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“Hello Alice!” with Elizabeth Gore (Bolivia)
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Review | FINDING MISS FONG by James A. Wolter (Malaya)
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American Law Society recognizes Alec Allen Ross (Mali)
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“Fire in the Huts!!!” by John Chromy (India)
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A Short Story | “The Paperboy” by Chris Honore’ (Colombia) 
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DYLAN by David J. Mather (Chile) — A story of relationships
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Review | THE MYSTICAL LAND OF MYRRH by MaryAnn Shank (Somalia)
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Judith Kinney Thiele (Sierra Leone) writes EYES TO SEE AFRICA
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8 U.S. BIKE TOURS by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia)
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Carolyn Mulford (Ethiopia) sums up her long writing career
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ACROSS THE KENTUCKY COLOR LINE by Lee Durham Stone (Jamaica)
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FROM MOUNTAINS TO MEDICINE by Erica Elliott (Ecuador)
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Paul Theroux’s New Book: BURMA SAHIB
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Nicholas — Have you heard of The Peace Corps?
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Kate Pongonis (Ecuador) shares lessons from the Peace Corps

“Hello Alice!” with Elizabeth Gore (Bolivia)

In the news — ‘Hello Alice,’ A Company That Offers Funding To Black Businesses, Is Moving To Get A Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Dismissed) Jasmine Crowley UPDATED DECEMBER 14, 2023   A company long-known for advocating for the advancement of women and minority-owned businesses is fighting to get a historic racial discrimination lawsuit against them dismissed. Hello Alice, co-founded by former Peace Corps Volunteer Elizabeth Gore (Bolivia 2003-05) and Carolyn Rodz, provided $25,000 grants t0 Black-owned small businesses earlier this year, and is now being accused of infringing on non-Black business owners’ civil rights. The move comes as a wider campaign unfolds that was enacted by a group of conservatives instrumental in the affirmative action ban, per a report by Press Democrat. The outlet writes that the lawsuit was filed in August in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Eastern Division by America First Legal, Mitchell Law PLLC and Ashbrook Byrne Kresge . . .

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Review | FINDING MISS FONG by James A. Wolter (Malaya)

  Finding Miss Fong by James A. Wolter (Malaya 1961-63) Atmosphere Press 382 pages November 2023 (pre-order available) $ 18.99 (paperback); $27.99 (hardcover); $8.99 (Kindle)   Reviewed by Sue Hoyt Aiken (Ethiopia 1962-64) • • •  Based on the author’s own life, this novel will provide the reader with what a 22-year-old college graduate was thinking, doing and imagining at the turn of the decade just as President John F. Kennedy issued the first call for Peace Corps Volunteers. Those of us of that generation may recall the excitement of a young charismatic President as well as First Lady, Jackie! At that moment in time there were no major world-wide military clashes involving the United States. Some of the boys might have enrolled in ROTC while students,  and were off to military training that unfortunately would put some on the road to Vietnam. But mostly it was a bright future. Jim Wolter, . . .

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American Law Society recognizes Alec Allen Ross (Mali)

In the news —   Feb 18, 2024 The American Law Society proudly announces the addition of Alec Allen Ross, Founder and Trademark Attorney at The Trademark Place, to its prestigious ranks of America’s Top Lawyers. Handpicked by the esteemed American Law Society Board, Ross’s selection underscores his outstanding professional track record, legal expertise, and commitment to the highest ethical standards expected of esteemed lawyers.   With six years of experience, Alec Allen Ross has made a significant impact in the field of Intellectual Property and Trademarks. His passion for intellectual property law and dedication to client service have garnered him recognition, making him a prominent figure in the legal community. Ross’s legal career began with years of service as a trademark attorney and managing attorney at the largest trademark law firm in the United States. Motivated to enhance the client experience, he founded The Trademark Place, emphasizing simplified processes . . .

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“Fire in the Huts!!!” by John Chromy (India)

by John Chromy (India 1963–65)   • • •  Late one afternoon in November of 1964 my Peace Corps housemate, Gordon Louden and I were working at our desks in the Gramsevak Training Center, when we smelled smoke and began to hear people shouting and running toward some informal huts on the outer edge of our Training Center buildings. In India there are numerous wandering, almost gypsy-like, tribes of working people who move to locations where there is seasonal or temporary work to be had. One of those tribes, the Lombardi people had come to Gangawati to work on the construction of feeder lines of the Tungabhadra Irrigation Project. They had established a semi-formal camp of about 50 huts on government-owned land about 40 yards north of our Center. These huts were constructed of a wooden framing, walls made of sticks and shrubbery and roofs covered with straw, coconut leaves and other . . .

