The Peace Corps

    The Man Who Defined National Service by Steven Waldman, Washington Monthly contributing editor January 23, 2019 • When I went to work for Harris Wofford in 1995, I knew him only as a legend. By that point, he had already achieved more in his career than all but a tiny fraction of senators or governors in the last century. Wofford, who died over the weekend, had mentored Martin Luther King on the art of non-violent civil disobedience; he marched in Selma; he prodded John F. Kennedy to call Coretta Scott King when the civil rights leader had been imprisoned, probably tipping the election to JFK; he helped create the Peace Corps and ran its Africa program; he was elected senator from Pennsylvania in a campaign that convinced the Democrats, for the first time in decades, that universal health care was a winning issue; and as a senator, he was a . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Bob Arias (Colombia 1964-66) Review: “Birds of Passage,” the Tragic Story of an Indigenous Colombian Family’s Involvement in the Drug War By Richard Brody New Yorker February 11, 2019 The cultural richness of “Birds of Passage” is overwhelming, its sense of detail piercingly perceptive, and its sense of drama rigorously yet organically integrated with its documentary elements. Photograph Courtesy The Orchard The Colombian film “Birds of Passage,” directed by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, is an ethnographic thriller—a drama set in rural northern Colombia, centered on one indigenous group, the Wayuu, and based on the true story of a drug war that, from the late nineteen-sixties through the early nineteen-eighties, inflamed the region and engulfed a Wayuu family. It’s a movie involving a wide spectrum of experience, but its elements are nonetheless profoundly integrated. It’s not a thriller with some local color adorning the action or . . .

WASHINGTON– In honor of Black History Month, today the Peace Corps recognizes the important contributions African-American Volunteers and staff have made to the agency’s mission and promoting cross-cultural understanding around the globe with a Press Release. The news release published today, February 11, 2019, honors African-American Volunteers and a number of noted staff members, including, of course, Carolyn R. Payton, the first female Director of Peace Corps, as well as the first African-American Director, and writes about a few other African-American staff members. (By the way, the Peace Corps Press Release  has a type with Carolyn’s first name under her photograph.) However, the Press Release never mentions the most recognized African-Americans on the first Peace Corps staff, Franklin Williams, who began his ‘international’ career at the Peace Corps in 1961, and was at HQ as Chief of the Division of Private Organizations, and then head of the African Region. In 1965 . . .

DERVISHES By Steve Horowitz  (Iran 1968-71) It was a long walk from the Workman’s house to this other part of town, where the monthly meetings and rituals took place.  Early evening but already dark , through the maze of winding high-walled alleys; few people were outside and all the mud walls seemed to look the same. Three of us -John, myself and Mustapha, John’s friend who had set everything up for us- made our way slowly with Mustapha following the directions someone had provided him. What they did at these ritual gatherings was private, secretive and pretty bizarre to outsiders, so there was no interest in encouraging visitors- especially foreigners- to attend, but if there was an intermediary to make contact and the patience to wait for permission to be granted, it could be arranged John and his wife were English teachers in this Kurdish city not far from the . . .

    From the National Peace Corps Association Website: Central America Reporting for WorldView “We’re accepting article proposals for the Summer issue of NPCA’s WorldView magazine on the Central American migrant caravan heading to the U.S. border. The deadline for brief proposals is Friday, February 22.We’re looking for writing that gives WorldView readers a better picture of life’s challenges in these countries. If you are a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who has a first-person story, let us know. WorldView will try to explain: what drove thousands of people from Central America to walk four or five thousand miles to our U.S. border? Who are they and which countries do they come from? Why did they leave their homes? Could U.S. foreign policy and international assistance have served these countries better? Please submit a brief proposal and your background on the subject.” Click on the following link to read more on . . .

Harris Wofford Memorial Please join us to celebrate the remarkable life of Harris Wofford. Saturday, March 2, 2019 2:00pm Cramton Auditorium – Howard University 2455 6th Street NW, Washington, DC 20059   RSVP at: https://voicesforservice.org/rsvp-harris-wofford-memorial/

Please join family and friends to celebrate the remarkable life of Harris Wofford on Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 2:00 pm. The service will be held at Cramton Auditorium, Howard University (2455 6th Street NW, Washington, DC 20059). If you plan to attend, please email rsvp@voicesforservice.org. We also invite you to share a story or anecdote of how Harris Wofford impacted your life. In particular, we are interested in personal stories of when you met Harris and how that shaped or transformed your life or career. Submit your story here.

