Author - Marian Haley Beil

My Turn Reflections of a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone by Betsy Small Campbell (Sierra Leone 1984–87) For the Concord, New Hampshire, Monitor Friday, October 3, 2014 (Published in print: Friday, October 3, 2014) (This is Part One in a two-part series. Look for the conclusion in tomorrow’s Forum.) . NO ONE WHO LIVED through the well-documented “blood diamond war” in Sierra Leone has forgotten the terrifying sound of an approaching automatic weapon. Still today, the loud noises of thunder, fireworks, a honking horn can cause panic. Millions of people in this mountainous West African country have fought to put the nightmare of 11 years of bloody civil chaos behind them. The conflict has been over for more than a decade, but the harrowing scars of war are everywhere. There are thousands of amputees, and the elders who should have been around to guide the next generation are . . .

The October “Peace Corps Update” email announced the winners of the Peace Corps’ second-annual “Blog It Home” competition. Blogs by more than 350 PCVs were submitted, and the winners were chosen via Facebook voting. In September the 9 winning “Top Bloggers,” authors of 8 blogs were invited to Washington and participated in a Third Goal spree during which they spoke at the White House, in schools for under-served students, to Girl Scouts and on the Voice of America. Visit the each of the winning blogs and read about how these PCVs are living the life! From Albania, Jill Conway’s “Holy Shqip Xhilli is in Albania” From Cameroon,  Anna Nathanson’s  “Anna Does Pangea“ From China, Keith and Heather May’s  Sponge and Slate From the Dominican Republic, Bronwen Raff’s  “Bea, Vea, Bella: Mensajes from a PCV in the Dominican Republic” From Guinea, Sara Laskowksi’s  “Sara in Peace Corps Guinea: 27 Months of Service . . .

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 that will help support our annual writers awards. • Searching for Normal in the Wake of the Liberian War (A volume in the Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights series) by Sharon Alane Abramowitz (Cote d’Ivoire 2000–2002) University of Pennsylvania Press July 2014 280 pages $65.00 (hardback) • I Know How to Hola For children starting language-immersion school. (English and Spanish Edition) by Susanne Aspley (Thailand 1989–91), illustrated by Lucas Richards Self-published 2012 $14.99 (hardcover) • I Know How to Nî Hâo For children starting language-immersion school. (English and Chinese Edition) by Susanne Aspley (Thailand 1989–91), illustrated by Lucas Richards Self-published 2013 36 pages $14.99 (hardcover) • Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small . . .

Breathe: A Memoir of Motherhood, Grief and Family Conflict by Kelly Kittel (Jamaica 1985–87) She Writes Press May 2014 369 pages $18.95 (paperback), $7.69 (Kindle) Reviewed by Jan Worth-Nelson (Tonga 1976–78) Shortly before I received Kelly Kittel’s wrenching memoir in the mail, I read a piece in The New Yorker about the poet Edward Hirsch, whose book length elegy to his son, dead at 24 of an overdose, has just been published. Hirsch says he didn’t want to write that book. He was mired in mourning and obsessed with the circumstances of his son’s life and death. But ultimately, the writing won out. ” . . . You become resigned,” he says. “Your job is to write about the life you actually have.” In a prologue to her book, Kittel offers a similar insight. She describes her childhood love affair with books and her lifelong hope of becoming a writer. What she . . .

In July, the University of Pennsylvania Press  published Searching for Normal in the Wake of the Liberian War by Sharon Alane Abramowitz (Cote d’Ivoire, 2000-2002), who teaches anthropology and African studies at the University of Florida. Searching for Normal . . . “explores the human experience of the massive apparatus of trauma-healing and psychosocial interventions during the first five years of postwar reconstruction. Sharon Alane Abramowitz draws on extensive fieldwork among the government officials, humanitarian leaders, and an often-overlooked population of Liberian NGO employees to examine the structure and impact of the mental health care interventions, in particular the ways they were promised to work with peacekeeping and reconstruction, and how the reach and effectiveness of these promises can be measured. From this courageous ethnography emerges a geography of trauma and the ways it shapes the lives of those who give and receive care in postwar Liberia.” For more about the . . .

