Archive - February 2015

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Peace Corps Birthday, March 1, 2015
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Peace Corps Sexual Assault Advisory Council Member Application
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Transition is Critical time for Vulnerable Volunteers
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Peace Corps Director Speaks At Georgetown Global Futures Initiative
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Talking with Aaron Kase (Burkina Faso 2006-08) about his book: MURDER IN BENIN
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27-MONTHS on NPR Northern Community Radio
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Tom Klobe (Iran 1964–66) publishes A YOUNG AMERICAN IN IRAN
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Review: Tales from A Muzungu by Nicholas Duncan (Uganda 2006-08)
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Review: Truth Poker by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-93)
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Both Washingtons top lists of schools producing most Peace Corps Volunteers
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Aubrey Brown (Nigeria 1961-63) dies in Boston
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Eileen Flanagan (Botswana 1984-86) Publishes New Memoir Renewable
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Mike Meyer (China 1995-97) The Star of the Night
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Talking with Susanne Aspley (Thailand 1989–91), author of Ladyboy and the Volunteer
15
Does Peace Corps Know RPCV Talent is a Resource and a Legacy?

Peace Corps Birthday, March 1, 2015

The Peace Corps has a birthday coming up and to kick off Peace Corps Week 2015, the agency wants you to flood Facebook and Twitter with a ‘Happy Peace Corps Week’ Thunderclap. Join our digital Peace Corps flash mob–along with hundreds of others–and celebrate 54 years of promoting world peace. Thunderclap is a platform that allows people to pledge one Tweet or Facebook post (or both!) that is concentrated and unleashed at the same time. After you sign up, it will automatically post the same coordinated message from all supporters on March 2. It’s free and only takes 10 seconds. Please go to Thunderclap link: http://bit.ly/1EXRZOI Many thanks.

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Peace Corps Sexual Assault Advisory Council Member Application

Peace Corps Sexual Assault Advisory Council Member Application Make A Difference in the Lives of Peace Corps Volunteers! The Peace Corps is seeking RPCVs–both sexual assault survivors and other former Volunteers–to lend their experience and voice to strengthen Peace Corps’ sexual assault training, response and policies. They are also looking for committed experts from fields related to sexual assault risk-reduction and response programs to join the Sexual Assault Advisory Council. Position Overview The Sexual Assault Advisory Council advises the Peace Corps on its Sexual Assault Risk-Reduction and Response Program for Peace Corps Volunteers. Council members bring their technical expertise and experience to enrich the global program. Members review the Agency’s sexual assault response services; Volunteers and Staff training; and related policies; and provide best practices and research findings to Peace Corps leadership and service providers. Peace Corps is looking for law enforcement; mental health and health care providers; attorneys; educators; . . .

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Transition is Critical time for Vulnerable Volunteers

The murder of  Kate Puzey happened during a transition from the Bush Administration to that of Obama. The Peace Corps Director has almost no authority to plan for continuity during these times. The Director may or may not remain during a transition period. There may be only be an Acting Director or a caretaker Deputy Director. Only the newly elected officials can provide for adequate transitional planing. It has not been a priority for politicians of either party. For example, then Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetler and most political appointees, all Bush appointees, resigned the day of the Obama inauguration. No new Director had been appointed. Some of the most egregious Peace Corps tragedies happened during times of such political transitions, in my opinion. A list would include: January 1977 –  PC Volunteer was convicted in Tonga of the murder of fellow Volunteer, Deborah Ann Gardner. He was released to the Peace . . .

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Peace Corps Director Speaks At Georgetown Global Futures Initiative

Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet speaks as a part of the semester-long conversation on development convened by the Georgetown Global Futures Initiative. February 24, 2015 – The Peace Corps can benefit from engaging with countries that have tenuous relations with the United States, said Carrie Hessler-Radelet, the international organization’s director, at a Feb. 23 lecture at Georgetown. Hessler-Radelet, who spoke as part of a semester-long conversation on development convened by the Georgetown Global Futures Initiative, said working in such areas will help the Peace Corps achieve its goal of building cross-cultural understanding. “We need to make sure we’re reaching out to those communities who fear us or don’t understand us and who we also don’t understand,” she said. Profound Example The Peace Corps director told the Georgetown audience about a former child soldier whose family had been killed by Arab militia. After the boy immigrated to the U.S. and graduated . . .

