Current Name: Judith
Duncan
Address: HCR 74 box 20404, El Prado, NM 87529
Home Phone: 505 758 3966
Email: [email protected]
Location in Thailand
Roi-Et
Judy in 1962
Judy in 2002
Current passion (who/what?)
To make a lush garden in a high desert climate; to use the southwestern color and light and
Japanese architectural accents to create a relaxing oasis.
I am also a birder and nature lover , love to two step, travel, enjoy classical concerts, reading ,
study, and integrating spiritual ideas into daily living. I have engaged in Tai Chi and am working
with a Chinese friend to create a School For Chinese Cultural Arts in Taos. I am still interested in
working abroad if the opportunity presents itself - does this allure never end? My strongest
connections, directly related to that life changing time in Thailand, are to Asians and to Buddhism.
Highlights since leaving Thailand
Scott and I ended our two years in Roi - Et travelling home with Lesley. We ended our two
years in Khorat when Scott was Regional Director, with Martha. Eight years later we finally
got to archetypal central Thailand in Sam Chuk, Suphanburi where Scott did his PhD
research and I taught in the local Thai schools . I have since returned in 1999 to tour the
south and
to test my Thai after a 25 year absence. Not too bad!
In between there was participating in Peace Corps training in Hawaii ; Montessori and
Waldorf (Rudolf Steiner) training and teaching in California, Hawaii and Massachusetts. We
became Quakers in Honolulu and were active in the Friends Meeting there. By then the
children had graduated from high school, Scott and I divorced, and I made the move to Taos,
New Mexico: a grand place of wide vistas, mountain air and scenery, and sun 300 days of
Judy Duncan
Page 2
I purchased a simple 3 bedroom home in an hispanic neighborhood and have spent the ensuing years
making it a garden retreat vacation rental (www.duncanretreat.com). That has been a passion: - to
make a lush garden in a high desert climate; to use the southwestern color and light and Japanese
architectural accents to create a relaxing oasis. I enjoy the business of being a hostess, facilitating a
visitor's comfort and ease on their vacation. And there's always something to do in a garden that's
invigorating and challenging. Permaculture techniques, zeriscaping, biodynamic principles - all up for
study to be put to practical use.
I am very content and can't think of too much else to do when I grow up, except maybe more of the
same. Being a married volunteer I don't feel I got a chance to know so many of you and I am eagerly
looking forward to the opportunity to do so nowI .
An interesting footnote: daughter Lesley, born in Roi-Et during a flood 38 years ago, has accepted an
Administrative Officer position with the Peace Corps in Bangkok. Nate and Adrian and husband Sam
will be spending the next 2 1/2 years there and I get to peek in on them in February. How fortuitous!
Now for the third generation of PC volunteers - Lesley and Sam were volunteers in Paraguay in the late
80's.