Peace Corps Volunteers

   UK Time News March 27, 2022   On Friday, August 7, 1998, Kenya woke up to horrific scenes after terrorists linked to the Al-Qaeda network struck the United States Embassy in Nairobi. A hero, who was caught in the chaos, refused to let the thugs win and did everything he could to save and help those trapped inside the building to safety. Joseph Martin (Guatemala 1977-79), an American national, who had survived the explosion, returned to the building three times to try to help those trapped. Martin had officially moved to Nairobi in 1996 to head the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) office based in Kenya. At the time, he was responsible for conducting interviews with refugees across Africa to help with their resettlement. From 1996 to 2002, he headed the INS office in Nairobi, Kenya, from where he traveled across Africa to interview refugees for resettlement in the United . . .

  Richard Lipez is shown in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with the family of Worku Sharew, second from right, a student Lipez and his wife brought to the United States to attend school.   RICHMOND — The Berkshires lost a remarkable man this month, whose life was lived below celebrity radar but who had impact on a wide circle of people, friends and people he never met. Dick Lipez. College-educated, Peace Corps volunteer, community activist and novelist, Dick had a special, multi-faceted view of life. He wrote a column that was both intellectual and hilarious, emanating from a mind that produced deep thoughts in a readable way, often injected with his unique twists of humor. He could make a reader think and laugh out loud. Very tall and deep-voiced, Dick was always worth seeking out in a group, just to hear what he had to say about anything on a given . . .

  Larimar is a precious stone, unique in the world. What makes it one of the most mysterious gems in existence? Learn about the history and geology surrounding this treasure here. Larimar: discover the mystery of the ‘Blue Rock’! by Alfredo Graça Meteored Portugal YourWeather.co.uk Larimar is a rare gemstone, exclusive to the south-west of the Dominican Republic, a country on the island of Hispaniola, in the Caribbean. Geologically, it is a variety of pectolite, composed of an acid calcium-sodium silicate hydrate. It is formed through association with volcanic rocks (andesites and basalts) from the south of the island, originating from the Miocene, geological epoch (23 to 5 Million years ago). Although many pectoliths have been found in other parts of the globe, none have the colouration of larimar. The blue colour, distinct from other rocks, results from the replacement of copper with calcium. The story behind the discovery of this gemstone is . . .

The Art of the Interview & Knowing Your Subject featuring Larry Grobel The Art of the Interview & Knowing Your Subject featuring Larry Grobel  Of the many tributes for his interviewing techniques, James Michener called his book The Hustons “a masterpiece.” And Joyce Carol Oates dubbed him “The Mozart of Interviewers.” Larry is the recipient of P. E. N. and Playboy Special Achievement awards, the Prix Litteraire from the French Syndicate of Film Critics, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for his fiction.  He has appeared as himself in Shane Salerno’s documentary Salinger, and Al Pacino’s Wilde Salome. Larry is dogged in his approach to interviewing. He spent over a period of nine months alone in his sessions with Barbra Streisand for Playboy magazine.

  By Tony Dobrowolski, The Berkshire Eagle Mar 16, 2022 Becket, MA — Author, journalist and book reviewer Richard “Dick” Lipez, who wrote editorials for The Berkshire Eagle for many years and was a member of the newspaper’s advisory board, died of cancer at his home in Becket on Wednesday. He was 83. Lipez had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April, according to sculptor Joe Wheaton, his husband. They had been together for 32 years. In the early 1960s, Lipez, a native of Lock Haven, Pa., served in the Peace Corps, where he taught school in Ethiopia, and later worked as a Peace Corps program evaluator based in Washington. He originally came to the Berkshires to work for an anti-poverty agency because he was tired of living in the city, Wheaton said. “He was totally unqualified for the job, but he talked his way into it,” said Wheaton, who . . .

