2023 – Page 6 – Peace Corps Worldwide

“The Volunteer Who Published on Contemporary Life in America” — Laurence Leamer (Nepal)

Nov 04 2023

Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) (The materials for this Profile were drawn heavily from Wikipedia) • In 1964, after graduating with a B. A. in History from Antioch College, Laurence spent a year in France at the University de Besancon and worked in a factory. He then joined the Peace Corps and was stationed in the mountains of Nepal. After returning home, he studied at the University of Oregon and Columbia University’s School of Journalism. When he graduated from Columbia second in his class in 1969, he was named a Pulitzer International Fellow. Laurence then worked as an associated editor at Newsweek before turning to writing magazine articles for a range of other publications, including Harper’s The New York Times Magazine, and Playboy. During this period, he also worked in a West Virginia coal mine while researching an article. During the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, he was the only journalist . . .

GAELS ON THREE by Don Schlenger (Ethiopia)

Nov 04 2023

Gaels On Three by Don Schlenger (Ethiopia 1966-68) Ink Start Media Publisher September 2023 318 pages $2.99 (Kindle); $13.99 (Paperback) It’s the eighties in north Jersey with big hair and bad music, and a love story set around a Catholic junior high school girls’ basketball team. Will and Ramona were childhood sweethearts and neighbors from age four, who tragically broke up weeks before high school graduation in 1976. Will went right into the army, Ramona to college on a basketball scholarship. Six years later, with no interim contact, Will calls Ramona and asks if she will help him coach the girls’ basketball team at St. Ethel of the Holy Oasis Junior High School, close by where they grew up. They negotiate, they bicker, use bad language, argue, and finally she agrees. With conditions: a sixpack of Schaefers and a box of Mrs. T’s on demand. Supporting them are . . .

“Oral Tradition in Writing” by Jeanne D’Haem (Somalia)

Nov 03 2023

In the News — by Jeanne D’Haem (Somalia 1968-70) Somalis are known throughout East Africa for their beauty and for their poetry. In this oral tradition, poems are used to communicate, to share news and even to settle disputes. A poet insults another clan in a poem. For example, “You have mistaken boat-men and Christians for the Prophet.” News and other communication had to be oral because the Somali language was not written even when I lived there in 1968. This was due to a dispute over what kind of letters should be used. Religious leaders wanted an Arabic alphabet, business people wanted a modern Latin one. When Siad Barre, a military dictator, took over the county in 1969, his goal was rapid modernization under communism. He sent a delegation to China where Chairman Mao held similar views. When Mao was informed about the dispute, he suggested the Latin . . .

Peace Corps | First-Of-Its-Kind Park (Minnesota)

Nov 03 2023

Small Minnesota city establishing first-of-its-kind park By Tim Blotz Published November 2, 2023 Minnesota PLAINVIEW, Minn. – Leaders from America’s top government service organizations are coming to a small, rural Minnesota town on Saturday to promote an idea as old as the country itself. The idea is service to the nation. Retired Army four-star general Joseph Votel along with Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn, AmeriCorps Director Ken Goodson, and Colonel Eduardo Suarez from the Minnesota National Guard are appearing and speaking at Plainview High School to promote the establishment of a National Service Park on the south side of the southeast Minnesota town. “There’s nothing quite like that, that we know of in the country,” said Ken Flies, president of the Peace Corps Legacy Association. The Volunteers Flies represent a unique contribution to the legacy of service to the country. When President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961, an idea first proposed by . . .

THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE by Clifford Garstang (Korea)

Nov 02 2023

The Last Bird of Paradise Black Rose Writing Clifford Garstang (South Korea 1976-77) February 2024 340 pages $6.99 (Kindle); $23.95 (Paperback). Can be pre-ordered. Two women, nearly a century apart, seek to rebuild their lives when they reluctantly leave their homelands. Arriving in Singapore, they find romance in a tropical paradise, but also find they haven’t left behind the dangers that caused them to flee. In the aftermath of 9/11 and haunted by the specter of terrorism, Aislinn Givens leaves her New York law practice and joins her husband in Southeast Asia when he takes a job there. Seeking to establish herself in a local law firm, Aislinn begins to understand the historic resentment of foreigners who have exploited the region for centuries. Learning about the turmoil of Singapore’s colonial period, she acquires several paintings done by an English artist during World War I that she believes are . . .

