Peace Corps writers

  MIXING IT UP ON THE ASIAN TRAIL …”So I get up at dawn … marveling at fog burning off into mist tumbling down like the finest mosquito netting of silk … The hills beyond the confluence, like shoulders of a woman undressing, the way the shroud of mist lifts off feminine curves, higher and higher … I tingle all over, feeling there on Borneo the dream tug of Joseph Conrad’s fiction.” By turns pathbreaking and intimate, this smorgasbord of travel essays scales down the sprawl of Asia by focusing on the unique and revelatory in sharp, crisp prose. See up close and personal the razzmatazz of novice monks at play in northern Laos, the hustle of pedicab drivers in Ho Chi Minh City, the rainforests blazed on gutsy treks across Borneo and Thailand’s Elephant Island …Served up nice and spicy, Asian Trail Mix is travel at its most sumptuous. . . .

  Based on having worked in numerous developing countries, initially as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala, then in Asia, Africa and the Americas, and my studies at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, the following is the program I have developed, and discuss fully in How to Improve the World Quickly to improve the health, nutrition and water quality of any community in the world. • Require upfront community buy-in for collaboration; • Meet and consult the local authorities;  • Convene a community meeting and plan with the community, using the Future Search Conference Methodology (futuresearch.net/methodology), condensed into two days; • Initiate baseline survey of water, diarrhea, malaria, and income;  • Invite bids for state of the art work from local contractors; • Sign and supervise contracts; • Install at least one well and rainwater collection facility;  • Refurbish or build latrines.  • Ensure malaria prevention (LLITNs—long lasting insecticide treated . . .

  In the World Premiere of her solo show I Heart Maroc Azo Safo introduces us to the lives of rural Moroccans who she worked with as a twenty-four-year-old Peace Corps volunteer during the height of the Bush Administration’s war on Iraq. On the quest to find her life’s purpose with the wide-eyed, innocent hope of changing the world, she is thrust into a culture she has to figure out using her Armenian-American immigrant sensibilities. Beginning with learning the Berber language that she is told she is too kesoula to learn, she must navigate anti-American sentiment and win over ALL the villagers while nurturing a budding romance with her Moroccan true love, Mohammed. Will she get through her two-year service in one piece, or will she obey her Armenian immigrant mother’s wishes and move back to Glendale to marry an Armenian dentist? Azo Safo (Azadui Safo Morocco 2006-08) is an Armenian-American actor, writer, . . .

  Imagine yourself at 22, barely a year out of college, and the United States government determines that you are qualified to not only teach — (yes, we have all been there, but also to live on your own in a remote Mayan village in southern Belize: no running water, no electricity, no mode of transportation other than your own two feet. It could be a complete disaster . . . or a recipe for a delightful novel retelling the hilarity! “Cuahi li hix” (qua hee lee heesh) is a common farewell salutation offered by the Mayans to bring forth luck to the traveler. Literally translated, it means “Beware the tiger!” This may seem odd since there are no tigers in Central America, but volunteers soon learned that “tiger” comes in many forms: snakes, bats, scorpions, voracious insects, monkeys, turkeys, rabid dogs, illnesses, and, yes, sometimes even jaguars. Cuahi li Hix describes . . .

  An Episcopal priest for more than 50 years and the Planned Giving Officer at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, Baltimore, Maryland, the Rev. Charles Cloughen Jr. ’64 [Micronesia 1966–68] lends his insights on giving to his new book, One Minute Stewardship, Creative Ways to Talk about Money in Church. With both practical wisdom and theological insight into how churches can increase their financial resources, Cloughen has collected meditations from faith leaders around the country to create a year-round resource for rectors, pastors, ministers, worship leaders and anyone concerned about their churches’ stewardship. At the heart of the Reverend’s theology of stewardship, he says, are six key words: thank you, thank you, thank you. “It’s all about personal relationships,” Cloughen says. “Generosity and gratitude grows. People who are generous become more generous.” Inspired by the story of the widow’s mite from the Gospel of Mark, Cloughen’s theology of stewardship also includes the . . .

  Interviewed by Rolf Potts, International Known Travel Writer   Andy Trincia (Romania 2002-04) is an American freelance writer and editor based in Romania. Having visited nearly 60 countries, he writes mainly about travel, with special focus on Eastern Europe. He recently edited three European history books, and a travel guide focused on Jewish history in Romania. Before embarking on a lengthy career in corporate communications and public affairs, he was a newspaper reporter in North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, and Kansas. He also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer, doing economic development in Timisoara, Romania. More than a decade later he moved back to Romania — he and his family now divide their time between Timisoara (2021 European Capital of Culture) and the Transylvania countryside. How did you get started traveling? I grew up moving around – mostly in suburban Philadelphia but with stints in Houston, Tampa and Charlotte – . . .