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A Short Story | “The Paperboy” by Chris Honore’ (Colombia) 

By Chris Honoré (Colombia 1967-69) • • •  My elementary school was called Allendale, a name I never gave much thought to. It was a massive, pale green, two-story Victorian building on a quiet neighborhood street. I wanted to be a paperboy Two years before I headed off to Jr. High School, I suggested to my folks that being a paperboy would build character, or wobbly words to that effect, and solve my financial situation — I was always short of pocket change for, say, a Superman comic or baseball cards wrapped in waxy paper along with a square of pink bubble gum. To sweeten my argument, I pointed out that the “newspaper shack,” where a cohort of boys gathered each afternoon, waiting for the hot off the presses bundles of newspapers to arrive, was less than a block away from Allendale. “Fine,” my parents said, with some reluctance. “Let’s see how . . .

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DYLAN by David J. Mather (Chile) — A story of relationships

      Dylan David J Mather (Chile 1968 – 70) Peace Corps Writers, 2024 306 pages $14.95 (paperback), $7.99 (Kindle)   • • •  Donald MacGregor is a writer who values his freedom above all else. He wants no responsibilities.  He travels to the quiet Honduran Bay Islands to finish writing a blockbuster novel.  On New Year’s Eve, however, he makes a big mistake with his beautiful neighbor and a year later a black baby boy is delivered to his doorstep.  The baby’s eyes are as blue as Donald’s.  Both commercial fiction and family saga as well as multicultural, Dylan will appeal to anyone who has raised or tried to raise a child. It is a novel of 91,000 words about a white man raising his black son alone on an island off Honduras. Several islanders become surrogate family and rally around Donald and his son Dylan.  However, Donald’s father, James . . .

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Review | THE MYSTICAL LAND OF MYRRH by MaryAnn Shank (Somalia)

  The Mystical Land of Myrrh (short stories) MaryAnn Shank (Somalia 1967–69) Dippity Press February 2019 222 pages $13.99 (paperback), $3.99 (Kindle), $13.97 (audiobook) Reviewed by Eugénie de Rosier (Philippines 2006-08) • • •   MaryAnn Shank has brought us a fictionalized tale of her time in Somalia, working as a teacher of middle-school children in the rural bush country of Baidoa. The author was 50 years distant from her tour when she published The Mystical Land of Myrrh, and thanked those who refreshed her memory of life there. The tantalizing use of the word myrrh drew me in, and how appropriate, as myrrh originates from the commiphora tree of Somalia. The author unspooled her stories and vignettes with a goddess, and circled to the gripping end, when Moria, Shank’s narrator, beseeched Arawello to assist its women. Teaching is an honored profession in Somalia. Peace Corps brought English to, and built schools . . .

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Judith Kinney Thiele (Sierra Leone) writes EYES TO SEE AFRICA

  Eyes to See Africa: From the Verandahs of Sierra Leone by Judith Kinney Thiele (Sierra Leone 1985-87) Self Published February 2024 471 pages $4.99 (Kindle); $23.00 (Paperback)   Kinney’s dark room echoes a monk’s spare cell. Mosquito net. Metal cot. Two suitcases. A two-year vow of near-poverty. Outside on the road, chickens chase giant bugs. Goats weave through the foot-traffic as people balance baskets, bundles, and buckets on their heads. It will get better. She’ll figure it out. Taking a break from her Silicon Valley desk job gives service to a needy world and brings her middle-aged self back to basics. A new community center seeks her health and rural development skills, introducing her to the people of the chiefdom. She meets kindness and acceptance amid the complicated “how-do” of days lived without electricity or clean water. Unfamiliar noises, food, and taboos shape her new life. From landing to . . .

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8 U.S. BIKE TOURS by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia)

  8 U.S. Bike Tours Historical Routes by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia 1965-66) Fohr + Son Publisher 12–18 years January 2024 233 pages $6.99 (Kindle); $12.00 (Paperback)   8 U.S. Bike Tours Historical Routes is a travel book, not a guide book.Routes are given historical context so you are knowledgeable about the place. Descriptions of the rides tells miles, altitude gains, revelations, and practical tips. The physical and emotional experiences on the ride is told from a first-hand account. Description of the rides tells miles, altitude gains, revelations, and practical tips.   Tours featured from Lizard Head Cycling Guides trips Colorado/Utah/Arizona Redrock Canyon and Monument Valley Mississippi Natchez Trace Northern New Mexico South Dakota Black Hills/Badlands Utah National Parks Arizona Trail of the Apaches Pennsylvania Bridges and Battlefields New York-Vermont-Montreal    

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Carolyn Mulford (Ethiopia) sums up her long writing career

  Fall, 1949, is scary, but exciting, for farm-girl Gail Albright. When she begins junior high at the nearby town of Craigsburg, she has no idea of the struggles and friendships she will find. She’s the butt of jokes made by class snob Veronica Holt, and Veronica’s stuck-up clique. And they especially make fun of Gail for wearing a feedsack dress her mother made for her. After Gail’s first taste of humiliation, she knows she must find a way to overcome her embarrassment and anger. The only thing harder than putting up with Veronica’s mean teasing is finding the strength to beat her at her own game. With a little help from her friends, Gail might just pull it off.   Why I Wrote THE FEEDSACK DRESS Posted on February 12, 2024 by Carolyn Mulford  . . .     Over more than 30 years, I wrote and rewrote The Feedsack Dress, . . .

