July 2019 – Page 2 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Jonathan R. C. Green (Thailand) has published FIGHTING MALARIA ON THE RIVER KWAI

Jul 19 2019

During World War II, 12,000 Allied prisoners of war died while constructing a bridge over the river Kwai in western Thailand, and then a railway through the thick jungles of the Kwai Valley all the way to Burma. Decades later, during the Vietnam War, Jonathan R.C. Green enlisted as a medic in the U.S. Army, expecting to take care of wounded Americans and Asians, but was kept in a Stateside assignment instead, much to his frustration. So, shortly before his enlistment expired, he applied for the Peace Corps and asked to serve in Southeast Asia. Six weeks after leaving the Army, he arrived in Thailand as a Peace Corps Volunteer. His job assignment was to fight malaria by controlling the mosquito populations in remote jungle villages in the valley of the infamous River Kwai. Besides the hazards posed by snakes, scorpions and centipedes in the jungle, he ran the . . .

Peace Corps Documentary World Premier: A TOWERING TASK

Jul 19 2019

Peace Corps Documentary World Premier — A Towering Task: The Peace Corps and a Mission of World Peace Save the date to join the Peace Corps community for the gala premiere of A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps on September 22nd at The REACH at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Watch your inbox in mid-August for details about the premier and how to reserve your tickets. The event will feature Third Goal activities for the whole family and is co-hosted by The Kennedy Center and NPCA. Narrated by Annette Bening, A Towering Task takes viewers on a journey of what it means to be a global citizen from Peace Corps’ founding under John F. Kennedy, through tough times during the Vietnam War and a surprising revival during the Reagan administration, to today’s Peace Corps Volunteers serving at the forefront of some of the most . . .

Federal Register has information on Survey of RPCVs by Peace Corps

Jul 16 2019

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65) The Peace Corps has posted the following notice in the Federal Register to gather public comment on a proposed survey designed to capture information from RPCVs about their post service life, including health status. Directions on how to post your comment is included in the annoucement. We will try and get a copy of the proposed online survey. Here is the notice: “SUMMARY: The Peace Corps will be submitting the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (0MB) for review and approval. The purpose of this notice is to allow 60 days for public comment in the Federal Register preceding submission to 0MB. We are conducting this process in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. DATES: Submit comments on or before September 9, 2019. ADDRESSES: Comments should be addressed to Virginia . . .

David Mather (Chile) publishes THE BILOXI CONNECTION

Jul 15 2019

David Mather, like many RPCVs, thought that his Peace Corps experience was one-of-a-kind and decided to write about it in novel format. He began writing One For The Road in 2006, and five years later it was published through Peace Corps Writers. It takes place in the foothills of the Andes of southern Chile where he was the most isolated Volunteer in his forestry program, and the novel could well be a primer for new Volunteers. This literary effort, though, was an epiphany for David: he discovered that he enjoyed writing. A sequel, When the Whistling Stopped, soon followed. After that, he began “The Crescent Beach Series,” three novels that take place in a fictitious backwater fishing village in the lawless Big Bend Area of Florida’s gulf coast. The Biloxi Connection is the third in the CB series and his fifth novel published through PCW. Mather’s isolated PC experience in . . .

“Breaking U.S. immigration laws saved lives in 1975. It gets you arrested today.”

Jul 15 2019

Breaking U.S. immigration laws saved lives in 1975. It gets you arrested today by THURSTON CLARKE (Tunisia 1960) JUL 15, 2019 | 3:05 AM Op-Ed Los Angeles Times As the Vietnam War caromed to an end, Sister Marie Therese LeBlanc, a middle-aged American nun serving at Friends of the Children of Vietnam orphanage in Saigon, signed one affidavit after another attesting to sons and daughters she never had. It was April 23, 1975, one week before the city fell to the communists. The 36 people LeBlanc claimed as her children were the adult employees of her orphanage and their families. Nevertheless, State Department officials at the evacuation processing center at Tan Son Nhut air base affixed their consular seals to her affidavits, and American airmen added the names she provided to the flight manifests of the Air Force transports flying out of Saigon. They collaborated with her because they . . .

