My Peace Corps director had several jobs waiting for me. Foremost was teaching pharmacology to third-year medical students. The University of Nangrahar in Jalalabad was dubbed Peace Corps University because of the high number of American Peace Corps volunteers. I also was assigned as supervisor of the hospital pharmacy, in which I had the most confidence, reminiscent of my Army tour at Ft. Riley, Kansas.
Nicholas Hoesl served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Afghanistan in 1965
NICHOLAS HOESL: Afghanistan, 1965
PEACE CORPS ALUMS TELL THEIR STORIES
October 17, 2010
I contemplated joining the Peace Corps for two years before being sent to Afghanistan in 1965 at the age of 33.
I was single, out of UC's College of Pharmacy for 10 years, out of the Army for eight years and active in parish and civic affairs.
My Peace Corps director had several jobs waiting for me. Foremost was teaching pharmacology to third-year medical students. The University of Nangrahar in Jalalabad was dubbed Peace Corps University because of the high number of American Peace Corps volunteers. I also was assigned as supervisor of the hospital pharmacy, in which I had the most confidence, reminiscent of my Army tour at Ft. Riley, Kansas.
During the summer I auditioned and was accepted in the capital as the short-wave English newscaster in the only station in the country, Radio Kabul.
Try to picture students working for a medical degree without the aid of their own textbooks. They had the use of only a small number of library books donated by the Mayo Clinic. The faculty did have the use of a mimeograph machine, though.
Even under difficult and impoverished conditions, students can excel. One of my most promising students is now a physician practicing in Virginia, Khodaidad Basharmal, M.D. After the Soviet withdrawal, he was minister of education and Afghanistan's ambassador to the U.N.
All of us received a great compliment one day from King Nadir Shah with this message before a large group of volunteers: "I do not wish to make light of the American ambassador (who was present). But I do wish to say that you Peace Corps volunteers are the true ambassadors of Afghanistan."
In 2002, I was asked to be the Dari language interpreter for an Afghan family of seven children refugees who arrived in Cincinnati. They were accompanied by their mother, whose husband was killed by the Taliban.
I considered myself fortunate to continue to serve those who have had so little, and yet have treated me with their great warmth and hospitality in Afghanistan.
Nicholas Hoesl
Westwood
