Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-008
Scott King served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chad from 1970 to 1971 in an education project. He discusses participating in a multi-country Francophone Africa 2-month training program in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere, Quebec, that included language, culture, and teacher training. His subsequent practice teaching was at the Lycee National in Niamey, the capitol of Niger, along with other volunteers going to West Africa countries. He also talks about the experience of traveling from southern West Virginia to Philadelphia, Canada, New York City, and Paris via Brussels even before he got to West Africa. In Chad, King taught English in a coed middle school in the southern town of Doba. He talks about the expat post-colonial French teachers, the poverty of students, and the nudity of women. He questions the value of teaching English to students who have little chance of making it to high school and says that the Chad government wanted English teachers as a symbol of modernization. King returned to the U.S. before finishing his tour of duty because of stomach problems, which caused him to lose 60 to 70 pounds. Nevertheless, he valued his experience in Chad and has stayed engaged in RPCV activities in West Virginia. He concludes by saying "once a volunteer, always a volunteer." Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 24, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).