The Colombia Project TCP GLOBAL (Colombia)

Jul 14 2019

More than 20 years after Jocelyn Farrington served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Babangatu, Niger she continues to serve her village through NANEY, a non-profit she established to promote sustainable development. Jocelyn and her board hope that NANEY provides an opportunity for other returned Niger Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) to reconnect with the communities where they carried out their volunteer service in a lasting and meaningful way. In 2018, NANEY invited TCP Global to partner with them to support micro-loans for women peanut farmers. Friends of Nigeria (FON) has partnered with Fantsuam in Kafanchan for almost ten years. In 2019, FON introduced TCP Global to Fantsuam, which now partners with TCP Global to provide affordable micro-loans in Kafanchan. Would YOUR Peace Corps site benefit from a sustainable loan program ?? While Colombia remains our largest program with eight sites, in the last five years TCP Global expanded its zero-overhead, sustainable micro-loan model to underserved communities in Guatemala, . . .

New novel — UNORTHODOXY by Joshua A. N. Harris (Mali)

Jul 13 2019

Unorthodoxy by Joshua A H. Harris (Mali 1996-98) Atmosphere Press 294 pages (paperback) $15.95; (ebook) $9.95 November 2019 The surviving son of a germophobic mother, Cecil Reitmeister embraces all forms of bacteria and formulates an elaborate plan to lead humanity out of the Anthropocene and into a new era of interspecies harmony. His idiosyncratic plan requires years of experimentation and precise manipulation of his microbiome, the totality of microorganisms present in or on the human body. His mad-scientist mission leads to extreme social isolation, with the memory of his dead mother becoming his most frequent visitor. Cecil’s quest to save the world comes to a screeching halt when his social worker and the police show up to condemn the only home he has ever known. Thrown in jail for assaulting the police, Cecil soon finds himself homeless and struggles to adjust to life on the streets. When . . .

RPCV Response Volunteer Killed in Philippines

Jul 12 2019

The Peace Corps mourns the loss of Alan Hale WASHINGTON – Peace Corps Response Volunteer Alan Hale, 80, of Bellingham, Wash., died in a bicycling accident in his site in the Philippines on July 11. Hale arrived in Southern Leyte province in October 2018 and worked with local officials to improve solid waste management. He delivered training to more than 2,000 people with a focus on eliminating trash burning and littering. Hale was on his second tour as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer Peace Corps as a training officer with Anita Hale in Puerto Rico for three years in the 1960s. A longtime resident of Bellefontaine, Ohio, Hale was a life member of Kiwanis International and a member of Toastmasters International. He volunteered on many boards, including the Logan County Art League. He was also an avid swimmer who had a great appreciation for nature. After graduating from . . .

A Writer Writes — “Up On The Mountain” by Michael Beede

Jul 11 2019

Up On The Mountain by Michael Beede (Peru 1963-65) and (Venezuela 1968-70) From March of 1963 to February of 1965, my good friend, Ron Arias, and I served as Peace Corps volunteers in the high Sierra town of Sicuani in the Departamento de Cuzco, Peru. I was 20 years old, and Ron was a year older. We had been assigned to the PNAE, Peru’s National School Lunch Program, and we were having the time of our lives. School holidays and vacations provided the time and opportunity to explore in the Andean Cordillera surrounding Sicuani. There were backcountry regions in those mountains where few foreigners, if any, had ever ventured. The march of civilization was rapidly changing the environment forever. The time to visit these isolated places while they were still in a relatively untouched state was fast ebbing away. The opportunity to do so was now. We were young and . . .

A Writer Writes — “When I tried learning a second language while traveling, I realized I was doing it all wrong”

Jul 09 2019

A Writer Writes When I tried learning a second language while traveling, I realized I was doing it all wrong By Paulette Perhach (Paraguay 2008-10) Published on Matador Network April 8, 2016 BEFORE WORKING IN THE PEACE CORPS in Paraguay for two years, I had never even heard of Guaraní. Guaraní is not in the Latin linguistic family tree I was familiar with. In fact, to my ears, this language sounded like it was from another planet. “Hello” is “mba’éichapa.” “Goodbye” is “jajotopata.” There are nasal harmonies and glottal stops. The “Yes” sounds like saying “he” for a long time, while holding your nose. Water is just spelled “y,” but it’s pronounced like the last sound of a drowning man. There’s just one word for “he” and “she,” but two words for “we.” And, oh yeah, by the way, nouns change depending on who owns them. “House” is just . . .

