The Peace Corps

Agency history, current news and stories of the people who are/were both on staff and Volunteers.

1
World Peace Day, June 14th
2
Why Tiffany Trump Never Joined the Peace Corps, and Other Insults
3
Nominations for Best Peace Corps Books of 2018
4
Former Peace Corps Director Elaine Chao In Another Ethical Muddle (China)
5
CALLING ALL RPCV WRITERS
6
RPCV Book Makes New York Times Summer Reading Book List
7
Call Me by John Coyne (Ethiopia)
8
“Somali Moon” by Jeanne D’Haem (Somalia)
9
Transport Secretary & former Peace Corps Director Elaine Chao still owns road-paving company stock she promised to get rid of
10
Jeffrey Tayler’s(Morocco) IN PUTIN’S FOOTSTEPS
11
“The Eye Man” by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala)
12
Melinda Gates speaks to Women’s Issues on Book TV
13
Holbrooke as a Country Director in the Peace Corps
14
It’s Publication Day for Clifford Garstang’s The Shaman of Turtle Valley (Korea)
15
Four Best Selling Books Published This May By RPCV Writers

World Peace Day, June 14th

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Maureen Orth (Colombia 1964-66) World Peace World Peace is a celebration of the efforts by artists and statesmen seeking a more peaceful world. Music has long been a vehicle for inspiring people to seek peaceful ways to bridge political and cultural divides. Artists featured on this album include Keb’ Mo’, India Marie, Nina Simone and many more. We greatly appreciate these musicians’ commitment to achieving peace, justice and freedom. 2% of proceeds from this album will be donated to the National Peace Corps Association.  Read more… This album is also available at thousands of gift, book and other specialty stores worldwide and on iTunes. www.putumayo.com.au. © 2019 by Putumayo World Music. Questions? Comments? Please contact us at: info@putumayo.com About the Album Putumayo is pleased to announce the release of World Peace on June 14th, 2019. It was inspired by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Reverend Martin . . .

Read More

Why Tiffany Trump Never Joined the Peace Corps, and Other Insults

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (Cameroon 1965-67) From the Daily Kos Reporter Gabriel Sherman obtained a copy of the 1993 prenuptial agreement between Donald Trump and Marla Maples, the woman he left his first wife, Ivana, for after publicly dating Marla Maples while still married. That affair resulted in Tiffany Trump, whose child support was considered in the agreement. There are several interesting items to unpack in this agreement, including the near-universal acknowledgement that Trump inflated his net worth for the agreement, but let’s start with the most eyebrow-raising: the child support terms for Tiffany Trump. More than anything, the prenup shows how fiercely Trump wanted to protect the money he did have. Maples reportedly wanted $25 million, but Trump agreed to pay her only $1 million if they separated within five years, plus another $1 million to buy a house. Trump also would stop making $100,000 child support . . .

Read More

Nominations for Best Peace Corps Books of 2018

To further fulfill its goals to encourage, recognize and promote Peace Corps writers, RPCV Writers & Readers, the newsletter that was the precursor of PeaceCorpsWriters.org and PeaceCorpsWorldwide.org, presented its first annual awards for outstanding writing in 1990. A total of 151 awards have been given since that time. Winners receive a certificate and small cash award. Nominate your favorite Peace Corps book published in 2018 by sending an email to: jcoyneone@gmail.com The Awards THE MARIA THOMAS FICTION AWARD, first presented in 1990, is named after the novelist Maria Thomas [Roberta Worrick (Ethiopia 1971–73)] who was the author of the well-reviewed novel Antonia Saw the Oryx First, and two collections of short stories, Come to Africa and Save Your Marriage: And Other Stories and African Visas: A Novella and Stories, all set in Africa. Roberta lost her life in August, 1989, while working in Ethiopia for a relief agency. She went down in the plane crash that also killed her husband, . . .

Read More

Former Peace Corps Director Elaine Chao In Another Ethical Muddle (China)

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Dale Gilles (Liberia 1964-66)   Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary, oversees the American maritime industry. Her family’s shipping company, Foremost Group, has deep ties to the Chinese elite. By Michael Forsythe, Eric Lipton, Keith Bradsher and Sui-Lee Wee June 2, 2019 阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版 The email arrived in Washington before dawn. An official at the American Embassy in Beijing was urgently seeking advice from the State Department about an “ethics question.” “I am writing you because Mission China is in the midst of preparing for a visit from Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao,” the official wrote in October 2017. Ms. Chao’s office had made a series of unorthodox requests related to her first scheduled visit to China as a Trump cabinet member, according to people with knowledge of the email. Among them: asking federal officials to help coordinate travel arrangements for at least one family member and include relatives in meetings with . . .

