Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-062
Diane Bendahmane served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco from 1966 to 1968 as an English teacher. Later, after taking part in the Peace Corps Fellow program, she returned to Morocco as a Peace Corps staff member. Bendahmane talks about her independent spirit and the hardship it was on her parents to see her leave initially. Her training was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in Beirut, Lebanon, where she was excused from the physical training because of the after-effects of having had polio as a child. She had taught French and English in high school before joining, so she was able to take high-level French classes and Arabic during training and utilized her teaching experience on site. Bendahmane taught in the city of Fes. She reflects on the continuing impact of French colonization on Morocco and the educational system, and the difficulty of integrating into the culture as a woman. She served in Morocco during a tumultuous time in the U.S. and the Middle East, and reflects on its impact on training, her identity as an American, and the change she saw in the volunteers she supervised. Directly after completing her volunteer service, Bendahmane joined the Peace Corps staff as a training instructor for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) volunteers headed to Morocco. She next completed the Peace Corps Fellow program (1968-1969), and worked as the TEFL Program Technical Representative for the Peace Corps staff in Morocco (1969–1972). She served under Richard Holbrooke as a staff member and discusses the close relationship they developed. Finally, Bendahmane talks about the impact that the Peace Corps, Morocco, and Islam have had on her life. Interviewed and recorded by Candice Wiggum, February 19, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).