Archive - February 2013

[Josh Swiller (Zambia 1994-96)  is the author of The Unheard, A Memoir of Deafness and Africa, a New York Times bestseller, and is a dedicated advocate for the deaf and disabled and for cultivating a peaceful and playful mind. He’s had a wide variety of careers including raw food chef, Peace Corps volunteer, forest ranger, and sheepskin slipper craftsman. Currently, he is a hospice worker and Zen monk in Ithaca, New York. Josh lectures throughout the country, sharing a message of acceptance, gratitude and love. www.joshswiller.com]     Switched at Birth’ on ABC Family casts a mix of deaf, hearing and hard-of-hearing actors, will also soon present an episode that is entirely in American Sign Language. This article from the LA TIMES came out today. It cites the work that Josh did in the production of the new show. The article was written by Deborah Vankin, Los Angeles Times February 27, 2013, 6:00 a.m. On . . .

A Writer Writes Mark G. Wentling (Honduras 1967-69 & Togo 1970-73) was a Peace Corps Volunteer and in Gabon and Niger  Peace Corps staff. He then  joined USAID in 1977 and served in Niamey, Conakry, Lome, Mogadishu, Dar es Salaam before retiring from the U.S. Senior Foreign Service in 1996.  Since retiring, he has worked for USAID as its Senior Advisor for the Great Lakes, and as its Country Program Manager for Niger and Burkina Faso. He has also worked in Africa for U.S. Non-Governmental Organizations and he is currently Country Director for Plan in Burkina Faso. On September 20, he marked 42 years in Africa.  He has worked in, or visited, all 54 African countries. He has six children and hails from Kansas. His novel, Africa’s Embrace, is scheduled to be published this year. FORTY-SIX YEARS IN THE MAKING: MY FIRST PEACE CORPS STORY by Mark G. Wentling February . . .

The Market Bowl (Ages 5-8) by Jim Averbeck (Cameroon 1990-94) Charlesbridge, $16.95 32 pages [Jim Averbeck in Cameroon ate many bowls of ndole (bitterleaf stew), like the kind the Mama Cecile and Yoyo make in The Market Bowl. He also enjoyed  dishes of boa constrictor, crocodile, and deep-fried termites. He is the author of In a Blue Room, a 2009 Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book.  He is also the author and illustrator of Except If and Oh No, Little Dragon!] Reviewed by Thomas Weck (Ethiopia 1965-67) The Market Bowl is a delightful story with an important message for young, impressionable minds.  Yoyo is an endearing young girl, but she has yet to learn the absolute necessity of honesty and fairness.  By taking an ill-advised shortcut, she puts her whole family’s livelihood in danger.  Through contrition, hard work and more than a little courage, in a drama filled scene, she is able . . .

Winner in 1986 of  the National Book Award Bob Shacochis’s (Eastern Caribbean 1975-76) first book in ten years spans five decades and three continents. According to the pre-press on the novel, “it is an epic, visceral masterwork that traces a global lineage of political, cultural, and personal tumult from WWII to September 11th.” In The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, Shacochis returns to occupied Haiti and writes a  novel about coming of age in a pre 9-11 world.    The book’s flap-copy reads: When humanitarian lawyer Tom Harrington travels to Haiti to investigate the murder of a beautiful and seductive photojournalist, he is confronted with a dangerous landscape riddled with poverty, corruption, and voodoo. It’s the late 1990s, a time of brutal guerrilla warfare and civilian kidnappings, and everyone has secrets. The journalist, whom he knew years before as Jackie Scott, had a bigger investment in Haiti than it seemed, and to make sense of her . . .

The February 25, 2013 issue of The New Yorker has a new short story by Paul Theroux  (Malawi 1963-65) entitled, “The Furies” that is about a man who leaves his wife for a younger woman, and the revenge his ex-wife visits upon him. You can read more (but not the whole story) here. It is a terrific piece of fiction, and we haven’t seen much short fiction lately from Theroux. His next book is on traveling in Africa, The Last Train to Zona Verde, and is due out in May.

[San Francisco has produced many fine poets over the years. I, for one, grew up reading the Beats: Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Diane di Prima, Neal Cassady, Anne Waldman and Michael McClure. The list goes on and on. They were the poets of the ’50s and early ’60s, and then in 1970 Edward Mycue came to town. Edward Mycue (Ghana 1961-63) had ETed from the Peace Corps because of family needs at home and he returned to the U.S. to work for HEW in Dallas before arriving in San Francisco on June 1, 1970. He joined the new Gay Liberation Movement, began to work for Margrit Roma and Clarence Ricklets’ The New Shakespeare Company, and started publishing his poems. Since 1970 his poetry, criticism, essays and stories have appeared in over 2000 journals, magazines, on the Internet and everywhere literature is read. He is called by many, “one of the best living poets in . . .

The Gringo: A Memoir By J. Grigsby Crawford (Ecuador 2009–11) Wild Elephant Press $15.95 (paperback); $9.99 (Kindle) 225 pages 2013 Reviewed  by Kitty Thuermer (Mali 1977–79) So let’s pretend I’m fresh out of college and that I’ve wanted to join the Peace Corps ever since the 7th grade.  I make an appointment with a recruiter, who is a clean cut guy named Grigsby Crawford, back from serving in Ecuador. We meet in Adams Morgan, Washington D.C. Me: Hey, one of my burning questions – I’ve been reading a lot of scary stuff about safety in the Peace Corps.  Did you feel safe in Ecuador? Grigs: Safe?!  (Laughs) …well, to be honest… I was sent alone to a dangerous outpost in the Wild West of the country and …um, things deteriorated and my host family was threatened – because of me – and armed thugs with machine guns were out to . . .

For more than twenty-five years, Julie Dargis (Morocco 1984-87) has worked with international non-profit organizations in post-conflict environments in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. In Pit Stop in the Paris of Africa she depicts the realities and challenges of living and working in such environments.  On Friday, February 15, 2013, there will be reception and reading by Julie of her book. Julie will recount stories inspired by war-affected  populations rebuilding their lives.  The reception begins at 5 p.m. and Julie will read at 7 p.m. The Book Launch is being held at Gallery 13 in Downtown Minneapolis/Highland Bank Court/Street Level–811 LaSalle Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55402. It is sponsored by American Refuge Committee, World Without Genocide, and Indie House Press. If you can’t make it, check out:www.pitstopintheparisofafrica.com