Read More

CALLING ALL RPCV WRITERS

Calling all RPCV Writers Are you writing a memoir, poems, short stories or a scholarly essay? Whether it is about the Peace Corps or not, you are invited to the first Peace Corps Writers Workshop this September.  Have your work reviewed in a very supportive setting, and learn about agents, submissions, and  publication. The workshop–only open to 15 RPCVs–will be held from Wednesday, September 18th to Saturday, September 21rd at Shore Retreats on Broad Creek, on the fabulous Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. Costs range from $100 – $500 and includes shared living quarters, and most meals. If interested contact John Coyne at: jcoyneone@gmail.com As of this week, only four more writers will be accepted.  This workshop is organized by Peace Corps Worldwide and it will be lead by these published RPCV writers. Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) was born in the Tule Lake Japanese American Segregation Camp. She is . . .

Read More

RPCV Book Makes New York Times Summer Reading Book List

Only one book–of the many RPCV writers books published this spring/summer– has made The New York Times Book Review Summer Reading list published June 2, 2019. This thick section of the Times–67 pages–has in its “Roundups” section a Travel list and in it reviewer Liesl Schillinger, a critic and translator, singles out In Putin’s Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia’ Eleven Time Zones published by St. Martin’s and written by Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler (Morocco 1988-90) calling the book a “fascinating account of their travels in 2017 between Kamchatka and Kaliningrad.” Their book, Schillinger writes, “delivers a unified impression of a ‘coherently incoherent’ Russia.”    

Read More

Call Me by John Coyne (Ethiopia)

John Coyne will be one of the five published writers to lead panel discussions at the September RPCV Writing Workshop in Maryland. Read his short story below. Novelist, Short Story Writer, Poet, Editor Call Me by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) It was not easy keeping in touch. There were so many demands and hundreds of ways that I was requested. The telephone and mail certainly, but also telegrams, meetings, and midnight visits. At all hours the doorbell rang and I asked through the keyhole: who are you and what do you want? “My name is Michael. I’m a friend of Sherri’s. She said to see you. That you could help.” I unlocked the lock and opened the door. I have been robbed and mugged this way but what else could I do? I only wanted to help. I had one wall of filing cabinets: steel, cardboard, makeshift files in boxes. . . .

Read More

“Somali Moon” by Jeanne D’Haem (Somalia)

    Jeanne D’Haem will be one of the five published writers to lead panel discussions at the September RPCV Writing Workshop in Maryland. Read her Peace Corps essay below. — John Coyne   • Somali Moon By Jeanne D’Haem (Somalia 1968-70)   There was a night, fifty years ago, when people all over the world watched the sky.  They were not concerned with yet another tragedy of war or weather.  No one had blown up the world trade center or machine gunned hundreds of people at a park. On one special night in August 1969, they were watching the moon with wonder. Any baby boomer you know can tell you exactly what they were doing on August 20, 1969. Most will report they were watching the TV.  Riveted by a black and white, 15 inch screen.  There was plenty of parking in New York City and Grand Rapids; everyone . . .

Read More

Transport Secretary & former Peace Corps Director Elaine Chao still owns road-paving company stock she promised to get rid of

    Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Dale Gilles (Liberia 1964-66) • Transport Secretary Elaine Chao could be in for a bumpy ride after The Wall Street Journal reported that she still owns stock in a road-paving company, more than a year after she promised to get rid of it. Chao’s holdings are in Vulcan Materials, which is the largest U.S. supplier of stone, sand, and gravel used in road-paving and building. The stock price has risen nearly 13 percent since April 2018, the month Chao said she would ditch the shares, meaning she’s gained more $40,000 since the promise was made. Shares valued at nearly $400,000 and were paid out to Chao in April 2018. They were given in compensation for her time on Vulcan’s board, before she was confirmed as secretary of transportation. Chao’s 2017 ethics agreement said she would receive a cash payout in April 2018 in exchange for . . .

Read More

Jeffrey Tayler’s(Morocco) IN PUTIN’S FOOTSTEPS

Thanks to the ‘heads up’ of Marian Beil (Ethiopia 1962-64)     IN PUTIN’S FOOTSTEPS: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia’s Eleven Time Zones St. Martin’s Press By Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler (Morocco 1988-90) 320 pages February 19, 2019 $18.89 (hardback); $14.99 (Kindle); $24.60 (Audio CD)     From the Book Section of The New York Times Summer Travel Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler’s fascinating account of their travels in 2017 between Kamchatka and Kaliningrad. In its pages, you’ll learn that you can see China quite clearly from Russia in the harbor city of Blagoveshchensk, six time zones east of Moscow and 500 yards across the Amur River from the Chinese city of Heihe. Ferries transport Chinese and Russian traders back and forth daily. Khrushcheva made that shuttle trip and does not recommend it — the pushing and shoving and rude border control brought her to . . .

