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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2011-014-002
Stephen (Steve) Hayden served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Micronesia from 1967 to 1969 on an agricultural development project. The Peace Corps project group was huge but Hayden ended up alone in the small, self-contained world of an island atoll with a population of only 300 people. He became deeply involved with the community and worked with its elders to try to resolve a longstanding land ownership conflict. He returned beginning in 2002 to continue to help the original land claimants establish their rights. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, March 9, 2011. 2 tapes (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-ACC-2019-093
Gary Mount served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Micronesia from 1967 to 1970 on an agriculture project. He served alongside his wife Pam. The couple was among the first volunteers to be trained in-country in Udot on Truk. After that they were sent to Colonia in the Yap District where Gary worked with an agriculture extension agent. They moved to the small, remote Satawal Island after the leaders there requested them. Mount recalls their initial trepidation at leaving the ship, but after being greeted by the entire village with song and dance, they quickly settled in. He describes his many projects working with the men of the island and his special closeness with three of the leaders. After being a part of a very small community for three years, returning home presented challenges, and Mount describes how they were ultimately solved. He also recalls a return visit to Micronesia 25 years later and his happiness at seeing that the results of his projects were still helping the people there. Interviewed and recorded by Candice Wiggum, June 10, 2019. 4 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-066
Pam Mount served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Micronesia from 1967 to 1970 as a teacher. She was initially inspired by meeting a Peace Corps recruiter at a Girl Scout Jamboree in high school. She married her boyfriend right after she graduated from college, and a week later they left for training together. Because of some political pressure, a lot of volunteers were sent to Micronesia in 1966. The couple was initially assigned to the Yap district (and had learned Yap in training), but before long they were asked by the chief of the island of Satawel to come there instead. Mount taught English first, then became an all-purpose teacher. She speaks of the communal culture and how much could be learned by her husband sitting with the men in the canoe huts and her cooking on the beach with the women. She is proud that the people of Satawel have become leaders in Micronesia, which the islanders attribute to the help that the Mounts gave them. Mount also talks about her father's death during her service and the trip home for his funeral. Finally, she discusses the challenge of figuring out what to do after their tour of duty and how the lessons of the Peace Corps continue to guide their activism in their community. Interviewed and recorded by Candice Wiggum, February 26, 2019. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2018-012
Jed Meline was a Peace Corps Volunteer on the island of Chuuk, Micronesia, from 1990 to 1992. He discusses his work as an elementary school English teacher preparing students to take the high school admittance exam, and his work as a public health worker. He tells stories about helping save a baby’s life by providing rehydration medicine and helping families get funding for water catchment tanks during a particularly severe drought. He discusses violence on the island and being protected from this violence by the clan-based support system on the island. Meline also discusses the impact of the Peace Corps on his life, the view of Americans in other countries, and the role of the Peace Corps as the training ground for foreign aid workers in USAID and more broadly. Interviewed by Evelyn Ganzglass, April 9, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2017-031
Ken Ng served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Micronesia from 1975 to 1978. Ng's training in Majuro in the Marshall Islands included the study of the Marshallese language and preparation for teaching. He then worked as a teacher and a teacher-trainer in the outer islands of Arno Atoll, and extended for a third year to teach in Mili Atoll. Six years after returning to the United States, Ng applied to the Peace Corps again. He was offered a unique role as a volunteer in a cooperative venture between the Peace Corps and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) as a teacher in China (1984-1986). He notes that this was nine years before the Peace Corps began its own programs in China. Interviewed by Phyllis Noble, 22 February 2017. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2017-013
Jonathan Pearson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Federated States of Micronesia from 1987 to 1989. He taught 8th grade in an elementary school on the small island of Lamotrek. He also worked on a library project that was started by a senior Peace Corps volunteer. Pearson discusses the communal way of life on Lamotrek, which was a week-long boat ride from the other islands in the Yap State. Pearson currently serves as Advocacy Director for the National Peace Corps Association, and shares his thoughts on the Peace Corps experience in general. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, November 18, 2016. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-008
Sara Feldman served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Micronesia from 1979 to 1981 on a community development project. She also served in Georgia from 2014 to 2016 on an individual organization development (IOD) project. For Micronesia, Feldman trained in animal husbandry in the Philippines, followed by language and teaching methods in Gagil on the island of Yap. Feldman was first assigned to Lamotrek as part of a development strategy to prepare the Outer Islands to join the Federated States of Micronesia. She worked on various initiatives that included increasing food production for export and shifting from diesel fuel to solar energy. It was very isolated, which likely contributed to a high attrition rate in her Peace Corps group. In Feldman's second year she relocated to Satawal atoll, a challenging site with scarce natural resources, and worked on development education and cooperative programs. After the Peace Corps, Feldman focused on her law career and family for 30 years before deciding to rejoin and accepting an assignment in Georgia. She worked at an NGO (non-governmental organization) in Gori with internally displaced persons from Russian occupied provinces. After completing her service, she remained in Georgia for another three years to start a business in Tbilisi to fund local programs for disabled children. Interviewed and recorded by Robert T. K. Scully, September 21, 2019. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).