Interview with Carlyn Nankervis, May 14, 2021

Interview Summary

Carlyn Nankervis served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil from 1996 through 1998. She worked in schools in the Itaborie region and helped set up and organize Agriculture Clubs (like our 4H clubs). She learned about the Peace Corps after teaching home economics at the Junior High level for two years upon graduating from Albright College. Her training was conducted in Brattleboro, Vermont, at the School for International Training. She took basic Portuguese at that school and made a fairly easy transition to the language after having taken Spanish in high school. After training, Nankervis flew to Rio de Janerio and then took a one and one half hour jeep ride to her assigned town. She stayed, at first with a family who had three teenage daughters and one son and eventually moved in with a widow who took in single women as boarders. Because she worked with a male, she told townspeople that they were “cousins” to avoid any controversy. Nankervis worked in two schools in her town along with one Catholic school. Nankervis also occasionally had to hitchhike to other schools in the surrounding area to provide assistance. Her home economics background came in handy as she set up school projects such as gardening, school lunch programs (which consisted of students eating school-grown produce), and nutrition programs. Nenkervis described the nutritional problems of the children as not eating enough vegetables and eating too many carbohydrates. She spent some of her vacation time visiting a local leper colony. Additionally, she taught English a few evenings a week to the locals. Upon returning home, Nankervis taught home economics with Job Corps in Jersey City, New Jersey and then began teaching ESL. Nankervis has returned to Brazil twice and currently lives in Minnesota.

Interview Keyword

Brazil (Country of service) 1966-1968 (Date of service) Peace Corps Volunteer Job: Education Peace Corps Volunteer Job: Agriculture Language training Cultural training Agriculture clubs Middle school

Interview LC Subject

Peace Corps (US) Peace Corps (US): 1960-1970 Portuguese Brattleboro (Vt.) Training Peace Corps (U.S.)--Brazil Brazil Home economics Teaching Job Corps (U.S.) Jersey City (N.J.) Agriculture Education Food Nutrition Leprosy English Itaboraí (Brazil)

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.