2015 – Peace Corps Worldwide

RPCVs from Morocco in Opposition to Islamophobia

Dec 29 2015

I received this Petition from Sharon Keld (Morocco 2006-08) and Ann Eisenberg (Morocco 2006-08) who wrote me “Many of my RPCV colleagues were individually speaking out against Islamophobia and in support of Syrian refugees on social media, drawing from their Peace Corps service in Morocco. A few of us agreed that the RPCV perspective could have a more powerful impact if we spoke out together, so we drafted the open letter and are circulating it in petition form. We felt we had an important point of view and a unique duty to speak out as members of a very small group of Americans who have lived and engaged in public service in majority-Muslim countries for non-military reasons. Here is the link to the petition that I have copied below:https://www.change.org/p/the-american-public-statement-in-support-of-syrian-refugees-and-in-opposition-to-islamophobia?recruiter=452278202&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink Petitioning The American Public Statement in Support of Syrian Refugees and in Opposition to Islamophobia Concerned Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Secretary . . .

Review: Uhuru Revisited by Ron Singer (Nigeria 1964-67)

Dec 28 2015

The following review, written by David Strain (Nigeria 1963–65), of Uhuru Revisited: Interviews with African Pro-Democracy Leaders by Ron Singer (Nigeria 1964–67) was first published in the Friends of Nigeria quarterly newsletter. • Readers of Ron Singer’s many articles in this quarterly over the years will be greatly interested in his 2011-2012 interviews with 18 African “pro-democracy leaders.” I should emphasize that the range of people who fall within this rubric is quite wide. For examples, Puleng Matsoeneng, who as a daughter of a rural farmer in South Africa, struggled even to obtain an education, has led the fight to bring teachers and education to rural farm children. Kan Dapaah, abandoned by his father, has proceeded through the efforts of his mother and mother’s village to a career in accounting which led to multiple head of ministry posts in the Ghanaian government – he now leads an anti-corruption non-governmental organization . . .

Martin Puryear (Sierra Leone 1964-66) Reviewed In NYTIMES

Dec 28 2015

In the New York Times, on Friday, December 25, 2015, there was an article about Martin Puryear (Sierra Leone 1964-66) and his current art exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum. It was written by Jason Farago. Puryear’s exhibition entitled, “Martin Puryear: Multiple Dimensions” continues through January 10, 2016 at the Morgan. The exhibition will then travel to Chicago where it was first organized by the Art Institute of Chicago. Later, it will go to Washington and the Smithsonian. Puryear is from Washington, graduated from Catholic University of America, then joined the Peace Corps. In West Africa he drew proficient sketches of local architecture, palm trees and cactuses, and a few Sierra Leoneans he met while teaching English, French and biology. After his tour, he studied printmaking in Sweden and then attended Yale, where he turned to doing sculptures. Puryear is our most famous of RPCV artist and I did . . .

Tom Spanbauer (Kenya 1969-71 ) Teaches Dangerous Writing

Dec 24 2015

The sixth Poets & Writers Live event was held at the Pacific Northwest College of Art’s Mediatheque Theater on October 17, 2015 in Portland, Oregon. The editors of many of the area’s presses and literary magazines joined the editors of Poets & Writers Magazine to explore the art of writing and the business of independent publishing. One of the speakers was Tom Spanbauer (Kenya 1969-71), author of Faraway Places, The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon, In The City of Shy Hunters, Now Is the Hour, and, most recently, I Loved You More (Hawthorne Books, 2014) winner of the 2014 Lambda Literary Award. He presented a talk on Dangerous Writing, an innovative approach to writing that forms the basis of the workshop he has been teaching in his basement classroom in Portland for years. Dangerous Writing, Tom says, “is to go to parts of ourselves that we know exist but try to ignore–parts that are sad, . . .

Washington Post: After their return, some Peace Corps volunteers find byzantine health system neglects them

Dec 24 2015

After their return, some Peace Corps volunteers find byzantine health system neglects them By Lisa Rein Washington Post, December 23 at 11:08 AM Returned Peace Corps Volunteer William Harless with his students in Thailand. (Courtesy William Harless) The Peace Corps says its top priorities are the health, safety and the security of its volunteers. But a new internal report acknowledges that some Volunteers who come home sick or injured have been waiting years – even decades – for adequate medical care and have fallen deeply through the cracks of a federal insurance bureaucracy. The report, by a task force set up by the agency in March, is a particularly candid assessment by top Peace Corps officials of government failure to provide top-notch health-care access to thousands of young people who serve in far-flung developing countries. “A wide variety” of returned volunteers “shared their experiences not only about the health issues that impact the quality of their lives but the . . .

