Archive - 2013

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How Blair Butterworth (HQ/1961 & Ghana 1962-64) Integrated Atlanta, Georgia
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A Writer Writes: Apocalypse Then (Part II)
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More On Blair Butterworth (HQ 1961,Ghana 1962-64)
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Obituary: Strategist Blair Butterworth (HQ 1961,Ghana 1962-64) helped Democrats win elections
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RPCV Paul Clements (Gambia 1985-87) Runs for Congress in Michigan
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A Writer Writes: Apocalypse Then, Part I
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Fifty years ago, Shriver wanted 500 doctors for universal health education! What happened?
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What in God’s Name is a Hypermodern Book?
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Were You Sexually Assaulted in the Peace Corps?
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NPCA ELECTIONS: Vote for Dennis Grubb (Colombia 1961-63)
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Review of Dean Mahon (Cameroon 1974-78) The Ride
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Mark G. Wentling (Honduras 1967-69 & Togo 1970-73) A Writer Writes: Togo: Today and in 1970
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The Best Peace Corps Memoir Ever Written????
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Review of Diane Shugrue Gallagher's Lure of Service: My Peace Corps Adventures at Middle Age
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REVIEW | James F. Fisher’s (Nepal 1962-64) At Home in the World:Globalization and the Peace Corps in Nepal

How Blair Butterworth (HQ/1961 & Ghana 1962-64) Integrated Atlanta, Georgia

There were three PCVs who began their Peace Corps experience as employees of the agency in Washington, D.C., in early 1961 working at the original HQ the Maiatico Building across the street from Lafayette Square Park, and within sight of the White House. Two of them were Alan and Judith Guskin (Thailand 1961-64) who had on the night of October 14, 1960, created the ground surge for the Peace Corps on college campuses, first in Michigan, and then across the Mid West and the rest of America. Later they would go to Thailand as PCVs. The other person was Blair Butterworth. I am not sure how Blair arrived at the Peace Corps, or why, but he did arrive, a recent graduate of Princeton, and moved into Georgetown with another buddy, and started working as staff for the Peace Corps before going to Ghana as a PCV. Last year, at the . . .

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A Writer Writes: Apocalypse Then (Part II)

Apocalypse Then by Bob Criso (Nigeria & Somalia 1966–68) • Part II Leaving Nigeria “BOB, THEY’RE GOING TO KILL US! They’re going to burn the house down.” Laura was shaking. “So this is how I’m going to die.” I visualized the headlines of my hometown newspaper: Peace Corps Volunteer Killed in Nigeria. I grabbed Laura by the shoulders. “Put your sneakers on. We may have to make a run for it.” Jeff was silent and frozen. Outside, an elderly local man stepped up onto a flat tree stump and addressed the crowd. He told them that he knew me, I was a good man and the two visitors were my friends. “Come to your senses!” he shouted like a scolding parent. It started to rain and the crowd quieted and thinned. That evening, Ugwu, Ekuma and Otu, fellow teachers, came to the house. They were somber-faced, apologetic and ashamed.  “We . . .

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More On Blair Butterworth (HQ 1961,Ghana 1962-64)

Sh*t Blair Butterworth Said Seattle lost a political legend with the death of master strategist Blair Butterworth. In his memory, a compendium of his greatest quips. By Knute Berger April 02, 2013 Politics lost a local legend last week with the death of Seattle Democratic political consultant Blair Butterworth (Joel Connelly’s obit is here). One thing Butterworth was known for: quotability. He was, in the terms of old-school press coverage, a “phrase maker,” a guy whose pithy comments about state, local or national politics could make a reporter’s or columnist’s copy sound better. In his memory then, a few bits gleaned from the archives. On Frank Blethen’s threat to move the Seattle Times to the Eastside in 2001: “‘I think anyone reading the comments would think he’s just been seething until he finally imploded,’ Butterworth said, adding that Blethen’s statements were so ‘bizarre’ they wouldn’t be taken seriously. However, Butterworth . . .

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Obituary: Strategist Blair Butterworth (HQ 1961,Ghana 1962-64) helped Democrats win elections

From the Seattle Times Longtime Democratic political consultant Blair Butterworth died Friday at 74. By Jim Brunner Seattle Times political reporter Blair Butterworth dies of cancer at 74. When Democratic campaign consultant Blair Butterworth met gubernatorial candidate Dixy Lee Ray in her small trailer in 1976, the irascible pair shared a bottle of scotch and shouted at each other in an hours-long political argument. Nevertheless, a few months later Mr. Butterworth ran Ray’s successful campaign to become Washington’s first female governor. But after four years, Mr. Butterworth, like many Democrats, was at odds with Ray and helped then-state Sen. Jim McDermott oust her in the Democratic primary. Over a career that spanned more than three decades, Mr. Butterworth earned a reputation as one of state’s top political strategists, electing governors and mayors, passing school levies and the state’s Death With Dignity initiative. Mr. Butterworth died Friday at his Seattle home . . .

