Archive - March 2019

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What happens in Montenegro stays in Montenegro
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Montenegro to Welcome Peace Corps Volunteers in 2020 
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Good News for northern CA Peace Corps Volunteers
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Where Did the Schizophrenics Go?
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Review — MORE THAN BIRDING by Harriet Denison (Tanzania)
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From the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute
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Walker Marsh Reports From Mozambique: We Need Help Urgently!
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Richard Lipez (Ethiopia): Fond memories of a good airline
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Mark Jacobs New Short Story in Hudson Review (Paraguay)
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News from the NPCA — Trump says “Cut $14 Million from Peace Corps Funding”
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Glenn Blumhorst’s RPCV Vacation (Guatemala)
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The Peace Corps announces 2019 top Volunteer-producing schools
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Review — THE INNOCENCE OF EDUCATION by Earl Carlton Huband (Oman)
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RCPV Wins Six-Word Memoir Writing Contest (El Salvador)
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The 58th Anniversary of the Peace Corps

What happens in Montenegro stays in Montenegro

  Back in 1966 when the Peace Corps first went to Micronesia, the agency launched its recruitment strategy with a pamphlet showing a glorious sunny beach and palm trees waving with the wind under the headline, “Peace Corps Goes to Paradise.” Needlessly to say, that Ad outraged current and former Volunteers who didn’t see their service as idling away a few years on a blissful island. Now the Peace Corps is headed to Montenegro on the Adriatic Sea in Southeastern Europe, just across the water from Italy, and neighboring Albania, Bosnia and Croatia. In 2020, PCVs will be arriving to work in primary education programs in a nation famous for its gambling and nightlife. Some tourists call the country, “a poor man’s Monaco.” But as Director Jody Olsen said in her announcement, “The Peace Corps is proud to partner with the Government and people of Montenegro. This is a truly unique . . .

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Montenegro to Welcome Peace Corps Volunteers in 2020 

Peace Corps Press Release WASHINGTON – The Peace Corps announced today plans to establish a new program in Montenegro focused on English education. Montenegro will represent the agency’s 142nd country of service and will be considered an extension of the existing Peace Corps post in Albania. The Government of Montenegro invited the Peace Corps to establish a program in the country in August 2018; the new program will open next year. The first group of Volunteers is scheduled to depart in January 2020. The new Volunteers will undergo three months of comprehensive technical, cross-cultural and language training in Albania before starting two years of service in small, under-served Montenegrin communities. The new cohort will serve as education Volunteers in primary schools and co-teach with Montenegrin English teachers. The Volunteers will also work with their teacher counterparts to engage young people in after-school clubs, educational camps and sports initiatives. Volunteers may . . .

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Good News for northern CA Peace Corps Volunteers

      The Northern California Returned Peace Corps Association knows how valuable Hesperian books are to Peace Corps Volunteers — many used Where There Is No Doctor or our other health resources during their service overseas. But the Peace Corps does not provide every Volunteer with Hesperian’s lifesaving resources. The NorCal RPCV Association wants to remedy that, so they have awarded us a grant to send free books to Peace Corps Volunteers whose US home is in Northern California. This program is brand new, but we have already sent 26 books to PCVs serving in Ecuador, Ghana, Liberia and Lesotho. This grant provides the resources to send 50 more books that support not just the work of PCVs, but also will be left in the host community to ensure that our health information makes a lasting impact. If you are a PCV from Northern California, you can apply on our website. And if you are part . . .

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Where Did the Schizophrenics Go?

    The number drops to 750,000 from 2.8 million, and spending per patient soars.   by Fuller Torrey and Wendy Simmons March 26, 2019 6:56 p.m. ET Wall Street Journal Wondrous are the ways of Washington. In a single day, the federal government officially reduced the number of people with schizophrenia in the United States from 2.8 million to 750,000. With a change of the National Institute of Mental Health website in 2017, two million people with schizophrenia simply disappeared. The 2.8 million estimate, or 1.1% of the adult population, had been the official standard for the U.S. since the 1980s, when the last major prevalence survey was carried out. The figure was provided to Congress in 1993 and used for national estimates such as the cost of schizophrenia. NIMH Director Joshua Gordon wrote in the Psychiatric Times that “the 1.1% figure is no longer scientifically defensible” in view . . .

