2007.02.26: February 26, 2007: Headlines: COS - Ecuador: Business Gazette: Bernie Fisken joined the Peace Corps in 1964 after a stint in the U.S. Army and was sent into the Andes near Ambato, Ecuador
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2007.02.26: February 26, 2007: Headlines: COS - Ecuador: Business Gazette: Bernie Fisken joined the Peace Corps in 1964 after a stint in the U.S. Army and was sent into the Andes near Ambato, Ecuador
Bernie Fisken joined the Peace Corps in 1964 after a stint in the U.S. Army and was sent into the Andes near Ambato, Ecuador
Now the Fiskens live in Bethesda, where Bernie Fisken runs a financial management company and specializes in expatriate taxes. They say the Peace Corps is different now. Bernie Fisken remembers psychological testing and stateside training as a boon to early Peace Corps volunteers, and he said it helped to prevent volunteer dropout. He said volunteers are older now — the average volunteer is 27, and the oldest is 79 — and professionally experienced. His son considered joining, he said, but the Corps said ‘‘No, they were not accepting 21-year-olds with liberal arts business degrees.”
Bernie Fisken joined the Peace Corps in 1964 after a stint in the U.S. Army and was sent into the Andes near Ambato, Ecuador
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by Audrey Dutton | Staff Writer
[Excerpt]
Meanwhile, another businessman’s career was being launched in Ecuador. Bernie Fisken, a 68-year-old Bethesda resident, joined the Peace Corps in 1964 after a stint in the U.S. Army. He was sent into the Andes near Ambato, Ecuador. His task as a trained accountant: Teach the indigenous Salasaca tribe to keep good financial records.
‘‘Then I discovered they had other problems,” he said. ‘‘Syphilis.”
Fisken’s role morphed quickly to that of a public health worker, as he recruited a group of Catholic nuns to tackle the syphilis outbreak with blood tests and medication.
He also taught the Salasaca artisans to successfully market their tapestries overseas — Sears, Roebuck and Co. ordered hundreds — and they are still exporting today.
[Excerpt]
Fisken left Ecuador in 1966, the same year that his future wife, Kate Fisken, left her Peace Corps post in India. The couple would not meet until years later, but Kate Fisken had been stationed across the globe from Bernie Fisken, living on a poultry farm in Calcutta, India. There, she developed nutrition curriculum for Indian schools, arranged for vaccinations when a smallpox outbreak began killing villagers, and played host to 2-foot-long roundworm parasites.
Now the Fiskens live in Bethesda, where Bernie Fisken runs a financial management company and specializes in expatriate taxes. They say the Peace Corps is different now. Bernie Fisken remembers psychological testing and stateside training as a boon to early Peace Corps volunteers, and he said it helped to prevent volunteer dropout. He said volunteers are older now — the average volunteer is 27, and the oldest is 79 — and professionally experienced. His son considered joining, he said, but the Corps said ‘‘No, they were not accepting 21-year-olds with liberal arts business degrees.”
Kate Fisken said volunteers now have different expectations and ‘‘see this as a practical experience” for a career.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: February, 2007; Peace Corps Ecuador; Directory of Ecuador RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Ecuador RPCVs
When this story was posted in March 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Business Gazette
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