My father, Cyrus Murray Johnson, absolutely loved AFSC projects. He was a gregarious person who liked challenges. He loved trying to get along with people in unique situations. He wanted to organize things and make change happen. It was a perfect fit.

The family spent two years in Peru in the 1960s and I didn’t love it. I remember thinking that my classes were disorganized (although I was struggling to learn Spanish), and there was an earthquake.

But, one nice thing was that the girls were almost equal participants – we played volleyball and ran track. In that respect, Peru was ahead of the times in the United States. And there were avocado trees and we got to do a lot of traveling.

I will say that I could tell that there was a purpose. There was community connection and AFSC’s people knew the reason for their work.