Author - John Coyne

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from John Pettit (Ethiopia 1965-67) & Matt Losak (Lesotho 1985-87)   Applicants have challenged the Peace Corps practice of rescinding invitations to applicants on the basis of mental health conditions. by Ellen Barry the New York Times Sept. 27, 2023 Lea Iodice was thrilled to hear that the Peace Corps had accepted her application and was sending her to Senegal as a community health care worker. She shared the good news with her roommates, her family and her favorite professor and daydreamed about her last day at her job, managing a gym called SnapFitness. She was crushed, about a month later, to receive a letter from the Peace Corps Office of Medical Services saying that her offer was being rescinded because she was in treatment for anxiety. Though she had been in therapy to manage occasional panic attacks, she had never taken any psychiatric medication, . . .

  The WOW Factor: Words of Wisdom from Wise Older Women By Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon 1996-98) At the beginning of each new semester when I taught English 101 at UNM in Taos, New Mexico, I would draw a huge circle on the front board, while the semicircle of first-year students sat and stared. “This is the world,” I’d say, patting the circle. “And these . . . ” I quickly marked the circle with lots of short, horizontal dashes “— are problems in the world. As I see it, our job as individuals – our personal purpose – is to seek out one of those little negatives and turn it into a positive, using all the intelligence, talents, heart and soul we’ve been given.” I scanned the room to read the students’ reactions. Their faces looked blank —what we used to call “subway faces” in New York — registering . . .

Marian Haley Beil, publisher and John Coyne, editor – both Ethiopia PCVs 1962-64 Together we are currently responsible for the blog Peace Corps Worldwide and the Peace Corps Writers Imprint. Our efforts are at the heart of the Third Goal of the Peace Corps — to “bring the world back home.” We support the writings of RPCVs and PCVs in a positive way to educate Americans about the world and share with all who have a desire for international understanding. Since 1989 John and Marian have been publishing about the many PCVs and RPCV writers. We have promoted their books, essays, poetry and stories; we have interviewed them; announced their new book publications; reviewed their books; published their books, and made it easy for our readers to obtain their books. John is the schmoozer/editor/writer who gathers, and many times writes, the material; and Marian, the publisher, edits, designs, and distributes. In . . .

    Turning outward bound into homeward bound; that’s an unforgettable experience that took place at The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque on Sept. 19, 2023. Decades in the making, members of the UNM Peace Corps Outward Bound Training 1963 class, known as Colombia VIII, reunited at UNM. Now retired with families and memories, these Peace Corps alumni were able to relive their lives from years ago. Thanks to the College of University Libraries & Learning Sciences (CULLS), and its archives these former students were able to recollect through old photos of their time training for the Peace Corps at UNM. “It was such a pleasure seeing the Peace Corps reunion today. I’m impressed that so many people traveled from around the country to be here. It just shows how important the Peace Corps were to everyone’s lives,” University Archivist Portia Vescio said. Vescio, Graduate Student Amber Lane and Macon McCrossen led the . . .

In the news —     New USAID mission director Reed Aeschliman (Thailand 1981-83) on Thursday said the agency followed three principles in its activities in Bangladesh as its “development assistance” program had now turned into a “development partnership.” “The first principle is to be a good partner,” he said while meeting journalists at the American Center for the first time since his arrival in Dhaka on August 20. Principle number two is to expand USAID’s investments to local institutions, and the third is to harness the power of the private sector fully in achieving development goals. “We have moved from development assistance to development partnership. Fifty years ago we were development assistance. Now we want to be a good trading partner. That’s win-win,” he said. “USAID will continue to invest in the Bangladeshi people – whether it’s building the skills of farmers, doctors, nurses, school teachers or emergency responders . . .

Today the Peace Corps, 62 years after this challenge from JFK’s inaugural address, unveils an innovative program that brings American Peace Corps Volunteers shoulder-to-shoulder with future leaders at CorpsAfrica. This historic partnership, announced amidst Peace Corps leadership participation in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and Climate Week events, reflects the agency’s commitment to global collaboration and sustainability. Led by Liz Fanning (Morocco 1993-95) and recipient of the 2019 NPCA Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service, CorpsAfrica joins hands with the Peace Corps to empower volunteers and African leaders embarking on a year of service. As the Peace Corps continues to expand its footprint, it proudly announces the imminent arrival of volunteers in Sri Lanka, bringing the total number of actively serving volunteers to over 2,200 across 60 countries. This initiative marks a significant stride towards advancing development, nurturing friendships, and achieving sustainability goals on a global scale.   . . .

  I WAS ASSIGNED to the Island of Saint Kit in the West Indies. Once on an inter-island plane, I sat across the aisle from one of my new colleagues, an unfriendly, overserious young woman. She was twenty-four, twenty-five . . . we were all twenty-four, twenty five. I didn’t know her much or like her. As the plane banked over the island, she pressed against the window, staring down at the landscape. I couldn’t see much of her face, just enough really to recognize an expression of pain. Below us spread an endless manicured lawn, bright green and lush of sugarcane, the island’s main source of income. Each field planted carefully to control erosion. Until that year, Saint Kit’s precious volcanic soil had been bleeding into the sea; somehow they had resolved the problem. The crop was now being tilled in harmony with the roll and tuck of the land and the island . . .

Water   When a woman carries water on her head, you see her neck bend outward behind her like a crossbow. Ten liters of water weights twenty-two pounds, a fifth of a woman’s body weight, and I’ve seen women carry at least twenty liters in aluminum pots large enough to hold a television set. To get the water from the cement floor surrounding the outdoor hand pump to the top of your head, you need help from the other women. You and another woman grab the pot’s edges and lift it straight up between you. When you get it to the head height, you duck underneath the pot and place it on the wad of rolled-up cloth you always wear there when fetching water. This is the cushion between your skull and the metal pot full of water. Then your friend lets go. You spend a few seconds finding your . . .