April 2018 – Page 2 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Review – LONGING TO BE FREE by Judith Guskin (Thailand)

Apr 16 2018

Longing to Be Free: The Bear, the Eagle, and the Crown by Judith Guskin (Thailand 1961-64) Wonder Spirit Press 436 pages $19.36 (paperback), $11.99 (kindle) March 2018 Reviewed by Darcy Meijer (Gabon 1982-84) • Longing to Be Free is a fine piece of historical fiction, and it could well be used in middle and high school history classes. The novel deals with relations between settlers and Native Americans in New England between 1630 and 1677, and the politics in England which drove them. It is a complicated and sad story, and Guskin builds tension skillfully till the final bloody war. The novel focuses on Comfort Bradford, fictional daughter of Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford, who fled England to the Netherlands to escape religious persecution, then on to establish the Colony in Massachusetts. Comfort grows up close friends with the local Wampanoags, led by Chief Massasoit, and she learns the . . .

Talking China with Michael Meyer

Apr 16 2018

In the March/April issue of The Writer’s Chronicle I published this interview with Michael Meyer (China 1995-97) about his China books. Michael is one of what I call the “China Gang” who in the late ’90s went to China with the first groups of PCVs and wrote books about their host country. The RPCVs are, besides Meyer, Craig Simons (China 1996-98), Rob Schmitz (China 1996-98), and Peter Hessler (China 1996-98). — John Coyne Michael Meyer is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar award, and a two-time winner of a Lowell Thomas Award for travel writing. His stories have appeared in The New York Times, Time, Smithsonian, Slate, the Financial Times and [on] This American Life. He has also had residencies at the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy. He is a current fellow . . .

FIRST, YOU GET PISSED by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (Cameroon)

Apr 15 2018

To read Chapter One of Mary-Ann Tirone Smith’s (Cameroon 1965-67) new memoir, First, You Get Pissed, go to her home page mary-anntironesmith.com. Consecutive chapters will appear weekly, every Sunday, along with a link to the previous chapters. Comments are welcome by Mary-Ann and might even evolve into a new spin on a book discussion group. Mary-Ann’s second novel, Lament For A Silver-Eyed Woman, published in 1987, was the first novel written by an RPCV about the Peace Corps. Back in 2012 I asked Mary-Ann how she first got published and she told me — When I finished my second novel, The Book of Phoebe (the first was really bad), I could not get an agent because I hadn’t been published, and of course, I couldn’t get published because I didn’t have an agent. Catch-22. Then I read an interview in my local paper with a writer who mentioned that her editor was Kate . . .

Review — SHADE OF THE PARAISO by Mark Salvatore (Paraguay)

Apr 13 2018

Shade of the Paraiso: Two Years in Paraguay, South America – A Memoir by Mark Salvatore (Paraguay 1989–91) Melbourne: Vine Leaves Press April 2018 292 pages $14.99 (paperback) Reviewed by Ben East (Malawi 1996–98) • MARK SALVATORE writes simple, declarative sentences. His Peace Corps memoir, Shade of the Paraiso, is stripped to fact and detail, observation and truth. Even its replication of time — passing slowly at first, building inexorably over months, then racing quickly to its conclusion — makes the narrative foremost a work of literary control. It’s an art, how much the writer reveals of his existence in rural Paraguay — all the while revealing little of his own true emotions. The closest we get to knowing Salvatore is to appreciate his obvious fortitude in the face of familiar Peace Corps challenges: the petty counterpart; the bullying ‘big-man’; the general estrangement from community; the recurring uncertainty. Even . . .

