2016 – Page 17 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Vietnam and the Peace Corps: Remarks at Signing Ceremony

May 24 2016

Remarks at a Peace Corps Signing Ceremony Remarks John Kerry Secretary of State Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Minh and Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet Government House Hanoi, Vietnam May 24, 2016 MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) On the occasion of the official visit to Vietnam by the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, and (inaudible) between His Excellency Pham Binh Minh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and His Excellency John Kerry, Secretary of State, the two sides will sign the framework agreement concerning the program of the Peace Corps in Vietnam. Allow me the pleasure to introduce and invite His Excellency Secretary of State John Kerry and His Excellency Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh to witness the signing of the framework agreement. Now I’d like to invite Madame Carolyn Hessler-Radelet, Director of the Peace Corps, to have some remarks. . . .

Review — THE GIRL IN THE GLYPHS by David C. Edmonds (Chile)

May 23 2016

The Girl in the Glyphs by David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963–65)) and Maria Nieves Edmonds Peace Corps Writers January 2016 354 pages $12.99 (paperback), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Andy Martin (Ethiopia 1965–68) • The Girl in the Glyphs was a surprisingly enjoyable book. I say surprisingly because I chose to review the book from a list of available titles, each of which had a short paragraph synopsis. I believe the synopsis for this book said it was a romantic adventure story. John Coyne, who saw a proof copy of the book said it was “a splendid tale of love and intrigue in a dangerous country . . ..” When the book arrived in the mail, I didn’t know what to think. I was definitely trying to judge it by its cover and that was a bit unfair. It’s 6″ x 9″ with cover art that harkens to Indiana Jones. The inside has one illustration, a map, and . . .

Obama to Announce Peace Corps will be Invited to Vietnam

May 23 2016

President Barack Obama is expected to announce Monday during his visit to Vietnam that the Peace Corps will be invited to establish operations in that country, the volunteer organization said. The volunteers will focus on teaching English to students, and training Vietnamese colleagues to teach English. It’s a striking turnaround from the years when some young men joined the Peace Corps in an effort to avoid serving in the military during the Vietnam conflict. The Peace Corps has been working on gaining entry to Vietnam for years. In 2012, then-Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams made a three-day visit to the country to explore the possibility of an invitation to establish a program there. The Peace Corps was established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy to promote world peace and friendship. Since then, more than 220,000 Americans have served in 141 host countries. Currently, volunteers work in 63 countries. . . .

“Impressions of Cuba” by Patricia Taylor Edmisten (Peru)

May 21 2016

• Impressions of Cuba A Thirty-Year Retrospective by Patricia Taylor Edmisten (Peru 1962-64) • Why Cuba? The year before my mother married my dad, she and her cousin Celia took a Greyhound bus from Milwaukee to Miami. After sight-seeing in Miami, they took an amphibian plane to Havana where they ran into some wealthy American men (playboys) who showed them the sights, including the newly opened Tropicana night club that still entertains visitors with scantily clad women dancing to fiery salsa. I don’t know why my mother, a first-generation daughter of a Bavarian-born pastry chef, chose Cuba. Her affinity toward Latin America developed after that trip even though she returned only once, after she had talked my dad into a family road trip from Milwaukee to Mexico City and Acapulco in 1956. It was my mother who encouraged me to say yes to a 1962 telegram from Sargent Shriver inviting me . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers — April 2016

May 19 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. Moon Colorado Camping: The Complete Guide to Tent and RV Camping (Travel) Joshua Berman (Nicaragua 1998–2000) Avalon Travel Publishing April 2016 350 pages $19.99 (paperback) . • Blood Upon The Snow (A Novel of the American Revolution) Martin R. Ganzglass (Somalia 1966–68) A Peace Corps Writers Book March, 2016 344 pages $14.95 (paperback), $3.99 (Kindle) • Lips Open and Divine (poetry) Matthew A. Hamilton (Armenia 2006–08; Philippines 2008–10) Winter Goose Publishing April . . .

