Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2012-026
Patricia A. (Pat) Wand served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia from 1963 to 1965 on a rural community development and health education project. Her training in New Mexico involved an Outward Bound challenge. In Colombia, Wand was assigned with another female volunteer to the small town of Buesaco, near Pasto in southern Colombia along the Pan American highway. Her involvement with the local people went beyond sewing and health classes. Responding to the voiced needs of the outlying communities, Wand and her partner were also involved in building four rural schools and a bridge. In the interview, she relates how she heard about the assassination of President Kennedy, which happened only two months after she arrived in Colombia. Over twenty years later on a return visit to the town, Wand was able to see some of the lasting impact her presence had made among the people with whom she had lived and worked. Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, July 17, 2012. 3 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).