Archive - 2017

The story of Harris Wofford and Sarge Shriver’s advice to Jack Kennedy in the 1960 election has been told many times. I first heard it from Wofford in Ethiopia when a group of PCVs were at the Woffords’ home for dinner back in 1962. For those who do not know the history, Wofford was the first Peace Corps Director in Ethiopia, having already helped to create the Peace Corps with Shriver, and after having been Kennedy’s civil rights advisor in the White House, and before that involved in the campaign to elect Kennedy president when this incident took place. In a new book: KENNEDY AND KING The President, the Pastor, and the Battle Over Civil Rights by Steven Levingston, reviewed in the  New York Times in this week’s Sunday edition, that event in the presidential campaign is detailed again. Many believe it was the ‘key’ event that swayed the election in Kennedy’s favor. In his review, James . . .

Meet Acting Director Sheila Crowley at Peace Corps Connect   Acting Director Sheila Crowley  to Join Peace Corps Connect Conference. NPCA is pleased to announce that Acting Peace Corps Director Sheila Crowley will be a featured speaker at the Peace Corps Connect conference on Saturday, August 5, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. Acting Director Crowley will join NPCA President and CEO Glenn Blumhorst in a “fireside chat” to talk about Peace Corps’ priorities under her leadership and then present the Deborah Harding Women of Achievement Award. Register now to get your front row seat at these important events. Meet Acting Director Sheila Crowley Sheila Crowley has served as Acting Director of the Peace Corps since January 2017. She brings to that role more than 25 years of public and private-sector experience, including leadership roles in international development, business, and the financial services industry. Most recently, Sheila served from 2015 to 2017 as Acting Associate Director of Peace Corps’ Office of . . .

Laurette Bennhold-Samaan writes from refugee camp in Greece Courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount― Clare Boothe Luce The gift we can offer other is so simple a thing as hope- Daniel Berrigan I love the ocean and always have. It gives me a peaceful sense and an appreciation of nature. My dream has always been to retire at the ocean someplace sometime. I now look at the ocean in a different way. Yesterday I learned much more about the EU/Turkey deal the end of March in which the EU paid Turkey to accommodate more refugees however many of the refugees would prefer to be reunited with various family members in other countries. In 2015 when there were hundreds of refugees arriving daily, to Samos, they were sleeping on the streets as there was no coordinated location to house them (no refugee camp). Last night at dinner, . . .

  Thanks for the ‘Heads up’ about the following article from Dan Campbell (El Salvador 1974-77)  • Astronomer Jillian Bellovary On Black Holes, The Peace Corps And RollerDerby Written by Swapna Krishna, Syfy Wire Women are doing amazing things in space science, and today I want you to meet Jillian Bellovary. Jillian studies black holes, and in this interview she was kind enough to talk to me about her research, her experiences as a woman in STEM, the Peace Corps, roller derby, and how knitting led her to a dream job.     Can you tell me about how you got to where you are professionally? What was your path to becoming an astronomer? Jillian Bellovary: I’m interested in everything. I wasn’t one of those kids who always wanted to be a scientist because I have always wanted to do everything. Everything! I almost majored in Anthropology but decided the job . . .

  Thanks to a a ‘heads up’ about this article from Catherine Varchaver, (APCD Kyrgyzstan 1995-97). •   Mongolians, Zimbabweans and refugees come to sing for JFK Washington Post, June 23, 2017 By Anne Midgette • How do you commemorate John F. Kennedy in a performing arts festival? All this season, the Kennedy Center has been trying to answer that question with a series of performances honoring Kennedy’s centennial that often seem only tenuously linked to Kennedy. “I don’t care if [audiences] don’t get it,” Deborah Rutter, the Kennedy Center’s president, told The Washington Post earlier this year about the connection of some of the performances to Kennedy’s legacy. “I don’t need to them to. I know it’s going to soak in, and that’s why we’re doing it.” But starting Thursday, the Kennedy Center is co-presenting a festival that does proceed directly from a Kennedy initiative. The choral festival “Serenade” is coming to the Kennedy . . .

