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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-054
Jenna Waites (then Jenna Butts) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 2001 to 2003 on an environmental education and ecotourism project. She trained in Santa Lucia Milpas Altas prior to being stationed in the rural Mayan town of San Juan La Laguna, Solola department. She was assigned to teach environmental education but did not have local school support, so she looked for other ways to help. Waites teamed up with a local park ranger to implement a community ecotourism program, which differed from other aid programs that conditioned local residents to rely on others to provide for them. She continued her service in Danli, El Paraiso department, Honduras, from 2003 to 2004 in a water and sanitation program. Unfortunately, that government agency was not interested in what Waites could offer, so she sought work elsewhere. She ended up partnering with Action Against Hunger to provide expertise and guidance to local technicians on how to improve construction of water systems in rural areas. Interviewed and recorded by Christine Musa, January 22, 2020. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2012-023
David Zakem served as a Peace Corps volunteer in four different countries: Somalia (1968-1969, agriculture); Swaziland (1969-1971, secondary education); Belize (1987-1989, community education); and Guatemala (1989-1992, maternal and child health care). He talks about leaving his project in Somalia because he felt the assignment would ultimately hurt the people with whom he was working. The Peace Corps headquarters agreed with his assessment of the situation and reassigned him to Swaziland. After establishing a career in international education and pursuing an advanced degree, Zakem rejoined the Peace Corps and was sent to Central America. In the interview, he discusses the influence of his Peace Corps experience on the rest of his life. Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, June 9, 2012. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2009-011
Joe Zingsheim served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1965 to 1967 on a rural community development project. Although he had trained for the Dominican Republic, he was sent to Honduras instead with only one other volunteer. Zingsheim was stationed in Taulabe, and ended up working on a United Nations seed and fertilizer project with the local subsistence farmers. He also encouraged individuals to establish vegetable gardens. In the interview, Zingsheim discusses his challenges with mistrust of foreigners and serving without the support of a group of volunteers. He has been back to Honduras multiple times since completing Peace Corps. Interviewed and recorded by Paul Kinsley, October 13, 2008. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-056-005
Thomas D. (Tom) Hansis served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1969 to 1971 on a rural community development project. Prior to the Peace Corps, he had completed a degree in Latin American studies. Hansis trained first at Camp Crozier outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico, followed by another month of agricultural studies in-country at Choluteca, Honduras. He was stationed in Catacamas but his role with the local agricultural colony never really developed. After a year, Hansis requested reassignment and moved to the capital city of Tegucigalpa to work with the national cooperative development agency. He also discusses a brief war between Honduras and El Salvador that broke out two months after he arrived in the country. After his service, Hansis worked as a Peace Corps trainer in Puerto Rico for six months. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, July 30, 2005. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-046-003
A. Michael (Mike) Marzolla served as a Peace Corps volunteer in three different countries. He began his service in Guatemala from 1973 to 1974, where he coordinated a school and community garden project. He also was a team member on a nutrition education research project with INCAP (Institute of Nutrition for Central America and Panama). In early 1975, Marzolla transferred to a reconstruction project in Honduras. From 1976 to 1977, he worked on a nutrition education project in El Salvador. Interviewed and recorded by Lou Spaventa, March 5, 2005. 3 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-008-002
Jenifer McCurry served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1967 to 1969 on community development and public health projects. She joined along with her husband. They trained at Camp Crozier in Puerto Rico with the Honduras VIII group. She was stationed in Puerto Cortes, where she worked with the national welfare agency to establish an educational program for young children in conjunction with the local feeding center. McCurry also arranged medical care and health education for the families. Her biggest regret was alerting authorities to the resale of CARE products, which resulted in that aid being withdrawn. Later McCurry helped establish a school for the Garifuna community in the nearby village of Travesia. After she became pregnant, the Peace Corps terminated the couple early, but they successfully appealed the decision and were allowed to return to Honduras. Jenifer worked in the Peace Corps office in Tegucigalpa for the remainder of her pregnancy, and discusses caring for their newborn daughter during the brief war between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969. Interviewed and recorded by Barbara Hodgdon, July 8, 2004. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-091
