Archive - October 2015

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IVS and the Foundation of the Peace Corps, Part 3
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New books by Peace Corps writers — September 2015
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IVS and the Foundation of the Peace Corps, Part 2
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Andrew Tadross (Ethiopia 2011-13) publishes The Essential Guide to Amharic
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IVS and the Foundation of the Peace Corps, Part 1
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“Help Girls Learn” May Not Be An “Easy Task”
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Peace Corps Writers–Friedman & Theroux In The News
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Singer/songwriter/novelist Kinky Friedman (Borneo 1967-69) Is Back on the Road
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Richard Lipez (Ethiopia) writing as Richard Stevenson publishes WHY STOP AT VENGEANCE?

IVS and the Foundation of the Peace Corps, Part 3

One story that is told in the new book about the International Voluntary Services (IVS), The Fortunate Few IVS Volunteers: From Asia to the Andes, is from William Seraile (Ethiopia 1963-65). Here is a slightly edited version of what Bill had to say. Seraile had been a social science teacher in Mekelle, Ethiopia and he says “that experience had whetted my appetite for overseas adventures which is the reason I went to Vietnam.” He was 26 when he arrived in Can Tho and taught English at Phan Than Gian high school with a schedule that resembled a college professor’s light teaching load. The school had 3,000 students and was formerly a French fort and a World War II Japanese barracks. As the only American on the faculty, he recalls, his classes were very large. Before the Tet Offense, however, he had become disillusioned teaching English and thought he could better . . .

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New books by Peace Corps writers — September 2015

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com, click on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. • Dog Rescue A to Z: A Beginner’s Alphabet Mary  Blocksma (Nigeria 1965–67) Beaver Island Arts 2015 116 pages $15.00 (Beaverislandarts.etsy.com) . • Venezuela Sojourn: The Peace Corps Diary of Jon C. Halter Jon C. Halter (Venezuela 1966–68) CreateSpace September 2015 264 pages $12.00 (paperback) . • The Italian Summer: Golf, Food, and Family at Lake Como Roland  Merullo, Jr. (Micronesia 1979–80) PFP September 2015 280 pages $15.85 (paperback), $7.85 (Kindle) • King of the Gypsies: Stories Lenore Myka (Romania 1994-96) BkMk Press September 2015 215 pages $15.95 (paperback) • The Awareness Gene Stone (Niger 1974–76) and Jon Doyle The . . .

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IVS and the Foundation of the Peace Corps, Part 2

The Fortunate Few details some of the organization of the International Voluntary Services (IVS) and its links to the Peace Corps, but the majority of the 370 page book is spent telling the stories of individual volunteers and their tours. And they have, not unlike PCVs, stories to tell. In reading the book, I was particularly drawn to the stories of the PCVs who were also in IVS, and especially those volunteers who served in Ethiopia as PCVs. There were at least six such volunteers to IVS. One name in particular jumped out at me. Gary L. Daves (Ethiopia 1964-66), IVS/VN 67-73 (Captured in Hue, South Vietnam by the Viet Cong in 1968 and spent next 5 years in a Hanoi, North Vietnam prison. Now here was a story I had never heard. According to the accounts in The Fortunate Few, IVS’s involvement in Vietnam began in 1957. Noffsinger had . . .

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Andrew Tadross (Ethiopia 2011-13) publishes The Essential Guide to Amharic

Talk about the ultimate Third Goal Project! Andrew Tadross (Ethiopia 20011–13) writes about co-authoring language guides for two Ethiopian languages, Amharic and Tigriyya: The Essential Guide to Amharic: The National Language of Ethiopia [Peace Corps Writers, September 2015] is the second project I’ve worked on with my friend Abraham Teklu, the first being The Essential Guide to Tigrinya. I began both of these projects within a few months of arriving in Ethiopia as a Peace Corps Volunteer, not knowing that my ever-growing vocabulary list would become, what I believe now, are the best resources available on either language. I met Abraham, an outgoing Ethiopian man in his early 50s, on one of my first visits to Mekele in northern Ethiopia. His wife, Hruti, owned the simple hotel I wandered into one sunny day. Both had lived in America for many years and had returned to their homeland for a simpler . . .

