Archive - 2022

1
THE VEGETABLE GROWS AND THE LION ROARS by Gary R. Lindberg (Ivory Coast)
2
Laura Ann Twagira’s (Mali) EMBODIED ENGINEERING — finalist for award
3
The Peace Corps is Back
4
Establishing the Peace Corps, March 1, 1961
5
Former Peace Corps General Counsel reacts to “5 Peace Corps Scandals”
6
Review — THE DELCO YEARS by Bill Owens (Jamaica)
7
The Volunteer Who Provided a Clear-eyed Look at Africa — Mark Wentling (Honduras, Togo)
8
New books by Peace Corps writers | September – October 2022
9
Peace Corps swears in 31 new Volunteers in Zambia
10
Review — GOD HOLDS YOU by Sarah S. Scherschligt (Malawi)
11
What RPCV Handed Out Treats on the White House Lawn?
12
Review — THOSE WHO ARE GONE by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras)
13
Peace Corps welcomes Trainees to Viet Nam in a historic first
14
CorpsAfrica Seeks Staff
15
Peace Corps CEO Carol Spahn visits The Philippines to celebrate 61 years of Peace Corps in the Philippines

THE VEGETABLE GROWS AND THE LION ROARS by Gary R. Lindberg (Ivory Coast)

  The Vegetable Grows and the Lion Roars: My Peace Corps Service is a memoir about author Gary R. Lindberg’s experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Ivory Coast in the 1960s. This  book offers a fascinating glimpse into what it was like to be a PCV in the early days of the program. This one-of-a-kind memoir presents how he decided to apply for the opportunity, how he trained, his project, the daily life activities, and the friends he made while he was there. He also shares highlights from the travels he took when on vacation breaks, such as his experience on a safari and his visit to the legendary city of Timbuktu. This memoir combines historical elements with personal vignettes as Lindberg elaborates on his many adventures – such as having a broken radiator in the middle of nowhere and how he and his companions got help. In . . .

Read More

Laura Ann Twagira’s (Mali) EMBODIED ENGINEERING — finalist for award

  Finalist for the 2022 African Studies Association Best Book Prize   Steve Scarpa | The Wesleyan Connection   Associate history professor Laura Ann Twagira’s (Mali 2000-01) book begins with a song – Malian women sing and boast about the quality of their cuisine. From that domestic moment, Twagira found the keys to a technological revolution. “Women brag and praise each other. They make food that everyone enjoys and that enlivens life. To do that, they need a set of key technological skills,” she said. Embodied Engineering: Gendered Labor, Food Security, and Taste in Twentieth-Century Mali was named a finalist for the 2022 Best Book Award by the African Studies Association (ASA). The winner of the award will be announced in November. The ASA presents the award annually, recognizing the most important scholarly work in African studies published in English and distributed in the United States in the previous year. The . . .

Read More

The Peace Corps is Back

  By Jeff Walsh (South Africa 2016-18) Ukraine, a sovereign country in Eastern Europe, was attacked this past February. Other previously neutral European countries are bolstering their military arsenal and are scrambling to join NATO for protection. The 101st Airborne has arrived in Poland. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has set the doomsday clock to 100 seconds to midnight. Doctors Without Borders stated that due to persecution, war, hunger, gender orientation. and climate change there are now 100 million refugees worldwide. Polar ice caps are melting, as we lose Arctic sea ice at a rate of almost 13% per decade as the Arctic could be ice-free by the summer by 2040. We need a hero. We need someone who actively understand and promotes world peace and friendship. We need the Peace Corps. On March 15, 2020- all Peace Corps operations came to a grinding halt. All 7,000 volunteers in over 50 . . .

Read More

Establishing the Peace Corps, March 1, 1961

This article I wrote in 1999 and I repost it now so new Volunteers will know the early history of their agency. JC Let me start with a quote from Gerard T. Rice’s book, The Bold Experiment: JFK’s Peace Corps: In 1961 John F. Kennedy took two risky and conflicting initiatives in the Third World. One was to send five hundred additional military advisers into South Vietnam; by 1963 there would be seventeen thousand such advisers. The other was to send five hundred young Americans to teach in the schools and work in the fields of eight developing countries. These were Peace Corps Volunteers. By 1963 there would be seven thousands of them in forty-four countries. Vietnam scarred the American psyche, leaving memories of pain and defeat. But Kennedy’s other initiative inspired, and continued to inspire, hope and understanding among Americans and the rest of the world. In that sense, . . .

