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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-025
David Downes served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji from October 1967 to October 1969 as an English teacher. His initial training was conducted in Hawaii, and included language and cross-cultural orientation. Downes lived in Navua, a town on the island of Viti Levu, and taught English in a secondary school. After completing service in Fiji, he worked with Peace Corps and ACTION as a staff member in various roles. The interview includes a discussion of his motivations for joining the Peace Corps, his work and life in Fiji, and his post service experience. Interviewed and recorded by Julius (Jay) Sztuk, October 17, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-024
Paul Jurmo served as a Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia from 1976 to 1979 on a literacy project. He later joined the Peace Corps staff as the country representative in Tonga from 2012 to 2017. Jurmo discusses how he had to figure out what to do as a functional literacy advisor in the Gambia, and describes the large-scale adult literacy project he eventually developed in conjunction with the National Literacy Advisory Committee (based in the Gambian National Cultural Archives and a collaboration of multiple Gambian and international agencies). UNESCO recommended that the project be formalized, which led to the development of a new agency on non-formal education within the Department of Education. Jurmo also describes life in Pakalinging, the village in which he was initially stationed, and mentions the friends he made. He also talks about the impact that the Peace Corps had on his personal life and on his career in adult literacy, which led to a subsequent five-year stint running a Peace Corps English literacy project in Tonga, 33 years after his initial service. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, October 5, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-023
William M. (Bill) Dillon served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Fiji from 1978 to 1981 as a land use planner. His training was conducted in Suva, the capital of Fiji, and included homestays in a local village and with an Indian family. Dillon worked at the Native Land Trust Board in Suva. The interview includes a discussion of his motivations for joining the Peace Corps, his recruitment and training experiences, and his life and work in the city. He also talks about his post service experiences and later return trips to Fiji. Interviewed and recorded by Julius (Jay) Sztuk, September 12, 2018. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-022
Patrick Corrigan served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand from August 1989 to November 1992. For the first two years he taught English in a middle school in Karung, a town in the Banrai district of the Uthai Thani province in central Thailand. In the third year he lived in Bangkok and traveled throughout Thailand as an assistant to the director of the Thai affiliate of the World Wildlife Fund. Corrigan talks about teaching Thai teachers more active instruction methods and teaching children (who couldn't afford to take the bus to the main school) in a small satellite school that he and other teachers built. He discusses building a pig farm for his school and other entrepreneurial projects, such as the production of shampoo and t-shirts. Corrigan also talks about his post-Peace Corps work in Thailand with a conservation and community development project that helped the Karen indigenous people stay on their ancestral lands. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, September 11, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 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-2019-020
Mary Lou Weathers served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin from 1980 to 1983 as an English teacher. She later worked in the Human Resources Management office at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C., from 1990 to 1997. In Benin, she first taught in Parakou in the northern part of the country, and then in Allada, a small agricultural town in the south. Weathers also was the Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Coordinator for new volunteers and participated in other training in her third year. She talks about her teaching experience, including hiring a student to help him pay for tuition, and fundraising to build a library in Allada. She discusses the impact of tensions between the U.S. and Benin, including the withdrawal of Peace Corps volunteers before her time and the near evacuation of volunteers when a drunk U.S. Embassy contractor stormed a Benin military base. She also talks about the murder of a Peace Corps volunteer by a fellow teacher whom she reported as being abusive to women. Finally, Weathers comments on her work in the Peace Corps human resources office, including her term as HRM [Human Resource Management] Deputy Director and Director (1995-1996). She discusses the pros and cons of staff turnover on different parts of the agency due to the 5-year rule. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, September 20, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-019
Asiha Grigsby served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador from 2013 to 2015 in the Community Organization and Economic Development (COED) program. She also served as a Peace Corps Response volunteer in Chiriqui, Panama, from 2016 to 2017, training members of an organic farming cooperative in small business development strategies in the community of Volcan. Grigsby initially discusses her participation in the Peace Corps Masters International Program at Rutgers University and the unexpectedly long road to becoming a volunteer and completing her degree due to a previously undiagnosed kidney disease. After three years of treatment while her application was on "medical hold," she was eventually accepted into the Peace Corps and earned her Masters degree. In retrospect, she considers her diagnosis during the application process to be a blessing because early discovery of the illness has allowed her to maintain a healthy, happy lifestyle. Once stationed in Estanzuelas, El Salvador, Grigsby shares how the community members reacted to her as a very tall, unmarried African-American woman without children. She describes the work she did empowering the local women and girls to come together to address domestic violence issues. She also talks about restrictions on volunteers in El Salvador because of safety concerns, which eventually led to the closure of Peace Corps in the country only three months after she completed her service. Finally, Grisgby discusses reentry issues after each of her tours of service. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, September 23, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-018
