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Peace Corps letters – fiction
Dear Michelle, : Letters from an Old Friend in a New Life
Samuel Gerard [pseudonym of Samuel Gerard Luebbers] (Ukraine 2018-20)
Peace Corps Writers
July 2022
247 pages
$12.99 (paperback), $4.99 (Kindle)
Having had the chance to reflect on my own Peace Corps experiences, and knowing how fickle memory can be, I felt the necessity to write my memories of that time down. What became of this project was a meandering epistolary, one which I both mentally dedicated and fictionally addressed to an old friend, Michelle. We met a lifetime ago on the roof of my freshmen dorm. We shared a long conversation then, and several others afterwards. We always imagined, to ourselves, that we would be together later. I promised her that when I was ready to commit to someone, it would be her.
Life has a way of getting in the way, though. I learned this alongside college’s so many other lessons. In ultimate testament to life’s effect on well-laid plans, soon after we began dating, I received my invitation to serve with the Peace Corps in Ukraine. Knowing me, Michelle encouraged me to accept, and knowing her, I knew it would be the last goodbye to a four-year dance which could not continue.
Yet, in my youth, I had promised her our relationship would last, that through phone calls, and more importantly, letters, we could give it the lifeblood it needed to survive. We would nurture it with words, written despite the distance.
Dear Michelle, has the letters I wish I’d sent.
The Razor’s Edge: Embezzlement, Corruption and Development in Ethiopia
Robert Gurevich (Thailand 1963–1965)
Peace Corps Writers
June 2022
$18.98 (paperback), $6.98 (Kindle)
What’s it like being the only expatriate manager of a multi-million dollar development project in a foreign country with a staff of over 200, and to have to start off dealing with a major embezzlement on a previous project that occurred prior to your arrival?
The Gecko in the Bathtub: Encounters with Marvelous Creatures
by Janina Marie Fuller (Philippines 1978-80) with illustrations by Maggie Demorest
Peace Corps Writers
June 2022
178 pages
$17.50 (paperback)
In encounters with an array of creatures, from both domesticated and wild animals inhabiting my Louisiana backyard to denizens of the Amazon I present these stories to illuminate our inseparability from the life around us by capturing peak moments in the natural world. These experiences are chronicled in the context of my day-to-day life and relationships, from childhood to retirement, highlighting a few unique glimpses of animal lives as they have intersected with mine.
Building Community: Answering Kennedy’s Call
Harlan Russell Green (Turkey 1964–66)
Peace Corps Writers
May 2022
143 pages
$9.99 (paperback), $8.95 (Kindle)
Building Community Answering Kennedy’s Call, Harlan Green’s memoir of his years working to build successful communities at home and abroad, shows what is possible when communities come together to improve their lives.
He describes his work as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a rural community development program in a Turkish village, teaching vocational skills and convincing the villagers to develop new agricultural methods.
Green also worked as a photographer and filmmaker for the USEPA in its earliest days lobbying communities to implement the Clean Air and Water Acts that were enacted to mitigate the growing air and water pollution.
He joined Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers of America during its mid-1970s struggle organizing seasonal farm workers to better their living conditions; documenting the grape and lettuce boycotts, and Cesar’s charismatic leadership using non-violent methods to fight violent opposition by growers and the Teamsters Union.
He then brings what he has learned home when he finds his own community, where he leads a neighborhood planning effort that results in the formation of a livable city safe for children as well as adults.
A Five Finger Feast: Two Years in Kazakhstan, Lessons from the Peace Corps
by Tim Suchsland (Kazakhstan 2007–09), author and illustrator
Peace Corps Writers
May 2022
395 pages
$19.99 (paperback)
Shrouded in secrecy and once closed off from the outside world by the Soviet Union, most Americans know very little about Kazakhstan. A Five Finger Feast tells the story of this beautiful place, its vast lands, blue skies, cold winters and hospitable people. Journey with author Tim Suchsland to places less traveled, like the vanishing Aral Sea and the mountain paradise of the Altyn Arashan. Be a guest at a mad tea party, infused with vodka and the sheep-head delicacy called beshbarmak.
From 2007 to 2009, Suchsland served in Kazakhstan in the US Peace Corps–an institution at the heart and soul of what it means to be American. Through his story, Suchsland details the adventure of living abroad as a young American with its ups and downs, excitement and thrill. In A Five Finger Feast, he tells the story about growing up in a place far away from home.
Angels of Bastogne: A Remembrance of World War II
Glenn H. Ivers (Liberia 1974-1976)
Peace Corps Writers
February 2022
315 pages
$19.95 (paperback)
Angels of Bastogne is a remembrance of World War II that is based on the true story of a U.S. Army doctor, Jack Prior, and two heroic Belgian nurses, Renee Lemaire and Augusta Chiwy, who volunteered in his aid station that was bombed on Christmas Eve, 1944.
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