John Coyne – Page 338 – Peace Corps Worldwide

RPCV Observes Election Day In Lizrazhd

Aug 26 2009

After his Peace Corps service in Turkey (1965-67), Ken Hill was a staff member who left the Peace Corps in 1975 to pursue personal business interests. In the mid-90s he and his wife Winnie (Nepal 1966-68) returned to Peace Corps where Ken was Country Director first for the Russian Far East, then Bulgaria and Macedonia. In 1999 he became Chief of Operations for Peace Corps programs in Europe and Asia and was appointed Chief of Staff of Peace Corps during 2001. Now retired, Ken is engaged in numerous volunteer and political activities. He is active in local and Virginia politics, on the Boards of the Bulgarian-American Society and the Friends of Turkey and the Alexandria, Virginia Sister Cities Committee with Gyumri, Armenia. He was an advisor to the Obama / Peace Corps Transition Team and is a former Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Peace Corps Association.” When . . .

Peace Corps Writer On President's Short Summer Reading List

Aug 26 2009

RPCV Kent Haruf’s (Turkey 1965-67) novel, Plainsong is one of the five books the President is reading this summer. The book is described on the jacket as a masterful detailing of unsettled lives, bound by their windswept town and landscape — “their fates somehow overcoming the powerful circumstances of place and station, their confusion, curiosity, dignity and humor intact and resonant.” Slate’s political writer, John Dickerson, “analyzed” the list and said that Haruf’s book was the only one that showed “geographical and literary diversity.” The other four books are: The Way Home, by George Pelecanos Hot, Flat and Crowded, by Tom Friedman Lush Life, by Richard Price John Adams, by David McCullough

Picking On Peace Corps Staff

Aug 25 2009

Emailing today with an RPCV from Ethiopia, I started to recall the ‘famous’ first staff at the agency and the long-time tradition in the Peace Corps of official boondoggle trips overseas to ‘see’ PCVs, but really were just so the Washington Staff could get out of D.C. and on the government’s dime see something of the Third World. Theroux wrote about those Visiting Washington Officials in some of his early writings from Malawi. This sort of junket was also captured wonderfully by short-term Peace Corps Evaluator Fletcher Knebel in his 1966 novel on the Peace Corps, The Zinzin Road. Knebel’s PC/W character was Maureen Sutherland, “…a slim, willowy young woman, stylishly dressed…She wore elongated dark glasses, and a sheaf of black hair fell loosely over one eye. Her skin, as creamy as enameled china, hinted of regular facials and a variety of expensive oils and ointments.” Sutherland’s character was based on a legendary African Region Desk Officer of . . .

Greetings From Director Williams

Aug 24 2009

August 24, 2009 TO: Peace Corps Community FROM: Allison Price, Communications Director SUBJECT:Greetings from Director Williams This morning I was sworn in as the 18th Director of the Peace Corps. While preparing for this day, I decided that the first thing I wanted to do was to take a moment to introduce myself to the Peace Corps community and thank you for everything you have done and continue to do. As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, this is quite an emotional moment. When I was in that small town in the Dominican Republic, I was consumed by the same daily thoughts: How was I going to master another language? What did it mean to be a 20 year old, training rural school teachers, many twice my age? How would I make a life in a community so far from my home? In 1967, I couldn’t have imagined all of the people who had . . .

RPCV Aaron S. Williams Sworn In As Peace Corps Director

Aug 24 2009

Washington. D.C., August 24, 2009 – Aaron S. Williams was sworn in Monday as the eighteenth Director of the Peace Corps. Director Williams was nominated by President Obama on July 14 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 7. “I am deeply honored to be the Director of the Peace Corps and I want to thank President Obama for the trust that he has placed in me. I look forward to making his call to public service a reality for more Americans,” said Director Williams. “I am committed to recruiting, training, and supporting the next generation of skilled and enthusiastic volunteers eager to serve side by side with members of Peace Corps host communities around the world.” Mr. Williams is the fourth director to have served as a Peace Corps volunteer. He served as a volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1967 to 1970. Upon completing his service, he . . .

New Novel by Kirsten Johnson (Kenya 1982-84)

Aug 24 2009

Footsteps by Kirsten Johnson (Kenya 1982–84) Plain View Press 2009 248 pages $18.95 www.plainviewpress.net

Review: TWO YEARS IN POLAND by Lawrence Biddall (Poland)

Aug 24 2009

• Two Years in Poland, and Other Stories: A Sixty-Seven-Year-Old Grandfather Joins the Peace Corps and Looks Back on His Life by Lawrence Brane Siddall (1997–99) Pelham Springs Press 2008 255 pages $16.95 Reviewed by David Gurr (Ethiopia 1962–64) • In Poland, Lawrence Brane Siddall taught English in the town of Swidnica, pronounced as shvid-NEET-sa, according to the author. He was the only PCV assigned to that city of 65,000 in southwest Poland, and replaced a Volunteer who had taught English the previous two years at the secondary school to which he was assigned. Parts I and III of his book are devoted to his experience in Swidnica, travel to major cities in Poland, one of them as part of his in-service training, as well as a six-week summer project organized by another Volunteer followed by a vacation in Russia. Sandwiched in between these two parts is Part II, . . .

