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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-072
Tony Barclay served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from January 1968 to December 1970 as a high school teacher. His training took place at Columbia University Teachers College. He was stationed in Kapsabet, Kenya. Barclay taught 32 classes per week at Kapsabet Boys High School, including the school's first African history course. He also coached basketball and track and field, and sponsored the school magazine, art club, and drama club. Several of his students went on to earn university scholarships in the U.S., and others built successful careers in Kenya's government and private sectors. After extending his service for a third year, Barclay went on to earn a PhD in anthropology based on research in western Kenya and then joined a global development consulting firm. Since retiring, he has been teaching university courses and serving on nonprofit boards. Interviewed and recorded by Russell E. Morgan, Jr., February 19, 2020. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-014
Robert (Bob) T. K. Scully served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1964 to 1966 as a secondary school teacher. He decided to apply when he was an undergraduate at the University of Missouri. Scully trained with the Columbia University Teachers for East Africa program in New York City. He was assigned to the remote village of Bungoma in western Kenya, where he taught at St. Mary's Kibabii Secondary School, a Catholic men's boarding school. There he prepared its first graduating class to take the Cambridge exams (GCE). Scully discusses the challenges in navigating both the Kenyan tribal society and the Catholic education system during the country's transition from British colonialism to independence. In his second year, Scully started an African history society at the school as well as an independent study program where students interviewed locals and recorded tribal oral histories. He also helped to establish a school library. After the Peace Corps, Scully developed a career as a medical anthropologist working in international community based health programming. Interviewed and recorded by Wendy McLaughlin, March 22, 2015. 3 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2009-015-004
Michael Ford served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1964 to 1966 on a rural community action project. He was in the very first group assigned to Kenya; these volunteers worked as land settlement officers in a program developed after the country's independence to transfer property from white Europeans back to native Kenyans. Ford trained at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, with agricultural training in Madison. In Kenya, he was assigned to the Shamata settlement scheme near the town of Thomsons Falls in a Kikuyu area. After four months, he was transferred to the larger Ol Kalou settlement scheme nearby. At both places, Ford provided accounting, administrative, and agricultural support. He also tried to go out and visit every farmer on the scheme in person. After the Peace Corps, Ford completed a PhD in African studies and political science. He returned to visit Ol Kalou in 1987. In the interview, Ford also discusses his experiences as a Black American in Kenya. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, November 6, 2008. 3 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-056-001
Russell Breyfogle served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1964 to 1966 on a secondary education project. He joined in 1963 as an experienced teacher and an Army veteran, and completed training at Columbia University Teachers College. As part of the first Peace Corps group in Kenya, he taught at an established Anglican secondary school in Maseno, north of Kisumu. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, June 22, 2005. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-025-006
Theodore (Ted) Cheslak joined the Peace Corps after his congressman suggested that he acquire foreign experience. His in-country training of eight weeks focused on culture sensitivity and language. While in training, he was accused of being a CIA agent there to steal secrets. Cheslak's assignment consisted of teaching English, African history, and literacy classes to high school boys. He contacted some women from the Ford Foundation and was instrumental in raising money for the school. He wrote to his friends in the U.S. and asked for books and supplies to be donated to his school. Interviewed and recorded by Ernest Zaremba, August 26, 2004. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-002-023
Mary Parsaca served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1968 to 1970 as a teacher. She served alongside her husband, Jim Beverwyck. The couple trained at Columbia Teachers College in New York City. Parsaca was a medical technologist and was offered a hospital position in Nairobi, but chose to become a teacher instead because the couple wanted to serve in a rural setting. She taught a wide variety of classes at a boys secondary school in Taranganya that was just coming under government support. She also worked with a well baby clinic run by local nuns and participated in a vaccination project. In her second year, Parsaca became pregnant and refused Peace Corps' suggestion that they return to the United States. She had the baby at a mission hospital 100 miles away and was warmly welcomed back to the village, then resumed teaching for the remainder of her service. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, April 29, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2004-002-003
Jim Beverwyck served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1968 to 1970 in a secondary education project. He served alongside his wife Mary Parsaca. Beverwyck trained at the Teacher's College, Columbia University, with four weeks of intensive language courses, three weeks of home-stay in Brooklyn, and practice teaching in a Catholic school. Once in Kenya, Beverwyck taught at a secondary school. He states that they functioned well despite being remote from the Peace Corps, even with the birth of their child during service. He taught and was totally involved with the life of school, resisting the influences of a U.S. Protestant mission that started the school, which was now coming under government control. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, April 29, 2003. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-020-001
