Derek Chambers, Kenya 1988-1990
Derek Chambers served in Kenya from July 1988 to September 1990 as a water engineer.
Why did you want to join the Peace Corps?
I love to travel and see new places and experience different cultures. The Peace Corps was the perfect opportunity for me, a recent college graduate at the time with little work experience, to live and work on a whole new continent.
What did you do while you were a Peace Corps volunteer?
I was assigned to a District Engineering office with the Government of Kenya's Ministry of Water Development. I worked on a water and sanitation project funded by the Swedish Government. This project focused on providing potable water sources to rural residents in the Tharaka region of Meru District. Part of the project involved drilling wells and installing handpumps. I started a training program to teach the local village handpump committees how to maintain the pumps.
What are you doing now?
The exact same thing but on a much larger scale. I work for a non-profit Native Corporation in Alaska and train water treatment plant operators and utility managers that live and work in remote rural villages how to efficiently maintain their water and sewer facilities.
Derek Chambers lived in Fairbanks, Alaska until 2003 and is currently living in Saipan.