David Mather (Chile 1968–70) has published his second novel with Peace Corps Writers. One for the Road, David’s first novel, published in 2011, tells the story of Tom Young, a Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Chile, and how that experience changed his life. Now in 2014, David has published a sequel, When the Whistling Stopped, that finds Tom going back to Chile 30 years after his service to resolve past heartaches. Once there he finds himself in the middle of tackling big-company pollution and the endangering of species. I talked with David about his Peace Corps experience and both of his books. — Marian • David, tell us about you educational background. I attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in History, and a minor in English Lit.. . What was your Peace Corps Assignment? I was a “B.A. generalist” doing . . .

The Mystery of Money: Understanding the Modern Financial World by Harlan Green (Turkey 1964–66) Publishing by the Seas 126 pages May 2014 $12.95 (paperback), $8.95 (Kindle) Reviewed by Leo Cecchini (Ethiopia 1962–64) This book is not about “mystery,” but about how to invest your money. The author says in the second sentence it is about “. . . how to make money work for us. . .” As such it is a very useful and reasonably priced guide to investing. The other objective of the book is to warn how financial markets are “. . . so opaque to the uninformed eye . . . that it is easy for insiders to manipulate and mislead investors.” While also useful, the author is a little too given to casting this part as a matter of “them,” the unscrupulous financiers, versus “us,” the gullible investing public. The book starts with the “sub-prime” fiasco that caused the “Great Recession.” This is . . .

Young Widower: A Memoir by John W. Evans (Bangladesh 1999–2001) Winner of the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize University of Nebraska Press March, 2014 185 Pages $19.95 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) John Evans has written an unusual and superb memoir of mourning in the aftermath of a devastating death. Five years into his marriage, his wife Katie, whom he met in the Peace Corps, is mauled and killed by a brown bear in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. They have been living in Bucharest on Katie’s fellowship when they decide to go for a trek with Sara, a friend. They are athletic, experienced hikers, too young to worry about personal destiny, never expecting the possibility of disaster, thinking themselves “invulnerable to trauma and tragedy,” when with a few misjudgments and unforeseen happenstance, the impossible occurs. They had planned to stay overnight on the mountain in . . .

Clifford Garstang (Korea 1976–77), author of the collection of short stories In An Uncharted Country — winner of the 2010 Peace Corps Writers Maria Thomas Fiction Award, and “a novel in stories,” What the Zhang Boys Know — winner of the 2013 Library of Virginia Award for Fiction, is the editor of a newly published book of travel stories, Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet [Press 53]. . Everywhere Stories includes three stories by RPCVs: “A Husband and Wife Are One Satan” set in Kazakhstan was written by Jeff Fearnside (Kazakhstan 2002–04), author of Lake: And Other Poems of Love in a Foreign Land that won the 2012 Peace Corps writers Award for Best Poetry Book; “International Women’s Day” by Jennifer Lucy Martin (Chad 1996-98); and “Eggs” set in set in Central African Republic is by Susi Wyss (Central African Republic 1990–92) who won the 2012 Peace Corps . . .

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 that will help support our annual writers awards. • A Hitch at the Fairmont (Mystery for children 8–12) by Jim Averbeck (Cameroon 1990–94), illustrated by Nick Bertozzi Atheneum Books for Young Readers June 2014 416 pages $16.99 (hardcover), $9.78 (Kindle) • Dancing with Gogos: A Peace Corps Memoir (Memoir) by Gary P. Cornelius (South Africa 2012–13) A Peace Corps Writers Book July 2014 282 pages $13.00 (paperback) • Crashing Through the Underbrush by Gary P. Cornelius (South Africa 2012–13) Lulu 2011 280 pages $15.00 (paperback) • The Harder Right: Stories of Conscience and Choice (Ethics) by Arthur B. Dobrin (Kenya 1965–67) Argo Navis 2013 204 pages $19.95 (paperback), $7.69 (Kindle) • The Consolations . . .

