Interview with Marianna Colten, January 27, 2006

WILSON: Peace Corps Oral History Project interview January 27, 2006 with Marianna Colten, Jack Wilson recording. Marianna, if you would please give me your full name and where and when you were born.

COLTEN: Okay, my name is Marianna Mahoney Colten, and I was born in Niles, Michigan in 1959.

WILSON: And you grew up in Niles? You go to primary and secondary school there?

COLTEN: I went to primary, secondary school there , yes, a family of six and the youngest of six.

WILSON: Okay, tell me anything more about your family that might be appropriate.

COLTEN: Let's see.

WILSON: Niles is a small town?

COLTEN: Relatively, I would say 25,000 to 30,000 located near South 00:01:00Bend, Indiana so we grew up under the umbrella of Notre Dame University and the fighting Irish. Let's see, grew up in a Catholic family, went to private school through sixth grade and then transferred to public school.

WILSON: Parochial school?

COLTEN: Mmmhmm.

WILSON: Yeah, okay. So you graduated from high school, what did you say? When?

COLTEN: In 1977.

WILSON: '77, and then what?

COLTEN: And then I went to Holy Cross Junior College for a couple of years; lived at home for my first two years of college and then I transferred--

WILSON: That was in Niles?

COLTEN: That was in South Bend, Indiana.

WILSON: In South Bend.

COLTEN: And then I went to, transferred to Nazareth College, which is a private Catholic school in Kalamazoo, Michigan and finished off my 00:02:00degree there.

WILSON: And what did you major in?

COLTEN: I majored in a degree in elementary ed and learning disabilities K-12.

WILSON: Okay, you graduated then in what? 80--

COLTEN: '81.

WILSON: '81, and then what?

COLTEN: Well, my senior year we had heard that some Peace Corps recruiters were coming to campus to talk to people and so a friend of mine and I decided that we would go and meet with them and see what Peace Corps was about. I had always wanted to travel because I had an older sister who married an East Indian and moved to India, and another sister traveled with her before she was married. And so I had that stories and experience of them, you know, traveling and it sounded 00:03:00like a neat thing to do. And my sister Susan lived in India for five years and gave birth to her first child there, and I guess that kind of influenced me and made me want to travel. And I said, "Ah, Peace Corps is a good way to maybe see the world," and I've always been interested in volunteer work also. So anyway, so that's why I checked it out.

WILSON: So that was the spring of your senior year?

COLTEN: Yeah, must have, well, it might have been even a little earlier than-- No, it was winter of my senior year because they couldn't come to campus, there was a bad snowstorm, so I had to drive downtown Kalamazoo to the hotel and interview with them there and talk to them. And my friend, actually she was probably more interested than I was and I just kind of tagged along, but I'm the one that ended up going. 00:04:00So some of it had to do with her health issues and I don't think she really felt comfortable leaving, you know, her family so--

WILSON: So you filled out an application?

COLTEN: I filled out an application and it seemed to take forever to hear back, but there was, you know, there were certain steps that you had to take. And you know after a couple of months you would hear about this and then you would have to send in more information, so the paperwork was pretty involved. It was kind of neat because I had a real close group of friends and they were kind of all going through this process with me. You know, "Did you hear anything yet? Did you hear anything yet?" And I would always run to my mailbox, so it became almost-- It's a small school so it kind of became a campus project to get me in, get me out of there.

WILSON: So there hadn't been other people who had gone in the Peace Corps before?

COLTEN: Not that I know of.

WILSON: Or that you--?

COLTEN: Not that I know of but you know there might have been.

WILSON: So did you ask for any particular country?

COLTEN: I didn't really specify country or language because at that point I hadn't studied a foreign language. I was in college but I never studied foreign language, so I didn't really specify where I would go. I wanted to work in special education, so that probably limited me to certain countries.

WILSON: So you indicated that to the Peace Corps though, that you were interested in special ed?

COLTEN: Yeah.

WILSON: And so you were selected or notified? What? When?

COLTEN: Well I guess I was notified towards the end of, well, probably I would say end of April my senior year, and then I ended up right 00:06:00after graduation going to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia for I guess a selection process because at that time you had to go through a week long selection process with psychologists and I don't know who they all were. But we had to go stay at a hotel and they interviewed us and we had to do these role playing activities and they observed us and wrote lots of reports on us, and tried to decide if we were worthy of the Peace Corps or if we were mentally healthy. And it was kind of an interesting process.

WILSON: This was before any country assignment?

COLTEN: No, by that time we knew that we would probably go to Ecuador, and then some of the people would go to Costa Rica to train, some of 00:07:00us would go to Ecuador and train, but ultimately we would all end up in Ecuador. And I think the training for some people, for my husband for example, was in Costa Rica because that's where the agronomists and those people were being trained in agronomy as well as language.

WILSON: So were you married at that time?

COLTEN: No, we met. We met actually in Harpers Ferry at that selection process.

WILSON: Oh, okay. So a week of whatever this was, kind of staging pre-selection.

