July 2012 – Page 3 – Peace Corps Worldwide

“Early Days of the Peace Corps” still available free to RPCVs

Jul 10 2012

One of the commerative events for the 50th Anniversary was a Panel discussion on March 17, 2011 “The early years of the Peace Corps”, featuring a great speech by Bill Moyer. This is a good time to be reminded of those days and those men who first made the unique organization possible. This is a good time because Peace Corps is facing a possible reorganization. It is still possible for RPCVs to obtain a free DVD copy. Karen Chaput, the Director of Video Production in the Peace Corps Office of Communication is currently on maternity leave. In her absence, Lee Gillenwater is the person to contact at this email to request a copy. Cut and paste this email address into your browser. lgillenwater@peacecorps.gov

Looking for a few Good Reviewers

Jul 10 2012

I am always in the need of anyone who would like to review books for our site: www.peacecorpsworldwide.org. If you are up to reviewing novels, non-fiction, poetry, memoirs, etc., please let me know. I’ll send you the book (that’s you payment, small but nice) with a letter of instruction. Just let me know the type of book(s) that interest you. For example. On my desk today, I have The South American Expeditions, 1540-1545 written by Alvar Nunz Cabeza de Vaca (translated with notes by RPCV Baker H. Morrow), The Chinatown War: Chinese Los Angeles and the Massacre of 1871 written by RPCV Scott Zesch, and The Immanence of God in the Tropics (Stories) by RPCV Rosen. We only review books by RPCVs and I get 2-3 a week. One thing about RPCVs….they have a lot to say! The books self published and academically published, as well as, commercially published. I . . .

The 40 Best Peace Corps Blogs

Jul 10 2012

[This is from Online Education Database (OEDb). The site helps students find the most convenient, valuable, and relevant education programs to fulfill their academic and career objectives. Our site: www.peacecorpsworldwide.org is # 14 on the list. The NPCA site comes in at # 27. It’s a fun listing of many (but certainly not all!) PCV blogs. The 40 Best Peace Corps Blogs For recent (and not-so-recent) college graduates who find themselves drawn toward using their educations in the service of humanity, the Peace Corps might seem an appealing prospect. Since 1961, it has sent Americans abroad in order to nurture education, the environment, public health, agriculture, housing, and other necessities in parts of the world with few resources, squelching political atmospheres, and worse. It’s not a perfect system by any stretch of the imagination, but plenty of volunteers end their Peace Corps stints having affected positive change in an often . . .

Good News From Harambee!

Jul 09 2012

You might remember that I posted a call for RPCVs to vote for Jasperdean Kobes (Ethiopia 1962-64). Jasperdean needed 250 votes to qualify a small business grant. I just heard from Jasperdean, who writes: GOOD NEWS!! We received 272 votes by midnight on Saturday, June 30th. We are now eligible to be considered for one of the 12 small business grants ($250,000) that will be awarded by Chase and Living Social in September. Thanks so much for posting our request on your blog. Thanks so much to everyone who voted for us. The votes came from various parts of our community: our customers; our friends and colleagues; our suppliers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana; and our Kenyan friends in Reading and Allentown, PA. Getting out the voting for us in 72 hours was definitely an example of “HARAMBEE” – which literally means “all pulling together” in Swahili. Once again, we thank everyone who . . .

May 2012 New Peace Corps Books

Jul 08 2012

• The Lower River (novel) by Paul Theroux (Malawai 1963-65) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25 pages May 2012 Lost and Found in Macedonia: A Journey to Unexpected Places by Marilyn Wheeler (Macedonia 2004–06) Park Place Publications price pages 2012 Dodging Machetes: How I Survived Forbidden Love, Bad Behavior, and the Peace Corps in Fiji by Will Lutwick (Fiji 1968-70) Peace Corps Writers price: $15.95 pages: 266 2012 Sendero: the Path Back (Novel) John G. Rouse III (Peru 1966-68; Ecuador APCD 1971-72); DR Republic APCD 1972-74) CreateSpace, $9.45; Kindle $1.15 301 pages April 2012 African Son William J. Hemminger (Senegal 1973-75) University Press of America $24.99 104 pages 2012 Cooper’s Promise by Timothy Jay Smith (Program Consultant: Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine and Armenia) iUniverse, $15.95 209 pages April, 2011 The Labyrinth (Children’s Book (Ages 4-8) by Thomas Weck (Ethiopia 1965-67) and Peter Weck Lima Bear Press, $15.95 40 pages August . . .

Review of William J. Hemminger's African Son

Jul 01 2012

African Son William J. Hemminger (Senegal 1973–75) University Press of America, $24.95 104 pages 2012 Review by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) WILLIAM HEMMINGER, PH.D. IS LEARNED AND GIFTED in many areas, as a poet, pianist/composer, teacher, translator and gardener. He has a great mind, yet what comes through in African Son is his heart. This is a man who knows how to love. He writes tenderly about his wife, Jill, his daughters Molly and Johanna and, most delightfully, he writes with sympathetic love about the many Africans he meets on his journeys, from Senegal, where he was a Peace Corps Volunteer, to Malawi and Cameroon, where he was a Fulbright scholar, and to Zimbabwe and Madagascar as a visiting academician. Hemminger is a poetic, masterful writer. The opening sentence in African Son is “The death of a child is the worst, and I felt somehow responsible.” He’s talking about . . .

Archive - July 2012