Rick & Jan [Graham] Bernsten


Neil Didriksen

...married to Jane Brown, currently working as the chief executive officer of the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, resident of Lutherville, Maryland (just 4 miles north of Baltimore City), just published first novel (Battle Creek, a tale of slavery and freedom in colonial Maryland), step-father of Daniel Brown, still unable to speak or understand Mende, steward of two rescue dogs, unable to grow paddy rice, skeptical of Obama and the Clintons, fully recovered from Peace Corps medical care, intolerant of ...., unable to raise tennis game above 3.5 club level, not on Facebook, only on Twitter under false identity, enjoying Medicare. [Editor's Note. Here is a link to Neil's book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Creek-Neil-Didriksen/dp/1936328127/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365438143&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=Neil+dedriksen ]
Dave and Jeanne [Yacura] Geiman
I extended my Peace Corps tour for a third year to help more
completely establish the oil palm
nursery project several of us had set up in
the south. When I returned to the States I married Jeanne Yacura, who
had been in the teacher group of 1968. We returned to the States and began a farming business in
Virginia, which was to be the basis for funding for law school. I got that backwards. After 6 years with 3 floods and 2 droughts,
we sold out at close to breakeven.
Lifestyle, food and wine, friendship rating: Wonderful. Financial rating: Awful
Drove around the country, drove a truck, saved some money,
went to business school, got a real job.
Worked for Continental Grain Company, traded grain, did
planning, managed the cattle and swine businesses, left after 15 years. Experience rating: Depending on year, good, boring, okay, good,
great, wonderful, mediocre, spectacular, pretty bad, time to quit. Financial rating: Pretty good.
Bought some land and started producing baby pigs for a large
Coop. Bought some more land and produced
some more little pigs. Managed the Coop
farm construction program. Did
consulting on risk management.
Experience rating: Long exciting
days of work, lots of challenges, great fun.
Financial rating: Risky but
successful.
Got bored, started management software company. Experience rating: Exciting. Financial rating: See family farm financial
rating above. Became President of
internet Cattle Trading Company. How
many cattle do you know who use the internet?
I warned the investors.
Experience rating: Fascinating. Financial rating:
Sometimes got paid.

Red Johnston
After I left Sierra Leone, I worked in a bar in Santa Cruz, did additional Peace Corps stints…Tunisia
and Togo…, and taught English in Iran, where I met my wife Barbara. I finished graduate school in 1980. My working career in Instructional Design includes interesting work in Saudi Arabia, where our two daughters, Maeve and Kate, were born.
Seattle has been home since 1986. I’ve been an Instructional Designer in tech training and learner assessment, with developing technology projects at Microsoft and Boeing. I wrapped up formal full time work at the end of 2012, with a maintenance training program for the new 787 airplane.
Current projects include: backyard agriculture, wine swilling, fiddle, travel, fishing, crabbing, cc skiing, camping....oh God, it's just relentless.
After I left Sierra Leone, I worked in a bar in Santa Cruz, did additional Peace Corps stints…Tunisia
and Togo…, and taught English in Iran, where I met my wife Barbara. I finished graduate school in 1980. My working career in Instructional Design includes interesting work in Saudi Arabia, where our two daughters, Maeve and Kate, were born.
Seattle has been home since 1986. I’ve been an Instructional Designer in tech training and learner assessment, with developing technology projects at Microsoft and Boeing. I wrapped up formal full time work at the end of 2012, with a maintenance training program for the new 787 airplane.
Current projects include: backyard agriculture, wine swilling, fiddle, travel, fishing, crabbing, cc skiing, camping....oh God, it's just relentless.
Judy [Koch] & Skip McGinty


After the Peace Corps experience, I married the girl I wrote
to for the 2+ years I was in the PC. I started to work in the whey processing
business in !970 and have worked in 5 different plants in Wisconsin. I am still working full time and have been
plant manager at Muscoda Protein Products for the last 22 years. My wife Pat
and I had 3 children. They have all
graduated from college and are scattered around the country.

Life should have calmed down a lot with the retirement of both of us. But it seems still to be very full, possibly because we ask for it.
Our three kids have homes with their spouses in nearby Petaluma. So grand kids are often available. Our pasture, creek and big garden attract them. The lot of work we put into keeping the garden under control we count as exercise ;-)
Jon hikes regularly; it's just that the pace is a little slower with each passing year. Vina's knees keep her off the trail giving her time for painting and volunteering as a mediator with the Sonoma County Small Claims Court.
We look forward to the upcoming reunion and a chance to visit with old friends.
From 78-87 I returned home to San Francisco and started my own company arranging export financing to Africa, setup a company in Bujumbura to export gold and later moved to Bukavu Zaire and with a Congolese partner, setup a successful operation to purchase and export alluvial cassiterite. In 85 formed a new company in California to purchase defaulted African debt, moved my family to London and we lived there from 88-93. My partner, Derek Mhango, was a well-regarded Zambian Lawyer and my major clients included the Central Banks of Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda. I had a captive relationship with Lazard Brothers London who financed my deals. My partner died of AIDS in 93, and we moved to Bethesda Maryland because Anne was offered a great job as associate editor for a pharmaceutical reference book. From 1993-2008 (when I retired ) I continued to do Africa debt recoveries working as a consultant to a Rothschild affiliate in Washington that spun off in 1997 called Debt Advisory Services LLC,. We had an office on Pennsylvania Avenue just one block from White House. I got too old for the Africa circuit so moved in to the Balkans in 2002. I was familiar with Serbia and Romania as I visited frequently from London trying to purchase their parastatal African receivables. .We did all of the Export Import Bank guaranteed deals in Bulgaria, then I flipped into project financing in Bulgaria and Russia. Had an office in Sofia that I closed in 2008.
Anne and I had two daughters, Malaika, who is 35 and works as a CPA in Seattle and Stephanie, who is 27 and completing her PhD at Columbia and lives with her husband in New York. Anne had serious health issues being diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 2003, survived, then was diagnosed with ALS in early 2009 and died one year later.
Vina and Jon Breyfogle

Our three kids have homes with their spouses in nearby Petaluma. So grand kids are often available. Our pasture, creek and big garden attract them. The lot of work we put into keeping the garden under control we count as exercise ;-)
We look forward to the upcoming reunion and a chance to visit with old friends.
Phil O’Rourke
After Peace Corps and grad school in Arizona, I married Anne Tainter and I worked as regional sales rep for Beringer Winery in the Bay Area for two years. Wanted to go back to Africa so got a job as Country Director for Catholic Relief Services. Returned to Freetown in 73 where I managed PL 480 programs and Anne became a PCV and taught dispensers at Connaught Hospital. We lived at Lakka beach and sailed and swam every day. After two years was transferred to Ghana where we only lived three months then transferred to Bujumbura, Burundi, where we lived three years. Anne was a retail pharmacist and I started a system of clinics. It was the happiest time of my life.
Anne and I had two daughters, Malaika, who is 35 and works as a CPA in Seattle and Stephanie, who is 27 and completing her PhD at Columbia and lives with her husband in New York. Anne had serious health issues being diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 2003, survived, then was diagnosed with ALS in early 2009 and died one year later.
I am happily remarried to Laurie, who is also a CPA and was CFO of the Magruder Companies in Maryland, and we moved to Kauai one year ago. We do competitive outrigger canoe racing, surfing, stand up paddling, and I swim in the ocean every day.
Joe Brady

