July 18, 2023 – Peace Corps Worldwide

The Volunteer Who Had a Professional Career of Leadership in Agriculture and Economic Development

Jul 18 2023

A Profile in Citizenship Emmy Simmons (Philippines 1962-64) • by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) Emmy Simmons grew up in a farming community of northern Wisconsin before serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines, 1962-64. There, it was just her luck to be assigned as an education Volunteer to a farming community near the “summer capital” of Baguio where the population grew rice for food and pineapples for cash. She found herself drawn to the issues of agriculture and economic development in a context different from that of northern Wisconsin. After Peace Corps, she earned a M. S. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. Emmy was able to build a career in food and agriculture in the following decades, from participating in a rural development research program at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria where she focused on families’ nutrition and women’s microenterprises to serving as the Assistant Administrator . . .

“The Bed on the Roof” by Bonnie Black (Gabon)

Jul 18 2023

(The following story is excerpted from the Mali memoir of Bonnie Black, How To Make An African Quilt: The Story of the Patchwork Project of Segon, Mali) By Bonnie Black (Gabon 1996-98) • One afternoon, on the way homefrom teaching a [patchwork quilting] class at Centre Benkady, I stopped at a metalworker’s atelier to ask whether he might make an iron ladder for me that could be attached securely to the front terrace of my house, allowing me to have access to the flat roof. The man, Mr. Dao, agreed, and within a few weeks the sturdy, narrow ladder was installed. Then, as if heaven-sent one Monday morning I saw on my way to the centreville marché, but not yet far from my home, a Malian family from an outlying village conveying on their donkey cart a new, hand-made traditional bed frame made of smooth sticks tied with cowhide . . .

Archive - July 18, 2023