Peace “Corps-ner” Display at the Legation

In anticipation of our 2021 Bicentennial year, we added in 2019 to our Museum a “Peace Corps-ner” display honoring the different contributions made by a previous occupant of the Legation, the United States Peace Corps, whose volunteers and Moroccan staff, under the leadership of then Morocco Peace Corps Director Richard Holbrooke (diplomat and Negotiator of the Bosnia Accords), literally helped restore much of the Legation compound in 1971 in order to prepare it as a language training school for volunteers who were going to serve in Morocco and other countries where Arabic or French were spoken.

After the Legation became a museum and national monument, other “PCV’s,” including former US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens (photo with former Legation Director Bob Shea, right, by RPCV Valerie Staats), occasionally supported small Legation projects, and in 1990 former volunteer Michael Toler mobilized donations to create a community library in the ground floor space across the street which we now use to house our economic literacy and other educational programs for neighborhood women and youth.

In 2019, former Morocco Peace Corps volunteers and scholars Anny Gaul, Peter Kitlas and Mike Turner have recorded podcasts (see above hyperlinks) about their academic research for the Legation’s  podcast channel.

You can also read other accounts of the Peace Corps at the Legation on our blog, including “When the Peace Corps Rocked: Celebrating Peace Corps,” and “Disco Time at the Legation’s Cistern Chapel,” both written by former director and RPCV Tunisia Gerald Loftus.

As we begin preparations in 2020 to plan our 2021 bicentennial programs, we welcome visits, ideas and support from former and current Morocco Peace Corps volunteers.  1000 xoukr to all of you for your service!

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