March 2023 – Page 2 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Director of Vatican Observatory — Brother Guy Consolmagno (Kenya)

Mar 06 2023

Vatican Observatory director to speak at Lyon College by George Jared It was the moment Albert Einstein had waited for. In 1915, he proposed the theory of General Relativity which stated that space and time are linked. It means that when large objects such as planets or stars move, space and time can become distorted. On May 29, 1919, a total solar eclipse gave astronomers in South America and Africa the chance to prove or disprove the theory. What they found was that light was bent by the movement of the sun and it impacted the space around it. Einstein was right. The theory of General Relativity was accepted by the world of science and he would go on to become one of the most famous scientists in history. Parts of Arkansas, and especially Northeast Arkansas will be in the direct path of a total solar eclipse slated for . . .

“Poets Take Note” — Philip Dacey (Nigeria)

Mar 06 2023

by Philip Dacey (Nigeria 1963-65) • Peace Corps Volunteers, returned or current, who are turning their experiences into poetry and looking for appropriate publishing outlets, ought to know about WordTech Communications of Cincinnati, publisher of my most recent book. Owned and operated by Kevin Walzer and Lori Jareo, WordTech specializes in poetry, utilizes print-on-demand technology, but — and this is important — is not a vanity press. The publishers are determined to make poetry profitable for all concerned without requiring subsidization by the poets themselves. One sign of their seriousness is their ability to attract contemporary American poets who have a significant following already. Their list includes Barry Spacks, Allison Joseph, Frederick Turner, Rhina K. Espaillat, and Nick Carbo. Jareo and Walzer are in fact well aware of the automatic association of p.o.d. technology and vanity publishing. They aim explicitly at severing that connection, demonstrating by their own example that . . .

Dan Douglas (Botswana) found the love of his life in the Peace Corps

Mar 05 2023

Dan Douglas first told this story on stage at the Des Moines Storytellers Project’s “Love.” The Des Moines Storytellers Project is a series of storytelling events in which community members work with Register journalists to tell true, first-person stories live on stage. Dan traveled the world in search of adventure. He also found the love of his life. In January 1969, I was sitting in the staff room at a secondary school in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana in southern Africa, waiting for the first staff meeting of the term to start. I was a brand-new Peace Corps volunteer assigned to teach English and history. I had just finished a master’s degree in history at the University of Missouri and decided to take a break from academia and see a bit of the world — hence the Peace Corps. I had spent the previous summer living with my parents . . .

The Fabulous Peace Corps Booklocker

Mar 04 2023

The Fabulous Peace Corps Booklocker by Jack Prebis (Ethiopia 1962–64) For a short period of time in the very first years of the Peace Corps all Volunteers were given booklockers by the agency. The lockers were meant to provide leisure reading for the PCVs and then to be left behind in schools, villages, and towns where they served. There is some mystery as to who first thought of the lockers and one rumor has it that the idea came from Sarge Shriver’s wife, Eunice. It is believed that the books were selected for the first locker by a young Foreign Service officer. A second selection was done in 1964, and that same year Jack Prebis was made responsible for the 3rd edition of the locker that was assembled in the fall and winter of 1965. JC DEVELOPING THE Peace Corps booklocker was the best job I ever had. As sometimes . . .

Remembering the First Peace Corps Test

Mar 04 2023

A Peace Corps Test In the early days of the Peace Corps there was a Placement Test given to all applicants. Actually it was two tests. A 30-minute General Aptitude Test and a 30-minute Modern Language Aptitude Test. The areas of testing were in Verbal Aptitude, Agriculture, English, Health Sciences, Mechanical Skills, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, World History, Literature, United States History and Institutions, and Modern Language Aptitude. One-hour achievement tests in French and Spanish were also offered during the second hour. The instruction pamphlet that accompanied the tests said that the results would be used “to help find the most appropriate assignment for each applicant.” For those who missed the opportunity to take the tests, which were given — as best I can remember — from 1961 until around 1967, I am including a few of the questions. Lets see if you could still get into the Peace Corps. . . .

New books by Peace Corps Writers | January & February 2023

Mar 03 2023

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 . . .

The Dark Side of the Hut, 50 Years Later by John Sundman (Senegal)

Mar 03 2023

As a Peace Corps Volunteer (Senegal 1974-76) assigned to a rural development program I was posted to Fanaye Diery (‘fah-nigh jeery’), a HalPulaar village of about 500 people in the Senegal River valley, arriving there in late spring, 1974. (The HalPulaar people take their name from their language: HalPulaar means ‘Pulaar speaker’.) In Fanaye, most houses were made of adobe. Some had thatched roofs; the larger ones had roofs made of adobe held up by wooden timbers. In anticipation of my arrival, the people of Fanaye had prepared a thatched hut for my residence. It was about 10’ square, with two window openings and a wooden door. Somehow I acquired a small table and a chair. I later hired someone to make a little bookshelf for me. I slept on a mat on the floor. The only other amenity was a terra cotta jug that held about a gallon of water, which . . .

New York Times March 2, 1961: KENNEDY SETS UP U.S. PEACE CORPS TO WORK ABROAD

Mar 02 2023

KENNEDY SETS UP U.S. PEACE CORPS TO WORK ABROAD Creates Pilot Plan and Asks Congress to Establish a Permanent Operation RECRUITS TO GET NO PAY President Aims to Have 500 on Job by the End of ’61 — Training Will Be Pushed Kennedy Sets Up Peace Corpse Of Volunteers to Work Abroad WASHINGTON, March 1 — President Kennedy issued an executive order today creating a Peace Corps. It will enlist American men and women for voluntary, unpaid service in the developing countries of the world. CONTINUE READING: PDF BYLINE By PETER BRAESTRUP Special to The New York Times.

Happy 62nd Birthday to the Peace Corps!

Mar 01 2023

Happy 62nd Birthday to the Peace Corps! Happy Peace Corps Week! And happy 62nd birthday to Peace Corps today. The agency has organized a number of events in celebration of our community’s birthday this week, such as tonight’s Franklin H. Williams Award Ceremony, which I look forward to attending. Also, I’m thrilled to see several Peace Corps posts across the world have been hosting events — including tomorrow’s Connect with Sri Lanka event. We have already seen many of you online and look forward to more engagement over the coming days. Peace Corps Week kicked off in earnest yesterday with a powerful “Connect with the World” event led by Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn, who presented a compelling vision of Peace Corps’ place in a rapidly changing world. Director Spahn discussed the path ahead, refocusing on Peace Corps’ strengths to “address power inequities, professionalize service, improve sustainability, link youth leaders to opportunities, and enhance locally-led development.” A . . .

Whatever Happened to Marjorie Mitchelmore?

Mar 01 2023

As for Marjorie. She returned to Peace Corps HQ from Puerto Rico with Ruth Olson and Tim Adams and went to work with Betty Harris and Sally Bowles to put out the first issue of The Peace Corps Volunteer. It was, of course, an appropriate job, as Coates Redmon states it in her book on the early days of the agency, Come As You Are: The Peace Corps Story, since Marjorie was the first returned Volunteers. In a memorandum to Sargent Shriver–attached to an Evaluation Report on Morocco (1963) done by Ken Love–and written by the legendary early Peace Corps Director of Evaluations, Charlie Peters, Charlie wrote, “Marjorie was as sensitive and as intelligent a Volunteer as we ever had in the Peace Corps.” The lesson that was learned by the Peace Corps was that “even the best young people can be damned silly at times.” At the Peace Corps HQ the feeling was that the agency had weathered this early . . .

Archive - March 2023