My husband and I arrived in Chile in late September of 1967. Our town had never encountered Americans and were skeptical about why we were there, despite our best explanations. Perhaps as a test to win their confidence, their first request was that...
We met this gentleman, Bapa Johken, while snowboarding from a backcountry yurt in the Terskey Ala-Too range of the Tien Shan mountains. We passed him on the trail and stopped to say "hello." He was with his donkey, which was towing a sled full of...
A lone sunbather rests on the southern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan, while a throng of sheep search for grass in the sand. While the north shore of the lake is quite developed and popular with tourists, the south shore still offers serenity...
This is the first time our English classroom in Darkhan Village, Kyrygzstan, has had good textbooks. They came our way through a private donation from the U.S. Here is a group of 3rd graders, proudly showing off their colorful new books.
In the school where I worked in Darkhan Village, Kyrgyzstan, students like these two 3rd-grade girls use the cyrillic alphabet in all their classes. They can speak Kyrgyz and Russian, but learning English is difficult, because they have to learn a...
The day my host sister, Begaim, announced that she was getting married, a summer afternoon rain shower gave way to a dramatic double rainbow in my small village in eastern Kyrgyzstan. We rushed outside to take pictures. Here, my youngest host...
This photo was taken on September 1st, 2012 in Chornomorka, Ukraine at Chornomorka Comprehensive School. It is tradition for a male in the soon-to-be-graduating class to carry a girl from the year's incoming 1st form class on his shoulder as she...
I took this photo on October 5, 2012 in Chornomorka, Ukraine at Chornomorka Comprehensive School. October 5th marked the celebration on Teacher's Day at my school. On this day, students in the most senior class take over teaching duties and...
This photo was taken in a small barrio school in the town of Pamplona, Camarines Sur province, in the Philippines in November 1971. The photo shows me teaching English to second grade students through the use of the game Simon Says. This was a...
My counterpart decided on a whim one day to have an "English party." For two weeks, our students, who barely knew any English, rehearsed "Sleeping Beauty." They made all their own props and costumes and memorized their lines from a book my aunt...
This photo was taken on my last morning at my training site in Indonesia. Later this day, I would start my new life at my permanent site, which meant I had to say goodbye to six new friends I had spent the previous ten weeks with. Before that...
Here is Azamat, hiking back up the hill with my snowboard for another run. Azamat was helping us collect firewood for a winter tourism project deep in the Terskey Ala-Too range of the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan. At the end of the day, our...
This photo was taken outside of Sozopol, Bulgaria in July of 2012. A Ukrainian English Language summer camp with 5 PCV counselors held a baseball game after lessons were given about how to play. This is a student playing the game as pitcher for his...
Peace Corps takes you to some far-out places. This is me, posing in front of a yurt during a blizzard. The yurt was about four miles above a small village in eastern Kyrgyzstan called Ichkey-Jergez, nestled in the foothills of the Terskey Ala-Too...
I took this photo February, 2012 in Carpuela (Valle de Chota) Imbabura, Ecuador. It depicts artist Alicia Villaba's view of the yearning and longing for a better education for the young Afro-Ecuadorians in her community. This power piece is made...
This photo was taken at Madiba Clinic in Mahalapye, Botswana in December, 2010. I worked with the clinic staff to teach a series of 8 weekly infant care classes to expectant mothers, and this photo was taken on the final day of the course, when...
Kids would always love how I invented and translated songs from Spanish (my native language) to different languages. That would make them build better vocabulary. Also, they will also greet me around town in as many as 4 languages. So proud! Photo...
These girls were my students at the Dar Chebeb (Youth House) in Ouled Berhill, Taroudant, Morocco. I would teach them Spanish and English and help them on their french. We established weekend hours to play, learn about health and talk about what...
Aicha Boulmahuahib was the midwife at the local hospital at Ouled Berhill, Taroudant, Morocco where I lived for 2 years. The day I met her, we automatically started developing health workshops for women in the community. Also, I assisted her on...