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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-1996-032-001
Mary H. Behnke, known as Lee, served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone from 1967 to 1969 in an education program. She served alongside her husband Michael. The couple was inspired to join the Peace Corps due to President Kennedy's legacy. They were stationed in Blama, where Lee taught at the Holy Ghost Mission school. Interviewed and recorded by Michael O'Connor, May 10, 1994, as part of a Northeastern University public history class. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file). An user's guide and transcript are available in Box 92.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-067
Stephen McLaughlin served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone from July 1968 to July 1970 as a teacher educator. He trained at Fourah Bay College and Njala University, both in Sierra Leone, and received instruction in the Krio language, African history, and teacher education. He was stationed at the Magburaka Government Teacher Training College in Magburaka, Northern Province, where he taught African and Sierra Leonean history to students who were training to be primary school teachers. McLaughlin also reorganized and cataloged the college's library and did some adult literacy instruction. He was an experienced secondary school history teacher, and came to Sierra Leone with the hope of teaching critical thinking through class discussions, but instead found that his students were more acclimated to lectures and memorization. After some adaptation to prevailing practices, he guided his students through the curriculum and prepared them successfully for their year-end exams. In his second year, McLaughlin was able to introduce more dialog among students and helped to create a more interactive classroom, which was a mutually beneficial give-and-take experience. Interviewed and recorded by Ellen Gagne, January 18, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-047
Vikki Ott served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone from July 2017 to December 2018 in a community health project. She discusses her life before Peace Corps and the reason she joined, what it was like being the oldest person in her cohort (age 47), and life in the most eastern part of the country. She reflects on what she was trained to do and what that evolved into once she reached her site, and the difficult decision to interrupt her service and return to the U.S. early. Ott also discusses what she misses about her service, what the next stage of life looks like for her, and the importance of the Peace Corps. Interviewed and recorded by Candice Wiggum, January 15, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-044
Christine "Christie" Pearson Musa served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone from 1981 to 1983 in an inland fisheries program. Musa trained for 10 weeks in a self-directed program, learning fish farming in Oklahoma. Training continued in-country near Makeni where she worked on local fish cultivation, studied cultural characteristics, and learned the Krio language. She was assigned to Yarya, a village in Sando Chiefdom in the northeastern Kono district of Sierra Leone, where she introduced fish farming. She convinced the locals to let her help dig ponds by supplying so many shovels that they ran out of people. She learned how to navigate the basics from nearby Peace Corps Volunteer Evelyn Higa. When Musa fetched the closest medical professional, a pharmacist, to save the life of a village woman, she had no idea that he would eventually become her husband. At the time of this interview, Musa was president of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of New Jersey. Interviewed and recorded by Patricia A. Wand, November 5, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-029
Janice "Jan" Bernsten (nee Graham) served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone from 1968 to 1970 as a primary school teacher. Graham's training began in Freetown and continued in Bo and at the rural Njala University. Her training included teacher training and learning the Mende language. Graham was first stationed in Jimmi Bagbo, where she taught all subjects to 60 sixth graders, maintained a school library, and organized a nursery school. In the summer of 1969, she helped with the training of a new cohort of teacher volunteers. Graham became engaged to a community development Peace Corps volunteer, Rick Bernsten. She moved to his location in Taiama for her second year of teaching. Jan and Rick were married in Taiama in December 1969. Bernsten emphasizes the many benefits she received from her Peace Corps experiences. Afterwards she had a career teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and then linguistics, and she and Rick have been involved in projects in several other countries. Interviewed and recorded by Ellen Gagne, October 17, 2018. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-021
Ellen Gagne served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone from July 1968 to August 1970. She taught in an elementary school in Momajo, in the southern part of the country. Gagne discusses the negative attitudes of her fellow teachers to the more open and participatory teaching methods she used, as well as the corruption of teachers who didn't show up for work, slept with students, and used students to work on their farms. At the same time, she talks fondly of the students who lived with her in her second house and the enrichment activities she provided. She discusses falling in love with one of her Peace Corps language instructors and their long-term relationship while she lived in Sierra Leone. She describes her later teacher training activities for new Peace Corps volunteers. Gagne concludes by reflecting on the broadening experience the Peace Corps provided and the difference the volunteers made in Sierra Leone. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, September 17, 2018. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-036
Donald Mooers served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone from 1982 to 1984 on an agriculture project. He later also served as Regional Director for Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia (EMA) at Peace Corps headquarters from 1997 to 1998. Mooers discusses his work in agricultural education and as an agricultural extension agent in Matotoka. This included helping leprosy survivors learn how to farm without hurting themselves. He talks about learning patience, humility, and the importance of grieving in a society in which death is common. He also talks about the unique challenges Peace Corps volunteers faced while working with well-educated counterparts in post-Communist eastern Europe, Russia, and China. Mooers advocates for an upside-down organization chart in which the role of Peace Corps staff is to serve the needs of volunteers in the field. He concludes by discussing the importance of Peace Corps in the 21st century. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, November 22, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).