Interview with Cynthia Rossi, May 19, 2023

Interview Summary

Cynthia Rossi served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia from 1997-1999 in a Water and Sanitation Hygiene Education program. She praises Peace Corps training, including the living with host families. She talks of her initial assignment to Makunta village in Zambia’s far north from which she was reassigned because of harassment by the chief’s son and life and work in Mukwakwa, a fishing village, where she organized the community to build cement covers for springs and latrines, taught health, hygiene, and seventh grade science, collaborated with the Zambian Youth Activist Organization on a soccer and sexual reproductive health camp, and helped some women’s groups form knitting cooperatives. She recounts stories about friends she made and travels in Zambia and other African countries. She discusses the importance of stepping outside one’s comfort zone, Peace Corps’ impact on her life, and plans to write publishable stories about her time in Zambia.

Interview Keyword

Peace Corps (US) Zambia (Country of Service) Water and Sanitation Hygiene Education (Peace Corps program) 1997-99 (years of service) Bemba (language she learned to speak) Kabwe (site of training) Youth Activist Organization (Zambian NGO).

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