Christeen Pusch served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 2005 to 2007 in a municipal development program. She was stationed in Colomoncagua and assigned to work with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to provide support to nearby residents and farmers. In the second half of her service, she focused more on basic student education with a USAID program called Educatodos (Education for All). Pusch formed friendships with her neighbors, including one neighborhood girl that she tutored named Karin. Karin later went on to become the first person in her family to earn her high school diploma and inspired her younger siblings to do the same. Some of Pusch's favorite things about Honduras were the natural beauty, the walkability of the neighborhoods and towns, and the openness of the culture, which allowed her to visit neighbors at any moment. She credits her Peace Corps service with altering her perspective on her life by making her more appreciative and, as a child of German immigrants, helping her find her own cultural identity back at home in the States. Interviewed and recorded by Sally Waley, June 13, 2019. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-080
Gail B. Gall served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1969 to 1971 on a public health project. She had requested a location in Latin America where she could learn Spanish, having previously studied Latin and French in middle school. Gall began her training in Puerto Rico at Camp Crozier where she received intensive language training using aural methods only (no written content). Her first assignment in Honduras was as a teacher in a nursing program in San Pedro Sula, where sanitary conditions including poor water quality made patient care difficult. Duke University doctors also worked at this site helping children with cleft lips and palate. After a year, Gall transferred to work with the Catholic relief agency Caritas. After returning to the U.S., she continued to work with Spanish speakers in the Boston area. Her Peace Corps training group still gets together every five years. Interviewed and recorded by Judith Madden-Sturges, April 24, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file). Note: In the introduction, Gall's end of service date was mistakenly read as 1991 instead of 1971.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-042
Yancy Garrido served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from January 1987 to August 1990 in a community mental health program. He speaks of how his heritage as the son of Cuban refugees influenced his decision to join the Peace Corps. As he was already fluent in Spanish, he convinced the trainers to let him do an internship at a health center in Comayaguela. Garrido was stationed in Gracias a Dios in Lempira Department, where he gave workshops and ultimately built a network of community mental health facilitators. He talks about the rewards and dangers of being a volunteer in Honduras at that time, and how he integrated with the community. He shares a continuing connection with the country because his wife and daughter are from there. Finally, Garrido discusses the importance of the Peace Corps and states that people of color should be more actively recruited. Interviewed and recorded by Candice Wiggum, December 9, 2018. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-033
Donna Stern Slocum served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from June 1978 to June 1980 as a community health nurse. After training in Tegucigalpa, she was stationed on Roatan, one of the Bay Islands north of Honduras. She worked at a clinic in Coxen Hole. The local doctor departed after five months and Slocum was left to run the clinic by herself with one other nurse. She worked long days seeing patients, prescribing medicines, treating tropical diseases, and suturing. Slocum also had a health program on the local radio station, Radio Roatan. During her second year, due to burnout and loneliness, she took a short break to work at a yacht club. Interviewed and recorded by Barbara Kaare-Lopez, May 6, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file). Please note: Due to a technical issue, the end of the interview is cut off.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-032
Barbara Ann Sterling served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from January 1979 to December 1980 in a rural pilot school program. Her training took place in La Guacima, Costa Rica. She and her husband lived in Taulabe, in the mountainous region of Honduras. Both of them worked to teach rural schools how to establish vegetable gardens and grow crops. In addition, Sterling gave health talks and built improved wood stoves at the schools. The Peace Corps volunteers were also expected to promote a wheat soy blend to improve nutrition, but the product was not accepted by Sterling's community. After the Peace Corps, she pursued a federal career with the Bureau of Land Management. Interviewed and recorded by Barbara Kaare-Lopez, July 15, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-009
Judith Howard Whitney-Terry served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from September 1987 to December 1988 on a small business project. She decided to join after raising a family, a divorce, and changing circumstances related to her business. After in-country training, she was assigned to Choluteca where she worked with small businesses to develop business plans and accounting practices, which utilized her degrees and prior work experience. She also taught English as a Second Language (ESL) in the evenings. She then transferred to Tegucigalpa where she was able to travel around the country while working for the banks. Whitney-Terry discusses her informal interaction with Contras, and shares that Peace Corps volunteers were thought of more positively than other Americans. She mentions that the local volunteers were invited to a party some distance away on the night that the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa was bombed. Whitney-Terry discusses how her Peace Corps experience made her less self-centered and more conscious of how people live throughout the world. She also met her second husband through RPCV activities and continues to be involved in the National Peace Corps Association. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 23, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2018-019
