"We were the first group. Arrived in-country on March 23, 1962. 46 were on the flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Rio. We trained from early January until about the end of February in Washington, D.C. (at the National 4-H Center) and then had the “outbound” training in Puerto Rico (four weeks) and then, our intensive language training at “Kilometro 47”, the rural university, near Rio. All of this culminated with a home stay of several weeks in Rio, in final preparation for our assignments. I had a tough home stay..... with a medical doctor, one block off of Copacabana Beach! Somebody has to do it..... Our group has regular reunions. As a matter of fact, we celebrated our 35th year reunion by going to Brazil and those who were able to make it, went to visit their original PCV sites. One really memorable recollection of our arrival in Brazil was our singing the Brazilian National Anthem as we stepped off the plane in Rio! Since we were the first group, there was TV coverage, etc. I will try to make sure your Web site information gets circulated among my group. Several other items concerning my PC experiences: I actually had a total of three Volunteer sites while there—two years in Serraria-PB, one year in Rio Verde-GO and one year as a PCV Leader (semi-staff) in Belo Horizonte-MG, for a total of four years (January, 1962 - December, 1965)
As mentioned in a previous response to you, I also served as PC staff in the Amazon, 1971-1974.
I am married to a Brazilian (Gerlane, from João Pessoa) and our daughter, Tyna is married to a Brazilian and lives in Brazil (Has been in João Pessoa and most recently, Belo Horizonte. Now is in the States, waiting for her husband, Ricardo, to arrive, for a one-year visiting scholar assignment with the Vet College at Texas A&M University)
I also served as a PCV trainer in 1969-70, for a Clubes Agricolas group, which went to Minas and Goiás. They trained in Bisbee-AZ and in-country at the the Rural University in Vicosa-MG.
During a recent (1997-99) assignment with USDA in Armenia, I worked closely with Peace Corps and did some training for the 40-50 Volunteers there.
I am being considered as a candidate for the PC Recruiter position on the Texas A&M University campus. Not a done deal yet—I am really excited about the possibility of recruiting for Peace Corps.
To my knowledge, I was the first current or former student of Texas A&M University to join the Peace Corps. Actually, I dropped out of college my junior year to join, at the age of 20. Came back and finished my B.S., M.S. and Ph.D degrees at A&M -- 1968, 1972 and 1988 [finally!.....]
Nelson Jacob
College Station, TX
BR1
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