Peace Corps Thailand 45th Anniversary Part 2

Here are a few pictures of the 45th Anniversary of Peace Corps Thailand.




This picture was taken Saturday night at the Peace Corps office. This is the same building that has been the office since the 80s near Krung Thai Bridge. But where you used to be able to freely wander in and out, now the entrance is blocked by a small security building you need to go through. There is also a recently completed new building that houses, among other things, a library, computers and internet access, and showers for visiting volunteers.





The ceremonial parts were held at the Erawan Hotel which is now a very fancy Hyatt Grand. Back in the day, as I recall, it was an elegant old dowager of a two story hotel with a wonderful restaurant at the swimming pool that was reasonable enough that even Peace Corps volunteers could occasionally eat lunch there.


Joe Hye, as you can tell from his yellow jacket, is one of the new Group 119 inductees. He's from St. Louis and headed for Trang Province.






Jim Lehman was the only other Group 19 member (my group). Of course, for anyone who knows Jim, it is redundant to say "here is Jim talking.' I don't remember all the posts Jim has had since Peace Corps, but he worked for Peace Corps or AID most of his career, including being Director of Nepal and Sri Lanka. He was the volunteer in Maesod and has agreed to help Somprasong get a Peace Corps volunteer for his school in Umphang, which is down the road from Maesod.








Pam was a teacher volunteer in the 60s and went on to teach at Cal State Sacramento for 30 years.




John Robertson is the new volunteer from Anchorage.




We've been experimenting with Joan's new digital audio recorder and so I didn't write everyone's name down. But I discovered that I pushed the record/pause button instead of the record button for a few of these. So I don't have all the names. This guy is from Group 117 and is getting ready to head home.