Jay Thomas
Volunteer: Jay Thomas
Bio:
Iran 73-73
Madagascar 97-01
Contributions from Jay Thomas
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I Am Expressions
I Am Expressions My training for Peace Corps Iran was held in a small town south of Tehran. This was in 1973. I remember some of those days very well. Other days I remember only being less than well, spending a lot of time on squat toilets. Some things I don’t need to remember. Some memories just reappear in the oddest ways. One of the training exercises was to test our level of Farsi Language learning. I think it was also a test to help us discover for ourselves if the Peace Corps exp...
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Five Squiggly Lines
My January 14, 1997 journal entry is an award winner. I like it because of the five squiggly lines that cascade down the page from the middle of words. I shouldn’t be able to remember writing it but I have a vivid memory of laughing myself awake at the end of every squiggle. The entries just before 1-14-97 were a little arbitrary when it came to writing a date. I had a fixed date to write when I wrote the last entry in Washington, D.C. The fourth group of Peace Corps Trainees bound fo...
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American Canvas and Malagasy Yarn Or Malagasy Yarn and American Canvas (It depends how you look at it.)
I wanted to bring back to America something I could show my family and friends. I knew that Returned Peace Corps Volunteers’ stories ware out quickly with those who have not had similar experiences so I wanted something people could see that would, perhaps, lead them to ask me questions. I had a piece of American needlepoint canvas with me. I remembered the amounts of free time I had had when I was a volunteer in Iran long before I went to Madagascar. Not having a TV really gives you lots...
