and her high school class was the first one with all of their classes in the new Bishop Hayes building.

She will be in Muscatine and the surrounding area from Sept. 25 through Oct. 2 to celebrate her 50th Hayes class reunion. She will be speaking to several groups about her experiences in Zambia, including an appearance on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at Muscatine Community College and one on Thursday, Oct. 1, at Muscatine High School. She will also be speaking in New London and several other communities.

Mary attended Muscatine Community College for two years, and then received her bachelor’s degree in social studies and English from the University of Northern Iowa in 1968. She later received a master’s degree from the University of Iowa.

After two years teaching in Hampton, Iowa, she moved to Delone Catholic High School in McSherry-town, Pa., about nine miles north of Gettysburg, where she taught for

35 years. She was also the drama and speech coach at Delone. Her speech and debate teams won many state and regional awards, including a third place award in national debate competition in 1988.

After retiring from Delone in 2000, Mary decided to continue her work as a volunteer in Zambia, located in south-central Africa.

“I began with a project started by a Norwegian group training girls to be elementary school teachers in shantytowns and rural villages. I spent three years working with this project, and as of now they have trained more than 8,000 young women to be teachers,” she said.

Mary lived first in the capital city of Lusaka. “Some of the teachers there were making only about $30 per month at first. Now they are making from $150 to $180.“

She later lived in Kabwe, a city of about 15,000 that is the capital of one of the states in Zambia.

“That was very difficult at first. You have to learn how to live without electricity for as much as 12 hours per day. I also learned a lot about patience. You have to be patient when you stand by the side of a road for three hours waiting for a truck driver to take you to the next village.”

Mary has worked with a large variety of groups, including Doctors Without Borders, striving to improve living conditions in Zambia, where the unemployment rate is about 80 percent. She has worked with a widow’s project, helping women earn money by tailoring, as well as  a bicycle project, started by a group from Finland, that teaches bicycle repair.

“I have been with a group involving Catholic and Reformed churches, setting up the distribution of food (maize, dried beans, dried peas) for the orphans.

Zambia has a population of more than 11 million. Copper is the chief export and source of much of the country’s revenue. The nation was formerly a British Protectorate, known as Northern Rhodesia, and became independent in 1974.

“Zambia is a democracy with an elected government. We have been surrounded on three sides with countries engaged in devastating civil wars, but Zambia has been peaceful,” she said. “Most of the people here are extremely positive and friendly. The majority are Christians.”

English is the official language in Zambia, particularly for the government. Most of the black Africans also speak Bantu. There are about 70 ethnic groups in the country, and at least eight local languages.

Mary has been active in politics, social justice, women’s issues and AIDS awareness in the U.S. and Africa.

She has been a Fulbright Scholar two times. In 1985, she went to Malaysia to study Islam and multi-cultures. She traveled to Ghana in 2000 to study Islam and West Africa.

Mary was one of the first single adoptive parents in Pennsylvania. She adopted Rachael in 1971 and Judy in 1977. Rachael, now 46, and Judy 42, both live in the Gettysburg area. Both are single.

Mary does not have plans to return to Zambia, but she says that could change. She is going to the Qatar, in the United Arab States, in February on a grant involving Islam and the rights of females.