Pernambuco ag co-op volunteers - September 2004 - See Photos
Name click to e-mail
Trained/GR
Served in
Present Location
Comments:
Peace Corps and Brazil was truly a life-changing experience. I have not
been back--other life-changing decisions have taken me to Asia. But I
would still love to go back someday.
Vicencia and Fortaleza, CE, Coops & Legal Aid Sept 67- Feb 69
Arlington, VA
Comments: I was the youngest Peace Corp volunteer when I started training, just turned
18. I meet Bob Henne during training. We went to Petrolandia together.
Later he left for another town and I returned to the U.S. Three years
later be married. Bobs a retired welding instructor and I'm a retired
NICU nurse.
Served in Pernambuco '67-69. John Burns was our fearless leader...still in touch with at least 2 of the group I served with Billy Mai and Bob Martin. returned to SA in '70-71 but not to Brazil...to Colombia...would enjoy hearing from others in my group.
Having been a PCV certainly comes back to visit you in many
ways...whether it be the adoption of my two children (now in college),
interfacing with visiting Brazilians to my whole foods market location,
or talking to co-workers in Portuguese...it has still been a great and
rewarding experience.
I am trying to find
Judy Plaska, who trained with myself and 30 or so others in 1968...there
is a plan afoot to have ah FULL SCALE reunion during the 50th Peace
Corps anniversary shindig in 2011...please contact me if you can help!
Abraços!
Recife-Ribeirão
& Santarém, PA Aug 68 - Nov 70
Health & Rural Coop
Colorado Springs, CO
You can see that I still keep Timbauba as my address--at least in cyberspace! I am retired now but still return to Brazil every several years and just returned from a trip to Brasilia. I consider Peace Corps the major formative experience in my life. It has been interesting for me to see my kids also live in Brazil and carry the cultural richness of that country into another generation.
Four of us were placed by the Smithsonian at the Tapacura Ecological Station to work on water ecology and terrestrial ecology. There were 2 Smithsonian teams. The other team worked in Brasilia on setting up the park system. The area was beautiful and the people were very friendly and fun. At the end of the 2 years I went to graduate school and presently work for the MA Department of Environmental Protection.
69-71(Coop. dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Limoeiro, PE), 71-73 as Volunteer Programmer in Recife (worked in all NE states) and 74 as PC trainer in BH and Recife.
I look back with some nostalgia and satisfaction (and even some humor) on my João Alfredo experience. The rough edges of life in rural Brazil seem less important compared to the friendships and human contacts we lived with daily. Jim Reed
After Peace Corps I was Ass't Director of Peace Corps training program for Pernambuco, then worked as consultant for USAID/Brazil. Later was with Mellon Bank in Rio, with Security Pacific Bank in Chile, São Paulo and Los Angeles. Most recently Director of Credit for Banco Brascan in Rio. Telephone in Rio:21-2556-0269. Calls welcome.
I was never technically a volunteer, I returned at the end of training, but I have always treasured the brief instant of being in Peace Corps.
I returned to school for a semester and after almost two years as an auto mechanic, started work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky doing soil surveys. As fate would have it, I stumbled onto this new technology in 1981 called Geographic Information Systems and after a couple of false starts, began managing a system for Kentucky's Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet in 1988.
I was in the last Peace Corps group, I believe there were 88 of us in Miami, where we were stuck for anywhere from 2 to 5 weeks waiting for visas.
Goiânia & Recife
Health/Community Development
Aug 64 - 66
Sitka, Alaska
Mary Crowell
I used to belong to friends of Brazil but lost touch when they disbanded. I am not sure of my number of the group, I made it up. My group has had two reunions recently.
Next month I'll attend my 50th high school graduation reunion. I haven't
seen ANY of them since graduation.
It would be great to contact some of the RPCVs with whom I served in
Brasil at this time also.
2nd to last group in Brazil; placed by Smithsonian; lived and worked at the Estacao Ecologica do Tapacura with 3 other PCVs (Clyde Asbury, Elaine Hartmann, Tom Gula)
After finding this page, I noticed that Tim George had added information. I lived with Tim (and two others, Clyde Asbury and Elaine Hartman) at the Tapacura Ecological Station, about an hour west of Recife in Pernambuco state (from Sept 77 until Nov 79. I served a final year in Salvador, Bahia (working out of the Federal University of Bahia), and departed when Peace Corps/Brazil closed its doors in Dec 1980. Those were wonderful times. I'm currently the science supervisor of the Springfield Public Schools in NJ.
Ecological Studies Recife & Salvador Aug 77 -Dec 80
Basking Ridge, NJ
Peace Corps service continues to be a highlight of my life. After many careers and abodes around the world, I look forward to reconnecting with our group.
Brattleboro VT Aug 1964
Brejo de Madre de Dios & Recife Community Development Dec 64 - Jun 66 Comments:
Have worked for USDA since 1974. Presently economic analyst for cotton subsidy program. Went back to the site in 1994. It had grown concentrically, but not much else had changed. All of the neighbors were still there. The co-op was still there.
