Archive - October 2016

1
Lisa Einstein Featured in Scientific American Magazine Site (Guinea)
2
Peace Corps Task Force, 2008 New Obama Administration
3
Patrick O’Leary (Sierra Leone) publishes FROM FREEBORN TO FREETOWN & BACK
4
Remembering “Shriverized” and Shriver
5
New books by Peace Corps writers — September 2016
6
An RPCV remembers Peace Corps staff member Bob Blackburn (Somalia)
7
What is a Peace Corps Volunteer?
8
Former RPCV Says Clinton’s National Service Plan is Great (Poland)
9
Ellen Urbani’s dedication to stop Trump (Guatemala)
10
Dr. Kerry and Director Hessler-Radalet Interview on NPR -January 14, 2013
11
Concept Paper for the Peace Corps Global Health Service Partnership
12
The Peace Corps in bed with Seed Global Health Foundation
13
Kevin Quigley at Marlboro College (Thailand)
14
The Theroux Boys
15
Clinton on Peace Corps Expansion

Lisa Einstein Featured in Scientific American Magazine Site (Guinea)

Lisa Einstein (Guinea 2016-18) is currently working as a physics teacher in the Let Girls Learn initiative. She studied physics and dance at Princeton, and her goal is to combine her artistic and scientific passions to address social issues, especially through girls’ education. Yesterday, on the International Day of the Girl, Scientific American Magazine published Lisa’s music video on its site. Take a look at her amazing blog to see how she is achieving her goal….teaching science and math to young girls in Guinea, and changing minds about girls’ education! https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/girls-can-t-do-math-or-science/    

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Peace Corps Task Force, 2008 New Obama Administration

It is that time again….a new administration in January, and a “new” direction for the Peace Corps. This is the document written in the fall of 2008, shortly before President Obama took office. It is fascinating to see how few of these recommendations from the Task Force (not surprising, I’d say) were adopted by the Obama Administration. I have ‘pulled’ one of those suggestions out and highlighted it. How often have we heard about the increasing of PCVs?  This is a Word Document taken from a PDF.  (John Coyne) During the Presidential campaign, President-elect Obama made the following comment in a speech at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa when introducing Senator Harris Wofford, a person with a close association to the Peace Corps since the days of John Kennedy: “It is an honor to be introduced by Harris Wofford – one of America’s greatest advocates for public service. Starting with . . .

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Patrick O’Leary (Sierra Leone) publishes FROM FREEBORN TO FREETOWN & BACK

  Read about Patrick O’Leary’s long history with Sierra Leone in his newly published memoir From Freeborn to Freetown & Back. Patrick was a Minnesota farm kid who grew up in Freeborn County, Minnesota, when he became  a Peace Corp trainee at Syracuse University in 1966 for the Tanzania XIII program. But once training was completed the program was cancelled, and many of the trainees were sent to Sierra Leone, West Africa — including Patrick. He became a agricultural advisor and worked with farmers in an upcountry chiefdom. As a Volunteer Patrick had a number of adventures including being bitten by a poisonous snake, driving over and killing a pregnant cow, and raising chickens that were quickly killed by driver ants. During Patrick’s Peace Corps service he developed a relationship with the village chief that lasted 40 years. He accompanied the chief to Sierra Leone’s diamond mining area, and later was the guest of the chief’ — then a member of Parliament— at the . . .

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Remembering “Shriverized” and Shriver

In the Peace Corps world of the early Sixties, the noun “Shriverized” meant “to enlarge, to speed up, to apply greater imagination.”  As an English major I had never heard of the word, but in the linqua franca world of the new Peace Corps, this ‘noun’ changed my life. I had come of age with the Presidency of John F. Kennedy, and was a small part of the New Frontier as a PCV. I was ‘Shriverized” by the man himself, R. Sargent Shriver. It was as a Trainee for the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1962, when I first met President Kennedy, and when I first met Sargent Shriver. I was a “Kennedy’s Kid’ and, yes, I was, like hundreds, and then thousands, of others going to change the world forever in the New Frontier. And, yes, we really, really believed we would. We believed because . . .

