Archive - March 2011

The Family Goryachevix by Murray Davis (Russia 1996–99) Fine Images Printing January 2010 $12.00 154 pages Reviewed by Sharon Dirlam (Russian Far East 1996–98) MURRAY DAVIS AND I began our Peace Corps training together in rural West Virginia because our two groups — his heading for Western Russia and mine heading for the Russian Far East — were unable to get visas. Five weeks into training, Russia finally came through and the two groups went our separate ways. Davis writes that he took a roundabout way to get to his assignment in Western Russia: traveling to China, crossing the border and boarding the Trans-Siberian train. One of his traveling companions was Sergei Goryachev, a friendly fellow from the town of Vladimir who seemed eager to have Davis meet his daughter Tanya. (In an explanatory email, Davis writes that he took some literary license with this part of the story: the . . .

Thanks to the efforts of  Patti Garamendi (Ethiopia 1966–68), Assistant General Manager of the California Exposition & State Fair, RPCV writers living in California have been invited to sell their books at the Author’s Booth at the California State Fair in Sacramento this summer. The Fair, which runs from July 13th to July 31st, has a large Authors area with 6 stations where featured writers can sign and sell their books. This year one station will be dedicated to Peace Corps writers. The area, in the air-conditioned Counties Building, is in a busy location — and “right next to the cinnamon roll stand”! The Fair opens at noon on Monday through Thursday, and 10 am on Friday through Sunday, and has about 1 million visitors each year with 75% passing through this this building. The organizers would like to feature 14 Peace Corps writers — one on each day of the . . .

Stanley Meisler, author of When the World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years, talks about the Peace Corps’ most and least supportive presidents. Not an institutional history, When the World Calls is the first complete and balanced look at the Peace Corps’s first fifty years. Revelatory and candid, Stanley Meisler’s engaging narrative exposes Washington infighting, presidential influence, and the Volunteers’ unique struggles abroad. Meisler deftly unpacks the complicated history with sharp analysis and memorable anecdotes, taking readers on a global trek starting with the historic first contingent of Volunteers to Ghana on August 30, 1961. The Peace Corps has served as an American emblem for world peace and friendship, yet few realize that it has sometimes tilted its agenda to meet the demands of the White House. Tracing its history through the past nine presidential administrations, Meisler discloses, for instance, how Lyndon Johns… . . .

Novelist Patrick Breslin (Colombia 1963-65) who wrote the novel Interventions, published by Doubleday in 1980, and also wrote a development book published in 1987 for the Inter-American Foundation, the organization he retired from in Washington, D.C. Pat now lives with his wife in Kyiv, Ukraine, but he is briefly back in the States and he took a train out to my hometown in Pelham, New York, so we could have coffee and meet for the first time. He had been to see his older brother, a Jesuit priest, at nearby Fordham University, and I am close by that campus. Our conversation got me thinking of the short essay he wrote awhile back for Peace Corps Writers and I reread it again this afternoon and thought you might like to read it again, or for the first time. Patrick Breslin can write and he has something to say, and on this 50th year of the agency, it fits in well with what we are putting . . .

Following in the footsteps of the Korean RPCVs, the first groups of PCVs to the Philippines have produced a collection of essays and photos from their early years for the 50th anniversary. Unlike, Through Our Eyes: Peace Corps In Korea, 1966-1981, edited by Bill Harwood (Korea 1975-77), a book that focused on Korea, Koreans, and the amazing changes in that country, the RPCVs from the Philippines have, for the most part, compiled a manuscript of essays about their memories of “being first” in-country, and what has happened to them in the years since. It stretches to 500+ pages, and is entitled, Answering Kennedy’s Call: Pioneering the Peace Corps in the Philippines. This book (published this week and available for $25.00 at CreateSpace or under its title at Amazon.com) was edited by four RPCVs from those early years (1961–63): Parker W. Borg, Maureen J. Carroll, Patricia MacDermot Kasdan, Stephen W. Wells. About . . .

A new book published by our Peace Corps Writers imprint has just come out. Answering Kennedy’s Call: Pioneering the Peace Corps in the Philippines edited by four Philippines Volunteers from groups 1,2,3, (Parker W. Borg, Maureen J. Carroll, Patricia MacDermot Kasan, Stephen W. Wells). It weights in slightly less than 3 pounds and at 500+ pages. Their book is a series of essays by 90 Philippine Volunteers, plus a few essays from staff and a few Filipino observers. As Parker W. Bong, one of the four editors, wrote me, “These former Volunteers recount their personal crises, misadventures, apprehensions and foibles along with their sources of satisfaction and accomplishment. A common theme is humility and the sense they came back having gained far more than they were able to contribute. We believe we have not only created an interesting memoir for the former volunteers and their families, but a valuable history of the first Peace Corps years.” The book is available for . . .

History Begins in Africa by Mary Acosta (Afghanistan 1964–66) Birds Nest Publishing $29.95 385 pages December 2010 • Haiti: Ti Moun Se Riches [Our Children Are Our Treasures] photographs by Skyler Badenoch (Cote d’Ivoire 2001–02) Suzanne Guard and Tuck Stephenson, publishers $30.00 pages January 2011 • This is Africa: Peace Corps Malawi and the Liberian Civil War by Eugene T. Caruso (Malawi & Liberia 1990–92) CreateSpace $9.99 134 pages 2009 • The Family Goryachevix by Murray Davis (Russia 1996–99) Finer Images Printing $12.00 154 pages 2010 • Lake, and Other Poems of Love in a Foreign Land (Winner of the 2010 SRCA Open Poetry Chapbook Competition) by Jeff Fearnside (Kazakhstan 2002–04) Standing Rock Cultural Arts $12.00 24 pages February 2011 • Gloryland by Shelton Johnson (Liberia 1982–83) Sierra Club/Counterpoint $15.95 288 pages 2010 • A School For Others: The History of the Belize High School of Agriculture by George Lebard . . .

Phil Hardberger recalls the impact the late Sargent Shriver had on the organization – and on him. Special To The Express-News Sunday, February 27, 2011  Former San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger holds a photograph of himself and Sargent Shriver.Sargent Shriver died a few weeks ago – just short of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps. There were many tributes to him. Various columnists and pundits gave accounts of his triumphs with the Peace Corps, the Office of Economic Opportunity and as the U.S. ambassador to France. His failure as a candidate for national office was dissected. Careful analyses were made of his connections with the Kennedy family (he was married to Eunice, the sister of President John F. Kennedy) and whether this was an advantage or disadvantage. Phil Hardberger writes: My own thoughts were more personal, more filled with memories, more illustrated with vivid images undiminished by . . .

EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE I get a surprise in the mail. Out of nowhere comes a book by an RPCV that sets me back in my work as I have to sit down and read it asap. When I finish, I end up thinking: ‘wow’ we (i.e. RPCVs) are writing prose that still makes us want to turn the page. We are writing literature in ways that no one else can because of our Peace Corps years. Yesterday I received in the mail from Holt Paperbacks a debut novel entitled The Civilized World: A Novel in Stories written by Susi Wyss (Central African Republic 1990-92). Susi was raised in the U.S. and the Ivory Coast and worked for twenty years managing health programs in Africa, where she lived for more than eight years. She has a B.A. from Vassar, an M.P.H. from Boston University, and holds an M.A. in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University. . . .