August 2023 – Page 2 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Hesperian Health Guides is having a story contest just for RPCVs

Aug 15 2023

HESPERIAN HEALTH GUIDES is the publisher of the beloved Where There Is No Doctor and 11 other books published in multiple languages that have been used by Peace Corps Volunteers serving around the world to support individuals and communities in their struggles to realize the right to good health since the early ’60s. Hesperian invites PCVs and RPCVs to share your stories of how any of the Hesperian books helped you during your Peace Corps service in your efforts to give care to the people of your communities. AND, if you have them, any photos of our books in action can be sent with your stories. Please email your submissions or any questions you have to vanessa@hesperian.org . Winners will be chosen at random. The deadline to enter this contest is August 25, 2023. PRIZES: 4 winners will be able to send a complete Hesperian Library set to a . . .

HUSTLE: The Making of a Freelance Writer by Lawrence Grobel (Ghana)

Aug 15 2023

HUSTLE: The Making of a Freelance Writer by Lawrence Grobel (Ghana 1968-71) Independently Published 358 pages August 2023 $19.95 Paperback Lawrence Grobel writes: Freelancers are people willing to take risks, willing to gamble that they can succeed without a steady paycheck. Most of the people I’ve written about have had the confidence to believe in themselves, and most can point to how they maneuvered down precarious and uncertain paths. In my career as a freelance writer, I’ve had moments of doubt. I’ve suffered rejections and cancellations. But there were crossroads along the way that allowed me to continue pursuing my dream of working for myself, doing what I wanted to do, and figuring out how to survive. Freelancing is a lifestyle. In preparing this book, I marvel at how I somehow managed to avoid all the pitfalls and not drown in pessimism. When Alfred Hitchcock, Leonard Bernstein, and Fred . . .

Six-Word Winners of Peace Corps Writers Contest!

Aug 14 2023

The winning Six-Word Stories selected by noted RPCV novelist, Richard Wiley (Korea 1967-69) are . . . Arrived tired. Mali inspired. Living unmired. by Bill Moseley (Mali 1987-89) Piped water frees girls for school. by Bob Gribbin (Kenya 1968-70) Peru: She returned with blinders off. by Patricia (Silke) Edmisten (Peru 1962-64) In making his selection, Richard Wiley writes, “I read them all a dozen or more times, and came up with three that I like best, two of which seem to emphasize what being in the Peace Corps did for the volunteer (and writer!), and one that highlighted a good Peace Corps outcome for the country.What was hard about this was deciding how I wanted to order these final three. It was a very close call. Thank you for allowing me to have a role in this and congratulations to the winners.

Hawaii RPCVs Asking For Help

Aug 13 2023

John Chromy (India 1963-65) writes: For forty years the RPCV/Hawaii group has joined with local Rotary Clubs to raise funds for all kinds of community development and family assistance projects on the islands. Today, after the horrible Hurricane driven fire that consumed the community of Laihani, killed 80 people and left thousands homeless, the RPCV/Hawaii group is asking Peace Corps people everywhere to help the victims of this tragic double storm. Could you please ask/urge Peacecorpsworldwide supporters to extend the Peace Corps spirit by sending donations to: Maui Fund RPCV/Hawaii P.O. Box 29462 Honolulu, HI 96820-1862

Review of HAY BUDDY! by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras)

Aug 11 2023

Hey Buddy! Portraits of Friends Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975-77) KDP, an Amazon.com Company 144 pages August 2023 $18.00 (paperback) Reviewed by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia 1965-67) • Think of this collection of vignettes as a mixed bouquet of flowers, some colorful, some a bit wilted, a few missing petals. Lawrence Lihosit recounts strangers who became friends in his years of traveling and working from Alaska to Argentina, Honduras to California. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras (1975-1977). The prose is suitable for scan reading—no multi-layered metaphors, or nifty timeline shifts, or illusions and allusions that require association. Lihosit tells the tales as he would to someone sitting on the neighboring barstool. No literary pretense, but rather people being themselves. So, enjoy the humanization without the polishing rub of a professional hand. (One of Lihosit’s previous books, Years On and Other Travel Essays, was awarded Best Travel Book . . .

