THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH-APRIL 2026 49 and Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) served in Ethiopia and the Dominican Republic, respectively. At least a dozen RPCVs have served in the U.S. House, including currently John Garamendi (D-Calif.), who served in Ethiopia (1966–1968). Foreign Leaders Weigh In The Peace Corps Legacy Project hosts testimonials by foreign leaders on the influence volunteers have had in their communities. One particularly touching story came from former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo (2001–2006). In 1963, Toledo, a shoeshine boy from Chimbote, persuaded his mother to take in one of two volunteers despite an already full house of 16 children. Volunteer Nancy Deeds became for Toledo a focus of endless curiosity about the world. “She was part of the family,” he says. “She shared the small table with the very precarious food.” Both Deeds and fellow volunteer Joel Meister taught Toledo English. They helped him apply for a scholarship to the University of San Francisco, where he taught Spanish at the Peace Corps training center. In 2001 they would attend Toledo’s inauguration as South America’s first democratically elected president of indigenous descent. One of his first decisions that year was to ask President George Bush to reinstate the Peace Corps in Peru, absent since political instability in 1975 drove the agency from the country. “I’m the only child in my family, until now, who’s gone to the university,” Toledo told the Legacy Project in 2025. “Had I not met Joel and Nancy, I would have never gone. My life changed substantially thanks to a dream of the United States, to the wisdom of constructing a bridge between the United States and the world. To a large extent, thanks to the Peace Corps.” Toledo would lead Peru through strong economic growth, reduce extreme poverty by 25 percent, and foster democratic principles after the human rights abuses, corruption, and authoritarianism of his predecessor, Alberto Fujimori. e At his 1999 credentialing ceremony in Tegucigalpa, U.S. Ambassador Frank Almaguer heard unexpected candor from Honduran President Carlos Roberto Flores Facussé. Beyond earshot of either entourage, Flores leaned in and shared with Almaguer his concerns about having a U.S. ambassador with Peace Corps roots, saying: “Peace Corps people know the country better than we politicians do, and it is dangerous to have an ambassador from the U.S. who knows the country and its people so well!” Almaguer, RPCV Belize (1967–1969) and a Peace Corps country director in Honduras (1976–1979), felt his heart pump with pride in what he considered the best investment the U.S. government made anywhere. Except for a bump to $430 million for 2025, the agency has operated on $410 million annually since 2016—slightly less than the amount allotted for U.S. military bands. e Presidents, Supreme Court justices, and important political advisers across Africa share similar stories. Current President of Ghana John Mahama remembers his high school science teacher, volunteer John Woodfin. Curious about spaceflight after the Apollo missions, Mahama and his classmates looked to Woodfin to understand the enormity of space. “Mr. Woodfin made a lot of us fall in love with science. And so many of my friends who continue to do science today are doctors and engineers, probably did so under the influence of John Woodfin,” Mahama told the Legacy Project. e Afghanistan also proves rich in national figures with fond memories of specific volunteers. In 2002 interim Head of Finance and Foreign Assistance Ashraf Ghani told Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez and RPCV FSO Michael Metrinko about a volunteer named Tom Gouttierre. Ghani (also Afghanistan’s fifth president, 2014–2021) could hardly be contained talking about “Mr. Tom” and other volunteers at Kabul’s Habibia High School, who taught more than English, math, and basketball. They taught fair play, he said, and the meaning of democracy. He credited PCVs with his selection to attend an Oregon high school for a year, altering the course of his life. After leaving Ghani, the delegation called on Sima Samar, interim vice chair and minister for women’s affairs, and Minister of Higher Education Mohammed Sharif Fayez. Both shared similar memories of experiences in their youth with volunteers. The Vasquez delegation was still in Kabul when President George W. Bush announced plans to double the number of volunteers to 14,000, to include possible site placements in From the beginning, the Peace Corps experience was intended to develop a new talent pool for a diplomatic corps JFK considered unprepared to face Cold War realities.
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