Sandra Nathan spent 1966 to 1968 in a South Korean town as a young Peace Corps volunteer, teaching English to high school girls. Fifty-two years later, Nathan, now back in the United States, received a care package from South Korea that nearly brought her to tears.
Nathan, 75, had been feeling increasingly isolated at home in Stephentown, New York. Reports about the exploding number of COVID-19 cases in the United States had made her anxious about going outside, where experts warned of second and third waves of infection.
Then, early this month, she received a packaged labeled "COVID-19 Survival Box.” It was a gift from the South Korean government that contained 100 masks and other items "as a token of our gratitude for your dedication to Korea.”