January 25, 2024 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Review | FACE TO FACE WITH WAR by Leo Cecchini (Ethiopia)

Jan 25 2024

Face to Face with War by Leo Cecchini (Ethiopia 1962–64) Independently published October 2022 254 pages $15.00 (paperback), $9.00 (Kindle) Reviewed by Mike Donovan • • • Leo Cecchini, the author of Face to Face With War, has lead the kind of life most of us can only imagine. His book takes us from his Peace Corps experience as a geography teacher and soccer coach in Asmara, Ethiopia at the beginning of the 30 year struggle for Eritrean independence to his many experiences in the U.S. foreign service. His first assignment in the foreign service was in Panama where he met some decidedly shady characters trying to run weapons to Biafra during the breakaway war with Nigeria. He outsmarted them! From Panama he was sent to Vietnam during the period of heaviest fighting. He was part of a joint military/civilian program designed to help stabilize the country. Each of his new . . .

Peter Navarro (Thailand) sentenced to prison

Jan 25 2024

In the news — Ex-Trump adviser sentenced to 4 months in prison Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro (Thailand 1965-68) speaking outside a federal court in Washington, D.C., in September 2023. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison on Thursday for defying a 2022 congressional subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Why it matters: Navarro is now the second Trump adviser to receive a prison sentence for refusing to testify before the panel and provide it documents related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election. In addition to his prison sentence, Navarro was ordered to pay a $9,500 fine. Catch up quickly: Navarro was accused by the Jan. 6 committee of working with fellow Trump adviser Steve Bannon and others to develop a plan to delay Congress’ certification of the 2020 election. Bannon was the first high-ranking Trump official to be sentenced . . .

“RPCVs discover cohousing” by Evelyn Kohl LaTorre (Peru)

Jan 25 2024

What is it about Cohousing Communities that attract so many RPCVs to live in some of the 200 cohousing developments in the US? Scores of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers have joined this growing movement toward a friendly, community-oriented, democratic lifestyle? They gravitate to these purposeful neighborhoods designed for human interaction after having resided for two years in developing countries. Mission Peak Village cohousing For example, one-third of the current members of Mission Peak Village Cohousing (MPV) in Fremont, California (missionpeakcohousing.org) are RPCVs who joined other like-minded people and purchased 1.25 acres in the suburban setting, 25 miles south of San Francisco. They are designing the kind of supportive neighborhood of singles, families, and elders where they hope to live for the rest of their lives. “I didn’t understand what the word “community” meant until I was assigned to a village on a small island,” says Maria, who was in . . .

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