October 2013 – Page 3 – Peace Corps Worldwide

The Last Ride

Oct 14 2013

by Elise Annunziata (Senegal 1996–99) The following work was first published at PeaceCorpsWriters.org in November, 2002. In 2003 it was the winner of the Moritz Thomsen Award for Peace Corps Experience Award. • I HAD SAID SO OFTEN that leaving my Senegalese village, Keur Madiabel, would the most difficult part of my three-year Peace Corps service. Every time a farewell scene crept into my mind, I banished it quickly and vowed to think about it later. But, before I accepted the reality of my departure, “later” was looming over my head and it was time to drive — for the last time — from my village to the regional capital, with a fraction of my original possessions thrown into the backseat of a Peace Corps vehicle. o My last full day Most of the afternoon on my last day in Keur Madiabel, I spent talking with my adoptive family, Ousmane . . .

Maid in Morocco

Oct 14 2013

by Orin Hargraves (Morocco 1980–83) First published at PeaceCorpsWriters.org in March of 2006, this essay was the winner of the 2007 Moritz Thomsen Experience Award • I LEARNED A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO of the death Fatima Meskina, on January 9, 2006. I’m sure that no obituary appeared in any newspaper, and that her death and burial were modest and attended only by a few. But for me — and I expect for a handful of others — her death marked the passing of a legend: in the three years I spent in Morocco she was the most helpful, sometimes the most difficult, the most vivid, and for me personally the most influential person I met. Fatima worked as a maid for a succession of Volunteers in various programs in the middle Atlas town of Azrou. She signed on with Volunteer Jeanne Spoeri in 1977 and got passed down, like . . .

The Things I Gave Her

Oct 14 2013

by Lisa Kahn Schnell (Ghana 1998–00) The following work was first published at PeaceCorpsWriters.org in January, 2004. In 2005 it was the winner of the Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award. • THE FIRST THING I GAVE GENVIEVE was a pile of my clothes to wash. The shirts and trousers were red with dust from day-long bus rides and bike rides, and from nine weeks of my swirl-and-rinse washing. I gave her my full attention as she showed me how to wash thoroughly, with merciless, strong arms, two basins of water and a small bar of soap. She returned my clothes to their normal color and left them smelling only of wind. Once I had more than just a mug to eat out of, once I cleaned the lizard poop off my bed and chased the scream-sized flat spiders from behind the kitchen shelves, I gave Genevieve my trust. She . . .

When Will The Peace Corps Do Something New?

Oct 14 2013

When Will The Peace Corps Do Something New? Here’s an idea! If you read the NYTIMES Sunday Reviews on October 13, 2013, you might have read how a high school in Detroit is flipping the classroom. They started three years ago with one class and now the whole high school has flipped. What in the world is a Flipped Classroom, you ask. It is this: students watch videos of teachers’ lectures at home, or on their smartphones or computers, or if they lack the technology, at school in the tech lab. Then the next day in class they do what we would call “homework”–projects, worksheets or exercises in small groups, while the teacher is a resource in the room. Online education is sweeping the country, mostly at the college level, via MOOCs. If you haven’t heard, MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses education, available to anyone with Web access. . . .

In Barcelona You Don't Need To Speak Catalan

Oct 12 2013

Foreign Affairs Magazine Overlooks Peace Corps Connection

Oct 11 2013

The September/October 2013 Foreign Affairs Magazine has a small notice that the Council on Foreign Relations is “seeking talented individuals for the Franklin Williams Internship.” The announcement goes onto say that Ambassador Williams had a long career of public service, including serving at the American Ambassador to Ghana, as well as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Lincoln University. He was also, they say, a Director of the Council on Foreign Relations. What it doesn’t say is that Franklin Williams began his ‘international’ career at the Peace Corps in 1961, and was at HQ with the first group of Mad Men, first as Chief of the Division of Private Organizations, and then head of the African Region. In 1965 LBJ appointed Williams to become the first black representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, from this position he would go onto serve for three years as . . .

