John Coyne – Page 32 – Peace Corps Worldwide

SECRETS FROM MY TRAVEL DIARIES by Stacey L. Abella (Nicaragua)

Sep 09 2023

Secrets From My Travel Diaries by Stacey L. Abella (Nicaragua 2001-03) Game Changer Publishing 321 pages May 2023 $9.92 (Kindle) $16.97 (Paperback), $9.99 (Kindle), $24.97 (hardcover) Secrets From My Travel Diaries will transport you back to 1997, when the author, as a college student, ventured from a small Ohio town to study and live in Germany and France, eventually traveling to more than ten countries. Her diaries, written on train rides and after late-night adventures at the disco, helped her clarify her thoughts and feelings at a pivotal time in her life. Years later, after leaving her corporate career, the author rediscovered these dust-laden diaries. They reconnected her to a time of unprecedented freedom when navigating your way required paper maps, constant currency conversions, and finding truth within herself. Secrets From My Travel Diaries will take you on a journey to reawaken your Adventurer within, shift your perspective, and inspire . . .

Father Ted Hesburgh and the Peace Corps: A Story Not Often Told

Sep 08 2023

by Tom Scanlon (Chile 1961-63) Father Hesburgh was leaving his office at the Civil Rights Commission on March 1, 1961, walking through Lafayette Square across the street from the White House, when he encountered two friends – Harris Wofford, a former legislative assistant on the Commission, and Sargent Shriver, with whom he had a long-time friendship, and who was the brother-in-law of President Kennedy. Wofford and Shriver were ebullient. They held in their hand the text of a Presidential Executive Order that President Kennedy would sign that day, creating the United States Peace Corps. Returning to South Bend and the Notre Dame campus, Father Ted was working late in his office that same evening and received a call from Wofford and Shriver, still together and still “celebrating.” In the call they challenged him to “bring us a Peace Corps project.” Father assembled the Notre Dame Latin American faculty and . . .

Peter Navarro (Thailand) convicted

Sep 07 2023

WASHINGTON — Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro (Thailand 1973-76) was convicted Thursday of criminal contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to the plot to overturn the 2020 election. The jury deliberated for about four hours before finding Navarro, 74, guilty of two counts of contempt for refusing to testify before the House Jan. 6 committee and turn over subpoenaed documents. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta scheduled his sentencing for Jan. 12. The two counts each carry a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in prison, in addition to a maximum fine of $100,000. “There’s no mistake, no accident,” prosecutor John Crabb told jurors in the Washington, D.C. federal courtroom during closing arguments Thursday morning. “That man thinks he’s above the law,” Crabb said. “In this country, nobody is above the law.”

The Bruneels in Cambodia

Sep 07 2023

In the news — A decade after applying, Mr. Bruneel reflects on his family’s experience in the Peace Corps By Ava Faghani SEPTEMBER 6, 2023 After establishing a successful early start to his teaching career at Whitman, English teacher Matthew Bruneel put his Maryland life on pause in 2014 to venture to Cambodia alongside his wife Leshia. The next two years would be filled with adjusting to the culture in a village, living with limited money and experiencing life-changing moments in the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps is a government agency first founded in 1961 with the mission to work on important, sustaiable projects in local communities around the world and build relationships while exchanging culture. Studying abroad in Spain during college, Bruneel first met Leisha, who inspired him to join with her. The process of applying consisted of a medley of interviews and essays, he said, . . .

Short Stories by Martin Ganzglass (Somalia)

Sep 06 2023

Even the Geckos Are Starving Martin R. Ganzglass (Somali 1966–68) Peace Corps Writers 320 pages August 2023 $10.00 (paperback) In this collection of short stories, Somali refugees in a camp in northern Kenya confront the aftermath of a terrorist attack in Nairobi; a jet fuel spill at Pearl Harbor threatens Honolulu’s water supply; a trusted doorman turns to burglary and discovers a surprising partner; a seaman is seriously injured and is confined in an unknown place where no one speaks his language; and a high brow magazine runs a personal ad for sexual services with unforeseen consequences.

