Ashley Judd spent a week last February in a remote village in Surinam, South America, working as a very temporary Peace Corps volunteer so that she could write about her experience for Marie Claire magazine. She told PEOPLE's Susan Christian Goulding that before acting took her in another direction, she had dreamed of a career in the Peace Corps. And who was the first person Ashley called once she safely exited the jungle? Mom, of course: Naomi Judd. "I made a stop in Guatemala and I called from there," Ashley says. "As usual, I got the answering machine."