John Coyne – Page 41 – Peace Corps Worldwide

CUMBERLAND by Megan Gannon (Gambia)

May 04 2023

In the fictional coastal town of Cumberland, Georgia, fifteen-year-old twin sisters Ansel and Isabel Mackenzie have lived with their eccentric grandmother since a car accident killed their parents and paralyzed Isabel. Over the past seven years the responsibility of caring for her sister has fallen increasingly on Ansel. However, as she cultivates a romantic relationship with a local boy, as well as an artistic apprenticeship with a visiting photographer, Ansel’s growing desire for independence compromises her ability to care for her sister, threatening their sororal connection, and ultimately, Isabel’s life. Juxtaposing Ansel’s traditional narrative against Isabel’s poetic prose, Cumberland highlights the conflicts between independence and familial duty, the difficulty of balancing the dark draws of the body against the brighter focus of the mind. Megan Gannon was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and is a graduate of Vassar College (BA), the University of Montana (MFA) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln . . .

Peace Corps Director Spahn visits Colorado State University

May 04 2023

Over the course of the day, more than 120 students, staff, alumni and community members came to campus to welcome Carol Spahn and to honor the Peace Corps. Colorado State University has a long history with the Peace Corps, dating back to 1961 when researchers Pauline Birky-Kreutzer and Maurice Albertson published one of the original feasibility studies that led to the creation of the organization dedicated to international development and cooperation. The largest event included more than 90 guests, who were able to hear more about current affairs and the future for the Peace Corps during a facilitated dialogue between Spahn and KUNC’s Stephanie Daniel. Another highlight involved students from across campus, who were able to learn more about Spahn’s international career path and opportunities with the Peace Corps. Thanks to CSU’s commitment and the generosity of several donors, CSU has most of the funding needed to fully construct the . . .

“Coming to Grips with Poverty in Africa”

May 03 2023

American Diplomacy May 1, 2023 by Mark G. Wentling (Honduras 1967-69 & Togo 1970-73) • Reducing poverty has been at the heart of U.S. foreign assistance in dozens of low-income countries for more than a half-century. Despite U.S. foreign policy objectives, much work, and hundreds of billions of assistance dollars expended, the poorest of the poor have not advanced. While some low-income countries have made some small progress, after decades of aid most are still in the bottom ranks of absolute poverty. All the countries in the Least Developed Country (LDC) category have more poor people than ever before. Thirty-seven of forty-seven of these LDC countries are in Africa. Although a handful of countries have graduated from LDC status, this disturbing ranking remains basically unchanged since the LDC list was established by the UN General Assembly in 1971. This unchanging list of extremely poor countries tells us that a better . . .

Paul Ebner (Paraguay) Animal Sciences Professor

May 02 2023

“Growing up, I was not involved in agriculture at all,” Paul Ebner, professor of Animal Sciences. “I had never heard of 4-H or FFA or animal science until after I graduated from college.” Story by Nyssa Chow Lilovich • Throughout his career, Animal Sciences Professor Paul Ebner has demonstrated his commitment to global agriculture and food systems in his research and teaching. His path started at Kalamazoo College where he pursued a degree in political science. He went on to complete graduate degrees in animal sciences from the University of Tennessee, a postdoctoral fellowship at Louisiana State University in molecular biology and joined the Peace Corps. It was during his time in Paraguay, South America (1994-96) that he started working with livestock production. He worked in a small rural village with an original focus on water sanitation and eventually directed his efforts to chickens and pigs, receiving funding . . .

SHIPS IN THE DESERT by Jeff Fearnside (Kazakhstan) wins Eric Hoffer Book Award

May 02 2023

Ships in the Desert (Santa Fe Writers Project, 2022) has just won the prestigious Eric Hoffer Book Award for Nonfiction—Culture. Full coverage for all the award winners can be found in the US Review of Books, including the Hoffer judges’ commentary here. Ships also made the Short List for the Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize. As noted in their announcement about this, “Less than 5% of the nominees become grand prize award finalists. This small list or ‘short list’ of finalists is an honored distinction of its own”. Additionally, Ships is currently a finalist for a Foreword Reviews INDIES Book of the Year Award for Adult Nonfiction—Essays. The winner of that award will be announced on June 15, 2023. Ships was also selected one of the five finalists for an Eyelands International Book Award in the category of Published Memoir. Pulitzer Prize Finalist Kim Barnes has called the book “informative, impassioned, and urgent,” and Peace Corps Worldwide 2022 Writer . . .

