1
A Shrinking Population Could be a Demographic Opportunity for China
2
New Book by Danny Langdon (Ethiopia 1962-64)
3
Peace Corps Worldwide on Substack
4
In latest book, geography professor offers new way forward for agriculture in Africa
5
Paraguay: Versions of Unknowability
6
Diplomat Couple from Hawley, Minnesota
7
New release ‘Falling Seven Times’ sheds light on the struggles of labor migrants in a powerful tale of survival and resilience
8
I am Maria, by Maria Shriver (On sale April 1, 2025) Pre-Order Now
9
Happy Birthday, Sargent Shriver!
10
Ah, Where the Light Shines Through, First of four volumes of poetry by Patricia Waak (Brazil 1966-68)
11
Chile and Pinochet focus of new memoir from CT author and former Peace Corps Volunteer
12
New books by Peace Corps writers | September–October 2024
13
Big Black Hole-New Year’s Addis Ababa 1966
14
Bob Dylan Enters the World…by Rowland Scherman (First PC/W Staff Photographer)
15
Peace Corps Volunteers celebrate decades-old ties with Korea during 2024 Revisit program

A Shrinking Population Could be a Demographic Opportunity for China

By Lex Rieffel (India 1965-67), Founder of the From the Bridge Foundation; former U.S. Treasury Department economist and Brookings Institution scholar. Original article: The Centre on Contemporary China and the World (CCCW) at the University of Hong Kong In early 2023, China announced its first population decline since the Cultural Revolution, marking a significant milestone in its demographic history. This decline highlights a broader global trend toward decreasing fertility rates. According to the latest UN World Population Prospects report, issued in July 2024, the world’s population is expected to peak before the end of this century. The number of countries experiencing very low fertility rates has been steadily increasing. One in four people now live in a country whose population has already peaked. This includes nations as diverse as Germany, Japan, Korea, and Russia. China is far from being alone on this down-sloping demographic path. The simple reason for China’s . . .

Read More

New Book by Danny Langdon (Ethiopia 1962-64)

Junkyard Kid Book Description This is the fascinating, often humorous, story of Danny G Langdon—a person who has lived a very lucky life. A world traveler, he is one of the most sane, charming, talented, funny, profound humans you could possibly know—which is unlikely when you read that he was born in a warehouse and raised in a junkyard setting. However, he thrived in such an unusual environment! It promoted his curiosity as he lived with his seven siblings and widowed mother who ran a scrap metal, hide, wool, pelt, and fur business for 40 years. His is a story of overcoming learning obstacles to become a well-rounded person, a successful entrepreneur, and the author of a baker’s dozen books. During the first days of the U.S. Peace Corps, he volunteered as a teacher in Ethiopia—personally meeting President John F. Kennedy at the White House and his Imperial Majesty Haile . . .

Read More

Peace Corps Worldwide on Substack

Dear Worldwide Friends, You may notice a new look in your inbox going forward. Your Peace Corps Worldwide newsletter is now being published on Substack. You’ll still be able to view and comment on blog posts on the Peace Corps Worldwide website for now, but the entire posts will be delivered to your email address. Substack is a publishing platform that is a simple way to publish and share writing. Its social network and built-in recommendations system will help Peace Corps Worldwide grow our subscriber base. It also offers a way to monetize content through paid subscriptions. Readers can easily comment on, share, and recommend content. Peace Corps Worldwide has established an advisory board that will lead the way forward. We’re grateful that some of our Peace Corps community’s most distinguished writers have agreed to serve in this capacity, including Greg Emerson, Steven Saum, Evelyn LaTorre, and Mark Walker. The . . .

Read More

In latest book, geography professor offers new way forward for agriculture in Africa

  Published November 13, 2024 in Macalester College News For more than 35 years, DeWitt Wallace Professor of Geography Bill Moseley has devoted his career to agriculture in Africa. First as a Peace Corps volunteer, then as a staffer with international aid organizations, and finally as a geographer, Dr. Moseley has sought to understand the complex forces, both domestic and foreign, that shape what is grown and by whom in various parts of the continent, as well as who benefits and who does not from these policies and practices. In his latest book, Decolonizing African Agriculture: Food Security, Agroecology, and the Need for Radical Transformation, Professor Moseley has concentrated his expertise into an accessible volume that examines the history of food security and agricultural development in four African nations. The way forward, he argues, is to reject the dominant colonialist approach to economic development in favor of less commercialization and . . .

