Archive - 2021

1
Carey Halio (Guatemala) — From the Peace Corps to Goldman Sachs
2
Amid Unprecedented Times, an Unparalleled Response –from NPCA
3
Pence was the Brutus who caused ‘final betrayal’ of ‘Caesar’ Trump, writes Peter Navarro (Thailand)
4
63* new books by Peace Corps writers — September–October, 2021
5
“Reimagining the Peace Corps for the next 60 ” by Daniel F. Runde
6
No Ghosts in the Graveyard by Bob Crites (Brazil)
7
Peace Corps Writer of 2021 — Mildred D. Taylor (Ethiopia)
8
FINDING REFUGE by Victorya Rouse (Eswatinia-Swaziland)
9
A Great Shriver RPCV Story!
10
Dan Wemhoff (Colombia I) RIP – Obituary
11
Memory vs. Truth: Review of OLIVER’S TRAVELS Clifford Garstang (Korea)
12
WorldView Magazine wins awards!
13
PLAGUE BIRDS by Jason Sanford (Thailand)
14
A Thailand Memoir by James Jouppi
15
ACROSS THE FACE OF THE STORM by Jerome R. Adams (Colombia)

Carey Halio (Guatemala) — From the Peace Corps to Goldman Sachs

  Carey Halio CEO, Goldman Sachs Bank USA   In some ways Carey Halio (Guatemala 1995-97) is a world away from the Peace Corps service that ignited her interest in finance. In others she’s bringing learnings from the Guatemalan mountains to Main Street, USA. Halio is the CEO of Goldman Sachs’ banking subsidiary, a fledgling unit inside the 150-year-old firm behind some of its most innovative products. She took the CEO job two years ago after four years as CFO. “When I joined the bank in 2014, it was this quiet little sleepy subsidiary that hadn’t done anything interesting,” she says. “We’re now at this point where we are using this platform to transform Goldman Sachs.” Marcus, Apple Card, transaction banking. The businesses and brand names use cutting-edge tech to touch millions of customers. Together they’ve attracted tens of billions in customer cash that’s been used to lower Goldman’s funding costs . . .

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Amid Unprecedented Times, an Unparalleled Response –from NPCA

This week, we celebrated a special moment in Peace Corps history. It was on November 2, 1960, that John F. Kennedy first gave a name to the idea that would become the Peace Corps. Running for president, in a speech at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, he declared, “I am convinced that the pool of people in this country of ours anxious to respond to the public service is greater than it has ever been in our history.” We know what it means to meet historic moments. Since March 2020, we have seen how the Peace Corps community has met unprecedented times with an unparalleled response. From working to support evacuated Volunteers to helping amid the COVID-19 pandemic, from advocating for a better and stronger Peace Corps to helping refugees, we’ve seen time and again how Peace Corps ideals make an impact. Just last week, the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee convened . . .

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Pence was the Brutus who caused ‘final betrayal’ of ‘Caesar’ Trump, writes Peter Navarro (Thailand)

Daily Mail, Nov 4, 2021   Mike Pence is the ‘Brutus’ figure in an internecine ‘war’ among advisors over former President Donald Trump’s election overturn effort, writes former top trade advisor Peter Navarro ( Thailand 1972-75) in his new memoir. Navarro who helped design Trump’s China tariffs writes of battling factions inside the White House and the Trump campaign between ‘Swamp creatures’ who wanted to concede defeat and those who rallied behind a plan to rely on Republican support in the House to try to delay the counting of electoral votes. Trump was an ‘American Caesar,’ Navarro told DailyMail.com in an interview, while Pence, ‘his erstwhile most loyal person in the White House winds up sticking him in the back.’ Former top White House trade official Peter Navarro describes a ‘war’ among White House factions over whether to contest the 2020 election Navarro’s forthcoming book, Trump Time, A Journal of . . .

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63* new books by Peace Corps writers — September–October, 2021

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We now include a one-sentence description  for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers  1) to order a book and 2) to VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT.  See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. In addition to the books listed below, Marian has on her shelf a number of other books whose authors would love for you to review. Go to Books Available for Review to see what is on that shelf. Please, please join in our Third Goal effort!!! Just . . .

