My Peace Corps Story

My Peace Corps Story
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My Peace Corps Story

Since the establishment of the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961, more than 230,000 Americans have served 141 countries. The My Peace Corps Story Podcast aims to tell some of the many diverse and rich stories of volunteers, in their own words. This podcast will create an oral history of the varied experiences had by generations of Americans when they devoted two or more years of their life to national service abroad. While often cited as a positive, life-changing experience, service in the Peace Corps is not easy. This show strives to portray Peace Corps service as it is, both the good and the bad. The host of the show, Tyler Lloyd, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer and would “gladly and proudly do it all again.” The difficulties and risks of serving abroad, however, should not be understated or taken lightly. The My Peace Corps Story Podcast will captivate you with the personal stories of Americans working and living abroad. Each episode, we explore the cultures, communities, and people that make the Peace Corps an unparalleled experience, filled with stories worth telling. Every volunteer has a story. What’s yours?

  1. 03/22/2020

    The Peace Corps Coronavirus Evacuation

    On March 15, the Peace Corps announced it would temporarily suspend Volunteer operations and begin evacuating Volunteers from all posts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On this episode, five volunteers share their story of evacuation in the time of coronavirus.   Resources: Facebook Page for COVID Evacuation: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PeaceCorpsCOVIDevacuationsupport/ Peace Corps Headquarters COVID Page: https://www.peacecorps.gov/coronavirus/ National Peace Corps Association: https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/articles/new-action-to-congress-protect-peace-corps-and-support-evacuees      Enjoy this episode? Then be sure to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcast and help others discover this show.

    48 min

  2. 03/01/2020

    Happy National Peace Corps Week – Return of the Podcast

    Happy National Peace Corps Week! This episode marks the return of the My Peace Corps Story podcast. After taking a few months off, I’m starting the show up again. The show will now be a monthly podcast for the time being. If I feel that I have the time, I’ll happily increase the frequency to two or more episodes a month but I’d hate to overcommit and fall short. This week, in honor of National Peace Corps Week, I would like to share three speeches from President John F. Kennedy. As you likely already know, JFK founded the Peace Corps in 1961. In this episode you’ll hear JFK’s address to Congress on Executive Order 10924, which established the Peace Corps. Following that clip, I found an awesome promo video about the Peace Corps with a fireside chat speech from Kennedy. Rounding out the episode, I have a 1962 speech that JFK delivered to a group of 600 Peace Corps volunteers on the south lawn of White House. I hope you enjoy them. Again, happy Peace Corps Week!     Enjoy this episode? Then be sure to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcast and help others discover this show.

    20 min

  3. 10/29/2019

    COSing – Tyler Lloyd, Peace Corps Podcast Host

    After 27 months of the My Peace Corps Story podcast, I’m closing this chapter of the podcast. The podcast isn’t over though. I plan to come back to the show with a new format. Producing weekly podcasts was an ambitious undertaking but immensely rewarding. I thank each and everyone of you, whether you were a guest or listener or both. Thank you for all those 5-star reviews on Apple Podcasts. Thank you for the shares, likes, and reposts. Thank you for the comments and most importantly thank you for the criticism. It has been my pleasure to help share so many amazing stories over the past two years. In the coming months, as I take some time off, please continue to share the show. I would especially appreciate it if you help recruit new people to interview. If you know someone who has an great story, please sent them here: Share Your Story. Remember, every volunteer has a story. What’s yours?