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Talking with Aaron Kase (Burkina Faso 2006-08) about his book: MURDER IN BENIN

  We all blame Peace Corps Staff for something, and sometimes we’re right, but what went particularly wrong with the administration, both in Africa and in Washington, D.C., was what they did (and didn’t do) involving the tragic murder of Kate Puzey in Benin in 2009. What is particularly galling is that the Acting Director of the agency at the time of the murder was an RPCV Jody Olsen (Tunisia 1966-68) who has made a career of working for the agency, mostly through Republican connections from Utah (So much for In, UP and Out!) and she should have known how to take care of PCVs and their families, but she didn’t. Olsen was followed in the job by Director Aaron William (Dominican Republic 1967-70) and while eventually he apologized to the Puzey Family, he was famous for hiding under his deck when asked to speak to news agency. At one . . .

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27-MONTHS on NPR Northern Community Radio

Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65) who blogs on this site, as you know, at Peace Corps: Public Records and does a wonderful job of keeping tabs on the agency sent me this link on an RPCV in Grand Rapid, Mn. who has on a local NPR station done a whole series about the Peace Corps entitled, 27-MONTHS. The newly returned RPCV David McDonald (Morocco 2012-14) during his tour interviewed over 40 fellow Peace Corps Volunteers as well as recorded the ‘sounds” of Morocco for his ten-part audio documentary.. The series looks back at being a PCV from his first day in Philadelphia for orientation to the close of service in Morocco two years later. The NPR station says in its promotion of the program. “With a mixture of David’s narration, wide-ranging interviews with his colleagues, every day sounds from Morocco, and loads of different music, 27 MONTHS explores whether the Peace . . .

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Tom Klobe (Iran 1964–66) publishes A YOUNG AMERICAN IN IRAN

In November 1963, a bright Hawaiian morning is shattered by news of the assassination of the President. This marks the beginning of a journey to a remote Iranian village by a young American Peace Corps Volunteer who sets out with rebellious tenacity to do what is right, unaware of America’s loss of innocence — and his own. From a youthful determination to perpetuate Kennedy’s legacy, to coping with the reality of America’s faults and ambitions, to grappling with unfamiliar customs and languages, to discovering the friendship and love of Iranians, Tom Klobe discovers that being “Tom of Iran” is as fulfilling as being “American Tom.” A Young American in Iran is a tribute to the people of the village of Alang and Iran — to their love and to their goodness. It strives to capture the essence of life in a specific village and Iran in the mid-1960s. It is . . .

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Review: Tales from A Muzungu by Nicholas Duncan (Uganda 2006-08)

An East African Peace Corps Life Tales from A Muzungu by Nicholas Duncan (Uganda 2006–08) A Peace Corps Writers Book December 2014 156 pages $14.95 (paperback) Reviewed by Richard M. Grimsrud (India 1965–67) • Nicholas Duncan’s entertaining memoir of his experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uganda after 9/11 presents a fascinating picture of his host country during his service. One slight problem with the book at the outset, however, is that it is not exactly clear when during the five five-year terms of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni (1986-96 and 2001-present) Duncan actually served. When I searched for a specific date in the book, I had to assume from the reference to Super Bowl XLV on pp. 75–76 that the author’s service dates were 2006-08, but it would have made the story more interesting to me (for reasons that should be evident at the end of this review) if . . .

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Review: Truth Poker by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-93)

Truth Poker: Stories by Mark Brazaitis Pittsburgh: Autumn House Press January 2015 180 pages $17.95 (paperback) Reviewed by Clifford Garstang (Korea 1976-77) • Mark Brazaitis’s sixth book of fiction, Truth Poker, is a collection of superb short stories divided into three themed sections. In one sense, the fictions are a continuation of his past work, as these stories, like those in his 2012 collection, The Incurables, are also tied to the fictional town of Sherman, Ohio, and the campus of Ohio Eastern University. And, as in his earlier writing, Brazaitis draws on his own Peace Corps experience by featuring Volunteers in several of the stories, including those set in Guatemala, his country of service. Beyond the Peace Corps connection and the nominal ties to an Ohio community, however, the stories here do, for the most part, feel like they are part of a unified project, and on that basis alone . . .

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Both Washingtons top lists of schools producing most Peace Corps Volunteers

Both Washingtons top lists of schools producing most Peace Corps volunteers By Colby Itkowitz February 18 Washington Post President Kennedy hands his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, a pen after signing legislation at the White House giving the Peace Corps permanent status in September 1961. Kennedy joshingly praised Shriver, head of the corps, as “one of the most effective lobbyists Washington has seen.” Rep. Roman Pucinski, (D-IL.), is at center. Local colleges once again were among the top schools whose graduates became Peace Corps volunteers. But it’s the other Washington that produced the most Peace Corps members in 2014. Schools in Washington State took the top spot across all undergraduate categories: “The University of Washington reclaimed the top spot among large schools with 72 alumni currently in service, and Western Washington University and Gonzaga University again topped medium and small schools with 47 and 20 currently serving alumni, respectively,” the Peace Corps . . .

