April 2015 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Can You Top This Photo?

Apr 30 2015

John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) Send me your jpeg photo of you in your Peace Corps years on a camel, elephant, horse, donkey, mule, etc. and we’ll all vote on the most outrageous photo for an award to be given at the NPCA conference this coming June at Berkeley. (You don’t have to be there to win.) You’ll win real $$$ and a prize! Send the jpeg photo with your name and country and years to me and I’ll post them on our site: www.peacecorpsworldwide.org. Winners will be selected by the votes sent in from the community of viewers. So send your own photo and vote for your favorite photo. Good luck! p.s. I’m on the one on the right in this photo taken by Mike McCaskey (Ethiopia 1965-67) and I’m not a candidate in the contest.

Chi and John Sherman (Nigeria 1966–66, Malawi 1967–68) publish CD of prose and poetry

Apr 30 2015

John Sherman (Nigeria 1966–66, Malawi 1967–68) and Chi Sherman have just published a collaborative, spoken-word CD — Shades: Writings on Race Culture Gender. The CD has 25 tracks of poetry and prose, with original music by Gabriel Harley. There will be a release party for the CD at Indy Reads Books 911 Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis IN on Saturday, May 9. For more information and to order the CD, write John at john@mesaverdepress.com

John Michael Flynn (Moldova 1993-95) Publishes Two Essays on Moldova

Apr 30 2015

John Michael Flynn’s Moldova A resident of central Virginia, John Michael Flynn (Moldova 1993-95) taught at Balti State Pedagogical Univeristy in Moldova and is now an English Language Fellow with the US State Department in Khabarovsk, Russia. His most recent poetry collection, Keepers Meet Questing Eyes (2014) is available from Leaf Garden. Two essays of John’s were published on-line this month. One essay is entitled Hai La Masa and is published in Proximity from Madison, Wisconsin: www.proximitymagazine.org. The second one is entitled, Ideal Village and is published in Limehawk located in upstate New York: www.limehawk.org. Lime Hawk Literary Arts Collective was started in 2013 to offer a creative space for artists to share their perceptions of current social and environmental issues. The quarterly online journal publishes new fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art by a diverse and talented group of artists, both emerging and established. Proximity Magazine is also a quarterly publication focused . . .

APCD Catherine Varchaver (HQ Staff & Kyrgyzstan 1995-97) Edits Fly Fishing Book

Apr 30 2015

Catherine Varchaver (HQ Staff & APCD Kyrgyzstan 1993-97) who is today the senior stewardship officer at World Wildlife Fund’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. where she writes extensively about global conservation programs, is the granddaughter of John and Maxine Atherton, who helped shape the art and science of fly fishing over the decades. She has just edited a book by her grandmother entitled The Fly Fisher and the River that will be published by Skyhorse Publishing in the spring of 2016. It will be published as well as a companion reprint of John Atherton’s (Catherine’s grandfather) classic The Fly and the Fish. In her introduction to the book, Catherine writes of how she was given the unfinished memoir over fifteen years ago and last year, holding the rolled pages of the unfinished book, said, “I could hear my grandmother telling me, with her lilting laugh, that her dream was now in my hands.” While not a . . .

Don Messerschmidt (Nepal 1963-65) With Nepal Relief Contact

Apr 29 2015

Don Messerschmidt (Nepal 1963-65) is in touch with the Gorkha Foundation that is working to get relief supplies and services to communities at the Nepal Earthuake epicenter. Here is a link to that site: April 28 2015 Friends, Many villagers in Nepal are under siege, struggling to survive from the earthquake and aftershocks that have struck the Himalayas. Most of the media and relief attention, so far, has been centered on Kathmandu Valley and Mt Everest… But it is now very clear that remote mountain communities at the epicenter – the Gorkha region, including both Gorkha and Lamjung Districts – have equally if not more serious issues. Whole villages have been devastated and recent and ongoing rains have triggered destructive landslides and threaten of more danger to health and habitation. The Director of a Nepalese NGO (non-governmental organization), The Gorkha Foundation (of which I am an advisory board member), is . . .

