The Peace Corps, Sierra Leone, and Me - Softcover

Tyler, Norman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1514280736 ISBN 13: 9781514280737

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

What is it like to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer? Follow the author's two-year tour as a volunteer in a Rural Development program in upcountry Sierra Leone, West Africa. He daily experienced cultural interactions that were to gradually change his life perspective. Readers ride with him in his beat-up Land Rover and vicariously share in the insupposable challenges of getting a health center or school built in an upcountry village; being exposed to tribal rituals of secret societies; working with local African officials who still had a colonialist perspective. This timely narrative also captures historic changes that have taken place in the host country from its "golden period" just after independence through its decades of major troubles--political upheaval, civil war, the "blood diamonds" conflict, the Ebola crisis--over the last fifty years.

About this title

From the Author:

For over half a century the Peace Corps has been providing volunteers to assist in countries where they have been requested. The Peace has three underlying tenets to its mission: 1) provide specialist assistance where requested; 2) have people in other countries get to know Americans; and 3) have Americans get to know people in other countries. Peace Corps Volunteers who have returned home after serving for two years represent a cohort of individuals who have remained active in their own communities.

From the Back Cover:

What prompted a naive nineteen-year-old from small-town Michigan to work in villages in West Africa where locals had never before seen a white person? This compelling story follows the author, Norman Tyler, during his time as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a Rural Development program in upcountry Sierra Leone, West Africa. Readers ride with him in his beat-up Land Rover and experience the insupposable challenges of helping villagers build a health center or school, being exposed to tribal rituals or secret societies, and working with African officials who still had a colonialist perspective.
This narrative captures historic changes taking place in Sierra Leone during its "golden period" just after independence, a period followed by decades of turmoil, including political upheaval, civil war, the "blood diamonds" conflict, and its Ebola crisis.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1514280736
• ISBN 13: 9781514280737
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200