Joe served in Tomania and Mongo Bendugu in Koinadugu Province and had the privilege of associating with Matt Dwyer, Odilon Long, Chris Siegler, Jeannie Sams (Siegler), Marilyn Skeen, Salifu Kamara, Kent Winchester, Doug Ferrier, Jerry Cashion, Jim Davis, Dean Sakry, Dave Bean, Mary Hudson, Beth Avery, many others and lots of Koranko, Limba and Maninka with plenty more sense than me.
BEST regards to everyone.
Joe and Linda
Dick and Linda Barrows
We left Sierra Leone, stayed overnight in Amsterdam and the next day arrived in Wisconsin where we have lived ever since.
Dick:
I entered graduate school in agricultural economics and earned a Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I was offered a position as assistant professor of agricultural economics at Wisconsin and for about 15 years I conducted research, taught graduate students and worked as a state extension service specialist, consulting (free) with state and local governments on natural resource policy and public finance. Throughout my career I worked internationally on agricultural economic development policy and law, especially in sub-Saharan Africa but also in Latin America and East Asia. Beginning in 1988 I served in various position in the university, including interim associate dean in the cooperative extension service, associate dean for academic affairs in my own college of agriculture, and university-level positions including director of academic services, interim dean for international studies and programs, associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education and interim provost. I retired from the university in 2006. Since then I have done some university accreditation work, consulting with local government on land use policy, and teaching and advising graduate students in the education doctoral program at Edgewood College in Madison.
Linda:
I worked for a year after Peace Corps and then entered a master’s degree program to obtain my teaching license. I taught 4th, 5th and 6th grades in Madison public schools and after an administrative internship program I entered a doctoral program in education. I earned the Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction in 1978 and in 1980 I assumed a position as superintendent in a small rural school district in Sharon, Wisconsin. In 1985 I moved to Deerfield as superintendent and in 1988 I moved to Oregon, Wisconsin where I was superintendent for 18 years. I focused on instructional reform and learning outcome improvement and never lost my love for, and appreciation of, the life of a classroom teacher. I was state superintendent of the year in 2002 and our school board won national awards for their instructional policy development. I retired in 2006 and since then I have done consulting for an alternative high school, served on the Board of Visitors for the UW-Madison School of Education and taught and advised graduate students in the doctoral program in education at Edgewood College in Madison.
Family:
We have two daughters (St. Paul, MN and Cuernavaca, Mexico) and four granddaughters. We have an apartment in the lower level of our younger daughter’s house in St. Paul, an apartment across the terrace from our older daughter’s apartment in Cuernavaca, a cabin in northern Wisconsin, our “regular” house in Oregon, Wisconsin and many family members still back in Ohio. We lead a nomadic lifestyle.
Retirement activity:
In retirement we are on the “1/3 – 1/3 – 1/3 Plan.” We spend 1/3 of our time in family/fun activities, 1/3 in continued professional activities and 1/3 in volunteer community service or “pay-back” activities. For both of us, our major continued professional activity is our work in the doctoral program in education at Edgewood College. Some “pay-back” activities include starting a program for student teachers to do part of their practice teaching in a Mexican school, work with Habitat for Humanity in St. Paul and help with a Minneapolis program for the homeless.
Phillip A. Windell

