Marian Haley Beil – Page 20 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Review — A FEW MINOR ADJUSTMENTS by Cherie Kephart (Zambia)

Feb 18 2019

A Few Minor Adjustments: A Memoir of Healing by Cherie Kephart (Zambia 1994) Bazi Publishers September 2017 254 pages $15.95 (paperback), $24.95 (hard cover), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974–76; Costa Rica 1976–77) • Cherie Kephart is the ultimate survivor. She lived through a brutal rape followed by a serious car accident while in college. Then survived both a nasty case of explosive diarrhea and possible malaria while a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia. Ten years after her Peace Corps experience she faced a myriad of severe symptoms which defied diagnosis. Through it all she keeps struggling gamely to find a treatment that will allow her to lead some semblance of a normal life and be a useful person in the world. The title, “A Few Minor Adjustments,” is ironic, borrowed from a Peace Corps pamphlet discussing the life style changes a Volunteer faces in their . . .

“The Other Kristen” by Kristen Roupenian (Kenya)

Feb 18 2019

Thanks for a ‘heads up’ from Bea Hogan (Uzbekistan 1992-94) The Other Kristen Kristen Roupenian joined the Peace Corps to serve her fellow man, but she found herself trying to best the ultimate woman instead. • When I arrived in Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) in 2003, I was the youngest in my group. Life in an unfamiliar culture can be infantilizing: You’re dependent on others to teach you basic skills (this is how you dress, wash, use the toilet), your new language reduces you to baby talk (“Please where bus please?”), and you end the day exhausted by the glut of information your puny brain has taken in. Still, at 21, I was adept at dependence and incompetence, and in this case my expertise served me well. I was assigned to a site in rural western Kenya that was affiliated with an orphans center named . . .

Review – SECRETS OF THE MOON by Tema Encarnacion (Dominican Republic)

Feb 12 2019

Secrets of the Moon: A Novel by Tema Encarnacion (Dominican Republic 2000–01) CreateSpace September 2018 186 pages $9.99 (paperback), $2.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Mark D. Walker (Guatemala 1971–73) • Author Tema Encarnacion couldn’t have chosen a timelier theme for her debut novel, than the circumstances that force families to flee violence from Central America and embark on a perilous journey across the border into the U.S., as the immigration crisis continues unresolved. Alternating narratives from the daughter, Luz, and her mother, Esperanza, help the reader appreciate how the experience will traumatize everyone in the family from Luz’s grandmother, who has been bringing Luz up in El Salvador alone for six years, to Luz’s crossing the border where she’s raped and mistreated upon her eventual arrival in Maryland. The rape scene of a 12-year-old while crossing the desert was especially heart wrenching, but well written, and the symbolism of the . . .

Review — THE HERETIC OF GRANADA by David C. Edmonds (Chile)

Feb 07 2019

The Heretic of Granada David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963–65) Southern Yellow Pine April 2018 358 pages $18.95 (paperback), $4.95 (Kindle) Review by D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974–76; Costa Rica 1976–77) • The Heretic of Granada is a surprisingly quick read for 63 chapters and 345 pages. The chapters are short and there is plenty of action to hold your interest. Father Antonio, an excommunicated Spanish priest, is an unlikely action hero. But when friends help him narrowly escape being burned at the stake, he is determined not just to survive, but to bring down the corrupt administration that destroyed his family. This is an adventure on a par with Treasure Island, but with adult situations and content I would not generally recommend for young readers. The book is a historical novel set in colonial Nicaragua and the Caribbean. It is so fast-paced and entertaining that I had to . . .

Review — DRAGONFLY NOTES by Ann Panning (Philippines)

Feb 03 2019

Dragonfly Notes: On Distance and Loss by Anne Panning (Philippines 1988–90) Stillhouse Press September 18, 2018 258 pages $16.00 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Kay Gillies Dixon (Colombia 1962–64) • Anne Panning’s memoir successfully brings together eloquent essays mourning the loss of a loving parent while remembering childhood experiences within her family and currently parenting her own two young children. Immediately following her mother’s funeral, the grieving Panning searches for communications from her mother. The first communications she attributes coming from her mother are not of dragonflies, but of a book Better Home and Gardens Sewing Book: Custom Sewing Made Easy. Sewing was embedded in her mother’s DNA. Another sign was of a laminated prayer card she found on the floor of Target: As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you. Isaiah-66. With these signs, she believes her mother is reaching out to her. Then, early in . . .

