The Peace Corps

Agency history, current news and stories of the people who are/were both on staff and Volunteers.

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Inaugural Issue of the RPCV Oral History Project
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Support RPCV Dave Harden (Botswana) with Your Vote and $$$
3
A Photographic Celebration: 60 Years of Peace Corps Service (Madison, Wisconsin)
4
‘They’ve covered it up’: Backlash swells over Peace Corps worker’s involvement in death in Africa
5
New book about Martin Luther King features PC’s Director Sargent Shriver and CD Harris Wofford (Ethiopia)
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Why Don’t We Have A Peace Corps Director?
7
YOGURT CULTURE by Cheryl Sternman Rule (Eritrea)
8
Let’s Talk About Estate Planning by Virginia McArthur (Ethiopia)
9
Peace Corps Issues Update on 2019 Crash That Resulted in Death of Ms. Rabia Issa
10
Remembering and Honor Where We Began — 60 Years Ago
11
Review — A HUSBAND AND WIFE ARE ONE SATAN by Jeff Fearnside ( Kazakhstan)
12
Baby Whisperer–George Pope (Chile)
13
Michelle Obama will help Launch the Peace Corps Support of Education for Girls
14
Establishing the Peace Corps–what we remember 60 years later
15
Christmas and Living in Ecuador

Inaugural Issue of the RPCV Oral History Project

 Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Archive Project  January 2022 Newsletter  Welcome to the inaugural issue of the RPCV Oral History Archive Project (OHAP) newsletter. We plan to use the newsletter to keep you informed on OHAP developments. We will let you know about important ways in which you can help us achieve our mission to preserve Peace Corps experiences through in-depth oral interviews of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), evacuated volunteers, Peace Corps staff and, we hope soon, host country counterparts.  2021 recap  Our numbers are soaring! As of the end of 2021, OHAP volunteers have conducted over 1300 oral history interviews with RPCVs and Peace Corps staff. Of these, about 800 audio interviews, conducted from 1990 through 2019, are archived at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives and Records Administration.  Since June 2020, more than 550 video interviews have been conducted remotely using a . . .

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Support RPCV Dave Harden (Botswana) with Your Vote and $$$

Dave Harden (Botswana 1984-86) WE NEED RPCVs IN CONGRESS ! I grew up in Carroll County on a small farm in Westminster – we raised chickens, steers, and horses. I spent my summers shucking corn and listening to the Orioles play ball while I mowed more grass in a few years than most people do in a lifetime. I started first grade at Mechanicsville Elementary school in Gamber and graduated from Westminster High School many, many years ago. I’m a public school kid – and those schools did right by me. I learned to think critically, apply reason to problems, and envision a bigger world. In the 12th Grade, long-time English teacher Barry Gelsinger taught us how to write – to craft – A-level college term papers so we could compete with prep school kids from around the country. With Barry Gelsinger’s push, I did well in college and was . . .

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A Photographic Celebration: 60 Years of Peace Corps Service (Madison, Wisconsin)

  Jan 18, 2022 to Jan 30, 2022 Capitol 2 E. Main St., Madison, Wisconsin 53703   This exhibit of photographs was coordinated by Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Wisconsin-Madison about life in the Peace Corps draws from some 60 years of photos from the yearly RPCV of Wisconsin International calendar. This weekend includes a half-day in-person question-fielding session at the Capitol, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Jan. 22, with current recruiters who can answer questions about volunteering. The Capitol is open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. For the last 34 years, the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Wisconsin – Madison have celebrated Peace Corps service every month of the year by producing the International Calendar. For this 60th Anniversary, they have prepared a traveling exhibit from their photo archives of photos that demonstrate the beauty and diversity of the countries and people. These will be on display at the Capitol Rotunda for . . .

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‘They’ve covered it up’: Backlash swells over Peace Corps worker’s involvement in death in Africa

by Tricia L. Nadolny, Donovan Slack and Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAY; Kizito Makoye The mother of a man killed in a 2019 car crash involving an American woman who left the United Kingdom and avoided prosecution said she was stunned to learn a similar incident occurred just days before in Africa. In that case, U.S. officials whisked from Tanzania a Peace Corps employee who killed a mother of three in a car crash after drinking at a bar and bringing a sex worker back to his home. Charlotte Charles — whose 19-year-old son Harry Dunn died when the wife of a U.S. State Department employee driving on the wrong side of the road struck him with her car — called U.S. officials “barbaric” for helping Peace Corps employee John M. Peterson avoid prosecution in Tanzania after he fatally struck Rabia Issa. The U.S. Department of Justice has also declined to pursue charges against Peterson, citing . . .