The Peace Corps Volunteer As A Fictional Character

Aug 21 2009

From the first days of the agency, Peace Corps Volunteers have been rich characters for novels not written by PCVs. The first books about the Peace Corps were young adult novels. In 1963, Breaking the Bonds: A Novel about the Peace Corps, written by Sharen Spence, had a short introduction by Sargent Shriver and was dedicated to “All Peace Corps Volunteers serving the world with discipline, determination, endurance, and a rare idealism.” This novel is set in Nigeria. Then in 1965 came a series of young adult novels entitled Kathy Martin: Peace Corps Nurse, about a Volunteer in Africa. Another “nursing novel” for a YA audience was written by Rachel G. Payes and published by Avalon Books in 1967. In 1968 came the most well known of all “Peace Corps novels,” The Zinzin Road, by the very successful commercial novelist and political writer, Fletcher Knebel, who worked briefly as a Peace . . .

New Books By RPCV Writers

Aug 20 2009

Allah’s Garden Thomas Hallowell (Morocco) Tales Press 198 pages March 2009 The 38 Million Dollar Smile by Richard Stevenson (aka Richard Lipez (Ethiopia 1962-64) mlrpress September 2009 Four Corners: The Vineyards and Wineries of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado By Starley Talbott (South Africa, 2001) Plainstar Press 2009 Trade Paperback $24.95 San Francisco Tenderloin true stories of heroes, demons, angels, outcasts & a psychotrherapist (Expanded Second Edition) by Larry Wonderling (PC/COR Puerto Rico 1968-70; Afghanistan 1970-73; early ’80s Central and Latin America; late ’80s Africa) Cape Foundation Publications, $24.95 408 pages 2008 Portrait of a Peace Corps Gringo By Paul Arfin (Colombia 1963-65) Self-Published, $17.99 356 pages 2009 paularfin@gmail.com La Ranfla and other New Mexico Stories By Martha Egan (Venezuela 1967-69) Papalote Press, $24.95 200 pages 2009 www.papalotepress.com Rock Worn by Water (Poems) By Florence Chard Dacey (Nigeria 1963-65) Plain View Press, $14.20 77 pages . . .

Which Way The Peace Corps On PeaceCorpsOnLine

Aug 19 2009

Hugh Pickens (Peru 1970-73) who started www.peacecorpsonline.org back in the early days of 2001 as a news service to the Peace Corps community has collected the various documents relating to what Aaron Williams should do, now that he is about to be sworn in as the new director. Check out the ideas at: ttp://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/2629/3216275.html

Review: The Peace Corps Latrine Reader

Aug 19 2009

Americans Do Their Business Abroad The Peace Corps Latrine Reader (A collection of essays by RPCVs) edited by Jake Fawson (Gabon 2000–02) and Steve McNutt (Gabon 2000–02) Other Places Publishing December 2008 $16.95 Reviewed by Travis Leger (East Timor (2005–06) reviews the our site. I submitted to this book when Fawson and McNutt put out their request for stories. I had just returned from East Timor, though prematurely. We were the last group there before they evacuated the entire program. I submitted a story about our adopted dog when she was in heat and one of her lovers, Stubby. And since the editors didn’t choose it I am going to use this opportunity to publish it here: Stubby We called the dog Stubby. I don’t even remember its real name. It was our neighbor’s and it barked at us incessantly. We had just moved into the house, a small, two-bedroom . . .

A Peace Corps Advisory Committee?

Aug 17 2009

In the very early days of the Peace Corps, Shriver had a “top-level National Advisory Committee” that he saw as being able to “generate public support, and to permit criticism and review by some, he said, “of the best men and women in the field of world development.” Shriver proposed that Johnson be Chairman of this Committee, then added, “His assistant, Bill Moyers, who is keenly interested in the Peace Corps, could serve as the Vice President’s liaison man on this, perhaps as Secretary of the Advisory Committee, thus assuring active concern in the Vice President’s office.” Moyers who, of course, become more important to the Peace Corps than just the secretary of the advisory committee which met regularly in the Peace Corps Office. I remember in the fall of ’64 jumping onto the elevator and joining Janet Leigh, one of the first Peace Corps advisers. (Yes, Janet Leigh, and don’t . . .

A Writer Writes: Holiday Obituary

Aug 16 2009

Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975-77) has self-published a number of travel books since returning from Honduras. The following piece is from a collection of stories that he will publish soon. In the preface, Larry writes, “Sometimes life offers delicious experiences when least expected. These stories were born in such circumstances a quarter of a century ago, shortly after returning home following five years south of the frontera. Studying art at a local junior college, I was fascinated by students who set up easels in art museums and tried to recreate masterpieces stroke for stroke. This led to my own experiment; to write my own stories while emulating the styles of my favorite authors. “Today it seems blasphemous to mention their names when referring to my efforts. However, it is worth mentioning that the exercise offered me an opportunity to be as crazy as I wanted to be. Heck, one of . . .

RPCV Lipez's New Novel

Aug 16 2009

Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975-77) reviews a new novel by Dick Lipez (Ethiopia 1962-64) who writes under the pseudonym of Richard Stevenson. The book is entitled, The 38 Million Dollar Smile, and is published by MLR Press. It comes out in September. • If you are looking for a page-turner this Indian Summer, The 38 Million Dollar Smile could be the book. The latest mystery in the Don Strachey series, this book describes the search for a rich American who disappeared in Thailand with his portion of a family fortune ($38 million). Told in first person, filled with slang in the mystery novel format, the story offers the unexpected, as do the previous Don Strachey books. Don Strachey is a gay private detective. In this particular book, he is chosen to search for the missing American by his ex-wife because the missing man was also gay. She believes that the . . .

Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Rules For Writing Fiction

Aug 16 2009

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. 2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. 3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water. 4. Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action. 5. Start as close to the end as possible. 6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of. 7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia. 8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should . . .

Author - John Coyne