Interview with Baktash Ahadi, March 16, 2023

Interview Summary

Baktash Ahadi served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in an Education program in Mozambique from 2005-7. He recounts why he joined the Peace Corps starting with his father learning English from a Peace Corps Volunteer in Afghanistan, growing up as an immigrant and the impact of the 9/11 attacks on his interests. He talks about how his experience learning to fit in as an immigrant child in the US helped him overcome his initial language and other struggles to fit in in Mozambique and how he was perceived differently than other PCVs by local people because of his collectivist Afghan cultural background rather than American individualistic culture. In this way he set an example of a different kind of American. He talks about connecting with students through soccer. He thinks Peace Corps training helps PCVs understand their own behaviors driven by American exceptionalism and why Host Country Nationals act the way they do. He says that he wants to become a Peace Corps director overseas one day.

Interview Keyword

Peace Corps (US) Mozambique (Country of Service) Education (Peace Corps program) 2005-7 (years of service) Diversity in Peace Corps Peace Corps Training Moatize (town in which he served)

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Interview Usage

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