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NORTON - Norton Middle School Writing Club members have become curious about the Philippines, but they'd never eat there.

Their new pen pal convinced them of that.

Eighth-graders Shannon Duchaine, Kayla Geribo, Amelia Maloney and seventh-grader Ashleigh Korona are corresponding, as a group, with Peace Corps volunteer Sandra Ann "Sam" Brooks.

The Norton students on Jan. 7 e-mailed her Norton facts ("All five of the schools in Norton are on the same main street, except for one of the elementary schools") and pictures of the club and of adviser Eileen Sejkora's homeroom.

And questions, such as "what is the menu at a McDonalds or Starbucks over there?" "The food is gross!" Geribo exclaimed during an interview. "It's like they eat pig's blood and intestines."

Sejkora arranged the pen pal exchange this past fall through the Peace Corps' Coverdell World Wise Schools program, which matches schools and Peace Corps volunteers.

"Some 4,000 Peace Corps Volunteers in the field exchange e-mails, letters, videos and tapes, photographs, and telephone calls with classrooms in every state and the District of Columbia," according to the program's Web site.

Sejkora said she was inspired by an opinion piece she read 18 months ago that suggested promoting peace through pen pals between students in the United States and in Muslim countries.

As a child, she and others had Japanese pen pals, "to heal the wounds of World War II," Sejkora said.

Sejkora was led to the Peace Corps' pen pal program after reading this summer about students in Charlestown learning Arabic.

Sejkora said she had hoped her students would be placed with a Muslim volunteer, "but we're learning so much about the Philippines that this is a welcome diversion."

Duchaine said corresponding with someone like Brooks "opens you up to new things. Once you read one thing, you're ready for another thing. You want to learn more."

"Their culture is so much different from ours," Duchaine said.

Brooks, 63, of North Carolina, has told the Norton students about such topics as Filipino geography ("There are over 7,000 islands. But only 500 or so are inhabited. Many are just specks on the map. I expect that number will shrink dramatically as global warming continues and ocean level rise."); schools ("A public school teacher earns between 8,000 and 10,000 pesos per month. At today's exchange rate that is $190-238. And that teacher may have as many as 70 students packed into a classroom designed for 25."). "One of the cars is only meant to hold three people, and she said they put nine or 10 in there," Duchaine said.

And then there's the food.

Brooks said that shortly after arriving in the Philippines, "what I can eat without getting sick as a dog became the new mantra."

"In some instances, simply having food described can send weak constitutions to the rail," she wrote.

Sejkora said Brooks plans to devote each of her replies to different topics.

"She said she's going to address some of the education in detail the next time," Sejkora said.

Brooks hopes to learn from the students, too.

"In North Carolina, I was a member of a long-running writing group and I miss being part of that experience," Brooks wrote.

"While I am not one of your peers, I hope that you will feel free to critique my essays about life in the Philippines that I will send you occasionally. I assure you that your insights will be most welcome."

MICHAEL GELBWASSER covers Norton for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0439 or at mgelbwasser@thesunchronicle.com.