COLTEN: Pre-selection, because they did de-select people.

WILSON: They did?

COLTEN: Yes they did. It was interesting though because the process was kind of very detailed but not very accurate. Like there was a, I remember a guy getting chosen that I felt like was totally not mentally 00:08:00well and shouldn't go. You know, he had admitted to me that you know he had tried to commit suicide on various occasions. He falsified his forms for Peace Corps selection, and when I actually went back home I called and said, "You know you might want to check this guy out a little further because I don't think he was on the up and up with some of his information. You better check him out," because I didn't feel like he was very stable, and then you know then there were other people that I thought might have made good volunteers that didn't get selected, you know. We had one girl that was pretty much a fluent speaker and she had traveled a lot and she was very interesting, but she kind of took that whole process tongue and cheek. And she, you know, when she was asked to role play she kind of was you know being sarcastic and fooling around, and I think she got de-selected because 00:09:00of her attitude, but I thought she would have made a great volunteer, you know. So it was interesting. And I remember one of the, this is how closely they were watching us, one of our co-possible volunteers was having her birthday and that night at dinner we were having cupcakes for dinner and I took her, or I took my cupcake to the kitchen and brought back a candle because I found out it was her birthday and we sang happy birthday to her. Well, after she blew out the candle I took my cupcake back because she had one, well in my final evaluation that was sighted as one reason why I might not be selected because I had taken the cupcake back. And I thought, "Oh my gosh." So they were really writing everything down and watching us more than I realized at 00:10:00the time, you know, and I-- Anyways--

WILSON: Okay, so at the end of that--

COLTEN: Yeah, it's just really--

WILSON: So at the end of that week there was some kind of decision.

COLTEN: There was a decision. We, yeah, the ones that were chosen or you know not de-selected had to have a lot of their vaccines at that time before we left, and then we went home for I can't remember, maybe a week, five days and packed to get ready to go. And then we, you know, flew to Miami and met in Miami and flew out from Miami.

WILSON: And then you went into in-country training?

COLTEN: And then we went to in-country training.

WILSON: And what?

COLTEN: For three months.

WILSON: Three months.

COLTEN: Mmmhmm.

WILSON: And what was that like?

COLTEN: It was very challenging for me because I hadn't had a lot of language exposure. I mean might have had some in middle school but not very much, and I didn't have any in high school and I didn't take language in college. So we were placed with, you know, native 00:11:00speakers--families and it was pretty much sink or swim. You know you had to learn to communicate pretty fast. I liked it but it was very challenging. It was going to language classes all day long for three months and it was pretty taxing mentally. But it was good.

WILSON: Were there other components to the training besides language?

COLTEN: Well yes, well not really for-- You know because I had already been trained in special education so I had that degree, so there wasn't any education in that respect. But towards the end of training we had to do these survival weekends where we had to go out, and, you know, they told us to go to a certain place. You had to find a place and get yourself there and spend the weekend there. And usually they sent you to places where there weren't hotels, and you had to find a way to get 00:12:00a place to stay. You had to talk to people you didn't know to ask them for recommendations. Some volunteers were taken into people's homes and you know that was kind of an interesting ordeal as a survival test I guess.

WILSON: And so how did that work for you?

COLTEN: Well mine, I happened to be sick the week, one weekend that I had to go out and that didn't turn out very well at all because I wasn't feeling good, I had intestinal virus, and I spent a lot time-- I found a, I walked from this little town where there was nothing and I walked down until I found another little town and there happened to be a small movie theater there, and so one of my ways of coping was, "I've got to go sit in this movie theater because I feel awful and I don't know what else to do." And so I sat through "Conan the Barbarian" three times, and it's not a very good movie. And I just stayed there for hours 00:13:00because I was sick and not feeling good; I had a fever and anyway. So I ended up finding a place to stay and getting back like I needed to, but I just remember going to the movies as a mental survival you know.

WILSON: Were there other cultural training aspects or--?

COLTEN: Oh, yeah they had you know things that you, do's and don'ts of how you should behave and you know. And you know how to interact with the families that we were with; you know there was some of that going on because most, you know, most everybody had some difficulties. So they talked about cultural differences and cultural training I guess.

WILSON: And at the end of the three months was there a language test or?

COLTEN: Yes, we had to-- Well periodically we had tests. The F.S.I. test that the foreign service I guess had developed, so we had to have periodic tests of language ability and then we either passed at the end or didn't. And some people were actually de-selected after training also either because they de-selected themselves, they decided this wasn't what they wanted or they just couldn't learn the language or you know their behavior wasn't up to par maybe.

WILSON: Then at the end of that time you were assigned to a particular community?