Read More

Former Peace Corps General Counsel reacts to “5 Peace Corps Scandals”

  William Josephson writes…..   Five Peace Corps scandals could have benefited from some fact checking, editing and consultation. The overall impression is that they are characteristic.  They are not.  They occurred over a very long period of time. “Scandal” is a misnomer in many of these cases. The Kate Puzey 2011 murder is so well known that it engendered a congressional reaction, and the Peace Corps’ continuing efforts to develop effective policies that reduce Peace Corps volunteer sexual harassment or worse. The death of the PCV wife of a Tanganyikan PCV dates to my 1960s time as Peace Corps General Counsel.  Not so incidentally, the husband’s verdict was “not proven,” not not guilty.  The Scottish system of three verdicts, guilty, not guilty, not proven, was followed there at that time. The Tonga killing occurred in 1977.  Sex would seem to have been a, or the, motive.  Tragic it was, . . .

Read More

Review — THE DELCO YEARS by Bill Owens (Jamaica)

  The Delco Years: A Dystopian Novel Bill  Owens (Jamaica 1964–66), Francesca Cosanti (Illustrator) Delco Years Publishing April 2022 $32.85 (paperback), $42.58 (hardcover) Reviewed by  D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974-76) & Costa Rica 1976-77) • This is an interactive graphic novel by Bill Owens. The author claims to be channeling Ned Buntline, the narrator of the story. The many great illustrations are the work of Francesca Cosanti. According to Buntline: “’The Delco Years’ was written in 1999 and put away for 21 years. Then in the Fall of 2020, for some unknown reason (COVID-19), I started re-writing and added illustrations.” Due to the accidental release of a weaponized strain of anthrax, the human population of the world has been nearly wiped out. The only people who survived were drinkers of unpasteurized craft beer. The two major themes of the novel are, the series of events leading to the apocalypse, and the . . .

Read More

The Volunteer Who Provided a Clear-eyed Look at Africa — Mark Wentling (Honduras, Togo)

(A major portion of this profile was drawn from an article in the Foreign Service Journal & Peace Corps WorldWide)   by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963–65) • Mark Wentling served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras, 1967-69, and in Togo, 1970-73. He retired from the Senior Foreign Service in 1996, after serving as principal officer in six African countries. Mark worked in Africa for the Peace Corps, non-governmental organizations, and as a contract employee for USAID.  He has published eight books, including the three-volume African Memoir Years: 54 Countries, One American Life. (Vol I, Vol II, Vol III Mark recently published an article entitled “Much Cause for Worry” in the September issue of the Foreign Service Journal, giving readers an uncompromising perspective of Africa in a contemporary context. His views emanate from having lived and worked in every corner of this continent, visiting 54 countries over the past 50 . . .

Read More

New books by Peace Corps writers | September – October 2022

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 include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers  to order a book and/or  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 she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions. P.S. In addition to the books listed below, I have on my 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 . . .

Read More

Peace Corps swears in 31 new Volunteers in Zambia

  Peace Corps Zambia swore into service 31 Volunteers following 11 weeks of training in technical skills, language, and inter-cultural understanding. The Volunteers will work with community members in rural areas of Zambia on education and health programs in the Central, Eastern, Luapula, Northern, Muchinga, Northwestern, and Southern provinces. Eighteen of the Volunteers will serve under the Ministry of Education to support teachers in primary and lower secondary schools (grade 5 to 9) in developing innovative and gender-equitable teaching methodologies, in addition to teaching English. The remaining 13 Volunteers will serve under the Ministry of Health to support community health workers in promoting strategies to improve maternal, neonatal, and child health, in addition to teaching about malaria control and prevention methods. The Minister of Education, Honorable Douglas Syakalima, was the guest of honor at the ceremony. His Royal Highness Chief Chamuka VI of the Lenje people, and Director of Public . . .

Read More

Review — GOD HOLDS YOU by Sarah S. Scherschligt (Malawi)

  God Holds You by Sarah S. Scherschligt (Malawi 1996-98) Independently published October 2022 357 pages $17.99 (Paperback) Reviewed by Ben East (Malawi 1996-98) • Sarah S. Scherschligt is the Pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Virginia. Originally from Minnesota, she lives near Washington, D.C. with her husband and two daughters. She studied at Valparaiso University, Yale Divinity School, and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. Prior to becoming a pastor, she served in the U.S. Peace Corps (Malawi 1996-98) and worked for Augsburg College’s Center for Global Education & had experience in both Minnesota and Namibia. She is an environmental activist and amateur potter. Her writing has appeared in The Christian Century, The Presbyterian Outlook, BoldCafe, and The Washington Post. God Holds You offers a chronicle of hope. As we entered the pandemic wilderness in March 2020, progressive Lutheran pastor Sarah Scherschligt began publishing daily reflections about adapting to the . . .

