Marian Haley Beil – Peace Corps Worldwide

Review | AFRICA OPENED MY HEART by Julia Dreyer Wang (Benin)

Oct 05 2024

Africa Opened My Heart: A Memoir Julia Dreyer Wang (Benin 2012-14) Native Book Publishing August 2024 341 pages $19.99 (paperback), $3o.00 (Hardcover), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Karen Chaffraix Waller (Senegal, Agroforestry, 2012- 14) . . . In Africa Opened My Heart Julie Wang takes the reader on a journey into deepest Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. But unlike most of us who engage in this two-year mission, she fell in love with a native and put down roots on the continent. She built a family and a house and a thriving foundation that continues to change lives. She is now in her 70’s, white, monied, and brave. Wang’s story is woven with insights and confessions. She tells us why she went and why she stays, all the while illuminating the malevolency of the world’s black/white divide with its inherent contradictions and evils. She illustrates the discernable difference between . . .

WHAT DEATH REVEALED by Jonathan Lash (Dominican Republic)

Sep 05 2024

A new book – What Death Revealed: A Story of Virtue, Vice and Violence Jonathan Lash (Dominican Republic 1967-69) Austin Macauley Publishers July 2025 378 pages $23.95 (paperback); $$4.50 (Kindle); $38.95 (hardcover); to come (audible) . . . In a tale that spans two disparate worlds within one city, this gripping novel dives deep into the divide between the glistening capital of the Free World and its neglected districts, home to 700,000 citizens mostly of color. Eight years after the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sparked riots that shattered the city’s core, the scars of racial fury and systemic injustice remain as evident as ever. Amid this backdrop of crime and burnt-out neighborhoods, Jimmy McFarland, an earnest young District Attorney, stumbles upon evidence of corruption tied to a six-billion-dollar Metro subway project aimed at reconnecting the city’s fractured communities. Though clearly a matter for the FBI, McFarland embarks on a . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers | July through August, 2024

Sep 03 2024

New books — To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers to order a book and maybe VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions. PLEASE, PLEASE join in our Third Goal effort and volunteer to review a book or books!!! Songs of Mali by Ruth Gooley (Mali 1980-81) Peace Corps Writers May 2024 102 pages $15.00 (paperback) Songs of Mali . . .

Gary Bergthold (Ethiopia) died on July 20, 2024

Aug 29 2024

Obituary — Gary Bergthold was born in 1938 in Bakersfield and was proud of it. Although his life and work took him all over the world, he never forgot his roots and the humor and food brought to America by generations of his immigrant family. The oldest son of Glenn and Viola Bergthold, Gary spent his early years in Bakersfield, before leaving to attend UCLA where he received a BA and MA in Psychology. His brothers always marveled at his ability to absorb books through osmosis as they lay on his chest while he napped. At UCLA, he met his wife Linda Carlson, by sitting next to the pretty blonde girl in music class and asking if she could tutor him. They married in 1961 and set off on a lifetime of adventure around the world. In 1962 they joined the Peace Corps, and spent two years teaching secondary school . . .

AFRICA OPENED MY HEART by Julie Wang (Benin)

Aug 27 2024

a new book— Africa Opened My Heart Julia Dreyer Wang (Benin 2012-14) Native Book Publishing August 2024 341 pages $19.99 (paperback), $3o.00 (Hardcover), $4.99 (Kindle) Africa Opened My Heart is a moving testament to having the courage to set out on new adventures later in life. After her husband died in 2009, Julie Wang, then 62, was encouraged to do so by reading about Jimmy Carter’s mother, Lillian, another older Peace Corps Volunteer. Julie was assigned to Benin, West Africa, a country she had barely heard of, but where she soon found herself falling in love with the Beninese people, who showed her how to survive and thrive in this sometimes-challenging country. As someone who had founded two businesses in the U.S., teaching entrepreneurial skills to Beninese young and old proved a pleasure. She thought she was doing well until confronted by a group of seamstresses who could . . .

