Archive - 2019

https://www.peacecorps.gov/news/library/peace-corps-sends-over-300-americans-service-abroad-january/   February 6, 2019 WASHINGTON – Over 300 Americans departed in January for Peace Corps service. They will spend the next two years working with communities in Albania, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Myanmar, South Africa and Thailand. Peace Corps Response volunteers will undertake shorter-term, high-impact service assignments in China, Eswatini, Liberia, Malawi, Peru, Rwanda, Ukraine and Zambia. The new trainees gathered at staging events across the United States, including the District of Columbia, Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia. These pre-departure orientations are the first stage of Peace Corps service for trainees where they receive a stateside introduction to volunteer safety and service aboard. “Welcoming new Peace Corps trainees to Ecuador is an exciting part of my job,” said Peace Corps Ecuador Country Director Michael Donald. “The trainees bring with them different skills and life experiences that will enrich their communities in Ecuador and the Peace Corps community as a whole.” . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from James Sheahan (Sierra Leone 1961-63) Peace Corps Press Release Former Peace Corps trainee sentenced in case of video voyeurism 01/29/2019 WASHINGTON – On January 24, 2019, former Peace Corps trainee Matthew Walker, 31, was sentenced by a federal magistrate judge to 3 years of probation and 30 days of intermittent confinement for committing acts of video voyeurism. He was sentenced at the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Florida in Pensacola, Florida. On November 13, 2018, Walker pled guilty to three counts of video voyeurism stemming from conduct he engaged in while a Peace Corps trainee in Zambia in 2016. Walker admitted to using his GoPro camera on three occasions to record a fellow trainee, without consent, while the fellow trainee was naked and changing in areas where the fellow trainee had a reasonable expectation of privacy. Inspector General Kathy A. Buller . . .

  Harris Wofford followed the question where it leads by David M. Stone, for The Inquirer January 28, 2019   The admiring obituaries of Harris Wofford’s extraordinary life suggest why such a diversity of people around the country and the world have their own special stories to tell about him. Mine begins in a basement campaign office on Chestnut Street in 1986 during Bob Casey’s successful gubernatorial race. Casey asked his onetime Washington law-firm friend to serve as Democratic State Party chair, a seemingly unconventional role for a former college president and civil rights pioneer. Five years later, after the tragedy of John Heinz’s plane crash over Lower Merion when the governor named him to the vacant Senate seat, I was one of several Casey administration colleagues, including his son Dan, who joined Harris’ campaign and new Senate staff. His landslide upset that November was one more unlikely chapter in . . .

  Doug Mickelson (Ethiopia 1962–64), from Black Earth, Wisconsin, wrote me recently about Harris Wofford to tell me about photographs he had of Harris Wofford when the first group of PCVs to Ethiopia arrived there in the fall of 1962, and of his trip back to Ethiopia with his wife, years later. • “Harris visited us in Yirgalem, Ethiopia, where I was stationed,” Doug recalled, “several times during Fall, 1963 and early 1964.  This photo is of me and Harris leaning against our famous blue jeep speaking with students at our school, Ras Desta.  Harris was very interested to hear about what we were doing directly from the students.  He was very engaging and the students flocked to him. “This picture also appeared in Gerald T. Rice’s book, The Bold Experiment: JFK’s Peace Corps. The photo means a lot to me, especially with Harris’ passing. “I have three other photographs of . . .

  Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump’s Presidential Palace Larry Leamer (Nepal 1965-67) Flatiron Books 304 pages January 29, 2019 Kindle $14.99, Hardback $18.29 Where Trump Learned to Rule To know Donald J. Trump it is best to start in his natural habitat: Palm Beach, Florida. It is here he learned the techniques that took him all the way to the White House. Painstakingly, over decades, he has created a world in this exclusive tropical enclave and favorite haunt of billionaires where he is not just president but a king. The vehicle for his triumph is Mar-A-Lago, one of the greatest mansions ever built in the United States. The inside story of how he became King of Palm Beach―and how Palm Beach continues to be his spiritual home even as president―is rollicking, troubling, and told with unrivaled access and understanding by Laurence Leamer. In Mar-A-Lago, the reader will . . .

  Sunday’s January 27, 2019 NYTIMES Book Review has a glowing review of Kristen Roupenian (Kenya 2003-05) new collection of stories, You Know You Want This. The review, done by author Lauren Holmes, writes about “A collection of dark tales from the author of the story ‘Cat Person.’ Of the 12 stories in Kristen’s debut book are considered “exciting, smart, perceptive, weird and dark.” For example: one story is about an increasingly precarious sex game, another about an 11-year-old’s birthday party gone wrong. There’s a princess fairy tale (and yes!) a guy in the Peace Corps who’s tormented by his students. That story, entitled ‘The Night Runner’ begins with this sentence: “The Class Six girls were bad, and everyone knew it.” While Kristen is famous for “Cat Person” published in The New Yorker, that story in tone an approach is not unlike all the stories in this collection, which I have just . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Neil Boyer (Ethiopia 1962-64) Let’s honor the life of a great American who took an unconventional path By Michael Gerson Columnist January 24 at 5:38 PM Many of the most interesting and consequential Americans of the 20th century found greatness in politics, military service and diplomacy. Only one took the path of the recently deceased Harris Wofford. After a precocious childhood that included extensive global travel and a stint in the Army Air Forces during World War II, Wofford went to India for several months to absorb teachings about non­violent social change from disciples of Mohandas K. Gandhi. He soon became one of the main conduits of that theory for the American civil rights movement and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Wofford found a place advising then-Sen. John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign. Nearing Election Day, the young activist urged Kennedy to call and comfort Coretta Scott . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Kim Mansaray (Sierra Leona 1983-85) current CD in Mongolia. Kim got the photo from Obie Shaw (Central Africa Republic 1990-93) current CD in Ethiopia.  Photograph of HIM Haile Selassie with first PC Ethiopia CD, Harris Wofford, at reception for G1 in 1962 This photo is on the wall of the wall of the Peace Corps Office in Addis Ababa  

Here is the link to the article posted  on the National Peace Corps Association website which we have posted below. https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/articles/peace-corps-community-response-to-the-partial-government-shutdown?utm_source=National+Peace+Corps+Association+E- Newsletter&utm_campaign=d220bb5209- “As the partial shutdown of the federal government – the longest in history – enters its second month, it is imperative that our political leaders pass appropriations legislation that will allow the Peace Corps and other federal agencies to get back to work. We are very proud of the service and sacrifice of the thousands of individuals who work for the Peace Corps. Hundreds of these workers remain on the job – many without pay – to make sure the more than 7,000 volunteers serving in the far corners of 65 countries are safe, secure, and receiving basic support.   What exactly does the continued partial government shutdown mean for the Peace Corps? Steady at the helm, Peace Corps Director Jody Olsen assures us that the agency is fine, . . .