RPCV Artists in NYC

Dec 23 2015

I heard recently from Dan Ingala, Public Affairs Specialist at the Peace Corps Northeast Office in New York, about the Peace Corps Art Show that has been organized for the last three years by the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of New York. Dan connected me to Sarah Porter (Macedonia 2005-07) president of the group and vice president Nicole Ethier (Indonesia 2011-13) Sarah wrote me in an email that the show started in Brooklyn at the co-working space called BrooklynWorks 159, saying, “Some of the art is based on or shaped by the Peace Corps experience – there have been several pieces that were made during the volunteer’s experience – but many pieces are independent of that.” BrooklynWork 159 is owned by an RPCV, Vic Puri (Samoa 2002-04), and as Sarah says, “it is not only beautiful and conducive to becoming an art gallery for an evening, having the exhibition at an RPCV-owned . . .

IBM and Peace Corps join in new Peace Corps Response Partnership

Dec 21 2015

Peace Corps Response originally began as the Crisis Corps. It was designed to send RPCVs overseas in short term assignments to help in emergency situations. Peace Corps Response utilized RPCVs unique cultural and language experience. Peace Corps Response Volunteers also helped prepare countries when Peace Corps was re entering previously closed countries, such as Colombia. In 2010, Peace Corps expanded the Response program to include non-professionals with ten years of experience in needed skills. Originally, the assignments were short term; three months to a year. Peace Corps Response Volunteers may have a week of orientation, but the short term nature of their assignment does not allow for the intensive language and cross-cultural training that traditional Volunteers receive. This new partnership will bring IBM professional teams to designed countries for four weeks to work with serving Peace Corps Volunteers and Host Country Counterparts on specialized projects. Here is the press release from the . . .

Well, What Do You Think Of My Novel?

Dec 21 2015

At some point you’ll want to ask “someone” to read your novel while it is still in manuscript. This might be your partner or a friend who loves to read, or one of those strangers in your writing class. When that time comes, I want you to recall the exchange between Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald when Hemingway asked F. Scott to read his first novel, The Sun Also Rises. Fitzgerald did, and then wrote a letter to Ernie. This was in 1926. Fitzgerald suggested to Hemingway that he drop the first two chapters, characterizing the novel’s opening as “careless and ineffectual.” Fitzgerald then went on to write in his letter to Hemingway: “About this time, I can hear you say, ‘Jesus this guy thinks I’m lousy, & he can stick it up his ass for all I give a Gd Dm for his ‘criticism’. But remember this is . . .

Meet Senator Harris Wofford at New York Public Library on January 13, 2016

Dec 21 2015

On January 13th at the New York Public Library (5:45 pm) there will be an evening to celebrate Harris Wofford. Harris helped Sargent Shriver start the Peace Corps and organized the Ethiopia program, serving as Peace Corps Director for Sub-Saharan Africa. He later become a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and was president of two colleges, an advisor to President Kennedy and to Martin Luther King. On the evening of January 13th, he’ll be interviewed live by George Stephanopoulos and we will see an exclusive preview from the upcoming documentary on Harris’s life, including his return to Ann Arbor 50 years after John Kennedy’s 2 am speech where he first proposed the Peace Corps. This event is being organized to raise the funding needed to complete the documentary by Harris’s 90th birthday next April. It normally costs $150 to attend; however, a limited number of $50 tickets are available here: wofforddocny.eventbrite.com RSVP today. Act fast. . . .

This article about Rajeev Goyal (Nepal 2001-03) Written by Peter Hessler (China 1996-98)

Dec 20 2015

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker emailed this morning, December 20,2015, about The Business of Giving and remarks in his Introduction to a series of articles on ‘giving’ about Peter Hessler’s article on the Peace Corps, writing, “a volunteer in an eastern part of Nepal later becomes an expert fund-raiser for the organization, and within ten minutes at a dinner on Long Island raises eighteen thousand dollars.” That ‘volunteer’ was Rajeen Goyal (Nepal 2001-03). He then publishes (again) “Village Voice” an article written by Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) about Rajeen that appeared in the December 20, 2010 issue of The New Yorker. Here it is again, if you missed it the first time the piece was published. A Reporter at Large DECEMBER 20, 2010 ISSUE Village Voice The Peace Corps’s brightest hope. BY PETER HESSLER Rajeev Goyal in Namje, Nepal. Instead of introducing American values abroad, Goyal aims at the reverse. . . .