CONFESSIONAL POEMS AND VIGNETTES by Thomas Syre (Ethiopia)

Aug 24 2024

New book — Confessional Poems and Vignettes: Revisited by Thomas Syre, Sr. (Ethiopia 1972-74) Independently Published 94 pages January 2024 $15.00 (Paperback) Revisited is a collection of poems and vignettes revised and added to a collection of fiction first published in 2020 during the pandemic. Syre’s latest collection, written in the Fall of 2023, reflects on his life as a boy, a son, a man, a husband, and a father. He writes about his time as an active-duty peacetime Marine overseas. He also writes about his years in Ethiopia first with the Peace Corps as a young Volunteer and then his productive retirement years as a university professor of public health. The collection speaks to his personal, familial, and professional, regrets, failures, brokenness, and successes in life.

The Volunteer Who Became a Three Term Governor of Wisconsin |Jim Doyle (Tunisia)

Aug 05 2024

Profile in Citizenship — by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Jim Doyle was inspired by JFK’s call to public service, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia from 1967 to 1969, working as a teacher alongside of his wife, Jessica, also a Volunteer. Thereafter, in 1972. he earned a law degree from Harvard Law School. He then moved to a Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona where he worked as an attorney in a federal legal services office. In 1975, he returned to Madison and served for three terms as a Dane County District Attorney from 1977 to 1982. After leaving that office, he spent eight years in private practice. In 1990, Jim was elected as Wisconsin’s Attorney General and reelected in 1994 and 1995. Between 1997 and 1998, he served as the president of the National Association of Attorneys . . .

WE CAME, WE SAW, WE CHANGED edited by Dennis Warner (Tanzania)

Jul 31 2024

A new book — We Came, We Saw, We Changed:Creating a Peace Corps Legacy in Tanzania 1964-1966 by PCV Members of Tanzania 5; Dennis Warner, Editor Independently Published June 2024 245 pages This book provides a glimpse of some of the most memorable experiences in the lives of 74 Tanzania-5 Peace Corps Volunteers in the 1960s as they ventured into the little-known cultures of a country striving to enter the modern world. Told in their own words, this diversity of stories form a mosaic of life as the volunteers go about their work and play in towns, villages, and the bush. A total of 58 short stories describing key memories are clustered as “Recruitment and Training, Life in the Bush, Village Life, Urban Life, Work Assignments, Travel and Transport, Social Encounters, Health, and Post Peace Corps Stories. A common thread in most of the stories is how the experiences of . . .

Review | SHIPS IN THE DESERT by Jeff Fearnside (Kazakhstan)

Jul 18 2024

Ships In The Desert by Jeff Fearnside (Kazakhstan 2002–04) Santa Fe Writer’s Project 136 pages August, 2022 $14.95 (paperback), $8.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Eugénie de Rosier (Philippines 2006-08) • • • Out of the massive spread of Central Asia — from the Caspian Sea moving east to northwest China — is the region’s “stan” countries: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and the Uyghur (WEE-gur) autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. Historically, the area was known as “Land of the Turks” or Turkestan. It’s unrelated to Turkey. Jeff Fearnside’s slim volume of essays assesses his four years as guest educator and fellowship program manager for post-graduate study abroad. Most of his living happened on the Great Silk Road mainly in Kazakhstan. He addresses a stirring call to action about our responsibility to save our precious water resource globally after the Aral Sea disaster. He outpours his view of Kazakh people, their culture, . . .

The Volunteer Who Was Elected to Five Consecutive Terms in the U. S. Senate | Christopher Dodd (Dominican Republic)

Jul 15 2024

Profile in Citizenship by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) Christopher Dodd served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominion Republic 1968-71, after graduating from Providence College. Thereafter, he was elected to the first of three terms as a U. S. Representative in 1974. Following his father’s career path, Chris ran and was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1980. He was reelected in 1986, 1992, 1998, and 2004—the first Connecticut senator to be elected to five consecutive terms. Chris’s time in Congress was marked by an interest in child welfare, fiscal reform, and education. He served on the Senate’s committees on banking, housing, and urban affairs (Chair from 2007), foreign relations, health, education, labor and pensions and rules and administration (Chair 2001-2003 In 1995-97, he served as General Chair of the Democratic National Committee. In January 2007, Chris announced that he planned to pursue the 2008 Democratic . . .