Peace Corps Worldwide interviewed  Gary Cornelius about his Peace Corps service and his new book, Dancing with Gogos: A Peace Corps Memoir [Peace Corps Writers, 2014]. • Gary, where and when did you serve in the Peace Corps? In South Africa, from January 2012 to April 2013. I was “med-sepped” after about 14 months because I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disorder. The symptoms were relatively minor, and still are, so I’ve not started medication. My only treatment thus far is participation in a monthly support group for “early onset” Parkinson’s people. . What was your Peace Corp project assignment? I was a health Volunteer and trained as part of a group of 36 — 30 women and 6 men. The official title was HIV Outreach Worker and we were all part of the Peace Corps South Africa Community HIV/AIDS Outreach Project, or CHOP. There were about 100 health Volunteers in . . .

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts, among them: Carlos Torres, Nominee for Deputy Director, Peace Corps Carlos Torres is the Associate Director for Global Operations at the Peace Corps, a position he has held since 2013. He previously served as Regional Director for Inter-America and Pacific Region at the Peace Corps from 2010 to 2013. He was an independent consultant on international projects from 2000 to 2010. Mr. Torres founded CARANA Corporation in 1984 and served as its President and CEO until 2000. He was a private contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Costa Rica from 1983 to 1984, and from 1976 to 1983 he worked in the Financial Industries Section of Arthur D. Little, Inc. Mr. Torres received a B.S. from Babson College and an M.S.M. from the Arthur D. Little Management Education . . .

After graduating from Bowdoin College in Maine, David Mather served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in southern Chile from 1968 to 1970. Profoundly influenced by his two years living and working in the campo [countryside], he bought a small piece of land in the woods of New Hampshire where he carved out a simple homestead and has lived a mile off grid for over forty years. He ultimately began and ran a successful specialty lumber company, but being self-employed, he was able to continue to travel a great deal, primarily to Third World Countries. Ten years ago, he began to downsize his business and, with more free time, wrote One For The Road which was published through Peace Corps Writers in 2011 (OnefortheRoad-Mather.com). About a PCV in Chile who falls in love with both the campo and a campesina, it is a mix of fact and fiction, and has been . . .

On October 7, Christopher R. Hill (Cameroon 1974–76) will publish Outpost: Life on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy (Simon & Schuster), a memoir of his years with the State Department. To quote the S&S website: Hill was on the front lines in the Balkans at the breakup of Yugoslavia. He takes us from one-on-one meetings with the dictator Milosevic, to Bosnia and Kosovo, to the Dayton conference, where a truce was brokered. Hill draws upon lessons learned as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon early on in his career and details his prodigious experience as a US ambassador. He was the first American Ambassador to Macedonia; Ambassador to Poland, where he also served in the depth of the cold war; Ambassador to South Korea and chief disarmament negotiator in North Korea; and Hillary Clinton’s hand-picked Ambassador to Iraq. The book can be preorder now at Amazon.com. Outpost: Life on the . . .

Dancing with Gogos is the story of one man’s effort to make a difference in a collection of Zulu villages in rural South Africa, while fulfilling a life-long dream of serving in the United States Peace Corps. It’s the story of learning a new language, of immersing oneself in a different culture, of leaving a love 15,000 kilometers behind and discovering the unexpected chance to find a new one half a world away. It’s the story of South Africa’s history of apartheid and the effects of that sorry legacy on tens of millions of black Africans who to this day struggle to leave behind 500 years of oppression. • Gary Cornelius was nearly 55 when he realized that he was weeks away from being the age at which Oregon public employees could retire early and get a modest pension, so the month he turned 55 he retired  — after a . . .