2016 – Page 24 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Cold Hand of History, The Peace Corps, Part 3

Feb 04 2016

Contrary to what the Peace Corps Evaluators wrote in their 1967 Evaluation of the Ethiopia project, that Wofford and the agency had “chosen the incorrect “institutional” answer-the secondary schools-to the problems of Ethiopia,” the Empire in 1962 had a serious “educational emergency,” which threatened to retard permanently its economic development. According to Gary May, out of a secondary school-age population estimated at approximately one million, only six thousand were enrolled in 1960, and there were few college-trained Ethiopians qualified to teach them. This crisis had its origins during the Italian occupation (1935-1941), when the Italians killed nearly 20,000 Ethiopians, “reportedly concentrating on the professional, educational, and political leaders.” When Selassie returned to Ethiopia in 1941 he found “almost no educated people left in the country.” Over the next two-decades he attempted to fill this gap by importing teachers from abroad. The Emperor considered education so important to the modernization of . . .

RPCVs Speaking Up For Their Host Country Families and Friends

Feb 03 2016

We are the Board Members of Arkadaşlar, “Friends of Turkey,” representing over 800 returned PCVs. As Peace Corps Volunteers in Turkey in the 1960s and early 1970s, we learned, and lived, the value of understanding and respecting other cultures and religions, specifically Muslims and Islam. Many of us formed life-long friendships with our colleagues and neighbors, who were more like us than not. Accordingly, we endorse the Minnesota RPCV message as reflective of our views and experience. The Minnesota Message: We, 99 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers from Minnesota, have written this letter to counter the recent increase in anti-Muslim, anti-Islam, and anti-immigrant rhetoric that is sweeping across America and our state. We served for two years as Peace Corps Volunteers in various countries around the world. Although we all had very different experiences in different cultures, one thing that binds us together is an understanding that the more you know about . . .

Peace Corps and IBM Corporate Service Corps Team Up

Feb 03 2016

Melinda Tabler-Stone, Deputy Chief of Mission for the U.S. Embassy in Accra, Ghana (left), and Louise Hemond-Wilson, IBM Corporate Service Corps Member, are all smiles after Louise is sworn in as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer. On Janaury 15, Louise Hemond-Wilson became the first IBM Corporate Service Corps member to be sworn in for duty as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer through a recent partnership between Peace Corps and IBM. Louise will support girls’ empowerment and gender equity projects. Her work will focus on connecting girls to electronic resources that reinforce school curriculums so that they can stay connected to their studies if they miss school for economic or other reasons. Additionally, her work aims to engage males in girls’ empowerment and gender equity practices within communities. WASHINGTON, D.C., December 2, 2015 – The Peace Corps and IBM (NYSE: IBM) are launching an innovative public-private partnership to allow highly skilled corporate professionals to serve . . .

Cold Hand of History,The Peace Corps Part 2

Feb 02 2016

As we know the Peace Corps was crafted by 20-24 men in two rooms of the Mayflower Hotel in thirty days following Kennedy’s inauguration. Using Warren Wiggins and Bill Josephson’s “The Towering Task” as the blueprint, the agency was established by Executive Order on March 1, 1961. Shriver and a half dozen staffers then left on a round-the-world tour to get nations to take PCVs, now that we had an agency. When they reached India, Shriver received word from Wiggins that a draft of Kennedy’s Special Message to the Congress on Foreign Aid indicated that the President believed the Peace Corps should be part of the new Agency for International Development (AID). It should not be an independent agency. Shriver called Wiggins and Moyers to get to Lyndon Johnson, who supported the Peace Corps, and have him “plead their case” to Kennedy. Johnson did corner the President, and Kennedy is . . .

Cold Hand of History: The Peace Corps, Part I

Feb 01 2016

In 1989, Thomas G. Paterson, a Professor of History at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, put together the first major reassessment of JFK’s foreign policies. It was a collection of essays on everything from the covert war against Fidel Castro to the Peace Corps. The essay on the Peace Corps is entitled “Passing the Torch and Lighting Fires: The Peace Corps.” It was written by Gary May, then and now, a Professor of History at …the University of Delaware. The essay is based mostly on a series of interviews he had with Ethiopian PCVs in the 1980s. Reading that essay on the Peace Corps–the 11th and final chapter of the book entitled Kennedy’s Quest For Victory: American Foreign Policy, 1961-63, published by Oxford Press– it is striking how negative, harsh, and also realistic we were twenty plus years after our tour. Well, as reported by Gary May and based on . . .