Where were you on November 22, 1963. What Peace Corps Country?

Nov 01 2023

THE DEATH OF JFK–NOVEMBER 22, 1963 Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. RPCVs—Tell us your story of being in the Peace Corps on November, 22, 1963. Where were you a Volunteer? What was the reactions from neighbors, friends, students? What did your HCN friends say to you about JFK’s death? How did the “American in-country community” react? How did you hear the news from Dallas? These are just a few questions you might answer. Tell us your story of that time in fewer than a 1000 words. I’ll post it on our site during the week of November 22nd. Send it to me: jcoyneone@gmail.com

The Infamous Peace Corps Postcard

Nov 01 2023

The Infamous Peace Corps Postcard I recently received a few emails asking what JFK’s remark about writing to him meant to PCVs. Here’s a quick summary of the ‘famous’ post card incident that I posted on our site a few years ago. Marjorie Michelmore (Nigeria 1961) was a twenty-three-year-old magna cum laude graduate of Smith College when she became one of the first people to apply to the new Peace Corps. She was an attractive, funny, and smart woman who was selected to go to Nigeria. After seven weeks of training at Harvard, her group flew to Nigeria. There she was to complete the second phase of teacher training at University College at Ibadan, fifty miles north of the capital of Lagos. By all accounts, she was an outstanding Trainee. Then on the evening of October 13, 1961, she wrote a postcard to a boyfriend in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Here is . . .

Opening of Peace Corps Tribute Garden on Colorado State University Campus

Oct 31 2023

CSU Photographer On Sunday, Oct. 15, the Colorado State University campus played host to an extraordinary gathering of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), alumni, faculty and community members to mark the grand opening of the Peace Corps Tribute Garden. The event, organized by CSU’s Office of International Programs, was a celebration of the visionary stalwart Rams who in 1961 conducted a robust feasibility study which would lay the foundation for what we now know as the Peace Corps. The Tribute Garden, a serene and contemplative space nestled within the heart of campus, is a poignant reminder of this rich history. It is also a standing testament to the university’s ongoing dedication to promoting international cooperation and understanding. RPCVs from across the country gathered at CSU to commemorate the occasion. The event included a lineup of distinguished speakers who shared their experiences and insights into the profound impact of the Peace . . .

Bring Peace Corps Stories to Life on Stage in Washington, D.C.

Oct 30 2023

Growing Together: Stories from the Peace Corps Calling all RPCVs! Join us as we celebrate Peace Corps Week 2024 with a memorable storytelling contest that will illuminate the amazing work and spirit of RPCVs and the entire Peace Corps network. On March 1st, 2024, contest winners will have their stories performed by local students on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in Washington D.C. Winners will receive public recognition from the Peace Corps and be invited to attend the in-person storytelling event. For those who are unable to make the trip, the event will be livestreamed. The theme of the Storytelling Contest is Growing Together: Stories from the Peace Corps and we hope to capture stories about the shared progress, relationship building, and intercultural exchange that happens between all members of the Peace Corps community. Eligibility: Individuals from across the Peace Corps network are eligible to submit a story, including: Counterparts Current Peace Corps or . . .

Nyle Kardatzke (Ethiopia) meets President Kennedy at the White House, Summer ’62

Oct 30 2023

In summer 1962, six hundred Peace Corps volunteer trainees were in Washington, DC, preparing for assignments around the world. A visit to the White House was a highlight of our training time. When our Ethiopia group returned from lunch that day, several buses were waiting in front of the dorms. We boarded the buses and waited about an hour until motorcycle policemen arrived to lead us to the White House. They started their thundering motorcycles and turned on their sirens and led us out onto quiet Georgetown streets. Other police were at every intersection, and we zoomed through traffic lights at highway speeds. We were, after all, going to see the President. At the White House, staff members arranged the Peace Corps people into a semicircle on the south lawn, facing the White House. We chattered quietly out of respect for where we were. (My roommate Danny Langdon was . . .

