Archive - 2019

    Media Advisory Contact: Documentary Team Joe Shaffner, Communications Director Alana DeJoseph, Director & Producer info@peacecorpsdocumentary.com National Peace Corps Association and In the Cause of Peace Productions host screenings of new documentary on the Peace Corps On September 22nd, 2019, the National Peace Corps Association and In the Cause of Peace Productions are premiering a new documentary on the Peace Corps. The film will be screened at The Kennedy Center’s new living theater, The REACH, in Washington, DC. Following the September 22nd premiere of the documentary on the history of the agency, the production team will be hosting screenings of A Towering Task around the country. A Towering Task is the first documentary to chronicle the remarkable history of the agency. After initial widespread support, the agency struggled to remain relevant as the world changed. With government agency budgets under fire and increased nationalistic tendencies in America, the agency is . . .

    The Honolulu Dragon by Joseph Theroux (Samoa 1975-78) 346 pages Kilauea Publications August 2019 $2.99 (Kindle), $12.00 (paperback)   Following the success of their detective work in the cases of The Devil’s Throat and The White Kahuna, Lloyd Osbourne and his step-father Robert Louis Stevenson find themselves in a world of murder and intrigue in Hawaii. Osbourne discovers a coded message, hinting at the survival of his father, Samuel Osbourne, who has been thought long dead. Once deciphered, it leads him and Stevenson on a dangerous adventure involving torture, murder, opium smuggling, a scandal involving the late King Kalakaua, baseball gambling, and uncover assassination threats against President Sanford Dole – set to occur on July 4, 1894 — the day Dole is to announce the new Republic of Hawaii. There are snipers on the rooftops of the Iolani Palace and the Opera House, and several men have already . . .

Thank you to RPCV Alan Toth  for highlighting on his Facebook page, Posh Corps : A Peace Corps Documentary, NPR’s Opinion piece about overseas volunteering. The focus is on the industry in which people pay to volunteer overseas on a short term basis. Peace Corps in not included in the critique.  Here should be the link for the article: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/09/12/754347433/volunteering-abroad-is-popular-and-problematic-lets-fix-it   OPINION: Volunteering Abroad Is Popular And Problematic. Let’s Fix It Have you ever volunteered abroad? From students and young professionals to retirees, nowadays everyone seems to be trying to make a difference in communities around the world. But what are these efforts really achieving? Do they help — and if so, who benefits?And if they cause harm, what can we do to make things better? All important questions, as volunteering abroad has grown tremendously. Estimates suggest the industry is now worth at least $173 billion. The industry is also . . .

Face to Face with the Global Economy Leo Cecchini (Ethiopia 1962–64) Self-published September 2019 137 pages $5.00 (Kindle)     Leo writes: My book, Face To Face With The Global Economy, is published.  You can buy it at Amazon for $5. Only in ebook form for now. I take the reader on an insider’s tour of the global economy through a collection of personal experiences, tales if you will, often whimsical, covering the various facets of the subject.  Reading it will give one a better understanding of this phenomenon that touches every soul on the planet. The global economy, a phrase that conjures up an image of a one world, albeit in economic terms. We all are intrigued by this structure that touches every person on the planet. What is it and how does it work? This collection of my personal experiences, tales if you will, offers a direct insight . . .

    Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Dan Campbell (El Salvador 1974-77)   The West Virginia Returned Peace Corps Volunteers has received a grant from the WV Humanities Council to fund recording of interviews with former Peace Corps Volunteers and staff. WVRPCV, an affiliate of the National Peace Corps Association, will work with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library to preserve the legacy of the Peace Corps through these interviews. The interviews will be stored, cataloged and made available via the Kennedy Library (part of the National Archives and Records Administration). The West Virginia interviews will also become part of the collection at the state Department of Archives and History. Former Volunteers and staff interested in being part of this project should send contact information, along with basic information about their service, in an email to  westvirginiarpcv@gmail.com, with “Interviews” in the subject line. Since 1961, more than 700 West . . .

  Poet Andrew Oerke (PC staff: Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Jamaica 1966-71), who received the 2015 William Meredith Award for Poetry, died unexpectedly in 2014. His widow, Doctor Anitra Thorhaug, has just published Boyhood in Bayfield: Poems, Andrew’s first poems about his boyhood in Bayfield, Wisconsin that includes photographs and insights into his past and her own. Like fellow pilgrims in a challenging landscape, she gives a sense of place from which the poems were born, both the physical and cultural landscape. Oerke was not only a poet, but also the CEO of an environmental foundation, president of a microfinance organization, Golden Gloves boxing champion, academic, and Peace Corps Country Director in Malawi and Jamaica. This ‘final’ collection of his poems has been published by Poets’ Choice Publishing. For more about Andrew, go to andrewoerkepoetry.org

    Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (Cameroon 1965-67) Beverly Heegaard, Beverly, 78, painfully practical, fearless, unapologetic to a fault. Chain-link fence gardener, antiestablishment embroiderer, Peace Corps Volunteer (Nepal 1962—64), mother to the universe of the dispossessed, probably read 10,000 books, completed the NYT crossword daily, in ink, often before sunup. Endearingly intolerant of nonsense. Will be buried in a box marked “Return to Sender, postage due.” Memorial service this summer, to be announced. Published in Newport Daily News. May 1, 2019.