Charles Wayne Thompson served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru from 1964 to 1966 in a rural community action project. He was stationed in the Peruvian Andes, not far from Cusco and above the town of Calca, in Yanahuaylla, a small Quechua community of farmers who raised potatoes, wheat, corn, and cornnuts. They taught him traditional techniques for farming above the tree line at 9,000 feet, which was very different from the pear and peach orchards he knew back home in Medford, Oregon. Thompson worked with leaders in two communities to solicit money to build the first school and later earned money for an Allis Chalmers thrashing machine, which unfortunately never functioned. A medical emergency forced his departure six weeks early; unable to say goodbye in 1966, he returned in 1990 and found friends and a fully functioning school. After the Peace Corps, Thompson taught high school social studies until 2001. He and his wife Rolly, whom he met in Peace Corps training, own a sheep and alpaca ranch near Eugene, Oregon. Interviewed and recorded by Patricia A. Wand, May 7, 2018. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).