Read More

Paraguay: Versions of Unknowability

by Mark Jacobs (Paraguay 1978-80) Published in Hudson Review Autumn 2024 In the early hours of April 23, 1996, I was standing under a palm tree in the Plaza Uruguaya in Asunción, Paraguay. The plaza was empty, not just because of the hour, but because everyone in the capital believed a military coup was about to go down. The previous evening, General Lino Oviedo had holed up at an army barracks on the edge of the city, where he was threatening to roll his tanks on Mburuvicha Róga, the official residence of President Juan Carlos Wasmosy.   The coup had not yet happened, but the city—the whole country—instantly shut down. People went inside, closed their doors, and stayed there. Nothing was running, including public transportation. The media went into silent mode. Driving to the U.S. embassy, where I was serving as public affairs officer, I encountered no traffic on the roads. . . .

Read More

Diplomat Couple from Hawley, Minnesota

Diplomat couple from Hawley, Minnesota retires after 2 decades abroad together. The couple met in high school and went on to serve together in the same countries through their entire tenure in the Foreign Service.   From left, Tim Gerhardson, Secretary Antony J. Blinken and Christina Gerhardson participate in a retirement ceremony at the Department of State in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3, 2024. By Ingrid Harbo Today at 6:14 AM HAWLEY, Minn. — From Hawley, Minnesota, to Harare, Zimbabwe, Tim and Christina Gerhardson have stuck together. Originally from Hawley, Tim Gerhardson (Pakistan 1990-90), a Foreign Service officer, and Christina Gerhardson, a Foreign Service specialist, retired from 22 years as diplomats in the United States Foreign Service in June 2023. The couple met in high school and went on to serve together in the same countries throughout their tenure in the Foreign Service. “We just wouldn’t go otherwise,” Tim Gerhardson said. “We . . .

Read More

New release ‘Falling Seven Times’ sheds light on the struggles of labor migrants in a powerful tale of survival and resilience

  By Editor | November 7, 2024 | 0 Follow the harrowing journey of an Ethiopian woman navigating the hardships of working abroad to support her family LUBBOCK, Texas – Author Mark G. Wentling marks his return to the publishing scene with “Falling Seven Times” (published by Archway Publishing), a fictionalized account of his Ethiopian wife’s true-life experience as a labor migrant. The story follows Alya, an Ethiopian woman who unwillingly leaves her home in a desperate need to provide for her family. Without jobs that pay a livable wage in her country, working abroad is her only option for survival. What follows is a journey fraught with physical and emotional challenges: challenging work conditions, language barriers, and cultural clashes — all in the hope of securing a better future for herself and her loved ones. With its poignant narrative, “Falling Seven Times” offers a new perspective on a story . . .

Read More

I am Maria, by Maria Shriver (On sale April 1, 2025) Pre-Order Now

A book like no other, I Am Maria weaves Shriver’s hard-earned wisdom with her own deeply personal poetry. I Am Maria reminds readers there is strength and love on the other side of all of our hardest days. I am Maria is a powerful collection of Maria Shriver’s own poems that grapple with identity, grief, love, loss, longing, heartbreak and healing. Her deeply personal poems address life’s transitions, challenges, successes and failures. Vulnerable and deeply moving, Shriver’s words are a collection of her life experiences woven into poetry to inspire everyone on their own journey, It is also an invitation for readers to write their own personal poetry, reclaiming the art as accessible to everyone and a tool to look within. I Am Maria is a roadmap for anyone trying to shed the labels, layers, and armor that holds us back from creating a wildly authentic and meaningful life. “I . . .

Read More

Happy Birthday, Sargent Shriver!

Rowland Scherman (PC/W Staff photographer 1961-64) writes: “Here’s the guy who started and ran the Peace Corps, R. Sargent Shriver. I was the first PC photographer, 1961-63. There will be more about this wonderful guy in future Substacks.”

