Category Archives: Health

Combatting Malaria in Thailand

During the 1970s, Jonathan Green worked with a malaria control program in South Central Thailand’s Control Zone 3. Accompanied by a crew, Green ventured into the jungle to spray local villagers’ homes with DDT. If individuals suspected they might have malaria, the organization administered a blood test and provided medication for those who tested positive.

Here, Green wears his khaki uniform, like other Thai civil servant officials. According to Green, his boss suggested this type of uniform because villagers would be more trusting and recognize him as an official.

Green’s work took him into the jungle to visit local villages.

Green traveling by boat. Rain often made traveling on dirt roads impossible.

Members of the spray team walk along the trail carrying their equipment. Jonathan Green wrote, “Each sprayman carries a canvas bag containing several plastic bags of powdered DDT, his sprayer, and a bucket in which to mix the DDT with water. Powdered DDT is not soluble in water, so it is hard to mix. But then the whole idea is to spray a suspension on the interior walls of homes, so the water will evaporate and leave the powder adhering to the walls to kill mosquitoes who like to rest there.”

Spraying DDT underneath a dwelling’s eaves.

“Mr. Winai, the malaria control sector chief for Tongphum and Snagkhlaburi districts, examining a blood sample under the microscope.”

Jonathan Green’s collection is the only one currently in the Peace Corps Community Archive documenting a volunteer’s experience in Thailand. Green wrote detailed captions explaining each image and elaborating on his Peace Corps service.

To view more photos, visit Jonathan Green’s Facebook page.

Daily Journaling: A Volunteer’s Experience

Journals and diaries offer space for reflection. For many Peace Corps volunteers, journals provided an unbiased place to flesh out one’s private thoughts. Whether written in frustration, excitement, or simply recording the mundane events of the day, journals and diaries promoted a safe opportunity to think and write about experiences in a country far from home.

For young, inexperienced volunteers, keeping a journal provided a way to process and cope with new surroundings. Journals also include reflections on new foods, community events, local culture, and the living and working conditions experienced abroad.

Winifred Boge, Journal, January 31, 1966
Boge recalls trying a traditional Indian cheese for the first time.

Winifred Boge, Journal, February 19, 1966
In addition to working with local citizens, Boge encountered a variety of creatures: mice, lizards, and dogs.

Journals also allow us to understand the routines, experiences with illness, and the developing relationships which occurred between volunteers and local citizens. Boge reflected on her first year as a Peace Corps volunteer in India–including the challenges she faced working with people very different from herself.

Winifred Boge, 1 Year Report, February 1966

Most people who journal or keep a daily diary do so without considering the benefits it may yield to researchers in the future. Rather than document their daily activities for someone else to read, many authors record events for their own memories. Winifred Boge’s diary provides a window into the events of a volunteer’s day, in addition to discussing the complexities and challenges of serving in a foreign country with strangers. Journals and diaries provide insight into the individuals who served and the experiences in country that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

Sharing Experiences With the World: Memoirs of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

Whether sharing tales of overcoming the challenges, adjusting to a new culture, or the humor found in daily adventures, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers each possess invaluable stories about the places they lived and worked. Adventure, challenge, and personal connections built across cultural boundaries provide the basis of volunteers’ memoirs and narratives. Regardless of where they served, each story serves as a way to educate Americans about the rest of the world.

In addition to what’s available in the Peace Corps Community Archive, check out the library’s growing collection of Peace Corps memoirs. This list is far from exhaustive, but includes some of the best memoirs on the shelf. Browse the shelves for other great reads.

Beyond Siberia: Two Years in a Forgotten Place by Sharon Dirlam
Based on a collection of journals written during their time abroad, Sharon Dirlam presents the story of her and her husband’s work as Peace Corps Volunteers in Birobidjan. Serving in a Jewish Autonomous Region of Russia, removed from most foreigners, the volunteers learned about native Russians and their culture in a unique way.

From Microsoft to Malawi: Learning on the Front Lines as a Peace Corps Volunteer by Michael L. Buckler
Buckler’s memoir, inspired by his journals, depicts his yearning to serve after divorcing and completely changing career paths. The narrative recounts the fruitful collaboration between volunteers and locals in order to make significant changes within the community.

South of the Frontera: A Peace Corps Memoir by Lawrence F. Lihosit
Lihosit narrates a story about joining the Peace Corps after losing his job, which led him to meet the woman he would eventually marry. In addition to providing a sense of adventure, he presents the professional and personal challenges of living, working, and traveling throughout Mexico and Honduras during the 1970s.

The Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa by Josh Swiller
The Unheard presents a different perspective on the Peace Corps experience. Josh Swiller attempted to act normal and fit in despite being deaf. He joined the Peace Corps to experience a new opportunity. His memoir recounts the daily events, as well as his work at a local health clinic. This story provides insight into the challenges and rewards of serving in the Peace Corps with a disability.

Other books in the library’s possession include collections of stories from Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. Varying from region of the world and type of work, the stories reflect on past experiences abroad. Going Up Country includes writers who return to the country of service to document the nation’s growth, change, and what any visitor should know about the place. Tales from Colombia presents the perspectives of the earliest Peace Corps volunteers to Colombia called to action by President Kennedy’s charge. Humor evades the stories, ranging from around the world, included in The Funniest Job You’ll Ever Love.

Additional Suggestions:

A Land Without Time: A Peace Corps Volunteer in Afghanistan, by John Sumser
Even the Smallest Crab Has Teeth: 50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories, edited by Jane Albritton
Going Up Country: Travel Essays by Peace Corps Writers, edited by John Coyne
Power Lines: Two Years on South Africa’s Borders, by Jason Carter
Tales from Colombia: The Deeds and Misdeeds of 41 Peace Corps Volunteers Who Answered President Kennedy’s Call to Serve, by Gary Dean Peterson
Tarnished Ivory: Reflections on Peace Corps and Beyond, by Peter Bourque
The Funniest Job You’ll Ever Love: An Anthology of Peace Corps Humor, edited by Lelah Conrad

Improving the Health of a Community

Peace Corps volunteers educated local citizens about topics other than math, English, and science. Health care and wellness provided an opportunity for volunteers to share basic information with citizens, while working to improve the community’s overall well-being. Assignments included educating local citizens about the importance of clean water and sanitation, in addition to other issues of public health. However, in order to educate local citizens, volunteers not only had to understand another language, but also needed to speak proficiently. Knowledge of the country or region’s native language ensured volunteers’ ability to communicate essential information to local citizens.

Peace Corps Trainees at Presbyterian Clinic, Penasco, New Mexico, Oct. 1963

The image shows the Peace Corps trainees, of the Rural Community Action and Health Program, at the Presbyterian Clinic in 1963. While they were not nurses, volunteers provided essential instruction to locals regarding hygiene, nutrition, child care, and health practices for expectant mothers.

Dana Dahl, Piojo Health Center, June 1964

Volunteer Dana Dahl Seaton, learned Spanish in college before joining the Peace Corps. Her knowledge paid off because she delivered a speech to the people of Piojó, Colombia shortly after arriving in-country to work as a health educator. She explained to community members what the volunteers would be doing. Her handwritten speech is in the collection.

In addition to the initiatives for community development and health education, the Peace Corps began sending professionally trained nurses to Colombia in the 1960s. Peggy Gleeson Wyllie, one of eighteen who volunteered, served in the Peace Corps’ first group of nurses sent to Colombia. Training took place at Brooklyn College, where nurses were paired together and prepared for working in urban locations. Sent to Fusagasuga, Colombia, Wyllie trained in local hospitals before she taught practical nursing classes, in Spanish, to local students.

Such stories show the diversity of educational projects carried out by Peace Corps volunteers. Many experiences highlight the importance and value of understanding and speaking the country’s native language.

Through the Lens of a Camera

The Wait. Copyright for image is held by Ron Dizon.

Ronald Dizon served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan from 1971-1973. During his time abroad, he worked with Operation Help—a joint project between the US Peace Corps and USAID. The project fed the Afghan people who suffered from starvation, disease, and destitution worsened by a severe two-year drought.

Dizon created a photo essay about the project for the Afghan Government. The images capture the effects of drought on the lives of people. Not only informative, the images are simply fascinating.

Food Transport to Darzak Valley. Copyright for image is held by Ron Dizon.

Additional images from the project are located in the collection. The collection also includes a letter from the Afghan Government noting the importance of Dizon’s contribution to Operation Help in Afghanistan.

Village Wrestling Match. Copyright for image is held by Ron Dizon.

Strengthening Communities: Non-formal Education

The Peace Corps not only educated students in school classrooms, but used the wider community as a platform for spreading information to local citizens. Although many volunteers worked in formal education, others were assigned to community development projects. Non-formal education sought to establish community programming and workshops based on areas of need. While some focused on a specifically on health care or sanitation, others were encouraged to assess the local community’s greatest needs before developing projects on-site. Community outreach included youth and business development, in addition to environmental and health education.

In Colombia, Christine Hager sought to educate young girls and women about cooking and sewing. Serving in Dagua Valle, Colombia (1968-1970), Hager organized clubs for mothers and young girls to provide support. The community development also included experiential learning on raising chickens, planting seed beds, and gardening.