Following PC Salone, my ride has been on a roller coaster. I landed at the University of Pittsburgh where they gave me an M.A. in Sociology but I never managed to finish my dissertation. Instead, I helped start a research center (University Center for Social and Urban Research) before departing for D.C. where I worked for the grant-in-aid agency of the Dept of Justice (Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, LEAA). When Congress closed its doors, I moved to the Energy Dept, initially at the HQ in D.C. and then in Portland, OR at the Bonneville Power Administration. During my 8+ years at BPA, I was also married and fathered my only son (to date). When BPA re-organized I became the home-spouse for my son for a couple of years before briefly returning to work as a consultant in the energy conservation field. When the field crumbled I went to work for the County human services agency in Portland, evaluating mental health and substance abuse treatment programs. State and local revenue problems led to the unemployment lines and an attempt to start a small business making handcrafted soap with my then wife. In 2005, everything crashed and I moved back to Pittsburgh where I knocked around for awhile, working odd jobs and focusing a good deal of attention on my photography, with some success, but not enough to make it a career. Eventually I landed a position with the county aging office which then led to my current position with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare in Harrisburg. After eight years of focus (pardon the pun), my photography is receiving some appreciation, with invitations to exhibit around the “city.” In the past year, a whole new chapter has begun with my engagement to a Croatian national as we work to obtain permission for Ivana to join me here in the States.
In the process, I was first asked to leave the University and then invited to return while I assisted in starting a social research center and, in the process, taught photography at an alternative inner-city school operated by the Urban League. At the same time, I made a film about a very troubled area of the city of Pittsburgh (Homewood-Brushton) and then several other silent short films. I’ve managed a multi-million dollar research project for the Bonneville Power Administration and then spent two years as the home parent for my then-young son (5-7 years old). I’ve endured stretches of unemployment that extended beyond unemployment insurance and ended in near-bankruptcy. For eleven years, I had the great fortune of being a companion to one of the finest canines on the planet. Just now, I am the lead analyst on a fascinating study designed to improve care and reduce costs for folks who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. I've scraped some bottoms and I’ve gazed from some peaks. All-in-all, it’s been a fun ride – so far, as there is more to come.
Unfortunately, and much to my regret, there’s too much on my plate to join the group at the Oregon coast this fall.
[Editor's Note: Here is a link to Phillip's photography www site: http://www.photosbyphillipawindell.com/]
Kent Winchester’s path following the Peace Corps
After my Peace Corps tour, I visited my sister in Washington D.C. en route to returning home to Hawaii. She taught at Gallaudet College for the Deaf and I too was offered a job at the Model Elementary School for the Deaf. I tutored using Programmed Instruction and Computer Assisted Instruction. Our computer for teaching math, science, English, etc. filled up an entire room and was less powerful than this laptop I use now. While studying for a masters degree in Deaf Education, Susie and I married and we went to Rochester, NY for my Internship. I was offered a faculty position at Rochester Institute of Technology and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. I began as the director of student planning and evaluation and over the years worked in: career counseling, human development, leadership development, adapted physical education, multicultural education. I set up an outdoor experiential education center at a red barn on the RIT campus and mentored over 25 world-wide outward bound interns on deafness and deaf culture, while they mentored me in outdoor skills. Along the way I led expeditions to Colorado, Canada the Adirondack State Park. I received additional training to work with people having disabilities. I helped organize a downhill ski program for people with disabilities and also was a guide for blind skiers with the US Disabled Nordic Ski Team (the slower skiers). I consulted with Discover Interdependence in California and New Mexico. Susie and I created two wonderful children together. We eventually shared a mediated divorce and remain friends. I left a comfortable tenured senior faculty position to open Rockventures Indoor Climbing and High Ropes Course Center. We facilitate corporate teambuilding; adventures with people having disabilities, addictions and other life challenges; camps, parties and gym memberships.I was lucky to meet and marry a wonderful new partner, Ginny. She retired from teaching and public health careers and is actively involved with her church, staying connected with her children and new grand child. We enjoy hiking, paddling (recently I began stand-up paddling) hanging with children and grandchildren, travelling and lots more. Together we designed and built a log cabin in the Adirondacks. Between us, we have four children, and five grandchildren. My daughter Tracey is an Administrative Social worker, lives in Brooklyn with her daughter, Lena. My son, Brian, lives in Rochester area with wife Christine and children; Aiden, Dalton and Ellaina. He is with Frontier Communications and she is with Harris Interactive. Ginny has a daughter, Nicki, living in Phoenix, Arizona (works with IKEA) and another daughter, Lindsay, living in Painted Post, near Corning NY (works in banking) with husband Mike (school teacher) and 2 year old grandson, William. I started a second company, Shared Adventures, which helps combat Veterans adjust to civilian life through work/study programs, adventure curriculum and community service with Rochester City School District youth (enrichment programs). I have been able to separate my feelings for our ongoing wars and some of our foreign policies, and appreciate the wonderful service and commitment young men and women have made for our country. Part of my motivation includes survivor’s guilt and appreciating the lucky path I am on. I reflect about my friends who served in Vietnam and died there and at home (Matt Dwyer with agent orange); or continue with health issues, due to agent orange connections (Mike Williams). I would like to help Veterans set up similar Shared Adventures organizations in Colorado and Hawaii (coincidentally two places where we would like to spend more time). When asked by servicemen, where did I serve? I say, “I served in the Corps, in West Africa in the late 60s. The Peace Corps.“ I am proud of my service there as well and it’s pretty cool staying connected and getting to better know many of you, with Ginny, through these wonderful reunions. We applaud the hard work and effort putting the 2013 Oregon reunion together! It is sincerely appreciated by both of us!
Dennis and Irene Zimmerman
Hi yall. Little has changed except aging since most of us were together last. Hood River is busier and I'm less patient with the incursion of non-indigenous hordes. Since Charleston Irene and I have traveled mostly in Oregon. We've visited out of the way places we've not seen; even as life long residents.
Irene has been retired about four years and happy to not be in the ever growing and less organized school scene. She is finding time for herself when the grandgirls are needing a sitter.
I've cut my working days back a little. Its a trick I've not quite mastered to not be present at the office but still maintain a practice. I thought I'd escape the technology that has been imposed for billing and reporting. I had planned to retire before my twenty-five year old computer. I can't find the floppy to reboot. Now, that's a metaphor!
We are happy to not travel far for our reunion this year. Newport and Agate Beach are the area we enjoy most on the Oregon Coast. Welcome all to Oregon again.
Rose Ann Scott and Don Olson
After
the Peace Corps Jim and I had a daughter Sarah in Kewaunee Wi. After 18 months, I left Jim and Kewaunee and moved to Madison
WI with Sarah, where I have lived ever since.
I taught in Madison while picking
up a degree in Computer Programming. I was
5 years at American Family and 17 years at General Casualty Insurance Companies
as an IBM mainframe programmer. I worked
on all lines of insurance, but toward the end of my career on Business
Owners and Contractors Insurance doing the whole bit
from systems analysis and design to all the programming and implementing. In 2000 I was asked to develop a new line of
business and to train everyone working with me so to their surprise I retired.
During this time Sarah grew up, got married to a Pakastani, Farhan Khan and had 1 son Arman. They live in Milwaukee and are both in the Information Systems business. My 14 year old grandson even spent the summer installing software on systems. So our foreign language is acronyms.
I also have been handing with a great guy for 20 years, Don Olson. Don has retired from teaching Building Construction at Madison Area Technical College. He has a home on 18 acres in the driftless area of Wisconsin, where he spends his time constructing lots of stuff. I spend time there gardening, tending a prairie and clearning trails through the woods.
Since retirement I have found my ancestral home in Germany. It was so interesting that I am up to 300
pages of a book I am writing about the Huwe History. I also led 12 Huwes on 2 week trip there in July. Don and I also travel internationally, go someplace south with the camper in the winter (last year it was New Mexico). This year we will have been in the camper for 3 months. We go to lots of national, state and corps of engineering parks. As a member of the RPCV’s of Madison WI, I was instrumental in achieving $1 million in sales for the International Calendar. The profits are mainly donated to Peace Corps Project. I have also developed a love for prairies. I work on 5 of them, along a bike path, at 2 neighborhood centers, my yard and at Don’s. It is a challenge as one year the neighborhood center said it was going to mow it down and plant grass (so I called the newspaper) and this year the city mowed off the 600ft x 40ft one along the bike path. They are so so sorry, they say. So not only are prairies work they are local politics and they keep my blood circulating.

I left Sierra Leone in July 1969 and went to DC (Bethesda Naval Hospital) to get medical treatment for an allergic reaction to Aralen. Bill Cason put me up in his apartment on Swann Street for a few weeks!

After that, I went to Syracuse University for a doctoral program in social policy and ended up staying for a career, doing research on disability rights, school inclusion, autism etc. For the past 9 years I’ve been Dean of the School of Education. My wife Sari is also a professor at Syracuse – women’s studies, qualitative research, sociology of education. We have two children, Noah and Molly, both married and living in New York City.
We have one grandchild (Anika) and another on the way. Sari and I will
retire this year and plan to relocate to Orwell, VT. We’ll both probably continue some of our research, travel, photograph (http://biklenartphotography.com/), garden, make films, cook, ski, read, etc.
I couldn't have wished for a better, more fulfilling life. So much travel and adventure while living, teaching and experiencing amazing cultures around the world. Such incredible friends I've been fortunate to have met and shared time with, especially this Peace Corps family. Along the way by good fortune I met my perfect life partner, Christine, who gave me focus, love, and most recently a kidney, as well as two wonderful children, Kevin and Kerrie, who took the only good advice I ever offered, to follow the path with heart. I am very grateful.

