February 2016 – Peace Corps Worldwide

We’re baaaack!

Feb 29 2016

Looking different, but with the same purpose to promote, publicize and recognize the writers of the Peace Corps — whose writings are the ultimate fulfillment of the Third Goal! The site is now much more secure vis-à-vis hacking so John and I don’t have to lose any sleep about that issue — as if we ever did — by I do believe our tech guy, Noah, did. There’s been some rearranging to make more accessible articles about our countries of service. Just click on the tag at the bottom of the righthand column to read about your other home. A word of warning — this transfer has been a huge job and all is not complete. Yet to come is a complete review of articles to assign them to their appropriate country tags, the Bibliography of Peace Corps Experience Books, the listing of books published under the Peace Corps Writers Imprint and some rearrangement of Category assignments. . . .

Journals of Peace — Karin Schumacher (Philippines)

Feb 27 2016

Journals of Peace Karin Schumacher (Philippines 1968–70) Monday, November 21 3:30 pm • There was never a doubt in my mind. From the moment I heard him speak of the Peace Corps, as a high school freshman, I knew it was for me. Then, it was a simple dream of far-away places, colorful people and a chance to “help”. The assassination of President Kennedy plummeted me into a shocking realization of the real world – its irrationality and the terrible consequences of self-interested power. His death strengthened my resolve, and I entered Peace Corps training upon college graduation at age 21. I hadn’t yet formed any plans for after the Peace Corps. It was well that I hadn’t, for it was for the experience itself that I shaped my long-term goals. I spent two years in Cebu City, Philippines at the height of the Vietnam War, 1968-1970. I could never . . .

John Ashford (Botswana) publishes MEETING THE MANTIS

Feb 18 2016

John Ashford was a library director at Seattle Community College for almost twenty years when he decided he needed a change of scenery, a change of activity, and a dose of another culture. In preparation he obtained a certification as a teacher of English as a Second Language. Then, both he and his wife Genevieve ended their careers and went to Botswana in 1990 with the Peace Corps as teachers. John spent his two years as a lecturer in library studies at Tonota College of Education. Facing the end of their Peace Corps service in Botswana, the Ashfords began making plans for travel with the purpose of learning more about the San, an indigenous people of Southern Africa — also known as the Kalahari Bushmen. Years earlier, while still in college, John had been introduced to the Kalahari Bushmen in an anthropology class and had retained a fascination with them. . . .

Peace Corps Worldwide on vacation this weekend

Feb 18 2016

Peace Corps Worldwide will be down over this coming weekend for upgrades. During that time John will be shoveling snow, I will be picnicking in the park and my son Noah will be working his technical magic on the site! Thanks, Noah.

Review — TIME PASSAGES by Jay Hersch (Colombia)

Feb 18 2016

Time Passages (Peace Corps memoir) Jay Hersch (Colombia 1964–66) A Peace Corps Writers Book October 2015 102 pages $7.99 (paperback), $2.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Ralph Bates (Colombia 1964–66) . This review was first published in the Winter 2016 issue of Friends of Colombia: Newsletter of the Colombia RPCVs • It isn’t often that a person gets to see paths in his or her life intimately interwoven in the journey of another — in my case it is the journey of a dear friend. The author of that journey is Jay Hersch and his story is told in his entertaining book Time Passages. Jay and I go back to dormitory days at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1960. We didn’t know each other well, but Jay told me a few years later that he voted for me for Student Senate. Probably that revelation when we met, quite by surprise and . . .

Christopher West Davis (Kenya) publishes AFRICAN WITCH

Feb 17 2016

Christopher West Davis (Kenya 1975-78) is a journalist who lived in Kenya and now lives and works in the New York City at the China Daily. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Reader’s Digest and other publications. In 2005, he was named Aerospace Journalist of the Year by the Royal Aeronautical Society (London). Katherine Stirling of The New Yorker called his previous book, Letters from Moritz Thomsen, “An utterly engrossing story… these marvelous letters and the attendant chronicle of the relationship that developed over their course is a story that is at once fascinating and quite moving, a hard balance to strike, in writing as in life.” Chris has a new book, a novel, entitled African Witch: A Modern Tale of Magical Harm. The write-up on Amazon for the book is: Kenya in its golden age, the safest, sexiest and most wildly popular playground in Africa. . . .

