So you came back to the US and said to your friends "I just got back from Tanzania" and they said....
From Andrew Clark:
Having spent a total of about 16 years in East Africa starting with Peace Corps, there were gaping holes in our knowledge of pop culture when we came back to the US. For example, shortly after our return we were at a party playing charades (or whatever the one is that has a name pinned to your back and you are supposed to ask questions to determine who you are) and I had the name "Indiana Jones".
It was a total bust because I had never heard of Indiana Jones or seen the films or anything else. Dead in the water! Playing Trivial Pursuit is no fun at all for anybody because we're so dumb at it. So to rectify our deficiencies we are on Netflix and getting caught up on films for years and years - at this point the queue is 183 films. And to keep current we occasionally go to Portland (our little town of Pendleton has a theater but its menu of films is not very good) and get caught up there - we saw 8 films and a stage play in three days a bit ago. It is really a fun way to go and much recommended.
From Norrie Robbins:
When I got home, I applied for a job with the USGS. I soon got a call from Norm Herz. He had just finished a 5-year stint with the USGS Brazil project, and he probed on the phone about me. I explained I had just returned from Tanzania, and had my first hamburger and my first ice cream cone. He hired me on the basis of having someone to talk to about culture shock.
From Mike Colegrove:
I returned to grad school at Penn State in September 1966. I enrolled in the Agronomy Department and was rolling right along with my studies when one day "the letter" arrived from my Draft Board in California. I thought about my options…like Canada, for few moments but then decided to open it. It said I had to report to my Board in Downey, California immediately for a pre-induction review…whatever that meant. I took a real chance and phoned them to explain that I was in mid-term, and that I promised to come at Christmas break. They agreed to reschedule.
I immediately went to the Navy and Air Force recruiting offices in town and took their Officer’s exams. Since was I able to walk in the door, could spell my name correctly, and spoke fairly good English - I was in-like-Flinn. I told them to hold the results until after Christmas and I would return to ‘review my options.’ The last thing I was going to do was tote an M-16 around Vietnam for two years.
I did appear before my Board as promised. Now the term "grey power" wasn’t in vogue in those days, but these seven folks were very grey and they obviously had power. The head of the Board was a woman and she had in front of her MY FILE…a hefty looking tome it was too.
"Well Mr. Colegrove your file indicates that you have had seven deferments since 1959: one for junior college, four at Cal Poly, and two for the Peace Corps. Besides which you were in Africa! You are now asking for another deferment for graduate studies in Pennsylvania." At this point she half-lowered her head, half-closed her eyes, and looked over her half-lens reading glasses and menacingly asked, "Why should the Board consider your application?"
Have you ever heard that expression, ‘think before you speak’...apparently I hadn’t; because my impetuously stupid reply was, "Well ma’am, I would rather feed people than shoot them." I think they were as stunned as I was.
"Thank you for that information Mr. Colegrove, we will take your application under advisement and notify you within two weeks of our decision."
Believe me when I say that a cloud hung over me for the next two weeks despite being in sunny California . But lo-and-behold, they did give me a deferment. A few months later President Nixon did the one honorable act of his administrations by introducing the lottery for the draft. In the first draw I was number 300 something. So no worries for grad school now.