Diary of a Peace Corps Volunteer by Jack Maisano (Korea)

Apr 30 2023

Diary of a Peace Corps Volunteer By Jack Maisano (Korea 1971-73) Self Published 239 pages May 2020 $8.88 (Kindle); $9.98 (Paperback) It was a serendipitous day when I found my diary from my Peace Corps days in Korea. I was in the Peace Corps from the end of 1971 to the end of 1973. Somehow my diary – an old, red, five-by-eight inch, lined book, filled with addresses, phone numbers, stamps, and poems – had followed me…for nearly 50 years. It was filled with two years of youthful prose describing my life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea and a few years beyond. And now here it was, sitting accusingly on my desk, practically daring me to record it in print. The first task was to read it, something I had never done before. With some trepidation, I started on page one…and the memories came flooding back. . . .

New York Times “Literary Destinations” by Paul Theroux (Malawi)

Apr 29 2023

. New York Times by Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65) April 30, 2023 My father, like many passionate readers, was a literary pilgrim in his native Massachusetts, a state rich in destinations, hallowed by many of the greatest writers in the language. “Look, Paulie, this is the House of the Seven Gables — go on, count them!” What interested him — what interests me — was not a particular book but a literary intelligence, a Yankee sensibility enshrined in many local books. Boston does not, like Dublin, have a “Ulysses” — few cities do. The nearest novel to being essentially Bostonian might be Edwin O’Connor’s “The Last Hurrah”; its protagonist, Frank Skeffington, based on Boston’s flamboyant James Michael Curley, embodies Boston’s old political culture of blarney and bribery. Richard Henry Dana Jr. fascinated my father, not for writing about Boston but for his example as an admirable Yankee. After enduring the dangerous voyage . . .

Very Sad News: The Death of Pat Wand (Colombia) in Spain

Apr 28 2023

Pat Wand suffered a stroke this week preparing to hike the El Camino in Spain. She had arrived in Europe on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 and died on Thursday, April 27th. What follows is an article by Jerry Norris published on July 2021 on our site that sums up Pat’s amazing life and career, and her great contributions to the Peace Corps. She is a woman who will be missed by everyone that she helped here and around the world. — John The Volunteer Exemplar for the Peace Corps’ 3rd Goal–Pat Wand (Colombia) by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) Patricia A. Wand, Pat to her hosts of friends and associates across planet earth, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia from 1963 to 1965 after graduating cum laude in history from Seattle University’s Honors Program. As a rural community development and health education volunteer she taught nutrition, sewing, knitting, . . .

Connor H. O’Brien (Ukraine) Peace Corps Volunteer says: Choose violence

Apr 28 2023

Why words like ‘diplomacy,’ ‘ceasefire’ and ‘negotiations’ are such rubbish in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine The EAGLE American University I will never forget the day I arrived in Ukraine to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer. It was a cool September afternoon, several months after I graduated from American University. After landing in Kyiv, my fellow Americans and I were whisked off to the northern city of Chernihiv for orientation. On the bus ride, as we fought against jet lag and looked out upon expansive fields of wheat, a Ukrainian woman who worked for the Peace Corps addressed us. She explained that our orientation would be in an old Soviet-era hotel and that we needed to put our luggage in the basement upon arrival. She went on to explain that the basement was built to be a bomb shelter during the Cold War. . . .

THIS SALTED SOIL by Jamie Kirkpatrick (Tunisia)

Apr 27 2023

This Salted Soil, by Jamie Kirkpatrick, tells the story of the North African Campaign in World War II, America’s first, but often-overlooked, involvement in the war against Nazi Germany that helped to shape and ultimately secure the Allied victory in that bloody conflict. Using both historical and fictional characters, This Salted Soil, is the story of the battle for Tunisia that took place between November, 1942 and May, 1943. The novel also explores two other related themes: Tunisia’s struggle for independence from France, and the role of Third World countries in the ideological struggle between East and West in the post-war era. Jamie Kirkpatrick served in Kasserine, Tunisia from 1970 to 1972. He was also the Associate Peace Corps Director in Tunisia from 1974 to 1976. Now retired after careers in international service organizations and education, Jamie is a writer and photographer whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, . . .

