Interview with Cristina O'Keeffe, May 26, 2022

Interview Summary

Cristina O’Keeffe served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in an Economic Development Program in Lviv, Ukraine from 2003-05. She discusses joining with her husband soon after their marriage, extensive vetting about her business experience during the selection process and cross-cultural problems with gender roles she encountered with her host mother during training. She also discusses problems with initial housing in Lviv and with various aspects of her work at the Lviv Youth Employment Center where she created tourism promotion materials and ran a summer Youth Leadership camp. She talks about the old Communist-era ways of doing things, youth’s more progressive attitudes and Ukrainian’s resilience, especially women’s adaptability in the face of change. She concludes talking about her family’s return to Ukraine in 2018, communication with friends during the 2022 war, and the contrast between Ukrainian’s tightly held traditions and America’s melting pot cultural diversity.

Interview Keyword

Peace Corps (US) Ukraine(Country of Service) Economic Development (Peace Corps program) 2003-5 (years of service) Lviv (city in which she served) Lviv Youth Employment Center (name of nonprofit for which she worked) Orange Revolution in Ukraine (historical context) post-Communist practices (historical context) Russian 2022 invasion of Ukraine (historical context).

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