2015 – Page 21 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Review — Mort(e) by Robert Repino (Grenada 2000-2002)

Mar 22 2015

Mort(e) by Robert Repino (Grenada 2000-2002) Soho Press January 2015 357 pages $26.95 (hardcover) Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) • IN HIS DEBUT NOVEL Mort(e) — the parenthetical in the title is clue prima facie that we are in the realm of experimental fiction — Robert Repino offers a sweeping, apocalyptic war story in which animals undergo “The Change” and rise up against their human masters. Behind the scenes and deep underground, a mutant queen ant a la James Cameron’s Aliens has produced a hormone that enters the world’s water systems; it changes animals on contact, giving them mental capacities and self-awareness equal to humans, and also morphs them physically. Just one drop and dogs and cats grow to human size, become bipedal, and their paws mutate into hands. A neutered housecat turned ragged frontline fighter, Sebastian, joins a unit of strays led by a violent . . .

First Lady Meets PCVs and Let Girls Learn Students in Cambodia

Mar 21 2015

First Lady Michelle Obama, center right in the back, holds a round table discussion with Peace Corps Volunteers, Saturday, March 21, 2015, in Siem Reap, Cambodia. In the photo to the right is also Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet who went with Mrs. Obama to Japan and Cambodia. The First Lady also met with students who are in the first Peace Corps Training for Let Girls Learn.

Put Your Peace Corps Skills And Knowledge To Use

Mar 20 2015

Anyone Can Be a Teacher in This Online School New York Times By JONAH BROMWICHMARCH 19, 2015 The Skillshare staff at work at the company’s offices in New York. The company allows users to determine the courses they want to teach and take. A thousand courses are available for $10 a month. Susan Orlean was considering giving up teaching. She had taught courses at New York University and at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College but was finding it difficult to maintain a consistent class schedule while fulfilling her obligations as a staff writer for The New Yorker. “I just started thinking, well, maybe there’s a different way to do this that doesn’t tie me to a physical location,” she said. “And right around that time, Skillshare contacted me.” Skillshare is an online video platform that allows anyone to sign up and teach a class. The company has . . .

Eileen Flanagan (Botswana 1984-86) Interview in Chestnut Hill Local

Mar 19 2015

Spiritual crisis recorded in Hiller’s acclaimed new book Eileen Flanagan, a member of Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting for the past 16 years, recounts how she dealt with a mid-life crisis of the spirit in her third book, Renewable: One Woman’s Search for Simplicity, Faithfulness and Hope, which was released March 3 by She Writes Press Publishers. The article appeared in the Chestnut Hill Local, a weekly newspaper serving Chestnut, in Northwest Philadelphia, PA and the surrounding communities. It was written by Len Lear. At the age of 49, a 16-year member of Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting, Eileen Flanagan, had an agonizing feeling that she wasn’t living up to her potential – or her youthful ideals. A former Peace Corps volunteer who had once loved the simplicity of living in a mud hut in Botswana, southern Africa, she now had too many e-mails in her inbox and a basement full of . . .

First Lady Michelle Obama in Japan Promoting Peace Corps "Let Girls Learn"

Mar 18 2015

by Victor Beattie March 17, 2015 5:06 AM WASHINGTON- First Lady Michelle Obama embarks on a five-day Asia trip Wednesday to launch the Obama Administration’s initiative “Let Girls Learn,” promoting the education of millions of girls worldwide. Ahead of her stops in Japan and Cambodia, Obama and her husband said the inability of an estimated 62 million girls to attend school worldwide should be a foreign policy priority. The first lady wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the fact that tens of millions of girls are not being adequately educated is more than “a tragic waste of human potential. It is also a serious public health challenge, a drag on national economies, as well as global prosperity, and a threat to the security of countries around the world.” Obama said that as of 2012, every developing region had achieved, or was close to achieving, gender parity in primary education. . . .

