April 2012 – Page 2 – Peace Corps Worldwide

New Blogger Travis Hellstrom (Mongolia 2008-11)

Apr 11 2012

We are happy to announce that we will have a new blogger on www. peacecorpsworld.org. Travis Hellstrom (Mongolia 2008-11) will be blogging at: Unofficial Peace Corps. Travis was a PCV and PCV Leader in Mongolia and a year before he left for Peace Corps he began writing what would become the Unofficial Peace Corps Volunteer Handbook which he added to here and there for 4 years until, after his 27th month of service in Mongolia, he published it on Amazon.com. The Unofficial Handbook is the only book available which gives 100% of its profits back to Peace Corps projects worldwide. Travis is also founder of Peace Corps 101, a worldwide online course led by Peace Corps Volunteers from around the world, which also donates all proceeds back into Peace Corps through the Peace Corps’ Partnership Program and NPCA’S Global Community Fund! After completing his Peace Corps service, Travis published a second book called Enough and created the websit Advance . . .

Professional Advice on Writing Your Memoir or Novel

Apr 10 2012

[Adrienne deWolfe is a journalist, award-winning novelist, book writing coach, and a national conference speaker. She came across our website and offered to write a short piece for us about how to write your story. Her website, WritingNovelsThatSell.com, features writing resources, characterization worksheets, online fiction writing courses, and the ongoing blog series, How to Write a Novel: Tips & Best Practices. Follow Adrienne deWolfe on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ , or subscribe to her newsletter. So, here is what Adrienne has to say to all the writers working on books!] • Write Your Story with Feeling to Make it Memorable By Adrienne deWolfe Whether you are planning to write your personal story as a memoir, or to write a novel based upon your life’s experience, you must find ways to connect with the emotions of your reader if you want your story to be remembered. New writers are often transported by . . .

Review of Charles G. Blewitt's (Grenada 1969–71) Valley Views II-Four Plays

Apr 10 2012

Valley Views II — Four Plays Charles G. Blewitt (Grenada 1969-71) Uncle Wilson’s Productions 156 pages Paperback $15 2009 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) READING MORE LIKE SHORT STORIES, the four very brief plays in Charles G. Blewitt’s Valley Views II, all take place in the ‘Great Pocono Northeast’ of Northeastern Pennsylvania, which the author describes in his introduction as being populated by, “…first, second, or third generation descendants of ancestors who had literally been dropped off a bus or a train because they either had relatives living locally or they just didn’t have the fare to go farther.” That said, the people in these plays are familiar to any of us who live in smaller urban areas where socio economic groups and races live uncomfortably side by side. Using the framework of counseling in two of the plays, Blewitt mines those divides for his earnest . . .

PCVs Recognized in WashPost Op-Ed for Anti-malaria Work

Apr 10 2012

It takes more than a village to fight malaria in Zambia By Michael Gerson Published: April 5 The Washington Post MONGU, Zambia In a global anti-malaria movement I saw begin in Oval Office meetings and international summits, Mongu is at the end of a very long road. Located in western Zambia, about 75 miles from the Angolan border, the town is not close to anywhere. The rivers of the region are more like swamps filling a flood plain, their courses hidden by tall grasses – from the air, wide, serpentine bands of lime green. If rivers are like arteries, these are clogged. Post columnist Michael Gerson and actor Ben Affleck heard tales of atrocities during a visit to the town of Dungu. Standing water breeds mosquitoes, which carry the malaria parasite, which takes the lives of children in seasonal waves. In this part of the world, some parents don’t officially name . . .

February and March 2012 Peace Corps Books

Apr 06 2012

Valley Views 2: Four Plays by Charles G. Blewitt (Grenada 1969–71) West Wyoming, PA: Uncle Wilson’s Production $ 15.00 156 pages 2009 • Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership For A Multiculural Age by Juana Bordas (Chile 1964–66) Second Edition, Updated and Expanded Berrett-Koehler Publishers $ 22.95 (paperback) 232 pages 2012 • Blaming Japhy Rider: Memoir of a Dharma Bum Who Survived by Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. (Togo 1978) Balboa Press $17.99 (paperback); $35.95 (hardcover) 248 pages 2012 • Lullaby for the Rain Girl by Christopher Conlon (Botswana 1988–90) Dark Regions Press $45.00 (hardcover) 341 pages 2012 • The Farther Shore (Short Stories) by Rob Davidson (Grenada 1990–92) Bear Star Press $16.00 (paperback); ; $7.69 (Kindle) 160 pages March 2012 • An Apricot Year (Novel) by Martha Egan (Venezuela 1967–69) Papalote Press $25.95 (hardcover) February, 2012 • Da Vinci’s Ghost by Toby Lester (Yemen 1983–85) Free Press $26.99 (hardcover); $17.99 (audio . . .