COLTEN: Yes, we were assigned to a community and I-- My training was 00:15:00done in Quito, which is the capitol of Ecuador. And I was assigned to a small village outside of Cuenca, and it was probably a twelve, thirteen hour bus ride from Quito. And there were no other English speakers there other than, you know, what they learn in school, you know not native speakers or anything. Very small town, had to get there by bus, there might have been four people that owned cars in that area so it wasn't a thriving metropolis by any means--small. Had a little town plaza and a couple of tiendas, small restaurants but mom and pop kind of things, not very fancy. Maybe one or two 00:16:00clothing stores but again it was just a small room with clothing in it. I remember one T.V. being in town and it was owned by the little grocery store. You know I call it a grocery store but it's really a one room that had some groceries, you know not-- And most of the fruits and vegetables were brought in because it was a dry mountain area. It was up in the mountains and so the fruit and the vegetables had to be brought into our town. We didn't grow that many.

WILSON: And your job was what? You were assigned to do what?

COLTEN: Well, originally I was supposed to work with kids with special needs. Now this was a small school and they didn't really have a program for special needs. The idea was to take special ed out to the 00:17:00campo, and we were kind of the first group to work on that. Before they had something called the portage project where the volunteers would go into homes and work with families that had special needs children. What our, what they were hoping we would do is to identify special ed or special needs kids and then start a program for them. The problem with that was that a lot of kids who were truly special ed were not at school, they were kept at home, and some of that was, you know, there was a cultural stigma. You know you don't want your handicapped child out in public much, you know, this is my-- You know because some people actually felt like they had these children, they were superstitious because of something that they had done in their lives, you know, that they did something wrong and so their children didn't turn out like 00:18:00everybody else's children when they were born. I mean there were some people that were very superstitious about that. Anyway so I started working with kids and then I identified some in the schools that had learning disabilities that were pretty obvious, you know, went around and talked to teachers. But and I went to homes and I worked with some kids who just lived too far away from school. I would do that on the weekends and travel to their homes, you know, by foot. But after doing that for a year and I thought, "I'm going to identify these kids and we're going to have this little class, but what's going to happen to them when I leave? They're not going to give me a teacher to train for special education." And I just felt like it wasn't leaving anything behind after I left, so they didn't have a kindergarten in that school, and I talked to parents you know and said, you know, we should probably 00:19:00start a kindergarten so we can identify and start working with these kids and try to prevent some learning problems, you know, along the way. And so one of the things that they did were, what they did with them, you know how we learn gross motor and then go to fine motor and fine motor skills. They start with fine motor and they expect the children to use very neat writing on, you know, very small lines for example; that's one small example. And some children cannot do that; they have to start with gross motor activities and work their way to the fine motor. And so I was just trying to educate them on basic things like that. We did start a kindergarten and we were told that we couldn't start a kindergarten, and the parents said, "Yes, we can start a kindergarten!" And I said, "Yes, we can start a kindergarten." So while during the summer months when school was out and there were no 00:20:00teachers and no director, the parents and I got together and organized and they made tables and each child that came to kindergarten had to bring their own chair, so they had chairs made and the parents wanted them to have little uniforms so they made uniforms for them. So we went with the thought that if there's a kindergarten they will give us a teacher, and that's what happened. We started the kindergarten, got the room all ready and then you know the director came back and saw that oh we have this kindergarten, so he went to the ministry of education and told them what we were doing. And the ministry came out and said, "Oh, well, oh I guess we could give you a teacher." So we got a teacher and we started kindergarten, and that kindergarten is still there. I still keep in contact with those people and--

WILSON: Oh that's--

COLTEN: Yeah. And then I also, and I had a teacher to work with then, 00:21:00I was working with her and then I decided on my own sort of that I probably didn't need to be there every day so that she would be more independent of me, so I worked part of the week in Cuenca and worked with a bilingual school in their special ed program helping them develop a special ed program. It was a school that I think was started by missionaries but it was a bilingual school, so I worked in there and I felt like that was a better use of my special ed skills because they had teachers that were being trained just for special education. And then with my real severe kids I did mostly in the campo I went out to their homes and you know trained them to do rabbit projects and things 00:22:00like that that they can make money at, you know because I felt like trying to get them into the educational system wasn't a good idea. At that point they weren't going to benefit very much after I left. So we did some animal husbandry programs and things like that to get them more independent so that they could have an income. And I had a couple volunteers I talked into coming and helping me build rabbit cages and things like that, so--

WILSON: What was your living situation like?

COLTEN: It was pretty nice. I lived with, and we were assigned-- Let me go back to when we were assigned our village. We were assigned with a family for a weekend to make a visit, a site visit, and then we went 00:23:00back for more training. So on my site visit I stayed with the nurse at the town, and she was divorced and had a young daughter who was seven. And she and I hit it off and got along really well during that site visit, and she invited me to come and live with her when I came back. And so I did that and I lived in her house, I rented a room from her, and she shared her kitchen. You know she let me share the kitchen and the living room, and it was a good situation because even though she was the nurse she was kind of ostracized from that community. She was the most valuable person in that community because they needed her. They didn't have a full time doctor; they only had a doctor that came once a month. But because she was divorced she was ostracized, so she 00:24:00and I became really close and very good friends because I could relate to her situation, and we talked about-- You know I didn't judge her; anyway we got along really well.

WILSON: So you then cooked for yourself or with her?