Review — WALKING WITH EVARISTO by Christian Nill (Guatemala)

Jul 14 2024

Walking with Evaristo: A Memoir of Celebration and Tragedy in the Land of the AchÍ Maya Christian Nill (Guatemala 1978–82) Peace Corps Writers May 2024 383 pages $17.99 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Mark Walker (Guatemala) • • • Fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Christian Nill has written an engaging story about the impact and consequences of his experience as a volunteer in the highlands of Guatemala. He’s also made a timely contribution to our understanding of the devastating ten-year period of violence there. Although I was a volunteer five years before Nill, the similarities were amazing. I worked on a study for CARE identifying some of the management and conservation practices used for the Food-for-Work program implemented in conjunction with the group Nill worked with, INAFOR (National Forestry Institute). My second site was also in Baja Verapaz, where I found my bride. I raised money for the program in the . . .

Dan Campbell (El Salvador) shares some essays

Jul 08 2024

Essays — Dear friends I hope your week is going well and i wanted to share some of my latest essays with you at the link below and i welcome your comments and suggestions for improvement. Take care and keep in touch! https://essaysbydan.wordpress.com/ Dan • • • • June 26, 2024 An essay on selling Bibles door to door As a student at N.C. State University many years ago, I embarked on a summer adventure that whisked me away to the picturesque and historic town of New Bern, North Carolina. My mission was to sell Bibles door-to-door. Little did I know, this venture would lead me down a path of unexpected lessons and memorable… Read more June 23, 2024 An essay on random acts of kindness Random Acts of Kindness: Nurturing Compassion and Connectivity Random acts of kindness are spontaneous, unplanned actions aimed at bringing joy or assistance to others without expecting . . .

8 SONGS from EDWARD MYCUE (Ghana)

Jul 07 2024

Songs — — from experiences knowing the languages of flowers and waves under which great ships sailed, floundered, and sank at San Francisco shores and the Golden Gates at the rocks there where the seals would bark in the nights — Van Rijn, Obidiah, Doug, Margaret Back Time Comes Forward Sea Songs Slumber In A Morning At Sea Acceptance Speech Back Even Before The Time Of Set To The San Francisco Mint On A Lonely Road Peace Corps History Drifts Word Thumb • • • l. VAN RIJN, OBIDIAH, DOUG, MARGARET Cats may have no intentions. Except for her eyes, Obidiah is white as the commode bowl. Van Rijn, smaller than Doug’s boot, is black. That boot has great intentions. When Margaret sees Van Rijn she’ll say she ‘loves’ him. Large word: ‘love’. Margaret’s no mapmaker. She wanders that country. Doug ‘digs’ the oceans. Margaret will come back, pass out of range, . . .

2024 Peace Corps Writers Special Book Award Winner!

Jul 02 2024

HUSTLE The Making of a Freelance Writer by Lawrence Grobel (Ghana) In my career as a freelance writer, I’ve had moments of doubt. I’ve suffered rejections and cancellations. But there were crossroads along the way that allowed me to continue pursuing my dream of working for myself, doing what I wanted to do, and figuring out how to survive. Freelancing is a lifestyle. In preparing this book, I marvel at how I somehow managed to avoid all the pitfalls and not drown in pessimism. When Alfred Hitchcock, Leonard Bernstein, and Fred Astaire all backed down from interviews they had agreed to, I had to learn how to bite the bullet and move on, how to move forward, and not backward, and that’s what this book is about. It begins with my first byline for an essay I wrote when I was just 15. It continues with articles I . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers | May — June 2024

Jul 01 2024

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers to order a book and maybe VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions. PLEASE, PLEASE join in our Third Goal effort and volunteer to review a book or books!!! When Coronavirus Unmapped The Peace Corps Journey by Jeffrey W. Aubuchon (Morocco 2007-08) & Peace Corps Response Nepal 92252 Press 142 pages $2.99 (Kindle).$7.00 (Paperback) This book . . .

Author - Marian Haley Beil