New York Times: “Harris Wofford, Ex-Senator Who Pushed Volunteerism, Dies at 93”

Jan 23 2019

By Robert D. McFadden Harris Wofford with President Bill Clinton during the first national recruitment effort for AmeriCorps volunteers at the University of Maryland in 1999. Mr. Clinton named him to lead the service organization after Mr. Wofford left the Senate. Harris Wofford, a former United States senator from Pennsylvania whose passion for getting people involved helped create John F. Kennedy’s Peace Corps, Bill Clinton’s AmeriCorps and other service organizations and made him America’s volunteer-in-chief, died on Monday night in Washington. He was 92. His son Daniel said his death, at a hospital, was caused by complications of a fall at Mr. Wofford’s Washington apartment, The Associated Press reported. By the time he became a senator in May 1991, appointed after his predecessor was killed in an aircraft accident, Mr. Wofford was already 65. He had been a lawyer, an author, a professor, the president of two colleges, . . .

Review — LIVING LIBERIA by Robert Cherry (Liberia)

Dec 30 2018

Living Liberia: Laughter, Love & Folly by Robert Cherry (Liberia1965–67) Living Liberia August 2017 $15.00 (paperback), $9.50 (Kindle) Reviewed by D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974-76 and Costa Rica 1976-77). • Liberia is a fascinating little country. Founded by former slaves from the U.S., it is the oldest republic in Africa. This and much more I learned from reading Living Liberia by Robert Cherry. The primary narrative of this book tells the story of the author’s return visit to Liberia and his former Peace Corps site in 1982, 14 years after his service there from 1966-68. But it is also a memoir of his Peace Corps years serving as a teacher in an elementary school in the small, rural village of Kpaytuo. The author, a former journalist as well as a teacher, gives us a good deal of background about Liberian history along the way. Thus the book is a great resource . . .

Catherine Onyemelukwe (Nigeria) publishes BREAKING KOLA

Dec 05 2018

When Catherine Onyemelukwe arrived in Nigeria in 1962 as an idealistic Peace Corps Volunteer, she had no idea of the country’s wealth of customs and traditions she would come to love. With her marriage to a Nigerian electrical engineer and senior manager in the country’s power industry, she became part of his family, clan, and village. She learned to speak the Igbo language and not only adapted to, but adopted, some of the customs of his people. In this intimate portrayal of family members, she reveals the secrets of the ties that bind her to her husband’s community. Through the striking accounts of his parents in their youth, and with nods to customs from other tribes and countries, she paints an unforgettable picture of African life in times past. Catherine evokes the atmosphere of the village market, the religious rituals, and the ceremonies that accompany life’s major events. The . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers — September 2018

Oct 06 2018

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 are now including a one-sentence description — provided by the author — for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers 1) to order the book and 2) to volunteer to review it. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at peacecorpsworldwide@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. Notes from the Bottom of the World: A Life in Chile Suzanne Adam (Colombia 1964–66) She Writes Press November, 2018 240 pages $16.95 (paperback), $9.95 (Kindle) [This book can be pre-ordered in either format.] In this heartfelt collection of . . .