Read More

Ah, Where the Light Shines Through, First of four volumes of poetry by Patricia Waak (Brazil 1966-68)

A walk through the snow, attention to the life that is bursting forth around you, reading the ancient signs of life in the past are some of stories captured series of poems that illuminate the relationship between one’s self and the natural world. The epiphanies that come from being aware of the spiritual unfolding that is possible when you pay attention to the other beings that we share the earth with. Ah, Where the Light Shines Through speaks to the reader of what is always present around us if we but take notice. Available on Amazon.com

Read More

Chile and Pinochet focus of new memoir from CT author and former Peace Corps Volunteer

Connecticut Public Radio | By Katherine Jimenez Published November 4, 2024 at 5:00 AM EST   Two things brought writer Tom Hazuka to Chile: Spanish and baseball. Hazuka, a retired professor of English and writing at Central Connecticut State University, was a Peace Corps volunteer in Chile during the rule of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, whose decades-long dictatorship resulted in the death, internment and torture of tens of thousands of people. Hazuka’s award-winning memoir, “If You Turn to Look Back,” details his time in the country during the Pinochet years and his return 25 years later following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Hazuka left Connecticut for Chile in 1978 to take a position as a coach teaching young children how to play baseball. He was a recent graduate of Fairfield University and said the initial draw to the country was learning the language. “I already knew French. I was hoping to go to . . .

Read More

New books by Peace Corps writers | September–October 2024

New books —  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 from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers  to order a book and maybe  VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT.  See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions. PLEASE  join in our Third Goal effort and volunteer to review a book or books!!!    Make Room for Healing:40 Tips from a Breast Cancer Survivor by Travis Brady (China 1994) Hay House LLC 176 pages October . . .

Read More

Big Black Hole-New Year’s Addis Ababa 1966

  Submitted by John Coyne for Peace Corps Worldwide Big Black Hole-New Year’s Addis Ababa 1966 by Charlie Ipcar (Ethiopia 1965-68) The “big black hole” reminds me of a New Year’s Eve celebration I and some Peace Corps friends were celebrating in Addis Ababa back in 1966. There was folk music, Ethiopian beer, and curious stuff being smoked in the pipes being passed around. Our new British friend Colin Figue, who had managed to hitchhike into Ethiopia with his friend Bob Herbison, was treating us to his rendition of Bert Jansch’s guitar solo “Angie” which we’d never heard before and which seemed to go on forever. Some time in the early morning we were making our way out the compound gate when one of us remembered the hole, the large black hole freshly dug for the cesspool, and we thoughtfully hollered out “Watch out for the hole!” and Colin actually . . .

Read More

Bob Dylan Enters the World…by Rowland Scherman (First PC/W Staff Photographer)

Rowland Scherman (PC/W Staff photographer 1961-64) was like any other PCV as he traveled the world, photographing PCVs at work. I met him in 1962 in Ethiopia. He would go onto become a nationally known photographer, famous for many of his photographs. This gallery of photographs by Rowland includes images of iconic figures from the 1960s, from musicians Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan, to public figures Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. He has now created a website. Here is one of his first publications with a few of Rowland’s famous photographs..  Bob Dylan Enters the World… In his 1961 inaugural speech, President Kennedy asked us what we could do for the country; and I, like thousands of others, responded. In those days I was what one might call an “advanced amateur.” I knew what an f stop was, and the other basics, but not really much more. By answering . . .

Read More

Peace Corps Volunteers celebrate decades-old ties with Korea during 2024 Revisit program

  Posted by Glenn Blumhorst for Peace Corps Worldwide Excerpted from The Korea Times By Jon Dunbar Alan Taylor first arrived in Korea in 1966, as part of K-1 the first dispatch of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers. He and his wife spent two years in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, which he described as a “pre-industrial countryside.” “Gongju of the mid-1960s had no private automobiles, and one TV. Farming was done with oxen plowing, and there were few mechanical sound, and so… much physical labor for men and women,” he recalled. “We were immediately struck by how vital and animated Koreans were. I saw more smiling and less rushed pleasure in conversation than it seemed in the U.S. The Korean Peninsula had seen so much tragic violence and dislocation, but the energetic spirit of Koreans was striking to us.” He gave these remarks many times last week, while on a week-long . . .

Read More

Copyright © 2022. Peace Corps Worldwide.