I got the attached PDF from Jim McCaffery (Ethiopia 1966-68) recently. It is an article by Jim published in the old Volunteer Magazine. It is a terrific article and I’m glad Jim sent it. Jim is from Wisconsin and went to Ethiopia in 1966. Later he worked at a Trainer in Addis Ababa and then went to Botswana as the Deputy Director. (I’m indebted to Jim for when I was traveling through Africa for a year in 1969 he put me up for several weeks and never charged me rent!) After the Peace Corps Jim got a PhD from the University of Wisconsin and in 1981 he and a couple others founded TRG, an organization development consulting firm that has been very successful and well respected. Now semi-retired Jim is the process (as we all are) of tossing away most of the Peace Corps files we have in the attic and . . .

Join New York RPCVs for the 6th Annual Story Slam on Saturday, June 24th in NYC Got a medical horror story? Can’t stop talking about your digestive track? Did you ever rescue a dog from a latrine? If so, you may have been a Peace Corps Volunteer! Come hear true tales of adventure told LIVE on stage about what it was really like to have the toughest job you’ll ever love. Join us for our 6th Annual Returned Peace Corps Story Slam! As we all know, Peace Corps is 27 months of continuous funny, poignant, and amazing stories. When RPCVs tell stories, they humanize and illuminate places and people with that unique, grassroots, Peace Corps perspective. We’ll have a brand new batch of stories this year, all sure to make you laugh, cringe, and maybe even cry. Suggested contribution of $5 for entry and drinks also available for a donation. Proceeds will support . . .

As president of the RPCV of Washington, D.C., Roger Landrum (Nigeria 1961-63) was the major force in creating the 25th Anniversary Conference. I asked Roger to write from his perspective about the event, and I am pleased to publish his comments here. Thank you, Roger. Note JC The Primary Achievement of the 25th Anniversary Conference The most enduring impact of the 25th anniversary conference was engaging the growing number of Returned Peace Corps Volunteer as an organized force supporting the three goals of the Peace Corps. Those of us who initiated and organized the anniversary conference were determined to build more effective RPCV organizations.  The group of Iowa RPCVs who created the National Council of RPCVs (now the NPCA) made an important breakthrough in 1979 by establishing a framework for an independent national alumni organization, but that organization had only a small membership and lacked momentum. The 1986 anniversary conference, . . .

Laurette Bennhold-Samaan started working at the Peace Corps in 1995 as the first Cross-Cultural  Specialist with the Peace Corps and pioneered mandatory state-of-the-art cross-cultural training for all Volunteers and Staff in more than 90 countries. After her Peace Corps years, she went to work for the World Bank, and then for several cross-cultural firms until very recently when she found herself out-of-work. This is Laurette’s very new blog that is telling us what she is doing now, and I thought you might all find it interesting. Note: JC Your job is over…. But your work has just begun Hearing the words, “your job is over” from my current employer went over like a lead balloon. Then, after 3 long and arduous months of job searching, I realized that I needed to change directions. I needed to take advantage of the time “off” in between jobs and do something that I have always wanted . . .

Many RPCVs had traveled to the conference primarily to be united with old friends. Friday evening, they were involved in hundreds of parties around the city. One street was cordoned off in the Adams Morgan area of D.C. for dancing and food. The restaurants of that area—Meskerem, the Red Sea, The Manilla, and others—were filled with RPCVs. Loret Miller Ruppe got her family to donate Miller beer for an international festival on the Mall that Sunday afternoon. There was a Caribbean band, I recall, plus the Izalco and Asian dance troupe, and the Kankouran, an African dance troupe, which had hundreds of volunteers up and dancing to African drums. “You could tell the volunteers from Africa by how they danced,” said Mark Hallett (Philippines 1983-85). Paul Wood (Nepal 1965-67) wrote in the Sebastapol Times and News of his time in D.C., “We could be free with each other in ways . . .