Anti-Malaria Medication and the Peace Corps

Apr 29 2015

In a medically hostile environment, malaria is one of the fiercest enemies. Peace Corps has been fighting it for over fifty years; not only to help the people Volunteers serve, but to protect Volunteers, who are also targets of the disease. From 1961 to 1990, Volunteers in malaria areas, took chloroquine, brand name, Aralen, to protect against malaria. There was a increase in the incidence of malaria among Volunteers in West Africa beginning in the mid-80s due to the development of Chloroquine-resistent malaria. In 1989 thru 1992, Peace Corps Volunteers in West Africa participated in research studies for a relatively new anti-malaria drug, mefloquine, (for a time, the drug was marketed under the brand name, Lariam). The drug was effective against the chloroquine-resistent form of malaria, but was not without its adverse side effects. RPCV Sara Thompson has filed suit charging that Peace Corps failed to adequately inform her of . . .

Brownie Lee (Togo 1962-64) passed away in Benin after a brief illness

Apr 29 2015

Brownie worked in many Peace Corps countries and at many levels of the agency, first as a PCV. She lived in West Africa for over forty years. Brownie Lee passed away on April 27, 2015 (Togo Independence Day) in Benin after a brief illness. Brownie Lee was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the first Togo group from 1962-64, and in Guinea, 1964-1966. She then taught for twenty years, in Eastern and Western Africa, the U.S., and Jamaica. In 1984, she returned to Peace Corps as APCD for Education in Niger 1984-89, APCD for Education and Water Sanitation in Mauritania, 1989-91, and APCD for Education and SED in Ghana, 1991-93. In 1994 she joined Africare as a Project Coordinator for an NGO strengthening program in Benin. In 1995, Brownie came back to Peace Corps as the Sub-Regional Programming and Training Coordinator for Coastal West and Central Africa. In this latter position, . . .

John Flynn (Moldova 1993-95) English Language Fellow in Khabarovsk, Russia

Apr 26 2015

John Flynn (Moldova 1993-95) is currently an English Language Fellow with the US State Department in Khabarovsk, Russia. He is living in Khabarovsk, the capital of the Far East, a city of about a quarter of a million people, and teaching at the Far Eastern State University of the Humanities. He believes he is the only American living in Khabarovsk. His fellowship program is run by Georgetown University and funded by the State Department. John writes, “The program salary is more than adequate and the teaching expectations are higher than if I were just on my own teaching privately. Diplomacy is required and I think my background in the Peace Corps has served me well. I have met other Fellows in other countries and some of them, too, are RPCVs.” There are today five English Language Fellow in Russia and while the risk is always there, none have been deported, though these . . .

Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation

Apr 26 2015

Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation About PCCF In January 2014, the United States Congress authorized the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation to establish a commemorative work on Federal land in Washington, D.C. Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation is the public name of the Peace Corps Foundation, a District of Columbia 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. The Design Competition The Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation (PCCF) is sponsoring a two-stage, national design competition to select an artistically exceptional design concept for a permanent commemorative work in the heart of Washington, DC. This competition will provide designers from all across the United States an opportunity to create a compelling work of public art that will be bold and inspirational. The design should focus on and express American ideals and values that are the essence of the Peace Corps and Peace Corps service. It should be about America and our aspirations as a people, and about the Peace Corps . . .

Potential Shift in Hostage Policy: Officials to Recommend Families Be Free to Pay Ransom

Apr 26 2015

This is the headline, today, from ABC News, reporting this potential change in policy. Read the report at: http://abcnews.go.com/International/potential-shift-hostage-policy-officials-recommend-families-free/story?id=30589726 The United States has long had a policy of no negotiation with terrorists and absolutely no payment of ransom to free US citizens held hostage. The policy is based on the rationale that paying ransom would only place a price on other Americans. Unfortunately, the United States has not been successful in rescuing hostage hostages. Families of US citizens, including Warren Weinstein, reported that they were visited by US officials who told them that if they attempted to privately raise funds and pay ransom, they would be prosecuted. “Looking the other way” may be the policy change that would allow families to attempt to ransom relatives held hostage, without fear of prosecution. If it had been in effect, perhaps American hostages would not have been killed. Evidently families did not receive such . . .

