(aka El Hadge Abdoulaye Diallo-Bah)
Jesse Thyne, a fallen Peace Corps Volunteer from Pasadena, California, continues to touch the daily lives of those he knew and those he had yet to meet during his 24 years of life. On January 7, 2000, Jesse and fellow volunteer Justin Bhansali perished in a bush taxi accident on a rural road outside of Pita, Guinea. At the time of his tragic death, Jesse was a second-year PCV teaching math in the Fouta Djalon village of Diountou. His legacy continues on in Diountou, where the Peace Corps has constructed and dedicated a village library in his honor. A memorial was constructed in Pita in the memory of Jesse and Justin, and many PCV's also participate in the annual Memorial Walk For Road Safety.
Before joining the Peace Corps, Jesse was a popular student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he excelled in his studies of Psychology and Education. His favorite activities included cooking, tutoring local elementary school students, playing harmonica, and making everyone he met laugh. During his time in Guinea, Jesse remained close to those he left behind by writing hundreds of letters to his friends and family back home. At the conclusion of his Peace Corps service, Jesse planned to continue his life of public-service by moving to Washington, DC where he had accepted an invitation to teach math to inner-city high school students.
Despite his earthly passing, Jesse remains vibrantly alive in the hearts and minds of all who knew him.