Archive - June 30, 2020

  From 1966 through 1981 the Peace Corps sent more than two thousand volunteers to South Korea, to teach English and provide healthcare. A small yet significant number of them returned to the United States and entered academia, forming the core of a second wave of Korean studies scholars. How did their experiences in an impoverished nation still recovering from war influence their intellectual orientation and choice of study — and Korean studies itself? In this volume, Peace Corps Volunteers and the Making of Korean Studies in the United States, former Volunteers who became scholars of the anthropology, history, and literature of Korea reflect on their experiences during the period of military dictatorship, on gender issues, and on how random assignments led to lifelong passion for the country. Two scholars who were not volunteers assess how Peace Corps service affected the development of Korean studies in the United States.   Co-editor . . .

  Ursula Bendix (Colombia 1967-69) was born in Germany in 1945 and immigrated with her family to Portland, Oregon, when she was ten. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Portland State University, she joined the Peace Corps as an educational television volunteer in Columbia, South America. At the end of her two-year volunteer service she returned to Portland, completed her master’s degree, and finished working on a secondary school teaching credential. She moved to Yreka, California, in 1976 teaching adult education and Spanish for the College of the Siskiyous many years. She also taught at a polytechnic high school in southern Chile in 2018 as part of the English Open Doors program sponsored by Chile’s Ministry of Education and the United Nations. She is owner/broker of Bendix Real Estate specializing in Yreka and much of Siskiyou County for twenty years. Bendix’s Land • Home • Mountain View is her first . . .

  The Last Rhino (novel) Robert E. Gribbin (Kenya 1968–70) iUniverse April 2020 218 pages $24.15 (paperback)   Reviewed by Sandy Seppala-Gyr  (Kenya 1977-79)  • Are there any white rhinoceros left in Africa? Who is poaching elephants, which are killed for their ivory to send to China? This book takes you to Central Africa where you’ll see what it takes to overcome strife in the name of conservation to protect wildlife and preserve cultures. Elephants and rhinos were furthest from retired big-game hunter Philippe’s mind as he relaxed on his rigged sailboat in St. Martinique. He’d run chartered tours for five years when his Aussie friend, Sheila, suggested he was bored and getting boring. Agreeing, he guessed he needed an ‘adrenaline rush’. Responding to an advert, he put behind his comfortable life and flew to London to interview with the Elephant Conservation Project for a position in the Democratic Republic . . .