November 8, 2022 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Gregory Jackmond (Samoa) | archaeologist in Samoa

Nov 08 2022

Gregory Jackmond (Samoa 1974-76) carried out extensive archaeological field work in Samoa during the 1970s when he was a PCV in the islands. He surveyed pre-historic ruins from Sapapali’I and another large settlement in Palauli district where the Pulemelei Mound is situated. The features visible include platforms (for houses), star mounds, terraces, walls, walled walkways, elevated walkways, large earthen ovens (umu ele’ele or umu ti), drainage channels, large pits, forts and just piles of stone. Umu ele’ele, according to Jackmond, were large earth ovens which were used about 500 to 1000 years ago to make sugar from ti trees. “The ti root apparently was cooked for about 10 hours in a lot of heat. The result was sugar for the people at the time,” he said. He found remnants of stone structures that dated back hundreds of years and upon his return to California in the U.S. at the . . .

ST. PETERSBURG BAY BLUES by Douglas Buchacek (Russia)

Nov 08 2022

St. Petersburg Bay Blues is Douglas Buchacek’s account of serving in Western Russia from 2001 to 2003, in what ultimately turned out to be the final Peace Corps cohort to serve in the country. He has documented his service, which began three weeks before 9/11, up through the ultimate closing of the program in February 2003, amidst accusations of espionage against Peace Corps Volunteers. The Russia he lived in was a world caught between worlds — the after effects of the end of the Soviet Union, the chaos of the 1990s, the beginnings of Putinism — and that struggle affected his service, and everyone he encountered . . . Russian and American. The book is also a story of youth, of growing up, of friendship, of curiosity. It is a meditation on the joy of adventure, as well as on sadness and loneliness, and a portrait of a society . . .

Mark Gearan gives talk on National Service

Nov 08 2022

Former Peace Corps Director Mark. Gearan will join the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Rochester’s (NY) Fall Forum series, delivering a guest presentation on the state of public service in the U.S. and possibilities for its future. Gearan is nationally known for his tenure in higher education and national service. His public talk, “National Service in the 21st Century,” will be held in-person and online beginning at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at the Rochester Academy of Medicine. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR PRESIDENT GEARAN’S TALK AT THE HARVARD-RADCLIFFE CLUB OF ROCHESTER. Mark Gearan, president again of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, recently served as Vice Chair of the National Commission on Military, National and Public Service created by the U.S. Congress. Gearan is a past chair of the Board of Directors of both National Campus Compact and the Corporation for National and Community Service.The event is hosted by the Rochester-area . . .

Archive - November 8, 2022