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New books by Peace Corps writers — September 2016

  To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — Click on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? — Send a note to peacecorpsworldwide@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. • Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air [short stories] Jeff  Fearnside (Kazakhstan 2002–04) Stephen F. Austin University Press December 2016 200 pages $18.00 (paperback) •  On the Wide African Plain: And Other Stories of Africa Rick Fordyce (Ghana 1978—80) Merrimack Media August 2016 175 page $14.00 (paperback) •   Softball, Snakes, Sausage Flies and Rice: Peace Corps Life in 1960s Sierra Leone Philip Fretz (Sierra Leone 1967–69) CreateSpace 2013 148 . . .

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An RPCV remembers Peace Corps staff member Bob Blackburn (Somalia)

  Living a Life by Don Beil (Somalia 1964–66) Robert (“Bob”) W. Blackburn (Deputy Director/Somalia 1964–66), 81, died Saturday, September 10, 2016. For several weeks before his death he knew his heart was giving out, and he spoke openly of the wonderful life he had enjoyed, and the realization that it was coming to an end. On Friday evening he felt it was imminent and all of his immediate family gathered to spend that evening talking warmly with him until past midnight. In the early morning they found that Bob had died peacefully in his sleep. Those of use who knew him can take comfort in his open acceptance of the inevitable and repeated assurances of his appreciation for the life he enjoyed with each of us. Bob spoke to those near him in his last days in such a calm manner that he was comforting us, thinking of others as he . . .

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What is a Peace Corps Volunteer?

  Terry Campbell (Tanzania 1985–87, Dominican Republic 1989–92; Crisis Corps: El Salvador 2001–02, Hurricane Rita 2005) • Peace Corps Volunteers get into various activities during their two years, which brings to mind something several of us were involved with in 1990 while serving in the Dominican Republic. Word had come down at the office that they were going to be filming a major motion picture in Santo Domingo, and they needed Americans to appear as extras. And they would even be paying a small amount of money for each day of work. The Country Director put out a letter saying that any Volunteer who wished to could participate, as long as he or she used this extra money for his or her individual project. The movie, called Havana, was about a chance encounter between a middle-aged, self-absorbed gambler played by Robert Redford and a young, passionate revolutionary played by Lena Olin, basically a . . .

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Former RPCV Says Clinton’s National Service Plan is Great (Poland)

Clinton’s national service plan is great Mark Lenzi in USA Today Mark Lenzi, a former spokesman for the New Hampshire Republican Party, was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kielce, Poland. He owns a steel sheet piling company based in New Hampshire. During my Peace Corps service, I would sometimes be asked by genuinely inquisitive students whether Americans were as shallow as reality TV shows and Hollywood movies seemed to indicate. Was it true that the average American could name three pro wrestling stars (“And you do understand it is fake, right?”) yet have no idea millions were being killed in places like Congo? Could a typical person in New Hampshire find a country such as France let alone Sudan on a blank map? Though I would often find myself getting defensive with questions like these and tried my best to refute or at least deflect them, I now find myself faced with the irony of a . . .

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Ellen Urbani’s dedication to stop Trump (Guatemala)

In an effort to speak truth to power in the way I am best able, I wrote and contributed a short personal essay to a movement called Dedicate Your No-Trump Vote. While this started as a collection of stories from Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling novelists, it quickly expanded to include not just writers but a military personnel, teachers, community activists, etc — all of whom are thinking beyond the individual and dedicating their votes as acts of hope for the future.  If you’re inclined to share, my dedication is here: https://dedicateyournotrumpvote.blogspot.com/2016/10/ellen-urbanis-dedication.html  Though it often feels I’m preaching to the choir, I also know that every voice raised is a chance to potentially reach someone who may not yet have considered a particular perspective that might give him/her pause. Thank you, Ellen Urbani (Guatemala 1991-93)   Monday, October 3, 2016 When I was 23, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala, a country then . . .

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Dr. Kerry and Director Hessler-Radalet Interview on NPR -January 14, 2013

  NPR’s Michel Martin interviewed Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet and Dr. Vanessa Kerry, Executive Director of Global Health Services Corps, January 14, 2013.  Read the transcript of the interview “New Ground for Peace Corps.” In the interview, Director Hessler-Radelet explains that Peace Corps doctors and nurses have served in the Peace Corps since its very beginning. The majority of these serving medical professionals were in community health programs. The partnership with Global Health Services Corps will emphasize  building health system strengthening  and will begin with medical education. This new partnership with Global Health Services was discussed on Peace Corps World Wide when it began. Here are links to other sources that provide additional information about the partnership. This is the link to a pdf of the original Peace Corps contract with Global Health Services. The following interview, “A Peace Corps For Doctors, Built By A Senator’s Daughter,” is the first one on . . .

