This is a different book about the Peace Corps experience. It shows how the author’s growing up in Acadian French-Speaking Maine prepared him for service as one of the very first volunteers in Thailand. His unique background in the Acadian French culture of Northern Maine helped him to work effectively in Udorn, Thailand, and thereby helped to shape the Peace Corps in the vibrant organization it is today.
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Endorsement & Excerpts
“Roger Parent’s stories of growing up in a French village in Maine and of his years in Thailand as a member of its first Peace Corps group is an important account of Peace Corps’ earliest days. I knew Peace Corps from its beginning and advised its Director, Sargent Shriver. Notre Dame trained the first volunteer group in 1961which served in Chile. The Peace Corps idea is powerful, but equally powerful were the first volunteers who in a real sense created Peace Corps. Roger also directed Peace Corps in Haiti and Grenada. His book should be read by all persons interested in Peace Corps, especially those wishing to serve.”
Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., President Emeritus, University of Notre Dame
I found Roger’s memoir very engaging. Roger grew up when the old folk Acadian culture was giving in to modern pressures. He was trying to resolve being of a minority culture, speaking a different language, and forging a life in a new age. He joined the Peace Corps to serve people in Thailand where he successfully faced radically different challenges. I highly recommend this well thought out memoir.
Don Cyr, Founder & Director, Musee Culturel du Mont-Carmel, Lille, Maine
Excerpt from the Author's Preface
Life is what we do and what happens to us, and my stories are about what I’ve done and what’s happened to me. These stories are suggestive of my growth and development from a nascent sense of self and consciousness embedded at birth to the end of my service as a member of the first group of Peace Corps Volunteers in Thailand (Thai I), from 1961 to 1963.
Excerpts from Selected Chapter Titles
“What’s a Peace Corps Volunteer?”
No one knew for sure the qualities, the personality or the makeup of the ideal volunteer. There were only a few hundred volunteers in the field, and they had been in their assignments only weeks or months; there was little experience to draw on. My idea of a successful Peace Corps volunteer was probably as legitimate as that of the program director and the trainers – maybe even more so. I thought a successful Peace Corps volunteer would be one who lived modestly, provided needed skills, knew the local language, was respectful of the culture, and did not try to impose “our way of life” on the people.
Roger Parent, Second from right, with students, Udorn, Thailand, circa 1962
“Wild Ride in a Helicopter with Sargent Shriver”.
I was in a helicopter with Sargent Shriver to visit volunteers in Khorat, about a one-hour ride from Udorn. It was an American-made helicopter, maybe a precursor of the ubiquitous Hueys of the Vietnam War – I’m not sure of the make or model. I sat on a bench facing Sargent Shriver and a couple of his assistants, and next to me were Art and Jack, volunteers at the Udorn Teacher Training College, and Dave, another volunteer whom Shriver had invited for the ride. We strapped ourselves into our seats and, at Sargent Shriver’s suggestion, the door was left wide-open to let cool air rush past our faces as we were lifted above Udorn. I hadn’t felt air this cool since I had left Maine eight months earlier in October, 1961.
Sargent Shriver, Peace Corps Director, middle, Right Roger’s Student, Left, American Ambassador to Thailand.