Interview with Jeanne D'Haem, May 6, 2021

Interview Summary

Jeanne D’Haem served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a Teaching English as a Foreign Language program in Somalia from 1968-70. She tells how practice teaching in Harlem taught her to save her judgments and roll with what she encountered. She tells stories about cultural misunderstandings between her and her neighbors and fellow teachers. People thought she was drinking the alcohol she used to mimeograph papers. A male teacher mistook her casual friendship for romance. Because of this incident, Peace Corps offered her a transfer her to Hargeisa. In Hargeisa she taught and made close friendships with British educated Somali nurses and other women. She discusses PCVs being considered American spies, her mistreatment by the Somali military during the Peace Corps’ evacuation to Nairobi following a military coup. She describes her post service trip around the world, her reentry to the US, and her writings about Somalia.

Interview Keyword

Peace Corps (US) Somalia (Country of Service) Education (TEFL) 1968-70 (years of service) Arabisyo Hargeisa post-colonial period military coup President Kennedy cross-cultural mis-understanding Upstate New York Museum of the Peace Corps Experience (Third Goal activity). Somalia (Country of service) President Kennedy's announcement New York City

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