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.]