Archive - 2013

Peace Corps Mojo by Bob Criso (Nigeria & Somalia 1966-68) What would our diplomatic service be like if one of the qualifications was prior Peace Corps service? We have West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy which prepare us for war but how about a Peace Corps Academy? What if the Peace Corps included the element of exchange and a teacher from Kenya was swapped with one from Ohio? What about a Peace Corps Memorial in Washington?What would our diplomatic service be like if one of the qualifications was prior Peace Corps service? We have West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy which prepare us for war but how about a Peace Corps Academy? What if the Peace Corps included the element of exchange and a teacher from Kenya was swapped with one from Ohio? What about a Peace Corps Memorial in Washington? These were just a few . . .

on the road past Thrumsing La Bhutan’s wild mountain spirits by Don Messerschmidt “many, many foggies” says my driver, grinning as we enter soup-thick cloud along the bluff below the pass called Thrumsing La Dochen has that way of speaking English, laughingly so jovially therapeutic he sets the tone for what’s an otherwise long rough mountain ride across Bhutan up-down-around the twisting road sometimes dull and foggy but in clear sun the view is bold with naked cliffs streaked white by mountain freshets tumbling sheer from secret groves above where jade green moss, grey lichen and long strands of mist lay still, whispering if you listen with startling clarity from nature’s pure primeval soul surely kindly ghosts inhabit this ancient sacred land and sometimes, while traversing east across the royal road, each turn, each vista is ablaze with rhododendron scarlet, pink, yellow, mauve, and ivory magnolia, and birds on iridescent . . .

In Search of Decency: The Unexpected Power of Rich and Poor by Michael Heyn (Peru 1964-66) Matador $21.99 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) 368 pages August 2013 Reviewed by Ken Hill (Turkey 1965-67) Mr. Heyn’s diary shares a life lived mostly abroad, across 15 countries on four continents, with United Nations programs as well as personal ventures and occasional assignments at the UN in New York.  The saga is spiced by adventures in cultural adaptation, crisis management, intrigue and some legitimate danger! Graced with an enviable education, the author meets and marries, serves in Peace Corps, begins a family but divorces upon discovering a soul-mate with whom he travels the globe to serve human needs. He relates examples of remarkable adaptation and innovation throughout this life story and is admirably candid about successes and failures, displaying an admirable ability to learn from his experiences. A child of the 60’s, the author ponders . . .

I received a note from Peter Lefcourt (Togo 1962-64) that a film he wrote two years ago entitled  “Sweet Talk,”  is now available on various PPV and VOD platforms.  You can order it on Time/Warner, Comcast, Dish, Amazon Video, Vids, Hulu, and ( for the Canadians), Rogers and Shaw.  You can download it directly from iTunes at this link: http://bit.ly/16neY3C The film was directed  by Terri Hanauer, and stars Nathalie Zea, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Lindsey Hollister, Karen Austin, Time Winters, and John Glover. “It is about the transformative power of story telling, among other things, and we are very proud of it,” writes Peter. He goes onto say, “Look at it this way: usually when wedo a play, you have to plunk down $25 and schlep to a theater with bad parking .  Now all you have to do is press a button, part with 12 bucks, the price of a martini, sit . . .

Every week I can receive as many as 4 new books written by RPCVs to be reviewed and added to Marian Haley Beil’s list of books by Peace Corps Volunteers and Staff.  Most of these books are self-published, and increasingly they are ambitious and impressive. The book I received yesterday in the mail tops them all! It is is entitled, Somehow: Living on Uganda Time Essays and Photographs by Douglas Cruickshank (Uganda 2009-12). The book is 420 pages long, sells for $60.00, and is 9″ X 12″ in size. It gave my postman a hernia, delivering it! The book is the creation of Doug Cruickshank who joined the Peace Corps when he was 56 and went to Uganda to help develop a coffee business in a village called Kyarumba in the Rwenzori Mountains. With a career as a writer-photographer behind him, Doug began to write and take photographs within days . . .

Lakes of Darkness In Memory of A.J. Montesi He came to this green shore From loneliness of bachelor nights, Empty Sundays, A year of failing dreams, Mirrored into miseries. From semesters of faculty treachery, Misdemeanors in the hall. Months of silly students, Who turned his kindness Into youthful gall. A little man, Who wears his age with grace; He brought to me A spirit bent from a life of Use. We slid the books aside; Fished for trout off the point. I caught a fighting rainbow Who fought my arching pole Desperate for its life. Another trout flipped in space for flies Then slid again to darkness. That slap of water brought To mind our own fixed lives. He saw himself In a shrinking world Where good men fashion Wars with words. I knew his history As I know my own. We all have lakes of darkness, Not to seek in refuge, But . . .

Short and Shorter: Short Stories and Poetry By Robert E. Hamilton (Ethiopia 1965-67) self-published,$.99 ebook 204 pages 2013 Reviewed by Darcy Munson Meijer (Gabon 1982-84) RPCV Robert Hamilton has collected 41 of his short stories and poems in Short and Shorter: Short Stories and Poetry. The stories were written between 1976 and 2013, and Hamilton laid them out in the order that they were written. Not primarily a writer, Hamilton wrote most of the stories as gifts to friends and family. Nonetheless, I found almost all of them quite pleasant to read. As I read the first stories in the collection, my suspense was up. I feared that the character alone in the library at night would be stabbed by a deranged recluse. I expected Winston to get ensnared by ruthless arms dealers. I thought Mrs. Blake had an ugly secret. In fact, nobody in the stories gets hurt (though . . .

Africa’s Embrace Mark Wentling (Honduras, 1967-69; Togo, 1970-73; PC Staff, Togo, Gabon, & Niger, 1973-77) A Peace Corps Writers Book, $16.78 (paperback); $14.34 (Kindle) 348 pages 2013 Reviewed by Jack Allison, Malawi, 1967-69) What an engaging gem of a novel!  The jacket cover sums up the book nicely:  “Although Africa’s Embrace is literary fiction, the novel is, in actuality, a thinly-veiled autobiographical account of the author’s three years of working in an African village back in the 1970s.” Apparently the author, Mark Wentling, took an oath not to reveal parts of the story for 40 years, and he honored that promise.  The novel is a three-year adventure story of how a young chap from Kansas adapted to life in remote West Africa. The protagonist, David, is renamed “Bobovovi” by the village elders; after he is “transported” magically down a mountain “on a moonbeam,” he is thereafter viewed and treated differently by . . .