Review — THE LYNCHING by Laurence Leamer (Nepal)

May 19 2016

The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan Laurence Leamer (Nepal 1964–66) William Morrow June 2016 384 pages $27.99 (hardcover), $12.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Martin Ganzglass (Somalia 1966–68) • Whatever hyperbole appears on the back cover will not do justice to Laurence Leamer’s The Lynching — The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan. This fast paced factual thriller, with its numerous short, punchy chapters, is better than a John Grisham courtroom novel. It is an account of two dramatic trials: the first, a criminal trial of two members of the Mobile, Alabama Klan for the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald, an innocent black nineteen-year-old, randomly selected and brutally murdered; and the second, the 1984 civil suit, brought by Morris Dees, civil rights attorney and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLA) against the United Klans of America (UKA). That suit, “Beulah Mae Donald, as Executor of . . .

PC Writers MFA Program: Now Open for RPCVs and PCVs

May 19 2016

Are you inspired by your Peace Corps service? Do you have an affinity for writing? Looking to write a memoir or book about your Peace Corps experience? John Coyne (RPCV Ethiopia 1962-64), editor of Peace Corps Worldwide, has arranged with National University in California to offer an online MFA program in non-fiction, fiction and poetry writing for PCV and RPCV writers. Courses are currently under development and will be taught by published Peace Corps authors and National University faculty members. Coyne will teach the introductory class and serve as an adviser to Peace Corps students. The inaugural program is slated to begin in Fall 2016 – will be accepting a class of 15 exceptional students. The MFA is flexible program. Students can complete the degree in between one to two years, taking a single one or two-month class at a time. As the course is online, students have the opportunity to progress at their own pace. This also allows . . .

Review — BREATHING THE SAME AIR by Gerry Christmas (Thailand, Western Samoa)

May 18 2016

Breathing the Same Air: A Peace Corps Romance Gerry Christmas (Thailand 1973–76; Western Samoa 1976–78) Lulu April 2015 366 pages $22.95 (paperback), $8.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by James Jouppi (Thailand 1971–73) • FOR HIS INTRODUCTION, Gerry Christmas uses an eighteen page “Peace Corps Termination Report” dated April 16, 1976. The body of his memoir consists of sixty-nine letters — he calls them “Epistles” — written after his three-year Thailand Peace Corps tour was complete. While these Epistles, at times, are very “newsy,” they also express, sometimes in intimate detail, his feelings about his girlfriend Aied, and, in more general terms, his evolving philosophies about true love between American men and “nice” Thai women. He wrote the first five Epistles while preparing for another Peace Corps tour of duty, this time in Western Samoa, and these were sent to people he’d known in Thailand. Thirty-five more were sent from Western Samoa, mostly to . . .

Review — SWIMMING by Karl Luntta (Botswana)

May 17 2016

Swimming: Stories Karl Luntta (Botswana 1977-80; staff: Fiji, Solomon Islands, Western Samoa, Kiribati, Barbados) Excelsior Editions/SUNY Press September 2015 180 pages $16.95 (paperback — from publisher), $12.38 (Kindle) Reviewed by Ben East (Malawi 1996–98) • ONE THING IS CERTAIN for foreigners at work in much of Africa: the proverbs can be as colorful as they are vague, utilitarian as they are vexing. The truth can emerge — or remain obscured — with a single phrase applied in limitless ways. Truth, in these proverbs, lies in the eye of the beholder and not the object beheld. This principle is at work in the eight stories of Karl Luntta’s Swimming, each of which churns beneath the surface with traces of hidden truth. Whether his characters are far removed from the world we know — like Maag, digging his own grave at the edge of the Kalahari — or are much closer to home, Luntta’s . . .

Review — BLOOD UPON THE SNOW by Martin Ganzglass (Somalia)

May 15 2016

Blood Upon The Snow (A Novel of the American Revolution) Martin R. Ganzglass (Somalia 1966–68) A Peace Corps Writers Book March, 2016 344 pages $14.95 (paperback), $3.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Thomas E. Coyne • Martin . . . Martin . . . Martin, we need maps and illustrations. Your descriptions of battles and the human misery of war are excellent as usual, but having to go to Rand McNally to trace the route of the army takes away from the flow of the novel. Plus, I’m never going to be able to build a bridge over the creek just by visualizing your directions. Please! — Tom • Martin R. Ganzglass is at it again. In this, the third in his series of Revolutionary War novels*, he has captured the extreme and deep seated patriotism of our nation’s forebears, the disdain of the British military and Loyalists and the cruel reality of war. Those . . .