New List of RPCV & STAFF Authors

Aug 09 2023

Here is our new list of RPCV & staff authors we know of who have published two or more books of any type. Currently—in August 2023–the count is 515. If you know of someone who has and their name is not on this list, then please email: jcoyneone@gmail.com. We know we don’t have all such writers who have served over these past 60 years. Thank you.’ Jerome R. Adams (Colombia 1963–65) Tom Adams (Togo 1974-76) Thomas “Taj” Ainlay, Jr. (Malaysia 1973–75) Elizabeth (Letts) Alalou (Morocco 1983–86) Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) Robert Albritton (Ethiopia 1963-65) Usha Alexander (Vanuatu 1996–97) James G. Alinder (Somalia 1964-66) Richard Alleman (Morocco 1968-70) Hayward Allen (Ethiopia 1962-64) Diane Demuth Allensworth (Panama 1964–66) Paul E. Allaire (Ethiopia 1964–66) Jack Allison (Malawi 1967-69) Allman (Nepal 1966-68) Nancy Amidei (Nigeria 1964–65) Gary Amo (Malawi 1962–64) David C. Anderson (Costa Rica 1964-66) Lauri Anderson (Nigeria 1963-65) Peggy Anderson (Togo 1962-64) James Archambeault . . .

“The Impact of Peace Corps Volunteers’ Service” by Robert Goetschkes (Tonga)

Aug 08 2023

by Robert Goetschkes (Tonga 1988-90) • The Peace Corps is renowned for its commitment to promoting global peace and friendship through community-based service. For over six decades, Peace Corps Volunteers have served in diverse countries, working with local communities to address pressing challenges and foster sustainable development. This article explores Peace Corps Volunteers’ profound impact on empowering communities worldwide, shaping positive change, and creating lasting connections. A Shared Vision for Positive Change Peace Corps Volunteers embody a shared vision for positive change and mutual understanding. As they embark on their service journeys, they bring with them the values of compassion, empathy, and a genuine desire to make a difference in the lives of others. This collective commitment to creating a better world unites volunteers, regardless of their backgrounds or the countries they serve in. Grassroots Community Development One of the core principles of the Peace Corps is to promote grassroots . . .

YOU ARE NOT HERE by Eric Czuleger (Albania)

Aug 08 2023

You Are Not Here: Travels Through Countries that Don’t Exist by Eric Czuleger (Albania 2011-13) Independently Published 360 pages June 2023 $0.99 (Kindle); $18.27 (Paperback) American journalist Eric Czuleger dives into the twilight zone of statecraft by living in unrecognized nations in order to discover what a country really is. He begins his journey as a third-grade teacher in Iraqi Kurdistan at the height of the Kurdish independence movement. Banned by Turkey, he pivots to Kosovo where he reports during the nation’s 10 year anniversary celebration. Moving on to The Black Hole of Europe, Transnistria, he arrives in time for the Russian election. Finally, Czuleger infiltrates the world’s first crypto-anarchist nation, Liberland, where he parties with Bitcoin millionaires and falls into his most challenging position yet: Liberland Ambassador to Somaliland. There, in the never ending desert, he discovers the real cost of drawing a new line in the . . .

105-Year-Old RPCV Winifred Evans (Togo)

Aug 07 2023

Falls Church VA resident honored with Military Women’s Award August 3, 2023 On August 17, Winifred “Winnie” Evans (Togo 1962-64), a resident at Chesterbrook Residences Assisted Living Community, will receive the Military Women’s Memorial Award: Living Legend Proclamation. For Evans, this is just another achievement in her impressive over-a-century lifetime. At 105 years old, Evans has experienced and accomplished so many feats that the title “Living Legend” may be the best description for the Falls Church resident. A former nurse, author and supporter of various causes, Evans has expressed “genuine joy and heartfelt appreciation” upon receiving the Military’s Women’s Memorial Award, according to her niece, Patricia Garrett. “With enthusiasm, she exclaimed ‘I am overjoyed and thrilled to be acknowledged as a living legend,’” Garret recalled of Evans. The granddaughter of Horace Bennett, a sergeant in the Civil War under the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, Evans was born in 1917 . . .

Richard Wiley (Korea) to judge Six-Word Memoir of Peace Corps

Aug 07 2023

Deadline for submitting ‘memoir’ is Tuesday, August 8th. Judging your Peace Corps focus stories will be…… Richard Wiley, novelist and short story, first novel, Soldiers in Hiding won the 1987 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He has published five other novels and a number of short stories. He is the 2023 Winner of Peace Corps Writers’ Award as “Writer of the Year”. Wiley holds a B.A. from the University of Puget Sound and an M.A. from Sophia University in Tokyo; he earned his MFA in creative writing from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Richard was a PCV in Korea (1967-690 first novel, Soldiers in Hiding, won the 1987 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Since then, he has published other novels and a wide variety of short stories. His subsequent novels: Fool’s Gold, Festival for Three Thousand Maidens, Indio, etc. have received positive reviews in the New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. In 1989 he has been a professor . . .

