Archive - 2017

  From the National Peace Corps Association: Today the Trump Administration announced its proposal to cut almost $12 million from Peace Corps’ present budget, lowering it to $398 million for fiscal year 2018. This amounts to the largest proposed cut to the Peace Corps by a president in over 40 years. With these cuts,  the agency will likely be unable to increase the number of volunteers for greater impact in over 60 countries,  make programmatic improvements volunteers need to be effective, or invest in our domestic dividend through support for returned volunteers’ work in their local communities. The budget proposal also requests disproportionate 32% cuts to the topline International Affairs Budget, bringing America’s development and diplomacy programs back to 9/11 levels and hampering the ability of Peace Corps’ partners to strengthen interagency project implementation. Glenn Blumhorst, president and CEO of National Peace Corps Association, responded to the president’s proposed cuts: Considering the challenges we currently face at . . .

 …..when you were in the Peace Corps. You’re one of hundreds of RPCV’s who said that you had symptoms that you believe might have been caused by mefloquine (Lariam). Yes, it’s been a long time – we sent out that survey almost two years ago. Believe it or not, we’re just now wrapping up our project and getting close to scheduling the stories; many thanks for your help. But we have a couple quick questions again that we need you to answer please to help us fill in some blanks. Would you please send me your answers in a reply email? DZwerdling@npr.org 1)      Did any Peace Corps staff talk to you, either one-on-one or in a group meeting, about Malarone? 2)      If so, what do you remember them saying about the drug? Please tell us everything you remember, including discussions of Malarone’s pros/cons, availability to volunteers, cost, etcetcetc. 3)      And . . .

CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to strengthen the social network’s community by connecting users to people they should know. Zuckerberg, who has been on a tour visiting every state as part of his annual personal challenge (not because he intends running for public office, as speculated), posted an update of his travels over the weekend that revealed how he’s working with developers to build artificial intelligence systems that could help people build new, valuable relationships. “We’ve built AI systems to recommend ‘People You May Know.’ But it might be just as important to also connect you with people you should know — mentors and people outside your circle who care about you and can provide a new source of support and inspiration” Zuckerberg wrote in the post. Nothing has been built yet, but Zuckerberg has already thought about different models that might work. The first is a digital Peace Corps of . . .

“Two months before I was supposed to leave the Peace Corps,” Theroux recalled in a 1971 essay published in Esquire and reprinted in Sunrise with Seamonsters, “I was charged with conspiring against the government. All I did was to help several Africans: help one’s mother, help another with his car, maybe write a few mild anti-government [U.S.] articles. But I was linked to a plot to assassinate Hastings Banda. Well, people I knew were actually trying to shoot Banda. So it was more guilt by association.” Theroux came home to be interrogated by the State Department and the Peace Corps.  Writing about this in Esquire, under the title, “The Killing of Hastings Banda,” Theroux explained how he had innocently gotten mixed up with the German equivalent of the CIA. He was writing, “background” pieces for what he understood was a German magazine, but what was actually their intelligence service. This, of . . .

Paul Theroux lived, not only on the edge of the Rift Valley but also on the edge of the Peace Corps. He was the Volunteer who lived in the African village without servants. He drank in the shanty bars instead of with the Brits at their gymkhanas. He went out with African women and did not date the pale daughters of British settlers when they came home on holidays from their all-white Rhodesian boarding schools. He hated the PCVs who ran with the ex-pats, the “wog bashers,” as they called themselves. PCV Paul Nelson (Malawi 1963-65) remembers him from Training. “Paul was always his own person,” Nelson wrote me. “In those days of background checks and psychological interviews, Theroux did not fit the predetermined patterns. During one interview, when asked his opinion of marriage, he described it as a three-headed horse, leaving the interviewer puzzling as to what box that . . .