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New book about Martin Luther King features PC’s Director Sargent Shriver and CD Harris Wofford (Ethiopia)

  Nine Days: The Race to Save Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life and Win the 1960 Election  Martin Luther King Jr. faced a harrowing nine days in a dangerous prison in 1960. In his book, GW Alum Paul  Kendrick tells how King’s ordeal changed politics as we know it. • A review by John DiConsiglio,  January 11, 2022, GWToday   In October 1960, a 31-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. not yet the civil rights icon who would inspire a nation, agreed to join a student sit-in at an Atlanta department store. King, who had never yet spent a night in jail, knew he faced a possible arrest. But the reality was even more harrowing. While the students were taken to local jails, King was transferred to a dangerous Georgia state prison where Black inmates endured violence by white guards. Just weeks before the presidential election, King’s ordeal was the ultimate “October . . .

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Why Don’t We Have A Peace Corps Director?

Months are slipping by without a Peace Corps Director. Why is that? When Trump was kicked out of office, Director Jody Olsen (Tunisia 1966-68) ran for the door tossing the office keys to Carol Spahn (Romania 1994-96) who has now been declared Chief Executive Office of the agency. Over the last months, two ‘famous’ names popped up as potential directors. Joe Kennedy (the Dominican Republic 2004-06) was, I’m told, offered the job and he turned it down. Recently the story is that President Biden asked Michelle Obama if she would be the next Peace Corps Director. She also said no. What we also know is that the Republicans in the Senate are stalling all of Biden’s appointments to federal jobs. 150 government positions have no nominee. What might the Peace Corps agency do next? Limp along with ‘acting’  CEO and make-do staff and no PCVs in the field. Close the . . .

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YOGURT CULTURE by Cheryl Sternman Rule (Eritrea)

Yogurt Culture: A Global Look at How to Make, Bake, Sip, and Chill the World’s Creamiest, Healthiest Food by Cheryl Sternman Rule (Eritrea 1995-97) Harvest Publisher 352 pages April 2015 $12.99 (Kindle); $19.18 (Hardback)   Award-winning author Cheryl Sternman Rule (Eritrea 1995-97) began writing professionally for newspapers, magazines, and websites in 2004. She was the voice behind the food blog 5 Second Rule (5secondrule.typepad.com), which won the 2012 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) New Media & Broadcast Award for best culinary blog. Cheryl’s work has also appeared in Cooking Light, Sunset, Body + Soul, Health, Vegetarian Times, the San Jose Mercury News, Edible San Francisco, Culinate.com, The Kitchn, and Serious Eats; and in several books published by the American Heart Association and the EatingWell Media Group. Cheryl also served as a contributing editor at EatingWell Magazine, a daily food news blogger at iVillage, and the Fresh Talk columnist for . . .

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Let’s Talk About Estate Planning by Virginia McArthur (Ethiopia)

Let’s Talk About Estate Planning by Virginia McArthur, Esq. (Ethiopia 1964-66) Cambridge Studio Publisher 280 pages September 2020 $8/99 (Kindle); $13.25 (Paperback)     Will your estate plan fail? If you don’t understand how it works, you could dismantle it yourself! Are you tempted to take free advice about planning? Do you avoid reading the fine print? Will joint ownership simplify or complicate your plan? What happens to assets left directly to a minor? Know it or blow it. Let’s Talk About Estate Planning defogs estate planning through invented, but true to life, conversations between friends, or between clients and fictional lawyer Rebecca Dalton. Some of these exchanges expose major errors, not all of them fixable. This entertaining and informative treatment of estate planning, wills, trusts, probate, beneficiary designations, titling of assets, powers of attorney, and gifts illustrates how these pieces fit together. Read it, and you will say “NOW I . . .

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Peace Corps Issues Update on 2019 Crash That Resulted in Death of Ms. Rabia Issa

January 7, 2022 WASHINGTON – Today, Peace Corps Chief Executive Officer Carol Spahn released the following update regarding the 2019 crash that resulted in the death of Ms. Rabia Issa: “The death of Rabia Issa in Tanzania was a horrible tragedy, and we grieve the incredible loss to her family, friends and community. “We recognize the deep pain that was caused by Ms. Issa’s death, as well as the inequities that exist. Our ongoing work is grounded in a commitment to equity and ensuring our mission is clearly centered in our host communities. We expect all staff and every Volunteer to enter service with deep humility and respect as we seek to foster peace and understanding across cultures. We are committed to doing everything within our power to pursue policy, legislative, enhanced training and other solutions to bolster accountability. “We understand that many questions remain about the agency’s response to . . .