  KENNESAW, Ga. (Jul 16, 2021) — Kennesaw State University’s Thomas Nisley (Dominican Republic 1989-91)) has delved deeply into the Peace Corps, first as a volunteer worker helping communities in need and then as an academic researcher. His study indicates that the international assistance program is a significant and cost-effective component of the United States’ foreign affairs. That finding is particularly significant, Nisley contends, since last year the Peace Corps withdrew all its volunteers worldwide from their host sites — nearly 7,000 people serving in 60 countries — due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While Congress has authorized federal funding throughout the Peace Corps’ six-decade history, Nisley is concerned that the ongoing volunteer hiatus potentially could threaten further financial support for the Peace Corps and hinder its long-term future. “We have lost a year of what I often refer to as field-deployed public diplomacy,” said Nisley, a political science professor in KSU’s School of . . .

  Engaging, effective training programs are a mixture of science and art, requiring the right balance of adult learning theory, available technology, intuitive tools, proven practices, creativity, and risk. How does a trainer find the right combination and proportion of these elements? How does a trainer know what’s possible? To answer these questions, Brian Washburn (Paraguay 1998-2000) offers a simple yet elegant periodic table of learning elements modeled on the original periodic table of chemical properties in What’s Your Formula? Combine Learning Elements for Impactful Training . Washburn’s elements — which are organized into solids, liquids, gases, radioactive, and interactive categories similar to their chemical cousins — are metaphors for the tools and strategies of the field of learning design; when they’re combined, and under certain conditions, they have the potential to create amazing learning experiences for participants. They are that impactful. From critical gas-like elements like the air we breathe, . . .

from WFAE 90.7 — Charlotte’s NPR News Source Rob Schmitz (China 1996-98) is NPR’s international correspondent based in Berlin, where he covers the human stories of a vast region reckoning with its past while it tries to guide the world toward a brighter future. From his base in the heart of Europe, Schmitz has covered Germany’s levelheaded management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of right-wing nationalist politics in Poland and creeping Chinese government influence inside the Czech Republic. Prior to covering Europe, Schmitz provided award-winning coverage of China for a decade, reporting on the country’s economic rise and increasing global influence. His reporting on China’s impact beyond its borders took him to countries such as Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. Inside China, he’s interviewed elderly revolutionaries, young rappers, and live-streaming celebrity farmers who make up the diverse tapestry of one of the most fascinating countries on the planet. . . .

    By KELSEY HAMMON | Longmont Times-Call June 20, 2021 at 5:45 a.m. • Joshua Berman’s (Nicaragua 1998-2000) career as a writer has been anything but a 9-to-5 desk job. He’s tasted boa constrictor, climbed narrow mountain highways, sat in the back of a truck as he sped by volcanoes in Nicaragua, and blistered his feet on the Colorado Trail. Before he zoned in on writing about Colorado, he used his career to explore the globe and feed his passion for writing and exploring. His excursions today include passing that sense of adventure down to his three daughters, while teaching them how to respect and revel in the nature around them. Berman is an author of six travel books, a Denver Post columnist, an all-around expert adventurer, Longmont resident, and a “tranquilo (calm) traveler.” He uses this term to call on explorers like himself to remain open-minded and inquisitive, as . . .

  It is now difficult to imagine Afghanistan any otherwise than at war. In the early 1970s, however, when Robin Varnum  was serving there as a Peace Corps volunteer (1971–73), the country was enjoying an interlude of peace. Varnum was teaching English in a girls’ school, and since some girls were able to go to school in Afghanistan in those days, she hoped to help her students gain access to the kinds of opportunities that were available to other girls in other parts of the world. She admired the bravery of her students, and she took inspiration from the work of Dr. Khadija Akbar, the Afghan woman doctor who was running her community’s family planning clinic. Afghanistan at a Time of Peace is a memoir of Varnum’s Peace Corps experience. She was stationed in Ghazni, a small city some 85 miles southwest of Kabul, and she served there alongside Mark, . . .

  Speaking Truth to Both the Right and the Left by Emily Bazelon June 14, 2021 The Times Magazine • LAST BEST HOPE: America in Crisis and Renewal by George Packer THE CONSTITUTION OF KNOWLEDGE: A Defense of Truth by Jonathan Rauch Like many public intellectuals who are worth reading, George Packer and Jonathan Rauch don’t toe a predictable line in American political and intellectual debate. They despise Donald Trump and the disinformation-heavy discord he has spawned. But they don’t share all the views of progressives, either, as they’ve come to be defined in many left-leaning spaces. Packer and Rauch are here to defend the liberalism of the Enlightenment — equality and scientific rationality in an unapologetically Western-tradition sense. They see this belief system as the country’s great and unifying strength, and they’re worried about its future. Packer’s slim book, “Last Best Hope,” begins with patriotic despair. “The world’s pity has taken the place of admiration, hostility, awe, . . .