2012 – Page 22 – Peace Corps Worldwide

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 . . .

Toby Lester's (Yemen 1983-85) New Book: Da Vinci's Ghost

Mar 30 2012

Here is a quick summary of Toby Lester’s (Yeman 1983–85) new book Da Vinci’s Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image that has already been published, to great reviews, in England, and is now available in the U.S. This is the story of Vitruvian Man: Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing of a man in a circle and a square. Deployed today to celebrate subjects as various as the nature of genius, the beauty of the human form, and the universality of the human spirit, the figure appears on everything from coffee cups and T-shirts to book covers and corporate logos. In short, it has become the world’s most famous cultural icon, yet almost nobody knows anything about it. Leonardo didn’t summon Vitruvian Man out of thin air. He was playing with the idea, set down by the Roman architect Vitruvius, that the human body could be . . .

Under the Elms

Mar 29 2012

Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963–65) writes about her story: Though not immediately obvious there is a link between my story, Under the Elms, and my reasons for joining the Peace Corps. Ever since I was born, a half-Jewish, white child in a Japanese American Internment camp, my life has been inextricably entwined with issues of race, class, ethnicity and religion in our country. My parents were highly educated with advance d degrees from major universities, but because my father was a community organizer and because, as a result, we were poor, I grew up in poor and working class neighborhoods. My friends were German American farm children in southeastern Ohio whose parents blamed “the Jews” for WWII, French Canadian children of factory workers in Winooski, Vermont who were looked down upon by the dominant New England population, and, as in this story, children of working class poor, and single-mother families in . . .

Todd Fredson (Ivory Coast 2000-02) Wins 2011 Patricia Bibby First Book Prize

Mar 28 2012

Todd Fredson (Ivory Coast 2000–02) has won the 2011 Patricia Bibby First Book Prize for his collection of poems entitled, The Crucifix-Blocks. This annual prize is from Tebot Bach Publishing of Huntington Beach, CA. and is open to any poet who has not published a full length collection. The prize offers $1000, publication of the book, and promotional support. The judge for the 2011 competition was David St. John. Of his new collection of poems, Todd Fredson says, “I wanted to explore that time in the Ivory Coast, such as it was — revolutionary — and to explore the haunting of my dad’s Vietnam experience — they seemed companionable events in my life. I ended up really exploring the limits of speakability, and on the consequences of hitting those limits, which certainly provided its own commentary on the subjects.” Today, Todd is getting his PhD in Creative Writing from the . . .

Are PCVs and RPCVS at Risk for Taking Mefloquine?

Mar 27 2012

The Huffington Post has a piece on line today that Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon 1996-98) emailed me about on how the military scrambled to limit the use of the notorious anti-malaria drug called mefloquine (you might have known it as Lariam) after that soldier’s attack on innocent children. Are you at risk, we might ask? Remember how we took that drug in Africa and elsewhere? Here’ is the Huff Post article written by Mark Benjamin, an investigative reporter in D. C., that points the finger at mefloquine as a possible cause of Bales’ tragic behavior. WASHINGTON — Nine days after a U.S. soldier allegedly massacred 17 civilians in Afghanistan, a top-level Pentagon health official ordered a widespread, emergency review of the military’s use of a notorious anti-malaria drug called mefloquine. Mefloquine, also called Lariam, has severe psychiatric side effects. Problems include psychotic behavior, paranoia and hallucinations. The drug has been implicated in numerous . . .

Where Have All The Men Gone? Well, Maybe It Is A Good Thing…

Mar 27 2012

Board of Directors Elections 2012 The Governance Committee of the NPCA Board of Directors announces the 2012 elections for member-elected representatives to the NPCA Board of Directors. NOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED. Voting will take place primarily online between March 30 and April 30, 2012. All eligible voters will receive an election flyer in the mail with instructions on how to vote. Each candidate was asked to state (in 100 words or less) “why you want to serve on the NPCA board and what you hope to accomplish as a board member.” Voting is open to current NPCA members only. To renew your membership and/or update your contact information, log into the NPCA membership database here.(Note the “forgotten your password” link under the login boxes, if needed.) The candidates up for election are as follows. Please click on the names below to read their biographies and nomination statements. Note that you may also . . .

Charlie Peters Has More To Say!

Mar 27 2012

[This Op-Ed by Joe Nocera appeared in the NYTIMES this morning. Nocera writes about a man many of us remember fondly, Charlie Peters. A lawyer, WWII Veteran, Kennedy campaigner, Master’s in English and former West Virginia Legislator, Charlie was chosen by Shriver to run the first evaluation unit in a federal agency at the Peace Corps. Peters did so with relish, hiring professional journalists and fanning them out overseas to independently evaluate the new Peace Corps programs, many times these reporters wrote evaluations that upset the people back in HQ who had created those programs. The RPCVs who were around in those early days remember him fondly. Well, Charlie is still at it, spinning out words of wisdom after all these years. And what Charlie has to say about government agencies, and the personnel in them, still rings true. The Peace Corps attempted to avoid stagnation with the unique policy of “In, Up and Out.” The . . .

Kluge's New Novel Reviewed in NYTIMES Today!

Mar 26 2012

The very tough New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin gives a rave review of P.F. Kluge’s new novel, The Master Blaster, in Monday, March 26, 2012 edition, calling Kluge’s novel, “stingingly funny.” She goes onto write: “Mr. Kluge, who went to Saipan as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1967 and has made repeated visits ever since, makes a fine alter ego out of the Master Blaster. Both the writer and his trouble-making character are seasoned ironists, expert connoisseurs of corruption.” Kluge peoples his novel with a great cast of characters who all arrive on the same plane and make a bet about who will stay longest: George Griffin, a travel writer, “George is the best kind of hack: a smart one…” Stephanie Warner, an academic recruited for a college on Saipan. “(What does it say about this college, she wonders, that its only advance meeting with her was conducted at the food . . .

The RPCV who quit money (and the writer who told his tale)

Mar 25 2012

In 2000, a man in Moab, Utah left his life savings — $30 — in a phone booth and walked away. Twelve years later that man — Daniel Suelo — enjoys an apparently full and sane life without money, credit, barter or government hand-outs, as he fulfills a vision of the good life inspired by his spiritual guides: Jesus, Buddha and wandering Hindu monks. Suelo, whose real name is Daniel Shellabarger, is an RPCV who served in the village of El Hato in the Andes, Ecuador (1988-89) as a health PCV. A friend of Suelo’s, former river guide and now writer Mark Sundeen, has written a book that traces the path and the singular idea that led Suelo to his extreme lifestyle. In The Man Who Quit Money, Sundeen delivers a myth for our times — one that happens to be a true story . The Man Who Quit Money . . .

Archive - 2012