Review of Mouse and Magic by Allan R. Gall (Turkey 1962-64)

Mar 18 2015

Of Mouse and Magic (Children) by Allan R. Gall (Turkey 1962–64) Two Harbors Press 278 pages 2011 $12.95 (paperback) Reviewed by Tom Weck (Ethiopia 1965–67) • Of Mouse and Magic is an engaging tale of Manny the Mouse, his family, and many other animals including both friends and predators. Manny is the smallest mouse in a new litter of mice. His parents fear for his survival as he seems very fragile. But Manny does not see it that way. He is born with a jagged white fur mark that, in his eyes, makes him feel like Zeus. And he acts accordingly showing both courage and leadership through his and his sibling’s many trials and tribulations. Admirably, the books does not shy away from addressing ‘survival’ – a daily struggle for these mice as they are hunted by predators on land and from the sky. Young readers will be astonished by . . .

“Let Girls Learn” has the support of the Commander in Chief of the World’s Most Powerful Military

Mar 17 2015

President Obama promised the world, in his March 7th Saturday address that any “country who wants to be our friend or is our friend” will “Let Girls Learn.” Obama stressed that the barriers to the education of girls and women are not merely the lack of access or the money for uniforms, but can also include the risk of being hurt, kidnapped or worse for girls who want to learn. This is where the prestige and the power of the United States are critical. It is the essential piece to make this campaign successful. Peace Corps can provide the teachers and the advocates, the “boots on the ground.” But, Peace Corps Volunteers cannot intervene politically in a country, nor do they have much power to protect girls. It will take the governments of our host countries, supported by the United States to eliminate these barriers. And Obama has declared: “Let . . .

Review of In Manchuria by Michael Meyer (China 1995-97)

Mar 17 2015

In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China by Michael Meyer (China 1995-97) Bloomsbury Press, $28.00 365 pages 2015 Reviewed by Arnold Zeitlin (Ghana 1961-63) Foreigners, especially Americans, living for a spell in China, often are overcome with an irresistible urge to explain China and the Chinese to their countrymen, especially Americans, who may ask a question about how much of a threat China is, then nod politely and change the subject to the latest baseball scores. Many of these same foreigners, especially Americans, after their first year of living among the Chinese, enthusiastically conclude, “why they are just like us.” Then, a year later, they conclude, “they are not like us at all.” Among the latest Americans to tell us about the Chinese is Michael Meyer. He is a writer who first went to China in 1995 as a member of the Peace Corps to . . .

First Lady Michelle Obama Takes PC Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet To Japan To Promote "Let Girls Learn"

Mar 16 2015

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) – Michelle Obama won’t avoid Cambodia’s human rights record when she visits the southeast Asian nation this week, her final stop on a two-country trip to promote a new U.S. initiative to help millions of girls worldwide attend and complete school, the White House said Monday. The first lady, who is traveling without the president, is scheduled to arrive in Japan, her first stop, on Wednesday. On Friday, she heads to Cambodia. While the purpose of the five-day trip, from March 18-22, is to promote the “Let Girls Learn” initiative she and the president announced this month, Mrs. Obama will discuss the need for an open and inclusive political system in Cambodia and highlight basic values and principles that are important to the U.S., said Evan Medeiros, senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council. “She’s going to have ample opportunity . . .

Gerald Karey writes: The First Day

Mar 16 2015

A Writer Writes I wrote this about five years ago. It was, and is, the only time I have written at length about my Peace Corps service. Not that I didn’t value the experience, but I didn’t think it, or my contribution, was all that exceptional. I came, I taught English as a foreign language (just how well is not for me to judge), and I left. The Peace Corps was in Turkey for only eight years — from 1962 to 1970. The program was abandoned in an “increasingly fractious environment,” one former in-country director wrote. It was fueled by misunderstandings between the Peace Corps and the Turkish government, Peace Corps missteps (my TEFL group stormed Turkey with 200 Volunteers), a steady drumbeat of negative newspaper headlines, charges that Volunteers were CIA agents, and “Turkey’s descent into a morass of violence and radical politics,” the former director added. (If you’re . . .

