![]() |
|||||
![]() |
![]() |
||||
![]() |
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
|||
![]() |
![]() |
||||
A Volunteer who served in Nigeria looks back on his Peace Corps experience by David Schickele (Nigeria 196163) |
|||||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|||
![]() |
David G. Schickele first presented his retrospective view of Volunteer service in a speech given at Swarthmore College in 1963 that was printed in the Swarthmore College Bulletin. At the time, there was great interest on college campuses about the Peace Corps and early RPCVs were frequently asked to write or speak on their college campuses about their experiences. A 1958 graduate of Swarthmore, Schickele worked as a freelance professional violinist before joining the Peace Corps in 1961.
After his tour, he would, with Roger Landrum make a documentary film on the Peace Corps in Nigeria called "Give Me A Riddle" that was for Peace Corps recruitment but was never really used by the agency. The film was perhaps too honest a representation of Peace Corps Volunteers life overseas and the agency couldnt handle it. However, the Peace Corps did pick up Schickeles essay in the Swarthmore College Bulletin and reprinted it in its first Point of View, a short-lived series of discussion papers that they published in the early days of the agency. This series of monographs were devoted, to the Peace Corps experience and philosophy by members of the staff, current and former Peace Corps Volunteers and qualified observers. What is impressive about Schickeles essay is that what he said in 1963 is still valid today. |
||||
![]() |
![]() |
||||
![]() For other articles on Peace Corps history |
THE FAVORITE PARLOR SPORT during the Peace Corps training program was making up cocky answers to a question that was put to us 17 times a day by the professional and idle curious alike: Why did you join the Peace Corps? To the Peace Corps training official, who held the power of deciding our futures, we answered that we wanted to help; make the world a better place in which to live; but to others we were perhaps more truthful in talking about poker debts or a feeling that the Bronx Zoo wasnt enough. We resented the question because we sensed it could be answered well only in retrospect. We had no idea exactly what we were getting into, and it was less painful to be facetious than to repeat the idealistic clichés to which the question was always a veiled invitation. |
||||
![]() |
|||||
![]() |
![]() |
||||
![]() |
![]() |
|