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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2008-055-001
Betsy Markland Schwartz served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 1963 to 1965 on rural community development projects. She was in training at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces at the time of President Kennedy's assassination. Once in Guatemala, Schwartz was assigned to the town of Quezaltepeque with two other new volunteers and initially worked in a CARE school lunch program. After several months, she married a fellow Peace Corps volunteer and the couple was reassigned to Flores in the northern Peten region. When Betsy became pregnant, the Peace Corps moved them to Aldea Lo De Bran on the outskirts of Guatemala City where she worked on Spanish literacy, health and sanitation, and building latrines. She eventually gave birth while still serving as a volunteer. After Peace Corps, the young family spent six years in Colombia and Ecuador. Schwartz went back to Guatemala for a visit in 1995. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, March 1, 2008. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2008-026-002
Judith (Judy) Brown (nee Detrich) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran from September 1966 to June 1968 as an English teacher. She trained at Reed College in Oregon. During her first year, she worked at the University of Tehran, where a student strike began in March 1967. Following her May 1967 marriage to another Peace Corps volunteer, she taught in the town where he was stationed, Behbahan, for a short time. Afterwards the couple moved to the town of Shushtar where Brown worked at a girls school. Her time in southern Iran contrasted strongly with her experience in the capital city of Tehran. Brown taught large classes with up to 80 students, and did not get to know her students as much as she did her adult neighbors. In the interview, she compares her own marriage and that of a Muslim couple, and discusses how Iranian culture challenged her personal beliefs and caused her to re-examine her assumptions. Brown also describes how her Peace Corps experience led her to a career in public service, and how she has reconnected with Iran through her recent experience tutoring an Iranian woman. Interviewed and recorded by Susan Luccini, February 2, 2008. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2008-010
James (Jim) Maurer served as a Peace Corps volunteer in India from 1966 to 1968 on an agriculture project. He applied upon graduating high school and began serving two years later when he was a college student. In India, he worked on a pig production project that he describes as well-intentioned but poorly planned. It required more skill in community development than animal husbandry. Maurer ended up frustrated and disappointed at the lack of progress. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, October 17, 2007. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2008-003
Pamella Cavanna served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran from 1969 to 1971 on health and education projects. She had worked as a nurse prior to joining. She and her husband applied to the Peace Corps for humanitarian reasons. They trained in Fresno, California, for three months while living in a trailer. Cavanna felt well trained in the Farsi language and well prepared for the cultural differences. In Iran, her first project was establishing a women's clinic in Rezaiyeh. At the end of her first year, however, she and her husband separated and the Peace Corps administration would not allow her to return to Rezaiyeh as a single woman. Cavanna completed her term as an English teacher in Tehran. The interview also contains her observations about sisterhood among Muslim women. Interviewed and recorded by Susan Luccini, October 14, 2007. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2008-001-005
Irving Penso served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil from 1968 to 1971 on a community development project. He was assigned to the town of Lagoa Dourada. After overcoming suspicion from the town's residents, who thought he and his fellow volunteer had come for their gold, Penso organized a variety of development projects including establishing a small school which still operates today. Interviewed and recorded by Amalia Stephens, February 3, 2007. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2007-073-004
Ruth Ficek Stepien served as a Peace Corps volunteer in India from 1966 to 1968 as a staff secretary in the Worldwide Secretaries program. She had graduated from business school and worked for two years prior to joining. She trained at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., with a group of volunteers who were assigned to many different countries. In India, Stepien was assigned to the Peace Corps regional office in Hyderabad as secretary to the assistant directors. The office was very busy and she worked long hours to support the hundreds of volunteers in the area. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, June 10, 2007. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2007-059-001
Victor (Vic) Cox served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil from 1964 to 1966 in a health and community development program. He was stationed in the small community of Camapua in the state of Mato Grosso. As a sanitation helper for the Health Ministry, Cox worked on various projects including the building of a hospital that allowed the community to secure a resident doctor, and the creation of the first newspaper for disseminating health education information and other local news. He attributes the success of these projects to the local Brazilians. Interviewed and recorded by Barbara Hodgdon, July 15, 2007. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2007-025
Paul Kinsley served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey from 1965 to 1967 in a rural community development project. He gives an account of his time, discussing what made him interested in the Peace Corps. He talks about his application and acceptance for the project, spending some time on the training process. Much of the interview describes his life in Turkey: a year in one location where he and another volunteer worked on gardening and small animal raising, and his subsequent move to another village where he worked alone. Interviewed and recorded by Peter Lee, February 15, 2007. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2007-018-002
Wilson K. Mason served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil from 1966 to 1968 in an urban community development project. He served alongside his wife Gwen. The couple trained at Experiment in International Living in Vermont, including a three week field experience in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They were assigned to a small rural town in northeast Brazil and worked through the local schools on a variety of projects. Wilson was also involved with development of small scale garden farms. After some local conflict, the Masons were reassigned in the second year to a larger city and continued their teaching and small scale agriculture projects. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, December 7, 2006. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2007-018-001
James (Jim) Hamill served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru from 1965 to 1967 in an urban community development project. A graduate of Iowa State in architectural studies, he completed training at Cornell University. Hamill was assigned to Arequipa to work at a local housing agency on building design and engineering. He married a Peruvian woman during his second year of service. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, December 8, 2006. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2007-017-002
Lynn (Wickersham) Polloi served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Palau from 1966 to 1969 as a teacher. She discusses her family background and education, decision to volunteer, training, marriage to a Palauan, teaching career in Micronesia, and her return to Palau. Interviewed and recorded by Peter W. Black, July 16, 2006. 1 tape.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2007-010-011
