Crossing Cultures With the Peace Corps: Peace Corps Letters From the Field

A few days after President John F. Kennedy took office, Kennedy asked his brother-in-law, R. Sargent Shriver, to direct a Peace Corps Task Force.  The Peace Corps was established by JFK via executive order on March 1, 1961, and Shriver accepted the president's request to officially lead the organization.

Contains a collection of letters from Peace Corps volunteers serving in various nations. Organized into sections on: Fitting In; Local Flavor; Witnessing Change; The Challenges of Service; National Standards; and Author Updates.

Peace Corps Volunteers agree to serve in order to meet the three goals of the agency: to provide assistance to the peoples of other countries; to help the people of other countries better understand Americans; and to help Americans better understand other peoples. This book helps fulfill the agency’s third goal through remarkable stories by Volunteers in the field.

Table of Contents:

Introduction and Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

World Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Fitting In

“A South African Storm,” by Allison Howard (South Africa) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

“Hey, Driver!” by Thalia Kwok (China). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

“One Step at a Time,” by Fred Koehler (Togo) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

“Girl Farmer,” by Angela (Rich) George (Dominican Republic) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

“Angel,” by Barbara Arrington (South Africa) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

“How Does One Spell Happiness in Paraguay? ...” by Jane Troxell (Paraguay) . . . . . . . 44

Local Flavor

“Waking Up, Stepping Out,” by Steve Iams (Nepal) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

“Soneka’s Village,” by Richard Lupinsky Jr. (Tanzania). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

“Enough to Make Your Head Spin,” by Elizabeth (Vernon) Kelley (Bulgaria) . . . . . . . 66

“A Day” and “A Year,” by Jordan Earl (Uzbekistan) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Witnessing Change

“Looking Back,” by Carla Bachechi (Macedonia) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

“Just Like the Old Days,” by Jonathan Phillips (Mongolia) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

“Respect for Authority,” by Jonathan Phillips (Mongolia). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

“Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle,” by Nina Porzucki (Romania) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

The Challenges of Service

“Chiggers and Other Challenges,” by Joan Heberger (Honduras). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

“A Life of Sacrifice and Hardship?” by Robin Solomon (Kazakhstan) . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

“Lessons Learned as a New Teacher,” by Christian Deitch (Kyrgyz Republic). . . . . . 124

National Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Author Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Crossing Cultures With the Peace Corps will be most useful for elementary teachers and for language arts and social studies teachers in grades 6–12. Each story is followed by a lesson or teaching suggestions. Standards for English, social studies, and geography are listed for each lesson. Older students interested in volunteering with the Peace Corps, and members of the general public interested in what the Peace Corps does, will also enjoy this publication.