Episodes

Photos from Chelsea and Kyle’s Story Chelsea and Kyle Pease’s Peace Corps Story Where and when did you serve? What did you do? We served together as a married couple in Lesotho, Africa from 2014-2016, both as education volunteers. We lived in Motete, a village in the mountains about six hours from the nearest […]

Before Bob Vila begin his life in broadcasting, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer, building houses and communities in Panama. Mr. Vila even built the very house he lived in during his service!

The culture of a new country can be a beautiful thing to behold. Yet, sometimes cultures and traditions of another group can run counter to your believes or even be downright dangerous to those who practice them. Taylor Nelson experienced this first hand, as she worked as a health volunteer while navigating around traditional witchcraft practices of Zambia.

Nia Chauvin served as an English teacher in small northern town in Mozambique from 2007-2009. While serving, she fell in love with her now husband and fell deeper in love with traveling. Now, Nia continues to travel the world with her husband and their young son. Through her website Born a Backpacker, she wants to show other parents that they can continue to travel with children, especially to countries where Peace Corps Volunteers call home.

Peace Corps Volunteers come away form their service with amazing stories, like the time when Olivia DiNucci broke her fast for Ramadan with Meryl Streep and later met Michelle Obama. Yet, the things that mean the most to volunteers aren't usually the stories of adventure or meeting the First Lady. Rather, they are the friendships we make with the citizens of the countries with serve in and the friendship we forge when sharing food and drink. While these are the harder stories to tell, they are t...

Michaela Sanchez served in a village in Nicaragua where she taught English in a community center started by a former volunteer and worked with Nicaraguan English teachers to improve their teaching abilities. Hear her story on this week's episode of the podcast.

Ron Tschetter's Peace Corps story all started in the mid 60's when he saw a Peace Corps ad and said to his wife, "We're going to do this work stuff the rest of our lives. Let's go out and see if we can do some good." Little did he know he would go on to sit on the National Peace Corps Association board and eventually serve as as the 17th Director of the Peace Corps.

Veronica Bottalico served in Costa Rica as an English teacher in a community driven by the tourism and ornamental foliage industries. She talks about residing in a house that could have been the set of a telenovela, living in a home overrun with mold, and eventually living in a tropical paradise.

After being turned away from one opportunity to live and work abroad because of his disability, Tony Skow turned his sites on service in the Peace Corps. While Tony may have a disability, his service was not defined by what he couldn't do but what he could do better than anyone else.

Michael Buckler stepped away from a job as a litigator representing Microsoft to pursue his dream to serve in the Peace Corps. During his service, Michael fell in love with Malawi and became increasing frustrated with what he saw happening around him. Even has aid and development groups were pouring a billion dollars into Malawi, resulting in countless projects, the rural poor were becoming poorer. After returning from Peace Corps Malawi in late 2008, Mike began searching for ways to improve dev...

Julie Sifuentes would not be here if it weren’t for the Peace Corps (and the picture of Machu Picchu on a National Geographic cover that lured her father to Perú). And while there are so many things that have shaped who she is, being a Peace Corps kid, is a really important one.

Growing up, Darryl Glotfelty would look around the house at keepsakes that his parents had accumulated over the years, but was particularly drawn to a few objects that didn’t quite fit in with the Appalachian décor. The red drum, batiks, and picture of his uncle in his Togolese dress all piqued Darryl's interest. Sadly, his uncle passed away during his Peace Corps service, before Darryl was born. Yet, he inspired Darryl to serve many years later.

Service doesn't stop when you close your service, and Emily Milcent is a perfect example. She spent two years teaching English in Indonesia and is now starting a new position as an AmeriCorps volunteer. We talk about her in time on Java, the most populated island in the world, her amazing post card project, and why you need rice with every meal.

After three years of serving as a rural education development volunteer in Zambia, where he taught English, Shou Yuan headed for rural Japan to continue teaching English. We talked over Skype during his recent visit home to the US, and explored the similarities and differences of teaching English and living in two very different countries.

Today marks a complete year of sharing stories of current and returned volunteers! It has been an amazing year, packed with even more amazing conversations. Each interview has filled me with energy and continually reaffirmed why I started this podcast.

Aided by his appearance and language ability, Christopher MacAlpine-Belton was able to deeply integrate into his community in the Dominican Republic. His level of integration allowed him to challenge the status quo and develop rich and meaningful relationships. This week, Christopher reflects on his service, the challenges he and other volunteers faced, and provides tips that any volunteer can use to better integrate into their community.

Jennifer and Christopher met while serving as Peace Corps volunteers in Madagascar. Apart from serving in different Peace Corps sectors, they had very different experiences. Hear about their time a Peace Corps Madagascar volunteers in the land of mischevious lemurs and fat baobabs.

"A ball of light then flashed before my eyes, as I sat on my bed. It struck my phone and went up my right arm; the pain was quite unbearable. I ran out of my room and collapsed..."

After the challenge of serving in a village deep in the rainforest of Suriname, Evan was up for another: becoming an entrepreneur and creating a company that would provide sustainable income to Amazon communities via delicious, healthy fruit snacks. In perfect Peace Corps fashion, Evan started Peaceful Fruits with a batch of fruit snacks made in his mother's oven, packaged in ziplock bags, that he sold at his local farmer's market.

Meisha Robinson served in Benin as a Peace Corps Volunteer and then again ten years later in South Africa. In between her time as a volunteer, she got an MBA and was the brand manager for Campbell's Soup. What caused her to leave her high paying corporate job and return to life as a volunteer? Learn on this week's episode.

Eating monkey, a 10-day adventure down the Congo river to In-service Training, having two of his friends arrested for being accused of being spies, and evacuated from a civil war. These are only a few of Brian Cooper's stories from his time in the Republic of the Congo.

This episode is a rebroadcast of Ep #016: Lizzie Pelz, Ethiopia 2012-2014, in celebration of Pride Month. On this Episode: Working as a health volunteer to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission Serving as an LGBTQ volunteer The view of homosexuality in Ethiopia Lizzie’s Peace Corps Story “Before I say anything else, I want to make the […]

Homosexuality is illegal in Senegal. When Patrick Driscoll found this out before he departed for his Peace Corps service, he was immediately a bit nervous about the next 2 years of his life. Patrick had come out during his senior year of college and was generally accepted by everyone and was quite content. Then, he was moving halfway around the world to essentially "jump back in."

Before serving his country as a Peace Corps Volunteer, Josh Guerrero served in the Marine Corps. We talk about his Peace Corps service, the transition from combat boots to flipflops, and essentialism.