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

2022oh1693_pcrv0663

Interviewee Name

Llyn "Lynn Patterson" De Danaan

Interviewer Name

Evelyn Ganzglass

Interview Date

2022-10-19

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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