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Concept Paper for the Peace Corps Global Health Service Partnership

Concept Paper for the Peace Corps Global Health Service Partnership  “How many of you who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? . . . On your willingness to do that not merely to serve one year or two years . . . . but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.” Senator John F. Kennedy during the 1960 Presidential Campaign on the first mention of what became the Peace Corps Speaking before 5,000 students at The University of Michigan, 2 a.m., October 14, 1960  “As we transition from an emergency response to a more sustainable approach, we are supporting partner . . .

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The Peace Corps in bed with Seed Global Health Foundation

State Department-funded nonprofit that John Kerry had ‘No Role’ in, was rounded in his home  U.S. Senator John Kerry waves as he escorts his daughter Vanessa. (Reuters/John Schults) A nonprofit created in Secretary of State John Kerry’s upscale Boston home and managed by his daughter Vanessa Kerry has received more than $9 million from the Department of State, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found. Seed Global Health was founded at 19 Louisburg Sq in Boston’s Beacon Hill, tax forms indicate.News reports show that’s Kerry’s home address, which Zillow estimates is worth nearly $18 million. Kerry’s wife, Teresa, is an heir to the Heinz family fortune. Beacon Hill is the most expensive block in Boston, with median home values estimated at $6.7 million in 2015, a Boston Globe affiliate reported. The Boston Business Journal ranked Kerry’s house the third most valuable home in the city in 2013. The Department of . . .

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Kevin Quigley at Marlboro College (Thailand)

LEADERSHIP & GOVERNANCE: VIDEO: AT MARLBORO COLLEGE, EVERYBODY GETS A VOTE Kevin F.F. Quigley, president, Marlboro College By Jack Stripling September 29, 2016 Thanks to a “heads up” from Bill Preston (Thailand 1977-80) Situated in the foothills of the Green Mountains of southern Vermont, Marlboro College is a small liberal-arts institution of only about 200 undergraduates. One of the college’s most distinctive features is the Town Meeting, a New England–style governance structure that gives everyone, from students to professors to custodial staff, a vote on decisions that range from changes in policy to landscaping. Kevin F.F. Quigley,(Thailand 1976-79) president of Marlboro, recently spoke with The Chronicle about the college’s anomalous approach to decision making. He also discussed Marlboro’s efforts to increase enrollment through full-tuition scholarships granted to one student from every state in the nation. Video Link: http://www.chronicle.com/article/Video-At-Marlboro-College/237894/ TRANSCRIPT : JACK STRIPLING: Hi. I am here with Kevin Quigley, who’s president . . .

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The Theroux Boys

Paul Theroux’s (Malawi 1963-65) son Louis Theroux’s documentary on Jimmy Savile will be broadcasted on Sunday 2 October at 21:00 on BBC Two Louis says, “I was at my wedding in July 2012 when I learned that the DJ and TV presenter Jimmy Savile was to be unmasked as a sexual predator in an upcoming ITV documentary. At that time, I imagined I knew Savile reasonably well. I’d made my own documentary about him in 2000, filming with him for about two weeks at his various homes around Britain. I’d stayed in contact for several years after the film went out, making occasional trips up to Leeds. There was always a professional pretext – a DVD commentary to record, a new series to promote – but the visits also had a social dimension. They usually involved a meal at a local restaurant and sometimes an overnight stay at his penthouse . . .

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Clinton on Peace Corps Expansion

  Here’s what Clinton proposes to build what she calls a “culture of service” Grow AmeriCorps: Draw on new AmeriCorps members to recruit, train, and lead the Reserve. AmeriCorps members serve for a year, receiving a modest living allowance and college scholarship funds. Clinton has pledged to expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000 members annually and double the college scholarship each member receives for their service. Some of these additional AmeriCorps members will help organize the Reserve. Increase Full Time Service: Dramatically expand year-long service positions, with the vision that every person who wants to serve full-time can do so. She has pledged to create 250,000 annual slots in AmeriCorps and will work with private and nonprofit leaders to even further grow the program to increase the number of citizens engaged in national service. Create a Culture of Service: Engage returning veterans as well as Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and other . . .

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