August 2021 – Page 3 – Peace Corps Worldwide

PCV Women who made a Difference in Ethiopia after their tours

Aug 07 2021

By Kathleen Coskran (Ethiopia 1965-67) Ethiopian Tsehai Wodajo’s life was changed by a young Swedish woman, Eva Nordin, who showed up in Tsehai’s village in Ethiopia more than 40 years ago. Eva saw Tsehai’s potential and made it possible for her to stay in high school and to go on to university. Tsehai never forgot Eva who made such a difference in her life and was inspired to find a way to provide that opportunity for other girls and young women. She and her friends Hanna Getachen-Kreusser and Ann (Chartrand) Jensen (Ethiopia 1964-66) (the first PCV in Bahar Dar) had the idea for Resources Enriching African Lives — REAL. In 2004 Tsehai and Ann traveled to Ethiopia to establish the first REAL site in Nedjo, in western Ethiopia, with a local supervising committee and a mentor for 15 girls. REAL has grown to 8 sites, and is currently opening . . .

Review — LETTERS FROM A WONDROUS EMPIRE by Cynthia Nelson Mosca (Ethiopia)

Aug 05 2021

Letters from a Wondrous Empire: An Epistolary Memoir by Cynthia Nelson Mosca (Ethiopia 1967–69) A Peace Corps Writers Book July 2021 182 pages $14.99 (paperback), $3.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by William Hershey (Ethiopia 1968-70) • It took more than 50 years and the COVID-19 Pandemic, but Cynthia Nelson Mosca has written a memoir that captures the best of what it meant to be a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia in the late 1960s. Cindy didn’t spend half a century writing the book. Her life, especially directing an ESL (English as a second language) bilingual program in Cicero, Illinois, was too full and busy for that. The book is based on letters she sent home to her family while teaching at a secondary school in Woldia, a small town in northern Ethiopia, from 1967 to 1969. Before her aunt and mother died, they gave her all the letters. Until early 2020 . . .

David Schweidenback (Ecuador) Pedals for Progress

Aug 05 2021

Pedals for Progres by Zachary Sherry Borgen Magazine August 5, 2021 David Schweidenback (Ecuador 1978-80) founded Pedals for Progress after his time in the Peace Corps. It is now one of the largest distributors of used bikes to developing nations. Since 1991, Pedals for Progress (P4P) has operated as a non-profit organization in New Jersey. It started when Mr. Schweidenback noticed an abundance of bikes thrown into garbage in his neighborhood during a bleak financial time while working as a carpenter. Connecting his experience overseas with what Americans were wasting at home, he chose to make a difference. Schweidenback spoke with The Borgen Project in an interview. He explained, “I decided if I wasn’t doing anything and I’m not making money and I’m just sitting here bored, I’m going to go out and collect a dozen bikes and I’m going to ship them back to Ecuador. Just like a freebie, a . . .

The Volunteer Who Was at the Epicenter of Contemporary National Events — Ben Bradlee, Jr. (Afghanistan)

Aug 04 2021

A Profile in Citizenship by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963–65) • BEN BRADLEE, JR.* WAS A copy boy at the Boston Globe during summers before graduating from Colby College in Maine with a major in Political Science. He then served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Afghanistan from 1970 to 1972, where he reported for an English-language newspaper in Kabul. Returning home, Ben went into a journalistic career which placed him at the center of several national events, beginning by working for several years at the Riverside Press in California. He then spent most of his journalistic career at the Boston Globe. There he was successively State House reporter, investigative reporter, national correspondent, political editor, and metropolitan editor. In 1993, he was promoted to Assistant Managing Editor responsible for investigations and projects. In that role, Ben edited the Globe’s reportage that uncovered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston’s repeated cover-ups of . . .

Review — WARRIOR LOVE: Silas Loves Lili, Weirdly Lili Loves Silas

Aug 01 2021

Warrior Love: Silas Loves Lili Weirdly Lili Loves Silas by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia 1964-66) Published by Stephen Foehr 373 pages July 2021 $6.99 (Kindle); $10.98 (Paperback Reviewed by D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974-76) • I am not the ideal person to review this book. I am approximately three times the age of the average member of the book’s target demographic. Also, I have never in my life gone into a bar (much less a biker bar) with the expressed purpose of starting a fight to test my bravery and courage. The one time I did step between two would-be combatants trying to prevent a fight, I was extremely grateful that neither of them decided to attack me! In the opening scene, Silas walks into a biker bar named the Knotty Hole wearing a kilt, no shirt, and a black leather vest with a rhinestone eagle on the back. And . . .

Archive - August 2021