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Aubrey Brown (Nigeria 1961-63) dies in Boston

RPCV Aubrey Neblett Brown III (Nigeria 1961-63), who is perhaps the first PCV ‘hero’, died on February 14 in Boston. He was 78. A celebration of Aubrey’s life will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia. The family will receive guests beginning at 10 a.m. in the Chapel. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations in Aubrey’s name be made to World Student Christian Federation, USA, c/o Rev. Jorge Domingues, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1473, New York, NY 10115,  or World Can’t Wait, 305 West Broadway, #185, New York, NY 10013. Several years ago Murray Frank (Nigeria and HQ Staff 1961-64) wrote the story of Aubrey’s involvement in the famous ‘postcard’ incident for the Nigeria RPCV newsletter. Here is Murray’s account of what took place in Ibadan, Nigeria. • Nigeria in those first days of the Peace Corps by  Murray Frank October 14, 1961, was the day the postcard . . .

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Eileen Flanagan (Botswana 1984-86) Publishes New Memoir Renewable

Eileen Flanagan (Botswana 1984-86) is a Quaker writer and activist. Her new memoir, Renewable: One Woman’s Search for Simplicity, Faithfulness, and Hope, tells the story of how living in an African village shaped her worldview and the difficultly she experienced trying to live simply back in the United States, especially after having children. Returning to southern Africa for her fiftieth birthday and learning how climate change was already affecting the region was part of what lead her to handcuff herself to the White House fence upon her return home. The book has been endorsed by Bill McKibben and other prominent environmentalists. Her previous book, The Wisdom to Know the Difference, was endorsed by the Dalai Lama. A graduate of Duke and Yale, Eileen leads the board of Earth Quaker Action Team, which uses nonviolent direct action to work for a just and sustainable economy. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and . . .

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Mike Meyer (China 1995-97) The Star of the Night

Mike Meyer (China 1995-07) just published In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China (don’t let the title frightened you away) and he just did himself, the Peace Corps, and everyone a great favor at the New York Public Library by giving an absolutely wonderful informative and honest presentation of his experiences in China as a PCV, and afterwards as a teacher living in Manchuria. If you can catch any of his readings and book signings that are coming up, please do, and read his new book, his first since his amazing book on the end of old Beijing. Yesterday, Bill Preston (Thailand 1977-80) sent me the link to the NPR interview with Leonard Lopate where he talked about his book and his experiences as a PCV  in China. You can listen to it here:http://www.wnyc.org/story/privatization-transforms-rural-chinas-landscape Really, do yourself a favor and try and catch Mike when . . .

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Talking with Susanne Aspley (Thailand 1989–91), author of Ladyboy and the Volunteer

Susanne Aspley (Thailand 1989–91) published her Peace Corps novel Ladyboy and the Volunteer with Peace Corps Writers this past November.  In her responses for this “Talking with . . . ” piece she chose to eschew  incorporating my usual author-interview questions  — and it all turned out quite well! Thanks Susanne.— Marian • I served with the Peace Corps in Nakorn Sri Thammarat, Thailand, from 1989 to 1991 as a Community Development Volunteer in a small fishing village on the Gulf of Siam. I taught English classes and began several duck farms. I also discovered the cure for cancer, slayed dragons and brought peace to the Middle East but no one believes me. I have a B.A. in English with a minor in Film. My English degree was very helpful for my teaching. I feel good about accomplishing the second and third goal of the Peace Corps, but failed miserably with the . . .

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Does Peace Corps Know RPCV Talent is a Resource and a Legacy?

Does Peace Corps use the work being done by RPCVs in the field of international development and intercultural studies? This question is not rhetorical. My answer would be “No”.  In the Performance and Accountability Report FY 2014 (PAR-FY 2014), Peace Corps stated the following, page 25: “Outdate Intercultural training materials and practices: The academic field of intercultural studies has made great strides in recent years; however, the agency’ training materials and practices do not yet reflect the latest research and findings around creating, assessing, placing, training, and supporting Volunteers and staff to ensure they have the intercultural competence to successfully live and work in local communities. The agency is in the process of incorporating best practices from the intercultural field, but significant work remains for the agency to be a leader in the field.” If Peace Corps indicated in this report that the tremendous work being done by RPCVs would . . .

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