2008.09.22: September 22, 2008: Headlines: COS - Sierra Leone: COS Groups: alpha-2.info: Twenty-one former teachers are gathered this weekend to reminisce about their experiences in Sierra Leone

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Sierra Leone: Peace Corps Sierra Leone : Peace Corps Sierra Leone: Newest Stories: 2008.09.22: September 22, 2008: Headlines: COS - Sierra Leone: COS Groups: alpha-2.info: Twenty-one former teachers are gathered this weekend to reminisce about their experiences in Sierra Leone

By Admin1 (admin) (70.249.83.132) on Wednesday, October 01, 2008 - 2:40 pm: Edit Post

Twenty-one former teachers are gathered this weekend to reminisce about their experiences in Sierra Leone

Twenty-one former teachers are gathered  this weekend to reminisce about their experiences in Sierra Leone

"We were there when Sierra Leone was at its best," Gatewood said, adding that the country had just gained independence when he arrived in 1963. "It slowly got worse and worse until they had the military revolt and overthrew the elected president." Even outside the capital Susie McIntyre said in the Peace Corps she wasn't afraid to stroll in Africa alone. "I was never afraid to even go out at night," she said. Lawrence Hunter, another group member in Park City for the reunion, described traveling overland to Freetown from Dakar, Senegal in the early '60s. "There was no fear A woman could have traveled anywhere safely," Hunter said. "It'd be much more dangerous today than it was way back." The capital city became a hub when the friends were assigned throughout Sierra Leone. "People from up country would come in occasionally on weekends and we would gather in big parties," former Peace Corps volunteer Doug Van Nostran said. Sipping on wine in Park City Von Nostran said he took valuable lessons home from West Africa more than 40 years ago. "They're more free-wheeling in the way they do things. We're just so uptight and everything has to be timed and synchronized and orchestrated -- where's my iPod with my BlackBerry," Von Nostran said, adding that America is "over-organized." "I think it took me 20 years after I came back to get over the experience."

Twenty-one former teachers are gathered this weekend to reminisce about their experiences in Sierra Leone

Peace Corps volunteers reunite in Park City
Sierra Leone conjures visions of war in Africa with rebels fond of chopping off the limbs of enemies, orphaned children and massacred villages afire. The coastal West African nation made headlines as civil war tore apart the country for more than a decade.



parkrecord.com /// The capital, Freetown, is a bustling city and the land of contradictions boasts a rich supply of diamonds which is what brought Sierra Leone into America's living room in 2006 in the popular film "Blood Diamond."

"When I saw the movie 'Blood Diamond,' that was just so intense, I just couldn't deal with it," ex-Parkite George Gatewood said at the reunion of a group of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers who served in Sierra Leone in the 1960s.

Twenty-one former teachers are gathered at the Washington School Inn this weekend to reminisce about their experiences among the first 5,000 people who joined the Peace Corps, created by John F. Kennedy in the 1960s.

"I don't know if I ever want to go back to Sierra Leone," Gatewood said. "For me, it's just so depressing."

Government coups were the norm in the 1990s until United Nations peacekeepers clamped down at the turn of the century. War by then had brutalized Sierra Leone.

"We were there when Sierra Leone was at its best," Gatewood said, adding that the country had just gained independence when he arrived in 1963. "It slowly got worse and worse until they had the military revolt and overthrew the elected president."

Even outside the capital Susie McIntyre said in the Peace Corps she wasn't afraid to stroll in Africa alone.

"I was never afraid to even go out at night," she said.

Lawrence Hunter, another group member in Park City for the reunion, described traveling overland to Freetown from Dakar, Senegal in the early '60s.

"There was no fear A woman could have traveled anywhere safely," Hunter said. "It'd be much more dangerous today than it was way back."

The capital city became a hub when the friends were assigned throughout Sierra Leone.

"People from up country would come in occasionally on weekends and we would gather in big parties," former Peace Corps volunteer Doug Van Nostran said.

Sipping on wine in Park City Von Nostran said he took valuable lessons home from West Africa more than 40 years ago.

"They're more free-wheeling in the way they do things. We're just so uptight and everything has to be timed and synchronized and orchestrated -- where's my iPod with my BlackBerry," Von Nostran said, adding that America is "over-organized." "I think it took me 20 years after I came back to get over the experience."

A call to serve

"We were a lot more naive then and Kennedy just captured our imaginations. It was like, 'Yes, let's do that, let's join the Peace Corps and go off and save the world,'" Gatewood said. "The nation is just a lot more cynical now and the younger people are more apathetic."

The self-described group of former "wild-eyed idealists" was in the Peace Corps in West Africa from 1963 to 1965. The reunion today in Park City is the group's fifth.

"I think we all sold out to a certain extent," Gatewood said admitting he couldn't identify Sierra Leone on a map when called to serve.

Group member Freddie Liebermann described being in Sierra Leone when she learned Kennedy had been assassinated.

"They loved him," Liebermann said.

Sadly, "materialism seems to have taken over politics," ex-Peace Corps volunteer Harriett Marquis said.