Review — REMIND ME AGAIN WHAT HAPPENED by Joanna Luloff (Sri Lanka)

Sep 12 2018

Remind Me Again What Happened by Joanna Luloff (Sri Lanka 1996–98) Algonquin Books June 26, 2018 288 pages $26.9 (paperback), $11.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Susi Wyss (Central African Republic 1990-92) • Most readers of Joanna Luloff’s latest work, Remind Me Again What Happened, won’t realize that she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sri Lanka in the 1990s. There is no mention of this fact in her bio on the book’s jacket, and the novel takes place almost entirely in Vermont and Boston. But if the reader happens to be a fellow RPVC, they are likely to recognize the wanderlust, the irresistible urge to travel to far flung places, that afflicts one of the main characters, Claire. Claire has had plenty of overseas adventures already. As a journalist, she’s been traveling around the world to investigate and write in-depth pieces about climate change and environmental conflicts among the people . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers — August 2018

Sep 03 2018

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 are now including a one-sentence description — provided by the author — for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers 1) to order the book and 2) to volunteer to review it. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at peacecorpsworldwide@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. • Then Again Ben Berman (Zimbabwe 1998-2000) (Short prose pieces) Vine Leaves Press August 2018 58 pages $9.99 pre-order (paperback) The interrelated short prose pieces in Ben Berman’s Then Again explore a life outside of chronological order, bounce back and forth between foreign adventures . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers — July 2018

Aug 05 2018

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 are now including a one-sentence description — provided by the author — for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers 1) to order the book and 2) to volunteer to review it. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at peacecorpsworldwide@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. • The Last Thing I Told You by Emily Arsenault (South Africa 2004-06) William Morrow Publisher 416 pages July 2018 $14.75 (paperback); $10.9 (Kindle); $14.95 (Audible) This psychological thriller about the murder of a psychologist in a quiet New England town and . . .

Richard Sayette (Russian Far East) publishes THE VODKA DIARIES

Jun 27 2018

• The Vodka Diaries is my account of living and working in the Russian Far East as a Peace Corps Volunteer during the tumultuous, post Glasnost years of 1994 and 1995. It was a period in which people watched in shock as the economy collapsed under the weight of hyperinflation, and lawlessness eroded any sense of personal security. I had joined the Peace Corps for two reasons. The first was that I wanted to make a difference in the world and the second was that I wanted one last adventure prior to entering a career in corporate America. My inspiration stemmed from an NPR segment in which a recently returned Peace Corps Volunteer discussed serving in Moscow as a Business Volunteer. She had been assigned to a team that created and managed the Moscow Stock Exchange. She exuberantly explained how she was able to contribute and make an immediate impact . . .

2019 Peace Corps International Calendar is now available

Jun 13 2018

Thanks for heads-up from Dean Jefferson. • The RPCVs of Wisconsin-Madison announce that the 2019 Peace Corps International Calendar is now available. The official calendar unveiling took place Saturday, June 2nd. The following current or past Peace Corps countries are featured in the 2019 calendar: Mali, Indonesia, Ghana, Senegal, Philippines, Nicaragua, Colombia, Nepal, Haiti, Mongolia, Argentina, and Turkey. The 2019 cover photo was taken at the renowned Pushkar Mela livestock fair in Rajasthan, India. In addition to the beautiful photos for each month, plus the cover, each month features a brief story related to the photo and featured country (flash non-fiction?). You can find out more about the calendar and order one for yourself. at: www.rpcvcalendar.org/calendar-2019-rpcv-groups •

Review — RAW DAWGIN’ by David Mather (Chile)

Apr 25 2018

Another* page-turner by David Mather! • Raw Dawgin’ by David J. Mather (Chile 1968–70) Peace Corps Writers March 2018 380 pages $14.95 (paperback) Reviewed by Carl M. Gallegos Raw Dawgin by David Mather is a fascinating tale about the interactions — sometimes volatile and other times heartwarming — between commercial fishermen and recreational boaters and sports fishermen seeking to enjoy the pleasures of modern day Florida. Add drug cartel mafiosos and retired law enforcement undercover agents to the mix, and you have an exciting and thoroughly entertaining story. Mather has skillfully woven in many players — long time blue collar residents and fun-seeking recent arrivals — who one can find in present-day Florida. The reader can almost smell the salt air and sense the many “critters” found in the “piney woods” and cypress swamps of Florida’s Gulf Coast. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun read! . . .

Author - Marian Haley Beil