Archive - July 3, 2020

  Reginald Brown (Micronesia 1990-02) helps Audra Elam (Togo 2019-20) save dog from being sent back overseas after COVID-19-forced separation By Sydney Czyzon Chicago Tribune, July  02, 2020 • A Peace Corps volunteer feared her beloved dog would be sent back overseas Friday because of issues with his paperwork. Then, a former Peace Corps worker used his legal expertise to help stop the separation. Audra Elam, the 27-year-old dog owner, originally from western Illinois, was teaching children in Togo in western Africa when she had to leave in mid-March because of the spread of coronavirus. “He would follow her to school,” Andrew Orland, another Peace Corps member, said of the dog. “When she did English classes in the afternoon, he would come hang out with the kids.” Elam left behind the terrier mix, Socrates, with the hope she could return to the village and extend her stay. But when it became clear . . .

Pandemic Positive by Ada Jo Mann (Chad 1967-69) • I wake to find this virus has stopped time and everyone on earth must make a change to focus effort on the greater good and forge a path that creates something new that urges us to find ways to relate to demonstrate the many ways we care. A daily focus must be on self care, if not our strength will surely fade in time. Technology can help us to relate and guide us as we navigate the change. Our innovations usher in the new. Our actions must support the greater good. How is it we can’t find the needed goods? It seems our current leaders just don’t care, though early on the highest levels knew and kept denying, wasting precious time It’s mandatory now that we must change For now it’s at a distance we relate. So ZOOM it is, that helps . . .