Cheri Damschroder served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1977 to 1979 as a home economics teacher. She attended training in the capital city, Tegucigalpa. Her college degree was in Spanish, so she didn't need as much language training as others did. However, being able to understand the local people was a challenge. Damschroder was initially stationed in El Paraiso, and then moved to the Escuela Manuel Bonillo school in La Ceiba. There she taught sewing in the practical activities program. Several years after her service, she returned to Honduras with her husband and worked at the Peace Corps training center in Santa Lucia. Interviewed and recorded by Barbara Kaare-Lopez, May 6, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2017-038
Kathleen Snyder Cox served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1971 to 1973. After training in Puerto Rico, she was assigned to work on a public health and nutrition project organized by Caritas (Catholic Relief Services). Snyder was stationed in Juticalpa, the capital of the Olancho Department. She worked with impoverished women from outlying villages, and trained them in nutrition education and health care so that they could return to their villages to function as "promotoras de salud" (community health workers). Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, March 2, 2017. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-035
Evangeline H. Tierney served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1962 to 1964 as a social worker. Training occurred at Saint Louis University and in Puerto Rico, where the physical activities pushed her to her breaking point. As part of Honduras I, she attended social functions hosted by the First Lady of Honduras, who had sponsored the program. Tierney was assigned to Tela and worked as a social worker and community organizer with the Carib people on the north coast of Honduras. She notes that the Carib people, who speak the Garifuna language, are descendants of Africans who escaped from slave ships. She discusses how the villagers did not know what to make of her because they had never met an African American person before. Tierney also talks about the violence that followed a military coup that ousted the Honduran government, and the outpouring of grief among her Honduran friends when President Kennedy was assassinated. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, May 13, 2016. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-024
Scott Zoromski served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1978 to 1980 as an industrial arts teacher. He applied to the Peace Corps after two years of college, hoping the experience would give him clarity on what he wanted to do with his life. After ten weeks of teacher training at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, he continued training in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Zoromski was assigned to teach industrial arts in a secondary school in Olanchito. The school was built and equipped with help from USAID. Zoromski also helped construct a new schoolhouse in a nearby town on weekends. After completing his bachelor's degree, he went on to a life-long career in teaching. He remained in close touch with his Honduran friends, and finally had the chance to return to Honduras to visit them in 2016. Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, April 8, 2016. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-005
Beverly J. (Bev) Hanlon served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1966 to 1968 on a community organization project. After training in St. Louis, Missouri, Bev and her new husband Joe began their volunteer service in the town of Goascoran, near the border with El Salvador. Bev began a preschool for local children and organized a sewing project in which women made baby clothes. The interview includes an account of a difficult time in which Bev was not granted permission to travel home to see her father before he died. Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, October 17, 2015. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-004
Joseph C. (Joe) Hanlon served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1966 to 1968 on a community organization project. Joe and his new wife Beverly joined the Peace Corps after Joe completed his undergraduate degree at Yale University. After training in St. Louis, Missouri, the couple began their service in the town of Goascoran, near the border with El Salvador. Joe's activities as a community organizer included working with communities to use funding from the relief agency CARE to construct school buildings, working with local farmers to grow demonstration farming plots using seeds donated by the United Nations, and organizing a local credit union. Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, October 14, 2015. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-046
Joanna (Jody) Gemmell (nee Schmeucker) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1969 to 1971 as a nurse. She had seven years of acute care nursing experience. Training in Camp Crozier, Puerto Rico, focused on language and culture but omitted preparation for nursing practice and education in Honduras. Gemmell was assigned to the hospital in Santa Rosa de Copan, and was the only nurse on staff. She managed multiple wards, devised innovative solutions in primitive conditions, and developed operating room training for the nursing assistants. She found the pediatric and maternal losses, lack of respect by local physicians, and isolation from her peers to be daunting. However, Gemmell is proud that she was able to lay a foundation for subsequent nursing volunteers. The Peace Corps was very influential in her life, and now she volunteers in clinics caring for the under-served populations and supports pediatric neurological care in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Interviewed and recorded by Gail B. Gall, September 12, 2019. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-044