Courtney Roberts Arnold served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia from 1964 to 1966 as a secondary school teacher. She trained at the University of California at Los Angeles, where she and her new husband David joined a dozen other married couples among the 200 trainees. The recruits prepared to teach English as a second language while learning Amharic and being concerned about the selection process. After a brief orientation in Addis Ababa, they traveled to Asebe Teferi, a town of 10,000 people with no electricity or running water. The volunteers enabled the school to add 9th and 10th grade classes. Arnold taught large classes of 7th and 8th grade English and 9th and 10th grade geography with no textbooks, no resources, and few supplies. She and the other volunteers joined Ethiopian teachers in organizing clubs for science and girls' health, as well as summer projects. She describes a special project to open a shuttered school library. Arnold reflects on relationships with the local teachers and community, her appreciation of the U.S. and Ethiopia, and the fatigue, frustrations, and lasting rewards. She remains in contact with former students and fellow volunteers. Interviewed and recorded by Patricia Wand, September 3, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-017
David Fryar Arnold served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia from 1964 to 1966 as a secondary school teacher. As newlyweds, David and his wife Courtney trained at the University of California at Los Angeles where they studied Amharic, Ethiopian history and culture, teaching methods, and endured physical training and selection-related evaluations. After a brief orientation and an introduction to Ethiopian food in Addis Ababa, they traveled to their assigned village, Asebe Teferi, where they shared a house with two other volunteers. Their arrival allowed the school to offer 9th and then 10th grade classes; David taught 8th to 10th grade English, social studies, and math. In the interview, he describes the surrounding natural environment, riding in local buses, being required to take students to watch a public whipping, going on weekend camping trips with students, and difficulties learning the unspoken cultural differences between local Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups. Arnold relates numerous stories, including those of several students who made notable contributions and have resurfaced in his life. After the Peace Corps, he established a career in journalism and is now editor of WorldView, the quarterly magazine of the National Peace Corps Association. Interviewed and recorded by Patricia Wand, September 10, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-016
Julius (Jay) Sztuk served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji from 1974 to 1976 on an architecture project. Sztuk resided in Loloma Flats while training in the Fiji capital of Suva. He was assigned to the Public Works Department in Suva as an architect co-worker. He gradually earned the respect of colleagues as he helped design the maternity ward for the hospital and several rural community medical clinics. Sztuk discusses his initial difficulty learning Hindi but spending time with local men helped him to assimilate and become close to the community. Storytelling, card playing, and drinking kava were important forms of entertainment. Sztuk visited local families in his neighborhood, hosted friends for meals, and met his future wife. He also had opportunities to tour other islands in the country. After returning to the U.S., getting married, starting a family, and working full time, he earned his architecture license in 1983. Interviewed and recorded by Patricia Wand, September 3, 2018. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-015
Thomas Michael McMahon served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) from 1961 to 1963 in education and irrigation projects. He was part of the first group of volunteers in mainland Asia. McMahon trained at the Experiment in International Living site in Putney, Vermont, with 31 recruits and studied the Bengali language and the social life and history of East Pakistan. He faced a medical problem and possible de-selection after training and was greatly relieved to enter the country with his group in November 1961. After homestay in Dacca and training in Comilla, he was assigned to teach electricity and physics in a technical school in Rajshahi where he helped to rewire emergency lights and became known as an electrical troubleshooter. In the second year, McMahon served as engineer advisor on the Ganges-Kobadak irrigation project and later became a volunteer leader. After the Peace Corps, he worked as a nuclear engineer and served 8 years as the mayor of Reading, Pennsylvania. McMahon continues with international projects and has two daughters who also became Peace Corps Volunteers. Interviewed and recorded by Patricia Wand, August 25, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-014