    24 min

  4. 10/22/2019

    Teaching in the Bush – Katie McNamara, Namibia 2016-18

    Inspired by a former teacher, Katie set off to Peace Corps for an adventure and a chance to prove herself. She did both and more. This week, I talk with Katie McNamara about her time in Namibia, a country that’s twice the size of California while also being the second least densely populated place on earth. Photos from Katie’s Service Katie McNamara’s Peace Corps Story Where and when did you serve? What did you do? I served in Namibia from 2016 to 2018 as a math and science teacher in a rural village in one of the northern regions of Owamboland. What is one of your favorite Peace Corps memories? During my training I was given the local name ‘Nelago’ which means lucky, which happened to be the same name as the principal of my school that I was assigned to. When I first arrived at school my Principal was on leave and I introduced myself at assembly in front of 700 students in the local language and told them my given Wambo name and basically the whole village laughed at me. First because… they couldn’t believe I could speak their language (or I just sounded funny) and second.. they were going to start calling me ‘Principal Nelago’. It was the most embarrassing and awesome moment that really made me dive right into my new community head first. What is one of your least favorite Peace Corps memories? I had a dog named Lucy who followed me everywhere and I loved her companionship… but so did many other male dogs, so she got pregnant. She had five adorable puppies on my birthday and it was very hard to watch her neglect them and have one of them not survive and I had to bury it. Definitely not a challenge I was expecting to have in the Peace Corps. What do you miss about Peace Corps? I miss hanging out with my colleagues in the staff lounge dancing to ‘Omunye’ before school! What is something you learned in the Peace Corps? Never have expectations and get used to ‘Africa time’… it’s real. I learned PATIENCE. Do you have a favorite quote or local saying that you’d like to share? Tangi unene/ tangi unenenenenenene/ iyaloooo shiliiiii – those are all basically how you say thank you very very very much!   Learn more about Katie’s service: https://katiepcnamibia.wordpress.com/     Enjoy this episode? Then be sure to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcast and help others discover this show.

    31 min

  5. 10/15/2019

    101 Arabian Tales – Randy Hobler, Libya 1968-1969

    Photos from Randy’s Service   Randy Hobler’s Peace Corps Story Where and when did you serve? What did you do? Served in Libya from October 1968 thru most of October 1969. I, like all my colleagues, was a TEFL (Teaching English as a Second Language) teacher. Almost all of us were teaching 5th Grade. What is one of your favorite Peace Corps memories? In country memories are those that repeat…all the wonderful meals served by villagers to me so many times. What is one of your least favorite Peace Corps memories? When a barber in Tripoli was shaving my neck with a straight razor and cut both sides of my neck till it started bleeding. What do you miss about Peace Corps? The camaraderie during training. The interaction with villagers, very stimulating and fun. What is something you learned in the Peace Corps? Many things, but three big lessons were 1) To understand your own country, you have to leave it; 2) it’s only leaders who cause conflict and war, no one person on earth has any quarrel with any other and 3) the incredible brainwashing the American media has foisted upon the U.S. in terms of Israel.       Enjoy this episode? Then be sure to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcast and help others discover this show.

    46 min

  6. 10/08/2019

    From Small Town to Smaller Town – Sharelle Ahrens, Mongolia 2018-2020

    Photos from Sharelle’s Service Sharelle’s Peace Corps Story Where and when did you serve? What did you do? Ghana, 2010-2012. Primary Assignment was Biology Teacher – also ended up being head of the ICT department at my school and training new PCVs on PEPFAR grant project implementation. What is one of your favorite Peace Corps memories? So many come to mind but one that still makes me so happy to this day is the story about a young man at my school who lost his leg and now walks again with a prosthetic thanks to some resourcefulness and determination. Even better, this young man is now in school to learn to make prosthetic limbs for others in need. What is one of your least favorite Peace Corps memories? All the crazy food items I was served in the rural villages – once dining with a local chief, I was served a steaming hot bowl of goat testicles. Yuck! What do you miss about Peace Corps? 100% the people, the culture, the sense of community. What is something you learned in the Peace Corps? Something I learned and still continuing to learn is how to exercise patience and how to always be resourceful!   Learn more about Sharelle’s service: bigskytobluesky.blogspot.com     Enjoy this episode? Then be sure to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcast and help others discover this show.

    56 min

  7. 10/01/2019

    Health Resource Partners – Britany Ferrell, Ghana 2010-12

    Health Resource Partners (HRP) founder, Britany Ferrell, decided to join the United States Peace Corps during her last year of college at the University of Alabama. Shortly after her graduation in June 2010, she learned that she was going to be posted in Ghana, West Africa. Three months later, Britany arrived in the village of Eremon to be a secondary science teacher for the next two years. Photos from Britany’s Service Britany Ferrell’s Peace Corps Story Where and when did you serve? What did you do? Ghana, 2010-2012. Primary Assignment was Biology Teacher – also ended up being head of the ICT department at my school and training new PCVs on PEPFAR grant project implementation. What is one of your favorite Peace Corps memories? So many come to mind but one that still makes me so happy to this day is the story about a young man at my school who lost his leg and now walks again with a prosthetic thanks to some resourcefulness and determination. Even better, this young man is now in school to learn to make prosthetic limbs for others in need. What is one of your least favorite Peace Corps memories? All the crazy food items I was served in the rural villages – once dining with a local chief, I was served a steaming hot bowl of goat testicles. Yuck! What do you miss about Peace Corps? 100% the people, the culture, the sense of community. What is something you learned in the Peace Corps? Something I learned and still continuing to learn is how to exercise patience and how to always be resourceful!       Enjoy this episode? Then be sure to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcast and help others discover this show.

