Jim Heyburn ’68

Director of a maritime consulting business in Sierra Leone.

Jim Heyburn ’68

Director of a maritime consulting business in Sierra Leone

Liberia 1968-72

Peace Corps gave me my start: It set me down in a village in Liberia with no running water, electricity, or paved roads. And I really never left. I’ve been working and living in West Africa for the past 42 years.

For two years I taught math and science at a rural mission school, then at a high school in Monrovia, the capital. My fourth year I was involved with teacher training and training for newly arrived volunteers. With the help of the U.S. Information Service, I started a village library. I coached basketball and refereed games and was appointed a commissioner of the Liberia National Basketball Federation.

I’d love to share photos of my time in Peace Corps, but in July 1990, when Charles Taylor’s rebels invaded Monrovia, all of my property was looted or destroyed. After 22 years of living in Liberia, I was made a war refugee, along with so many Liberians. I fled to neighboring Sierra Leone, where I have resided and worked for the past 20 years.

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