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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-040
Zoe Schroeder served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho from 2012 to 2014. She had been bilingual in French and English since childhood, and was also fluent in Spanish by the time she applied to the Peace Corps. However, she was sent to Lesotho where neither French nor Spanish is spoken. Training was conducted in-country in the village of Makola, where Schroeder lived in her own rondavel (hut) on the compound of her host family. Much of the training focused on learning the Sesotho language. For her service, Schroeder was placed in the village of Tabola. She taught English in two different primary schools, developed a library, and helped to fund and build two additional classrooms. The interview includes a discussion of the difference between government schools and private schools in Lesotho. Schroeder also endorses the Peace Corps strategy of using older volunteers who are retired teachers as teacher-trainers and advisers. Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, June 5, 2016. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-037-002
(PART 2 OF 2) Henry John Drewal served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nigeria from 1964 to 1966. His training at Columbia University included study of the Yoruba language. In Nigeria, Drewal was assigned to teach French and English at the African Church Grammar School in Abeokuta, a city in the Yoruba-speaking western region. He was also assigned to be the school's sports master, and focused on volleyball and tennis. Among his accomplishments was the construction of the school's first tennis court. During school holidays, Drewal organized and ran vacation arts camps for the primary school children. In his spare time, he continued his study of Yoruba and apprenticed himself to a Yoruba sculptor, an experience which had a profound impact on the rest of his life. After the Peace Corps, Drewal returned to Columbia University graduate school in African art history and anthropology, earning a Ph.D. At the time of this interview, he continues to do research in the history of African art and the diaspora. He is active at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wisconsin, and is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin. Interviewed by Phyllis Noble, May 15, 2016 (3 digital files).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-030
Maria del Carmen Moreno served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mauritania and Mali from 1989 to 1992. Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York, Moreno declined her first invitation to join the Peace Corps as an English teacher in Costa Rica. A few years later, after earning a master’s degree, she applied again and requested a placement in Francophone Africa. This time she accepted the invitation to serve in an agricultural program in Mauritania. Her training began with agricultural skills in Frogmore, South Carolina, and continued in Mauritania where she learned French and Arabic. Moreno's initial assignment was to encourage vegetable gardening in a remote desert hamlet, 13 hours from the capital city. However, her Arabic-speaking host family did not believe that women should undertake agricultural work. After several months, Moreno moved to the nearest town and found satisfying work teaching children about agriculture. However, in January 1991, Saddam Hussein sent his family to shelter in Mauritania, causing the Peace Corps Volunteers to be evacuated to Mali. Instead of terminating, Moreno decided to continue her service in Gao, Mali. A few months later, amid unrest and active gunfire in her town, she was evacuated again, to the city of Bamako. Upon conclusion of her service, Moreno was hired by Peace Corps to train new volunteers in both Mali and Mauritania. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file). Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, May 1, 2016.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-026
Rebecca (Becca) Schwartz served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal from 2005 to 2007. Becca had already earned an MBA when she applied to the Peace Corps in 2005. She had hoped to work in a Francophone country, and was pleased to be sent to Senegal. Becca tested out of French and was able to concentrate on learning Wolof during training. She was stationed in Kaolack, where she worked in small enterprise development and found opportunities to use both languages. Her relationship with her host family was warm and satisfying. After the Peace Corps, Becca returned to Africa where she spent the next nine years working in Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria with small businesses dedicated to creating and marketing technology. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file). Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, April 21, 2016.
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-2016-001
Madeline Uraneck served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho from 2007 to 2009 as a teacher trainer. She applied to the Peace Corps at age 59, after working for Wisconsin Public Radio, teaching English in Japan, and serving as an international education consultant. Her training was in Maseru, Lesotho, and the village of Ha Makebe. Uraneck was assigned to Mount Moorosi in the district of Quthing, a remote area where she had to walk for hours to reach the rural schools. After extending her service for a third year, she joined the Peace Corps staff from 2010 to 2012, and was based in Washington, D.C., Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan. The interview includes discussion of life as a older volunteer, and the contrast between being a volunteer versus agency staff. Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, September 23, 2015. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).