Read More

“The Eye Man” by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala)

Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-93) will be one of the five published writers to lead panel discussions at the September RPCV Writing Workshop in Maryland. Read his Peace Corps short story below. — John Coyne     The Eye Man by Mark Brazaitis The eye man came to town with doctors and nurses who carried suitcases full of medicine and Bibles. They were accompanied by boys and girls who dressed up like daisies and frogs and sang religious songs in English in the park. The eye man wasn’t a doctor or nurse. And neither the doctors nor the nurses nor the boys and girls who dressed up like daisies and frogs knew, or would tell me, what he was. He was simply “the eye man.” He made eyes. I translated for the group of doctors and nurses during their two-day clinic in the Church of God, one of several Evangelical churches . . .

Read More

Melinda Gates speaks to Women’s Issues on Book TV

(Thanks to Beverly Hammons (Ecuador 71-73) for this video reference) Melinda Gates, wife of Bill Gates, has written a book, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, on her life and work with women around the world.  She discusses the book and her experiences working in the Developing World.  Empowering women and girls is a continuing program focus for Peace Corps.  For so many RPCVs, especially women, Gates’ experience and the concerns of the women with whom she talked and worked, will seem very familiar. More than fifty years ago, as a Peace Corps Health Education Volunteer, I would give “charlas”, little talks about health to women in my rural community.  After the talk, I would always ask what would they like to know.  The question varied, but always the same concern.  As one woman said, so eloquently,:  “I want to keep the children I have, alive, . . .

Read More

Holbrooke as a Country Director in the Peace Corps

    Reading though George Packer’s (Togo 1982-83) 590 page book: Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and The End of the American Century I came across two paragraphs on Holbrooke’s brief career working for the Peace Corps. On page 144 of his book, Packer writes how Holbrooke left his position with Kissinger and the State Department and decides to leave the country. George writes, “After working on staffs for five years, he [Holbrooke] also wanted to be in charge of something. That was impossible for an FSO-4, which he had just become, on the normal unimaginative embassy career path. So he looked into the Peace Corps, asked for a country program to run, and studied Arabic at the Foreign Service Institute….” He was given Morocco by Joe Blatchford, the Peace Corps Director, and he lasted one year (1970-71) on the job. Packer writes: There isn’t much to tell you about the . . .

Read More

It’s Publication Day for Clifford Garstang’s The Shaman of Turtle Valley (Korea)

About the book: Set in the 1990s, the novel is about Aiken Alexander, the scion of Scots-Irish settlers who came to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the mid-18thCentury. An Army veteran, Aiken is estranged from his wife, Soon-hee, a young Korean woman he fell in love with when stationed in Seoul. While Aiken is struggling to provide for Henry, their four-year-old, Soon-hee’s erratic behavior creates greater tension and her practice of traditional Korean shamanism is at odds with the Alexander family’s Appalachian folkways. On top of that, Aiken’s cousins seek to solve a Turtle Valley mystery that threatens to pull the family apart. Pre-publication Buzz: Amy Hawes of Book Club Babble calls The Shaman of Turtle Valley a “perfect book club read.”  If you or someone you know is in a book club and might be interested in choosing the book for one of your reads, Clifford would love . . .

Read More

Four Best Selling Books Published This May By RPCV Writers

A young woman accuses a prominent local college athlete of rape. Convicted with the help of undisputable DNA evidence, the athlete swears his innocence and threatens both his lawyer and his accuser as he’s sent to prison. Not long after, there’s another rape and the DNA test shows that the same person committed both rapes―which is seemingly impossible since the man convicted of the first rape was in prison at the time. Phillip Margolin (Liberia 1966-68)         A groundbreaking revisionist history of the last days of the Vietnam War that reveals the acts of American heroism that saved more than one hundred thousand South Vietnamese from communist revenge. Thurston Clarke (Tunisia 1968)           Drawn by a fascination with Egypt’s rich history and culture, Peter Hessler moved with his wife and twin daughters to Cairo in 2011. He wanted to learn Arabic, explore Cairo’s . . .

Read More

Copyright © 2022. Peace Corps Worldwide.