COLTEN: I cooked for myself and sometimes we cooked together and did my own laundry. I hired somebody once to do my laundry and everybody got upset with me because I paid her too much, and I said well I can't not pay her more than what you pay her, so I'm just going to do my own laundry. You know and it's kind of sad that I wanted to-- And I wasn't paying her that much more but it kind of tipped the scales for everybody else you know, "You can't do that, gringa, because you're messing up our system!" So I said, "Okay, I'm going to do my own laundry because I cannot--"

WILSON: And they thought that was strange?

COLTEN: Yeah, they did, yeah.

WILSON: What was the most difficult part of becoming acclimated?

COLTEN: I would say some of it was my language. I wish I had more language training because when I first got to my site people thought that I wasn't that intelligent. And even though my understanding, my comprehension was really good but my verbal skills were not up to my, you know, comprehension. So I was so frustrated because it's like, "These people really think I'm stupid but I'm not stupid," you know, and it was a good lesson for me because you know I've been working with special ed kids and it kind of put me in their shoes you know, like maybe there's more inside than comes out and that we see, so it 00:26:00was a good experience but it was very frustrating, very hard, and the children--the neighborhood children were the ones that helped me a lot. You know they were the ones that were very patient with me and teaching me language, and so we had a good relationship because they knew more than I did and they could-- Anyway--

WILSON: What do you think you were best prepared for?

COLTEN: Let's see, I guess being accepting of other people, one because of my special ed training, but also because I came from a big family. You know, I was used to not having my own everything and used to giving a lot because I had to or I had to share a lot, and I think 00:27:00that probably prepared me well for dealing with my situation. Also I was raised Catholic so I slid into that very well, you know, they knew I was Catholic. I went to church with them and that kind of bonded everybody right away, and I think having that same religious belief, even though my Catholicism was a little different than theirs you know. You know there were things that I didn't agree with but I just didn't voice those opinions, but I think that made it easier for me in coming from a big family and you know once I lived with Leonora then I became part of her family, which was a very big family. And so they accepted me and I was, like I said I think I was used to that kind of lifestyle. Some volunteers, most volunteers did not live with families when they were, you know, after training they didn't want to be with a family. 00:28:00And I really liked that aspect; I think I learned more because I did.

WILSON: And that helped your language?

COLTEN: Oh yeah, and I think it helped my language because I was living with them also. And there weren't any other Peace Corps volunteers in my town, so that helped, you know we had to get along and relate.

WILSON: What would a typical day have been like for you?

COLTEN: Typical day.

WILSON: From you know the time you get up to the time you go to bed.

COLTEN: Oh, let's see. Getting up, having breakfast with Leonora and Maria Eugenia, those were the--

WILSON: And what would you have had?

COLTEN: Nice fresh bread from my father's adobe oven--bread and 00:29:00coffee, cafe con leche. And it was the best bread; it was like I guess a French bread kind of hard and crusty on the outside and soft on the inside, and it was great. So that's basically what I had for breakfast, bread and coffee.

WILSON: And then the rest of the day you--?

COLTEN: Then I would you know walk to school, usually I went with Maria Eugenia because she went to school, and walked to school and I don't know how school-- Played with the kids on the playground at recess, recreo, I liked talking too. Recess at school was, they would have a simple lunch like maybe a piece of bread and hot cocoa, hot cocoa made with water, or they would have a scoop of rice with some noodles 00:30:00on top--that would be their lunch. But there were a couple of mothers and this little man named Carlitos, who would, Don Carlitos who would come and sell things to the kids at lunchtime. And one of my favorite things was talking to Don Carlitos because he was telling tall tales all the time. He used to make the kids these little, make suckers and sell them to the kids. I liked talking to him because he was-- I don't know if his stories were true but they were fun anyway.

WILSON: What kind of stories?

COLTEN: Oh about you know monsters in this lake up in the mountains and you know just stories. He was really cute.

WILSON: Anything that kids might like or anything he could sell to the gringo.

COLTEN: Yeah, right.

WILSON: What about recreation?

COLTEN: I played volleyball. I was a volleyball player in college and I played volleyball, but volleyball was more the men's sport in Ecuador. And they played three on three instead of you know what I was used to, so I played volleyball some with people, walked, I learned how to knit. Some of the ladies in town and the younger women, you know, taught me how to knit. Sometimes I would go down to the plaza; we only had electricity for certain hours of the day, maybe four hours in the evening. So during the evenings sometimes I would go down to the plaza and watch T.V. in the little tienda with some people. Spent time with Leonora; sometimes I would go and help Leonora in the little clinic. I 00:32:00don't know.

WILSON: Did you--?

COLTEN: I read. You know I would have candlelight usually.

WILSON: And you took a number of books with you or you had access to books?

COLTEN: I had some books that I took or I would trade in books, like if we would go into Cuenca we would trade books with each other.

WILSON: Cuenca was a--?

COLTEN: Cuenca was a, it was a pretty good sized city; it's probably the third largest city in Ecuador, really pretty.

WILSON: And so there were other--?

