July 28, 2022 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Review — IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME by Tom Corbett (India)

Jul 28 2022

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time Tom Corbett (India 1966–68) Hancock Press 644 pages $14.99 (paperback), $24.99 (hardcover), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by John Chromy (India 1963–65) Tom Corbett’s book, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, is well worth reading, mostly for the very thoughtful reflections of the India 44 RPCVs that arose at three reunions that started in 2009, forty years after their PC service in Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Drawn from Tom Corbett’s notes from the reunions, the narrative focuses not on all the problems or peculiarities of the host country, as many Peace Corps stories do, but rather these India RPCVs thoughtfully and often humorously reflect on: Some of the positive achievements, however small, each of them made during her/his PCV assignments, How much the PC/India experience changed their lives and forced them to become better people, The many achievements and progress . . .

The Volunteer Who Had Encounters with Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia — William Seraile (Ethiopia)

Jul 28 2022

by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) (The following Profile is drawn largely from an article by William Seraile, Ethiopia 1963-65, published in Peace Corps WorldWide.) • William (Bill) Seraile was among about 140 Volunteers, mainly in their early twenties and graduates of Ivy League Colleges, some small schools, a few large public universities, and a small number of historic black colleges and universities, that arrived in Ethiopia as the second group of Volunteer teachers in the fall of 1963. Most of them had to examine their atlases to find Ethiopia on the map. Only one had ever been to Africa having spent a summer in Kenya with Operation Crossroads Africa. The trainees had two months of Peace Corps training at UCLA, studying Ethiopian culture, history and Amharic. Their language instructors were all young Ethiopian graduate students studying in American universities. Following that, Bill’s group departed for Ethiopia from New York . . .

Mike Tidwell (Zaire)| “Why I’m protesting the Congressional Baseball Game”

Jul 28 2022

— Opinion by Mike Tidwell (Zaire 1985-87) I’ll be attending the 87th annual Congressional Baseball Game Thursday at Nationals Park. I won’t be there as a fan, peacefully cracking my peanuts. I’ll be there as a protester, peacefully engaged in civil disobedience. I’m a lifelong baseball devotee who attends games at D.C.’s Nationals Park mostly to forget about politics, not engage in them. You want to hand me literature outside the park or chant your message inside? Have at it. But make it quick, man. You’re annoying me. There’s one towering exception, however — one issue so huge, so all-consuming, that it transcends baseball and everything else. It’s called, you know, the burning up of the whole world! The Post reported this month that 1,000-year-old bristlecone pines are dying en masse in California. Meanwhile, Europe sets a new heat record almost daily, and scientists have declared a “code red” for . . .

Archive - July 28, 2022