A Journey for Peace

Don Yates enrolled as a Peace Corps Volunteer after responding to the challenge then-President John F. Kennedy issued to young Americans to 'ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.' From compiling over 500 pages of a diary kept while he worked as an educator and community developer in the Philippine Islands on the southern island of Jolo in the Sulu Archipelago, he gleaned over 25 stories, or episodes, depicting highlights of his life there along with reflections of local culture. Many episodes, such as the prologue entitled Culture Shock, depict a young man's orientation and involvement in a way of life very different from his upbringing as an American. Complete with photographs from his two-year tour of duty, Don has captured the essence of an area of the world rarely seen or visited by outsiders while sharing how he grew as a young man in a foreign land.