Archive - April 2017

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Matthews Davis of the Alan Cheuse Writers Center invites RCPVs… . .(Mongolia)
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Plan for Peace Corps in the Absence of Appropriations
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Let’s help Rajeev Goyal (Nepal) with his crowd funding
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The Peace Corps in the Time of Trump, Part 10
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Day 10th And Final Day Of Innocence, The Peace Corps in 1961-1962
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Mary Ann Orlando died unexpectedly at her Chevy Chase apartment, Wednesday, April 19, 2017
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Lets help Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala) win in West Virginia … make a donation to this RPCV!
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Day Nine Of Innocence, The Peace Corps in 1961-1962
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A PCV Harmed For Life By Her Tour (Malaysia)
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Day Eight Of Innocence, The Peace Corps in 1961-1962
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Day Seven Of Innocence, The Peace Corps in 1961-1962
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Day Six Of Innocence, The Peace Corps in 1961-1962
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Mark Walker (Guatemala) publishes DIFFERENT LATITUDES
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Day Five Of Innocence, The Peace Corps in 1961-1962
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EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR THE BEST: a true 1960s love story (Ecuador)

Matthews Davis of the Alan Cheuse Writers Center invites RCPVs… . .(Mongolia)

The Alan Cheuse Writers Center is at George Mason University in Virginia and the founding director is Matthew Davis (Mongolia 2000-02). Matt joined the Peace Corps after college, and his years as a Volunteer in The Land of Blue Sky inspired his first book, When Things Get Dark: A Mongolian Winter’s Tale, which won our 2011 Peace Corps Experience Award. Davis holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa and an MA in International Relations from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He’s worked at The International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, been a Fulbright Fellow to Syria and Jordan and a Tom and Mary Gallagher Fellow at The Black Mountain Institute in Las Vegas. The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center is a center that facilitates the exchange of international creative writers and writing in order to help foster the tolerance and understanding . . .

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Plan for Peace Corps in the Absence of Appropriations

There is some uncertainty about continuing funding for the federal government as Congress deliberates on a budge and/or a continuing budget resolution.  In a statement published in December of 2016, Peace Corps outlined its plans in the event there is temporary absence of appropriations.  Here is the link: http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/documents/Peace_Corps_Operations_Plan_in_the_Absence_of_Appropriations.pdf

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Let’s help Rajeev Goyal (Nepal) with his crowd funding

The Crowd Rise Earth Roadmap Challenge is a crowd funding competition aimed at finding the most innovative, grassroots solution to the global environmental crisis. Whichever organization raises the most funds by May 18, will receive a $100,000 bonus prize in addition to whatever they raise, and beyond that their concept will help define the new global roadmap to tackling challenges that larger INGOs and the UN have failed in addressing. KTK-BELT (www.belt-project.org) has entered its vision of the world’s first 25,000-foot ‘Vertical University’ into the competition and after one week, they are in 1st place among 60 organizations, having raise $22,596. They are seeking support to win the competition. Donations, which are tax-deductible, can be made by clicking below. https://www.crowdrise.com/ktk-belt-roadmap2017 Rajeev Goyal was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal between 2001 and 2003. During that time he helped bring water to a village called Namje. He wrote a memoir about his . . .

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The Peace Corps in the Time of Trump, Part 10

On December 23, 1999, Mark Schneider (El Salvador 1966-68) took over from Mark Gearan as the new Director. Schneider was an RPCV, the second to become Director. He had previously worked on the Hill for Ted Kennedy, and he even got Kennedy to come briefly to HQ for a short speech where Kennedy was lavish in his praise of Mark. Mark was another of those “In, Up and Out” Directors, lasting on the job until January 20, 2001. Not that it was Mark’s fault. With the change in the White House, and Bush in office, Mark was history. Unlike most Directors, he did not leave a footprint in the office, however, he did work on developing information technology projects done by PCVs. A first for the agency. A few years before Mark came to the job, I was working at the agency and proposed at some meeting that Peace Corps Volunteers . . .

