Peace Corps writers

Meredith W. Cornett (Panama 1991-93) is the author of Heart of Palms: My Peace Corps Years in Tranquilla soon to be published by the University of Alabama Press, and editor of Peace Corps in Panama: Fifty Years, Many Voices published by Peace Corps Writers (2013). • Meredith, how did you find your way into the Peace Corps. Well, I was born and raised in Atlanta, and I went to Oberlin College in Ohio and majored in   biology. This is where I had my Peace Corps interview. After my tour with the Peace Corps, I attended the University of Minnesota for a MS and PhD in Forestry. . Were you involved with forestry as a PCV? Yes, I was a community forester in Panama from 1991 to 1993. It was a beautiful location in Chagres National Park in the tiny village of Tranquilla on the shores of Lake Alajuela. . What got . . .

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com, click on the book cover or the bold book title — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance that will help support our annual writers awards. • • 44 Days Backpacking in China: The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass by Jeff J. Brown (Tunisia 1980–82) 44 Days Publication $15.99 (paperback) 392 pages August 2013 • India Basin Triangle: A San Francisco Noir Thriller by Craig Carrozzi (Colombia 1978–1980) CreateSpace $14.99 (paperback), $7.99 (Kindle) 200 pages October 2013 • The Glory of the Kings (Novel) by Dan Close (Ethiopia 1966–68) The Tamarac Press $19.95 393 pages November 2013 • Somehow: Living on Uganda Time (Essays and photographs) by Douglas Cruickshank (Uganda 2009–12) Verflectin Media $60.00 420 pages 2013 • Pieces of You . . .

Vatican Waltz Roland Merullo (Micronesia 1979–80) Crown Publishing Group $23.00 (hardcover), $9.59 (Kindle), $29.95 (audio CD) 293 pages 2013 Reviewed by Patricia Taylor Edmisten (Peru 1962-64) • Cynthia Clare Pantedosi, the innocent, young protagonist of Roland Merullo’s novel, Vatican Waltz, enjoys a rich prayer life. Raised a Catholic in Boston, Cynthia senses that God may be communicating with her through visions, but she’s aware that they might simply be foolish day dreams. She’s a serious, humble woman who studies nursing and cooks for her father whose English still reflects his deep, Italian roots. She discusses her visions with Father Alberto, a liberal Catholic priest who comes to accept that Cynthia is not disturbed, and that God may be calling her to the priesthood. It is Father Alberto who gives Cynthia the nudge she needs to meet with the bishop who, after interviewing Cynthia, reluctantly points her toward Rome. The novel . . .

Here is a conversation I recently had with Aaron Barlow, author of  Hard as Kerosene published by Peace Corps writers. — JC • Aaron, where were you a PCV? In Togo from 1988 to 1990. . Where are you from in the States? Though I was born in North Carolina, I grew up primarily in the Midwest, with stops back South and in the Northeast. I attended Beloit College in Wisconsin for my undergraduate degree and the University of Iowa for my MA and PhD. . Then you joined the Peace Corps? No. I had spent two years in Burkina Faso as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer and had met many PCVs and admired them all. From them, I learned that there is much more to African life than can be found in the cities. I joined so that I could live in a village and discover a part of Africa . . .

Somehow: Living on Uganda Time by Douglas Cruickshank (Uganda 2009-12) Verflectin Media, San Francisco http://douglascruickshank.com/ $60.00 400 pages 2013 Reviewed by Don Messerschmidt (Nepal 1963-65) Douglas Cruickshank’s Somehow: Living on Uganda Time, is a big book, and its 400 pages of photos and text are heavy, amazingly so. Not as in ‘heavy going’, but as in profoundly engrossing. To both the author-photographer and his friends the Ugandans, it is heavy with special meanings; stimulating, fascinating, captivating and… You get the idea. When he joined the Peace Corps and went to Uganda Douglas Cruickshank was 56 and had recently downsized his life. He called it the “Great Shedding of Things”, having sold and given away most of his possessions and encumbrances – except his camera, a sense of adventure and his way of seeing and capturing the essence of life digitally. He entered Uganda as a stranger in a strange land, . . .

Peace Corps Mojo by Bob Criso (Nigeria & Somalia 1966-68) What would our diplomatic service be like if one of the qualifications was prior Peace Corps service? We have West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy which prepare us for war but how about a Peace Corps Academy? What if the Peace Corps included the element of exchange and a teacher from Kenya was swapped with one from Ohio? What about a Peace Corps Memorial in Washington?What would our diplomatic service be like if one of the qualifications was prior Peace Corps service? We have West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy which prepare us for war but how about a Peace Corps Academy? What if the Peace Corps included the element of exchange and a teacher from Kenya was swapped with one from Ohio? What about a Peace Corps Memorial in Washington? These were just a few . . .

on the road past Thrumsing La Bhutan’s wild mountain spirits by Don Messerschmidt “many, many foggies” says my driver, grinning as we enter soup-thick cloud along the bluff below the pass called Thrumsing La Dochen has that way of speaking English, laughingly so jovially therapeutic he sets the tone for what’s an otherwise long rough mountain ride across Bhutan up-down-around the twisting road sometimes dull and foggy but in clear sun the view is bold with naked cliffs streaked white by mountain freshets tumbling sheer from secret groves above where jade green moss, grey lichen and long strands of mist lay still, whispering if you listen with startling clarity from nature’s pure primeval soul surely kindly ghosts inhabit this ancient sacred land and sometimes, while traversing east across the royal road, each turn, each vista is ablaze with rhododendron scarlet, pink, yellow, mauve, and ivory magnolia, and birds on iridescent . . .