Read More

What RPCV Handed Out Treats on the White House Lawn?

President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, doled out Halloween candy Monday to trick-or-treaters dressed up as everything from Spider-Man to a flamingo to a monk to a zombie founding father at a soggy celebration on the south side of the White House. It was the Bidens’ first time welcoming trick-or-treaters as president and first lady. They were in Europe for Halloween last year, their first in the White House. They had the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the executive mansion lit up in orange for the spooky holiday. Despite rainfall Monday, some 5,000 guests — children and their adult chaperones — were expected to stream through the event, where Biden and his wife handed out treats as part of this year’s “Trick-or-Treating in the President and First Lady’s Neighborhood.” The invitation list included children of local firefighters, nurses, police officers and National Guard members invited through local community groups, labor unions and other organizations, the White . . .

Read More

Review — THOSE WHO ARE GONE by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras)

  Those Who are Gone by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975-77) Independently published September 2022 118 pages $13.00 (Paperback) Reviewed by Mark D. Walker  (Guatemala 1971-73)   • Over the years, I’ve read and reviewed several of the eighteen books of fellow author and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer “Lorenzo” Lihosit. He was a volunteer in Honduras and married a lady from Mexico, and I was a volunteer in Guatemala and married a señorita from there.  I used his Peace Corps Experience: Write & Publish Your Memoir to write my own, Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond, proofed his Oral History from Madera, California, and agreed with the Madera Tribune, “The best of its kind in print. Like Volume 1, the author offers real-life stories by citizens of Madera, California. It seems like they speak directly to us, seated at our kitchen table, waving their arms while . . .

Read More

Peace Corps welcomes Trainees to Viet Nam in a historic first

  October 28, 2022 The arrival of this inaugural cohort of Trainees is a significant milestone for bilateral relations between the United States and Viet Nam. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Peace Corps has announced that 10 Peace Corps Trainees arrived safely in Hanoi, Viet Nam, in an historic first. Earlier this week, Peace Corps headquarters staff organized a sendoff event in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the landmark occasion. The Honorable Nguyen Quoc Dzung, Ambassador of Viet Nam to the U.S., offered the Trainees his support for their service. Next week, the U.S. Ambassador to Viet Nam, the Honorable Marc Knapper, will welcome the Trainees to Viet Nam at the Peace Corps office in Hanoi. “Formalizing our country partnership with Viet Nam began with discussions in 2002, which led to the signing of an implementing agreement in 2020, and culminated in yesterday’s joyous moment when the first Trainees stepped foot on Vietnamese soil,” said Peace . . .

Read More

CorpsAfrica Seeks Staff

The CorpsAfrica team comprises people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, bound together by our commitment to youth leaders and communities across Africa. We work across seven countries, supporting 600+ Volunteers and alums. To meet the needs of our growing organization, we are currently seeking several impact-driven, dynamic individuals who will be instrumental to the organization’s growth in the following leadership positions: At the Global Support Office: Chief Development Officer Chief Financial Officer Human Resources Manager In Senegal: Deputy Director of CorpsAfrica/Senegal Please apply and share these opportunities with anyone that might be interested. You can also find the position descriptions on the jobs page of our website here. Thank you for your ongoing support! Sincerely, Liz Fanning (Morocco 1993-95) Founder and Executive Director

Read More

Peace Corps CEO Carol Spahn visits The Philippines to celebrate 61 years of Peace Corps in the Philippines

  October 27, 2022   MANILA – Today, Peace Corps Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Carol Spahn, participated in a joint press conference with Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency (PNVSCA) Director Donald Gawe. CEO Spahn’s remarks: “I am here this week to celebrate the 61st anniversary of Peace Corps Philippines, witness the tremendous work of our staff and partners in support of Filipino communities, and share how excited we are to welcome Peace Corps Volunteers back to the Philippines in January 2023. In January, 60 volunteers will arrive and work for two years at the invitation of host communities across Luzon and the Visayas in the project sectors of education, youth development and coastal resource management. “I am excited to say that this group will be one of the largest that the Peace Corps has organized since resuming overseas operations in March 2022. By September 2023, I expect more than . . .

Read More

Copyright © 2022. Peace Corps Worldwide.