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RPCV Paul Clements (Gambia 1985-87) Runs for Congress in Michigan

Paul Clements was a PCV math teacher in The Gambia from 1985-87, and stayed on in Africa with ActionAid (1987-89) and USAID (1989-90). Today he is the  director of Western Michigan University’s Masters of International Development Administration program which has a  “Peace Corps Option,” one of Peace Corps’ Masters International Programs, so many of his students have gone on to the Peace Corps. As director he gets to supervise their field papers, usually studies of large development projects in their countries of service. Paul met his wife, Aedin, in The Gambia. Aedin, an Irish volunteer, was in The Gambia  working as a librarian with Ireland’s semi-volunteer aid organization. Their first daughter, Anna, was born in Royal Victoria Hospital in Banjul. Paul returned to Gambia in 2008 with their daughter,  Anna, after she graduated from high school, and they stayed for a few days with his “family” in Pakalinding, the village . . .

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A Writer Writes: Apocalypse Then, Part I

Apocalypse Then by Bob Criso (Nigeria & Somalia 1966–68) • Part I Ishiagu: July, 1967 EAGER FOR NEWS OF THE WAR, I huddled with my students many evenings around a transistor radio and a kerosene lamp listening to Radio Enugu. Refugees were returning from the North with stories of Igbos being hacked into pieces, pregnant women being cut open and children screaming inside burning homes. There was a report on the radio about a train filled with bloody body parts that were sent down from the North “as a warning.” I was skeptical about that one until I saw a woman returning to the village carrying the head of a man. She said she had retrieved it from the train. Several weeks earlier, Ruth Olsen, the Nigeria Peace Corps Director in the East, had given me a van as part of an emergency evacuation plan. I was supposed to pick . . .

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Fifty years ago, Shriver wanted 500 doctors for universal health education! What happened?

Vietnam. In a remarkable speech to the Albert Einstein School of Medicine on November 15, 1964, Sargent Shriver called for universal medical education, manned, in part by Peace Corps Volunteer doctors. Read the entire impassioned  speech at Peace Corps’ greatly expanded digital library: http://collection.peacecorps.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/p9009coll13/id/12/rec/3 Shriver said: “We need a new idea and a new program…The answer lies in universal health education, with effective medical programs, medical centers and medical personnel serving as the central source for this public education.  Just as the Peace Corps has sent thousands of teachers overseas to help developing nations achieve universal school education, so now we must help them make universal health education a reality.” If this program sounds familiar, it is exactly what is now being developed, fifty years later. by a contract between Global Health Volunteers and Peace Corps Response. There are striking similarities between the proposals, separated by fifty years. Shriver explained . . .

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What in God’s Name is a Hypermodern Book?

A number of Peace Corps writers have asked, “what is a ‘Hypermodern Editions’ after I posted the recent blog item on História, História by Eleanor Stanford (Cape Verde 1998-2000) and wrote that it was published as a “Hypermodern Edition, only 100 pages written on pages 5.75 by 4.38 inches (or a twice-folded sheet of typing paper). They must have thought I knew what I was talking about. Hello? So I asked Jason Pettus, the publisher at Chicago Center for Literature and Photography, and he emailed me that “Hypermodern Editions is just a blanket term for all their  handmade books, to differentiate them from the ebooks and the trade paperbacks we’re going to start doing in 2014. The term “hypermodern” comes from the world of book collecting, and refers to any collectible book less than 30 years old.” I also ask him about the pricing of this book, i.e., as it . . .

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Were You Sexually Assaulted in the Peace Corps?

Nicholas Hack (Zambia 2005-07) wrote me recently with this request: “I’m a RPCV who served in Zambia in 2005. I’m currently working on my doctorate in psychology and am studying an area in which there has been no research: sexual assault in the Peace Corps. I’m hoping to hear from past and current female Volunteers who experienced sexual assault during their service so we can bring these stories to light. In order to protect the confidentiality of participants I’m using an anonymous online survey that takes 15-20 minutes to complete. Out of respect and care for participants the survey does not ask any questions about the assault itself. The survey was also developed in collaboration with other survivors of Peace Corps Sexual Assault to minimize any triggering/blaming/shaming language. I’d like to give a big thank you in advance to those who have the courage to share their stories. Your participation in this . . .