    42 min

  8. 09/24/2019

    Serving in the First Year – Addis and Jim Chapman, West Pakistan 1961-63

    Photos from Addis and Jim’s Service Addis and Jim Chapman’s Peace Corps Story Where and when did you serve? What did you do? We served in what was then West Pakistan from 1961-63. Ours was the first multidisciplinary project in PC — nurses, teachers, lab techs, librarian, agriculture specialists, even a brick mason. Jobs for the most part were poorly thought out, so most of us had to create our own. Addis was an RN, started working in a govt. hospital in Lyallpur, but had nothing to do. She then created a program to evaluate jobs requesting future PCVs to insure the jobs actually existed. Next she worked with Jim at a rural clinic in Bucheki treating up to 90 patients a day, ad finally ran a hospital operating room in Sialkot. Jim was assigned to a veterinary college in Lahore with no defined responsibilities (totally unqualified, anyway), then helped to restore a crumbling 17th century Moghul bridge, taught medical microbiology to lab students in a mission hospital in Lahore, then on to the rural clinic with Addis, finally trained graduate doctors in new, improved syphilis serology techniques at med school in Larhore. What is one of your favorite Peace Corps memories? Probably when village headman invited us to photograph him and his wife (she was in purdah, so not to be seen unveiled by other adult males). They came to our little courtyard outside the clinic, she removed her veil, and Jim took their picture. (See photo — at this point she probably wouldn’t mind!) This was the point at which we finally knew we had been accepted in the village and could be trusted. What is one of your least favorite Peace Corps memories? Aside from the illnesses which were legion (Addis had amoebic hepatitis; Jim had malaria, severe foot infection; both had many bouts of dysentery, both amoebic and bacterial). Probably the least favorite experience, or at least most discouraging, was leaving our village after a corrupt doctor was assigned and we felt we could not have either ourselves or the Peace Corps associated with this jerk and undo all the good will we had developed. What do you miss about Peace Corps? First and foremost, the other PCVs, with whom we forged lifelong bonds (we have had regular reunions every few years since our return). The villagers, especially the children, and how they accepted us and learned to trust us (and, we hope, learned from us.). What is something you learned in the Peace Corps? An appreciation for other cultures, other religions. Living for two years in a Muslim country taught us that people are much the same the world over even though they might look different, dress different, speak different, and possibly even think differently. Plus, or course, a love for travel. Do you have a favorite quote or local saying that you’d like to share? Probably nothing better than “Salaam Alaikum,” the universal greeting among Muslims. Loosely translated it means, “Peace be upon you.” This greeting has opened doors and made friends for us during our travels (e.g. Turkey, Morocco) and even her in the U.S. It also is a recognition of the common God among those of the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faiths.       Enjoy this episode? Then be sure to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcast and help others discover this show.

    53 min
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About

Since the establishment of the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961, more than 230,000 Americans have served 141 countries. The My Peace Corps Story Podcast aims to tell some of the many diverse and rich stories of volunteers, in their own words. This podcast will create an oral history of the varied experiences had by generations of Americans when they devoted two or more years of their life to national service abroad. While often cited as a positive, life-changing experience, service in the Peace Corps is not easy. This show strives to portray Peace Corps service as it is, both the good and the bad. The host of the show, Tyler Lloyd, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer and would “gladly and proudly do it all again.” The difficulties and risks of serving abroad, however, should not be understated or taken lightly. The My Peace Corps Story Podcast will captivate you with the personal stories of Americans working and living abroad. Each episode, we explore the cultures, communities, and people that make the Peace Corps an unparalleled experience, filled with stories worth telling. Every volunteer has a story. What’s yours?

Information

  • Creator
    My Peace Corps Story
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2020
  • Episodes
    123
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    My Peace Corps Story

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