\t\t\t\tAlan Crew used letters to describe experiences in Benin City, Nigeria to his family in the United States.\u00a0 Included in his donation to the PCCA, a memoir\u2014compiled years after his experience\u2014contains typed copies of the letters he wrote home, as well as transcriptions of audio tapes and photos.\u00a0 His letters capture the excitement and hard work of serving in the Peace Corps.<\/p>\n
Working as a teacher at the Edo Boys\u2019 School, Crew taught literature, English grammar, and French.\u00a0 The Boys\u2019 School, surrounded by an old rubber plantation, appeared to be a difficult assignment.\u00a0 In a January 19, 1965 letter home, Crew wrote \u201cThe school has real problems and as Sam Selkow, our regional representative (administrator in charge of the Midwest Peace Corps volunteers) says, –it\u2019s the most challenging assignment he\u2019s ever given anyone.\u201d\u00a0 Despite the challenges that lay ahead, Crew eagerly admitted,<\/p>\n
The veteran Peace Corps volunteers are really exciting, and as independent as anything I\u2019ve ever seen or imagined.\u00a0 I guess that the living alone does it to you, but man are they self sufficient.\u00a0 I get the feeling that they\u2019d be right at home on the moon! The next two years look to be tough, challenging and intense.\u00a0 I think I\u2019ll like it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Based on his letters, Crew\u2019s possession of a motorcycle enhanced the overall experience in the Peace Corps.\u00a0 On January 22, 1965, Crew informed his family about the new mode of transportation.\u00a0 \u201cMy school has just provided me with a rather large motorcycle for transportation, and, as you can imagine, I\u2019m having a ball with it.\u00a0 As the Peace Corps supplies us all with crash helmets, the danger of serious injury is lessened, so you needn\u2019t worry.\u201d<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the only time he mentions his motorcycle in letters home.\u00a0 As Crew adjusted to living in Nigeria, he also got used to traveling by motorcycle.\u00a0 On January 27, 1965 Crew wrote,<\/p>\n
My motorcycle is running beautifully, although it still isn\u2019t completely broken in.\u00a0 I can understand the almost reverent feeling the old volunteers have for their machines, as they afford one the only means of mobility available\u2026There are 104 of us within 125 miles of each other so that we can all get together on weekends if we like.\u00a0 Therefore, the mobility of the motorcycle takes on a new dimension of importance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
By reading Crew\u2019s letters, it is easy to get a sense of what\u2019s important.\u00a0 They also possess insight into the volunteer\u2019s \u00a0thoughts about their experiences, how they dealt with the challenges that arose (being in a new country, work, living conditions, illness, etc.), as well as what they did for fun.\u00a0 Peace Corps volunteers\u2019 letters, like Crew\u2019s, also convey their attitudes and feelings towards a range of topics.\u00a0 Crew claimed in a letter on March 10, 1965:<\/p>\n
Whoever said that P.C. life was dull and frustrating must have had his head in the ground.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got so much to do now that I don\u2019t know when I\u2019m ever going to find time to feel bored.\u00a0 And you talk about excited! Why, man, there\u2019s a great big world outside of the states that I didn\u2019t even know existed until I left.\u00a0 It\u2019s really a sin more people don\u2019t see it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alan Crew used letters to describe experiences in Benin City, Nigeria to his family in the United States.\u00a0 Included in his donation to the PCCA, a memoir\u2014compiled years after his experience\u2014contains typed copies of the letters he wrote home, as well as transcriptions of audio tapes and photos.\u00a0 His letters capture the excitement and hard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9,19,524,30,36,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1960s","category-africa","category-benin","category-blog-post","category-correspondence","category-education","category-nigeria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/pcca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/pcca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/pcca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/pcca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/pcca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/pcca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6750,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/pcca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions\/6750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/pcca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/pcca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/pcca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}