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ACROSS THE KENTUCKY COLOR LINE by Lee Durham Stone (Jamaica)

  Across the Kentucky Color Line: Cultural Landscapes of Race from The Lost Cause to Integration by Lee Durham Stone (Jamaica (1979-82) Self Published December 2023 300 pages $7.99 (Kindle); $27.00 (Hardback)   In Beloved, novelist Toni Morrison has her protagonist Sethe say that she thought she was “gonna die in wild onions on the bloody side of the Ohio River.” That violent side of the river was Kentucky, the subject of Across the Kentucky Color Line. This study examines Kentucky’s violent history of racial relations from 1865 to 1970, focusing on Muhlenberg County, its seven contiguous neighbors, and others in the Bluegrass State. The author prefaces the book with his experience of a segregated school trip to see “The Ten Commandments” in 1957. Historical topics include Kentucky’s post-Civil War racial strife, the Jim Crow era, Lost Cause politics, and a detailed examination of a trial and public “legal lynching” in . . .

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FROM MOUNTAINS TO MEDICINE by Erica Elliott (Ecuador)

  From Mountains to Medicine: Scaling the Heights in Search of My Calling Erica M. Elliott, M.D. (Ecuador 1974–1976) Lammastide Publishing January 2024 383 pages $19.95 (paperback), $16.99 (Kindle)   Erica Elliott resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she has a busy medical practice. Erica was born into a large family with a Swiss mother and an American father. Throughout her childhood, Erica moved with her family from one part of the world to another due to her father’s work. She began her schooling in England, graduated from high school in Germany, and then studied art in Florence, Italy, before returning to the States to attend college. The seeds for becoming a medical doctor were first sown when she spent a summer in Switzerland learning from her uncle, an eccentric and brilliant medical doctor. It took many years before those seeds sprouted. Erica came to medicine later than most . . .

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Paul Theroux’s New Book: BURMA SAHIB

Before He Was George Orwell, He Was Eric Blair, Police Officer   Paul Theroux’s (Malawi 1963-65) new novel, “Burma Sahib,” explores the writer’s formative experiences in colonial Myanmar. Reviewer William Boys writes in Sunday’s New York Times, “The late Martin Amis once declared that “novelists tend to go off at 70. … The talent dies before the body.” Theroux is now in his early 80s and this novel is one of his finest, in a long and redoubtable oeuvre. The talent is in remarkable shape.”

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Nicholas — Have you heard of The Peace Corps?

Nicholas Donabet Kristof is an American journalist and political commentator. A winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he is a regular CNN contributor and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. Born in Chicago, Kristof was raised in Yamhill, Oregon, the son of two professors at nearby Portland State University. He published a Commentary this weekend in The New York Times entitled “The Isolationism Antidote” calling on young people to “Study Spanish in Bolivia. Or teach English in South Korea. Or volunteer in Nepal.” Never Once Does He Mention The Peace Corps! Where have you been Nicholas? What do you think we have been doing since 1961? We’re older than you! Read It And Weep The Isolationism Antidote By Nicholas Kristof Opinion Columnist Feb. 10, 2024 Why has the isolationist wing of Congress been blocking aid to Ukraine and become, in effect, a tool for President Vladimir Putin of Russia? Republican politics explain . . .

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Kate Pongonis (Ecuador) shares lessons from the Peace Corps

  March 1 is an historic day in the annals of the Peace Corps. Sixty-three years ago on that date, President John F. Kennedy took a first step toward fulfilling a key campaign pledge when he signed Executive Order 10924, providing for the establishment, functions, and initial financing to launch this new, innovative program.   Kate Pongonis writes — “I was an agricultural extension volunteer in the highlands of Ecuador from 1992 to 1994 where I worked with subsistence farmers on agro-forestry and other soil conservation practices, taught environmental education, created organic demonstration gardens, and supported early childhood nutrition programs.  The Peace Corps taught me the importance of cross-cultural communication, to work in a community to identify and prioritize needs, and to lead by example.  I brought my experiences home to share with United States audiences the importance of understanding and interacting with our foreign neighbors and partners.  This is the . . .

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