Harris Wofford & George Stephanopoulos: A Conversation

Dec 19 2015

Support the upcoming documentary film on Harris Wofford and join George Stephanopoulos as he interviews Senator Wofford live at the New York Public Library. The evening will feature an exclusive preview of the upcoming documentary on Harris Wofford, including interviews with Senator Ted Kennedy, Rep. John Lewis, James Carville, Bill Moyers, and others. George Stephanopoulos will interview Harris about the stories of eight decades, including advancing Civil Rights with Martin Luther King and President Kennedy, helping to start the Peace Corps, fighting for national health care in the U.S. Senate, and growing national service. Wednesday, January 13, 2016 NYPL: THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street Sponsored by Corporation for Civic Documentaries As a special web offer, a very limited number of tickets at $50 (normally $150) to enjoy the event and the reception afterwards, hosted by New York Public Library CEO Anthony Marx. Go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/george-stephanopoulos-and-harris-wofford-a-conversation-tickets-19997099864

John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) Interviewed on SUVUDU.com

Dec 19 2015

John Coyne interviewed by Matt Staggs on December 16, 2015 Sometimes you read a book and you just know it’s going to be a part of your life forever. John Coyne’s 1981 horror fantasy Hobgoblin was one of those books for me. It’s the story of Scott Gardiner, a teenager obsessed with “Hobgoblin”: a fantasy role-playing game inspired by Irish mythology. Scott already has a shaky grasp on reality, and after an unexpected tragedy strikes his family he begins to believe that the horrors of the game are real. I read Hobgoblin at just the right age: I was maybe 12 years-old and quite obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons. Like Scott, my home life wasn’t perfect and school was a complete nightmare. I didn’t have trouble distinguishing between reality and fantasy, but there were times when I would have given anything to slip away into a world of sorcerers and dragons. I saw some . . .

Peace Corps Seeking a RPCV Portal

Dec 16 2015

The Office of the Third Goal at the agency has requested of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to create a “Portal” that will allow RPCVs to update their contact information, share stories, request official documentation, view their service history, and enroll in outreach and marketing campaigns. The official title will be: Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Portal (RPCV Portal). They say the general description of collection would be “To build a robust alumni network it is essential that Peace Corps maintains accurate and up-to-date contact information for RPCVs. By logging into the RPCV Portal, RPVCs access their record in the database directly, and are able to make changes and submit requests at their convenience. The updated contact information collected in the RPCV Portal will be used for outreach and support purposes, along with managing subscriptions for Peace Corps newsletters.” (Do we even have a newsletter from the agency?) RPCVs . . .

Mark Wentling(Honduras 1967-69 & Togo 1970-73) Comments on Steven Radelet’s (Western Samoa 1981-83) The Great Surge: The Ascent of the Developing World

Dec 15 2015

Comments about The Great Surge: The Ascent of the Developing World by Steven Radelet (Samoa 1981–83) by Mark Wentling, December 15, 2015 • “Is the glass half-full or half-empty? Radelet’s ‘surge’ viewed from an African angle.” I enjoyed reading Dr. Radelet’s new book, The Great Surge. I applaud the efforts he and his team deployed to produce such an acclaimed book. I’m dazzled and enriched by all the information contained in this book to support his convincing argument that the number of poor people in the world today is less than at any previous time in history. It is difficult to review a book that quotes all pertinent sources and leaves no stone unturned. It appears that he has contacted everyone of any importance in academia about this critically important subject. Almost every sentence cites a key statistic or reference. His book is so chock full of facts and citations . . .

Your Novel Needs a Structure; You Need a Structure

Dec 15 2015

Your Novel Needs a Structure You Need a Structure The hardest part about writing a novel is writing a novel. Now there’s a declarative sentence! But it’s so true. To write a novel you need a structure: a beginning and middle and end. Characters. Plot. Scenes. Events. But more importantly you need a frame for the length of your book on which you can hang your story: the action, characters, metaphors, plot twists, and drama. Think of your novel as a room you have to measure with a long industrial ruler, one of those big, fat ones carpenters carry and whip out of their pockets like an old fashioned six shooter. That’s your plan. Your focus. Your design. That is how you will tell your tale. You will measure the scenes and incidents, the drama and the dialogue and make sure everything fits. That’s your plan for writing your novel. . . .

Archive - 2015