PEACE CORPS SENDS AREA WOMAN ON JOURNEY TO MOROCCO

JACKSON -- Amy Knaup arrived in Morocco today to begin a two-year adventure famous as "the toughest job you'll ever love."

As a Peace Corps volunteer, the 1990 Notre Dame High School graduate will provide environmental education to small business people somewhere near one of Morocco's national parks. The goal is to encourage environmentally friendly practices.

Beyond that, she's not sure what her day-to-day life will be like. The 10-page description of her job, she confides, "doesn't say a whole lot."

Knaup has been thinking about joining the Peace Corps since high school. She received her master's degree in economics from the University of Missouri in December and has been teaching as an adjunct professor at the university during the past semester. Ultimately she expects to start work on a Ph.D. but she isn't ready now.

An economics professor led her to choose the field. "He always made you think about why things needed to happen," she says. "He was always looking for an answer."

Though she knows she's interested in international development, she goes to Morocco looking for answers, too.

"I'm hoping this will help give me a direction," she said.

Knaup wanted an assignment in Northern Africa because she's always been interested in Islamic culture. She also studied Islamic art in college.

In Morocco, she will be required to wear clothing that covers her shoulders and her legs down to her ankles. She will wear leggings with her skirts. The Islamic dress laws don't bother her. "It makes you more comfortable and they're more comfortable with you," she says.

Knaup actually hopes her assignment is in a remote area of the country. She expects to live in an adobe-style house with no electricity and perhaps no running water. "Maybe it'll be more difficult than I'm willing to expect," she says, smiling.

She will be paid $225 per month plus living expenses. She is taking clothing, shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant and batteries to Morocco, which has a Mediterranean climate.

Her parents were scared about her going at first but were relieved when she was assigned to a country that is fairly politically secure. Her friends and six brothers and sisters didn't try to talk her out of joining the Peace Corps either.

"Most people just say, I would never do that," she said, laughing.

Moroccans speak French and Arabic. Knaup will attempt to learn Arabic during her 11-week training and has been trying to reacquaint herself with French.

She's not sure how a master's degree in economics will translate to her new job.

"I think the most useful thing will be the ability to look at a problem and analyze how to solve it," she says.

"As far as theories go, I'm sure those won't be useful."