Emily Spiegel (Ethiopia 2012-14) In Huff Post, The Blog

Oct 10 2013

Emily Spiegel Peace Corps Volunteer, Dangila, Ethiopia The Peace Corps: The First Year Posted: 10/09/2013 2:59 pm When I joined the Peace Corps one year ago, I wouldn’t have imagined my life to be anything like it is today. In my mind, Peace Corps Ethiopia would be a risky but rewarding adventure, with a lack of electricity and running water, and an abundance of rats. Although some of that may be a bigger part of my life than I care to admit, it is what I did not expect that truly defines my service thus far. I did not expect freezing cold summers with rain so loud it hurts. I can’t say I anticipated my most prized possession to become a bucket and favorite pastime to be drinking tiny cups of freshly brewed coffee. I never thought I would be a local celebrity or that I would have good enough . . .

John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) Publishes: How To Write A Novel in 100 Days

Oct 10 2013

HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL IN 100 DAYS With tips about agents, editors, publishers and self-publishing By John Coyne HowtoWriteANovelin100Days.com “You start John Coyne’s book for the advice, and you keep reading for the stories – tales from the fertile and barren desks of great writers past and present. Did you know that Katherine Ann Porter began Ship of Fools by writing the last page, and then spent twenty years finishing the novel? Read this book and avoid the same fate.” Peter Hessler, Staff Writer for The New Yorker, author of River Town, and MacArthur Genius Award Winner • Everybody’s got a great story in them, but most of us don’t know how to get that story out. In How to Write a Novel in 100 Days, novelist and teacher John Coyne explains — with wit and sass and not just a little bit of inside knowledge — the process that . . .

New Republic Book Issue

Oct 09 2013

The October 21, 2013 issue of The New Republic has a detailed section on “The Book Industry Is Thriving! Somehow.” There are articles on Publishing, Agents, Editors, and Writers. (Them too!) You can down load the whole issue on your iPad, by the way. Or you can buy it. Some interesting tidbits. The book industry see 3 reasons for optimism 1) The crash is over–just like everywhere else. 2) Great literary novels are still marketable–and can still make money. 3) Awesome, quirky novels get lost in the din–but the Internet bails them out. Particularly interesting is an essay by Lionel Shriver entitled, “The Rancid Smell of Success” that is a most read. Her most recent novel is BIG BROTHER. Check out the issue.

Fairfield University Notes 2013 Peace Corps Poetry Award Winner

Oct 09 2013

Fairfield University MFA alumnus wins Peace Corps award for poetry Matthew Hamilton, a 2013 alumnus of the Fairfield University MFA in Creative Writing Program, has won the Peace Corps Writers 2013 Best Book of Poetry award for his first book, “The Land of the Four Rivers” (Cervena Barva Press, 2012). Hamilton, who has been both a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill and a Benedictine monk, volunteered with the Peace Corps in Armenia (2006-08) and the Philippines (2008-10). His book contains 30 poems dealing with what he saw and experienced in Armenia. Readers have praised his poems’ evocative clarity and accessibility. “Expedition into Mystery” opens: I walk over to a woman selling apricots and buy half a kilo. Her gold teeth thank me. Then I walk to Gorki Park, pluck one of my treats out of the bag and take a bite. Some of the juice falls on the sidewalk. A . . .

Talking with Mark Wentling(Honduras 1967-69, Togo 1970-73; staff: Togo, Gabon, Niger 1973-77)

Oct 08 2013

Talking with Mark Wentling John Coyne interviews Mark Wentling about his new novel Africa’s Embrace that has just been published by Peace Corps Writers. Africa’s Embrace is Mark Wentling’s (Honduras 1967-69, Togo 1970-73; staff: Togo, Gabon, Niger 1973-77) fictional account of the adventures of a young man named David from Kansas who travels to Africa to follow his destiny, and becomes caught up in a mystical, larger-than-life adventure. . Mark, first congratulations on your novel. How in the world did a PCV in Latin America end up in Africa? I always wanted to go to Africa and was hoping to go there when I first signed up for the Peace Corps. After leaving Honduras in May 1969, I traveled about Europe with two other Honduras PCVs. I returned to Wichita in September 1969 and finished my bachelor’s degree. In May 1970, I re-joined the Peace Corps and did training in . . .