Paulette Perhach (Paraguay) joins ‘Faculty’ of September’s Writers Workshop

Jul 08 2019

Paulette Perhach’s (Paraguay 2008-10) writings has been published in the New York Times, ELLE, Vice, Marie Claire, Yoga Journal, NPR, and Cosmopolitan. In 2015 she created the Writer’s Welcome Kit, an online course for writers that includes a 55,000-word workbook. Hugo House licenses and sells the course. Her book, which sprang from the course, was published in August 2018 by Sasquatch Books, part of the Penguin Random House publishing family. Welcome to the Writer’s Life was selected as one of Poets & Writers’ Best Books for Writers. She blogs about writing, business, personal finance and joy at welcometothewriterslife.com Paulette worked for Health and Coastal Living magazines, as well as various newspapers. Hugo House, a nationally recognized writing center in Seattle, awarded her the Made at Hugo House fellowship in 2013. In 2016, she was nominated for the BlogHer Voices of the Year award for her essay, “Fuck Off Fund,” which is anthologized in The Future is Feminist from Chronicle Books, along with work by Roxane Gay, . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers — June 2019

Jul 08 2019

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 now include 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. • Legacy in Stone: Syria Before War (photography) by Kevin Bubriski (Nepal 1975-78) PowerHouse Books 164 pages January 2019 $50.00 (hard cover) • The Biloxi Connection (The Crescent Beach Series — Book 3) David J. Mather (Chile 1968–70) Peace Corps . . .

LEGACY IN STONE: SYRIA BEFORE WAR by Kevin Bubriski (Nepal)

Jul 07 2019

Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from David Arnold (Ethiopia 1964–66) • Legacy in Stone: Syria Before War by Kevin Bubriski (Nepal 1975-78) powerHouse Books 164 pages January 2019 $50.00 (hard cover) Legacy in Stone: Syria Before War is a collection of 100 black-and-white photographs immortalizing the ancient monuments of Syria. Kevin Bubriski was on assignment in Syria in 2003, during the infancy of the U.S. war in neighboring Iraq. He was photographing the country’s ancient monuments, as well as documenting the daily lives and ordinary human stories of its citizens. Unbeknownst to him, within the decade, a war would break out in Syria, and destroy or damage much of what he had photographed. Until the Syrian civil war in 2010, the Suq in Aleppo was considered to be the longest continuously inhabited place of commerce in the world, existing for well over two millennia. Bubriski photographed the Suq . . .

Per memo dated in early April 2019, Peace Corps Guatemala apparently would not be impacted by the elimination of US foreign aid

Jul 07 2019

On March 31, 2019, President Trump announced the United States was cutting aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador because of the migrant crisis. The Peace Corps website only listed Guatemala as a current Peace Corps site in that group. On April 15, I made a FOIA request for: “the documents which describe how this decision will impact existing and future Peace Corps programs and Volunteers in Guatemala.” The FOIA was assigned 19-0065. It took an appeal before I finally received a response on June 20th. The response was an internal memo, most names appropriately redacted. The memo was in response to a serving PCV in Guatemala who had made the same request about the impact on Peace Corps Guatamala. Here is the important statement from that memo, dated, I believe, April 3, from Joel Frushone, Associate Director Office of External Affairs, RPCV Lesotho 1995-97. “Hello. Our social media team received . . .

Peter Hessler’s The Buried Reviewed in this Sunday’s New York Times Book Section (Egypt)

Jul 06 2019

Egyptian writer Yasmine El Rashidi, who lives in Cairo, and is the author of several books about Egypt, as well as an editor of the Middle East arts and culture quarterly Bidoun, did a full page review of Peter Hessler’s The Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution in this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review Section. Yesmine goes beyond Hessler’s book to point out elements of archaeological history of The Buried—from the Arabic al-madfuna—an elevated stretch of desert near Abydos. She also shares her own personal writer struggles of trying to write about Egypt, admitting, “The challenge, in my case, was that everything felt too close—too personal or intimate either to me, or to people I knew.” In summing up her careful–but positive–review of Peter’s book, she admits, “In reading The Buried, which I admit is the kind of book I might have criticized in the past, I find . . .

Archive - July 2019