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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2018-033
John Klima served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Somalia from 1962 to 1964, and in Brazil from 1971 to 1973. He met his wife, Emily, a fellow volunteer, during Peace Corps training and they got married secretly during their service in Somalia. Later as a married couple with three young children, they reenlisted and the family was sent to Brazil. While Somalia was a positive experience, Brazil was not. Klima served as an intermediary school math and science teacher in Amoud, Somalia, near the Ethiopian border. He describes how his Somalia I group was terminated a month early because of security concerns during the 1964 border conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia, and says he was accused by his students of being a CIA spy because of what Egyptian teachers had told them. He also discusses problems with the Peace Corps staff in Somalia that resulted in staff being fired and 4 volunteers being reassigned. Regarding his service as a lab technician in Recife, Brazil, Klima says that even though the Peace Corps allowed volunteers with families to join, the agency did not provide adequate support for his young family, which by then included 3 young boys; therefore his wife, who was supposed to be a volunteer, couldn't work and had to stay home with the children. Klima also questions whether the Peace Corps should have been propping up sugar cane growers that exploited their workers. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, 2 July 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming fiels combined into 1 file). [Correction: In the interview, Klima states that Herman Smith replaced Marshall Tyree, but after the interview he remembered that Herman Smith was Tyree's deputy. Sal Tedesco was the new director stationed in Mogadiscio, the capital of Somalia.]
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2018-023
Abby Thomas served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Somalia from 1966 to 1969. Thomas served as an English language instructor in a primary level boarding school in Bulhar on the Gulf of Aden in northern Somalia from 1966 to 1968, and then as an English as a Second Language (ESL) trainer for Somali Peace Corps volunteers in 1969. During the summer, she and three other volunteers visited towns in the South of Somalia as a traveling theater group. In the 1980s, Thomas served as a development consultant in Somalia and in 2018, she was an election observer in Somaliland. Prior to joining the Peace Corps, she had read that where you grow up determines your worldview and she sought an assignment in an isolated location to explore this idea in real life. Although her assignment was difficult, Thomas says that she accomplished what she set out to do. Much of the interview covers Somali language and cultural issues, including how she was treated as a woman, and her continuing connection with personal Somali friends she made. She also discusses the Peace Corps language and teaching training she received at Columbia Teacher's College. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, 4 and 6 June 2018. The final interview segment is an addendum that was completed two days later. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2017-003
John Fanselow served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria from 1961 to 1963, and in Somalia from 1966 to 1968. He describes his work as a teacher trainer in Enugu, Nigeria, and how that informed his later career as a teacher trainer for Peace Corps headquarters, Columbia Teachers College, and worldwide. He says his use of teacher observation as an instructional technique in the Peace Corps later became a core method that he wrote several professional books about. Fanselow also tells a story of a fellow volunteer who was sent home due to the unflattering things she wrote about Nigeria on a postcard. He states that the Peace Corps transformed his life and he continues to be a mentor for many former volunteers and others he has met during his teaching career. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, 23 September 2016. 4 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).