COLTEN: There were other Peace Corps volunteers--

WILSON: Peace Corps volunteers.

COLTEN: --missionaries, lots of missionaries. And you know we befriended some missionaries and we would visit their house sometimes once, twice a month for Bible study or something like that, and they would let 00:33:00us do our laundry there once and a while, and you know that was a big treat to use a washing machine. Yeah the missionaries, some of those missionaries lived very well, you know, washing machines, dishwashers.

WILSON: Did you travel about the country while you were there or holiday times did you travel elsewhere?

COLTEN: I did some, yeah; I did some traveling to my favorite places. I went to the Galapagos Islands and it was a very inexpensive trip because I was considered a national citizen as a Peace Corps volunteer so the rates were a lot cheaper, and I went on an eight day trip to the Galapagos.

WILSON: Did you do that with other volunteers or?

COLTEN: I went with a couple volunteers, yeah.

WILSON: Yeah.

COLTEN: And that was a really, and I had studied about Darwin and 00:34:00evolution in high school, so I was so thrilled. And I was like, "Oh, I can't wait to tell Mr. Crouch that I was actually in the Galapagos," because I never would have dreamed that I would have done that in high school. Furthest thing to my mind you know, anyway so when I got back I contacted my high school teacher and told him that he would be proud of me. But anyway and I sent him some pictures that I had taken there, and another trip that I took was to San Lorenzo, which is off the coast of Ecuador and it's a small island that is inhabited by African Americans and the story that I was told was that some slave ships had crashed their, you know, during their expeditions and the African Americans had settled there, these African Americans, so they spoke 00:35:00Spanish but they held on to their African traditions. And it was just like being in Africa where they were speaking their African language. I went to, one of the days that I was there they were teaching their kids, their children the marimba dances and we went to this big town hall area and they had marimbas hanging down from the rafters and they were singing and dancing, and it was the neatest thing. And when I went back to my site I was telling Leonora, the woman I lived with, I said, "This place I went to San Lorenzo is so amazing," and I told her about it and she said, "That's not in Ecuador!" And I said, "It is, it's part of Ecuador." And she said no it's not, and these people didn't believe me because most of the people in my town didn't travel very much. They might have gone to Quito or Cuenca but they didn't really, you know many of them had never been to the Galapagos themselves. So they 00:36:00couldn't believe that that was part of their country.

WILSON: That makes me think she would have, she was really your landlady, not really your counterpart, I guess, but and also a friend, right?

COLTEN: Mostly my friend, yeah.

WILSON: What would her education as a nurse have been?

COLTEN: Oh my gosh, well she is an amazing lady. She was raised in a family of, I think there were like fifteen kids in her family, and she had gone to get her degree in nursing and--

WILSON: Post-secondary?

COLTEN: Post-secondary, so she was so confident I was amazed. I would have trusted my life in her hands because she was not afraid, she was very capable, and you know they'd send all this-- They would send the trainee doctors out to the campo, so she was really training doctors when they came to visit because they didn't know anything. But when 00:37:00I, my second year there she decided, "You know I need to do something else. I'm not sure I just want to be a nurse." So she started taking coursework to be a psychologist, and now she has her PhD and she's a psychologist. And she came from this small village that you know most of the people don't go onto college at all, let alone secondary school. And her daughter kind of followed in her mom's footsteps. She's now a, her daughter is now a doctor and lives in Chile, married a doctor, and it's neat how she got out of that cycle of, not poverty, but you know--

WILSON: And got beyond believing that this island wasn't a part of--?

COLTEN: Right, right, and I think she passed on something really important to her daughter that she could be an independent woman, you know because a lot of women who are divorced in that society kind of 00:38:00fell back into the background and moved in with their families. But Leonora didn't move in with her family; she stayed independent and she wasn't accepted because of that, but she was very capable and passed that legacy onto her daughter, which was really good.

WILSON: So did you have anybody who you would really call a counterpart?

COLTEN: I had a teacher that I worked with.

WILSON: Oh at--?

COLTEN: Yeah, in school, and then I had another woman that I worked with in the school in Cuenca, yeah. That was interesting too because the first teacher I worked with at the kindergarten we were deciding to make Mother's Day cards, have the kids make Mother's Day cards, so we planned out that they would make these Mother's Day cards you know. Well I went to my other job in the city and came back, and I saw 00:39:00these Mother's Day cards made on the teacher's desk and said, "Oh my gosh! They're already done? And look they are so perfect! There's no glue spilled on the page; everything is cut just perfect." And I said, "Boy, those kids really have some skills. I can't believe that they could cut like that and glue like that and not make a mess." And she said, "Oh those kids would have made a mess of everything; I did it. I stayed up all night making those cards." And I said, "But Maria, that's not the idea, you know these were Mother's Day cards. Mothers like things that their children make." "Oh." That was like a very basic but simple revelation that she was like, "Oh, it would be okay for them to make a mess and not have it perfect." Anyway--

WILSON: What about interactions with other Americans? I guess you did 00:40:00say something about missionaries, didn't you?