In Search of Decency: The Unexpected Power of Rich and Poor by Michael Heyn (Peru 1964-66) Matador $21.99 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) 368 pages August 2013 Reviewed by Ken Hill (Turkey 1965-67) Mr. Heyn’s diary shares a life lived mostly abroad, across 15 countries on four continents, with United Nations programs as well as personal ventures and occasional assignments at the UN in New York.  The saga is spiced by adventures in cultural adaptation, crisis management, intrigue and some legitimate danger! Graced with an enviable education, the author meets and marries, serves in Peace Corps, begins a family but divorces upon discovering a soul-mate with whom he travels the globe to serve human needs. He relates examples of remarkable adaptation and innovation throughout this life story and is admirably candid about successes and failures, displaying an admirable ability to learn from his experiences. A child of the 60’s, the author ponders . . .

I received a note from Peter Lefcourt (Togo 1962-64) that a film he wrote two years ago entitled  “Sweet Talk,”  is now available on various PPV and VOD platforms.  You can order it on Time/Warner, Comcast, Dish, Amazon Video, Vids, Hulu, and ( for the Canadians), Rogers and Shaw.  You can download it directly from iTunes at this link: http://bit.ly/16neY3C The film was directed  by Terri Hanauer, and stars Nathalie Zea, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Lindsey Hollister, Karen Austin, Time Winters, and John Glover. “It is about the transformative power of story telling, among other things, and we are very proud of it,” writes Peter. He goes onto say, “Look at it this way: usually when wedo a play, you have to plunk down $25 and schlep to a theater with bad parking .  Now all you have to do is press a button, part with 12 bucks, the price of a martini, sit . . .

Every week I can receive as many as 4 new books written by RPCVs to be reviewed and added to Marian Haley Beil’s list of books by Peace Corps Volunteers and Staff.  Most of these books are self-published, and increasingly they are ambitious and impressive. The book I received yesterday in the mail tops them all! It is is entitled, Somehow: Living on Uganda Time Essays and Photographs by Douglas Cruickshank (Uganda 2009-12). The book is 420 pages long, sells for $60.00, and is 9″ X 12″ in size. It gave my postman a hernia, delivering it! The book is the creation of Doug Cruickshank who joined the Peace Corps when he was 56 and went to Uganda to help develop a coffee business in a village called Kyarumba in the Rwenzori Mountains. With a career as a writer-photographer behind him, Doug began to write and take photographs within days . . .

Lakes of Darkness In Memory of A.J. Montesi He came to this green shore From loneliness of bachelor nights, Empty Sundays, A year of failing dreams, Mirrored into miseries. From semesters of faculty treachery, Misdemeanors in the hall. Months of silly students, Who turned his kindness Into youthful gall. A little man, Who wears his age with grace; He brought to me A spirit bent from a life of Use. We slid the books aside; Fished for trout off the point. I caught a fighting rainbow Who fought my arching pole Desperate for its life. Another trout flipped in space for flies Then slid again to darkness. That slap of water brought To mind our own fixed lives. He saw himself In a shrinking world Where good men fashion Wars with words. I knew his history As I know my own. We all have lakes of darkness, Not to seek in refuge, But . . .

Short and Shorter: Short Stories and Poetry By Robert E. Hamilton (Ethiopia 1965-67) self-published,$.99 ebook 204 pages 2013 Reviewed by Darcy Munson Meijer (Gabon 1982-84) RPCV Robert Hamilton has collected 41 of his short stories and poems in Short and Shorter: Short Stories and Poetry. The stories were written between 1976 and 2013, and Hamilton laid them out in the order that they were written. Not primarily a writer, Hamilton wrote most of the stories as gifts to friends and family. Nonetheless, I found almost all of them quite pleasant to read. As I read the first stories in the collection, my suspense was up. I feared that the character alone in the library at night would be stabbed by a deranged recluse. I expected Winston to get ensnared by ruthless arms dealers. I thought Mrs. Blake had an ugly secret. In fact, nobody in the stories gets hurt (though . . .

Africa’s Embrace Mark Wentling (Honduras, 1967-69; Togo, 1970-73; PC Staff, Togo, Gabon, & Niger, 1973-77) A Peace Corps Writers Book, $16.78 (paperback); $14.34 (Kindle) 348 pages 2013 Reviewed by Jack Allison, Malawi, 1967-69) What an engaging gem of a novel!  The jacket cover sums up the book nicely:  “Although Africa’s Embrace is literary fiction, the novel is, in actuality, a thinly-veiled autobiographical account of the author’s three years of working in an African village back in the 1970s.” Apparently the author, Mark Wentling, took an oath not to reveal parts of the story for 40 years, and he honored that promise.  The novel is a three-year adventure story of how a young chap from Kansas adapted to life in remote West Africa. The protagonist, David, is renamed “Bobovovi” by the village elders; after he is “transported” magically down a mountain “on a moonbeam,” he is thereafter viewed and treated differently by . . .

Bully Bean (Lima Bear Stories) Thomas Weck (Ethiopia 1965-67) and Peter Weck, Illustrated by Len DiSalvo Lima Bear Press 30 pages $15.95 (hardcover) 2013 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) By this point, I think it’s safe to say that my kids will grow up with Thomas and Peter Weck’s Lima Bears; the series first appeared two years ago, and we’ve been following them ever since. In the short span of childhood, that’s been half my kids’ lives! The Wecks’ have released the fifth title in their series, Bully Bean, and I’ve been finding that there’s an odd congruence between where my kids are developmentally and the subject matters the Wecks’ are tackling. The bean bears of Limalot were facing their unfounded fears in The Cave Monster right around the time my kids discovered that the dark spaces under the bed and in the closet were great . . .