Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2012-010
John Archer served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1967 to 1969 on a rural community development project. He participated in a Peace Corps Advanced Training Program, which included 8 weeks of training between his junior and senior years of college. After completing additional in-country training, Archer was assigned to the village of San Lorenzo in southeastern Bolivia, where plans to work alongside a Bolivian counterpart did not pan out. He tried to find a creative role for himself amid the village's developmental and social services programs by partnering with a local agricultural extension agent and coaching a basketball team. During the second year, Archer started working more with the Heifer Project to introduce animals to the community, then transitioned to working in an orphanage in Tarija, where he developed recreation programs and tutored the children. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, December 1, 2011. 2 tapes (web streaming files combined into 1 file).