Archive - March 2021

1
Peace Corps at 60: “Service changed lives of midstate volunteers”
2
The Volunteer Who Adopted Her Host Country — Margarita Sorock (Colombia)
3
Nominate Your Favorite Peace Corps Writers Book of 2020
4
The Legacy of Dr. Robert Textor (DC staff)
5
New List of Peace Corps writers who have published 2 or more books — March 2021
6
Review — LEARNING PEACE: Stories from My Time in Peace Corps Ethiopia by Krista Jolivette
7
Who should be the next Peace Corps Director?
8
Gifts Peace Corps Gave Me (Turkey)
9
Review — HUNTING TEDDY ROOSEVELT by James A. Ross
10
To Review and Recommend Polices for the Peace Corps of the Future.
11
Say it isn’t so . . .
12
First Asian-American PCV to become Ambassador — Julia Chang Block (Malaysia)
13
Coyne Comes in From the Cold
14
Experiences in Ethiopia Enriched My Life
15
A Happy American Birthday — Jamie Kirkpatrick (Tunisia)

Peace Corps at 60: “Service changed lives of midstate volunteers”

    “I joined Peace Corps in 1988 to immerse in meaningful work providing basic needs at the village level, as well as an opportunity for an out-of-the-box experience and time to reevaluate my life.” By Rick Dandes/The Sunbury PA Daily March 6, 2021 | 1:29 PM • At a time when the Peace Corps has suspended all operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic and recalled 7,300 volunteers from 60 countries — a first for the six-decade-old program — six former volunteers with Central Pennsylvania connections recall the value of their “life-changing” experiences and praised the virtues of the far-off locations where they served. Whether assigned to primitive villages in Africa in the 1980s, emerging democracies in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, or more recently to South America, they all joined the Peace Corps out of a desire to serve their country and to help people in need, using skills . . .

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The Volunteer Who Adopted Her Host Country — Margarita Sorock (Colombia)

  A Profile in Citizenship by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) • In her own words, a woman then named Margery, lived in New York City, mainly in Brooklyn, for the first 21 years of her life. Her three most frequent sentiments were boredom, frustration, and anger, although she was undoubtedly considered ”normal and well-adjusted.”  She was a good student.  School, far from great, was a welcome escape from home— which was a welcome escape from school. She attended Barnard College, a long subway ride from Brooklyn and an even longer journey from the sameness of her childhood to the discovery, albeit theoretical, of multiple universes — past and present. It was a glimpse into the “escapes” she longed for. Margery was strong on imagination and weak on finance.  Then, President Kennedy read her mind and felt the beat of her heart. The Peace Corps was already in operation, so after . . .

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Nominate Your Favorite Peace Corps Writers Book of 2020

  The awards are: The Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award The Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award The Maria Thomas Fiction Award The Award for Best Peace Corps Memoir The Award for Best Book of Poetry The Award for Best Short Story Collection The Award for Best Travel Book The Rowland Scherman Award for Best Photography Book The Marian Haley Beil Award for the Best Book Review The Award for Best Children’s Book about a Peace Corps Country Submit your favorite book(s) published in 2020. Send your selection(s) to John Coyne: jcoyneone@gmail.com List what award your selection should be given. The awards will be announced in August 2021. Thank you.

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The Legacy of Dr. Robert Textor (DC staff)

  This was originally posted on Peace Corps Worldwide on February 2, 2014.  Dr. Textor believed that RPCVs should ultimately be the ones staffing Peace Corps administration.  Perhaps in this time of proposing improvement to Peace Corps, it would be good to revisit his ideas. • This is a good time to remember how very much Robert Textor contributed to the Peace Corps. He was one of the original Peace Corps staffers. He believed passionately in the Volunteer and just as importantly, the RPCV. Textor was the  author of the “In, Up, and Out” policy or as it is more commonly known, “the five year rule.” But, he insisted that tenure should be eight years, not five. He envisioned a Peace Corps agency staffed 90% by RPCVs, arguing that the cross-cultural experience of the Volunteer was transformative and should be incorporated into every function of the Peace Corps agency. In the months before his passing, . . .