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Mary Ann Orlando died unexpectedly at her Chevy Chase apartment, Wednesday, April 19, 2017

  By  Nancy Dutton 4/21/17 Washington Mary Anne may have been – likely was – the oldest living member of the large John F. Kennedy family clan and thus leaves a giant hole.  She was born in Chicago, youngest of several sisters, graduated from high school at 16, and began immediately working for Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy and the Merchandise Mart. Two years later, Kennedy assigned her to the new Mart Director, Sargent Shriver. In 1956  she and Sarge worked on JFK bid for the Vice Presidency, and in 1959 they left to work on the JFK Presidential Campaign. She moved to Washington and stayed with Sarge… as his ‘Ex Sec’ to create and found the Peace Corps. Then they took on (simultaneously) the founding and directing of  President Johnson’s War on Poverty (Head Start, the Job Corps, Vista, Upward Bound…the Office of Economic Opportunity), and finally with Sarge at the . . .

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Lets help Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala) win in West Virginia … make a donation to this RPCV!

Today I asked Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-93) how his campaign for City Council was going. He replied: The campaign has gotten a little ugly. The other side tried to red-bait me because of my association with Mountaineers for Progress (an organization that helps poor people)! “Anticipating that they’d go after my mental-health history,” he went on, “I beat them to the punch with ‘Tom Eagleton is my political role model: Voices’” I urge you to take a look at Mark’s column that was published in USA Today. Mark’s campaign site is www.MarkForWestVirginia.com

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A PCV Harmed For Life By Her Tour (Malaysia)

  We tend to praise and take pleasure in the successes of RPCVs, recognizing their achievement and credit their Peace Corps service, taking, I’m sure, reflected glory in their success, thinking to ourselves, “Well, I was in the Peace Corps, too!” But what about the thousands who came away from their two years (or less) with permanent illnesses and because of government bureaucratic screw-ups and limitations were unable to get medical or psychological help? We all know of someone. In fact, we all know of more than one RPCV in our group who has had medical and emotional problems because of their Peace Corps service. There are few stories, however, that are more tragic than what happened to Nancy Flanigan in Malaysia. A victim of a violent raped while in-country. Since the early ’60s she has spent decades trying to heal, not knowing until very late in her life that . . .

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Mark Walker (Guatemala) publishes DIFFERENT LATITUDES

  SUMMER, 1971. A naïve young man must decide his path upon graduation from a small university in Colorado. Amidst the turmoil of the counterculture years and the looming possibility of being sent to Vietnam, he concludes that he wants to travel, serve, and, if possible, save the world. As a Peace Corps Volunteer Mark embarks on a vigorous cross cultural experience in a Caribbean and two Central American countries, with a final stop in one of the more isolated areas of the highlands of Guatemala. Though beset with a fear of the unknown and feelings of profound isolation due to being the only Volunteer in a remote village, he eventually gets to know and appreciate the people of the rural communities he is privileged to live among. After a near-death experience takes him to another part of Guatemala and eventually to a horse town, Mark meets the love of . . .

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EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR THE BEST: a true 1960s love story (Ecuador)

  Thanks  to the ‘heads up’ from Dan Campbell (El Salvador 1974-77) • Author Philip R. Mitchell’s Everything Happens for the Best: A Cross-Cultural Romance During the Early Years of the Peace Corps is a 1960s Love Story. Recently published  Philip R. Mitchell (Ecuador 1964-66) Peace Corps memoir is the adventurous and romantic story of the author’s determination to service his country, his fateful encounter with the love of his life, and the lengths he would go to conquer the time and distance between them while he taught in Ecuador. Philip R. Mitchell’s tale details the courtship and passion of Phil and Beatriz, whose paths in life diverge for an agonizing two years before coming together once again.   • Everything Happens for the Best: A Cross-Cultural Romance During the Early Years of the Peace Corps Philip R. Mitchell (El Salvador 1964–66) Page Publishing, Inc. February 2017 $12.12 (paperback), $9.99 . . .

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