Anne Wiggins Thompson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania from 1965 to 1967 in a secondary education project. She was a graduate in mathematics from Sam Houston University. Her training was at Syracuse University and included Swahili and practice teaching in Syracuse public schools. Thompson taught math and science at a girls' secondary school run by Anglican nuns. The school was in temporary quarters for the first six months until it could be relocated to a newly built site in Korongwe. During one vacation, Thompson worked with a United Nations smallpox eradication project in the bush. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, September 17, 2006. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2007-010-008
Tom Katus served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanganyika from 1961 to 1963 on a road surveyor project (Tanganyika I). Katus had an engineering degree from the South Dakota School of Mining. His group trained at Texas Western College in El Paso. They met President Kennedy at a Rose Garden ceremony in August 1961, then helped set up the Peace Corps Outward Bound training camp in Puerto Rico. The group also had in-country training with an emphasis on learning Swahili. Katus worked under a British regional engineer based in Morogoro. He and fellow volunteer Jerry Parsons did field survey work, such as basic road mapping and market surveys, as part of a feeder road development program. After his tour, Katus founded Volunteer Training Specialists, Inc., which provided training to 2,000 Peace Corps volunteers destined for Africa. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, September 15, 2006. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2006-073-004
Melanie Spence served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo from 2003 to 2005 in a community health and HIV/AIDS prevention project. She discusses her training, her host family, and her work in community health and peer education. Interviewed and recorded by Gloria G. Curtis, July 31, 2006. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2006-073-003
Cynthia Ellison Mehary served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia from 1965 to 1967 as a teacher. She had just graduated from the University of Buffalo when she decided to join the Peace Corps rather than take a teaching position. She trained for the assignment in Salt Lake City, which she comments on as an African American woman in the 1960s. Mehary was the first female teacher in a Jesuit co-ed school in Addis Ababa, where she taught mostly business subjects. While in Ethiopia, she met emperor Haile Selassie. Interviewed and recorded by Frieda Fairburn, July 20, 2006. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2006-073-001
Eloise Coker Hunter served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Saint Lucia from 1966 to 1970. She joined the Peace Corps in response to President Kennedy's call to service. In St. Lucia, Coker Hunter taught health and physical education to primary school students during the day, and served as choreographer of the Creative and Performing Arts Society of Castries in the evening. In 1971, she returned to Philadelphia where she taught health, physical education, and English at the high school level for 35 years. She maintained an interest in foreign travel throughout her life. Note: Interview ends abruptly. Interviewed and recorded by Paula Estornell, August 18, 2006. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2006-063-002
John Rex served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia from 1962 to 1964 as an English teacher (Ethiopia I). He applied during his senior year of college and joined in 1961. Rex trained with about 300 others in Washington, D.C. Most of the 200 Peace Corps volunteers in Ethiopia I taught and lived together in groups throughout the country. Rex's assignment was teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to secondary school students in Debre Birhan. His school became known for a student strike that was aimed, in part, at the Peace Corps volunteers stationed there. Later in life, Rex also served from 2003 to 2004 with the Namibia 22 group. Interviewed and recorded by Frieda Fairburn, May 23, 2006. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2006-060
Janet Gerardy served as a Peace Corps volunteer in India from 1965 to 1967 on a poultry project. She trained at the University of California, Davis with the India 13 group. She learned Hindi Urdu, but was assigned to work at a gram sevak training center near Nabha in a Punjabi speaking area. Her initial entry into the country was difficult due to heat and illness. Gerardy taught poultry science to the female students and teachers at the training center. She also accompanied veterinarians to rural villages to check on established poultry projects. In the second year, Gerardy moved to the village of Mandour and taught various subjects at the elementary school. She discusses her experiences as a woman in India, as well as the temporary evacuation of all volunteers in the Punjab region to New Delhi due to fighting between India and Pakistan. After the Peace Corps, Gerardy completed an anthropology degree and worked as an ESL teacher. Interviewed and recorded by Joanne Roll, April 7, 2006. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2006-058-014
Jack Wood served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania from 1964 to 1966. After training at Syracuse University, he was assigned to a teaching job in a major city over his preference to work on roads and bridges in the bush. Note: Interview ends abruptly. Interviewed and recorded by Ernest Zaremba, August 6, 2005. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2006-058-008
Allen Podell served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania from 1964 to 1966 as a road engineer. Following his training at Syracuse University, he was assigned to work as an engineer and surveyor on a roads and bridges project in Dodoma. He also taught at an Alliance school. Note: Interview ends abruptly. Interviewed and recorded by Ernest Zaremba, May 18, 2005. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2006-057-010
Laurel Zaks served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador from 1997 to 2001 on a community health project. Interviewed and recorded by Adrienne Fagler, July 24, 2005. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2006-057-004
Adrienne Fagler served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Russia from 1995 to 1997. Interviewed and recorded by Laurel Zaks, July 10, 2005. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2006-056
Ronald L. Weber served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil from 1964 to 1967 in urban planning. Interviewed and recorded by Robyn Michaels, April 29, 2006. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2006-007-002
Ralph Gilman served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana from 1962 to 1964 in a secondary education program. A graduate of Stanford University with a degree in physics, he trained at the University of California, Berkeley. In Ghana, Gilman taught math and general science in a new government secondary school. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, September 13, 2005. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2006-007-001
Benjamin W. Bellows served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador from 1997 to 2000 on an animal production project. Ben grew up on a diary farm in Michigan and earned a degree in economics and history at the University of Michigan. He trained in-country concentrating on language with field training in agriculture. He was assigned to the village of Chiguinda near the Amazon basin and worked as a veterinarian. In his third year, he was a volunteer coordinator at the Peace Corps office in Quito. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, September 18, 2005. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).