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NPCA ELECTIONS: Vote for Dennis Grubb (Colombia 1961-63)

The Americas Dennis Grubb Hometown: Washington, DC Nominated by: Friends of Colombia Current member of: Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington, DC; Friends of Colombia Peace Corps service: PCV Colombia 1961-1963; Headquarters Staff 1963-1965 Current Employment: Director, Investasia Ltd./Aries Group Experience on organization boards: Current Chairman, Ratiu Foundation, Center for Democracy at Woodrow Wilson Institute; 2009-2011 Member, American University Alumni Board; Current Adviser to the Dean, School of International Service; 2009-2012 Member, National Fulbright Association and DC Chapter Statement: The NPCA’s mission is to Support and Promote RPCVs. As a NPCA Board member, I will introduce a results-oriented plan to do the following: Fully support local region and country-of-service groups, the backbone of the NPCA Bring RPCVs who served in “The Americas” into the NPCA membership Help enact changes in federal laws so RPCVs with service-illnesses can receive medical assistance Develop opportunities for RPCVs with new international experiences to find . . .

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Review of Dean Mahon (Cameroon 1974-78) The Ride

The Ride by Dean Mahon (Cameroon 1974-78) Self-published 163 pages $7.99 paperback, $2.99 ebook 2012 Reviewed by Deidre Swesnik (Mali 1996-98) Dean Mahon prefers another world. At least he did when he was climbing out of a eight-week coma, following a disease of unknown origin that he picked up during his travels. Mahon had been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon three decades earlier, but this was not a Peace Corps experience. Mahon was traveling to Ukraine and Russia for work when he came down with something that the doctors still can’t diagnose, even today.  He fell terribly ill and was put into a medically-induced coma followed by months of hospital and rehab stays.  More than once his family and friends were told to prepare for the worst. In The Ride, Dean Mahon describes the vivid dream “world” he experienced while in the coma and afterwards. He captures the misplaced . . .

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Mark G. Wentling (Honduras 1967-69 & Togo 1970-73) A Writer Writes: Togo: Today and in 1970

A Writer Writes Mark G. Wentling was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras 1967-69 and Togo 1970-73, and in Gabon and Niger as a member of Peace Corps staff. He then  joined USAID in 1977 and served in Niamey, Conakry, Lome, Mogadishu and 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. • Togo: Today and in 1970 A Personal Journey . . .

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The Best Peace Corps Memoir Ever Written????

 My postman hates me. He has good reason. Every day he brings me bulky packages, books written by RPCVs. He doesn’t know that, of course. He thinks I’m a crazy e-bay buyer, that I’m getting lawn equipment for spring, or buying fire logs wholesale. But the other day I got a very small package, smaller than a ‘bread box’ as they use to say on “What’s My Line” for those old enough to recall. It looked kind-of cute, like a box of expensive chocolates (being close to Easter, you never know….I do have friends) but alas it was “yet another Peace Corps memoir” as my wife might say. Let me tell you now it was better than a box of chocolate! It is perhaps the best Peace Corps memoir that has come my way since Marian Beil and I started promoting Peace Corps writers in the late ’80s. Lyrical and poignant, . . .

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Review of Diane Shugrue Gallagher's Lure of Service: My Peace Corps Adventures at Middle Age

Lure of Service: My Peace Corps Adventures at Middle Age By Diane Shugrue Gallagher (Cape Verde 1990-92) Self-published, Gallagher Associates, $16.95 257 pages 2012 Reviewed by Barbara E. Joe (Honduras 2000-03) The cover of this book stands out because of a lovely color photo of a smiling blond woman, her pale arms outstretched over a group of bare-chested dark-skinned children gathered under a giant baobab tree. It graphically represents both a contrast and conversion of cultures. Like me, author Diane Gallagher was inspired by President Kennedy’s Peace Corps’ message in 1961, but wasn’t able to go just then. In 1990, four children and a divorce later, she finally took a leap of faith, joining the Peace Corps at age 53 and enduring the skepticism of family and friends who suggested that a weekend in Vermont might do as well.  She was sent to Cape Verde, a small Portuguese and Creole-speaking . . .

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REVIEW | James F. Fisher’s (Nepal 1962-64) At Home in the World:Globalization and the Peace Corps in Nepal

    At Home in the World: Globalization and the Peace Corps in Nepal by James F. Fisher (Nepal 1962-64) 2013 218 pp., 21 b & w illustrations, endnotes, bibliography, index, 22 x 14 cm., $25.00 ( paperback.), $40.000 (hard cover)   Reviewed by Don Messerschmidt (Nepal 1963-65) • Looking back at the Peace Corps of a half century ago seems to have caught on recently, detailing and analyzing some of the earliest PCV experiences worldwide, if the number of recent books on the subject is any indication. Jim Fisher’s book, ‘At Home in the World: Globalization and the Peace Corps in Nepal,’ joins such other accounts as Geraldine Kennedy’s ‘The Liberia One Storybook: The First Peace Corps Volunteers to Liberia Tell Their Stories‘; George Gurney’s ‘Guatemala One: A Journal of the First Peace Corps Project‘; Julian Weldon Martin’s ‘Imagonna: Peace Corps Memories‘ (from Nigeria in the early 1960s), and others. . . .

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