Completed 1967-1969 Peace Corps service as an agricultural volunteer.
1970, Moved to Murnau, Germany. Studied German at the Goethe Institute for 6 months. Moved to Stuttgart, Germany. Worked and continued to learn German. Spoke it fluently.
1971, Moved to United States. Studied Guidance and Counseling at University of Kansas.
1974, Met Jett, fellow student, in graduate school at KU. She was studying for a Ph.D. in Speech Communications. Jett, my then fiancé, and I traveled to Bumbuna, Sierra Leone, West Africa, and worked a year helping Bumbuna villagers start alluvial gold mining operations.
Late 1974, Jett and I moved to the U.S. and married in African clothes. Have two daughters: Stacy, 33 and Bridget, 36. Both have M.A. degrees--Stacy in Philosophy with focus on medical ethics and Bridget in Book Arts and also Library Science.
1986, Received M.A. degree in print Journalism from University of Kansas. Subsequently, wrote a newspaper column on computers for the Topeka Capital-Journal. Started my computer consulting business where I worked several years.
Nov. 2003, near fatal car accident near Vail, CO. In a coma for three weeks. Had traumatic brain and physical injuries. In recovery 10 years. Have seen multiple cognitive therapists and physical doctors. Now nearly fully recovered.
Retired. Currently volunteer in the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library’s art gallery and at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center. Currently physically active, going to YMCA several times weekly and walking 20 to 35 miles each week. Blessed to have such a warm and loving family.
Peace Corps in Sierra Leone? Was I there? Where and when the hell was that?
Give me a minute. Oh yeah, now I remember!!! Lillian (nee Mordes) and I both extended for a year (1969-70) – she wanted the village experience after working at Njala, and I couldn’t (still can’t) figure out what to do with the rest of my life – so I finished, or came close to finishing, a bridge construction project and she taught elementary school in Gbinti. We returned to the USA, and I worked on farms in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia for a brief time, and then enrolled at the University of Florida in Animal Science. Left with MS and PhD close to 10 years later and joined a USDA program in Dairy Nutrition at Penn State as a researcher in 1980.
In 1990, I joined a nutrition consulting group in Wisconsin, became a partner a few years later and have been with them ever since. We live in Madison,
Wisconsin – a wonderful place to live, no matter what the coasters say. Lillian is retired from the Madison school system. As the old saying goes, I’m not retired, just tired; plugging away about half time, but my time is coming soon. The transition currently includes monthly poker and book groups, biking and golfing when the weather permits, and a little traveling when the money permits. I took up golfing about six years ago at the insistence of a good friend, naively thinking that my skills (pretty good eye-hand coordination) as an expert billiard player would directly transfer over to the outdoor version, but have realized how foolish a thought that was.
We have three kids – Michael, a writer in New York City, Joshua, a nurse in the Twin Cities, and Sara, who just moved from California to New York, to become an assistant rabbi in Scarsdale, NY. Four grandkids – two in Minneapolis and two in New York – give us lots of joy.
Living in CT. Teaching ESOL to adult immigrants and refugees. Daughter married a man from Mali. Son lives off the grid in Norcal.
Taught in overseas schools in Saudi and Brazil a total of 9 years.
Divorced from Roger Cox. Appreciative of our mutual continuing respect and friendship. Remarried. Pieces of my heart still in Salone.
Look forward to seeing old friends.
Following those exciting experiences, plain old dumb luck led me to a job with the United Way in Harrisburg, PA, which eventually evolved into a 31-year career with United Way, all but three of those years as an executive. Next I spent 6 years leading the United Way in Bethlehem, PA. From there it was a major move to North Carolina, where I was the United Way CEO in Raleigh for 8 years and in Winston-Salem for 16 years. I especially enjoyed Winston-Salem, which is a very caring and generous community and proved a great place to live and raise our family. I am proud that during my tenure there we raised more than $257 million and achieved one of the highest campaign per capitas among all United Ways.
There was never a question but that we'd retire in Winston-Salem. As a retiree my major volunteer commitment has been with Wake Forest University, where I'm involved with their mentoring program for graduate and undergraduate business degree programs. I also serve with a strategic group tasked with identifying ways for Wake Forest University to expand and improve its already substantial and impactful community engagement efforts.
Lucinda is a few years younger than me and is continuing to work for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. While she hasn't been able to singlehandedly solve their many challenging problems, she's certainly done more than her share of good work. As I pursued my United Way career, Lucinda served very effectively as an agency executive with three important social services agencies: Interact (domestic violence and rape crisis), Program for Female Offenders and Contact (supportive telephone response). Lucinda and I are also lucky to have a place in the North Carolina mountains near Grandfather Mountain. We also annually vacation in Puerto Vallarta, where we thoroughly enjoy the people, culture and food.
Lucinda and I are blessed to have two adult children, who have good jobs and pay their own bills. Mike is 38 and is an engineer with Duke Energy in Durham (only about 100 miles from us). Sarah is 28 and is a manager in international tax with Price Waterhouse in Atlanta.
That's about it. For anyone traveling through the Winston-Salem area, please don't hesitate to visit with us. We have lots of space and would be delighted to see you

Following our Peace Corps stint we returned to the States just long enough to give birth to our daughter Shari and eldest son Brian. Then it was off to Ethiopia for three years with Lutheran World Relief. Jim was hired as a community development specialist, working at an agricultural training center, and Jan worked with a village retail cooperative and later taught at Good Shepherd school in Addis Ababa. Before returning stateside we adopted our youngest son Andrew (Henok).
Most of our years since Ethiopia have been spent in Ithaca, New York employed by Cornell University. Jim recently retired after more than thirty years as a director of International Programs/College of Agriculture and Life Science (IP/CALS). Jan worked several years as director of alumni relations for the Johnson Graduate School of Management and now works part time with the undergraduate research program for the Cornell Nanoscale Facility.
Jim's position at Cornell took him to nearly 50 countries for various education and training projects, primarily in East Africa, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. Jan was able to travel with him much of the time and we made many lifelong friends throughout the world. Our children benefited greatly from these international relationships and they, too, are involved in overseas endeavors. Our daughter Shari is a legacy Peace Corps volunteer, having served in the Dominican Republic.
In retirement mode we are enjoying the opportunity to spend more time with our two grandchildren,
Alexandre in Paris, France and Havana right here in Ithaca. We remain very involved with our local Peace Corps Program, particularly the RPCV group. Jim also advises from time to time for the Peace Corps Masters International Program and the Peace Corps Fellows Program, both of which he brought to Cornell. Most recently, the newly appointed Peace Corps director visited Cornell as part of IP/CALS 50th anniversary celebration and the 53 year Cornell – Peace Corps partnership. We hope to get in more travel and Jim, especially, is looking forward to traveling in a leisure mode rather than a work mode. We also look forward to a few more RPCV/Sierra Leone '67 - '69 reunions. For sure, we are blessed. It's a good life.
As you may remember, I extended my stay in Sierra Leone for a third year,
having only really settled down and figured out what would be useful
halfway through my second year. When the co-op grain storage
building we were constructing was complete, I was joined by a high school
buddy and we traveled overland to Niger and up into Mali as far as Gao
before dysentery forced us to fly out to Bamako for medical
treatment. From there, I continued west to Senegal and then cross
the Western Sahara to Morocco, Spain and home.
Having survived the jungles of Africa, I thought I would try my hand in the jungles of New York City While there I took a course in stained glass fabrication and started my first real career move. Work led me to Flemington NJ, Vermont and eventually Upper Black Eddy, Pa where I combined the stained glass with commercial goat dairying, cabinetry, and free-lance construction. The economic depression of 1974 convinced me I better find myself a real job as a crew chief for a low-income weatherization program in Northwest New Jersey. Since I knew nothing about energy conservation (the totality of my building skills training having occurred on St Croix), I started a crash program to educate myself in what was to become a life-long career in building science, energy retrofit and preservation. This included some early passive solar projects that got me involved with the Philadelphia-based Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Association and other early pioneers in Jimmy Carter’s moral equivalent of war. By the early ‘80s I felt a need to move beyond the East Coast and headed west until I ran out of money in western Wisconsin, where I have been pretty much ever since.
Working mostly as an independent consultant, I wore many hats in the fields of energy conservation and efficiency: trainer, field researcher, evaluator, designer, remodeler, designer, writer, editor, building scientist, restorationist, and policy advisor, etc.
Since my commitment to energy work is greatly inspired by political/environmental concerns (Three-Mile Island scared the shit out of me), I have also been a strong volunteer advocate for a wide variety of environmental and progressive political issues including energy policy, civil rights, mining, WTO, anti-war, factory farming and local community concerns.
Ten years ago, after a couple of false tries earlier in my life, I met the love of my life, Kate Hale Wilson, a
now-retired English professor from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and we were married in 2009. Our “Boy” is now 25 and a recent graduate of De Paul University and living in Chicago where he is an active participant in the improv scene there. Misha is our 13-year old shepherd/lab mix who we couldn’t bear to put in a kennel this time, so we decided to drive out to Newport and bring Misha along for you all to meet.
Kate and I divide our time in Wisconsin between my 1900 brick Victorian fixer-upper in the progressive community of Viroqua, Wisconsin, Kate’s 1930s bungalow in Eau Claire. We also spend substantial time at my brother’s ‘70s timber-frame “chalet” in Warren, Vermont that we inherited following his death four years ago.
When in Vermont we get together from time to time with Peter and Sally Krusch…when they are not flying off to New Zealand or driving to Alaska in an old VW bus. I’ve seen the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars several times now and even had a chance to chat with several of the members when they played at a local music fair in our Vermont community.
All three houses are ‘investment project homes’ for me to practice my building rehab skills now that I am in retirement. I am content mostly with puttering and staying politically active including presently serving on the Viroqua City Council and the Historic Preservation Commission. Kate is tackling the largest issue that confronts us all as Group Leader for the Eau Claire Chapter of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby.
Hobbies include genealogy, wooden canoe restoration and a recent resurrection of my work with stained glass. I still like to hike, canoe, bike and ski, but not nearly with the vigor I once exhibited. . I have a bit of an obsession for planting more trees on our property and for some reason my garden keeps growing larger every year, but I finally broke down and bought a rototiller and retired my grubbing hoe.
After that "life happened" (here in Portland,Or.) some wonderful and some
"hit the fan" and I found myself with less purpose and direction. Then I turned
to someone far greater than I found marriage, relationships or possessions and
that was a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Until I went to Sierra Leone, I thought I was going to stay in Italy
(where I was then living) for life, but Sierra Leone put different ideas in my
head, and after finishing my time in PC, I ended up going to graduate school
studying urban and regional planning, specializing in developing country issues.
At the suggestion of one of my professors, I joined the World Bank, where I
ended up working primarily on southeast Asia, based in Washington DC. Then the
UN offered me a chance I had been hoping for to live and work in countries I had
grown to love in that part of the world, so I moved with the UN to Laos and
worked there for about 6 years, then to Haiti, Nepal, Thailand, Pakistan, and
Myanmar/Burma, which together kept me living abroad for about 25 years, working
for different UN agencies.

