Interview with Llyn "Lynn Patterson" De Danaan, October 19, 2022
Project: Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project
Interview Summary
Llyn De Danaan, known also as Lynn D. Patterson, served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sarawak from 1962-64 establishing 4-H clubs with rural youth. She praises Peace Corps training and describes tensions related to deselection. She tells stories of living and working with local leaders and sharing her house with a Malay family displaced by a flood; interactions with British colonial officers; and helping with flood relief. She discusses living under the threat of invasion from Indonesia, including being asked to spy for British troops, and a fellow PCV's arrest; the Peace Corps’ decision to keep PCVs in place for political reasons; and post-traumatic stress she experienced after her return. She was told that Peace Corps wasn’t invited back to Sarawak after a few years because PCVs were perceived as sympathetic with indigenous Sarawakians. She talks about life-long friendships made, and the profound impact Peace Corps had on her life and career as an anthropologist. Her journal article A Personal Narrative: The Peace Corps' First Two Years in Sarawak, 1962-1964 in Borneo Research Bulletin (Vol.48), 2017, can be found here.Interview Accession
Interviewee Name
Interviewer Name
Interview Date
Interview Keyword
Peace Corps (US) Sarawak/ Sabah (then a British Crown Colony and now Malaysia) (Country of Service) youth development/agriculture (Peace Corps program)1962-64 (years of service) Hilo, Hawaii (training site) Kuching (capital of the Crown Colony) Tarat Agricultural Station (first site to which she was assigned, formerly a WWII prisoner of war camp) Bau, Sarawak (second site to which she was assigned) 4-H British colonial rule (historical context) Malaysian independence(historical context) Indonesia-Malaysia Conflict, 1963 (historical context) 1963 flood (historical context) Chinese Communist Organization (CCO) (historical context) Peace Corps as a US foreign policy tool (historical context) Sarawak Museum Tom Harrisson.Interview Rights
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Danaan, Llyn De Interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. 19 Oct. 2022. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
Danaan, L.D. (2022, October 19). Interview by E. Ganzglass. Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.
Danaan, Llyn De, interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. October 19, 2022, Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
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