Review — STORIES MAKE THE WORLD by Stephen Most (Peru)

Apr 12 2018

Stories Make the World: Reflections on Storytelling and the Art of the Documentary By Stephen Most (Peru 1965-67) Berghahn Books 2017 279 Pages $27.95 (paperback), $150.00 (hard cover), $15.37 (Kindle) Reviewed by Alana DeJoseph (Mali 1992-94) • FIRST AND FOREMOST, let me state that this book is dense. It is packed full of wisdom and insights and history. It is not a fast read, nor is it an easy read, but it is well worth the time and enormously enriching and enlightening to anyone who delves into it. I should also say that I have had the opportunity to work with the author Stephen Most on two documentaries and feel much the wiser for it. Reading this book as we are developing A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps was a fortuitous turn of events. Most’s clarity of vision and deep understanding of the complexities of documentary filmmaking . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers — March 2018

Apr 11 2018

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 from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We are now including a one-sentence description — provided by the author — for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers 1) to order the book and 2) to volunteer to review it. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at peacecorpsworldwide@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. • Human Rights. They Matter. by Justin Bibee (Morocco 2014–16) Blurb February 2018 106 pages $57.79 (hardcover) Human Rights. They Matter. is a collection of human rights quotes that impel change and help bring about a new consciousness on the part of . . .

LETTER FROM ECUADOR

Apr 11 2018

Moritz Thomsen died in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on August 28, 1991. The official cause of death was listed as coronary thrombosis, but Thomsen had come down with cholera about two weeks before his death. He refused to go to a hospital and, during the last forty-eight hours, refused any and all treatment. After his death, his close and good friend, Mary Ellen Fieweger wrote about Moritz Thomsen and his final days. The following is an excerpt from her letter to a friend of Moritz’s in California. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission. First published in RPCV WRITERS & READERS in March 1992 His body was cremated, a wish he expressed a number of times over the years. This took place at the only mortuary concern in Guayaquil offering that particular service, Los Jardines de Esperanza, at the southern edges of the port city. To get to the Gardens . . .

“We’ll Meet Again” (PBS)

Apr 09 2018

Thanks to the “heads up” from Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) — JCoyne • I wonder whether someone might be able to help me. I am writing from Blink Films, the producers of the PBS documentary series “We’ll Meet Again” with Ann Curry. We’ll Meet Again | PBS www.pbs.org Join Ann Curry for a new series featuring dramatic reunions of people whose lives crossed at pivotal moments. View history through their eyes and hear stories of heroism, hope and the forging of unbreakable bonds. “We’ll Meet Again” explores significant historic events that have shaped America and its citizens — told not from the point of view of world leaders, but through the eyes of ordinary people who experienced them directly. Our first season has recently broadcast on PBS, featuring watershed events such as WWII, the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. Each episode introduces us to two individuals . . .

“GO OUT AND GET IN THE MIDDLE OF THINGS” Moritz Thomsen (Ecuador)

Apr 09 2018

GO OUT AND GET IN THE MIDDLE OF THINGS In the late 1970s Craig Storti (Morocco 1970-72) carried on a brief correspondence with Moritz Thomsen (Ecuador 1965-67), living in Ecuador, where he would die in 1991. Thomsen, the author off Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle, one of the classic Peace Corps books, and two other nonfiction accounts of life in Latin America, The Farm on the River of Emeralds, and The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey on Two Rivers, was a man of outrageous opinions—most of which were smart and funny and blunt. He was (and is) the literary patron saint of more than one would-be Peace Corps writer. In these excerpts from letters to Storti, Moritz gives advice about writing, writers, and the writing life. First published in RPCV WRITERS & READERS in May 1995 • 19 March 1978 Dear Craig: Thanks very much for your nice . . .

Review — DREAM OF ANOTHER AMERICA by Tyler McMahon (El Salvador)

Apr 08 2018

Dream of Another America by Tyler McMahon (El Salvador 1999-02) Gival Press February 2018 373 pages $20.00 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Clifford Garstang (South Korea 1976-77) • WITH THE EXCEPTION, perhaps, of Peace Corps Volunteers, most Americans have little understanding of the hardships faced by the poor in developing and underdeveloped countries. Without that understanding, it is easy to demonize those who choose to come to the United States—often illegally—in search of a better future. Certainly President Trump has taken that route, even raising the possibility of deploying troops along the border with Mexico to stop migrants, despite the absence of evidence that there is a growing immigrant threat. Clearly a gap exists between reality and the fear-mongering of some of our political leaders. Dream of Another America by Tyler McMahon (El Salvador 1999-02) may help fill that gap. In this gripping novel, McMahon introduces us to . . .