One Day in Ethiopia

Apr 26 2023

This is a letter I wrote when I was a PCV in Ethiopia. It was published in the collection Letters From The Peace Corps in 1964, selected and edited by Iris Luce. She wrote in her introduction to her book. It was my good fortune one evening to be seated with the wife of Senator J. William Fulbright, whose daughter was working here in Washington at Peace Corps Headquarters. Mrs. Fulbright suggested that someone should compile a collection of letters from Peace Corps Volunteers in the field to give Americans a firsthand report on the triumphs and the hardships that these people have experienced while working in the Corps “One Day in Ethiopia” was a letter I had written home to my family and friends, several at the agency in Washington that Iris Luce found and included. In her introduction to the chapter, “One Day in Ethiopia,” she wrote: . . .

Harry Belafonte, Cultural Advisor to the Peace Corps

Apr 26 2023

Journalist, author and Kennedy family member Maria Shriver spoke to Belafonte’s relationship and shared humanitarian work with her father, Sargent Shriver. “Harry Belafonte wasn’t just a singer, he was an architect of change. He was an activist of the Civil Rights Movement, and he was also the first appointed Cultural Advisor to the Peace Corps,” she wrote on Instagram. “His whole life was devoted to making a difference, whether it was raising the awareness of justice or the HIV/AIDS crisis or women’s rights. Today, I hope you will not only listen to Harry Belafonte’s music, but learn a little more about what he fought for throughout his life, who he was as a man, and get inspired.”

Catherine Trevathan (Bulgaria) | New school superintendent

Apr 25 2023

RPCVs in the news Meet Catherine Trevathan, Hillsdale Local’s new well-traveled superintendent By Linda Hall MOHICAN TWP. OHIO − Catherine Trevathan will bring a world of experience to the Hillsdale Local School District when she becomes its new superintendent in August. She has crisscrossed the globe as an educator since graduating from the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati, having held positions in Bulgaria, Turkey, the Hopi reservation in Arizona and most recently, the Little Miami Local Schools in Ohio. “I’ve been blessed with a lot of interesting experiences,” Trevathan said. She recalled sitting outside on a starry night with her dad when she was in eighth grade and telling him she wanted to join the Peace Corps. He may have considered it a youthful dream and been a bit surprised following her college graduation when she said to him, “Guess what? The Peace Corps accepted me.” . . .

Review | Finding Kony by Robert E. Gribbin (Kenya)

Apr 24 2023

Finding Kony by Robert E. Gribbin Self Published 248 pages November 2o22 $3.99 (Kindle); $15.99 (Paperback) Reviewed by Alan G. Johnston (Kenya 1968-70) Note: Both Robert Gribbin and Alan Johnston were in the Peace Corps group that arrived in Kenya in October 1968. They both spent many years in Africa. • On March 5, 2012 a U.S.-based NGO, Invisible Children, Inc., released a short documentary film called Kony 2012. The intent of the film, meant for world-wide distribution, was to make the infamous Ugandan warlord, Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), so famous that he couldn’t hide. The goal was to have him arrested and brought to justice by the end of 2012. The film quickly went viral, garnering more than 100 million views and becoming the most “liked” video on YouTube. The film highlights the announcement by Barack Obama in October 2011 that the U.S. . . .

Sally Martinez (Ethiopia) with Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra

Apr 24 2023

RPCVs in the news After a 40-month COVID hiatus, the Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra (MYSO) is back in action with concerts on Saturday, April 29th and Sunday, April 30th in Mariposa (CA) and at Tenaya Lodge in Fish Camp, led by its Founding Music Director and Conductor Les Marsden. Meet Sally Martinez (Ethiopia), Oberlin-trained longtime MYSO Concertmaster and Yosemite National Park’s Volunteer Program Manager . Sally Martinez was introduced to the violin at age 3 and began taking lessons in her home state of Massachusetts. She grew up performing with the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras before attending Oberlin College in Ohio. At Oberlin, Sally pursued a degree in Environmental Studies, but continued to participate in music lessons and performances with students and faculty at the Conservatory of Music. In her adult life, she has had the opportunity to perform with many community and professional orchestras, in concert halls across . . .

Author - John Coyne