Interview with Anh Thu Hoang, February 23, 2023

Interview Summary

Anh Thu Hoang served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in an education program Gabon from 1989-91. As a Vietnamese immigrant, she wanted to improve her French and gain a foreign experience after college. She discusses language training in Zaire and teacher training in Libreville. She talks about teaching middle school English in Tchibanga, difficult teaching conditions, and teacher and student strikes in her second year that closed schools. She also talks about a girl’s club she started, friendships with Europeans and Americans, doing a lot of reading and traveling in her spare time. She talks about being unprepared for unwelcome attention from local men and -American being considered American rather than Asian by locals in contrast to Chinese aid workers. She says being alone and isolated and other difficult situations in Peace Corps was one of the most impactful experiences of her life. She contrasts this experience with her subsequent public health work in Africa.

Interview Keyword

Peace Corps (US) Gabon (Country of Service) Education (Peace Corps program) 1989-91 (years of service) Diversity in Peace Corps Peace Corps (U.S.)—training Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) (site of initial language training with PCVs going to other francophone African countries) Tchibanga, a provincial capital town in the south of the country (service site).

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