Marian Haley Beil – Peace Corps Worldwide

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 . . .

A JEW IN GAZA: HUMANITARIAN HEARTBREAK, HUBRIS AND HORRORS by Alonzo Wind (Ecuador)

Jul 01 2024

A new book — A Jew in Gaza: Humanitarian Heartbreak, Hubris and Horror Allan “Alonzo” J. Wind (Ecuador 1980–82) Enable & Ennoble June 2024 296 pages $24.88 (hardcover), $9.99 (Kindle), 1 credit (Audiobook) • • • This is the unique story of how A.J. “Alonzo” Wind, retired Foreign Service Officer and international development executive, assumed the position of Mission Director for International Medical Corps in the occupied Palestinian territories, living in Gaza and East Jerusalem during 2022 and 2023. It offers a view into Gaza few have had, as an American Jew, as a Baha’i, as a humanitarian living under the threats of the interminable conflicts between Israel and Gaza. Mr. Wind lived through multiple escalations and Israeli counterstrikes, and negotiated a fine line of diplomacy and international humanitarian law between Israeli civil and military authorities and the de facto authority in Gaza represented by Hamas. A JEW IN GAZA: Humanitarian . . .

Local teacher is taking his skills to the Peace Corps — Caleb Williams (Cambodia)

Jun 29 2024

PCVs in the news MELISSA WHITLER | NBCU Fellow Melissa@DallasVoice.com • • • Caleb Williams has spent the last two years teaching ninth graders in Richardson (Texas) Independent School District. But this August, he will be traveling to Cambodia to teach English as part of The Peace Corps. Williams is originally from Oklahoma but said he was drawn to Texas schools by better pay and more diverse schools. In his time at Richardson ISD, he’s taught students from all over the world, including Nigeria, Iraq and Burma. He’s also had experience teaching across different achievement levels, having taught on-level, special education inclusion and AP English classes. “It has been great getting to teach the full range of freshman students,” Williams said. “Different kinds of students use different parts of your energy, so it doesn’t feel like doing the same thing over and over again each period.” Of course, finishing out this . . .

BLUE MAGIC ON MUSHROOM ISLAND by David C. Edmonds (Chile)

May 21 2024

by David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963-65) Add Blue Magic on Mushroom Island to the growing list of magical/realism/romance/ action-adventure thrillers in exotic places by David C. Edmonds! The story Adriana Alvarado, an American TV journalist in Nicaragua, is contemplating another romantic evening with the man she met at an US Embassy soiree when her rendezvous is ruined by a close encounter with gunfire and death. Blood is on her hands — literally — and she’s been in Nicaragua long enough to know that witnesses to assassination do not always live to tell their story. The US Embassy is no help. Neither is the embassy man who stole her heart. They want Adriana to cooperate with the dreaded Directorate of State Security. But if she cooperates, they’ll learn about her past and she’ll be in even greater danger. Her only hope for escape is to pretend to chase a story . . .

“Yang Gil-su” by Giles Ryan (Korea)

May 20 2024

by Giles Ryan (Korea 1970 – 72) When you were a Volunteer did you use your own name in country? Or did you have another name? Every Korea PCV had a Korean name based on a long-standing tradition going back hundreds of years to the earliest Italian foreign missionaries in China, and the Korean language teachers in the training programs simply assumed we each needed a name. The story below draws on this experience in Peace Corps/Korea. Years later, I was married in Korea and my in-laws still call me by this name. • • • Yang-sŏnsaeng We all receive a name at birth and carry this name through life. True, we may have a nickname, but typically this is only a shortened form of our formal name. But imagine, if you will, acquiring an entirely different name at a later time in life, and in a different language, and . . .

ONCE THERE WAS A FIRE by Stephen Shender (Liberia)

May 19 2024

• • • Nighttime. 1748. Hawai‘i Island (the Big Island). North Kohala. A child is born in a grass house. Outside, a raging storm muffles his first cries. Soldiers hunt for him amid the gale. Their king has ordered his death because a priest has prophesied that the infant will become a “slayer of chiefs.” But he is spirited away to a remote valley before the soldiers can find him. He will become Hawaii’s greatest warrior. When strange, pale visitors come from beyond the horizon, and other Hawaiians mistake their leader for one of their gods — returned to them in fulfillment of a prophecy — he’ll recognize these newcomers are men. He’ll use their guns and steel to defeat a succession of rivals for rule of the Big Island, and then the rest of the island chain, ending centuries of fratricidal warfare, and founding the Kingdom of Hawaii. Today, Hawaiians remember . . .

NEW — WALKING WITH EVARISTO by Christian Nill (Guatemala)

May 16 2024

“To do the thing that was necessary — wasn’t that at the heart of our mission? And wasn’t it obvious what we needed to do? Plant trees; teach others to plant trees; save the crops from the inexorable forces of erosion. . . . but was that the only task that would be needed of us?” Walking with Evaristo is a gripping journey — at turns lyrical, occasionally boisterous — venturing deep into the heart of a breathtakingly beautiful country torn by strife. And as the story unfolds, it also becomes a radical exercise in the recovery of personal memory. Nill chronicles three turbulent years working as a Peace Corps volunteer in a deeply traditional Mayan community that fell under the shadow of the sinister forces of oppression. Immersing his readers in the vibrant tapestry of life in a town called Rabinal, the author gradually becomes a witness to Guatemala’s . . .

“Establishing the Peace Corps” by John Coyne (Ethiopia)

May 11 2024

Let me start with a quote from Gerard T. Rice’s book, The Bold Experiment: JFK’s Peace Corps “In 1961 John F. Kennedy took two risky and conflicting initiatives in the Third World. One was to send five hundred additional military advisers into South Vietnam; by 1963 there would be seventeen thousand such advisers. The other was to send five hundred young Americans to teach in the schools and work in the fields of eight developing countries. These were Peace Corps Volunteers. By 1963 there would be seven thousand of them in forty-four countries.” . . . Vietnam scarred the American psyche, leaving memories of pain and defeat, but Kennedy’s other initiative inspired, and continued to inspire hope and understanding among Americans and the rest of the world. In that sense, the Peace Corps was his most affirmative and enduring legacy. A historical framework Gerry Rice, in The Bold Experiment: JFK’s Peace Corps, points . . .

Dr. Justin Bibee (Morocco) to be awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters

May 04 2024

RPCV in the news — Justin Bibee is assistant director of Refugee Resettlement at Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island. In this capacity, he oversees Rhode Island’s largest refugee resettlement effort. Leveraging his profound expertise and rich background in refugee assistance, he leads a dedicated team of resettlement case managers, serving as the primary point of contact for refugees arriving in Rhode Island. On May 11 Justin will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Rhode Island College, Bibee is also a Global Fellow (’24) at the Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Studies at Brown University, where he actively engages in collaborative interdisciplinary research addressing the root causes of human rights abuses and seeking viable solutions to the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges. His commitment and achievements in the field of refugee resettlement earned him a Providence Business News 40 Under Forty Award in 2022. He collaborated with . . .

Author - Marian Haley Beil