September 27, 2012 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Phil Lilienthal's Global Camp Africa On NPR's "Here and Now" Friday

Sep 27 2012

I have been writing lately how RPCVs continue to serve the world long after their tours. Here is another example, and another RPCV from Ethiopia, Phil Lilienthal (Ethiopia 1965-67), who returned home and worked for the Peace Corps for five years as a lawyer in the General Counsel Office, then from 1969-74, Phil was a Regional Director and Deputy Director in Thailand. While a PCV in Ethiopia Phil worked in one of the government ministries and for his ‘second project’ he started a summer camp on the shores of Lake Langano down in the Rift Valley. This was the first such camp started by a PCV in Ethiopia. Camps for kids have always been in Phil’s blood, his family has one in Maine, but about 9 years ago, in retirement, Phil turned the family business over to his son (who was also a PCV) and established a new one, this . . .

Review of The South American Expeditions, 1540-1545 by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de VacaTranslated with notes by Baker H. Morrow (Somalia 1968-69)

Sep 27 2012

The South American Expeditions, 1540-1545 by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca Translated with notes by Baker H. Morrow (Somalia 1968-69) University of New Mexico Press $39.95 240 pages 2011 Reviewed by Ann Neelon (Senegal 1978-79) As Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar, “The evil that men do lives after them./The good is oft interred in their bones.” Thus my guess is that if you can name a Spanish conquistador at all, it’s most likely Hernan Cortés, who succeeded in subjugating all of Mexico between 1519 and 1526. Cortés famously sank his own ships in Veracruz, on the east coast of Mexico, after hanging two of his men for getting cold feet about schlepping with him across three mountain ranges to scope out Aztec gold in Tenochtitlán. As Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s The South American Expeditions, 1540-1545 gives evidence, though, not every conqueror is a study in ruthlessness. Translated with notes . . .

Archive - September 27, 2012