When Peace Corps Staff Lived Like PCVs
The camp with the beach over the hill was Estate Mandall in St Thomas. The place with the chickens ,horses…
The staff orientation instruction booklet for Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands, back in 1968 when the Peace Corps Training was done on St. Croix and St. Thomas, has an interesting piece of instruction for incoming training staff.
One paragraph in the 9-page orientation pamphlet, which is mimeographed and stapled together, reads:
LIVING ACCOMMODATIONS AT THE VITC
The living accommodations at the VITC are not luxurious by any standards.
Housing for married couples is not available unless specifically stated in writing by the Director of the VITC. Housing for single staff members is generally shared quarters. A single room provided with two beds, two chairs, one dresser, one standing wardrobe rack. Linen is distributed once weekly. Toilet and shower facilities are located in a separate building. There is no hot water at the St. Croix Camp and no flush toilets. The St. Thomas Camp is equipped with flush toilets, and in some cases hot water. Meals are served in communal dining hall. Each person is responsible for washing his own utensils.
Those were the days!
Yes, but the beaches were amazing on the day off, and a fifth of
gin cost around $2.00 and milk and groceries were expensive, so
guess what we lived on! Marcia and I loved the experience, it beat
working in NYC between business school years!
Yeh John, my penthouse apartment on the main boulevard of Asmara had unreliable hot water and a chain pull toilet. And the food at the local restaurants where I usually had dinner was definitely not Michelin star quality.
I was in St Croiix 66 for training out living quarters were open air cabins with 4 bunk beds with mosquito nets. Every cabin had a chicken coop outside for eggs and fresh chicken for dinner, that we had to pluck, ring their necks for cooking. . We had a dining hall with metal trays to eat off of and we had to wash them ourselves. Town was about six miles away.
DAve Kolesky 66-66
St Lucia & Barbados
Yes i remember it well. My family was there is 68-69. St thomas and st croix ! Looking for where the quarters were in St Thomas. I remember body surfing at nearby beach over the hill…
And where was the “camp” where we road horses, raised rabbits, etc in St Croix??
Pier Robinson
Robinson Family
Daughter off Bruce and Sylvia
The camp with the beach over the hill was Estate Mandall in St Thomas. The place with the chickens ,horses and a library was St Croix
Another Robinson