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Review — MORE THAN BIRDING by Harriet Denison (Tanzania)

    More Than Birding: Observations from Antarctica, Madagascar, and Bhutan Harriet Denison (Tanzania 1966–67) Peace Corps Writers November 2018 318 pages $15.00 (paperback); $7.99 (Kindle) Review by Fritz Snyder (Tanzania, 1965–66) • Harriet Denison, a Peace Corps Volunteer with me in Tanzania (she wrote about her adventures there in Leopards at My Door, also published by Peace Corps Writers), visited three of the most interesting places on the planet: Antarctica, Madagascar, and Bhutan. She traveled with birding groups each time, but her interests range to the history and varied wildlife of each location. Her descriptions and experiences nicely take the reader to these exotic places where few of us will actually go. Altogether Harriet has been on 16 international birding expeditions. Her trip to Antarctica 2001 was her first. It is a delightful saga for those of us who have seen the movie “March of the Penguins”  — which is nearly . . .

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From the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute

    Quote of the Week “I recommend that we remember the beginning of the Peace Corps. We risked everything at our beginning in a leap of faith that the Peace Corps would succeed.  … We were a Corps, a band of brothers and sisters united in the conviction that if we worked hard enough to eradicate our fears, and increase the outreach of our love, we truly could avoid war, and achieve peace within our own selves, within our nation, and around the world.” Sargent Shriver | Washington, DC | September 22, 2001 • Our Quote of the Week honors two milestones we’re celebrating this month: the anniversary of Sargent Shriver’s tenure with the Peace Corps, and the birthday William “Bill” Josephson, our senior advisor and a close friend and colleague of Sargent Shriver’s. On March 22, 1961, President Kennedy appointed Sargent Shriver to the post of Director of the Peace Corps. . . .

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Walker Marsh Reports From Mozambique: We Need Help Urgently!

Thank you to Alan Toth who posted this link on his Facebook page. Alan Toth is a RPCV and a documentary film producer: http://www.alantoth.net/about Walker Marsh is a serving Peace Corps Volunteer and wrote this article about a cyclone which hit Mozambique on March 15th. Walker Marsh Reports From Mozambique: We Need Urgent Help!    

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Richard Lipez (Ethiopia): Fond memories of a good airline

  Posted Friday, March 22, 2019 10:57 am By Richard Lipez (Ethiopia 1962-64)   BANGKOK — Most of the parties in the aftermath of the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash, in which 157 died, came out looking bad. The FAA for three days of dithering, Boeing for pushing through certification of a plane with an apparent dangerous flaw, and pretend aviation expert Donald Trump, who privately told officials Boeing’s 737 Max “sucks” before grounding the model because doing so was important “psychologically and a lot of other ways.” Amtrak, anyone? Sadly, Ethiopian Airlines may also have gone down in the estimation of the flying public, and it should not have. The airline has long enjoyed a good safety record. But since Boeing raised no alarms, EAL’s pilots did not receive training for dealing with the new 737 computer software that twice seems to have fatally turned against cockpit crews, in Indonesia in October . . .

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Mark Jacobs New Short Story in Hudson Review (Paraguay)

Mark Jacobs (Paraguay 1978-80) Mark was the winner of the 1998 Peace Corps Writers Maria Thomas Award for his novel Stone Cowboy. A former Foreign Service officer, he has published more than 100 stories in magazines including The Atlantic, The Southern Humanities Review, The Idaho Review, The Southern Review, and The Kenyon Review. His story “How Birds Communicate” won the Iowa Review Fiction Prize in 1998. His five books include three novels and two collections of short stories. His website can be found at http://www.markjacobsauthor.com. Click here and read: Bear’s Change “The Hudson Review is rare in having remained a forum for intelligent, well-written criticism and cultural commentary on a broad spectrum of topics. In fact it belongs to a tiny handful of magazines where the first criterion of inclusion is literary merit.” — The Wall Street Journal Founded in 1948, The Hudson Review is a quarterly magazine of literature and the arts published in New York City. Frederick Morgan, one of . . .

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News from the NPCA — Trump says “Cut $14 Million from Peace Corps Funding”

    President Trump Recommends $14 Million Funding Cut for Peace Corps For the third consecutive year, President Trump is recommending a reduction in funding for the Peace Corps. The president’s request of $396 million for the agency in Fiscal Year 2020 would represent a slightly more than three percent cut in funding ($14 million). The proposed reduction is part of a much larger 24 percent cut to the nation’s International Affairs Budget.Read more and see Service Year Alliance statement response to the Trump Administration’s proposal to eliminate national service in the FY20 budget.  