WAITING FOR THE SNOW by Tom Scanlon (Chile)

Sep 06 2023

In 1962 Father Hesburgh, President of Notre Dame University, went to Chile to visit the Volunteers who had trained at Notre Dame. One of them was Tom Scanlon, a recent ND graduate. Tom told Father Hesburgh a story about his job so far as a PCV. Hesburgh would write a letter to Sarge Shriver — a good friend — and tell Sarge what Scanlon said. Shriver would write Hesburgh back and say, “I am delighted to hear it . . .. In fact, all the people here at Peace Corps Headquarters liked it so much we’re using it as the opening section of our presentation to the United States Congress.” Shriver also would pass on what Father Hesburgh told him to his brother-in-law, John F. Kennedy. In the early days of the Peace Corps, President Kennedy greeted the first Peace Corps Trainees on the White House lawn and even invited . . .

“A GENTELMAN IN MOSCOW is Waiting to Meet You” | Chuck Lustig (Colombia)

Sep 05 2023

Many years ago I learned from John Irving that if you want to convert readers into avid fans who will slog through hundreds of pages with you, arrange to have something horrible happen to the principal protagonist early on — something that’s no fault of his own. Despite character flaws, that inciting incident gives us, the reader, a stake in the story. It makes us care because our hero is obviously innocent. But why? I think it’s because we detect grace, or at least the potential for grace, even if it comes only thanks to a writer’s cruelest plot-turn. John Irving had a penchant for having characters lose body parts through no fault of their own. Charles Dickens, long before him, preferred treating, well-meaning, smart children cruelly. And then there was Barbara Kingsolver’s recent reworking of David Copperfield, entitled, Demon Copperhead, demonstrating that today’s opioid-addicted times are no less cruel than those . . .

“Discovering the Courage to Pursue My Dreams” by Sarah Busch (Botswana)

Sep 04 2023

RPCVs in the News: UWMedicine as told to Nicole Beattie Sarah Busch (Botswana 2018-20), a third-year medical student at the University of Washington School of Medicine, shares how scholarships are helping her become a doctor and fulfill her passion for public health. • I was born in Great Falls, Montana, the oldest daughter in a family with nine children. I raised a lot of my younger siblings, and maybe that’s where taking care of people started. But it was a fundamentalist environment that didn’t believe women should have careers or pursue big things. And I got to the point where I realized that the life my parents were living — and that they were giving me — was not the life I wanted. I liked science, and when I was in high school, I took Advanced Placement Biology. The teacher was a huge science nerd and really unashamed about . . .

John Chromy (India) writes: “Small Things Make Great Things Possible”

Sep 03 2023

A Fifty-Year Perspective on Ten Peace Corps Programs That Enabled Their Host Country People, Communities and Institutions to Substantially Improve the Lives of Millions! • Premise From its very founding the Peace Corps believed that Americans willing to voluntarily dedicate two years of their lives to helping people and communities in countries where there existed great needs, could in multiple ways make important improvements in peoples’ daily life. Since 1961 more than 250,000 American Peace Corps Volunteers have responded to President Kennedy’s call to “serve in the huts and villages” around the world. While not all the Volunteers were successful, most experienced some modest success in their communities, a few made large impacts and in some case the cumulative efforts of many Peace Corps Volunteers, in partnership with their host country people and institutions, laid the groundwork for great achievements that have grown, blossomed withstood the test of time . . .

Fall RPCV Writers Workshop — Sign Up!

Sep 02 2023

SPACES STILL OPEN FOR FALL RPCV WRITERS WORKSHOP; REGISTER TODAY! Fall RPCV Writers Workshop Are you writing a novel, a memoir, a scholarly essay, poems, and/or short stories? Whether what you’re working on is about the Peace Corps or not, you are invited to the Second Peace Corps Writers Workshop this October on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. The Workshop—open to a maximum of 15 RPCV writers—will be held from Thursday, October 5, to Sunday, October 7, at Shore Retreats on Broad Creek. The cost ranges from $100 to $500, depending on the applicant’s economic circumstances, and includes shared living quarters and most meals. If interested, please contact Matt Losak (Lesotho 1985-87) at: tokamaphepa@aol.com. The Workshop, organized by Peace Corps Worldwide and supported by the Peace Corps Fund, will be led by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-93), an English professor at West Virginia University, where he directs the Creative . . .