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“Reimagining the Peace Corps for the next 60 ” by Daniel F. Runde

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Steve  Kaffen (Russia 1994-96)   from The Hill 10/30/21 by Daniel F. Runde, Opinion Contributor     The Peace Corps celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic there are currently no Peace Corps volunteers serving abroad. As the Peace Corps program practices resiliency and adapts to a post-COVID landscape, it should also use this moment to answer long-existing questions that can redirect the Peace Corps to a more impactful and relevant future. About the Peace Corps The book “The Ugly American” caused a sensation in foreign policy and national security circles when it was released in 1958. It painted Americans as arrogant, out of touch, and insensitive to the needs of the rapidly de-colonizing developing world. It was so influential that then-Senator John F. Kennedy bought 99 copies of the book and gave it to every other Senator to read. “The . . .

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No Ghosts in the Graveyard by Bob Crites (Brazil)

No Ghosts in the Graveyard: The Life-Time Adventures of A Small- Town Oregon Boy by Bob Crites (Brazil 1964-66) Independently Published 2021 428 pages $12.99 (Paperback)     When Bob Crites was in the seventh grade in Drain, his social studies teacher Art Biederman showed the class pictures of his summer travels. It sparked what would become a lifelong passion for helping children in other countries. Crites would grow up to help feed school lunches to children in Brazil, form a charity to provide scholarships for children in Brazil and Tanzania, and bring one young athlete to Oregon, where she trained for the Olympics. Crites recently self-published his memoirs, “No Ghosts in the Graveyard: The Life-Time Adventures of a Small-Town Oregon Boy” on Amazon. Crites was born in 1940 in Drain on a farm that had been in his family since his maternal great grandfather Augustus Hickethier founded it in . . .

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Peace Corps Writer of 2021 — Mildred D. Taylor (Ethiopia)

  Mildred D. Taylor (Ethiopia 1965-67) is our Peace Corps Writer of 2021. Millie is also the winner of the 2021 Children’s Literature Legacy Award presented by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, honoring an author or illustrator, published in the United States, whose books have made a significant and lasting contribution to literature for children. Her numerous works include “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” (Dial, 1976) and “All the Days Past, All the Days to Come” (Dial, 2020). “Taylor’s storytelling shows how courage, dignity, and family love endure amidst racial injustice and continues to enlighten hearts and minds of readers through the decades,” said Children’s Literature Legacy Award Committee Chair Dr. Junko Yokota. Mildred’s story(s) Mildred Taylor was born in Mississippi, grew up in Ohio, and now lives in Colorado. A childhood of listening to family stories told by . . .

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FINDING REFUGE by Victorya Rouse (Eswatinia-Swaziland)

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Kay Dixon (Colombia 1962-64)   Tales from student immigrants in Spokane share their hardships and triumphs  By Shawn Vestal shawnv Spokesman-Review Sun., Oct. 24, 2021 Meet the Author Victorya Rouse, author of “Finding Refuge: Real-Life Immigration Stories from Young Readers,” will be featured at an event for The Spokesman-Review’s Northwest Passages Book Club on Nov. 9 at the Montvale Event Center. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the event starts at 7. Proof of vaccination required for entry. Click for more information. • When Fedja Zahirovic fled with his family from the Bosnian War to Spokane in the 1990s, he was “confused and angry,” uprooted from all he’d ever known, and didn’t know the language or the culture. The first steps in his American education occurred at the Newcomers Center at Ferris High School. “It was a safe place,” he said this week. “It was a . . .

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A Great Shriver RPCV Story!

Thanks for the ‘heads up’  from Jim Wolter  (Malaysia 1961–66) . . .    We also celebrate, Bob Hoyle (Philippines 1962-63), another RPCV life well-lived. One of the stories Bob loved to tell about Sarge Shriver was of the time Sarge was Ambassador to France and Bob was working with Palestinian Refugees (an emotionally draining experience). Bob was courting a woman (not his eventual wife Karen) working in London. Bob and she decided to meet in Paris for a long weekend. Bob saved to take her to the best restaurant in Paris (I don’t recall the name). During lunch, Sarge and his entourage entered and Bob, wanting to impress his date, said, “There’s Ambassador Shriver.” She said something to the effect, “It couldn’t be. How do you know?” He told her, “I know it’s him. I met him when he came to visit Peace Corps Volunteers in the Philippines. He actually . . .

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Dan Wemhoff (Colombia I) RIP – Obituary

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Geri Critchley (Senegal 1971-72)   DANIEL MARTIN WEMHOFF (Colombia 1961-63) Dan went home to be with the Lord on October 7, 2021, after a courageous, stoic battle with ALS.  He lived life to the fullest from his early days of baseball with City of Detroit American Legion titles and St Paul High School. He declined a Baltimore Oriole contract and earned his University of Detroit degree while playing baseball and editing the sports desk of the Varsity News. He continued an active athletic life by running and playing hockey well into his senior years. After military service, Dan joined the first Peace Corps group in 1961 and served in Colombia, South America. This began a lifetime interest in international relations, humanitarian service, justice, and foreign literature and films. He spoke Spanish and Portuguese. Dan received a Masters in International Relations from Catholic University, earned . . .