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IVS and the Foundation of the Peace Corps, Part 1

A new book entitled The Fortunate Few IVS Volunteers From Asia to The Andes, written by Thierry J. Sagnier, novelist and former senior writer with the World Bank, has just been published. In the early chapters the author links the Peace Corps to this international volunteer organization. Created in 1953–eight years before the Peace Corps–International Voluntary Services (IVS) roots go back to the religious pacifism of Mennonites, Quakers, and Brethren organizations. Like the Peace Corps it had a small community of organizers, two in particular, Dr. Dale Clark and Dr. John Noffsinger. Clark was with the State Department and had aided the Arab Development Society setting up a dairy program in Jordan. He then went to the Mennonite and Brethrens with an idea: would they be interested in starting a voluntary organization using Marshall Plan funds to help other Middle-Eastern nations? After a series of meetings, the IVS was born . . .

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“Help Girls Learn” May Not Be An “Easy Task”

Michael Buckler (Malawi 2006–08) , author of the Peace Corps memoir From Microsoft to Malawi: Learning on the Front Lines as a Peace Corps Volunteer [Hamilton Books, 2010] has written an article for the website Humanosphere — “The not-so-easy task of educating girls“ — updating his efforts as a PCV to “help girls learn.” The piece is critical to understanding the obstacles that many young women face in trying to continue their education. Buckler describes the problems that young women had in his area. The underlying causes were many. Although long distances from home to school plagued both sexes, boys were more likely to commute on a bicycle. Girls also faced intense pressure to drop out of school, get married, and perform domestic chores while at home. Girls who tried to overcome these obstacles by renting rooms near campus often faced unsanitary and unsafe living conditions, including sexual harassment from . . .

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Peace Corps Writers–Friedman & Theroux In The News

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal ran a long article about “Songster, writer and Texas troublemaker Kinky Friedman” (Borneo 1967-79) who has just released his first studio album in 32 years. Kinky is best known for, as the WSJ writes, “his sharply satirical, sure to offend cowboy songs like ‘Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed’ and ‘They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore’.” His next mystery novels, all narrated by a musician-turned-private-detective named Kinky Friedmen, will be his 20th. It is due out next year an entitled, The Hardboiled Computer. Kinky’s next tour begins on October 9th. It will be 35 consecutive shows without a night off. Sunday’s 10/4/15 New York Times, runs a review of Paul Theroux’s (Malawi 1963-65) new travel book Deep South Four Seasons on Back Roads published by Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. In the review, Geoffrey C. Ward writes, “Theroux’s remarkable gift for . . .

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Singer/songwriter/novelist Kinky Friedman (Borneo 1967-69) Is Back on the Road

Check out: http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/events/ Events Clilck the venue name to go to their website. Friday, Oct 2 Release of Kinky’s newest CD – The Loneliest Man I Ever Met and Cactus Records – In-store 2110 Portsmouth Street Houston, TX 713-526-9272 5:30pm performance/signing The Loneliest Man I Ever Met Tour Friday, Oct 9 Ashland Coffee And Tea 100 N. Railroad Ave. Ashland, VA 804-798-1702 Saturday, Oct 10 Robert E. Loup JCC 350 South Dahlia Street Denver, CO  80246 303-316-6351 Sunday, Oct 11 Club Cafe 56 South 12th St. Pittsburgh, PA 412-431-4950 Monday, Oct 12 The Hamilton Live 600 14th St NW Washington, DC 202-787-1000 Tuesday, Oct 13 Ram’s Head 33 West St. Annapolis, MD 410-268-4545 Wednesday, Oct 14 Stanhope House 45 Main Street Stanhope, NJ 973-347-7777 Thursday, Oct 15 Sellersville Theater 24 W Temple Avenue Sellersville, PA 215-257-5808 Friday, Oct 16 The Linda-WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio 318 Central Avenue Albany, NY 518-465-5233 Saturday, . . .

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Richard Lipez (Ethiopia) writing as Richard Stevenson publishes WHY STOP AT VENGEANCE?

  A Fast-Paced Thriller Uncovers Evangelical Anti-gay Conspiracy in Uganda (A review from Lambra Literary written by John Copenhaver) Why Stop at Vengeance? By Richard Stevenson (Richard Lipez Ethiopia 1962-64) MLR Press 248 pages April 2015 Review by John Copenhaver Richard Stevenson (Richard Lipez) has tackled a variety of social issues in his mysteries over the years. His new novel, Why Stop at Vengeance? (MLR Press)–fourteenth in the Albany, NY-based Donald Strachey series–takes on an American evangelical missionary’s anti-gay crusade in Uganda. A young Ugandan man, John Suruma, attempts to hire Strachey to burn down a local evangelical church, International House of Faith (IHOF), that has funded anti-gay bigotry in Uganda, which led to the death of Suruma’s ex-lover and friend. He wants Strachey, who he calls “the gay Dirty Harry” which is a moniker the detective is not comfortable with, to help him exact his revenge. Strachey is sympathetic to . . .

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