Bonnie Jean Campbell served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Azerbaijan from 2008 to 2010 in a community economic development project. Campbell was one of 15 seniors (age 50+) in her training group and brought many applicable skills from her prior career as a librarian, researcher, and computer educator. After 11 weeks of cultural orientation and intense language study in Sumqayit, Azerbaijan, Campbell was assigned to Ganja where she worked with administrators in a vocational training center where a quarter of the students were internally displaced people (IDP) from the border conflict with Armenia. Campbell helped develop management practices through focus groups, strategic planning, accounting, and grant writing. She discusses the personal friendships that developed with her home stay family and her impact on the lives of two young people. Being outside the U.S. while listening to President Obama's inauguration speech left a lasting impression. Campbell further reflects on the difficulty she had leaving Azerbaijan and how the Peace Corps experience radically changed her life by opening her eyes to the world beyond her home town of Port Huron, Michigan. Interviewed and recorded by Patricia Wand, August 24, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-013
Robert C. Terry, Jr. worked as a Peace Corps contractor from 1961 to 1963 to establish the program in East Pakistan, which was the first in mainland Asia. As a representative of the Experiment in International Living, Terry attended the March 1961 student conference at American University to plan the Peace Corps and then, as a contract staff member, began recruiting volunteers. In August 1961, he welcomed 33 Peace Corps recruits to their training on the Experiment campus in Putney, Vermont. As Peace Corps Provincial Director in East Pakistan, Terry set up, oversaw, evaluated, and revised the placement assignments of volunteers working on a wide variety of projects. Due to his participation in the early days of Peace Corps formation, Terry knew the key players and shares historically significant stories. After his time with the Peace Corps, he built a career in development, including the founding and promoting of service and learning organizations. Interviewed and recorded by Patricia Wand, August 23, 2018. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-012
Cathy Olson served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uganda from June 1970 to October 1972 in a education program, then transferred to Ethiopia where she worked as a pharmacist from October 1972 to August 1973. She and her husband Alan served together. In Uganda, she taught in a girl's secondary school and helped the Dutch Catholic Mission Hospital in Kalisizo organize their pharmacy. The couple ended up being evacuated from Uganda due to the threat of violence under the regime of Idi Amin. Olson discusses the violence in Uganda and the evacuation process, as well as their travels to Zanzibar. She completed her service in Ethiopia as a professional pharmacist and taught in a medical assistant school. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 24, 2018. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-011
Sally Waley served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia from July 2012 to September 2014 in a health education program. Based in Samrong, Siem Reap province, she served as a health extension agent in a rural health center that covered nine villages. The Peace Corps health program in Cambodia was new, and at first Waley felt she had not received enough technical training and did not speak the language well enough to be useful. She told herself "you are doing the best that you can" several times a day, but felt scared, stressed, and guilty for not trying hard enough. Eventually, she started a girls health club at the local high school and began working with the village chiefs and the network of local health volunteers to do more work outside of the health center. She felt that the most useful thing she could do was to be social with people and to listen. Early in her service, Waley had to return to the U.S. for a month because her father was ill, and was unsure if she should continue in the Peace Corps or remain home with her family. Despite these challenges, she became very close to her Cambodian host family, especially the 14 year old daughter, Vannay. (She stays in touch with them through Facebook and went back to visit two years after her close of service.) Finally, Waley discusses her reverse culture shock and challenges readjusting upon her return home. She obtained a job with the U.S. Department of Commerce under a federal program for preferential hiring of RPCVs. She remains connected with other volunteers and is President of the Heart of Texas Peace Corps Association. She says Peace Corps taught her to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations and to deal with ambiguity. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 24, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-010
Jeanette Grayson Gottlieb served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran from 1965 to 1967 in an elementary and secondary education program. She was initially assigned to the towns of Nowshahr and Chalus on the Caspian Sea to help English language teachers in two all-girls schools improve their English and teaching skills. Although she didn't teach the children, she taught adults in the evenings and started a crafts club for the students. Gottlieb didn't feel qualified to teach experienced teachers and even though she was busy, she experienced considerable loneliness from living by herself, the overcast weather, and being a single woman in a traditional society where women stayed home. In the second year, she transferred to the town of Hamadan where she taught her own classes in another all-girls school, held first-aid and craft classes, and lived with another volunteer. Although she reflects negatively on the deselection process during training, Gottlieb has good memories of her Peace Corps experience overall and says she learned to be alone. She also met her husband in the Peace Corps. She remains active in RPCV activities in Albany, New York, and served as president of the Peace Corps Iran Association. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 25, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-009