https://www.peacecorps.gov/news/library/peace-corps-sends-over-300-americans-service-abroad-january/   February 6, 2019 WASHINGTON – Over 300 Americans departed in January for Peace Corps service. They will spend the next two years working with communities in Albania, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Myanmar, South Africa and Thailand. Peace Corps Response volunteers will undertake shorter-term, high-impact service assignments in China, Eswatini, Liberia, Malawi, Peru, Rwanda, Ukraine and Zambia. The new trainees gathered at staging events across the United States, including the District of Columbia, Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia. These pre-departure orientations are the first stage of Peace Corps service for trainees where they receive a stateside introduction to volunteer safety and service aboard. “Welcoming new Peace Corps trainees to Ecuador is an exciting part of my job,” said Peace Corps Ecuador Country Director Michael Donald. “The trainees bring with them different skills and life experiences that will enrich their communities in Ecuador and the Peace Corps community as a whole.” . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from James Sheahan (Sierra Leone 1961-63) Peace Corps Press Release Former Peace Corps trainee sentenced in case of video voyeurism 01/29/2019 WASHINGTON – On January 24, 2019, former Peace Corps trainee Matthew Walker, 31, was sentenced by a federal magistrate judge to 3 years of probation and 30 days of intermittent confinement for committing acts of video voyeurism. He was sentenced at the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Florida in Pensacola, Florida. On November 13, 2018, Walker pled guilty to three counts of video voyeurism stemming from conduct he engaged in while a Peace Corps trainee in Zambia in 2016. Walker admitted to using his GoPro camera on three occasions to record a fellow trainee, without consent, while the fellow trainee was naked and changing in areas where the fellow trainee had a reasonable expectation of privacy. Inspector General Kathy A. Buller . . .

  Harris Wofford followed the question where it leads by David M. Stone, for The Inquirer January 28, 2019   The admiring obituaries of Harris Wofford’s extraordinary life suggest why such a diversity of people around the country and the world have their own special stories to tell about him. Mine begins in a basement campaign office on Chestnut Street in 1986 during Bob Casey’s successful gubernatorial race. Casey asked his onetime Washington law-firm friend to serve as Democratic State Party chair, a seemingly unconventional role for a former college president and civil rights pioneer. Five years later, after the tragedy of John Heinz’s plane crash over Lower Merion when the governor named him to the vacant Senate seat, I was one of several Casey administration colleagues, including his son Dan, who joined Harris’ campaign and new Senate staff. His landslide upset that November was one more unlikely chapter in . . .

  Doug Mickelson (Ethiopia 1962–64), from Black Earth, Wisconsin, wrote me recently about Harris Wofford to tell me about photographs he had of Harris Wofford when the first group of PCVs to Ethiopia arrived there in the fall of 1962, and of his trip back to Ethiopia with his wife, years later. • “Harris visited us in Yirgalem, Ethiopia, where I was stationed,” Doug recalled, “several times during Fall, 1963 and early 1964.  This photo is of me and Harris leaning against our famous blue jeep speaking with students at our school, Ras Desta.  Harris was very interested to hear about what we were doing directly from the students.  He was very engaging and the students flocked to him. “This picture also appeared in Gerald T. Rice’s book, The Bold Experiment: JFK’s Peace Corps. The photo means a lot to me, especially with Harris’ passing. “I have three other photographs of . . .

  Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump’s Presidential Palace Larry Leamer (Nepal 1965-67) Flatiron Books 304 pages January 29, 2019 Kindle $14.99, Hardback $18.29 Where Trump Learned to Rule To know Donald J. Trump it is best to start in his natural habitat: Palm Beach, Florida. It is here he learned the techniques that took him all the way to the White House. Painstakingly, over decades, he has created a world in this exclusive tropical enclave and favorite haunt of billionaires where he is not just president but a king. The vehicle for his triumph is Mar-A-Lago, one of the greatest mansions ever built in the United States. The inside story of how he became King of Palm Beach―and how Palm Beach continues to be his spiritual home even as president―is rollicking, troubling, and told with unrivaled access and understanding by Laurence Leamer. In Mar-A-Lago, the reader will . . .

  Sunday’s January 27, 2019 NYTIMES Book Review has a glowing review of Kristen Roupenian (Kenya 2003-05) new collection of stories, You Know You Want This. The review, done by author Lauren Holmes, writes about “A collection of dark tales from the author of the story ‘Cat Person.’ Of the 12 stories in Kristen’s debut book are considered “exciting, smart, perceptive, weird and dark.” For example: one story is about an increasingly precarious sex game, another about an 11-year-old’s birthday party gone wrong. There’s a princess fairy tale (and yes!) a guy in the Peace Corps who’s tormented by his students. That story, entitled ‘The Night Runner’ begins with this sentence: “The Class Six girls were bad, and everyone knew it.” While Kristen is famous for “Cat Person” published in The New Yorker, that story in tone an approach is not unlike all the stories in this collection, which I have just . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Neil Boyer (Ethiopia 1962-64) Let’s honor the life of a great American who took an unconventional path By Michael Gerson Columnist January 24 at 5:38 PM Many of the most interesting and consequential Americans of the 20th century found greatness in politics, military service and diplomacy. Only one took the path of the recently deceased Harris Wofford. After a precocious childhood that included extensive global travel and a stint in the Army Air Forces during World War II, Wofford went to India for several months to absorb teachings about non­violent social change from disciples of Mohandas K. Gandhi. He soon became one of the main conduits of that theory for the American civil rights movement and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Wofford found a place advising then-Sen. John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign. Nearing Election Day, the young activist urged Kennedy to call and comfort Coretta Scott . . .