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Remembering and Honor Where We Began — 60 Years Ago

  The first Peace Corps HQ was at 806 Connecticut Ave across from Lafayette Park and within view of the White House. It was called the Maiatico Building and immortalized in the famous Washington Post photograph showing how the Peace Corps was working far into the night in the first days of the new agency. When the Peace Corps was “launched” JFK did so by signing an ‘executive order” to create the agency, an idea of Bill Josephson, co-author of the memo “Towering Task,” who told Kennedy he had the power to create the new agency by using the existing Mutual Security Act of 1954. Kennedy claimed that the establishment of the Peace Corps was an emergency. And it was. By doing so, the Peace Corps was created immediately without going through months of congressional debates. With the signing to create this new agency, Shriver, with the help of Warren Wiggins, obtained three . . .

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Review — A HUSBAND AND WIFE ARE ONE SATAN by Jeff Fearnside ( Kazakhstan)

  A Husband and Wife Are One Satan  Jeff Fearnside (Kazakhstan 2002–04) Orison Books September 2021 40 pages $12.00 (paperback), $7.49 (Kindle) Reviewed by Clifford Garstang (Korea 1976-77) • I find a great deal of pleasure in reading fiction set in other cultures or countries, especially when the work demonstrates more than a superficial understanding of the place about which it is written. That was one motivation behind the anthology series I curated, Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet (published by Press 53 in 2016). It was also in that context that I first became aware of Jeff Fearnside’s work when his story set in Kazakhstan, “A Husband and Wife are One Satan,” was included in the first volume of that series. I recognized then that, having been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan, Fearnside had the depth of knowledge of his chosen setting to bring the culture and his . . .

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Baby Whisperer–George Pope (Chile)

The Baby Whisperer iUniverse by George Pope (Chile 1963-65) 112 pages September 2021 $5.99 (Kindle); $13.99 (Paperback)       For the past sixteen years, George Pope has been holding and comforting babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) a local Children’s Hospital. The book is full of heart-warming, heart-wrenching, and sometimes downright amusing stories of working with the most caring, the most compassionate, and the most competent professionals he has ever been associated with. His job? He calls himself:  The Baby Whisperer! Before becoming a “Baby Whisperer,” George had a forty-year international affairs career. Beginning as a PCV in Chile (1963-65), he served in six U.S. Embassies and managed the operational aspects of international food aid relief programs in over fifty countries.  

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Michelle Obama will help Launch the Peace Corps Support of Education for Girls

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – First lady Michelle Obama will travel to Japan and Cambodia this month as part of a U.S. global effort to support education for girls, the White House said on Tuesday. She will visit Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan from March 18 to March 20, and the Cambodian capital Siem Reap from March 21 to 22, it said in a statement. The initiative aims to reduce the number of girls — 62 million worldwide — who do not attend school, according to the administration. The effort, launched last summer through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), will use the Peace Corps volunteer program to help expand access for schooling for girls, especially for teenagers. Cambodia is one of 11 countries targeted by the Peace Corp initiative during the program‘s first year, the White House said. The other countries are: Albania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Georgia, Ghana, . . .

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Establishing the Peace Corps–what we remember 60 years later

The current issue of WorldView (online at the NPCA site) has an informative interview with Bill Moyers and Bill Josphenson on the creation of the Peace Corps. The interview introduces new information about those formative days of the agency. Here is an essay I wrote in the late ’90s about creating the Peace Corps based on interviews I had done with founders like Warren Wiggins and Harris Wofford and others who had been part of the Mayflower Gang that created the Peace Corps.    Establishing the Peace Corps Let me start with a quote from Gerard T. Rice’s book, The Bold Experiment: JFK’s Peace Corps: In 1961 John F. Kennedy took two risky and conflicting initiatives in the Third World. One was to send five hundred additional military advisers into South Vietnam; by 1963 there would be seventeen thousand such advisers. The other was to send five hundred young Americans . . .

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Christmas and Living in Ecuador

by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) When the request to write remembrances of our first in-country Peace Corps Christmases arrived in my email box, I thought, no way am I going to tell mine.  \And as the beautiful, joyful, meaningful stories appeared, I was further reluctant to share one of the worst experiences of my young life. As I write this, I can almost hear people saying, oh, here Marnie goes again with her dark twist on the Peace Corps experience. I said as much to Coyne and he said, “just write it.” The backstory: Soon after I arrived at my site assignment in March of 1964, in the rough and tumble urban barrio of Cerro Santa Ana, Guayaquil, Ecuador, I began to hear neighborhood people call out to me, “Romy, Romy.” I had no idea why because my name was Margarita to most of my neighbors on the Cerro. It . . .

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