2016 Memoirs Nominated for The Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award The Toughest Job: The Crossroads of One Man’s Peace Corps Experience (Second edition) Scott M. Henrickson (Cote d’Ivoire 1995–96) CreateSpace January 2016 Journey to the Heart of the Condor: Love, Loss, and Survival in a South American Dictatorship (A “parallel” memoir that relates the Peace Corps experience) Emily C. Creigh (Paraguay 1975–77) and Dr. Martín Almada Peace Corps Writers February 2016 The Emperor and the Elephants: A Peace Corps Volunteer’s Story of Life During the Late 1970s in the Central African Empire Richard W. Carroll (Central Africa Republic 1976–82) Peace Corps Writers May, 2016 The Relunctant Volunteer: My Unforgettable Journey with the Peace Corps in Brazil Peggy Constantine (Brazil 1970–71 ) BookBaby May 2016 Brooklyn, NY to Bocaiúva, Brazil: A Peace Corps Love Story Franklin D. Rothman (Brazil 1967–69) Peace Corps Writers May 2016 Hidden Places: A Journey from Kansas to Kilimanjaro (Peace Corps . . .

2016 Novels Nominated for The Maria Thomas Fiction Award The Girl in the Glyphs David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963-65) A Peace Corps Writers Book January 5, 2016 American Sahib Eddie James Girdner (India 1968–70) CreateSpace March 2016 Blood Upon The Snow  Martin R. Ganzglass (Somalia 1966–68) A Peace Corps Writers Book March, 2016 Judenstaat Simone Zelitch (Hungary 1991–93) Tor Books June 2016 Torment [historical fiction] Jack Britton Sullivan (Guatemala 1993–96) self-published September, 2o16 Bob Stevenson Richard Wiley (Korea 1967-69) Bellevue Literary Press September 2016 Road to the Sea Tim Schell (Central African Empire 1978–79) Serving House Books Two Pumps for the Body Man by B.A. East (Malawi 1996–98) New Pulp Press March 2016 KMEDJZIK: Charles & Louise, Book 2    by Woody Starkweather (Kazakhstan 2004–06) Birch Tree Books November 2016 If you have a novel published in 2016 by a PCV or Peace Corps Staff that you wish to nominate, email: jcoyneone@gmail.com   . . .

2016 Books Nominated for The Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award A Time for War: Veterans’ Stories from One American Town: Scituate, Massachusetts Ronald Wheatley (Nigeria 1963–65) Hellgate Press January 2016 African Witch: Modern Tale of Magical Harm Christopher West Davis CreateSpace January 2016 Visions of a Lost and Future World Jane Stillwater (South Africa 2007) CreateSpace May 2016 Hyena’s Tree Thomas J. Larson (Benin 1974–76) THEAQ LLC June 2016 Kingdoms in the Air: Dispatches from the Far Away by Bob Shacochis (Eastern Caribbean 1975-76) Grove Atlantic June 2016 The Embassy: A Story of War and Diplomacy Dante  Paradiso (Kenya 1993–95) Beaufort Books November 2016 Uprooting Terrorism Everywhere Charles Cox (Ecuador 1965-67; APCD/Peru, Brazil 1970-75) BookLocker.com December 2016 The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan Laurence  Leamer (Nepal 1964–66) William Morrow June 2016 Grampa Joe: Portrait of a Quiet Hero Biography Troy D. Montes (El Salvador 2004–06), editor Patriot Media Incorporated May 2016 Letters from Susie: . . .

2016 Award for Best Short Stories Collection Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air Jeff  Fearnside (Kazakhstan 2002–04) Stephen F. Austin University Press December 2016 Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, Volume II Cliff Garstang (Korea 1976–77), editor and contributor; Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1990-93, staff 1995-96), contributor; Pamela Hartmann (South Korea, 1973–75), contributor Press 53 September 2016 Brevité: A Collection of Short Fiction Stephen Mustoe (Kenya 1983–84) Peace Corps Writers May 2016 In the Valley of Birds by Rebeka Fergusson-Lutz (Romania 2001-03) CreateSpace Publishing August 2016 Phobos & Deimos: Two Moons, Two Worlds by John Moehl (Camaroon 1974–80) Resource Publications August 2016 The Wetback and Other Stories Ron Arias (Peru 1963–65) Arte Publico Press September 2016 On the Wide African Plain: And Other Stories of Africa Rick Fordyce (Ghana 1978—80) Merrimack Media August 2016 Off To The Next Wherever by John Michael Flynn (Moldova 1993-95) Fomite Publisher April 2016 If you . . .

