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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 Her biggest regret was alerting authorities to the resale of CARE products, which resulted in that aid being withdrawn.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-MR-2005-007-002
Rowland Bennett served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nyasaland (Malawi) from 1962 to 1964 as an English teacher. He was in the first Peace Corps group sent that country. Bennett trained at Syracuse University. He was assigned to Robert Blake School in Kongwe, which was a boys' secondary school run by Protestant Afrikaner missionaries. There Bennett taught English, supervised night study, managed the choir, and introduced basketball. He was also able to attend Malawi's independence ceremony in 1964. Bennett feels that his Peace Corps experience has allowed him to effectively serve diverse populations in his career as a librarian. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, October 5, 2004. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-028-009
Reid Melton served as a Peace Corps volunteer in India from 1965 to 1967 on a rural public health and nutrition project. He had studied Indian history and Hindi in college to prepare. Training for his group, India 20A, was held at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Melton was stationed in a village outside of Jabalpur and worked at the local hospital where he assisted with medical procedures, smallpox vaccinations, and family planning. He also started other projects with poultry and kitchen gardens, and taught in the social work school. He became very close with the local doctor's family. Melton struggled with health problems throughout and was medically evacuated slightly before the end of his service term. He later continued to study Hindi in graduate school and returned to India as a Peace Corps trainer before establishing a career in international organizations. Interviewed and recorded by Norma Wilder Benavides, November 8, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-028-007
Jean Dorothy Landeen served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 1967 to 1970 on a rural community development project. After completing a degree in landscape horticulture, she trained in Las Cruces, New Mexico, with a homestay in Guadalajara, Mexico. Once in Guatemala, Landeen was assigned to the village of Los Bracitos, where she worked on agricultural development projects such as land surveying, crop demonstration plots, and tropical fruit production. She ultimately developed a regional program to train farmers in how to graft and care for trees. She stayed a third year to help supervise the next cycle of volunteers who were continuing the fruit project. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, April 7, 2004. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-010-001
Carol Peiffer talks about her experiences as a Peace Corps teacher in Brazil. Interviewed and recorded by Judith Salisbury Cline, May 29, 2003. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-003-004
(David) Scott Ellinwood worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil on housing project designs for the Poiraiba state government. He took up a career in architecture afterwards. Interviewed and recorded by Victor (Vic) Cox, April 21, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-003-001
Norma Wilder Benavides served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 1963 to 1965 on a community development project. Her family was always internationally oriented. President Kennedy died while she was in training in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she was the youngest in her cohort. Benavides was stationed in Guatemala City, where she initially worked with CARE to implement projects such as vegetable gardens, school lunches, milk distribution, and inoculation programs. After about a year, the CARE volunteers were transferred back to a Peace Corps director. Benavides also taught English, played on a semiprofessional basketball team, and participated in public relations activities for Peace Corps. She later lived in Costa Rica for 12 years while working on a refugee project, then became a bilingual therapist. Interviewed and recorded by Elizabeth Hodes, April 26, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-002-025
I. Lynn Rinehart discusses his experiences in urban community development with the Peace Corps in Venezuela. Interviewed and recorded by Catherine Davidson, April 27, 2003. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-002-023
Mary Parsaca served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1968 to 1970 as a teacher. She served alongside her husband, Jim Beverwyck. The couple trained at Columbia Teachers College in New York City. Parsaca was a medical technologist and was offered a hospital position in Nairobi, but chose to become a teacher instead because the couple wanted to serve in a rural setting. She taught a wide variety of classes at a boys secondary school in Taranganya that was just coming under government support. She also worked with a well baby clinic run by local nuns and participated in a vaccination project. In her second year, Parsaca became pregnant and refused Peace Corps' suggestion that they return to the United States. She had the baby at a mission hospital 100 miles away and was warmly welcomed back to the village, then resumed teaching for the remainder of her service. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, April 29, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-002-018
Kenny Karem served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Chile from 1966 to 1968. He trained at the University of Washington at Seattle. It was a very stressful training because over seventy-five trainees were reduced to only forty Peace Corps volunteers. The group was under constant scrutiny by psychologists. Karem spent one month in Puerto Rico before being assigned to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the south of Chile, working with Mapuche Indians. He had no defined job. After nine months, Karem transferred to the Hoof and Mouth Disease Treatment Program, under the Ministry of Health. He also discusses the effects of Vietnam and the draft. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, September 6, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-002-016
Sarah (Sally) Connolly-Jordan served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 1967 to 1969 on a rural community development project. After working for United Airlines for nearly a decade, she applied to the Peace Corps. She trained at Las Cruces, New Mexico, with a home stay in Mexico. Connolly-Jordan was assigned to a small village outside of Retalhuleu, where she initially worked with the community's only school teacher as an aide. Eventually she began nutrition and health classes, opened a library, and coordinated efforts to build a bridge and hire another teacher. She considered her role to be a facilitator that connected people and resources. Connolly-Jordan was able to visit her site again 20 years later. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, March 31, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-002-013
Larry Grobel served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana 1968 to 1971 as a teacher. During the Vietnam War, he chose Peace Corps service as an alternative to the military draft. He participated in one of the first in-country training programs, with three days of staging in Philadelphia before going straight to Ghana. He taught English literature and current events at the Institute of Journalism in Accra, which was considered a sensitive assignment. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, February 9, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-002-012
Donn Fry served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanganyika from 1964-1966 as a teacher. He trained at Columbia University. In country, he taught English at a boys' boarding school in Tanganyika. Fry lived on campus and spent leisure time at a European country club. He also met Robert F. Kennedy when he toured Tanzania. Interviewed and recorded by Ann Marie Quinlan, February 6, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-002-010