COLTEN: I met missionaries there; I met some people, really nice people in Cuenca that ran a small health foods store and went out to their farm sometimes, and had let's see-- Met lots of people when I went to make phone calls; I would place a phone call maybe once a month or something like that and--

WILSON: To?

COLTEN: The IETEL, you would have to go in and make-- To home, I would call the States.

WILSON: Oh, okay.

COLTEN: And anyway waiting around to make your phone call, you had to wait your turn to make your phone calls or if the lines were busy you had to wait. And so I met lots of people there, missionaries from 00:41:00different-- You know Mormons; there were a lot of Mormons there at that time.

WILSON: So most of the missionaries were Protestant evangelicals and reformed?

COLTEN: Mmmhmm.

WILSON: Talking about the phone call makes me think what about other forms of communication either with Peace Corps staff or with the States?

COLTEN: Letter writing. I wrote to Lee, my husband, every day, he was like my diary. He went into Peace Corps and went through training but never stayed; he terminated early, which sounds awful. But anyway, so I wrote to him a lot and he eventually came and visited I don't know 00:42:00maybe a year after, was it about a year after?

UNIDENTIFIED: The first Christmas there, I think.

COLTEN: Yeah.

WILSON: Alright, so letters and phone calls. I asked that question because that has changed a great deal over the--

COLTEN: Oh yeah.

WILSON: Over the forty years.

COLTEN: Oh yeah, when we took a trip to Costa Rica this summer with our family and you know there were little internet cafes everywhere in Costa Rica.

WILSON: Is there a particular memorable story or tale you would like to share?

COLTEN: Well, let's see that first Christmas Lee came back to visit me and proposed to me.

UNIDENTIFIED: You know, it was the second Christmas.

COLTEN: Oh yeah, it must have been the second Christmas.

UNIDENTIFIED: Because he was at our house the first Christmas.

COLTEN: Yeah, it was the second Christmas. I was going to say because that first Christmas I hung out with some Peace Corps volunteers, no I 00:43:00stayed with my family. Anyway, that second Christmas he came to visit and proposed and I said yes and then you know I had like seven months before I got back to the states. So I guess that was pretty memorable.

WILSON: I guess it would be.

COLTEN: Yeah.

WILSON: Okay.

COLTEN: And that was a good trip too because he got to meet my family there and you know came to-- And that's special because we could share that later in our lives too--

WILSON: Side two of interview with Marianna Colten January 27, 2006. So, you're two years was up in--?

COLTEN: 80, '83 I guess.

WILSON: '83--spring?

COLTEN: Summer.

WILSON: Summer of '83, and did you come straight home then or travel?

COLTEN: I did because Lee was here. By that time I was ready to see him. Had I not met him and things hadn't worked out the way they had, I probably would have extended and stayed longer because I really liked it and enjoyed it. Either that or I might have gone to another country because sometimes volunteers can transfer to other countries after they've done their two years or traveled more, but I was ready to come home at that point.

WILSON: And what was it like coming home?

COLTEN: Kind of scary; I was really anxious to see my family and see Lee, but you know I had changed a lot and that was-- I knew that things were not going to be the same with certain people, some of my friends-- 00:45:00college friends or, it was kind of scary.

WILSON: What was difficult?

COLTEN: Trying to fit in again or maybe the fact that maybe I didn't want to fit in anymore, so--

WILSON: What do you think the impact of your Peace Corps service was either on Ecuador or on your community?

COLTEN: I don't think it was a tremendous impact, that I changed the world. You know you go in with that idea that you could change things 00:46:00or that they needed to be changed. I think I probably did more as a goodwill ambassador maybe to make people think that there are good people in the United States that care about them, that could care about them, and I think that's really important. I think we need more of that in fact.

WILSON: But--

COLTEN: And I--

WILSON: Go on.

COLTEN: Well and you know I mean I might have had an impact on my students' lives and the friends that I made, you know but I didn't change anything drastically.

WILSON: But I believe you said earlier that the kindergarten that you started continued.

COLTEN: Yes, and it's still there, still going.

WILSON: And so that was institutionalized as part of the community?

COLTEN: That might be, I guess so.

WILSON: But what you are saying is the relationships sort of outweighed the economic development aspects as whatever the impact was.

COLTEN: Right, and that you know having a kindergarten might have happened eventually, it just happened a little faster because we decided to do it. But I think eventually it would have happened eventually with or without me.

WILSON: What was the impact on you?

COLTEN: Tremendous.

WILSON: In what ways?

COLTEN: For one thing I'm a Spanish teacher now. Once I got back I was still doing special education and I worked in eastern Kentucky, worked in Tennessee with severely and profoundly handicapped kids, and then 00:48:00once we were married we moved to Kentucky and I worked with special ed kids here in Kentucky, and I decided just before having my own children that it's probably not something I wanted to do while I was having my own kids because it was very emotionally draining, so I decided I needed to get a degree in something else if I was going to work and have kids. So I went back and got a master's degree in Spanish literature at UK. And I wouldn't have been able to do that or even thought I could do that had it not been for my training at Peace Corps. And that changed things for me, opened up a whole new job market, and it's had, enabled me to keep up with my language skills and also dealing with Hispanic people. I make an effort to be with other people 00:49:00from, you know, Hispanic countries and--

WILSON: So it was a major career impact?