Donate to Peace Corps Projects

Feb 17 2016

The Peace Corps has added a new link to its official Home page. At the bottom of the page, the last section is “Donate”. Each link describes Peace Corps programs for which Peace Corps can accept tax deductible donations. The projects include Volunteer Projects, Special Funds, and Country Projects. Here is the link for more information: https://donate.peacecorps.gov/donate/projects-funds/#issue Peace Corps has also created Memorial Funds for Fallen Volunteers, at the request of the families. These funds support project that honor these Volunteers. For more information, go to: https://donate.peacecorps.gov/donate/projects-funds/memorial/ All of the contributions go to fund the projects. The administrative costs are included in the Peace Corps budget and do not come from the donations. The web pages are comprehensive and also ask for feedback on the new site.

THE GREAT SURGE by Steven Radelet (Western Samoa) reviewed in WSJ

Feb 13 2016

Friday, February 12, 2016 the Wall Street Journal carried a long review by Mark Moyer, visiting scholar at the Foreign Policy Initiative, of The Great Surge: The Ascent of the Developing World written by Steven Radelet (Western Samoa 1981-83), a former chief economist of AID and now holder of the Donald F. McHenry Chair in Global Human Development at Georgetown University, is well as an economic adviser to the president of Liberia, and most importantly, husband of Carrie Hessler Radelet, Director of the Peace Corps. In his review, Moyer writes, “Combining the real-world knowledge of a practitioner with the rigor of an academic, Mr. Radelet delivers a stimulating reconsideration of development aid.” Moyer points out that Radelet believes what has triggered the “great surge” was the crumbling of the Soviet Empire. “The discrediting of Marxist-Leninism encouraged poor countries to discard autocracy and state control of the economy in favor of liberal democracy and capitalism. The end of superpower competition also . . .

Review — PERCEPTION AND DECEPTION by Joe Lurie (Kenya 1967-70)

Feb 12 2016

Perception and Deception: A Mind-Opening Journey Across Cultures Joe Lurie (Kenya 1967–70) Cultural Detective 180 pages 2015 $12.95 (paperback), $7.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Patricia S. Taylor Edmisten (Peru 1962–64) • After completing my Peace Corps years in Peru and earning a graduate degree, I married, left my home-town of Milwaukee for New York City, and took up residence in a dinky studio apartment at Columbia University’s International House. My then husband, also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru, was pursuing his doctorate while serving as resident advisor. Author Joe Lurie is executive director emeritus of International House (I House) at the University of California, Berkeley, which opened in 1930. “It is one of the largest, most diverse residential cultural program centers in the U.S., second only to the International House in New York City,” according to the introduction of Chapter Two. Lurie is especially equipped to write about the erroneous . . .

Cold Hand of History, The Peace Corps 10 Final Blog

Feb 11 2016

Gary May’s chapter on the Peace Corps in Ethiopia, the final essay in this collection about JFK’s foreign policies, was also meant to “tell the story of the Peace Corps world wide” and it summed up with two final points. May writes: “Despite their difficulties, the volunteers considered their Peace Corps service personally invaluable.” He quotes Carol Miller Reynolds, “I still think the Peace Corps is one of the most valuable forms of foreign aid, despite its inadequacies….I still think it’s a good basic way to approach problems-at the grass roots level-unlike the policy makers who never understand things at the grass roots.” And Ron Kazarian told him in 1987, “I learned a lot about people, life, myself. Where I live [in central California] I’m an authority on one part of Africa. Every day, someone asks me about Ethiopia.” May then quotes Arthur M. Schlesinger’s book Robert Kennedy and His . . .