I decided then it was time to come home to re-discover my own country, so I have now been back in the US for about 7 years, enjoying a very busy retirement based in Washington DC again, but traveling often both within and outside the US and trying to learn more about parts of the world that I never knew professionally, particularly the Middle East and Latin America. It has been such a great journey, but I have always known that the experiences in SL were the most powerful I had anywhere, and even though I wasn't in the CD group (I worked as a teacher in Freetown in 1969-70, and spent 1970-71 based in Matham, working at the Masanga Leprosy Hospital), I look forward to reconnecting with those of you I knew during those years, and to meeting others I never had the chance to know before.
During my 2-year experience in an African history doctoral program at Boston University prior to Teacher Corps I had become convinced that the main thing I had learned while attempting to teach A & O Level GCE West African history at Schlenker Secondary School in Port Loko was how little I knew about teaching. (SL PC staffer Gary Knamiller had definitively confirmed this fact in 1968 after "Kna" had observed a class I had taught one afternoon at Schlenker).
Teacher Corps was a superb teacher training model, particularly for training teachers to work in inner city and rural schools. If Teach For America incorporated more of TC's successful features, perhaps many more TFA teachers would remain in education much longer than they currently do.
My experience as a TC intern led to a lifetime career in teacher training, staff development and educational administration. After 6 years of teaching middle school reading & social studies (and even some math), I ended up spending way too long, 30 years, as a state educational bureaucrat at the Rhode Island Department of Education. As RI's state director of the National Diffusion Network/NDN, a federally funded program to promote replication of exemplary educational programs, e.g, Facing History & Ourselves & Reading Recovery, I had the opportunity to work with many outstanding educators across the country. Serving as RI's gifted/talented & home schooling consultant however drove me nuts. My favorite position at the RI Dept of Ed was my last: RI state social studies curriculum coordinator-- for the past 10 years.
In 2007 I began what turned out to be 6 years of commuting several times a month to Chapel Hill, NC , to care for my mom who lived to a very ripe old age, in large part because she fell madly in love with college basketball when she was in her 70s. In fact I got to attend the annual "Late Night with (UNC basketball Coach) Roy Williams" with my mom last October when she was 100. Commuting to Chapel Hill made it easy to retire from my job.
In the past 6 months since my mom died I have done a great deal of travelling, including attending my 50th high school reunion in New Orleans in March and a trip to Sicily & Malta in May. Just this past Sept 21 I returned from taking a 2-week course at Oxford /UK. This week I began taking 2 courses here at home in Providence, one on contemporary China and the other on the Indian Ocean, based on Robert Kaplan's book MONSOON. Some recent excitement in my life, resulting in a cast up to my elbow, has been tripping over seldom-used (OK-- I used it to hang clothes over) exercise equipment ---as I was running to get to Zumba class. But the biggest excitement has been my only child's (my 32 year old daughter Amanda) recent announcement that she is engaged! Amanda was a PCV from 2004-06 in Benin. She is going to marry the brother of her very 1st PC friend from PC training in Philly, the very same friend Amanda hitchhiked to Timbuktu with in 2005.
News of some 67-69 SL/PCVS: This past June after taking a course on James Joyce's ULYSSES I got to spend a week on a special Yeats/Joyce tour of Dublin & Sligo, Ireland, in the company of 2 RPCVs from our time in Salone, Bob Reidy ( Bumpe/67-69) and Dave Phillips, one of my PCV housemates in Old Port Loko!
I have the url for a number of websites recently sent to me by James Madison U Professor & RPCV Bumbuna mid-70s Joe Opala whose 35 plus years of research on Bunce Island and South Carolina have resulted in a number of videos, articles and films that many of you have seen or know about. Those of you who were at the Wild Dunes reunion in SC will remember the very special evening we spent there when PRISCILLA Ball's 8th generation great granddaughter, Thomalind Martin Polite, her husband Antawn Polite, and Charleston COURIER journalist Herb Frasier shared their very touching experience of traveling with 2 dozen of us to Freetown in 2005 on a classic "African Homecoming" journey.
After all the work & effort made by Dave Geiman and his extraordinary team to plan this upcoming reunion in Newport, OR, I can't believe that October 1st has finally almost arrived. I join the rest of you in expressing my gratitude to all those who have worked so long and hard to make this reunion a reality! Thank you, too, Rick Bernsten, for your tremendous patience and diligence in collecting and compiling all these updates.
common to see eagles, great blue herons, kingfishers and once last winter a river otter (until recently completely extirpated from these parts) slipping and sliding at play on a sheet of ice along the bank. I am something of a hermit, having never married and living by myself in a cave like setting.
I play guitar/banjo/kazoo in a string band. The group's taste in music is eclectic. Our songbook contains tunes from Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family to Fats Waller to Traditional. We seem to be warping Jazzward at present. For the last few years I have been taking classes with the Bucknell Institute for Lifelong Learning, a recently formed organization offering classes in a range of topics. Many of the course leaders are retired professors. Perhaps the greatest feature of this program is the classmates you get to interact with. In one class, there were five PhDs out of the 20 or so who were taking the class. And no tests or term papers! I have attended most of our group’s reunions and I'm looking forward to a great time at this one. I'm not sure how many more I've got left in me; perhaps the next one could be closer to [my] home. See you soon. Take care. Peace.
During this time Sarah grew up, got married to a Pakastani, Farhan Khan and had 1 son Arman. They live in Milwaukee and are both in the Information Systems business. My 14 year old grandson even spent the summer installing software on systems. So our foreign language is acronyms.
I also have been handing with a great guy for 20 years, Don Olson. Don has retired from teaching Building Construction at Madison Area Technical College. He has a home on 18 acres in the driftless area of Wisconsin, where he spends his time constructing lots of stuff. I spend time there gardening, tending a prairie and clearning trails through the woods.
Since retirement I have found my ancestral home in Germany. It was so interesting that I am up to 300
pages of a book I am writing about the Huwe History. I also led 12 Huwes on 2 week trip there in July. Don and I also travel internationally, go someplace south with the camper in the winter (last year it was New Mexico). This year we will have been in the camper for 3 months. We go to lots of national, state and corps of engineering parks. As a member of the RPCV’s of Madison WI, I was instrumental in achieving $1 million in sales for the International Calendar. The profits are mainly donated to Peace Corps Project. I have also developed a love for prairies. I work on 5 of them, along a bike path, at 2 neighborhood centers, my yard and at Don’s. It is a challenge as one year the neighborhood center said it was going to mow it down and plant grass (so I called the newspaper) and this year the city mowed off the 600ft x 40ft one along the bike path. They are so so sorry, they say. So not only are prairies work they are local politics and they keep my blood circulating.
Doug Biklen