Roland H. Johnson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1964 to 1966 as a land settlement officer. After graduating from Lincoln University, he worked for Peace Corps headquarters in classification and recruitment. He decided to join as a volunteer and trained at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee with the Kenya I group. After additional in-country training at Kabete, Johnson was assigned to the Lessos settlement scheme in the highlands region to help manage farmland that was being transferred from European colonists back to the local Nandi tribe. As a settlement officer, he provided administrative and agricultural assistance to the farmers and the cooperative. He was also involved in building two bridges and planning a water system. At the end of his service, Johnson and another volunteer wrote a report evaluating the settlement project but their constructive criticism was poorly received by the Kenya government. In the interview, he also describes his experiences as a Black volunteer. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, April 26, 2002. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-014-011
Part of a series of research interviews conducted by Jonathan Zimmerman for his article "Beyond Double Consciousness: Black Peace Corps Volunteers in Africa, 1961-1971." Leon D. Dash served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1969 to 1970. Interviewed in person, January 13, 1994. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-001-002
Thomas (Tom) Bruyneel served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1964 to 1966 as a land settlement officer. He was part of the first group sent to Kenya, one year after the country gained independence. His training at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee focused on the Swahili language and featured lectures by well-known African scholars. In Kenya, Bruyneel worked for the Ministry of Lands and Settlement to administer settlement schemes where native people were being resettled on farmland previously held by British colonialists. He was first stationed at the Lietego scheme outside the town of Sotik, where he worked with the Kisii tribe. After about six months, he also assumed management of the much larger Manga scheme. Bruyneel's duties as settlement officer included cooperative development, agricultural outreach, crop management, and general administrative tasks. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, November 18, 2001. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-1996-032-010
Anita Turner served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1982 to 1984. Turner was stationed in Nairobi with the USAID office and worked with the Kenyan government and other organizations as a management training specialist in regional housing and urban development. In this capacity, she created and administered a low-cost housing program. Interviewed and recorded by Susan Goganian, May 24, 1994, as part of a Northeastern University public history class. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file). A user's guide and transcript are available in Box 93.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-087
Paula Hirschoff served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1968 to 1970 in a secondary education program. She later served in Senegal from 2005 to 2007 as part of a small enterprise development program. In Kenya, Hirschoff first taught multiple subjects in the community-based (harambee) Nyamira Girls Secondary School and then, while still teaching, also served as headmistress for one and a half years after the Kenyan headmaster was removed for improper behavior and corruption. Under her leadership, the school became a government school. Hirschoff's return to Kenya and Nyamira in 1990 was filmed and broadcast as an episode on the Fox show Reunion. After a career as an editor and journalist, Hirschoff and her husband, Chuck Ludlam, rejoined the Peace Corps and served as volunteers in Guinguineo, Senegal. There she founded and managed a girls club; helped women start a number of small businesses, including a millet porridge enterprise; and conducted interviews around town as a trained anthropologist. The couple testified in support of Peace Corps reform legislation before Senator Chris Dodd's subcommittee in 2007. Throughout the interview, Hirschoff discusses the enduring close relationships she formed with students and others in both countries, and the many ways in which she has stayed connected to Africa. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, May 29, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-071
Russell E. Morgan Jr. served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1966 to 1969 as a secondary school teacher. He trained at Columbia University Teachers College in New York City. In Kenya, he was stationed for a short time in Kitui, then moved to the Marsabit Boys Secondary School in the Northern Frontier District (NFD) near the borders of Somalia and Ethiopia. This school got substantial funding from the Kenyan government in a political move to demonstrate the benefits of Kenyan rule over the district. Morgan discusses his success in preparing nomadic children for the British Cambridge exams in biology, chemistry, and physics, and touches on the outcomes for some of his students. One of them became a surgeon and was named Chairman of the Board of the Kenyan Red Cross Society and was awarded the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award by the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) in 2014. Morgan also discusses his travels to other countries, the broadening impact of his Peace Corps experience, and his subsequent career with global preventative health organizations. He continues to contribute by leading the 2014 Ebola Relief Fund of the NPCA; co-founding the Friends of Kenya group and Encore (later merged with Peace Corps Response); and serving as a member of the Advisory Board of the NPCA Community Fund. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, March 20, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-070
