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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-076
Imhotep Simba served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador from May 2017 to August 2019 on an urban youth development project. Growing up as an African-American in Baltimore, Maryland, his mother encouraged him to be a global thinker. His early career entailed mentoring young boys in his hometown. Simba was determined to serve in the Peace Corps and applied four times. His staging took place in Miami, where he met his group and conducted pre-departure activities. The group arrived in Quito, and their pre-service training (PST) took place in the Monteserrin neighborhood. Training included comprehensive Spanish, cross-cultural content, and safety seminars. Simba worked in a drug rehabilitation center for youth, and reflected on how their lives mirrored his own. He is proud of the safe spaces he created for the youth to talk, and the sessions he led on life skills, identity, and self-discipline. He also taught English and cooking classes as a secondary project. Interviewed and recorded by Charlaine Loriston, January 10, 2020. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-070
Richard Shields served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia from 1963 to 1965 in an elementary education program. During his senior year in college, he was moved by Kennedy's speech introducing the Peace Corps and decided to serve. His initial weeks-long training started at Syracuse University where he learned about health and safety and about his job. Thereafter, he left for Liberia where cultural immersion began. Shields lived in a zinc-roofed house in Ganta near the border of Guinea. His training didn't quite prepare him for what the reality was on the ground. He learned how to teach English, reading, and social studies without resources, demonstrate concepts with everyday activities, and more. He started a food program to provide meals to students, a Boy Scouts troop, and even a glee club. He recalls his battle with malaria, awareness of his privilege, and the emotions he felt upon the news of Kennedy's assassination. Because of the Peace Corps, Shields dedicated his life to teaching in under-served communities. Interviewed and recorded by Charlaine Loriston, October 15, 2019. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-067
Deena Lawrence (then Krumdick) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho from 1987 to 1989 in an education program. As a child, she knew early on that she wanted to serve others, and applied to the Peace Corps during her senior year of college. Her training began in Atlanta, and then continued in-country at Roma, Lesotho, for two months of intensive language, technical, and culture studies. Lawrence was stationed in Ha Moruthoane, where she taught basic math and was known as "Dr. Deena." She describes the strong emotional ties she built with the local community and how returning to the U.S. reaffirmed that her service was worth it. Interviewed and recorded by Charlaine Loriston, October 30, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-065
Jennie Davis served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal from June 2011 to September 2013 in a community economic development program. She was born while her father was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana (1980-1984). Prior to joining, Davis had earned a degree in international business and worked at a finance and investment firm. She studied French in grade school, but grasping both French and Wolof was challenging. Davis was stationed in the coastal village of Mboro, where she worked on projects involving leather goods, business training, and an unsuccessful solar drying initiative. She describes struggling with the lack of relationship to her Peace Corps group, and the lessons she learned during her service. She hopes to return to Senegal someday to rekindle the relationships that she made there. Interviewed and recorded by Charlaine Loriston, November 16, 2019. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-033
Joyce Mary Moses (then Muellner) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines from 1962 to 1964 as a teacher. She learned about the Peace Corps while doing a research assignment for school. Her training began at San Jose State College and included instruction in the Tagalog language and rigorous physical activities like survival swimming lessons. Moses then traveled to her service site in Cotabato province, the barangay (village) of Salunayan. There she taught English and science to young students and ran an adult education program that trained local teachers. In the interview, Moses shares stories about using a boat to travel between the islands, the dogs who ate her Thanksgiving turkeys, and how she heard about President Kennedy's assassination. Interviewed and recorded by Charlaine V. Loriston, October 7, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-031
Mecca Luster served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama from 2016 to 2018 in an agribusiness program. Having majored in finance at Howard University, she took an unconventional route to the Peace Corps to fulfill a personal promise to serve. She was initially invited to Mali, but was then switched to Panama where she was the only black woman in her cohort. Despite limited Spanish and Woun Meu (Wounaan) language training, Luster was able to utilize her entrepreneurial and management skills to engage her community, Puerto Lara Darien. She learned how to not overthink situations and how to adjust to her surroundings. After the Peace Corps, Luster has been volunteering with Native Future, a non-profit that works to preserve the rights of indigenous groups in Panama. Interviewed and recorded by Charlaine Loriston, October 28, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-029
Joseph (Joe) Green III served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Swaziland from 1987 to 1989 on an adult education project. His first experience of living and working in under-served communities came from a volunteer trip to Jamaica in 9th grade. In Swaziland, Green was stationed in Ntfonjeni, where he created trade skill development programs. He describes himself as a Black man returning to Africa and discusses how this led him to unlearn ideas of who and what he was, and to observe the dynamics and value the differences between American and African black families. (He later elaborated on these ideas in his book, "You are Invited to Serve.") Green was part of a select group of Peace Corps alumni invited to participate in the Fellows Program, and he served as Associate Peace Corps Director for the Youth and Urban Education Program in Jamaica from 1991 to 1993. Interviewed and recorded by Charlaine Loriston, October 3, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-002
Debra E. (Debi) Pinkney served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger from 1998 to 2000 as a nutritionist with an emphasis on maternal-child health. She later worked on the Peace Corps staff for 8.5 years in Washington, D.C., Lesotho, and Cameroon. Pinkney had studied French, Spanish, and German before applying to the Peace Corps. Her training began in D.C. and continued in Hamdallaye, Niger. Despite intensive training in the Zharma (or Djerma) language, she was not adequately prepared for life in Kobia, a small village of about 300. She describes the negative reception she received and recalls moments when her Americanism clashed with the Songai; frustrations with being an African American serving in Africa; and a vacation with a Peace Corps colleague that left the two fighting for life and her feeling that her "black life did not matter." Pinkney also voices her criticism of the race issues that persist within the agency, but ultimately says that the Peace Corps was the toughest job she ever loved. Interviewed and recorded by Charlaine V. Loriston, September 2, 2019. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).