Judith Howard Whitney-Terry served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from September 1987 to December 1988 on a small business project. She decided to join after raising a family, a divorce, and changing circumstances related to her business. After in-country training, she was assigned to Choluteca where she worked with small businesses to develop business plans and accounting practices, which utilized her degrees and prior work experience. She also taught English as a Second Language (ESL) in the evenings. She then transferred to Tegucigalpa where she was able to travel around the country while working for the banks. Whitney-Terry discusses her informal interaction with Contras, and shares that Peace Corps volunteers were thought of more positively than other Americans. She mentions that the local volunteers were invited to a party some distance away on the night that the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa was bombed. Whitney-Terry discusses how her Peace Corps experience made her less self-centered and more conscious of how people live throughout the world. She also met her second husband through RPCV activities and continues to be involved in the National Peace Corps Association. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 23, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-008
Scott King served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chad from 1970 to 1971 in an education project. He discusses participating in a multi-country Francophone Africa 2-month training program in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere, Quebec, that included language, culture, and teacher training. His subsequent practice teaching was at the Lycee National in Niamey, the capitol of Niger, along with other volunteers going to West Africa countries. He also talks about the experience of traveling from southern West Virginia to Philadelphia, Canada, New York City, and Paris via Brussels even before he got to West Africa. In Chad, King taught English in a coed middle school in the southern town of Doba. He talks about the expat post-colonial French teachers, the poverty of students, and the nudity of women. He questions the value of teaching English to students who have little chance of making it to high school and says that the Chad government wanted English teachers as a symbol of modernization. King returned to the U.S. before finishing his tour of duty because of stomach problems, which caused him to lose 60 to 70 pounds. Nevertheless, he valued his experience in Chad and has stayed engaged in RPCV activities in West Virginia. He concludes by saying "once a volunteer, always a volunteer." Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 24, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-007
Robert Mowbray served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador from 1963 to 1996 in an agriculture and forestry program. He also served as Associate Peace Corps Director for Agriculture and the Environment in Paraguay from 1973 to 1978. Prior to the Peace Corps, Mowbray had been stationed in Okinawa, Japan, in the U.S. Marine Corps and then completed a master's degree in forestry at Yale University. His group was the first to train in Mexico at the UNESCO Patzcuaro facility, but did not receive much technical training. He discusses the "de-selection" of volunteers in his group. In Ecuador, he was located in Ibarra and Otavalo and first worked as part of the Heifer program in conjunction with the Forestry Service, assisting with reforestation, the development of farmer forestry cooperatives, and research. During his second year, Mowbray and other volunteer foresters assisted the Forestry Service in developing a request for more volunteers for the program. In his third year, he moved to Quito and served as liaison between the Peace Corps and the Forestry Service. Following his service term, Mowbray trained new forestry volunteers going to Ecuador at Montana State College. Later, in Paraguay, he worked with the Basico training company to develop more specifically defined jobs and more technical training for volunteers. He also worked on a Peace Corps project with the Smithsonian Institution and expanded the program from 30 to 100 volunteers. He discusses whether volunteers who are expected to "find their own way" or those with clearly defined jobs are more useful to the host country. He concludes the interview by recalling the reactions of volunteers and Ecuadorians to President Kennedy's assassination. After the Peace Corps, Mowbray spent his career in USAID agriculture and forestry projects in South and Central America. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 28, 2018. 3 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-006
Judith Madden-Sturges served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Urcos and Cusco, Peru, from 1963 to 1965 in a community development program. As a student at the University of Michigan, she attended the presidential campaign speech in which John F. Kennedy announced his plans to create what would later become the Peace Corps program. She discusses the research she did for working papers that were used at the Shriver Summit, which she attended, where many aspects of the Peace Corps program were debated. She mentions Sargent Shriver's interest in involving women in the Peace Corps. She also discusses her connection with the Kennedy family through her disabled sister, who attended the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Memorial School, and how experience with her sister's nonverbal communication helped to prepare her for communication with Peruvians when she lacked adequate language capacity. Madden-Sturges also served as an interpreter for Robert Kennedy when he visited Peru in 1965. Finally, she talks about the problem of imposing an American view of development on other peoples and the negative impact of the Peace Corps' de-selection process. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 25, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-005