Putin’s Character Was Clear Long Before He Retreated to the Far End of the Table By Maureen Orth (Colombia 1964-66) Vanity Fair Magazine March 4, 2022 • Today, the world sees Vladimir Putin from a distance, isolated at the end of a very long table. When I first met him, in September 2000, he was at a very different table, in a private room at New York’s 21 Club, at a dinner hosted by Tom Brokaw for 20 or so media luminaries. Brokaw had interviewed the recently elected Russian president for NBC a few months earlier. I was invited because I had just closed a lengthy profile of Putin for Vanity Fair, and also because my late husband, Tim Russert, was the anchor of NBC’s Meet the Press.   The number one topic was why Putin had not interrupted his vacation when the Russian Kursk submarine sank, killing all 118 crew members. By then, Russians were fed up with . . .

  by Carol L. Hanner Wake Forest Magazine • Former U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain, Bill Roebuck, who lives now in Arlington, Virginia, shares his Netflix-worthy stories from his 28-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service. His soft Southern voice bears no trace of adrenaline in the retelling. 2003 In 2003, an armored caravan ferries Roebuck (Wake Forest ’78, M.A. ’82) toward Gaza City. He and others in the lead car hear a muffled “ploomff” behind them. Attackers have detonated a bomb buried in the road, exploding the car that would have carried Roebuck if not for a last-minute change of plans. Instead, the assassination attempt kills three of the four American security officers in the targeted vehicle. 2009 In 2009, Roebuck travels across Baghdad in another armored caravan to an Iraqi ministry meeting. The next day, al-Qaida explosions blast the 10-story ministry building, killing at least 95 people, injuring 600 . . .

Tom Hebert (Nigeria 1962-64) 1938-2022 Rest in Peace, Tom Born in Wenatchee, Washington on August 9, 1938 with his early childhood spent on his parents’ cattle ranch in the Okanogan, he grew up on Vashon Island near Seattle where his parent founded a nursing home, the caring spirit of which is still going strong at Vashon Community Care. In 1960, he graduated from Linfield College as a theatre major and his graduate work was at the Dallas Theater Center and Baylor University, Waco, Texas. Preferring projects that empower local communities or challenge the status quo, Tom Hebert was a writer and public policy consultant and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Nigeria, 1962-1964). After his Peace Corps service, he integrated the faculty of a black Southern University and later served 18 months establishing USO Clubs on U.S. Marine Corps combat bases in South Vietnam. His last assignment was as director, USO Saigon. . . .

  Dubuque native returns home to work in conservation after years in Africa by Benjamin Fisher, Telegraph Herald   DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — The Dubuque County Conservation Department’s new naturalist has taken an unusual path to his position — from Dubuque to Mozambique and then back to eastern Iowa. Naturalist Jason Denlinger (Mozambique 1999-01) began work for the county late last month after six years at Gorongosa National Park in the East African country of Mozambique. Before working in Africa, Denlinger was a Dubuquer who had a fascination with pachyderms. “I always had this dream to work with elephants and in Africa,” he said. “My aunt was a Peace Corps volunteer, so then I was a Peace Corps volunteer, which really set me on my path (to Africa).” Denlinger first went to Mozambique 20 years ago with the Peace Corps before returning to Dubuque. That experience abroad would later help him secure . . .

  By Kevin Shea | For NJ.com    Thomas Baranyi, the Mercer County man who gave a TV interview after storming the U.S. Capitol last year and showed blood on his hand from a rioter who’d been shot, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C. Baranyi, 30, who’d been charged with four crimes for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, pleaded guilty to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building. He’ll be sentenced in May, and faces up to six months in prison. Born and raised in Hamilton, and now living in Ewing, Baranyi was candid in the local TV news interview, which made headlines nationwide and went viral online. He introduced himself as “Thomas Baranyi from New Jersey,” and proceeded to narrate his role. “We tore through the scaffolding, through flash bangs and tear gas and blitzed our way in through all the chambers just trying to get . . .

  Entrepreneurs and animal advocates bring a cause closer to home By LISA CRAWFORD WATSON | newsroom@montereyherald.com |  February 1, 2022    Maybe it was while getting her master’s degree at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, which included joining the Peace Corps, or when she went to Botswana with local artist Mary Beth Harris and became both enchanted by elephants and devastated by their plight, that Carmel’s Susie Bauer (Central Africa Republic 1982-84) decided to establish a nonprofit organization.Tuesday, she and Harris opened “Mopane” at The Crossroads in Carmel, named after a tree in Southern Africa. Known as the “tree of life,” its foliage feeds elephants, and its grubs become tribal cuisine. This boutique will carry custom jewelry, fabrics, art, and vessels — primarily fair trade products from Africa. Half the proceeds will go to Elephant Havens Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit rescue organization in Botswana, and the other half will benefit various . . .