Where Are They Now? is an ongoing series interviewing Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) from Thailand, where Holly Lingenfelter aims to cultivate understanding, excitement, and create connections across time. If you are a Thailand RPCV or know one who would be interested in being interviewed, please contact us at pctm.stickyrice@gmail.com.
Holly Lingenfelter, 136 YinD
Meet Paul Paquette of Group 47
Paquette served as a Secondary Education volunteer from 1974 to 1978, when he was 24 years old. He served in Bang Boh, Samut Prakarn, in central Thailand.
“Most people just referred to me as ‘ajarn.’ I had some close friends who called me ‘Oot’ (camel) because I would walk for hours without drinking anything!”
What was your primary assignment or project during your service?
“I taught English at a secondary school in Samut Prakarn and also at the DTEC in Bangkok. I stayed to have the “big city” living experience!”
“The fourth year, I requested another extension and worked at the Department of Technical and Economic Cooperation in Bangkok, preparing government workers to learn English before going abroad for study. I loved it. Working with adults and other teachers from Thailand, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.”
What inspired you to join the Peace Corps in the first place?
“I always, since I was a young child, have had a love for travel, probably started as I was an avid stamp-collecting nerd! Always wanted to know more about the stamps and the people and places and strange languages on them! That led to a love of history and geography and a desire to become a teacher. Also, we had a shortwave radio and I’d listen to foreign language stations. In 1961, when I was about 12, I heard Sargent Shriver talk about the Peace Corps on TV and was hooked! Perfect blend of teaching and going to those faraway lands! I recall telling my parents, ‘I’m going to be a teacher and go into the Peace Corps.’ They just looked at me and each other and said, ‘OK.’ Had to work my way through college, so I didn’t complete it until I was 23. Applied for Peace Corps and finally got the invitation the next year (1973)— on Thanksgiving.”
Bang Boh 1974 & 2024
What was one of the most impactful or memorable experiences from your service?
“Always the kids! I was lucky enough to have a few teachers who really wanted to learn more English themselves and explore other teaching methods than the usual ‘sawn nungsuea’. I loved using new techniques I learned in my time as a teacher in an open school in Rochester, NY. It was difficult as they weren’t used to learning like that, so we did group projects, etc, once a week. I was given the “king class,” composed of all the top students for a grade level, the first year, and I continued to teach them for the three years I was there. We are still in touch every year when I go back.”
What was your transition like after leaving Thailand and the Peace Corps?
“When I left Peace Corps, I was asked to work on the US Refugee program in Thailand (after the Vietnam War). Many former PCVs from my group did so. I was the main field caseworker for five refugee camps in Chiang Rai, Nan, and Uttaradit. What an amazing and difficult job, but incredibly rewarding! Great to have had TWO ‘hardest jobs you’ll ever love’!”
Did you have a plan for what you wanted to do next, or did you figure it out along the way?
“Once I returned to the US, I got a job teaching near Kansas City and then returned to New York, worked, and earned my MA in TESOL. Worked 22 years in a public school district here in New York before I retired. I figured a lot out along the way, but it was always a focus on teaching, though I had other jobs that I loved as well from time to time while I was studying for my first Master’s.”
How did your time in the Peace Corps influence the decisions you made after service?
“It influenced me in many ways. Not so much in career choice, because I always wanted to be a teacher, but in my perspective on teaching. I was originally a Social Studies teacher just out of college. After Peace Corps, I wanted to teach English as a Second Language here in the States. My experience being lifted and dropped in a little village with just a few months of Thai language training was incredible. I learned so much about myself, living in another culture, and language learning by having to do it myself. I had that first-hand experience with language learning that I could play forward to those I taught here in the States. Mostly, I learned to trust myself, but it was hard at times. I often felt I was in a fish bowl—- a pretty, wonderful fishbowl. The people in the town were terrific, but I always felt on show. Everything I did would draw a crowd. No Westerner had ever lived there before. After the first year, that lessened. Now I go to the town, which has grown tremendously, and get no particular attention!”
Where are you now? Geographically, professionally, and personally?
“I am now a retired teacher living on Long Island, New York, where I was raised. I am still very active in the community here. I travel twice a year and most years spend about two months (January- March) in Thailand. This is the first year I will be staying in New York, as I have a lot of projects to get done, and I’ll be in Europe for a month in October and early November. I am personally in a very good place. I do wake up every day with something to do and, if nothing to actually “do”, go somewhere alone or with friends and just “be”. I’ve been very lucky in life. I can’t imagine having had a better one. I’ve done everything I set out to do.”