Talking to Michael Meyer (China 1995-97)

Mar 16 2015

Michael Meyer received a Whiting Writers’ Award for nonfiction after publishing his first book, The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed. He has also held a Guggenheim Fellowship. His stories have appeared in Time, The New York Times, Smithsonian, Sports Illustrated, Slate, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and on “This American Life.” In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China has just been published by Bloomsbury Press. Today, Michael teaches nonfiction writing at the University of Pittsburgh and spends his free semesters in Singapore. I recently interviewed Mike about his career, China, and his books. • Mike, where did you serve as a PCV and when? Peace Corps China 2; 1995-1997. . Q. Now you stayed on in China . . . was this so you could write Last Days? No, post-Corps, I moved to Beijing in 1997 . . .

Review: Tories and Patriots by Martin Ganzglass (Somalia 1966–68)

Mar 15 2015

Tories and Patriots: A Novel of the American Revolution by Martin R. Ganzglass (Somalia 1966-68) A Peace Corps Writers Book January 2015 354 pages $13.99 (paperback) Reviewed by Thomas E. Coyne • The “born again” patriots of this country who want to do away with Advance Placement history courses and sanitize the writing of the American story are really going to dislike this novel. Actually, it isn’t just a novel for author Martin Ganzglass is on a mission to produce accurate, readable history set in a vivid, true life atmosphere that gives the reader a “See it Now” experience. Tories and Patriots is the second in Ganzglass’s Revolutionary War series following last year’s Cannons for the Cause. The series follows Willem “Will” Stoner as he travels with General George Washington’s Continental army as a teamster and artillery man during the early days of chaotic fighting and retreating in this country’s . . .

Talking with David Edmonds author of LILY OF PERU

Mar 14 2015

How did it happen that David Edmonds writes a novel about Peru when he served in Chile? How did he get a PC assignment to make a movie? What was his connection with Lee Harvey Oswald? What were his skills that enabled him to set up a leather cooperative? And what about Lori Berenson? Find the answers to some of these questions — and many others in this interview with this multi-skilled RPCV. Where and when did you serve in the Peace Corps, Dave? I was a Chile IV Volunteer from 1963 to 1965 after training at Camp David in Puerto Rico. . What was your Peace Corps project assignment? Didn’t have one at first, so someone in PC/Santiago came up with the wonderful idea of making a promotional film about PC activities in Chile. I was assigned to that task along with fellow PCVs Mike Middleton, Mary Ellen Wynhausen, . . .

Review: My Life as a Pencil by Ron Arias (Peru 1963-65)

Mar 14 2015

My Life as a Pencil by Ron Arias (Peru 1963-64) Red Bird Chapbooks March 2015 47 pages $12. 00 (paperback) Reviewed by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962–64) • I once asked Ron Arias (Peru 1963-64) what he did at People Magazine and he said, and I quote, “I cover the Third World.” I laughed, thinking he was being sarcastic, and he was, but Ron was also being serious. Thanks to his fluency in Spanish, his experience in the Peace Corps, his traveling and working in Latin America, plus his ability, his need, perhaps, to go everywhere and do anything to get a story, made him a minor celebrity in the complex and competitive conglomerate of Time/Life. A few of Ron’s brushes with danger around the world are implied and hinted at in this collection of funny, insightful, touching and true stories entitled My Life as a Pencil, a chapbook recently published . . .

The Peace Corps and Rotary Together in Saturday's NYTIMES

Mar 14 2015

The Personal Business column in the 3/14/15 issue on “Retiring” written by Kerry Hannon is all about ‘older’ American retiring and doing serious volunteer work with the Rotary Club, Corporation for National and Community Service, AmeriCorps, the Senior Corps…and guess what: The Peace Corps. “The push for older volunteers began in 2011 (not true, we had a significant number of older PCVs in 1962) writes Hannon, “when the Peace Corps began working with AARP to connect more older volunteers with service opportunities. Today there are 7 percent of PCVs 50 or older. “I would like to see that closer to 15 percent,” said Carrie Hessler-Radelet, the Peace Corps’ director in the article. While the Peace Corps is just ‘one’ of the many opportunities where and how senior citizens might volunteer, is does have the advantage in this article of having the only photograph, and that is of Kate Burrus at . . .

Archive - 2015