February 4, 2010 – Peace Corps Worldwide

100 Days (Or Less) Part Nine: Day Four

Feb 04 2010

Day Four Begin with an individual and you find that you have created a type; begin with a type and you find that you have created-nothing. F. Scott Fitzgerald For the novel that you are writing pick your characters first, as they are harder to pick than a story. In his book on writing the legendary book editor Thomas McCormack writes, “There is no doubt in my mind that the choice of the cast of characters is the most important decision the novelist makes, and that the choice cannot be optimally informed without attention to how they plug into one another, their circuitry.” When writing, the plot may or may not change, but the characters will develop and have lives of their own. As your characters develop, they’ll take on distinct personalities, and as with good friends, you’ll know in certain situations what they will or will not do. Mystery . . .

Peace Corps At Day One, # 5

Feb 04 2010

Selection [PCVs today fill out applications for the Peace Corps, mostly on-line, and have a quick one hour interview, in person or by phone. with a recruiter; they supply a list of 4 references, and take a physical examination and that is how they get into the Peace Corps. Today’s PCVs have no idea of the elaborate selection process that took place in the early days of the agency. Here is a brief summary (over the next few days) of what happened in D.C. (and across the country) to select and train the first generation of Peace Corps Volunteers.] In March 1961, in developing a way to find the right Volunteers for the right job, there was no margin for error, or so they thought at Peace Corps HQ in the old Maiatico Building. The Peace Corps, at the time, was a highly visible, well reported operation of the government. A considerable body of public opinion was already . . .

Major RPCV Writers Publishing Books In February

Feb 04 2010

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory by Peter Hessler (China 1996–98) Harper’s 448 pages February 2010 $27.99 • Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger (Burkina Faso 1975–77) Pocket 368 pages February 2010 $15.00 • Poison of Love: Are We Frying Our Children’s Brains (novel) by Ruth Moss (Kazakhstan 1996–98) Eloquent Books 250 pages January 2010 $14.95 • A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta by Paul Theroux (Malawai 1963–65) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 288 pages February 2010 $26.00 • Tiptoe Through the Tombstones: Oakhill Cemetery, Vol. 1 by Ghlee E. Woodworth (Comoros Islands 1991–93); edited by Jane Uscilka Self-Published 240 pages July 2009 $35.00

RPCV Hessler Completes Chinese Trilogy

Feb 04 2010

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory is Peter Hessler’s (China 1996-98) third book on his host Peace Corps country. It is being published on Tuesday, February 9. Peter, who went to China first as a Rhodes Scholar, then returned as a PCV, has lived on and off, mostly on, in China for over a decade. In the summer of 2001 he acquired a Chinese driver’s license and took his first road trip across the north of the country, following the route of the Great Wall and camping along the way. Peter made two such journeys, one in the spring and one in the autumn; he traveled over 7,436 miles and went all the way to the Tibetan Plateau. The second part of the book is focus on a family north of Beijing that has shifted from farming to business after their local road is paved. The third section . . .

Archive - February 4, 2010