This is The Savvy Traveler and I'm Diana Nyad.
Since JFK established the Peace Corps back in 1961,
about 170,000 people have served in 135 countries. The
two-year service attracts people
who want to get out there and help people less
fortunate than themselves.
Jenafir was one of the many
Peace Corps volunteers who joined right
out of college. She was sent to Benin, a tiny West
African country between Nigeria and Togo. She used a
cheap tape recorder to document her
two-year stay there.
Radio producer Jake Warga visited
her in Benin and helped her bring the sounds you're
about to hear to life.
Jenafir's
transition to West African tribal life was a shock to
the system. We caught up with her as she was finishing
her Peace Corps duty, and it turns
out, after two years, transitioning back home wasn't
so easy, either.
Jennifer is now working in social services in
California. She has plans to go back to Africa this
year -- one way or another. Her story was produced by
Jake
Warga, with help from Jay Allison.
The piece came to
us through the public radio Web sites Transom.org and
Hearingvoices.com, with funding from the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting.