Brian Adler and Cynthia Elliott also worked with non-formal rural community education in Marshall Creek, Suriname. Instead of formally teaching students in a classroom, Brian and Cynthia organized community libraries, after-school programs for youth, and workshops to teach English to adults in the community.

The collections documenting the variety of community development reinforce the Peace Corps’ commitment to educating communities and improving people’s lives.

Peace Corps Volunteers as Versatile Educators

Education remains to be an essential part of the Peace Corps’ work. Many of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, whose donations comprise the PCCA collection, worked in some form of education during their service. The Peace Corps Community Archive contains documents, photographs, letters, and training materials from individuals who served in a variety of educational settings. Those experiences include classroom teaching, preparing educational materials, producing educational television programming, providing training for local educators, and community development.

Boge (second row, eighth from left) poses with other Peace Corps volunteers and the boys’ Basic Training School near Hyderabad, India.

Winifred Boge with students at the girls’ school in Hyderabad.

Winifred Boge served in India in 1965, where she worked with Basic Training Schools for men and women. The Basic Training Schools educated and prepared local citizens to work as teachers in community schools. The majority of Boge’s work relied on her training as a dietician to educate teachers-in-training about basic nutrition and wellness. Several photos of Boge depict her serving meals for the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) mid-day meal program, which delivered lunch to students who might not otherwise have access to regular meals.

Boge serving mid-day meals for CARE (1965).

A different form of education also occurred in India at the Andhra Pradesh Science Workshop. As Steve Bossi’s experience demonstrates, the group collaborated with local teachers to improve methods used in science education. Volunteers at the Andhra Pradesh Science Workshop assisted with the publication of the Science Teachers’ Handbook. A copy of the handbook can be found in the collection.

Bossi and Science Teacher Workshop participant. Written on image reverse: “This little wonder is an improvised spring balance made from a piece of bamboo, strapping and music wire.”

Between 1965 and 1966, Terry Kennedy participated in a unique program organized by the Colombian Government—Colombia Educational Television Project. The program sought to create educational programming for schools, as well as train local teachers how to strategically incorporate the programming into their classroom instruction. Stanford University collaborated with the project to evaluate the program’s effectiveness and overall success. One of Stanford’s final reports is located in the PCCA collection.

Perhaps one of the more unique experiences is that of Margie Tokarz, who served in Antigua during the late sixties. She worked in collaboration with the Red Cross to educate deaf children. A set of personal letters document her experiences working with the Red Cross, as well as another teacher from England.

Each of these individuals and their experiences represent the types of education Peace Corps volunteers carried out during their time abroad. However, these are only a few of the stories available in the collection. If you’re interested in learning more, make an appointment to come and browse the collection.

Robert Meade in Paraguay

Robert Meade

Country of Service: Paraguay
Place of Service: Carmen del Parana, Asuncion, Puerto Rico
Service Type: Public Health
Dates in Service: 1968-1969
Keywords: Agriculture, Community Development, Health

Accession Date: October 29, 2013
Access: No restrictions
Collection Size: 0.75 linear feet

Document Types

Correspondence
35mm slides
Training Materials
Reminiscences of Paraguay I (1997)
Publications- Image of Paraguay and Paraguay (Paraguay’s geography, culture, and history)

Finding Aid

Box 1
1. 1. Correspondence
  2. “Image of Paraguay” and Informational Texts
  3. Orientation Slides
  4. Paraguay Trainees Booklet, 1967-1968
  5. “The Political Parties and Politics of Paraguay”
  6. Public Health Program Training Materials (1 of 2)
  7. Public Health Program Training Materials (2 of 2)
  8. Puerto Rico Learning Center Participant Yearbooks
Box 2
1. 1. Slides
  2. 30th Reunion Materials
  3. Training Materials

Peggy Gleeson Wyllie in Colombia

Peggy Gleeson Wyllie

Country of Service: Colombia
Place of Service: Fusagasuga and Guapi
Service Type: Nursing and Nursing Education
Dates in Service: 1963-1965
Keywords: Education, Health, Nursing

Accession Date: February 2011; Friends of Colombia Archive
Access: No restrictions
Collection Size: 3 folders

Document Types and Finding Aid

Correspondence
Photographs
Publications
Slides

David Wessel in Colombia

David Wessel

Country of Service: Colombia
Place of Service: Rivere, Huila and Antioguia
Service Project Title: CARE Program
Dates in Service: 1962-1964
Keywords: Education, Health, Nutrition, Sanitation

Accession Date: July 2000; Friends of Colombia Archive
Access: No restrictions
Collection Size: 0.75 linear feet