Archive - November 2011

Emily Balog, 26, a PCV in Paraguay was killed in a car wreck on Sunday, November 27, 2011, according to the Peace Corps. Balog, 26, who is from Burlington, North Carolina, arrived in Paraguay in June 2010 and was expected to COS next August. Balog helped a local women’s cooperative with better business practices, including marketing local goods and improving sales. She also helped create a photography competition for local youth in the community. She is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill in 2007 with a degree in journalism. As of today, more than 250 Americans serve in the Peace Corps in Paraguay.

Native Californian John Givens received his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has published novels, non-fiction books, and short stories in the US, Japan and Europe. Givens studied art and language in Kyoto for four years. He worked extensively in Tokyo, San Francisco and New York, and took up residence in Ireland a few years ago. Givens currently lives out on the wet and windy Howth peninsula, and he teaches fiction writing in Dublin and wrote recently about the state of the Irish nation. • Dublin: Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei by John Givens (Korea 1967–69) ANYONE NOT LIVING ON MARS in a cave (without broadband) knows that the euro is in a parlous state. Shared by 17 of the 27 EU countries, the single currency is the glue that holds the whole rickety enterprise together. The absence of a monolithic fiscal authority has long . . .

[In our small attempt to keep everyone abreast of what is happening in cities around the world, via our farflung RPCVs,  Peter Hessler (China 1996-98), one of the recent 22 recipients of the $500,000 ‘genius awards’  given by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and who is now living in Cairo, Egypt with his wife and their twin babies, emailed me this morning:] The fighting has been very, very localized, and now has been stopped for a few days.  Even on the square it’s been basically safe; you just didn’t want to go down the side streets where they were battling the police at the Ministry of Interior.   In my neighborhood, less than a mile and a half away, there was really no sign of it.  People were very friendly to me on the square — there have been some reports of foreigners getting harassed and attacked, but that wasn’t my experience.  But a . . .

[Taking a hint from  Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) about focusing on what’s happening in America (and around the world) I have emailed a few RPCV writers and asked them to drop me notes from their cities. Paul Eggers (Malaysia 1976-78)  in California commented the other day on the pepper-spray incident at U of Davis. And soon we’ll have reports from Dublin, Switzerland and Cairo. But first Tony D’Souza tells us what is happening in St. Louis, Missouri, where he is encamped for a few years as his wife earns her MFA and he cares for their two young children. Here’s Tony’s take on the gateway city.] St. Louis: Mutual Assured Destruction We’ve had 51 Occupy-related arrests so far here in St. Louis, daily protests outside Bank of America, union-led marches to the MLK Bridge, and the requisite forcible eviction of the tent encampment from the downtown city park. Covering it for the alternative weekly Riverfront . . .

Love and the Peace Corps By Nina Porzucki ⋅ November 22, 2011 ⋅ THERE’S AN EXPRESSION that was my mantra through college: “Peace Corps, the toughest job you’ll ever love.” The idea was that after graduation I would join the Peace Corps, and do the toughest job I’d ever love. In 2002, I arrived in Washington, DC for orientation to teach in Romania. I sat terrified in a conference room thinking about the next 27 months. The first thing I remember was a guy raising his hand and asking the Peace Corps official, “Is it true that 80 percent of volunteers come back married, engaged or in love?” I was floored. Here I was trying to imagine what Romania looked like and where I’d be living. I had never even considered love. Janice Sims was one of my fellow volunteers in Romania. It turns out she was just as surprised . . .

By ANGELA M. HILL and RANDY KREIDER–ABC NEWS Nov. 21, 2011 – President Obama signed the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act today, less than a year after an ABC News investigation into the murder of the 24-year-old volunteer in Africa. The act, which passed earlier this month in Congress, is designed to protect Peace Corps whistleblowers and improve the treatment of victims of violence and sexual assault. The law is named for 24-year-old Kate Puzey of Georgia, who was murdered in Benin in 2009 after telling superiors she believed a fellow Peace Corps employee was molesting female students. In an investigation that aired on “20/20,” ABC News told the story of Kate’s murder and examined what critics say has been a “blame-the-victim” culture within the Peace Corps when volunteers are assaulted or attempt to report problems. “It’s such a wonderful thing. We’re really, really happy this is happening,” . . .

[Paul Eggers (Malaysia 1976-78) teaches creative writing at Chico State in California. He has a PhD from the University of Nebraska and is the author of two books (Saviors, a novel; and How the Water Feels, a collection of short stories). Besides the Peace Corps, Paul was also a UN relief worker and his fiction is focus mostly on first-world/third-world interactions. On Sunday, Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) made the wise suggestion that I reach out to Paul and ask him for his take–as a California academic–about the pepper spraying last Friday at the University of Davis. Paul emailed me earlier today and this is some of what he had to say.] “I’m outraged by the thuggery shown by the police, as well as by the mealy-mouthed initial response from the Davis chancellor, as well as by the ludicrous claim by the police administration that they were “surrounded” by students and felt threatened.  There . . .

Maya Lau [After college at Vassar, Maya Lau went to Kolda, Senegal (2009-11) as a PCV and worked in urban agriculture. Coming home, she began working in journalism in New York City. And that is what she’s doing today! Here’s a post she put up on Huff Post the other day titled: “What The Peace Corps Taught Me About Failure.” Ain’t that the truth! (It is published with her permission.] Posted: 11/17/11 09:10 Volunteer life bursts with cultural faux pas, fruitless projects and second guesses. For two years, I felt like the joke was on me. Even on my best days in Senegal, the sudden scream of “toubab,” a taunting word for foreigners, reminded me that my cheerfulness was jinxed, my presence perhaps unwelcome. In West Africa, I confronted the toubab version of myself, a self previously foreign to me that was lethargic, cynical and at home with failure. For a long time I . . .

Friends: Please join us as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Peace Corps Director, Aaron Williams, USAID Administrator, Rajiv Shah, and senior White House Administration officials will participate in this event on Wednesday, November 23rd at 9:30AM EST. If you are able to attend, please rsvp no later than Friday, November 18th at 5PM EST, and fill out the attached Excel sheet with information we will need to clear you into the building. Thank you, Karen Richardson The White House Office of Public Engagement EVENT DETAILS WHAT: White House 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Peace Corps and USAID WHEN: Wednesday, November 23rd at 9:30AM EST (Please arrive by 8:45 EST at the south west gate on 17th and State Place NW) WHERE: White House Complex, Eisenhower Executive Office Building, South Court Auditorium Karen Richardson Associate Director White House . . .