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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-087
Paula Hirschoff served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1968 to 1970 in a secondary education program. She later served in Senegal from 2005 to 2007 as part of a small enterprise development program. In Kenya, Hirschoff first taught multiple subjects in the community-based (harambee) Nyamira Girls Secondary School and then, while still teaching, also served as headmistress for one and a half years after the Kenyan headmaster was removed for improper behavior and corruption. Under her leadership, the school became a government school. Hirschoff's return to Kenya and Nyamira in 1990 was filmed and broadcast as an episode on the Fox show Reunion. After a career as an editor and journalist, Hirschoff and her husband, Chuck Ludlam, rejoined the Peace Corps and served as volunteers in Guinguineo, Senegal. There she founded and managed a girls club; helped women start a number of small businesses, including a millet porridge enterprise; and conducted interviews around town as a trained anthropologist. The couple testified in support of Peace Corps reform legislation before Senator Chris Dodd's subcommittee in 2007. Throughout the interview, Hirschoff discusses the enduring close relationships she formed with students and others in both countries, and the many ways in which she has stayed connected to Africa. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, May 29, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-071
Russell E. Morgan Jr. served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1966 to 1969 as a secondary school teacher. He trained at Columbia University Teachers College in New York City. In Kenya, he was stationed for a short time in Kitui, then moved to the Marsabit Boys Secondary School in the Northern Frontier District (NFD) near the borders of Somalia and Ethiopia. This school got substantial funding from the Kenyan government in a political move to demonstrate the benefits of Kenyan rule over the district. Morgan discusses his success in preparing nomadic children for the British Cambridge exams in biology, chemistry, and physics, and touches on the outcomes for some of his students. One of them became a surgeon and was named Chairman of the Board of the Kenyan Red Cross Society and was awarded the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award by the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) in 2014. Morgan also discusses his travels to other countries, the broadening impact of his Peace Corps experience, and his subsequent career with global preventative health organizations. He continues to contribute by leading the 2014 Ebola Relief Fund of the NPCA; co-founding the Friends of Kenya group and Encore (later merged with Peace Corps Response); and serving as a member of the Advisory Board of the NPCA Community Fund. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, March 20, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-070
Glorious Broughton (née Leatherwood) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from December 1980 to February 1983 in a cooperatives program. She first spent several months in Kaimosi working with a women's tie-dye cooperative and teaching business at a local college. She left that assignment because the women in the cooperative expected her to be an artist and to provide financial support as previous volunteers from Germany had done. Broughton spent the rest of her time in Mombasa working as a business advisor with an Akamba men's wood carving cooperative. She discusses being robbed several times and living next door to two wives in a Somali family. She talks about her interactions with the Somali children and her friendships with some of the men in the cooperative. In addition, she describes her travels in Kenya and other countries in sub-Saharan and North Africa. Broughton concludes the interview by discussing her use of noncompetitive eligibility to obtain a job with the Federal government after her service, and her continued involvement with the Peace Corps community. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, March 14, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-018
Kae Dakin served in the Peace Corps in Kenya from January 1965 to November 1966 in a variety of roles. She and her husband were assigned to the small town of Njabini on the Kinangop highlands, which were mainly populated by the Kikuyu people. Their program focused on land resettlement (the transfer of land from white Europeans to native Black farmers) and agricultural development after Kenya won its independence from Great Britain. Dakin discusses the male dominated project and her roles, first as a secretarial clerk and then as a dairy officer responsible for working with local male farmers on cattle dipping, artificial insemination of cows, and castration of bulls to improve dairy productivity. She also provided nutrition counseling and started a home industry for local women making and marketing baskets and producing tie-dyed cloth. Dakin and her husband were reassigned to the larger town of Thomsons Falls (now Nyahururu) after being accused of being spies. Dakin also discusses her experience as a pregnant volunteer and delivering her first child in Nairobi. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, January 8, 2016. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-010
Michael Davidson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1964 to 1966 as a land settlement officer. He joined after graduating from law school, and trained at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee with the Kenya I group. Davidson was assigned to the Kipipiri settlement scheme in the Kinangop Plateau region of Kenya. Settlement schemes were designed to foster a peaceful transfer of farmland from European colonialists to native Kenyans after the country's recent independence. As a land settlement officer, he helped administer the property and provided agricultural, health, and veterinary support to the local farmers. After the first year, Davidson transferred to another settlement scheme as a cooperative aide. After the Peace Corps, he worked as a civil rights lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and as legal counsel for the U.S. Senate. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, November 11, 2015. 1 digital audio file.