Katherine Russell Tsarnaev Wanted to be a PCV

Jan 31 2016

Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, Wife Of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Wanted By Feds For Interview Katherine Russell was a talented artist, a good student who grew up Christian, the daughter of a suburban doctor. Then she went off to college in Boston. A few years later, she had dropped out of school, converted to Islam and was Katherine Tsarnaeva, wife of a man who would become a suspect in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings and a subject of one of the biggest manhunts in American history. Tsarnaeva attended North Kingstown High School, graduating in 2007. Her yearbook entry lists her plans as college and the Peace Corps. Her art teacher for four years, Amos Trout Paine, remembered her talent in painting and drawing and said she was at the top of her class. MORE AT: Several sources. huffingtonpost.com is one. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/22/katherine-russell-tsarnaev-feds-interview_n_3131242.html also People at http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20694041,00.html

Scott Ritter says “The Peace Corps is the Answer”

Jan 31 2016

Thanks to a heads-up from Tom Hebert (Nigeria 1962-64) about the Huffington Post article “‘Digital Democracy’ and the ‘January 25 Revolution’ in Egypt” by Scott Ritter, author of Dangerous Ground writing about the fifth anniversary of the so-called “January 25 Revolution” of 2011, which led to the removal from power of Egypt’s President, Hosni Mubarak. The final paragraph in Scott Ritter’s Huffington Post article: There has never been a greater need for American leadership in the Middle East than today, and yet America finds itself hamstrung by its own hand. How and when America will be able to resume a leadership role based on the values of its ideas, as opposed to the strength of its military, is impossible to predict (there is an American model that does work — the Peace Corps, which promotes American values through constructive action while fully respecting the culture and traditions of the nation so engaged). . . .

Cindy Goff (Central African Republic 1983-85) Tales from the Heart Comic Books

Jan 31 2016

Organizing my Peace Corps books to donate them to one of the academic Peace Corps collections, I came across 8 comic books that were co-written in the late ’80s and early ’90s by Cindy Goff (Central African Republic 1983-85) and Rafael Nieves. The comics were first published by Entropy Enterprises in Minnesota, then by Slave Labor Graphics, in San Jose, California. The co-authorship began, as the two explain in the first issue, because of their friendship. Cindy writes, “He [Rafael] got me hooked on comics early in our friendship. Why we are friends is hard to figure out. He grew up in a tough Puerto Rican neighborhood of Chicago; I in the lily-white suburbs of Minneapolis. He dislikes chatter and boisterousness, both of which I am accused of regularly. He dislikes chatter and boisterousness, both of which I am accused of regularly. He is quiet and serious and street smart, . . .

Catherine Varchaver (APCD Kyrgyzstan 1995-97) Edits Her Grandmother’s Book on Fly Fishing

Jan 29 2016

Maxine Atherton learned to fish with her father and attended the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) where she met her future husband, John Atherton, the renowned painter and illustrator-and avid angler. After John’s untimely death in 1952 while fishing on the Miramichi in New Brunswick, Maxine embarked on an extended angling adventure in France and Spain that led to many more adventures over the next four decades. In 1962 Max published Every Sportsman’s Cookbook. She spent her last years writing in Manchester, Vermont, and died in January 1997. When she passed away, her granddaughter, Catherine Varchaver, (APCD Kyrgyzstan 1995-97) found a wrapped roll of manuscript pages that she had honed, one reviewer writes, “into this winsome yet powerful memoir” just published by Skyhorse Publishing and entitled, The Fly Fisher and the River. It is being released in conjunction with a reissue of The Fly and the Fish by . . .

Kellie Greene Peace Corps Former Director of the Office of Victim Advocacy Has More To Say

Jan 28 2016

Thanks to a ‘Heads Up’ from our blogger Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65) who found this comment from Kellie Greene who was dismissed by the Peace Corps last April. It appeared on First Response Actions’ Faceobook. Kellie Greene for Victim’s Rights Hello and welcome! I am Kellie Greene. I was the Director of the Peace Corps’ Office of Victim Advocacy (OVA) until April 29, 2015, when Peace Corps essentially removed me from my position. Chances are you are here because you saw or read in the news that I filed a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) against the Peace Corps. It’s true. I have. You can find the articles under “In the News”. Before I continue, I need to inform you of two things. First, the content on this website is mine alone and does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps. Second, this post . . .

