Stories – Page 2 – Museum of the Peace Corps Experience

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Stories by region, country, object, and author

Africa

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BOTSWANA
BURKINA FASO
CAMEROON
CHAD
COTE d'IVOIRE
ERITREA
ESWATINI
ETHIOPIA
GABON
GHANA
KENYA
LESOTHO
LIBERIA
MADAGASCAR
MALAWI
NAMIBIA
NIGER
NIGERIA
SENEGAL
SIERRA LEONE
SOMALIA
TANZANIA
THE GAMBIA
TOGO
UGANDA
ZAIRE

Ethiopian traditional dress

The Extraordinary Ethiopian Dress

Courtney Arnold - Ethiopia - Early 1960's. Dresses worn by Ethiopian women impressed me with their beauty from the moment I saw them.

A Scorpion’s Welcome to West Africa

In 1973, I arrived as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in the small town of Boulsa in Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), West Africa. Boulsa is ...

Finding My Place in the Village

“An ni bara” she said to me in Dyula without breaking her stride. A load of firewood was on her head; a baby was held ...

Khotso’s Success

Our son Jimmy was just one year old when Greg and I were sent to teach at a rural Lesotho boarding school on the outskirts ...

A Headdress for the Headmistress

In January 1969, I arrived at my site about 40 miles west of Kisumu in Nyanza Province, Kenya. My assignment was to teach at Nyamira ...

Papaya Generosity

I had a papaya tree outside my front door, growing right by my front steps of my porch, inside my gate in the town of Edea ...

Asia

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KOREA
MALAYSIA
NEPAL
PHILIPPINES
THAILAND

For Those Who Question the Value of Peace Corps Service

My story begins in 1966 and is an account of what I believed for 37 years to be a failed project. I had many opportunities ...

High Altitude Recipes

When I passed the Peace Corps exam in 1965, I was working as a secretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. I called ...

Coconut Creations

Elinor Capehart Philippines - 1961-63 Before the road between Dumaguete City, the capital of Negros Orientale, and our village of ....

Ghost Festival Awakening

Kevin F. F. Quigley Thailand 1976–1979, Country Director: Thailand 2012–2015 In Dansai, my students came to school in uniforms with their names stitched on the ...

Thai Temple Rubbing

Bill Saphir Thailand 1967–1970 Cultures often define their uniqueness by creating epic poems or stories. Ancient Greeks...

New Teacher Arrives

Ken Shuey Malaysia 1963–1965 This painting is based on my own experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer Teacher in upriver Sarawak on...

EASTERN EUROPE AND
CENTRAL ASIA

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AFGHANISTAN
GEORGIA
INDIA
IRAN
MACEDONIA
NEPAL
POLAND
SLOVAKIA
TURKEY
UKRAINE

What I Learned in Poland

Christine A. Wolf Poland - 1996-1998 My gratitude for Adam’s skillful driving, combined with Poland’s complicated history and growing pains, had transformed my admiration for ...

Man on a Mission

Louis Giancola India, 1965-67 In the southern India state of Andhra Pradesh, the Peace Corps assigned 30 volunteers to promote ....

Using a Straw to Fix Power Sprayers.

Laurence Rubel India 1969-1971 In 1969 I was a member of a Peace Corps agricultural extension project sent to Thanjavur District, Tamil...

Mystical Music

John Long Afghanistan 1973-1975 Shah mohammmed and I climbed out of the taxi, a Russian Volga, on the two-lane dirt road of the...

Tea-time in an Iranian School

Jim Heideman Iran 1974-1976 Each morning the jeep panel-delivery truck from the Mianeh Office of Education exited the traffic circle...

Natanz Ceramics

Peter Deekle Iran 1968–1970 After living in two relatively cosmopolitan cities during my first four months in Iran, the Peace Corps...

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

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BOLIVIA
BRAZIL
COLOMBIA
COSTA RICA
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
ECUADOR
EL SALVADOR
GUATEMALA
HONDURAS
NICARAGUA
PARAGUAY
PERU
ST. LUCIA

Angelito in my Camera

A young woman approached me one afternoon in our small farming town in the mountains just south of the Guatemalan border. We had not spoken ...

A School Named After Me

I knew my Peace Corps service was going to be an amazing experience, but little did I know that I would be remembered for many ...

Myths, Mysteries, and Milagros (Miracles)

In 1967 there was no virtual world except for the world of one’s imagination. After finishing a liberal arts degree in art education at Chatham ...

My Beautiful Son

I lived in a one-room shack with an outdoor kitchen in the village of Desruisseaux. I had found an enjoyable life as an agricultural extension ...

A Spindle Thrift: How a Toilet Paper Hanger Became a Souvenir

While the Vietnam War was foremost in my mind as a recent high school graduate, the summer of 1969 saw another conflict, the so-called “Soccer ...

A PCV Joins the Honduran Army (Almost)

Leonardo Alonso, D.O. Honduras 1982-84 In 1982, fresh out of college, I joined the Peace Corps, as a first generation Cuban-American.

NORTH AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

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PACIFIC ISLANDS

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KIRIBATI
MICRONESIA
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
SAMOA
TONGA
VANUATU

Coconut Bird

Jack and Anne Weiss Micronesia, 1966–1968 “The main thing is to listen to people before you start a program, and then to work at their ...

A Family Connection

Jennifer Neczypor Vanuatu 2009–2011 A new volunteer, I clambered into the open back of a truck on my way to a village school on the island...

Mailing Address

Museum of the Peace Corps Experience
PO Box 2427
Oregon City, OR 97045
USA

Contact Us

1 (503) 381-4206 info@peacecorpsmuseum.org

“For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps—who works in a foreign land—will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life, which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace.”
– President John F. Kennedy, March 1, 1961

The Committee for a Museum of the Peace Corps Experience is a 501(c)(3) private nonprofit organization. Tax ID: EIN # 93-1289853
The Museum is not affiliated with the U.S. Peace Corps and not acting on behalf of the U.S. Peace Corps.

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