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Glenn Blumhorst’s RPCV Vacation (Guatemala)

If you call or email Glenn Blumhorst, NPCA President This is the message you get: “Greetings from El Paso! I’m on a volunteer vacation at Annunciation House March 19-29, with limited internet access. I’ll respond as soon as I can.” Short-Term Volunteers for Emergency Hospitality Posted on March 18, 2019 Beginning in summer 2018, we have seen an increase in the flow of refugees arriving at the El Paso border. As ICE detention facilities filled, the number of refugees being released by ICE increased.  As of the end of February 2019, 400-700+ refugees per day are being sent to Annunciation House. We are urgently seeking additional short-term volunteers to help us provide hospitality to these refugees. For more information, please read this document (PDF). Glenn Blumhorst (Guatemala 1988-91) continues to serve. He’s an example for all of us.  

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The Peace Corps announces 2019 top Volunteer-producing schools

    Peace Corps Press Release The Peace Corps announces 2019 top Volunteer-producing schools 03/20/2019 The University of Wisconsin-Madison boasts the No. 1 spot for large schools on Peace Corps’ Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities list, with 75 volunteers serving around the world. For the third consecutive year, Wisconsin holds the coveted top spot, but Badgers beware: the University of Virginia Cavaliers are closing the gap, jumping from No. 15 to No. 2 in just two years.With 74 UVA alumni serving as Peace Corps Volunteers, the school slides into a close second place on this year’s rankings. The University of California – Berkeley comes in at No. 11 on the large school list, but has sent over 3,500 alumni to Peace Corps service since 1961, more than any other school. Meanwhile, Arizona State University and The University of Arizona continue to duke it out in the desert. Currently 44 Sun . . .

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Review — THE INNOCENCE OF EDUCATION by Earl Carlton Huband (Oman)

  The Innocence of Education by  Earl Carlton Huband (Oman 1975-78) (Peace Corps poetry) 31 pages Longleaf Press November 2018 $10.00 (paperback) Reviewed by Tony Zurlo (Nigeria 1963-65) • Taking a lazy walk in the park, I stopped and observed a crystal clear pond, the sun reflecting brightly off the smooth surface. When my friend asked me to describe the pond, I paused at each of his questions. What was the shape of the pond? Rectangular, round, oblong, diamond? How about the shore line? Sandy or rocky? White or tan?  Were there fish in the pond? How about the . . . “Alright, already,” I interrupted. I’ll go back for a second reading. This is how I reacted to Earl Carlton Huband’s new chapbook, The Innocence of Education. My academically-trained eyes failed to discover the pure poetry of his book. Deposited in a remote fishing village in the Sultanate of Oman, Huband must shift gears . . .

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RCPV Wins Six-Word Memoir Writing Contest (El Salvador)

    Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” In November 2006, Larry Smith, founder of SMITH Magazine, gave the six-word novel a personal twist by asking his community to describe their lives in exactly six words. Anticipating the microblogging explosion, SMITH originally launched Six-Word Memoirs in November 2006 as a simple online challenge asking: Can you tell your life story in six words? We have published more than 1 million life stories on sixwordsmemoirs.com — and counting! Most recently Smith Magazine asked about “love” Love Six words on love & heartbreak It was the best of love, it was the worst of love, and this month you shared it all. You wrote about loves that lasted (“Smoothing out wrinkles into old age.” — CanadaGoose) and ones crumbled (“Assumed lover loved me. My bad.” . . .

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The 58th Anniversary of the Peace Corps

    Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Bill Josephson, Peace Corps General Counsel 1961-66     The Sargent Shriver Peace Institute Quote of the week — “The idea [of the Peace Corps is] that free and committed men and women can cross boundaries of culture and language, or alien tradition and great disparities of wealth, of old hostilities and new nationalisms, to meet with other men and women on the common ground of service to human welfare and human dignity. And if this idea isn’t going to change the world, then this world is beyond redemption!” Sargent Shriver | New York, NY | December 11, 1963 • Our Quote of the Week celebrates the 58th anniversary of the creation of the Peace Corps. On March 1, 1961, President Kennedy signed the executive order to create the Peace Corps. Three weeks later, on March 22, he would name Sargent Shriver as . . .

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