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New List of Peace Corps writers who have published 2 or more books — March 2021

    Here is our new list — as of March 2021 — 333 RPCV & staff authors who have published two or more books (of any type). If you know of someone who has and their name is not on this list, then please email me at: jcoyneone@gmail.com. I know I don’t have all the writers who have been Volunteers or Staff in the Peace Corps over these last 59 years. Thank you. Jerome R. Adams (Colombia 1963–65) Tom Adams (Togo 1974-76) Thomas “Taj” Ainlay, Jr. (Malaysia 1973–75) Elizabeth (Letts) Alalou (Morocco 1983–86) Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) Robert Albritton (Ethiopia 1962-65) Usha Alexander (Vanuatu 1996–97) James G. Alinder (Somalia 1964-66) Richard Alleman (Morocco 1968-70) Hayward Allen (Ethiopia 1962-64) Diane Demuth Allensworth (Panama 1964–66) Paul E. Allaire (Ethiopia 1964–66) D. Allman (Nepal 1966-68) Nancy Amidei (Nigeria 1964–65) Gary Amo (Malawi 1962–64) David C. Anderson (Costa Rica 1964-66) Lauri Anderson (Nigeria . . .

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Review — LEARNING PEACE: Stories from My Time in Peace Corps Ethiopia by Krista Jolivette

  Learning Peace: Stories from my Time in Peace Corps Ethiopia by Krista Jolivette (Ethiopia 2018-20) Self-published 316 pages August 2020 $4.99 (Kindle); $9.99 (Paperback) Reviewed by Janet Lee (Ethiopia 1974-76) • What Returned Peace Corps Volunteer has not answered that inevitable question upon their return, “What was it like?  It must have been interesting.”?  And then waited for the listeners’ eyes to glaze over as the Volunteer describes what may have been the most transformative experience of their lives. Interesting?  How do you describe a bond that you have with a country and a people that will likely last a lifetime?  How do you describe an experience that will affect your future relationships, job choices, lifestyle, and attitudes and beliefs? How do you say that you are not the person you were before? Krista Jolivette (Ethiopia 2018-20) provides a glimpse into her life as a Volunteer in the Tigray . . .

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Who should be the next Peace Corps Director?

  The answer is simple . . . this woman! Why? Because . . . She is a woman—63% of all PCVs are women She is a close relative of the President—just like Shriver was to JFK A PH.D in Education—most PCVs are teachers An author (most RPCVs are writers) A person of compassion and understanding, just like all PCVs Who is it? Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden She has a bachelor’s degree and a doctoral degree from the University of Delaware, as well as master’s degrees from West Chester University and Villanova University. She taught English and reading in high schools for thirteen years and instructed adolescents with emotional disabilities at a psychiatric hospital. From 1993 to 2008, she was an English and writing instructor at Delaware Technical & Community College. Since 2009, she has been a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College. She is also . . . founder of the Biden Breast . . .

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Gifts Peace Corps Gave Me (Turkey)

    by Stephen Franklin (Turkey 1968-70)   I entered the world literally in Peace Corps in the 1960s. Suzanne and I lived in a small, somewhat isolated village in the middle of  Turkey, a place at the end of a long dry plain and a muddy road up a mountain. We had running water one day a week, and sometimes electricity, and the village was closed to the world in the winter when the snow brought the wolves down from the higher places, and if a bus tried to get to the next biggest city, it rode over the fields because they were easier to maneuver than the roads. Later we moved to Istanbul and ran an orphanage for 40 boys by ourselves. We learned about kindness, humanity and compassion for others. We learned about the tremendous power of hope and the great downward pressure of poverty and the cruelty . . .

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Review — HUNTING TEDDY ROOSEVELT by James A. Ross

  Hunting Teddy Roosevelt by James A. Ross (Congo 1975-77) Regal Publishing House 242 pages 2020 $9.49 (Kindle); $16.49 (Paperback) Reviewed by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia 1965-67) • Ah, political machinations, financial shenanigans, international arm-twisting for war or peace, a plot to kill former president Teddy Roosevelt while he’s on an African safari. Crack open James A. Ross’s novel, Hunting Teddy Roosevelt, kick back, and settle down into a romp through a blend of history, true facts, fictional facts, and an ill-fated romance. J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and William Randolph Hearst plot to keep the ex-president in faraway Africa for a year. Morgan wants TR off the political stage, permanently, so he can undo Roosevelt’s trust-busting laws that are a thorn in Morgan’s wallet. Carnegie wants to harness for world peace TR’s passion for anti-crime and anti-corruption, but without Teddy “Rough Rider” Roosevelt, who enjoys killing animals and fighting wars. Hearst . . .

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To Review and Recommend Polices for the Peace Corps of the Future.