Glorious Broughton (née Leatherwood) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from December 1980 to February 1983 in a cooperatives program. She first spent several months in Kaimosi working with a women's tie-dye cooperative and teaching business at a local college. She left that assignment because the women in the cooperative expected her to be an artist and to provide financial support as previous volunteers from Germany had done. Broughton spent the rest of her time in Mombasa working as a business advisor with an Akamba men's wood carving cooperative. She discusses being robbed several times and living next door to two wives in a Somali family. She talks about her interactions with the Somali children and her friendships with some of the men in the cooperative. In addition, she describes her travels in Kenya and other countries in sub-Saharan and North Africa. Broughton concludes the interview by discussing her use of noncompetitive eligibility to obtain a job with the Federal government after her service, and her continued involvement with the Peace Corps community. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, March 14, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-050
Janet Matts served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1977 to 1979 as a special education teacher for the mentally disabled. She trained at George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee (now part of Vanderbilt), followed by another three weeks in-country at Kenya Science Teachers College. Matts helped to establish a new school, Treeside School, outside of Nairobi in conjunction with the Kenya Department of Special Education, which was led by Kristina Kenyatta Pratt, daughter of the first president of Kenya. Matts talks about the challenge that joining Peace Corps created for her family, the importance of her work, and the feeling of satisfaction it gave her. She also discusses the dangers she and a friend encountered while in-country and the historical events that occurred during her service. Finally, Matts describes difficulties she encountered after returning to the U.S., and her views on the importance of Peace Corps both to individuals and to the United States. Interviewed and recorded by Candice Wiggum, January 21, 2019. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-018
Kae Dakin served in the Peace Corps in Kenya from January 1965 to November 1966 in a variety of roles. She and her husband were assigned to the small town of Njabini on the Kinangop highlands, which were mainly populated by the Kikuyu people. Their program focused on land resettlement (the transfer of land from white Europeans to native Black farmers) and agricultural development after Kenya won its independence from Great Britain. Dakin discusses the male dominated project and her roles, first as a secretarial clerk and then as a dairy officer responsible for working with local male farmers on cattle dipping, artificial insemination of cows, and castration of bulls to improve dairy productivity. She also provided nutrition counseling and started a home industry for local women making and marketing baskets and producing tie-dyed cloth. Dakin and her husband were reassigned to the larger town of Thomsons Falls (now Nyahururu) after being accused of being spies. Dakin also discusses her experience as a pregnant volunteer and delivering her first child in Nairobi. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, January 8, 2016. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-010
Michael Davidson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1964 to 1966 as a land settlement officer. He joined after graduating from law school, and trained at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee with the Kenya I group. Davidson was assigned to the Kipipiri settlement scheme in the Kinangop Plateau region of Kenya. Settlement schemes were designed to foster a peaceful transfer of farmland from European colonialists to native Kenyans after the country's recent independence. As a land settlement officer, he helped administer the property and provided agricultural, health, and veterinary support to the local farmers. After the first year, Davidson transferred to another settlement scheme as a cooperative aide. After the Peace Corps, he worked as a civil rights lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and as legal counsel for the U.S. Senate. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, November 11, 2015. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2015-037
Ivan Carroll Browning applied to Peace Corps after serving as a VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) volunteer in a youth services program in Idaho. After joining the Peace Corps, Browning was stationed in Colombia. After training in Bogota, he worked in an adult rehabilitation program in Neiva where he offered athletic activities to prisoners. He served in Colombia from February to September 1974. Thinking he could be more effective elsewhere, he accepted a new assignment in Kenya as an audiovisual specialist in the Nairobi Hospital Medical Training Center. The first months were slow but over time he became engaged with the University of Nairobi African Studies Institute where he did photography and audio recordings, helped publish a scholarly research journal, and participated in various research and medical projects. Browning was in Kenya from January 1975 to December 1976. He states that "the Peace Corps inspired me to be a life-long community volunteer." 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file). Interviewed and recorded by Patricia Wand, August 1, 2015.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-014-016
Part of a series of research interviews conducted by Jonathan Zimmerman for his article "Beyond Double Consciousness: Black Peace Corps Volunteers in Africa, 1961-1971." Marie Gadsden served on Peace Corps staff in Kenya and Uganda from 1965 to 1967; as training coordinator in Washington, D.C., from 1968 to 1970; and as country director in Togo from 1970 to 1972. Interviewed in person, January 13, 1994. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-014-021
Part of a series of research interviews conducted by Jonathan Zimmerman for his article "Beyond Double Consciousness: Black Peace Corps Volunteers in Africa, 1961-1971." Roland H. Johnson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1964 to 1966 on land settlement project. Interviewed in person, January 25, 1994. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-014-030
Part of a series of research interviews conducted by Jonathan Zimmerman for his article "Beyond Double Consciousness: Black Peace Corps Volunteers in Africa, 1961-1971." Dr. Matthew Plummer Jr. served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1966 to 1967. Interviewed by phone, February 24, 1994. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).