Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2016-023
John Pielemeier served as Peace Corps volunteer in the Ivory Coast from 1966 to 1968 as an English teacher in a TEFL program (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). He describes his experiences prior to Peace Corps that inspired him to apply, his Peace Corps training at Oberlin College, his training in Quebec, and his in-country training in Bouake, Ivory Coast. Pielemeier taught at a newly formed boarding school in Katiola, interacting with colonial French faculty at that school, and setting up a program in which his students did literacy training and some public health work during their summer vacation in their villages. In addition, he talks about contracting Guillain-Barre syndrome while in the Ivory Coast and his evacuation, treatment, and subsequent rehabilitation. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, March 21, 2016. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).