  The Tributes to John and Marian, also, continue. John has been the heart of the RPCV community and Marian’s support of RPCV books and their authors will support that legacy.  I am one of so many RPCVs who have benefited from their generosity  and support.  I will be forever grateful. I appreciate the opportunity to post these thoughts that were written before I knew of the John’s decision. • There are no Peace Corps Volunteers serving now and no dates certain forreturning to host countries. However, there is much interest in looking towards to how the Peace Corps can improve in the future. Representative Garmandi  introduced the Peace Corps Reauthorization Act. (https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/congressman-john-garamendi-introduces-peace-corps-reauthorization-act/) Peace Corps responded to President Biden’s Executive order on advancing racial equity and supporting underserved communities.( https://www.peacecorps.gov/news/library/the-peace-corps-responds-to-president-bidens-executive-order-on-advancing-racial-equity-and-support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal-government/). The NPCA held Town Halls through the summer with RPCVs and has published “Time for a Change” (https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/articles/now-is-the-time-for-historic-changes-that-includes-the-peace-corps) I think . . .

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Say it isn’t so . . .

  I am overwhelmed and humbled by the kind words from all of you about my decision to ET my website. I wish I did have the time, energy, (and age) to keep up the pace, but I am deep into a novel (not about the Peace Corps) that I want to finish before I’m too old to type. For many of us, as you know, the Peace Corps is a passion that just won’t let go. It is the experience that changed us, even if it took us years to realize why the Peace Corps is so important in our lives. Most of us are still connected in some way to our host country, the school where we taught, our host family, friends, and PCVs from our group. Why we even married each other! The Peace Corps is a real pest. It won’t let go. I always said when . . .

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First Asian-American PCV to become Ambassador — Julia Chang Block (Malaysia)

A Profile in Citizenship Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) Julia Chang Bloch, a Peace Corps Volunteer English Teacher in Sabah, Malaysia (North Borneo) from 1964-1966, is an exceptional human being with her humanitarian and leadership accomplishments in positions too numerous to name here. Her inclusion in 2017 as only 1 of 147 women from U.S. history to make the list in Langston’s “A to Z of American Women Leaders and Activists” is almost as significant as being the First Asian-American Ambassador. Julia has maintained the highest professional standards in her leadership positions at USAID, USIA, Department of State, U.S. Senate, and other private, philanthropic and educational organizations in the U.S. and China among other countries for the last 50+ years. Julia learned from her Father and Mother in Shandong Province in China where she was born that a person can always do better, challenging yourself, pushing boundaries, creating new paths and . . .

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Coyne Comes in From the Cold

I am closing down www.peacecorpsworldwide.org website this month. Marian Haley Beil and I started a newsletter RPCV Writers & Readers 32 years ago. We then shifted to our website in 2000. We started our newsletter in April 1989 as a Third Goal project to promote and encourage stories and books about the Peace Corps and our experiences as a way of educating Americans about the developing world. We had hoped with the website to have a place where RPCVs could share points of view and their own stories. While this has happened, but for the most part our 245,000 plus RPCVs do not look back and reflect on their time overseas, caught up naturally with their current lives, families, and careers. The Peace Corps is history for most RPCVs. I am happy to say that Marian will continue to develop Peace Corps Writers Books imprint where 89 RPCVs and Staff . . .

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Experiences in Ethiopia Enriched My Life

Experiences in Ethiopia Enriched My Life Jim Skelton (Ethiopia 1970-72) It all began when, as a young boy, I was held spellbound by President John F. Kennedy’s historic inauguration speech on January 20, 1961.  JFK’s incredibly inspiring words about doing something for my country made quite an impression on me, even more than I realized at the time.  Less than two months later, on March 1, 1961, he signed Executive Order 10924 establishing the Peace Corps, and since then nearly a quarter of a million citizens have followed his vision by joining and serving as Peace Corps Volunteers in 133 countries around the world. I was one of those who continued to feel drawn by that vision, and those stirring words stayed with me through high school and college until I finally understood that was how I could do something meaningful with my life.  So, I applied to become a . . .

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A Happy American Birthday — Jamie Kirkpatrick (Tunisia)

  by Jamie Kirkpatrick (Tunisia 1970-72) “How many of you who are going to be doctors are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world? On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.”  — John F. Kennedy   A few days ago, a good friend of mine quietly celebrated its 58th birthday. I know the possessive pronoun in that sentence sounds a bit strange, but I . . .

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