Richard (Rich) Klingner served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1969 to 1971 as a civil engineer. He wished to counter the destructive effects of the Vietnam War by sharing his skills. Klingner worked with SANAA (a Honduran government agency), Caritas, and local governments to build gravity water systems for villages, with labor provided by the inhabitants. Fieldwork challenges required devising quick solutions. Klingner emphasizes the value of developing language proficiency and cross-cultural understanding through collegial relations, and tells the story of how Honduran engineers taught him to roll his Rs properly. He describes how access to clean water freed the community members (especially women) from the arduous task of fetching water, losing children to dysentery, and repeated risky pregnancies. The Peace Corps was the foundation for Klingner's subsequent career in teaching earthquake-resistant building techniques throughout Latin America. Interviewed and recorded by Gail B. Gall, September 10, 2019. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-043
Lon J. Lembert served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1969 to 1971 as a cooperative savings and loan agent. He was invited to join the Honduras XV group in the summer of 1969, and completed social, linguistic, and technical training in Puerto Rico and in-country. As a cooperative extension agent in a rural village, Lembert worked to improve accounting practices and became involved in community development by helping remote schools acquire building materials. He states that language proficiency was key in establishing relationships with his Honduran colleagues and neighbors. His experience in the Peace Corps influenced his view of the United States and the world, and prompted his later decision to complete a master's degree in social work. Interviewed and recorded by Gail B. Gall, September 10, 2019. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-041
Donald J. (Don) Stierman served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1969 to 1972 as a teacher trainer. He enrolled in the Brockport Teacher Training Program (at the State University of New York – Brockport) which was designed to train Peace Corps volunteers for Latin America. There he earned a bachelor's degree in physics and a teaching certificate while experiencing rural Honduran life, improving his Spanish, and gaining cultural awareness. Assigned to the teacher professionalization program in Honduras, Stierman worked with elementary school teachers to replace memorization with experimentation. He also introduced science fairs that were replicated countrywide. Stierman recalls the challenges of getting permission to marry his fiance, a Peace Corps nurse, and their life in Tegucigalpa. He coached and refereed baseball in his free time. The Peace Corps influenced him to earn a PhD in geophysics, specializing in earthquakes. When he returned to Honduras in 2002 as a Fulbright scholar, he found that skills he had learned in the Peace Corps were still helpful. Interviewed and recorded by Gail B. Gall, September 11, 2019. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-022
Emily Goldman served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1991 to 1993 on a beekeeping project. Her Peace Corps experience actually began at age 3, when her parents served as volunteers in Curridabat, Costa Rica. Spanish is her first language, and at age 8 she decided that she was going to be a Peace Corps volunteer herself one day. After completing a bachelor degree in cultural anthropology, she applied and was sent to Honduras. She was told that she was the first child from a Peace Corps family to be sworn in as a volunteer. Assigned to the village of La Florida de Opatoro, Goldman's primary job was to provide training to local beekeepers. Secondary projects included teaching English at the local elementary school, where she established an exchange relationship between the local school and one in Santa Fe, New Mexico, modeled on the Peace Corps' World Wise Schools program. Goldman also established a women's vegetable gardening project. Her post-service career has been in international community development, human rights, and conservation. Interviewed and recorded by Julius (Jay) Sztuk, November 13, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-126
Charles Forbus served as a Peace Corps volunteer in programs for five different countries and also as a Peace Corps Response volunteer in Georgia. Forbus served in the U.S. Air Force after high school and had been inspired by John F. Kennedy's vision for the Peace Corps during the 1960 election, however he did not apply until after raising a family and retiring from AT&T. In 1997, he received his first assignment in Nepal, but had to resign for family-related reasons after completing pre-service training. He applied again and served in the Ukraine from 2002 to 2004 with an organization for disabled individuals, helping to automate record keeping at offices in Kiev and remote locations and providing computer training to the center's clients. In addition, he taught English as a secondary assignment. Next Forbus served in Honduras from 2011 to 2012 with one NGO that supported small farmers and another that supported people with HIV. That assignment was cut short when Peace Corps pulled out of the country due to unrest and security issues. Forbus applied again and was invited to serve in Madagascar in February 2013, but sustained a severe knee injury during training and was unable to continue in that program. In May 2014, he undertook a six-month Peace Corps Response assignment in the Republic of Georgia working with a youth organization to develop training programs in leadership, citizenship, and communications. Finally, Forbus served in Armenia from 2015 to 2017 working with locals to develop their tourism industry. The interview covers each assignment as well as the continuing impact of the Peace Corps on Forbus' life. Interviewed and recorded by Julius (Jay) Sztuk, August 3, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-014-012
Part of a series of research interviews conducted by Jonathan Zimmerman for his article "Beyond Double Consciousness: Black Peace Corps Volunteers in Africa, 1961-1971." Drew S. Days III served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1967 to 1969. Interviewed in person, February 3, 1994. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).