Andy Martin (Ethiopia) still explaining American English to the world

May 15 2016

It is impressive what creative things PCVs do in the classroom to teach and have their students understand — in English — what in the world we Americans are saying. It is more impressive when an RPCV, some fifty years after his tour, is still experimenting with new devices to help foreign students in the US learn our particular (and peculiar) language, this time using the Internet and social media. Meet Andy Martin (Ethiopia 1965–68) who lives in New York City and has come up with two ingenious ways to explain to non-English-speakers our humor and the way we Americans talk among ourselves. As Andy wrote me . . . • When I came home from Ethiopia after three years in the Peace Corps teaching ESL, I had no desire or intent to teach ESL — or anything else. I mostly wanted to play rock and roll and join the revolution. I played at both of these for . . .

A film worth watching: A PASSING OF THE TORCH

May 14 2016

Our Peace Corps History A Passing of the Torch reveals the magical moment in history that lead to one of the first student movements of the 1960’s and the formation of the Peace Corps. Candidate John F. Kennedy gave a three-minute impromptu speech before 10,000 University of Michigan students who had waited in the chill until 2:00 AM to hear him speak. In that speech he challenged them to commit a part of their lives to public service. That speech addressed a yearning among young people in America to make a difference. In answer to that challenge a group of Michigan students began a national student movement that would lead to the formation of the Peace Corps in just a few short months. This documentary explores the incredible events and synchronicity of what happened and it’s relevance today through the perspectives and recollections of those involved including Bill Moyers, Harris . . .

Review — LOVE OR JUSTICE by Rachel Mannino (DC/staff)

May 13 2016

True Crime on the Hawaiian Lei-Away Plan Love or Justice Rachel Mannino (DC/staff) Limitless Publishing October 2015 408 pages $16.95 (paperback), $3.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Kitty Thuermer (Mali 1977–79) • He had me at “bodice ripper.” When John Coyne asked me to review Rachel Mannino’s Love or Justice, it was an easy sell. Too easy. After all, who could resist what a breathless reader called “a sexy, thrilling read . . .. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a sexy and tough alpha FBI male that’s broody and hot, and a thrill ride with sexiness and a book that will leave you wanting more.” Wanting more? What I wanted was to edit that run-on testimonial and then get out the smelling salts in anticipation of a hot read. Mr. Coyne had, after all, dubbed Mannino the E.L James of Peace Corps —referring to the Fifty Shades of Grey author. . . .

The Snugli, happy babies and the Peace Corps

May 13 2016

Ann Moore was a pioneer Peace Corps Volunteer, a pediatric nurse who went to Togo in 1962. She was a member of a Peace Corps medical group which included doctors, nurses, lab techs, a pharmacist and others. Ann observed the traditional patterns of baby care in Togo. She saw that the babies were always carried by their mothers. She noted “the outstanding emotional well being of the African infant, either sick or healthy”. Ann brought home what she learned and created the baby carrier, the Snugli. Generations of happy babies and parents, the world over, was the result. But, read Ann’s powerful story in her own words. Clink on the statement to which says to “continue reading.” https://americannursetoday.com/blog/the-snugli-story/

FIVE AGAINST THE SEA by Ron Arias (Peru)

May 13 2016

In 1988 Ron Arias (Peru 1963-65), Senior Writer for People Magazine, interviewed five Costa Rican fishermen as they were rescued by a Japanese fishing boat in the Pacific after five months lost at sea and wrote a cover story for People. They had drifted closer to Japan than Costa Rica in Central America. This was a weekend fishing event for these friends, which turned into five months of near death on a day by day basis. Their small day boat, the Cairo, was not equipped for five months at sea, no water, and only the basic food for a weekend. But they had each other and believed their families would be waiting; they had to survive! The men collected rain water to drink, caught fish and birds for food. Ron’s cover story became a book about their ordeal, Five Against the Sea and was translated into Spanish as Cinco contra el Mar. Costa . . .

Archive - 2016