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Memory vs. Truth: Review of OLIVER’S TRAVELS Clifford Garstang (Korea)

  Oliver’s Travels by Clifford Garstang (Korea 1976-77) Regal House Publishing May 2021 $9.49 (Kindle); $18.95 (Paperback)   Reviewed by Juliana Converse • All novels are mystery novels, a seasoned author tells hopeful writer, Ollie. At the core of everything we read about a character is their greatest desire. The mystery, as in real life, is what will the character do, and to what lengths will they go to attain this desire? Ollie’s desire is multifold: his most urgent need is to find his Uncle Scotty, and ask him why Ollie is haunted by childhood memories related to him. Underneath this urge runs the very familiar, existential dread of the recently graduated. But in Ollie’s case, this includes the question of his sexuality. In Oliver’s Travels, Clifford Garstang interrogates the folly of memory and meaning through a deeply flawed, possibly traumatized, occasionally problematic main character, asking, how do we know . . .

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WorldView Magazine wins awards!

  WorldView magazine, published by National Peace Corps Association, earned both an EDDIE and OZZIE in the 2021 FOLIO Magazine awards. These awards recognize magazine editorial and design excellence. WorldView earned EDDIE top honors for a series of articles in the Summer 2020 edition that tell the stories of Peace Corps Volunteers who were evacuated from around the world in 2020. These stories capture the Volunteers’ experiences and the communities in which they were serving, and the unfinished business they left behind. The magazine earned OZZIE top honors for the cover of the Fall 2020 edition, featuring an illustration by award-winning artist David Plunkert. With a dove of peace inside a cage-like COVID-19 molecule, the cover asks: “What’s the role of Peace Corps now?” Plunkert’s work has appeared in the pages and on the covers of The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Time, and elsewhere. The awards were presented on October . . .

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PLAGUE BIRDS by Jason Sanford (Thailand)

  Glowing red lines split their faces. Shock-red hair and clothes warn people to flee their approach. They are plague birds, the powerful merging of humans and artificial intelligences who serve as judges and executioners after the collapse of civilization. And the plague birds’ judgement is swift and deadly, as Crista discovered as a child when she watched one kill her mother. In a world of gene-modded humans constantly watched over by benevolent AIs, everyone hates and fears the plague birds. But to save her father and home village, Crista becomes the very creature she fears the most. And her first task as a plague bird is hunting down an ancient group of murderers wielding magic-like powers. As Crista and her AI symbiote travel farther from home than she ever imagined, they are plunged into a strange world where she judges wrongdoers, befriends other outcasts, and uncovers an extremely personal . . .

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A Thailand Memoir by James Jouppi

  After graduating with Cornell’s civil engineering class of 1971 and a five-week stint as a taxi driver in New York City, Jim Jouppi (Thailand 1971-73) shipped out for a Peace Corps adventure in Thailand. After completing his two-year tour, he was ready to go back home when, after meeting a flirtatious Thai jownatee, he decided to take a home leave and return for one more year. Upon his return to Thailand, he found himself immersed in a very personal dilemma while trying to escape the confluence of Thai government, Peace Corps, and counterinsurgency politics in the Communist sensitive province where he was stationed. Jouppi was later employed in America as an engineer-in-training, carpenter apprentice, refugee worker, and postal worker, spent three years in the Army as a medic, and earned a master’s degree in tropical public health civil engineering in England. His first sustained attempt at memoir writing was . . .

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ACROSS THE FACE OF THE STORM by Jerome R. Adams (Colombia)

  In early 1911, Isabel Cooper, 17, and her 15-year-old brother, Frederick. they leave their Georgetown home after the sudden death of their Mexican mother. They are determined to find their father, a college professor who – like many American leftists – had joined the Mexican revolution a few months earlier. They travel by train, stagecoach, and wagon, at first put off by what they see of turn-of-the-century American South. But they soon learn of the quiet dignity of their mother’s homeland. After an ugly incident not of their making, they escape the federales with the help of Pepe, a lad of many talents. He leads them to refuge with a ragtag militia on its way to join Carranza’s Army of the North, commanded by a woman known as La Maestra. • After service in the Peace Corps in Colombia, Jerome Adams went to work for The Charlotte (NC) Observer, . . .

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