Do you see a direct connection between your current career and your Peace Corps service?
“Everything I have done is in lock step with what I did before. The Peace Corps was a wonderful first stepping stone. And it got me in so many doors for interviews when I was looking for employment.”
Have you continued working in international development, education, or related fields?
“Yes, I have. Took what I learned and was an activist for the LGBTQ community here and developed programs and groups. I do not work in international development, but in a lot of education-related activities. Mostly teaching ESL in an elementary school here on Long Island. Also did community development work. Taught adult ESL classes at the local library when I retired.”
How have you changed as a person since your service in Thailand?
“The Peace Corps was a way of learning more about and challenging myself. Of course, I am a much more mellow person, and as a lifelong ambivert, I have broken out of that “shell” we sometimes build around ourselves. (I became the guy who hated to go to parties… but once there, was the last one to leave! Classic ambivert!) I’ve adapted to that. I’m comfortable being with other people, but doing things like traveling on my own is OK.”
Are there any habits or ways of thinking from Thai culture that have stuck with you?
“Oh, yes. I became much more “jai yen”. But also, I became a person who preferred to work in a group and not on my own. I think Thailand influenced that. I look at the things in my immediate environment with a keener eye and appreciate that. Also, not taking myself so seriously as I did when I first started. I came in all gung-ho and ready to change the world. But I had to learn to rein it in and realize that other people have ideas too, and sometimes they are actually better than mine.”
Do you keep in touch with people from your host community in Thailand?
“Yes, I have many former students and some teachers still around that I visit every year when I’m in Thailand. Facebook is good for that. Lots of posts and messages! It has been a great privilege to be a part of their lives. I met them as young junior high school students and now know them as grandparents! And they allow you into their lives. Such an honor.”
Have you been back to visit Thailand since completing your service?
“I returned to the US in 1981. I studied two master’s degrees, so at the time I had little money to travel much. When the tsunami in 2004 occurred, I went back that summer to see it for myself and help where I could. The children of my school district raised over $4,000 to donate to Friends of Thailand causes directed by the incredible Carolyn Nichols-Cox. When I got there, I found former students, and that has grown since!”
What do you think the lasting impact of your service was, for your host community and for you?
“I honestly can’t say the lasting impact on the host community. I suppose it must have been to some degree through the students I taught there. Many have gone on to other things. Many are in teaching and government services. I’m sure their connection to English that I had some part in helping them and the community as a result. For me, Peace Corps has changed me immensely for the reasons listed above.”
What advice would you give to PCVs who are near the end of their service and are unsure about what to do next?
“I was always surprised that, whatever position I was applying for, the interviewer honed in on my Peace Corps service. Despite the insanity of what is going on in government now, people still hold Peace Corps in high regard. Just be patient with yourself and keep your ear to the ground.”
Is there something you wish you had known before or right after completing your service?
“I had an experience in college one night when I was meditating near the canal I lived on. It’s a subject that requires a MUCH longer story, but it taught me that I was part of something no matter where I eventually landed in life. I was worried about where I was going in life and how I’d get there. A few days later, I got the letter from Peace Corps. That night has stayed with me and has gotten me through a lot of rough patches.”
What’s one thing about the Peace Corps or post-service life that people don’t talk about enough?
“The reentry period. Coming home and finding out where you fit in again with your family and friends. They love the stories you tell, but they won’t really understand them. Stay in contact with your Peace Corps buddies. They’ll get you through a lot.”
“A VERY important piece of advice I can offer to a new volunteer. When I was leaving for Peace Corps, my best friend at the time gave me a journal as a going-away present and told me to write something in it every day so when I returned, she could read it and know what I had done. That one journal was followed by many more. It was my outlet in those times when I didn’t have anyone else to “talk” to. Remember, it was a time when the only communication you reliably had was writing letters. No cell phone, no Facebook, no social media at all! I didn’t even have a phone. Sadly, I mailed everything home from my Peace Corps days and then started a new job in Thailand. I didn’t know until I finally returned four years later that the one box that got lost was the one containing my Peace Corps journals. I still journal as I travel. There must be at least 25 books now. I’m enjoying reading them again and now writing my travel memoirs.”
What advice would you give to someone who is considering joining the Peace Corps?
“Just do it! Don’t be one of those many people I meet who say with some sadness, ‘Oh, Peace Corps. I wanted to do that. I don’t know what happened.’”
Sticky Rice 
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