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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-077
Celia D'Arienzo (nee McAvey) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Swaziland from 1976 to 1978 as a secondary education science teacher. She joined the Peace Corps to get away, have an adventure, and hopefully to do some good. She ended up meeting her future husband and teaching a lab-based science curriculum in a school that had no electricity or running water. D'Arienzo discusses some of the cultural differences, like the challenge of being left-handed in a culture that sees the left hand as dirty, how marriages involved the payment of a bride price over time, and how the girls often got pregnant and had to leave school early. She also speaks about how she tried to help the girls. D'Arienzo describes the daily challenges of living there, including a "kidnapping" when officials from a larger school came and got them because they wanted the couple to teach at their school instead. She also recounts a time of danger they faced and her difficulty staying healthy while eating a vegetarian diet. Interviewed and recorded by Candice Wiggum, April 23, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-076
Dennis D'Arienzo served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Swaziland from July 1976 to December 1978 as a secondary education math teacher. He had little previous experience traveling and he recounts his family's response when he decided to join the Peace Corps. He relates how he met his future wife in training at the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, and how training was comprised of different stages, including a home stay, to prepare them for their assignment. After volunteering for a site in the bushveldt (bush country), D'Arienzo and his girlfriend arrived at a school and residence far from any town and with no one around. He taught math classes to middle-school students in English and speaks of the challenges and sacrifices of the job, but also how much education was valued there. He remembers with sadness what has happened to Swaziland since they left due to the devastation of AIDS, and states that the maturity he gained in the Peace Corps helped him in his later career. Finally, D'Arienzo closes with an account of his travels home and the shock of arriving back in the U.S. Interviewed and recorded by Candice Wiggum, April 23, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).