Archive - June 2012

If you had to boil down Jim McConkey’s book to a simple ‘X Meets Y’ premise, it would be “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” meets “Lost in Translation.” By that, we mean “To the Far Side of Planet Earth” is an introspective glimpse at McConkey’s time spent serving as a member of the Peace Corps, combining bits of anthropology, mythology, psychology and a good amount of humor as culture shock gives way to new perspective. McConkey aspired to be a writer since childhood, but made a few career stops on the way to work on a farm, wash dishes, pump gas, drive a school bus and deliver papers. After gaining a degree in journalism, McConkey joined the Peace Corps, and soon he found himself in India. His speaking engagement on “Understanding the Philosophy and Culture of India” today at Temple University’s Harrisburg Campus is part of a World . . .

A Writer Writes [Peace Corps Volunteers often have experiences that follow them throughout their lives. Such was the case with Habib Diatta, who came into Leita Kaldi’s life in 1993 to tell her he taught at a school with 800 students and no latrines! She helped him to find funding and develop the project himself, in collaboration with local villagers, to provide sanitary facilities for his students. Habib didn’t stop there. In his rural school with no electricity, he dreamed of providing computers and training to schools throughout Senegal. When he was recruited to a university in Indiana, he realized his dream, founding Wings for West Africa, a non-profit organization that ships computers to every corner of Senegal. Nearly twenty years after meeting Habib, Leita is compelled to share his story.] Wings for West Africa by Leita  Kaldi (Senegal 1993-96) “At our school we have eight hundred students and no . . .

Dodging Machetes: How I survived Forbidden Love, Bad Behavior and the Peace Corps in Fiji by Will Lutwick (Fiji 1968-70) Peace Corps Writers $15.95 paperback 2012 266 pages Reviewed by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras, 1975-77) MR. LUTWICK HAS SUCCEEDED in creating an entertaining and thought provoking Peace Corps memoir. This is a fine example of what a memoir can be for those willing to invest in writing rather than type-writing. Although ostensibly a love story, the author explores military conscription, discrimination and guilt. Written with episodic, fast paced chapters it is intriguing. Once I started, I could not stop and yet, found myself thinking about his story and its themes long after the highlighted passages began to fade. Twenty-two year old Lutwick arrived in Fiji in November, 1968, part of the third group of Volunteers. The program had begun only eleven months before, the same month that the tone of . . .

Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership For A Multiculural Age by Juana Bordas (Chile 1964–66) Berrett-Koehler Publishers [Second Edition, Updated and Expanded] $22.95 (paperback); $11.62 (Kindle) 232 pages 2012 Reviewed by Bob Arias (Colombia 1964–66) I WAS PREPARED that Juana’s book would read like a text . . . so I got ready to prep myself like any good student. Wrong — from the first page this “text” read like a novel, excitement and adventure on every page . . . I stopped underlining her quotes with my yellow pen, and just started reading what felt like another beautiful novel from Isabel Allende, same colorful and intense style. Surely they must have been childhood friends! I began to see myself, and my Mexican heritage, as Juana opened doors for me to appreciate the beauty of who we are . . . a “text” of a different nature. There is more to . . .

[Charles Larson (Nigeria 1962-64) who has written some fine books on Africa,  is an African scholar himself, and now a Emeritus Professor of Literature at American University, in Washington, D.C. has published a very good review of Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65) new novel The Lower River. It is in the weekend edition ( June 8-10, 2012) of  Counterpunch, edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair. The review is reprinted with Charles permission. You can reach Larson at clarson@american.edu.] Africa Distressed by Charles R. Larson (Nigeria 1962-64) Paul Theroux’s early novels (Fong and the Indians, Girls at Play and Jungle Lovers) drew on the writer’s years in the Peace Corps, in Malawi, where he began teaching in 1963. These works were generally comic, satiric, even hopeful-not the bleakness about Africa revealed in his most recent novel, The Lower River. When Ellis Hock, the main character in the latest work, contemplates . . .

Every morning when I wake up to make coffee I flip on Morning Joe and  wait for the failed congressman to stop yapping so I can see if new rioting has taken place in downtown Cairo, and find out what’s new in Peter Hessler’s (China 1996-98) world. Where’s Peter, I’m thinking, as I watch the rioting in Tahrir or Abbasiya. Peter, I know, lives within blocks of city central, and I know he is just a crazy enough RPCV to get close enough to the action to get into real trouble. Well, the new New Yorker (June 18, 2012) has him alive and well and reporting on the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and what it means for Egyptians and the rest of us. The long article (it wouldn’t be a New Yorker article if it wasn’t long) has Peter and his translator Mohamed calmly walking toward another demonstration in . . .