I left Sierra Leone in July 1969 and went to DC (Bethesda Naval Hospital) to get medical treatment for an allergic reaction to Aralen. Bill Cason put me up in his apartment on Swann Street for a few weeks!

After that, I went to Syracuse University for a doctoral program in social policy and ended up staying for a career, doing research on disability rights, school inclusion, autism etc. For the past 9 years I’ve been Dean of the School of Education. My wife Sari is also a professor at Syracuse – women’s studies, qualitative research, sociology of education. We have two children, Noah and Molly, both married and living in New York City.
We have one grandchild (Anika) and another on the way. Sari and I will
retire this year and plan to relocate to Orwell, VT. We’ll both probably continue some of our research, travel, photograph (http://biklenartphotography.com/), garden, make films, cook, ski, read, etc.
Bill Cason
Tim Elmer

Completed 1967-1969 Peace Corps service as an agricultural volunteer.
1970, Moved to Murnau, Germany. Studied German at the Goethe Institute for 6 months. Moved to Stuttgart, Germany. Worked and continued to learn German. Spoke it fluently.
1971, Moved to United States. Studied Guidance and Counseling at University of Kansas.
1974, Met Jett, fellow student, in graduate school at KU. She was studying for a Ph.D. in Speech Communications. Jett, my then fiancé, and I traveled to Bumbuna, Sierra Leone, West Africa, and worked a year helping Bumbuna villagers start alluvial gold mining operations.
Late 1974, Jett and I moved to the U.S. and married in African clothes. Have two daughters: Stacy, 33 and Bridget, 36. Both have M.A. degrees--Stacy in Philosophy with focus on medical ethics and Bridget in Book Arts and also Library Science.
1986, Received M.A. degree in print Journalism from University of Kansas. Subsequently, wrote a newspaper column on computers for the Topeka Capital-Journal. Started my computer consulting business where I worked several years.
Nov. 2003, near fatal car accident near Vail, CO. In a coma for three weeks. Had traumatic brain and physical injuries. In recovery 10 years. Have seen multiple cognitive therapists and physical doctors. Now nearly fully recovered.
Retired. Currently volunteer in the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library’s art gallery and at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center. Currently physically active, going to YMCA several times weekly and walking 20 to 35 miles each week. Blessed to have such a warm and loving family.
Steve and Lillian Abrams

In 1990, I joined a nutrition consulting group in Wisconsin, became a partner a few years later and have been with them ever since. We live in Madison,
Wisconsin – a wonderful place to live, no matter what the coasters say. Lillian is retired from the Madison school system. As the old saying goes, I’m not retired, just tired; plugging away about half time, but my time is coming soon. The transition currently includes monthly poker and book groups, biking and golfing when the weather permits, and a little traveling when the money permits. I took up golfing about six years ago at the insistence of a good friend, naively thinking that my skills (pretty good eye-hand coordination) as an expert billiard player would directly transfer over to the outdoor version, but have realized how foolish a thought that was.
We have three kids – Michael, a writer in New York City, Joshua, a nurse in the Twin Cities, and Sara, who just moved from California to New York, to become an assistant rabbi in Scarsdale, NY. Four grandkids – two in Minneapolis and two in New York – give us lots of joy.
Louise (Schullery) Cox
Taught in overseas schools in Saudi and Brazil a total of 9 years.
Divorced from Roger Cox. Appreciative of our mutual continuing respect and friendship. Remarried. Pieces of my heart still in Salone.
John and Kathleen Wilt
Kathleen and I are enjoying retirement. We keep busy with family and grandkids as both of our daughters live in the area. We enjoy a wide variety of outdoor activities and love the pacific northwest. Kathleen has become an avid bridge player. I spend my time these days keeping a large garden and doing handyman/carpentry projects around the house and for neighbors. We live just a block from the Willamette River and the greenway bike path (thank you Tom McCall) so the bike has become a major mode of transportation for us. We have both explored the world of work in various forms but spent the bulk of our work days as teachers.Look forward to seeing old friends.
Ron Drago
Most of my post-Peace Corps career was with the United Way. I, however, had a couple of significant jobs which, at least in part, related to my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer. To summarize: my first job out of the Peace Corps was a year spent with the Youth Corps in Doylestown, PA. That was followed by 5 years with the Agency for International Development, one year training in Washington, D.C., then 4 years in South Vietnam. The most challenging but satisfying aspect of that experience was 2 years as the Food For Peace officer in Danang, with responsibility for feeding thousands of Vietnamese refugees in several large camps. Lucinda and I, with our infant son Mike, headed home at the end of the war in April 1975. We immediately got involved with the resettlement of Indochinese refugees, which included opening an office for the International Rescue Committee in Seattle and heading an international multiagency program in Bangkok, Thailand to determine which refugees might be eligible for resettlement to the United States or other countries.Following those exciting experiences, plain old dumb luck led me to a job with the United Way in Harrisburg, PA, which eventually evolved into a 31-year career with United Way, all but three of those years as an executive. Next I spent 6 years leading the United Way in Bethlehem, PA. From there it was a major move to North Carolina, where I was the United Way CEO in Raleigh for 8 years and in Winston-Salem for 16 years. I especially enjoyed Winston-Salem, which is a very caring and generous community and proved a great place to live and raise our family. I am proud that during my tenure there we raised more than $257 million and achieved one of the highest campaign per capitas among all United Ways.
There was never a question but that we'd retire in Winston-Salem. As a retiree my major volunteer commitment has been with Wake Forest University, where I'm involved with their mentoring program for graduate and undergraduate business degree programs. I also serve with a strategic group tasked with identifying ways for Wake Forest University to expand and improve its already substantial and impactful community engagement efforts.
Lucinda is a few years younger than me and is continuing to work for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. While she hasn't been able to singlehandedly solve their many challenging problems, she's certainly done more than her share of good work. As I pursued my United Way career, Lucinda served very effectively as an agency executive with three important social services agencies: Interact (domestic violence and rape crisis), Program for Female Offenders and Contact (supportive telephone response). Lucinda and I are also lucky to have a place in the North Carolina mountains near Grandfather Mountain. We also annually vacation in Puerto Vallarta, where we thoroughly enjoy the people, culture and food.
Lucinda and I are blessed to have two adult children, who have good jobs and pay their own bills. Mike is 38 and is an engineer with Duke Energy in Durham (only about 100 miles from us). Sarah is 28 and is a manager in international tax with Price Waterhouse in Atlanta.
That's about it. For anyone traveling through the Winston-Salem area, please don't hesitate to visit with us. We have lots of space and would be delighted to see you
Jan and Jim Haldeman