 2016 Award for Best Travel Book Moon Colorado Camping: The Complete Guide to Tent and RV Camping Joshua  Berman (Nicaragua 1998–2000) Avalon Travel Publishing April 2016 Sailing between the Seas: The Panama Canal Leita  Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) CreateSpace March 2016 Tales of a Silver-Haired Volunteer: Going Far and Giving Back Carole  Howard (staff spouse: Ivory Coast, Togo, Senegal 1972–75) Gatekeeper Press May 2016 Tales of Family Travel: Bathrooms of the World by Kay Gillies Dixon (Colombia 1962–64) Peace Corps Writers October 2016 A Minor Odyssey Keekee Minor (India 1966–67; staff: CD/Marshall Islands 1991–92) Bar Nothing Books July 2016 If you have a travel book published in 2016 by a PCV or Peace Corps Staff that you wish to nominate, email: jcoyneone@gmail.com  

2016 Award for Best Poetry Book Lips Open and Divine Matthew A. Hamilton (Armenia 2006–08; Philippines 2008–10) Winter Goose Publishing April 2016 Double Chai Quilt: Selected Poems 1980–2016 Steve Rapp (Benin 1986–88) Harvard Bookstore April 2016 If you have a book of poetry novel published in 2016 by a PCV or Peace Corps Staff that you wish to nominate, email: jcoyneone@gmail.com

Inclusion: The Dream and the Reality in Special Education Jeanne D’Haem (Somalia 1968–70) Roman and Littlefield July 2016 Proverbial Laughter of the World: Afghanistan to Zimbabwe by Nicholas Hoesl ( Afghanistan 1965-67) LaughterDoc Publications September 2016 The President’s Butler (satire) by Laurence Leamer (Nepal 1964-66) Foggy Bottom Books September  2016 One Million Frogs: Lessons About Entrepreneurship Learned the Hard Way Rhett Power (Uzbekistan 2000–01) and Peter Gasca Mill City Press June 2016 White Moon in a Powder Blue Sky: A Primer in Healing from both Sides of the Veil in Memoir, Sonnets and Prose    Julie R. Dargis (Morocco 1984–87) Indie House Press July 2016 Visions of a Lost and Future World   Philosophy/Ethics Jane Stillwater (South Africa 2007) CreateSpace May 2016   If you have a special book published in 2016 by a PCV or Peace Corps Staff that you wish to nominate, email: jcoyneone@gmail.com  

Peace Corps Writers Book Awards Nominations are now being accepted by Peace Corps Writers for its awards for best books published during 2016 and written by PCVs, RPCVs, and Peace Corps staff. Do you have a favorite to nominate? Or did you write a book that you would like to have considered? Please recommend your candidates for the following categories: Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award Maria Thomas Fiction Award The Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award (for best memoir on the Peace Corps experience) Award for Best Poetry Book Award for Best Travel Writing Award for Best Children’s Book Award for Best Book of Photography Read MORE ABOUT OUR AWARDS. Send in your nominations by June 30, 2017 to: jcoyneone@gmail.com  

  WHEN MIKE MCCONE arrived in Malawi as the new Peace Corps Director in August of 1965 he met PCV Paul Theroux who was teaching in Blantyre at the teacher’s college, Mike told me when I interviewed him for an article I wrote about Theroux for the January 1998 issue of RPCV Writers & Readers.  Theroux asked for McCone’s permission to resume publishing the Volunteer newsletter, The Migraine, which the previous director had banned because the first issue had an editorial by Paul critical of U.S. policy on South Africa. McCone told Paul he could publish the newsletter. Theroux put together the next issue of The Migraine which was full of prose and poetry, facts and fiction, plus opinion pieces. In this issue, Paul had a two-paragraph editorial critical of U.S. policy in Vietnam. As a routine matter, McCone sent a copy to the U.S. Embassy in Blantyre. Two weeks later, when he was on . . .