Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-062
Regina DeAngelo served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana from 2000 to 2002 as a teacher. She joined mid-career at age 35 and was the oldest in her cohort. She describes training, which included living with a family in a small village outside of Accra, as intense and thorough. After training, DeAngelo began working as a computer-usage teacher at an elite school in Accra. After her first year, Accra was deemed too dangerous and she moved out into the country to teach at a nursing school. DeAngelo particularly enjoyed working with the young women, which included setting up a scholarship so some could afford to go to school, and interviewing a native healer to find out about their ancient religion. Returning home and reintegrating into her own culture proved challenging when confronted both with the abundance and waste in the U.S., and with the sense of being out of step with her age cohort. Interviewed and recorded by Candice Wiggum, March 8, 2020. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).