Interview with Llyn "Lynn Patterson" De Danaan, October 19, 2022

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 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.

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