Link to Nepal Peace Corps

Apr 26 2015

Don Messerschmidt (Nepal 1963-65) who has a long history of working for his host country has sent me the following link which is the official Nepal Peace Corps link, and updated since the earthquake, for those who wish to know the situation and help the victims. Thanks, Don. http://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/faf/nepal/

George Packer (Togo 1982-83) Writes About His CD Warren Weinstein

Apr 26 2015

The New Yorker by George Packer (RPCV/Togo) April 24, 2015 Warren Weinstein, the Al Qaeda hostage who was killed by an American drone strike in Pakistan in January, was once my boss. He was the Peace Corps country director in Togo in 1982 when I was a new volunteer, just weeks out of college. At the end of that summer, after finishing training, I and others in my group were prevented from taking our posts around the country by a Togolese bureaucrat who was a relative of the country’s dictator, Gnassingbé Eyadema. The petty financial dispute took weeks to work out. In the meantime, a few of us were housed temporarily with the Weinstein family in Lomé, Togo’s capital, on the Gulf of Guinea. The Weinsteins lived in the diplomatic quarter, but that makes it sound a bit too grand. The house was a small villa with a metal gate . . .

Warren Weinstein Remembered

Apr 24 2015

The New York Times reported on the death of Warren Weinsten. To read the article, Here is the link: http://nyti.ms/1DniWd6 From the NYTimes article: “A Fulbright scholar who earned his Ph.D. in international law and economics, Mr. Weinstein was proficient in seven languages. He served as a Peace Corps director in Ivory Coast and Togo. From 2004 until he was captured in 2011, he worked as an adviser for J.E. Austin Associates, a contractor for the United States Agency for International Development.” It was not reported which years Weinstein served as Country Director in Togo and the Ivory Coast. The Washington Post also reported on the tragic death of Warren Weinstein.Here is the link to read that article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-american-hostage-devoted-life-to-helping-the-worlds-poorest-people/2015/04/23/368fb35c-e9c8-11e4-9a6a-c1ab95a0600b_story.html From the Post article: According to colleagues familiar with a 40-year career that spanned numerous continents and multiple conflicts, Weinstein cast a far longer shadow than they expected from the 5-foot-4 . . .

Warren Weinstein Peace Corps CD

Apr 24 2015

As he announced Warren Weinstein’s death Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama praised what he said was Weinstein’s lifelong dedication to service, first as a Peace Corps volunteer and later as a USAID contractor. Weinstein, Obama said, was someone who “willingly left the comforts of home to help the people of Pakistan,” focusing his work on helping families escape poverty to give their children a better life. “This was a man who basically dedicated his life to service, to people in general, but especially to people in a country where the standard of living was low and difficult. … It’s tragic that he was killed the way he was,” former U.S. Ambassador Dan Simpson said. In a letter to the Washington Post, however, Weinstein said he had been a country director in Togo and Ivory Coast but did not mention being a PCV.

Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1990-93) Interviewed in Poets & Writers

Apr 24 2015

The May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine has an article entitled “Winners on Winning” where they interview writers who won (and lost) literary contests in 2014. Among the handful of winning writers is our Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1990-93) for his 2014 Autumn House Press Fiction Award ($2,500) and publication of his most recent collection, Truth Poker. Mark, a professor of English at West Virginia University, (and directs their creative writing program,) has won more contest than most writers. Here’s a short list: 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Award for The River of Lost Voices: Stories From Guatemala 2001 Peace Corps Writers Maria Thomas Fiction Award for Steal My Heart 2004 George Garrett Fiction Award for An American Affair 2004 ABZ Poetry Prize for The Other Language 2012 Gival Press Novel Award for Julia & Rodrigo 2012 Richard Sullivan Prize for his story collection, The Incurable 2013 Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award . . .

Archive - April 2015