Most of our years since Ethiopia have been spent in Ithaca, New York employed by Cornell University. Jim recently retired after more than thirty years as a director of International Programs/College of Agriculture and Life Science (IP/CALS). Jan worked several years as director of alumni relations for the Johnson Graduate School of Management and now works part time with the undergraduate research program for the Cornell Nanoscale Facility.
Jim's position at Cornell took him to nearly 50 countries for various education and training projects, primarily in East Africa, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. Jan was able to travel with him much of the time and we made many lifelong friends throughout the world. Our children benefited greatly from these international relationships and they, too, are involved in overseas endeavors. Our daughter Shari is a legacy Peace Corps volunteer, having served in the Dominican Republic.
In retirement mode we are enjoying the opportunity to spend more time with our two grandchildren,
Alexandre in Paris, France and Havana right here in Ithaca. We remain very involved with our local Peace Corps Program, particularly the RPCV group. Jim also advises from time to time for the Peace Corps Masters International Program and the Peace Corps Fellows Program, both of which he brought to Cornell. Most recently, the newly appointed Peace Corps director visited Cornell as part of IP/CALS 50th anniversary celebration and the 53 year Cornell – Peace Corps partnership. We hope to get in more travel and Jim, especially, is looking forward to traveling in a leisure mode rather than a work mode. We also look forward to a few more RPCV/Sierra Leone '67 - '69 reunions. For sure, we are blessed. It's a good life.
Betty and Bob Poynter
As an update to the Hood River '07 Green Book: In 2009 we moved from the tiny island of Vis in Croatia to Spoleto in the green heart of Italy. Home for 56 years to the Festival of Due Mondi (connected to Charleston, S. Carolina), Spoleto is a more than 2000 year-old Umbrian hilltop town that offers us culture & the arts, terrific local food & wine, opportunities to bicycle the nearby mountains and valleys and national parks, friendly folk, and the chance to travel near and far -- without owning a car! We're pretty much retired and able to enjoy this place full time. Bob worked part time for the first 3 years we lived here on a contract to aid Serbia's Association of Consulting Engineers to form a green building society and encourage sustainable energy development, building practices, planning, etc. He continues to be involved in planning for Earth Smart Communities in Ghana and sustainable energy projects in Ethiopia. Together we discover daily the charm of living in Italy, as well as the bureaucratic labyrinth. Mostly we appreciate that we're healthy and able to get around. Since it's Italy, we've had a massive number of family and friends come visit us in Spoleto, including Dave Geiman. Fun to show everyone why we like it so well here.Tom Wilson