Watch A TOWERING TASK this September

Sep 01 2023

A Towering Task Coming to PBS Nationwide A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps is coming to PBS stations across the country. There will be a nationwide premiere of A Towering Task on the PBS World channel on Friday, September 29th at 8pm and Saturday, September 30th at 3am, 9am, and 3pm. In addition, individual stations are scheduling the film in local markets starting September 2nd. You can click this link to see the broadcasts that have been scheduled so far. And we are adding stations and dates every day. To help get the story of the Peace Corps to as many audiences as possible, you can encourage your local station to schedule broadcasts of A Towering Task for your region! Simply call your station and ask them to schedule A Towering Task. Your station’s membership services will take note! The film is available to PBS stations (through PBS distributor NETA) for the next three years – and possibly longer, if stations feel there . . .

“A Gabon Memory” by Bonnie Black

Sep 01 2023

by Bonnie Black (Gabon 1996-98) August 31,2023 • The coup that occurred in Gabon this week was a yawn to most news consumers in the West. Just another disputed election and military takeover in another African country; there have been many in recent years. So what. At the time I read about this coup in the New York Times early Wednesday morning, it had drawn only ONE comment, whereas normally by this time lead NYTimes articles garner comments in the hundreds, sometimes thousands. Who cares about Africa after all? And Gabon? Where’s Gabon? Well, I, for one, care, as do most of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers who served there decades ago, when such doors were still open to us. I was (informally) adopted by a Gabonese family in Libreville, the capital, in 1996, when I was in Peace Corps training there, and I’ve stayed in touch ever since with one special member of the family, . . .

Peace Corps reauthorization vote looming, needs support

Aug 31 2023

By Joel Mullen (Ecuador 1970- ) Special to the Standard-Examiner | Aug 30, 2023 • In the next three months, 12 Utahns who are joining the Peace Corps will each ship off to spend two years at a site in a country that has requested Americans to live and work among them. I envy their coming adventures and experiences in learning new languages, cultures, foods, geographical landscapes, histories, and especially getting to befriend those they otherwise would never have gotten to know. In 1970, I was a new Peace Corps recruit in Ecuador. On the ride into town from Quito’s Mariscal Sucre International Airport, I marveled at how young men jumped on and off moving city buses. They were daring and competent. Over my next few months in Ecuador, I became adept at running for public transportation, eventually expanding my skills to jump and run for my favorite train from . . .

Gorilla Doctors of Rwanda

Aug 30 2023

By Susan E. Greisen (Liberia 1971-73, Tonga 1973-74) 26 August 2023 I have always been skeptical of habituating wild animals to humans. I’ve seen the damage this has done to the bears in the National Parks in the 60s when I vividly remember traveling in Yosemite as a 12-year-old with my family. Dad encouraged us to crack our car windows to feed bread to the bears…and, so we did. We have home movies of this insanity. Over ten years later when I tent camped there again as an adult, bears were rummaging campgrounds to access the campers’ delicacies. That night armed rangers roamed our campsite tranquilizing the bears as they ripped open a Fiat convertible seeking store-bought food. The damage humans have done is evident. My third blog on Rwanda provided me with another great lesson about humans and wildlife. Now, 60 years later, what good would . . .

Ursula Foster (Uganda) to share Peace Corps experience in Madison VA

Aug 30 2023

Ursula Foster (Uganda 2001-03 & 2010-12) will read from her book, From Gulu With Love, and share about her time working with the Peace Corps in Uganda at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 1 at Revelation Vineyards, located at 2710 Hebron Valley Road in Madison, Virginia. The native of Esslingen, Germany, now a resident of Madison, has traveled the world to create “Völkerverständigung” (understanding between nations). She firmly believes “if we get to know each other, we would see each other as fellow humans and not as enemies,” according to a business release. This belief led her to spend time, in her retirement, as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. “As a Peace Corps volunteer I had the opportunity to live alongside Ugandans pretty much in the same way they live, to become a part of their everyday life,” she said. The things she values most from her time in . . .

Author - John Coyne