COLTEN: Emotionally I really strive hard to, let's see, what do I want to say? Make my students more worldly as much as I can in the classroom. I started a project or a program called Global Village Day at my school, which has become an annual event. And I have like over 30 countries represented at that, and you know every year I keep thinking, "Oh, maybe I won't do this next year." But then the kids say, "When's Global Village Day? When's Global Village Day?" And it's become such a neat thing for them that, you know, I think this is an important thing. Also I noticed when I went on vacation this year to Costa Rica; 00:50:00I couldn't just go on vacation being in another country. I wanted to relate to the people more or I saw things that I thought, "This isn't right. We need to do something about this," you know, so I couldn't just be on vacation and lying on the beach. You know I was constantly thinking we should be able to change the situation for this person or you know there need to be stricter guidelines for wastewater in Costa Rica and you know that kind of stuff, so it's kind of made me more proactive or sensitive to those kinds of things.

WILSON: In what ways are you still in contact with either host country folks or Peace Corps people?

COLTEN: I still write to my family in Ecuador and I hear back from them probably not as often as I would like. Peace Corps volunteers that I knew, we still maintain contact through emails, letters, visit if I'm in a state where there's a Peace Corps volunteer that I was with I make an effort to go see them. And it's really neat because that's such a bonding experience, you know you could go years without talking to those people and then pick up right when you left off when you see them, and that's real special because you've been through something.

WILSON: That's common.

COLTEN: Yeah, it's common and unique. And my husband, I keep in contact with him most of the time. So he's my souvenir.

UNIDENTIFIED: Kay.

COLTEN: Oh yeah and Kay's program. I didn't know Kay Roberts; she's the Kentucky Ecuador Partners Director. I didn't know her; she was a volunteer in Ecuador, but I met her through the returned Peace Corps volunteer group, and I worked with her program and I help with that program some, not as much as I used to. But you know I still participate with that Kentucky Ecuador Partners.

WILSON: What was the impact of the Peace Corps experience on your family and what did they think about? Maybe the question is what did they think about you going in the first place?

COLTEN: Well my mom and dad were shocked when I came home and told them that that's what I wanted to do. And really my mom didn't want me to go. You know she had even gone to the drastic measures of saying, 00:53:00"Well I hope you're happy. You almost gave your father a heart attack tonight." You know and I was like, you know, she was-- She just didn't want me to go and I was her baby and that's a long way away, and anyway so that was pretty stressful. I think it was a shock to a lot of them but they were proud, you know my brothers and sisters especially.

WILSON: And when you returned?

COLTEN: I think it was interesting because my brothers and sisters said, "Mom talked about you over there all the time to everybody," so while I was there she started seeing it as something to be proud of and she, once I was there and I was safe you know she was relaxed about it, and I would send home pictures of my family that I was living with and that 00:54:00I was going to church. So I think they were happy that I came back safe and sound and healthy. They were a little shocked when I came back with news that I was getting married, you know, "Who?!" You know, I had written to them about it and stuff and Lee came to visit shortly after I got back to meet everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED: Didn't you come straight to our house?

COLTEN: I went to see Lee in New Orleans and then I went to, I might have gone to meet you and then I went home. That's another thing, I didn't go straight home. I went to see Lee first.

WILSON: You went to see this man first.

COLTEN: Yeah, so that was, but you know they weren't that upset.

WILSON: We've talked a little bit about the impact on your career path 00:55:00and you've said some of the things that you've done since but not all. You've alluded to, but what are you actually doing now? You're teaching Spanish?

COLTEN: Oh, I'm sorry, I teach Spanish at a Catholic school in Frankfort, Kentucky kindergarten through 8th grade, and I've been doing that for, well I've been at that school for eleven years but I haven't-- We're kind of working my way into, I started there teaching Spanish only to the 8th grade and then I kind of said, "You know we've got to get this to more kids," and then the next principal said, "Okay, we'll do it second, fourth, and sixth grades as an experiment." Okay, and then the next principal I had I said, "You know we really need more Spanish," kind of making a job for myself too, and she said, "Yes! 00:56:00Everyone needs this," so it was my third principal there that got it going in kindergarten through eighth grade and everybody supports it wholeheartedly.

WILSON: But you're teaching it all?

COLTEN: I'm teaching enough, yeah. I have kindergarten through fifth grade all year round, they get it twice, no three times a week now, and then the sixth through eighth grade have it as a special rotation class. They get it for six weeks each year, which is not great but it's better than public schools are doing, so at least public schools around here. They don't have it in the public schools -- language.

WILSON: What international experience have you had since your Peace Corps?

COLTEN: I took a group of kids to Mexico when I was working in Lexington at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, and then this trip to Costa Rica really. This past summer my family and you know Lee and I and the kids went to Costa Rica, we did a backpacking trip in Costa Rica, and that was kind of neat. Stayed in youth hostels and I would have liked if we could have stayed with a family or two along the way, but that didn't happen.

WILSON: You have not been back to Ecuador?

COLTEN: I have not been back to Ecuador? I would like to go.

WILSON: Well that was sort of the follow on question. What international experience do you look forward to?

COLTEN: I would love to go back to Ecuador; I would like to take my family there and meet, you know, my family in Ecuador. I would like to go Chile and visit Maria Eugenia, the little girl that-- She came 00:58:00to visit the United States; I didn't say that. That was a thrill. Another volunteer that was in my town after me paid for Maria Eugenia to come visit the United States when she was nineteen, so I hadn't seen her in ten years.

WILSON: This was the daughter?

COLTEN: This was the little girl that I lived with, and when I found-- He called me and said, "I'm bringing Maria Eugenia to Washington D.C." I was like, "Oh my gosh." So I paid for her airfare Washington D.C. to Frankfort, and she stayed with me for a week and that was so neat. And we just picked up right where we left off and she turned into a lovely lady and it was really neat, but I would like to visit her. I would like to go to; you know Spanish teachers should go to Spain, but I haven't been there. I would like to go to Europe or anyway--

WILSON: What has the impact of your Peace Corps service been on the way you think about the world and what's going on in the world today?

COLTEN: Well I think, I think we need to do more in the area of foreign policy and create more bridges than burning bridges. I mean I feel like with this president in particular lots of bridges are being burned between countries because of our actions and what we are doing. It really frustrates me to see the United States portrayed as the big 01:00:00bully, and because there are so many of us here that really do care and really want to see things differently, or do see things differently. I'm concerned about the right wing conservativism in this country and seeing things black and white and not being more accepting of other cultures, but I think at this point where I am, you know I have a sister who is retired and she is, you know, more the activist right now because she has time. You know and I'm thinking well what I can do now is try to raise my kids as being more open-minded and more worldly and to care about people from other places. Right now I think that 01:01:00that's what I can and need to do; in the future I would like to be more active. You know, I have so many other meetings and things I need to go to, I can't really be politically involved like I would like to.

WILSON: What do you think the overall impact of Peace Corps has been?

COLTEN: I think good because I think we are an organization that doesn't go in and try to really push beliefs on other people, I think it's an organization that's more grassroots and goes into a community and tries to assess needs of the community instead of saying we're going to give you this and you know put a lot of money in a place that maybe the community doesn't need, doesn't want. I think more grassroots 01:02:00development is good and I think it still needs to continue. It's hard to compete with some of those, you know, big development firms that have lots of money. It's not always in the best interest of the country some of the things they do I think, and sometimes simple is good and we don't need to change everything.

WILSON: What would you say the role Peace Corps should have today would be? I guess or should it continue?

COLTEN: Oh I think it definitely should continue. [interrupted by child.] I'm sorry, what was the question?

WILSON: We will finish up here in a second. Well what I was asking really and this was my final question is what do you think about the Peace Corps for the future?

COLTEN: Oh, okay.

WILSON: What should the role be?

COLTEN: Is that on or?

WILSON: Yes, it's still on.

COLTEN: Okay, I think it should continue. I would like to see it promoted more before kids get to college, and I think volunteerism in general, we do a great deal of volunteerism in our school, but even our school needs to do more in the community and get kids out in the community. And I think public schools should start doing more getting kids in community and doing things with their hands to help other 01:04:00people. I think it needs to start at a younger age, the volunteerism part of it, and then educating them about volunteer possibilities and getting kids maybe to travel more. I would like to see more done with the VISTA program, I think that's turned more into-- I can't remember what the program's called.

WILSON: Americorps.

COLTEN: Americorps. I've heard good things and bad things about Americorps, but I think it's a good idea that you know that program exists because there are a lot of third world like conditions here in our own country that need to be dealt with and.

WILSON: Okay, that's all the sort of structured questions I have, but what haven't I asked you that you would like to answer? Or what story 01:05:00or tidbit would you like to leave, if anything?

COLTEN: The returned Peace Corps volunteer group, I really like the idea that the experience isn't necessarily over after you've done it, that you still have a connection with other people. And you still have a, the returned Peace Corps volunteers gives you the opportunity to continue you know your level or interest and to meet people that are interesting with the same points of view. Lee and I come away from those meetings refreshed, thinking, "Yeah, there are other people that think like we do," you know, because sometimes you get into situations 01:06:00where, for an example, the last election, you know, I had a couple of students that I could talk to about my political beliefs and my ideas, and they would say, "Senora Colten, I think you're the only Democrat." Or you know and I mean I feel isolated sometimes in my beliefs, and it's nice to be with people that it's like, okay, we're on the same page. You know we have the same concerns and we want to do something about it to make the world a better place.

WILSON: Okay, well thank you for your time.

COLTEN: Alright, thank you.

[End of interview.]