Having survived the jungles of Africa, I thought I would try my hand in the jungles of New York City While there I took a course in stained glass fabrication and started my first real career move. Work led me to Flemington NJ, Vermont and eventually Upper Black Eddy, Pa where I combined the stained glass with commercial goat dairying, cabinetry, and free-lance construction. The economic depression of 1974 convinced me I better find myself a real job as a crew chief for a low-income weatherization program in Northwest New Jersey. Since I knew nothing about energy conservation (the totality of my building skills training having occurred on St Croix), I started a crash program to educate myself in what was to become a life-long career in building science, energy retrofit and preservation. This included some early passive solar projects that got me involved with the Philadelphia-based Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Association and other early pioneers in Jimmy Carter’s moral equivalent of war. By the early ‘80s I felt a need to move beyond the East Coast and headed west until I ran out of money in western Wisconsin, where I have been pretty much ever since.
Working mostly as an independent consultant, I wore many hats in the fields of energy conservation and efficiency: trainer, field researcher, evaluator, designer, remodeler, designer, writer, editor, building scientist, restorationist, and policy advisor, etc.
Since my commitment to energy work is greatly inspired by political/environmental concerns (Three-Mile Island scared the shit out of me), I have also been a strong volunteer advocate for a wide variety of environmental and progressive political issues including energy policy, civil rights, mining, WTO, anti-war, factory farming and local community concerns.
Ten years ago, after a couple of false tries earlier in my life, I met the love of my life, Kate Hale Wilson, a
now-retired English professor from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and we were married in 2009. Our “Boy” is now 25 and a recent graduate of De Paul University and living in Chicago where he is an active participant in the improv scene there. Misha is our 13-year old shepherd/lab mix who we couldn’t bear to put in a kennel this time, so we decided to drive out to Newport and bring Misha along for you all to meet.
Kate and I divide our time in Wisconsin between my 1900 brick Victorian fixer-upper in the progressive community of Viroqua, Wisconsin, Kate’s 1930s bungalow in Eau Claire. We also spend substantial time at my brother’s ‘70s timber-frame “chalet” in Warren, Vermont that we inherited following his death four years ago.
When in Vermont we get together from time to time with Peter and Sally Krusch…when they are not flying off to New Zealand or driving to Alaska in an old VW bus. I’ve seen the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars several times now and even had a chance to chat with several of the members when they played at a local music fair in our Vermont community.
All three houses are ‘investment project homes’ for me to practice my building rehab skills now that I am in retirement. I am content mostly with puttering and staying politically active including presently serving on the Viroqua City Council and the Historic Preservation Commission. Kate is tackling the largest issue that confronts us all as Group Leader for the Eau Claire Chapter of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby.
Hobbies include genealogy, wooden canoe restoration and a recent resurrection of my work with stained glass. I still like to hike, canoe, bike and ski, but not nearly with the vigor I once exhibited. . I have a bit of an obsession for planting more trees on our property and for some reason my garden keeps growing larger every year, but I finally broke down and bought a rototiller and retired my grubbing hoe.
Annie (Eppler) Dearing
Who was I back then? I was full of a zest for life and people, unafraid, loved being a wife, then a mother to Kai Ann, especially loved being physically fit and skinny. Strangely enough Peace Corps brought a certain amount of security (or maybe it was idealistic youth) with ordinary people of diverse backgrounds but together had a common goal; to contribute to the world.
All the positive traits I saw In P.C., people I loved, and the
opportunities afforded to me were enhanced in the character of Christ. For me
that time was a training ground for my life today and I am blessed to have been
given the opportunity to serve with people who modeled Christ for me.
Carroll Long
I decided then it was time to come home to re-discover my own country, so I have now been back in the US for about 7 years, enjoying a very busy retirement based in Washington DC again, but traveling often both within and outside the US and trying to learn more about parts of the world that I never knew professionally, particularly the Middle East and Latin America. It has been such a great journey, but I have always known that the experiences in SL were the most powerful I had anywhere, and even though I wasn't in the CD group (I worked as a teacher in Freetown in 1969-70, and spent 1970-71 based in Matham, working at the Masanga Leprosy Hospital), I look forward to reconnecting with those of you I knew during those years, and to meeting others I never had the chance to know before.
Faith Fogle, Schlenker Secondary School, Port Loko, Northern Province, 1967-69
Greetings from Providence, Rhode Island, where in 1971 I landed in a Teacher Corps project directed by the inimitable William L. Tutman from U MASS/Amherst. The mild mannered ,mellow "Tut" we all knew in Salone as our Asst. Peace Corps Director had developed a significantly more political approach to the workplace and education by the early 70s. So in addition to developing a K-12 African Studies curriculum for the city of Providence, working in the community as well as teaching middle school social studies, we TC interns wrestled mightily under Tut's leadership with important isms, particularly institutionalized racism and sexism. We were also exposed to many classroom strategies considered innovative 40 years ago, e.g., team teaching, integrated day & the open classroom.During my 2-year experience in an African history doctoral program at Boston University prior to Teacher Corps I had become convinced that the main thing I had learned while attempting to teach A & O Level GCE West African history at Schlenker Secondary School in Port Loko was how little I knew about teaching. (SL PC staffer Gary Knamiller had definitively confirmed this fact in 1968 after "Kna" had observed a class I had taught one afternoon at Schlenker).
Teacher Corps was a superb teacher training model, particularly for training teachers to work in inner city and rural schools. If Teach For America incorporated more of TC's successful features, perhaps many more TFA teachers would remain in education much longer than they currently do.
My experience as a TC intern led to a lifetime career in teacher training, staff development and educational administration. After 6 years of teaching middle school reading & social studies (and even some math), I ended up spending way too long, 30 years, as a state educational bureaucrat at the Rhode Island Department of Education. As RI's state director of the National Diffusion Network/NDN, a federally funded program to promote replication of exemplary educational programs, e.g, Facing History & Ourselves & Reading Recovery, I had the opportunity to work with many outstanding educators across the country. Serving as RI's gifted/talented & home schooling consultant however drove me nuts. My favorite position at the RI Dept of Ed was my last: RI state social studies curriculum coordinator-- for the past 10 years.
In 2007 I began what turned out to be 6 years of commuting several times a month to Chapel Hill, NC , to care for my mom who lived to a very ripe old age, in large part because she fell madly in love with college basketball when she was in her 70s. In fact I got to attend the annual "Late Night with (UNC basketball Coach) Roy Williams" with my mom last October when she was 100. Commuting to Chapel Hill made it easy to retire from my job.
In the past 6 months since my mom died I have done a great deal of travelling, including attending my 50th high school reunion in New Orleans in March and a trip to Sicily & Malta in May. Just this past Sept 21 I returned from taking a 2-week course at Oxford /UK. This week I began taking 2 courses here at home in Providence, one on contemporary China and the other on the Indian Ocean, based on Robert Kaplan's book MONSOON. Some recent excitement in my life, resulting in a cast up to my elbow, has been tripping over seldom-used (OK-- I used it to hang clothes over) exercise equipment ---as I was running to get to Zumba class. But the biggest excitement has been my only child's (my 32 year old daughter Amanda) recent announcement that she is engaged! Amanda was a PCV from 2004-06 in Benin. She is going to marry the brother of her very 1st PC friend from PC training in Philly, the very same friend Amanda hitchhiked to Timbuktu with in 2005.
News of some 67-69 SL/PCVS: This past June after taking a course on James Joyce's ULYSSES I got to spend a week on a special Yeats/Joyce tour of Dublin & Sligo, Ireland, in the company of 2 RPCVs from our time in Salone, Bob Reidy ( Bumpe/67-69) and Dave Phillips, one of my PCV housemates in Old Port Loko!
I have the url for a number of websites recently sent to me by James Madison U Professor & RPCV Bumbuna mid-70s Joe Opala whose 35 plus years of research on Bunce Island and South Carolina have resulted in a number of videos, articles and films that many of you have seen or know about. Those of you who were at the Wild Dunes reunion in SC will remember the very special evening we spent there when PRISCILLA Ball's 8th generation great granddaughter, Thomalind Martin Polite, her husband Antawn Polite, and Charleston COURIER journalist Herb Frasier shared their very touching experience of traveling with 2 dozen of us to Freetown in 2005 on a classic "African Homecoming" journey.
After all the work & effort made by Dave Geiman and his extraordinary team to plan this upcoming reunion in Newport, OR, I can't believe that October 1st has finally almost arrived. I join the rest of you in expressing my gratitude to all those who have worked so long and hard to make this reunion a reality! Thank you, too, Rick Bernsten, for your tremendous patience and diligence in collecting and compiling all these updates.
George Gould - Sierra Leone Chiefdom Development Program - 1967- Mambolo, Njala
History isn't easy for the practicing existentialist, since it is always Now. Believe me, I tried to find some photos to include - especially as I seem to remember looking a whole lot better back in the day. I worked for many years in New York City as a corporate travel agent on such accounts as Mobil Oil, Goldman Sachs and the United Nations Development Programme. Not really such great work, but it paid the bills and enabled me to quench a thirst for world travel, which began right after I graduated from Cornell and took off for Sierra Leone. Though the trips seemed way too short, I was able to get to Japan, the Philippines, Guatemala, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe and many places in the U.S. of A. Then too, this stint left me qualified for Social Security which, until those yahoos [I mean our esteemed representatives in Washington, D.C.] defund it and toss us freeloading geezers out on our sorry butts [sorry - no more politics] helps me to make ends meet. About twenty years ago I weaned myself away from the corporate boobs and moved to Central Pennsylvania, where I buy and sell "stuff" at regional flea-markets and antique shows; musical instruments, sporting collectables and anything else I can make a buck on. My house sits right next to (and alas, sometimes under) Penn's Creek. Sitting on my porch is a joy and it iscommon to see eagles, great blue herons, kingfishers and once last winter a river otter (until recently completely extirpated from these parts) slipping and sliding at play on a sheet of ice along the bank. I am something of a hermit, having never married and living by myself in a cave like setting.
I play guitar/banjo/kazoo in a string band. The group's taste in music is eclectic. Our songbook contains tunes from Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family to Fats Waller to Traditional. We seem to be warping Jazzward at present. For the last few years I have been taking classes with the Bucknell Institute for Lifelong Learning, a recently formed organization offering classes in a range of topics. Many of the course leaders are retired professors. Perhaps the greatest feature of this program is the classmates you get to interact with. In one class, there were five PhDs out of the 20 or so who were taking the class. And no tests or term papers! I have attended most of our group’s reunions and I'm looking forward to a great time at this one. I'm not sure how many more I've got left in me; perhaps the next one could be closer to [my] home. See you soon. Take care. Peace.