Review — A SILHOUETTE OF LIBERIA by Michael Lee (Liberia)

Apr 07 2018

A Silhouette of Liberia — Photographs: 1974-1977 by Michael H. Lee (Liberia 1974–76) Michael H. Lee August 2017 136 pages $59.99 (hardcover) Reviewed by: Danielle Yoder (Panama 2012-2014) • A Silhouette of Liberia Photographs: 1974–1977 exhibits beautiful photography of Liberia’s landscape, architecture and people from a time when very little has been preserved. Mr. Lee walks us through his experience living, serving and working in Liberia. Through his lens he is able to capture what one might see in an ordinary day in Liberia, as well as intimate settings such as illusive secret societies and their traditions. Mr. Lee begins by providing some history of the country that informs both the conditions of the photographs shown from the mid-70s and also alludes to the impending civil war period. These shots show mostly friendly faces as well as typical living conditions and hardships born by denizens. I was surprised how . . .

Globetrotting for Good with Next Step Travel and the NPCA

Apr 07 2018

Let me recommend the National Peace Corps Association’s Next Step Travel program. I was on the first trip to Cuba this program had, and let me tell you, if you want to travel with anyone, you want to travel with RPCVs. RPCVs “get it” — especially when traveling to places like Cuba, Colombia, or anywhere else the NPCA goes. You can’t surprise RPCVs with what is waiting once they debark. I had a terrific time in Cuba, as I am sure all of our small group did, even though we had some of the usual incidents you’d expect touring a (still) developing country. (Like, make sure you bring toilet paper with you when leaving the hotel!) Plus, traveling with RPCVs, you have the opportunity to share those familiar tales that always begin, “One time when I was in _____ (fill in your site). Next Step Travel/NPCA is well worth the . . .

Jimmy Kimmel, PCV

Apr 06 2018

Thanks to a ‘heads up’ from David Jarmul who writes Not Exactly Retired — JCoyne • Jimmy Kimmel, PCV by djarmul Should Jimmy Kimmel join the Peace Corps? That’s what Rep. Joe Kennedy III jokingly encouraged on Wednesday when he appeared as a guest on the comedian’s late-night show. The exchange was light-hearted but highlighted how little many Americans know about the Peace Corps, and how even fewer regard it as something they might do themselves. Kimmel opened by asking Kennedy about his famous relatives, then switched to his volunteer service in the Dominican Republic. “What goes on in the Peace Corps?” Kimmel asked with a smile. “Do they come to your house and they take you to another country?” “No, you actually have to get on a plane,” replied Kennedy. “That’s the ‘volunteer’ part.” The Massachusetts Democrat went on to describe the Peace Corps as “an organization close to my heart [that] . . .

Review — WHY TRAVEL MATTERS by Craig Storti (Morocco)

Apr 04 2018

Why Travel Matters: A Guide to the Life-Changing Effects of Travel by Craig Storti (Morocco 1970- 72) Nicholas Brealey Publisher April, 2018 202 pages $24.95 (hardcover), $13.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) • Most RPCV think of themselves as seasoned travelers. (Well, maybe only me.) Still, after my first trip anywhere in 1962 as a PCV to Ethiopia, I did travel to Europe, lived for several months on one of the Balearic Islands and later spent ten months hitch hiking through twenty-seven countries in Africa. After that, as a travel writer for Travel & Leisure, Diversion, and LuxuryWeb Magazine, I went in 1979 to China, and on dozens of assignments to Europe, Central America, and Brazil. Recently I was on the first NPCA tour to Cuba. I like to think of myself as someone who knows his way around the world. Or, at least as I boast, “I . . .

Many fans, friends and family of Jody Olsen attend her swearing-in at the Peace Corps Office

Apr 04 2018

On March 30, 2018, Dr. Josephine (Jody) Olsen took the oath of office to become the 20thDirector of the Peace Corps. The oath was administered by Acting Director of Human Resource Management Tina Williams. Jody was accompanied by her daughter Kirsten Andersen. Olsen has previously served the agency in various capacities, including as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia from 1966-1968.

Archive - April 2018