Robert Klein Passed Away on Wednesday

Apr 05 2012

Robert Klein (Ghana 1961–63; 1974–75), recent winner of Peace Corps Writers Advancing the Mission Award for his book Being First, an informal history of early Peace Corps/Ghana, and founder of the RPCV Oral History Archival Project, passed away yesterday, April 4, 2012, at the age of 83, after complications arising from the implantation of a pacemaker. Klein was a tireless supporter of the agency and RPCVs across the country, and dedicated to having RPCVs tell their individual stories. He taught in Ghana for two years, a member of the first Peace Corps group to go overseas. He then joined the Peace Corps program staff, serving in Kenya and in Ghana, where he was the country director from 1966 to 1968. Returning to the U.S., Klein had a career as a journeyman educator working in New Frontier and other experimental settings in the areas of remedial education and English as a second language. In 1974 he returned to Ghana, . . .

Review of Carole Howard's Novel About Face

Apr 05 2012

About Face by Carole Howard (PC Staff Wife: Ivory Coast, Togo and Senegal 1972–75). Warwick Associates $13.99 (paperback); $2.99 (Kindle or Nook) 315 pages 2011 Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) ABOUT FACE, A CLEVER TITLE THAT encompasses this book’s themes, profiles Ruth, a middle-aged successful executive in a cosmetics corporation. Ruth had been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal and frequently turns her face to the past reminiscing about innocent times. She is caught in the dilemma of fulfilling her talent on the business battlefield, while also longing to be of service to others. To add to her mid-life crisis, her husband, David, decides to retire from teaching. Ruth is confronted with the reality of aging, but is reluctant to step down from her career platform. She incorporates her own conflicts on the aging process by launching a new cosmetic line for mature women. She is inspired by . . .

Michael Levy (China 2005-07) To Speak in Alabama

Apr 04 2012

Michael Levy – author of Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating with China’s Other Billion and recipient of Barnes & Noble’s 2011 Discover Great New Writers Award for Non-Fiction – will be speaking in Alabama at the Indian Springs School’s Visiting Writing Series on Thursday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the school’s John Badham Theater. Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating with China’s Other Billion is a memoir about Levy’s experiences as a Jewish American serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in western China. He teaches at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, N.Y., and returns frequently to China to check in on his students and “visit the basketball courts where he momentarily attained stardom,” he says. Levy received the honor from Barnes & Noble at a ceremony in New York City on March 7. Now in its 21st year, the Barnes & Noble Discover program has featured upwards of 2,000 books, both . . .

Ethiopian RPCV Carol Beddo Wins Two Travel Writing Awards

Apr 02 2012

In 2003 Carol Beddo (Ethiopia 1964-66) returned to Bahar Dar, Ethiopia, her Peace Corps village on the shores of Lake Tana, and overwhelmed with memories of being a PCV teacher there in the mid-sixties she began to wonder: Who was that young woman? While writing about herself as a young woman, she came to understand how the Peace Corps experience provided a foundation for the rest of her life as a community activist and as a consultant in public policy, political campaigns, and elections. Since this 2003 visit to Ethiopia, she has continued to write about her experiences in the Peace Corps and numerous essays have been published in the San Jose Mercury News, as well as in several travel anthologies. Two of her essays were recently selected Solas Award winners by Travelers’ Tales and they can be read at http://BestTravelWriting.com on the following links: http://www.besttravelwriting.com/btw-blog/great-stories/travel-memoir-gold-winner-fear-and-bitter-justice/ http://www.besttravelwriting.com/btw-blog/great-stories/my-ethiopian-tent/ Congratulations Carol for this, and for all your writing . . .

Hogan's Last Round: Masters Week at Augusta

Apr 02 2012

As some of you may know, I’m a Ben Hogan fan (What! You haven’t read my novel, The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan? ) But more importantly, forty-five years ago Hogan turned back the clock at the Masters when in 1967 he shot a back-nine 30 in the third round at Augusta. Hogan had won the Masters in ’51 and ’53 but now at the age of 54, suffering still from the 1949 car accident that nearly killed him, he had bad legs and a left shoulder that was plagued with bursitis, scar tissue and calcium deposits, and now in the morning he had cortisone shots just to be able to swing a golf club. Hogan shot 74-73 to be seven shots off the lead but he made the cut to play on the weekend. He teed off with Harold Henning of South Africa and turned the corner on the front . . .

Archive - April 2012