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Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2001-011-034
Part of a series of interviews with Ghana I RPCVs conducted by Robert Klein, tape 34 of 85. Dybwad taught at Akim-Oda secondary school and also served as acting headmaster. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein via phone, August 7, 2000. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Collection
WHBPP
Papers, 1961-2008. Personal papers of William Henry Byrd focusing on his tenure as director of the Peace Corps outdoor fitness training programs in Puerto Rico from 1962 to 1963. Contains textual materials, photographic prints, negatives, and slides.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2005-052-005
Lawrence E. Newman served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from 1964 to 1965 in an education program. He had outdoor training at Camp Radley in Puerto Rico, then went to Syracuse University for language and culture training. Newman was stationed in the city of Blantyre and taught at the Malawi College of Commerce, where his students were adult civil servants. During semester breaks, he started a cobbler school for handicapped Malawians. Newman was in-country for the independence celebration when Nyasaland became Malawi. After the Peace Corps, he was drafted into the Army, attended graduate school at Columbia University Teachers College, and developed a long career at the U.S. Department of Education as an administrator. In the interview, Newman discusses his experiences and perspective as an African American volunteer serving in Africa. Interviewed and recorded by Linda Millette, June 12, 2005. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-006
Christian Erek Porter served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from 2011 to 2013 as a management consultant in the environment sector. He did his language and cross-cultural training at Dedza University and in a village in central Malawi. Porter lived in a Tongan village near Nkhata Bay on Lake Malawi during his service as a management consultant to the Nkhata Bay Honey Cooperative. During the interview he tells how he spent the first four months of his assignment doing market research by traveling to grocery stores all over the country, watching Malawians choose which honey to buy, and talking to them about their choices. He then, with buy-in from the co-op's directors, put in place modern business practices and trained the directors on how to sell co-op honey at premium prices to return maximum profits to the honey farmers. Interviewed and recorded by Ivan Browning, August 26, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-003
Katherine Ackerman Porter served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from 2011 to 2013 as a community health adviser. She did her language and cross-cultural training at Dedza College of Forestry and in Mkomeko, a village in southern Malawi. During the interview she tells how she supplemented her language skills with creative gesturing and dance. Fighting through malaria issues, Porter worked with Malawian counterparts in Dwambazi Rural Hospital and with a women's sewing group to help with its marketing efforts. Interviewed and recorded by Ivan Browning, September 25, 2019. 1 digital audio file. Note: The interview date given in the introduction is incorrect.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2018-017
Jaclyn (Jackie) Tayabji was served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from June 2016 to January 2017 as a secondary education English teacher. She discusses her motivation to join the Peace Corps, her training in Malawi, and her work as a teacher while stationed in Mphomwa. Tayabji also talks candidly about her loneliness in her post, which ended with a medical evacuation due to her self-reported alcohol abuse problems. However, she reflects positively on her experience overseas and on how the Peace Corps handled her medical situation. [Archivist's note: Tayabji states in the interview that she completed treatment and has been sober since her return to the U.S.] Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, May 26, 2018. 1 digital audio file.
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-078
Mary Quattro served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malaysia from August 1968 to November 1970 as a secondary education teacher. She was born and raised in a small rural community in West Virginia with a large immigrant population. She joined after completing a degree in education, and her pre-service training in Hawaii covered the Bahasa Melayu language, teaching techniques, and Malaysian culture. At the time, Malaysia was a newly independent country and welcomed Peace Corps support in various areas, especially education. Quattro boarded at her school in Lundu, East Malaysia, alongside a diverse group of students and teachers. She taught taught English as well as Malaysian history, and managed the school's library. While she loved her project in general, she felt the Peace Corps failed her in not dealing with a stalker, which forced her to leave service two months early. The experience changed how she saw the world and helped develop her self-confidence. Interviewed and recorded by Randolph Adams, December 9, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2017-022
Karen B. Pedersen served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malaya (later known as Malaysia) from 1962 to 1965 as a science teacher. She was in the second group sent to Malaya and had two years' teaching experience prior to joining. Pedersen trained in DeKalb, Illinois. She was stationed in the city of Johor Bahru, where she taught biology to the equivalent of junior high students at a public school. Pedersen also created a system of day camps to give students something to do during school breaks. After completing her service, she worked as a Peace Corps trainer in Hawaii before a completing a 28-year career as a high school biology teacher. Interviewed and recorded by Barbara Kaare-Lopez, September 1, 2016. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).
Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2017-033
Patricia Matisz Smith served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malaysia from 1973 to 1975 as a science teacher. She attended training in-country at Tuaran with a group of 14 teachers. Smith was stationed in Kota Kinabalu in the state of Sabah. She was assigned to Sekolah Menengah Kerajaan Likas, a government high school in the sub-district of Likas. Smith primarily taught biology and physics, but filled in on English and other subjects too. In her interview, she describes the challenges of teaching within a school modeled on the British educational system, and how she enjoyed traveling to other nearby countries on school breaks. Interviewed and recorded by Ivan C. Browning, February 12, 2017. 1 digital file.