Catherine Whitaker Davidson served as a Peace Corps volunteer on a rural community development project in Panama from 1965 to 1967. She was also a mental health volunteer in the Crisis Corps in Venezuela in 2000. Interviewed and recorded by I. Lynn Rinehart, May 21, 2003. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-002-006
Warren Chapman was a member of the first group of Peace Corps volunteers in Paraguay. He spent three months in Las Cruces mostly acquiring language instruction. He taught English at a consolidated high school (a brand new facility funded by USAID) in Villarrica. He left in the fall of 1968 to attend Columbia. He started teacher training programs for math and science. The Peace Corps then started recruiting math and science teachers. Interviewed and recorded by Ann Marie Quinlan, February 8, 2003. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-002-005
Alan Burrus was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Tonga I group. His degree is in pre-architecture. Burrus trained in Hawaii with groups for Tonga, Fiji, and Samoa. The Tonga Peace Corps Director developed a special assignment for an architect in the Public Works Department. Burrus designed, helped construct, and replicated simple schoolroom buildings, as well as other small scale projects throughout Tonga. He helped design a modest residence for the Peace Corps Director that later caused a modest scandal within Peace Corps/Washington. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, April 27, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-002-003
Jim Beverwyck served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1968 to 1970 in a secondary education project. He served alongside his wife Mary Parsaca. Beverwyck trained at the Teacher's College, Columbia University, with four weeks of intensive language courses, three weeks of home-stay in Brooklyn, and practice teaching in a Catholic school. Once in Kenya, Beverwyck taught at a secondary school. He states that they functioned well despite being remote from the Peace Corps, even with the birth of their child during service. He taught and was totally involved with the life of school, resisting the influences of a U.S. Protestant mission that started the school, which was now coming under government control. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, April 29, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2003-024-005
Ellen Shively served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia (Eritrea) from 1968 to 1970 as a nurse educator. She was an Army nurse with six years experience when she decided for personal reasons to shift from "the war corps" to the Peace Corps. She completed a large Ethiopia-Eritrea training program. The volunteers staged in Philadelphia, then spent six weeks in the Virgin Islands, followed by specialized training in Addis Ababa. Shively taught in a "dresser" medical school that trained assistant nurses in Asmara, Eritrea, which was part of Ethiopia at the time. She had been trained in the Amharic language but then had to learn Tigrinya. In her second year, Shively was chosen to develop an advanced dresser program from scratch. After the Peace Corps, Shively re-joined the military, served in Vietnam, and then spent her career as a clinical Army nurse. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, January 14, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2003-024-001
Mari-Jo Woolfe (nee Decker) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador from 1964 to 1966 in a variety of roles. She completed language training at UCLA, then spent four weeks in Puerto Rico, where she stayed with a family and practiced teaching. Her program was for TOEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) in secondary schools but the project was designed with the expectation that the Peace Corps volunteer would use that as a base for community development. Her first year, Woolfe was assigned to a girls' high school, where she was minimally involved. She also worked as a nurse's aide in a local hospital, and tutored an evening program to adults in English. In her second year, Woolfe relocated and replaced a departing volunteer in a school for the blind, supervised an AID funded school lunch program, and working with a local women's knitting group. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, May 20, 2002. 3 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2003-007-002
Carol Crew served in Chile with a cooperative development program. She received intensive language training at Notre Dame, and in Puerto Rico on an extended home-stay in a small village. Her assignment was initially uncertain, however Crew ended up in Santiago doing television production of educational programs about cooperatives. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, September 24, 2002. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2003-007-001
Roger Brown was a Vietnam War-era Peace Corps volunteer, who preferred volunteer service because he was opposed to the war. He trained at the University of Arizona in Tucson, which included a family stay in South Tucson and a three week home-stay in Mexico. The language training was intense. Brown lived in La Concepcion, a small town outside of Maracaibo, Venezuela. After an uncertain first year, he became a traveling auditor for cooperatives, working closely with his Venezuelan counterpart. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, September 24, 2002. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-020-006
Isaiah Zagar served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru from 1964 to 1966. At the time he joined, he was an artist. Zagar was deselected in training, then re-selected. He served alongside his wife. The couple worked in various Peruvian locations and after six months, finally settled on helping to develop a crafts industry. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, April 26, 2002. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-020-003
Julia Mehrer served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador from 1963 to 1964 in a community development program. She began training in November 1963, with a month in Puerto Rico at an Outward Bound school. The group then was split into urban and rural, and Mehrer went with the other rural volunteers to the UNESCO training center in Patzcuaro, Mexico. After working on various health and education projects for four months at her site in Saraguro, Ecuador, Mehrer became engaged to a former Peace Corps trainee. She married in August 1964 in Guayaquil and moved to Venezuela to work in urban community development with Accion. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, April 19, 2002. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-020-001
Roland H. Johnson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1964 to 1966 as a land settlement officer. After graduating from Lincoln University, he worked for Peace Corps headquarters in classification and recruitment. He decided to join as a volunteer and trained at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee with the Kenya I group. After additional in-country training at Kabete, Johnson was assigned to the Lessos settlement scheme in the highlands region to help manage farmland that was being transferred from European colonists back to the local Nandi tribe. As a settlement officer, he provided administrative and agricultural assistance to the farmers and the cooperative. He was also involved in building two bridges and planning a water system. At the end of his service, Johnson and another volunteer wrote a report evaluating the settlement project but their constructive criticism was poorly received by the Kenya government. In the interview, he also describes his experiences as a Black volunteer. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, April 26, 2002. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-016-017
Terry Vogt served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil working on rural electrification. Vogt was part of a specially recruited group from Harvard University. They did language training in Portuguese while still undergraduates, and completed in-country training in community development. The flexibility of his assignments reflects the huge number of Peace Corps volunteers stationed in Brazil. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, February 5, 2002. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).