May 19, 2019 – Peace Corps Worldwide

“What Writers Write & Why” by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador)

May 19 2019

Approximately ten years ago, Marnie Mueller was invited as visiting faculty to Bennington College where she gave the following talk to the MFA students in the college’s prestigious graduate school writing program. — John Coyne • What Writers Write & Why by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) When I returned in the mid-1960s to the United States from a two year stint in the Peace Corps in Guayaquil, Ecuador, I was in a sorry way, deeply traumatized, subject to dark silent rages, nightmares, and a terror of being in crowds. At first I drank alone to calm the turmoil, then I found a shrink, and eventually I sought solace in reading novels. I found refuge in the books by young men of my generation who had fought in Vietnam, particularly in a work by Tim O’Brien. In Going after Cacciato I identified with his character being in such . . .

Melinda Gates speaks to Women’s Issues on Book TV

May 19 2019

(Thanks to Beverly Hammons (Ecuador 71-73) for this video reference) Melinda Gates, wife of Bill Gates, has written a book, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, on her life and work with women around the world. She discusses the book and her experiences working in the Developing World. Empowering women and girls is a continuing program focus for Peace Corps. For so many RPCVs, especially women, Gates’ experience and the concerns of the women with whom she talked and worked, will seem very familiar. More than fifty years ago, as a Peace Corps Health Education Volunteer, I would give “charlas”, little talks about health to women in my rural community. After the talk, I would always ask what would they like to know. The question varied, but always the same concern. As one woman said, so eloquently,: “I want to keep the children I have, alive, . . .

Archive - May 19, 2019