Julie Ellen Fryman (Philippines 2015-17) Tells The Incredible Story of Lola Ko Sa Pilipinas

Jan 27 2016

Marching On: The Incredible Story of Lola Ko Sa Pilipinas (My Grandmother in the Philippines) by Julie Ellen Fryman (Philippines 2015-17) This story was originally written down on July 30, 2015, the night that it was told to me, so that I wouldn’t forget how my host grandmother looked when she told me these things or how it was that she came to share it with me. It pains me to think that if just a few decisions had been different – if the family hadn’t volunteered to host a Peace Corps trainee at the last minute or if I had been placed in the next barangay (community) over, I would not have had the privilege to sit with my host mother and grandmother that night and listen to how the family I fell in love with was all made possible through the extreme courage and resiliency of the tiny . . .

David Edmonds (Chile 1963–65) publishes thriller THE GIRL IN THE GLYPHS

Jan 24 2016

David writes — A cave in Nicaragua. A wall of mysterious glyphs. Pirate gold. What could possibly go wrong? Jennifer McMullen-Cruz, a Smithsonian specialist in ancient writing, is on a mission to find a mysterious “glyph” cave in Nicaragua. But no sooner does she arrive than she’s set upon by a gang of tomb looters who are also searching for the cave, not for glyphs, but for pirate gold. They’ve already killed one of her associates, and now they’re after her. Things get messy when she falls into a spiral of romance and intrigue with a handsome stranger at the US Embassy. And messier still when her cheating husband wants her back. Her life is further complicated by an obnoxious reporter who dogs her every step and an old Indian couple who may or may not be spirits. But her greatest challenge is in that cave in Nicaragua, written in . . .

Alan Toth (South Africa 2010-12) Goes Free With Posh Corps

Jan 24 2016

Three years ago, I started working on the Posh Corps project. The idea was simple: to discuss the modern Peace Corps experience honestly. I wanted to cut through the mythology and the marketing, and capture the experience of volunteering in a rapidly changing world. I spent three months in South Africa shooting the film. I returned to the United States and spent six months editing the film. In 2014, I started selling the film and screening it around the country. By the end of 2015, Posh Corps sales had almost recovered the production costs, and I started thinking about making a change. Today, if you visit poshcorps.com, you’ll find that all the feature films on the site are free. In fact, almost everything on poshcorps.com is now free, with theexception of licenses. I still ask people to pay for public screenings and educational licenses, as this helps cover the costs . . .

Review — CROCODILE LOVE by Joshua Berman (Nicaragua 1998-2000)

Jan 23 2016

Crocodile Love: Travel Tales from an Extended Honeymoon by Joshua Berman (Nicaragua 1998–2000) Tranquilo Travel Publishing 294 pages 2015 $17.95 (paperback), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Peter Deekle (Iran 1968–70) • When I served in Peace Corps/Iran in the late 1960s, I was urged to share my experiences with others upon my return to the United States. Joshua Berman has fully accomplished this through his monthly column in The Denver Post, his five previous travel books, his blog and website, many articles in The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler and other publications. Crocodile Love: Travel Tales from an Extended Honeymoon is Berman’s first narrative travel book, and one that not only vividly describes exotic locales, but also draws the reader into a compelling and extended story. The book makes the mysteries of different cultures both accessible and personal. As the author says early on in the book, “Everything about . . .

Archive - 2016

Cold Hand of History, The Peace Corps, Part 3

RPCVs Speaking Up For Their Host Country Families and Friends

Peace Corps and IBM Corporate Service Corps Team Up

Cold Hand of History,The Peace Corps Part 2

Cold Hand of History: The Peace Corps, Part I

Katherine Russell Tsarnaev Wanted to be a PCV

Scott Ritter says “The Peace Corps is the Answer”

Cindy Goff (Central African Republic 1983-85) Tales from the Heart Comic Books

Catherine Varchaver (APCD Kyrgyzstan 1995-97) Edits Her Grandmother’s Book on Fly Fishing

Kellie Greene Peace Corps Former Director of the Office of Victim Advocacy Has More To Say

Julie Ellen Fryman (Philippines 2015-17) Tells The Incredible Story of Lola Ko Sa Pilipinas

David Edmonds (Chile 1963–65) publishes thriller THE GIRL IN THE GLYPHS

Alan Toth (South Africa 2010-12) Goes Free With Posh Corps

Review — CROCODILE LOVE by Joshua Berman (Nicaragua 1998-2000)

More Links about Benghazi attack