The Volunteer Who Became an Astronaut | Joseph M. Acaba (Dominican Republic)

Aug 06 2023

by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) Joseph M. Acaba spent two years in the Peace Corps serving in the Dominican Republic, 1994-96. Ten years later, in May of 2004, he became the first person of Puerto Rican heritage to be named as a NASA astronaut candidate when he was selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Training Group 19. He completed his training on February 10, 2006, and was assigned to STS-119, which flew from March 15 to 28, 2009, to deliver the final set of solar arrays to the International Space Station. In 1990, Joseph had received his bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of California/Santa Barbara, and in 1992 he earned his master’s degree in geology from the University of Arizona. He then went on to earn an M.Ed. in 2015 from Texas Tech University. In between these higher educational endeavors, he somehow managed to . . .

Jerome Moore (Paraguay) writes DEEP DISH CONVERSATIONS

Aug 04 2023

Deep Dish Conversations: Voices of Social Change in Nashville by Jerome Moore (Paraguay 2015-17) Vanderbilt University Press May 2023 152 pages $19.99 (Kindle); $24.95 (Paperback) What does it mean to be a Nashvillian? A Black Nashvillian? A white Nashvillian? What does it mean to be an organizer, an ally, an elected official, an agent for change? Deep Dish Conversations began as a running online interview series in which host Jerome Moore sits down over pizza with Nashville leaders and community members to talk about the past, present, and future of the city and what it means to live here. The result is honest conversation about racism, housing, policing, poverty, and more in a safe, brave, person-to-person environment that allows for disagreement. This book is a curated collection of the most striking interviews from the first few seasons of the series, with a foreword by Dr. Sekou Franklin, an introduction by . . .

Former Nigeria & Uganda Country Director Delano Lewis Dies at 84

Aug 04 2023

Former NPR President and U.S. Ambassador Delano Lewis has died at 84 By Natalie Escobar Published August 2, 2023 Delano Lewis, a former president of National Public Radio and U.S. ambassador to South Africa, is dead at 84. He died on Wednesday while in hospice care in Las Cruces, N.M., according to the Las Cruces Bulletin. Lewis was named president of NPR in 1993, becoming the first Black person to take the role. He came to the job with a long resume, including many leadership positions within Washington, D.C.’s politics and business circles. Born in 1938 in Arkansas City, Kan., Lewis grew up in a segregated community, and became interested in civil rights law at a young age, according to the Bulletin. After graduating law school from the Washburn University School of Law in Topeka in 1963, he eventually took positions at the Justice Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thus began a long . . .

HEY BUDDY! — New Book by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras)

Aug 03 2023

Hey Buddy! Portraits of Friends by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975-77) Independently Published 150 pages July 2023 $18.00 (Paperback) Reviewed by Mark D. Walker (Guatemala 1971–73) Lihosit and I were contemporaries in the Peace Corps in Central America and both married women south of the border. Still, I didn’t connect with him until I became a writer after my international development career ended. Lihosit has written 19 books so far, and I’ve delighted in reading and reviewing several of them. I even used his book on writing and publishing a memoir to write my first book, Different Latitudes. After all he’s seen and done over the years, these memorable descriptions of his friendships seem a perfect time as he dedicates his book “For the Next Generation.” He also reflects on what makes friendships special, “Different friends have always been secret ingredients” Lihosit refers to himself as an “old Yahoo,” . . .

7 Peace Corps Volunteers assigned to Grenada for new school year

Aug 03 2023

PCVs in the news — by Linda Straker There will be 7 Peace Corps Volunteers assigned to different primary schools in Grenada when the new school year commences in September 2023. The 7 are already on island and will officially be sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers in a Swearing-In Ceremony on Friday, 4 August 2023 from 10:30 am at the Grenada Red Cross Society, Upper Lucas Street, St George’s. They are part of the 93rd group of Peace Corps Volunteers, which includes 27 Volunteers assigned to the Eastern Caribbean. They are the second intake of Volunteers to Grenada and the rest of the Eastern Caribbean since the return to service in 2022. The program halted during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Peace Corps Volunteers returned to the Eastern Caribbean in May 2022 and have since then worked with local educators to support primary literacy. “Each of the trainees will commit . . .

Archive - August 2023