"I think there was an idealism of a sort that took us to Sierra Leone but I think we came back and faced reality. We got jobs, we got mortgages," Marquis said. "We were privileged really to be able to go with the Peace Corps and fulfill these idealistic notions. It was an opportunity because I would have never gone trekking in Africa by myself."

Gatewood added,

"That's why I'm glad we did it when we did it."

"Young people today are apolitical as opposed to nonpolitical. They don't think that politics is anything for them to get involved with," he lamented.




Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: September, 2008; Peace Corps Sierra Leone; Directory of Sierra Leone RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Sierra Leone RPCVs; Country of Service Groups





When this story was posted in September 2008, this was on the front page of PCOL:




Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers RSS Feed
Peace Corps Suspends Program in Bolivia Date: September 16 2008 No: 1264 Peace Corps Suspends Program in Bolivia
Turmoil began in Bolivia three weeks ago sparked by President Evo Morales' pledge to redistribute wealth from the east to the country's poorer highlands. Peace Corps has withdrawn all volunteers from the country because of "growing instability." Morales has thrown out US Ambassador Philip Goldberg accusing the American government of inciting the violence. This is not the first controversy surrounding Goldberg's tenure as US ambassador to Bolivia.


 Contact PCOL Search PCOL with Google Site Index Recent Posts Bulletin Board Open Discussion RPCV Directory Register
September 1, 2008: This Month's Top Stories Date: September 1 2008 No: 1259 September 1, 2008: This Month's Top Stories
Eric Green writes: 2008 Election helps US Image Worldwide 28 Aug
Tschetter meets with President Arroyo in Philippines 29 Aug
Hill's new approach is an unsung success story 29 Aug
Jackie Theriot served as PCV in Togo 25 Aug
Therese Abalo became beekeeper to join Peace Corps 24 Aug
Obituary for Pauline Birky-Kreutzer 23 Aug
Peace Corps to Pare Ranks of Volunteers 22 Aug
George Packer writes play about Iraqi occupation 22 Aug
Martin Puryear retrospective at the National Gallery of Art 22 Aug
Elaine Chao heads final 2008 Olympic delegation 21 Aug
J R Bullington writes: Reinvigorate the Peace Corps 19 Aug
Faith Van Gilder returns to Botswana 18 Aug
Bill Owens still turning suburbs into art 18 Aug
Amy Smith hosts International Development Design Summit 17 Aug
McCain calls for greater volunteerism 17 Aug
Sarah Chayes writes: Afghans don't support insurgency 16 Aug
Maurice Albertson remembers origins of Peace Corps 15 Aug
John Perkins "hit man" is now documentary movie 15 Aug
Brian Connors helps local farmers in Malawi 13 Aug
Dr. Peter Davenport no stranger to rural health issues 13 Aug
Jeremiah Johnson tells story of HIV termination 8 Aug

New: More Stories from July and August 2008

PCVs Evacuated from Georgia Date: August 19 2008 No: 1254 PCVs Evacuated from Georgia
The Peace Corps has announced that all Volunteers and trainees serving in the Republic of Georgia are safe and they have been temporarily relocated to neighboring Armenia. Read the analysis by one RPCV on how Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili believed that he could launch a lightning assault on South Ossetia and reclaim the republic without substantial grief from Moscow and that Saakashvili's statements once the war began demonstrated that he expected real Western help in confronting Russia.

August 6, 2008: This Month's Top Stories Date: August 6 2008 No: 1250 August 6, 2008: This Month's Top Stories
PC in Budget Crunch may cut PCVs by 5% 5 Aug
Garamendi first to announce run for governor in 2010 2 Aug
Bob and Pat Parish receive president’s award 31 Jul
Sam Brownback removes block on Kathleen Stephens 31 Jul
Peace Corps Removes Ban on HIV-Positive Volunteers 31 Jul
RPCVs organize online for Obama 31 Jul
Peace group awards perfect rating to Sam Farr 29 Jul
How Hill used back channels to negotiate Korean agreement 27 Jul
Voter surge may hurt Shays 26 Jul
Matthew A. Hamilton writes: A Shadow on Ararat 25 Jul
Gates says Tools of inspiration are indispensable 15 Jul
An interview with Composer Gabriela Lena Frank 13 Jul
Ginny Farmer to swim in Olympics for American Samoa 11 Jul
Dodd is possible vice presidential candidate 11 Jul
Carl Pope supports the Pickens Plan 8 Jul
George Packer writes: Obama’s Iraq Problem 7 Jul
An Interview with PCOL 4 Jul
Ifugao hopes for tourism boost after Campbell Trial 3 Jul
Peace Corps To Quit Kiribati 3 Jul
Tony Hall asks: Where is moral outrage over food crisis? 3 Jul
Wofford raises awareness about global poverty 2 Jul

New: More Stories from June and July 2008



Read the stories and leave your comments.








Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: alpha-2.info

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Sierra Leone; COS Groups

PCOL42234
84


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: