From the Archives is an ongoing series where Sticky Rice Staff Historian, Teresa Derr, takes a deep dive into the archives of Sticky Rice. We’ll travel all the way back to 1966 and into the more recent past to see how life for PCVs in Thailand has both changed… and stayed the same.
Teresa Derr, 134 YinD
Did you know there were volunteer publications before Sticky Rice came into existence? I didn’t!
As part of my job as Sticky Rice’s new Historian I’ve been tasked with finding interesting and relevant articles from past cohorts to further explore the ways Peace Corps Service has changed and yet stayed the same over the years. To start, I decided to go all the way back to the beginning of Sticky Rice. Instead, I discovered that Sticky Rice wasn’t the beginning at all! There were at least two other publications Peace Corps Thailand volunteers put together during their years of service.
The first one of these I could find looked like it was published by the 11th and 12th cohorts in Thailand in 1966. It was called Klong. In the first issue I found, even just a brief glance seemed at once very familiar and yet very different. The first section was from whatever version of the SIC (Service Improvement Committee) they had in 1966 regarding policies the volunteers wanted changed! I can’t imagine how the volunteers back then collected information and made decisions like this without the ever-so-helpful surveys our wonderful, current SIC members send out to us – but they did it somehow.
Sticky Rice’s other predecessor is Hey, You!, which was around in 1967, during the 54th and 55th cohorts. Again, the similarities between volunteers across the years struck me. Their first section was bookstore recommendations, restaurant recommendations, and even someone asking for recommendations for a trip to Nepal! It reminded me of our group chat, if we only got to say something once a month.
Reading the first issues of these publications, I was amused by the articles and announcements I could relate to and those I couldn’t. Here are a couple that maybe you’ll have similar reactions to!
Something I relate to:
“Boy do I ever need those monthly trips to Bangkok- suddenly that noisy, polluted, crowded city of arrival has turned into a beautiful wandering place where I can finally get lost in the crowd. I – farang female – am actually anonymous and unnoticed. What bliss!”
“I hate Bangkok- it’s such an expensive hassle- but it is really my only way to meet other volunteers. The raps and friendships are worth it.”
From the Rap Sessions of Hey You! Volume 1, issue 1, February 1976.
Something I can’t relate to:
A STICKY INTERNATIONAL SITUATION
FATHER (in a letter from home): “Should I continue to use the colorful new U.S. commemorative stamps on the letters I send you, or have you found that no one in your area collects stamps?”
THAILAND P.C.V.: “For heaven’s sake, Dad, please do continue using those fancy stamps on your letters. If you stop, whoever it is that rips them off the envelopes between the time they leave Bangkok and the time they reach me, about five days and two post offices later, is likely to get mad and deliver my mail even slower than he does now.”
Merle Moore
Group XII, NarathiwatFrom Klong, 1966
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I hope you enjoyed that small peek into Sticky Rice’s history. Tune in next time for more insights from the archives, and enjoy all the ways Peace Corps volunteers can relate to each other throughout the years!
Sticky Rice 