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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-074
Megan Nejjari served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from March 2012 to May 2014 in a youth development program. Several of her family members had careers in foreign service and other global areas, and Nejjari completed a degree in international studies. She was first invited serve in Kazakhstan, but then her group was transferred to Morocco. Her community-based training included living with a host family. She also had a practicum at a local youth center and experiential activities in the town. Although she was trained in the wrong language for her location, there were excellent technical resources. Nejjari was assigned to the town of Tiznit in a Berber region in southern Morocco. She taught English classes of 10 to 65 students at night, a women's aerobics group, and health (HIV/AIDS) and environment classes at a local youth center. She says that the curiosity of the people she met allowed for great interpersonal exchanges about our different lives. Nejjari married a Moroccan man and remains very connected to Moroccan culture. Interviewed and recorded by Randolph Adams, December 21, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-062
Diane Bendahmane served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco from 1966 to 1968 as an English teacher. Later, after taking part in the Peace Corps Fellow program, she returned to Morocco as a Peace Corps staff member. Bendahmane talks about her independent spirit and the hardship it was on her parents to see her leave initially. Her training was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in Beirut, Lebanon, where she was excused from the physical training because of the after-effects of having had polio as a child. She had taught French and English in high school before joining, so she was able to take high-level French classes and Arabic during training and utilized her teaching experience on site. Bendahmane taught in the city of Fes. She reflects on the continuing impact of French colonization on Morocco and the educational system, and the difficulty of integrating into the culture as a woman. She served in Morocco during a tumultuous time in the U.S. and the Middle East, and reflects on its impact on training, her identity as an American, and the change she saw in the volunteers she supervised. Directly after completing her volunteer service, Bendahmane joined the Peace Corps staff as a training instructor for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) volunteers headed to Morocco. She next completed the Peace Corps Fellow program (1968-1969), and worked as the TEFL Program Technical Representative for the Peace Corps staff in Morocco (1969–1972). She served under Richard Holbrooke as a staff member and discusses the close relationship they developed. Finally, Bendahmane talks about the impact that the Peace Corps, Morocco, and Islam have had on her life. Interviewed and recorded by Candice Wiggum, February 19, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-038
Susan Dill Bernstein served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from June 1964 to June 1966. She applied to the Peace Corps with many other students while still in school. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, she accepted an invitation to teach English and physical education. She was part of a group of 30 volunteers who have remained close through the years. The group initially trained in Princeton, New Jersey, for two months and then trained in-country for another month. Bernstein's only concern about her placement in Morocco was that she not be the only volunteer in town. She and another volunteer, James ("Jim") David Bernstein, were assigned to a high school in Taza. Jim provided transportation to the school for her on the back of his Lambretta scooter. They fell in love and were married during the second year of their assignment. Before she was married, Susan lived at the Le Dauphine hotel with French nationals who also taught at the high school. She enjoyed the meals that were provided for breakfast and dinner each day and came to love Moroccan cooking. 1 digital audio file. Interviewed and recorded by Ivan C. Browning, May 14, 2016.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-007
Wendy Schumacher served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from 1999 to 2001 in a library science program. The small 6-year pilot recruited American librarians to help Moroccan libraries adopt an open-stack library system, thereby increasing access to books by students of all ages and the general public. Schumacher worked in Morocco at the beginning of the internet age so much of her work also involved helping organizations develop a web presence. After her first assignment cataloging the library collection of an English-language university in Rabat didn't work out because the university was essentially closed, she worked with a USAID-funded elementary school project to help them develop a web presence for several programs. She did similar work with the Jewish Museum in Casablanca and a school supported through the Chicago Sister Cities program. She discusses resistance to this change by the male functionaries, who had previously controlled access to books. She also discusses the impact of Peace Corps service on her life, the long-term friendships she made, her return to Morocco after 10 years, and her continuing involvement in Peace Corps third goal-related activities. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, September 28, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-004
Catherine Tansey served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from 1970 to 1972 as a TEFL teacher (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). Her group was one of the first to receive their training in-country, in the fishing town of Safi. Training included both Moroccan Arabic and French as well as classes in culture, customs, and politics. Tansey taught in the provincial oasis town of Oujda, near the Algerian border. Her students in the lycee (high school) were mostly 18-19 years old. She discusses many experiences and challenges during her service, including adjusting to the local culture, food, and desert-like environment; experiencing an attempted coup d'etat while receiving language training in Casablanca; her students going on strike; a harrowing train ride; and the shock of learning that her first apartment, unbeknownst to her and her roommate, was in a "red light" district. Interviewed and recorded by Stanley Laser, September 13, 2019. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-115
Martha Fedorowicz served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from March 2012 to May 2014 in a youth development program. She was responsible for programming in the youth center in El Borouj, a small city in the middle of the country. There, she taught English and French, created an environmental club, established a computer lab, and ran a youth entrepreneurship program in conjunction with INJAZ Al Maghrib, the Junior Achievement program in Morocco. She also taught a women's aerobics class and worked with women in her community to develop a festival. Based on her very positive experience working with women and youth, Fedorowicz believes the Peace Corps should be thought of as an international relationship-building program more than an international development program. She also discusses the sexual harassment she experienced as a young foreign woman in Morocco. After her service and a backpacking trip to East Africa, she attended graduate school at the University of Michigan where she taught a class on Arab culture and served as a Peace Corps recruiter. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, June 29, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-020-005
Dan Wagner served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from 1968 to 1970. He worked on engineering projects in the area of the Atlas Mountains. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, April 24, 2002. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2011-022
Michael (Mike) Castell served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from 1966 to 1968 on public health and community development projects. He and his wife trained in Texas and received intensive French language training. However, they were stationed in an area of Morocco where the people spoke only Arabic and Spanish. Castell spent his first year working alone in a laboratory in a tuberculosis sanitarium. Finding this frustrating, the couple transferred to a remote village where Mike worked with an USAID-sponsored chicken-raising project designed to improve the nutrition of school children. The second year provided a satisfying working relationship with Mike's Moroccan counterpart, but the project came to a disappointing conclusion. Interviewed and recorded by Phyllis Noble, July 31, 2011. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-025-013
Frank Gorman served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from 1969 to 1971 as an architect. He joined instead of going into the military. His in-country training consisted of intensive language classes with an emphasis on French and some Arabic. In his architectural work on housing in Morocco, Gorman learned from trial and error that designing houses to blend in (or resemble old city buildings) led to instant acceptance. During his tour, an assassination attempt was made on the king. Everyone heard this news except for Gorman and his friend, who realized something was wrong after encountering trucks of armed soldiers on the otherwise empty streets. After serving in Morocco, Gorman re-enlisted for another year and was sent to the Congo (later called Zaire). No white people had been seen in the Congo since missionaries were slaughtered there ten years before. Gorman had to work with a local Black man so as to not be perceived as hostile. He was able to build a school for the blind with a floor plan tailored to their needs. Interviewed and recorded by Ernest Zaremba, August 19, 2004. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).