“What JFK had to say to us on the White House lawn” by John Coyne (Ethiopia)

Oct 29 2023

A police escort with sirens blaring led our dozen Peace Corps buses in one long continuous caravan through every downtown light in Washington, D.C. It was high noon in the District the summer of 1962, less than a year after the famous postcard dropped by a PCV had been found on the Ibadan campus that almost doomed the Peace Corps and we–the 300 Ethiopia-bound Peace Corps Trainees at Georgetown University–were on our way to meet John F. Kennedy at the White House There were other Peace Corps Trainees as well meeting the President that afternoon. Peace Corps Trainees at Howard, American, Catholic, George Washington universities, and the University of Maryland, over 600 in all, gathered in the August heat and humidity on the great lawn below the Truman Balcony. Arriving at the White House, I walked with the others up the slope with the Washington Monument behind me . . .

Florence Phillips (Guatemala, Jamaica, Kenya) is still volunteering. You can too!

Oct 28 2023

Born in New York to Jewish parents who fled Europe before the holocaust, RPCV Florence Phillips knows firsthand what is like to be the child of immigrants who don’t speak English. “My parents could not talk to my teachers; my parents could not help me with homework,” said Phillips. But all of that would change when she joined the Peace Corps. Florence served three tours of duty as a Peace Corps Volunteer in three different countries. 1988 – 1989 PCV Guatemala Organized 12 Mayan Indian women in a small village and assisted them in forming a cooperative weaving business. Established local and tourist markets for their products. 1990 – 1992 PCV Jamaica Small Enterprise Development and Business Advisor. Secondary projects established included teaching remedial reading and tutoring at primary school level; organized sport activities; taught adult literacy. 1997 – 1999 PCV Kenya Small Enterprise Development and Business Advisor. Taught . . .

The Volunteer who wrote songs for Korean children — Mary Kim Joh (Liberia)

Oct 27 2023

Mary Kim Joh, also known as Che Sik Chu, was a Korean-American music composer and medical research specialist. She is best known for writing “School Bell” in 1945. This children’s song is taught to pre-school students in South Korea. It is often referred to as a “Korean National Anthem”. Joh was born in Seoul in 1904. She was the daughter of Kim Ik-seung, founder of Korea’s first joint stock companies, and a niece of Kim Kyu-sik. She graduated from Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea, and in 1930, she was awarded a Master’s degree in music at the University of Michigan. Later, while teaching in the music department at Ewha, she was asked by the South Korean government to compose children’s songs after the end of Japanese rule over her country in 1945. At the end of WW II, the Koreans had no Korean-language school materials. Her 1950 . . .

Andy Trincia (Romania 2002-2004) publishes travel story on Romania in The New York Times

Oct 27 2023

In the news — I’d never heard of Timisoara either when I arrived in 2002 as a wide-eyed Peace Corps volunteer. I stayed two years, fell in love, returned to get married and made annual trips from America, when Timisoara tugged at me like an old friend. My wife and I moved back six years ago. I’ve witnessed an evolution from the glum post-revolution years to today’s cosmopolitan vibe, thanks to a booming tech sector, significant foreign investment and youthful energy from 40,000 university students. For me, Timisoara’s appeal is twofold: its architecture, which jumps out immediately, and its authenticity, which sinks in gradually. This is no tourist trap with trinket shops galore, but a genuine, livable and multicultural city that moves at a measured pace and offers just enough for visitors to fill two or three days — perhaps surprising them with a taste of Romania, a country still enduring . . .

Second group of Peace Corps Volunteers arriving in Viet Nam

Oct 26 2023

OCTOBER 26, 2023 HANOI, October 24, 2023 – The second cohort of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers have arrived in Hanoi to further support the Ministry of Education and Training’s (MOET) national priorities for English Language Education and demonstrate our bilateral commitment to education and training cooperation under the U.S. – Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The U.S. Peace Corps volunteers will be the first group to serve at high schools throughout Ho Chi Minh City starting in January 2024. Volunteers will work alongside local teacher to co-teach English classes to help Vietnamese students develop their English skills to access studying and employment opportunities. Peace Corps Vietnam fully aligns with MOET’s objectives and is enabled by the Implementing Agreement signed in 2020 between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments with Peace Corps and the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) as Implementing Entities. “The geographic expansion of the program to Ho Chi Minh City . . .

Archive - 2023