Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Jo Ann C. Starker can be contacted at jostarkerayahoodcom
Country of Service: Thailand
Cities you served in: Songkhla and Bangkok
Arrival Year: 1966
Departure Year: 1968
Work Description:
Worked with Peace Corps Office in Bangkok in administration as volunteer. Served in Peace Corps Office in Songkhla and also taught English Shorthand at Jr. College in Songkhla.
Bring us up to date on your life after the peace corps:
After two-year tour in Thailand, returned home and gave birth nine months later to child I conceived when saying goodbye to Peace Corps volunteer boyfriend. After a couple of years, I accepted a position with Peace Corps Regional Recruitment Office in Atlanta, Georgia, and moved there. Met an ex-PCV and married him. We moved to New Hampshire where we worked with "Gifted but Emotionally Disturbed Children," for a year. We eventually ended up in Indiana where I gave birth to my second child, decided to go to college, and graduated some years later with a Master's Degree in Counseling. I worked at a community college in Indiana for over twenty years in advising, raised the kids, had grandkids, retired, and moved with the ex-PCV husband to Florida where I planned to write best sellers. I spent a month in England and Scotland for inspiration, visiting with a British friend who served with the British Corps back in that little town in Thailand in the sixties. Unfortunately, after two months of steady writing, I was bored with my own words, so I took a position with a community college in Florida. I still write. And I intend to retire again someday.
Any thoughts you have now looking back on peace corps days?:
I believe every young person in the United States should be given the opportunity to spend a couple of years in another country.
Anyone you are looking for or would like to hear from?:
Dave Davenport was a friend who served in Thailand from 1967-69, I believe. And Paul Latiolais did not serve in Thailand, but in another country. I'm having trouble remembering last names.
Originally posted: October 2, 2004