Rebecca Madden-Sturges served as a second-generation Peace Corps Volunteer in the country of Georgia from 2005 to 2007 in non-profit development projects. Stationed in Sagarejo, she discusses her early struggle to find meaningful work with the non-profit Spectry organization and Youth House, a cultural center for school-age children to which she was assigned. She discusses her successful fundraising work, which resulted in a Peace Corps Partnership grant and the donation of books to the Youth House, and her more significant impact in obtaining funds from the U.S. State Department and Counterpoint International to renovate the gynecological department in the local hospital. Madden-Sturges also discusses her English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teaching activities with children and adults; the friends she made while in Peace Corps with whom she is still in touch; her travels in the Georgia region; and her recent activities serving as Secretary of the Boston RPCV group and attending National Peace Corps Association conferences. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 25, 2018. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-004
Charlaine V. Loriston served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea from November 2016 to November 2017 in a health education program. She discusses her life and work in the village of Lyasando, especially her interactions with women speaking the local language. As a first generation American of Haitian heritage, she talks about the similarities she found between Haitian and Guinean language and culture, and how her experience in Guinea helped her better understand Haitian language and customs. She also talks about watching the show "Roots" with the villagers and talking to them about African American history and racial diversity in the U.S. A year into her service, Loriston was severely injured in an accident while riding in a van taxi. She discusses her treatment in Guinea, her evacuation first to Conakry and then to the U.S., as well as problems with her recovery in Florida and Washington, D.C. She is very critical of the Peace Corps' initial response to her urgent medical needs. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 15, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-003
Karen Keefer served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nigeria from 1966 to 1968. She was part of an in-service teacher education program in Offa, in Kwara state. She also taught English and helped build a library that included a local Hall of Fame. Following her two years of service, Keefer worked as a Peace Corps trainer in Liberia in 1968 and then joined the staff of the Overseas Recruitment Task Force at Peace Corps headquarters (1977-1979). She started the "African Agenda" group for returned volunteers who had served in Africa, and the ACTION Alumni Association of Greater Washington. These were pre-cursers to the National Peace Corps Association on which she later served as a board member. Keefer also discusses being a founding member of the NPCA Shriver Circle of major NPCA donors, and her work on national Peace Corps reunions. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 14, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-002
Alan Dockterman served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in northeast Brazil from 1968 to 1970. He discusses his opposition to the Vietnam War as a primary motivation for joining the Peace Corps. He also talks about attrition during his group training in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Brazil. As a lawyer and an accountant, Dockterman was first placed with Fecompipe, a federation of mixed cooperatives in Vicencia in the state of Pernambuco. (The U.S. invested heavily in co-ops as a counter-communist measure during this time.) He discusses his frustration with feeling isolated in this small city and the lack of impact he had during this assignment. He talks about his much more positive social and professional experience working with a legal aid program in the city of Fortaleza in Seara state during the second year. Dockterman also reflects on the positive impact Peace Corps service had on his personal and professional life and the many returned volunteers who have gone on to work in USAID, the State Department, and other international organizations. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 13, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-001
Randolph (Randy) Adams served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1966 to 1969. He worked on community development projects in El Guanal and other towns, then continued for a third year in the education unit of a newly created agricultural reform agency in addition to training new volunteers. Beginning in the 1980s, Adams resumed his affiliation with the Peace Corps and worked in a contract position as a trainer in Venezuela and Peru, then moved to agency headquarters where he filled various positions, including Director of Evaluation (2006-2011). In total, he held 12 different positions. During his interview, Adams talks about changes in volunteer training practices over the decades, from the university-based training in the U.S. and his "outward bound" training in Puerto Rico, to in-country training and home stays for cultural immersion. He discusses how the Peace Corps was generally trusted by various factions during the post-dictator period, but also mentions the bombing of the agency's offices after an American columnist (Drew Pearson) accused the Peace Corps of being affiliated with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Adams talks about the impact of the Peace Corps, both in terms of "capacity-building" in foreign countries by helping people learn how to solve their own problems, and within the U.S. as returned volunteers share their deeper understanding of the world. He also discusses the important role of host country Peace Corps staff and his belief that the "5-year rule" that limits their terms leads to administrative inefficiencies and a lack of continuity. Adams is on the board of the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) and concludes the interview with comments about the organization's evolving role and activities. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, August 15, 2018. 2 digital files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).