The Grownup Train by Chris Honore’ (Colombia 1967-69)

Oct 04 2013

[Chris Honore’ was born in occupied Denmark, during WWII. After the war, he immigrated to America. He went to public schools and then attended San Jose State University and the University of California, at Berkeley, where he earned a teaching credential, an M.A. and a Ph.D. After teaching high school English for two years, he joined the Peace Corps. He’s a freelance journalist based in Ashland, Oregon. His wife owns a bookstore on Main Street. His son is a cinematographer, living in Southern California.] THE GROWNUP TRAIN by Chris Honore’ They stood on the train platform, eyes narrowed, bodies angled to the right, looking down the track, waiting. A train had just passed through. Another would be along shortly. They were hardcore, their posture and dress conveying a self-conscious, determined insouciance: shoulders hunched, knees slightly bent, baggy denim shorts riding precariously low on their hips, their hair a shag carpet . . .

Yes, Virginia, There Is Still A Peace Corps

Oct 04 2013

PRESIDENT CLINTON AND CHELSEA CLINTON [This article by the President and Chelsea Clinton originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune on September 22, 2013. The Peace Corps gets a ‘passing’ reference.] Great Americans: Community Service Is at the Core of our Country’s National Character The idea of community service is as old as America itself. Older really. Benjamin Franklin helped form the first volunteer fire department in Philadelphia in 1736, spawning a movement that continues to this day in communities throughout the country. Alexis de Tocqueville, in the 1830s, contrasted America with his native Europe by saying that the central difference was that in America, people didn’t wait for the state to solve problems. They just got organized and tried to figure out what to do about them. Service is at the core of our national character. In 1933, in the depths of the Depression, FDR created the Civilian Conservation Corps, . . .

Review — THE QUIET REBEL by Peggy Dickenson (Bolivia 1965-67)

Oct 03 2013

The Quiet Rebel: A Memoir of My Peace Corps Adventures in Bolivia by Peggy Dickenson (Bolivia 1965-67) Self-Published $9.00 150 pages 2013 Reviewed by Barbara E. Joe (Honduras, 2000-03) The Quiet Rebel is a slender book, 30 short chapters, 150 pages in large type with extra space between each paragraph, and lots of photos interspersed, many showing author Peggy Dickenson in various places and situations during her service. Its title derives from her mother’s description of young Peggy’s decision to join the Peace Corps. The book, appearing now almost 50 years after her service and reportedly requiring five years to write, expresses gratitude for the assistance provided by former fellow volunteers, friends, and family in recalling events, and in editing and publishing the book. The result is a fast-moving narrative still retaining the wide-eyed freshness and immediacy experienced by an innocent abroad, written in a simple, perky style, as if . . .

Maureen Orth (Colombia 1964-66) Writes Big Story For Vanity Fair

Oct 02 2013

Maureen Orth (Colombia 1964-66) was on the TODAY show this morning and talked about her article on Mia Farrow in the new Vanity Fair. Maureen said she asked Farrow if her son, Ronan Farrow, was not Woody Allen’s son, but Frank Sinatra’s child. Farrow replied, “possibly.” “I asked her point blank,” said Orth. “I said, ‘Is Ronan Frank Sinatra’s son?’ and she said, ‘Possibly,’” (Farrow and Sinatra were married from 1966-68.) “No DNA tests have been done. But they never really broke up. Obviously they got divorced. She was only 21 when she married him, he was 50, she lost her virginity to him … she said he was the love of her life.” Also, noted Orth, Ronan “looks a lot like Frank Sinatra and he sings like Frank Sinatra.” Added Orth, “He’s very close to the Sinatra family … Ronan told me that Nancy Sinatra senior fusses over him . . .

Archive - October 2013