Cold Hand of History, The Peace Corps Part 9

Feb 10 2016

Ethiopia I Volunteers were as hard on each other as they were on the Ethiopians. At the Completion of Service Conference the Final Report filed in the Peace Corps Office read: “Many (PCVs) spoke openly about volunteers who they thought should have been sent home: the males who lived with prostitutes; the woman who was “obviously mentally disturbed; the “opportunist” who was unable to teach so was given a sinecure in the Ministry of Education. The Peace Corps,” one volunteer stated, “is not a goddamn rehabilitation center. ” Carol Miller Reynolds, who was a PCV in Debre Berhan, where students in early 1963 went on strike, would tell May-and May would tell me-that her comment was the most insightful of all he heard from PCVs. May interviewed Carol in 1987 and she told him, “The basic issues were deep seated and antagonistic to easy resolution. It had to do with . . .

Museum of the Peace Corps Experience in Portland, Oregon

Feb 09 2016

The National Peace Corps Association’s highlighted group for the month of February is Committee for a Museum of the Peace Corps Experience. This is how the group is described: “Bringing the world home and sharing the Peace Corps experience comes in many shapes and forms. In the northwest corner of the United States, a small yet mighty group of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) is focusing on presenting the Peace Corps to thousands by having a permanent museum. Read more about the Committee for a Museum of the Peace Corps Experience, our National Peace Corps Association affiliate group of the month for February.” Read more at: http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/2016/02/npca-featured-group-committee-for-a-museum-of-the-peace-corps-experience/ The Peace Corps Act (Sec. 2517. Activities promoting Americans’ understanding of other peoples) “In order to further the goal of the Peace Corps, as set forth in section 2 of this Act [22 U.S.C. 2501], relating to the promotion of a better understanding of other peoples . . .

Cold Hand of History, The Peace Corps Part 8

Feb 08 2016

The end of the Ethiopia 1 tour began with the Completion of Service Conference in April, 1964. The conference was conducted by Dr. Joseph English, chief Peace Corps Psychiatrist, and Jane Campbell of the Division of Volunteer Support. (Jane the following year would return to Ethiopia as an APCD.) May reports in his article that at the time the PCVs were uncertain about their future careers. He quotes John Rex writing to his parents in early ’64, “Can’t I write a book or travel, or do something different?” Most planned to spend the first few months following termination traveling through Europe. Some looked back and felt discouragement about what they had achieved in Ethiopia. Rex observed. “I certainly have benefited from the experience, but I ask myself if anyone else really has.” One of the PCVs interviewed by Gary May was Mary Lou Linman, who was a PCV in Debre . . .

Cold Hand of History, The Peace Corps Part 7

Feb 08 2016

This essay on the Peace Corps is entitled, “Passing the Torch and Lighting Fires: The Peace Corps.” And as I said it was written by Gary May. The essay is based on interviews he had with Ethiopian PCVs in the 1980s, as well as one Evaluation Report and a Close of Service report done in 1964. It is the last chapter in a scholar text entitled, Kennedy’s Quest For Victory: American Foreign Policy, 1961-63, published by Oxford Press. It would appear to suggest that this is the story of the Peace Corps during the first decade. It is meant to ‘sum up’ the work of Peace Corps Volunteers, to explain what the Peace Corps was all about under Kennedy, Shriver, and Wofford, the driving force in the creation of the agency. This is not true, of course, It is one partial description of the work of PCVs in one country. . . .

Frank Mankiewicz’s (Staff 1961-65, DC & CD Peru) SO AS I WAS SAYING

Feb 08 2016

This February 16th Thomas Dunne Books will publish the memoir of the late Frank Mankiewicz, So As I Was Saying . . .: My Somewhat Eventful Life, written by Frank and Joel Swerdlow. The book tells the story of one of the very early Peace Corps staff members, the first CD in Peru, and later Latin America Regional Director who later went on to become Senator Robert Kennedy’s press secretary, as well as, for George McGovern, and who had a long career in media and politics. Much of what is written about in this book about his Peace Corps tour was first recounted in Coates Redmon’s Come As You Are published in 1986 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. What’s news here, at least to me, is the background involving Mankiewicz and LBJ during the Dominican Republic Invasion of 1965 when PCVs in-country were in almost unanimous support of the rebels . . .

Archive - February 2016