Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2011-002-010
Thomas (Tom) Stachelek served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia from 1962 to 1964 on a rural development project. He applied as an 18-year-old directly out of high school and describes his training experiences at Arizona State University and in Puerto Rico. In Bolivia, Stachelek was stationed in the village of Tarata, outside of Cochabamba. Initially he worked with a Ministry of Agriculture extension agent, but ultimately that individual was transferred so he ended up working by himself. One project was building concrete slab latrines in his village. Stachelek also discusses how he heard about President Kennedy's assassination, and how the Peace Corps impacted the rest of his life. Interviewed and recorded by Sharleen Hirschi Simpson, June 23, 2009. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).