The Peace Corps

The main source of my personnel research in the early Peace Corps/Washington comes from Who’s Who in The Peace Corps Washington. Thanks to a ‘heads up’ from Peace Corps’ first photographer, Rowland Scherman, I now know this informative pamphlet was written by Peace Corps PR/Reporter, a former San Francisco newspaper reporter, Thompson “Jim” Walls. I met Jim and Rowland in 1962-3 when they were traveling around the world gathering Volunteer stories and photographing PCVs. They spent several weeks in Ethiopia on this historic trip and brought back to the US photographs of what the Peace Corps was doing overseas in these early years. Jim wrote the copy for this information pamphlet Who’s Who in The Peace Corps and Roland took all the photos. The agency and all of us who were PCVs and Staff are indebted to them.  Shriver Remembers First Staff Reading the biographies of all these men and women . . .

There are unfortunately few books about the early days of the agency, how it was formed and who was involved in those weeks at the Mayflower Hotel and in the original Peace Corps Office, the Maiatico Building, located at the edge of Lafayette Park and within sight of the White House. Who were the people who built the agency? Harris Wofford’s book, Of Kennedys & Kings Making Sense of the Sixties (1980) devotes a chapter to the Peace Corps. The Bold Experience: JFK’s Peace Corps by Gerard T. Rice (1985) tells of the political maneuvering to create the agency, as does to a certain degree, All You Need Is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of the 1960s by Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman (1998). However, Come As You Are: The Peace Corps Story by Coates Redmon (1986) a press writer at the Peace Corps in its first days, gives the background . . .

  Gival Press has announced that Tyler McMahon of Honolulu, Hawai’i has won the 2016 Gival Press Novel Award for his novel Dream of Another America. McMahon will receive a cash prize of $3,000. The novel will be  published in the spring of 2018. — JC Advance Praise “So gritty about every least detail, so frank about its people’s needs, Dream of Another America might at first seem the furthest thing from a dream. Yet Tyler McMahon has worked this desperate material into a headlong tumble of jeopardy and escape, sweeping up a remarkable array of souls—mostly Central American—in a spell so vivid it seems straight out of the deepest recesses of the unconscious. As his protagonist Jacinto makes his way north to Los United, McMahon puts the reader too up against the worst monsters of that odyssey, now baking in the desert, now clinging to a train. The novel’s likewise unsparing about . . .

  This is the language (and tone) of rejection letters being sent to would-be candidates for Peace Corps positions. In this case, it took a year for the rejection letter to arrive. Where is the human agency that we once worked for in DC and overseas? If this is the way the current Peace Corps Agency treats staff, how do they respond to PCVs? And they didn’t even have the decency to add the name of the person sending the letter! Well, maybe it’s Alexa who is now sending out the Need Not Apply letters from Peace Corps Washington. — JC • This is in regards to your application for the position of Country Director: Your application for the subject position has been reviewed and evaluated. We regret to inform you that after a thorough review of your application and supporting documents, your application does not show possession of the . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Mark Wentling (Honduras 1967–69, Togo 1970–73; PC Staff: Togo, Gabon, Niger 1973–77) “Near where I now live in Bamako is where the old Peace Corps/Mali office was. The sign still hangs on the front wall of this office. Security concerns forced Peace Corps Mali to close its operations in late 2015. For the same reasons, Peace Corps Niger closed in 2011, and last month Peace Corps Burkina Faso closed. There are now no Peace Corps Volunteers in the inland Sahel Region in Africa. Really sad for me as these are some of my favorite Peace Corps countries. These three countries were among the oldest Peace Corps programs, having existed 45 years or more ”

Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65) A small but mighty team of staff members have answered the call to serve as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Surge Capacity Force to support communities affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. Front: Jason Steele; Middle: Tiffany Tai, Elyssa Musaraca, Angela Hamilton, Lori Frola, Ashanty Cruz; Back: Bhoj Rai, Nicholas Leichliter, Dylan Bilbao, Sarah Timpy, Stephanie Wade On September 9, the Department of Homeland Security requested assistance from all federal agencies in the activation of DHS’s Surge Capacity Force. The Peace Corps was asked to send volunteers from among our employees to mobilize immediately and serve for 45 days in hurricane affected areas. The agency moved swiftly and eleven individuals were identified and mobilized immediately.  Four more volunteers from headquarters — Melissa Howe-Boudrye, Thomas Geraghty, Colin Jones, and Rachel Teter — are expected to deploy in the . . .

Review by Xan Brooks The Guardian September 1, 2017 Adapted from the Kent Haruf novel, Our Souls at Night is your classic Hollywood weepie, so immaculately played that it confounds crass preconceptions. It arrived in Venice saddled with a premise that could hardly sound more cloying, together with an unfortunate title that has had hardened British hacks giggling like schoolboys at the back of the class. Critics get their first sniff of Our Souls at Night! Two thumbs up: Our Souls at Night! But Ritesh Batra’s film comes cynic-proofed. It won me over from the very first scene. Louis (Robert Redford) is a widower who lives on the sleepy fringes of small-town Colorado, where he is unable to get much shut-eye of his own. He’s always up before the sun comes up, with the radio on and the newspaper open, just another lonesome old man living an Edward Hopper existence. . . .

I’ve heard that the Peace Corps has decided to get involved in the relief effort caused by the recent hurricanes. But not with Volunteers like the Crisis Corps (Response) where Volunteers worded with the communities affected by these hurricanes. Peace Corps has sent staff and managers, mostly from HQ, to be “detailed” to the Department of Homeland Security. They will work with Homeland and be paid by Homeland. I believe they will all work in DC. Does this give new meaning to the Peace Corps . . . flexible? This has not yet been covered by the press. . .Peace Corps working alongside Homeland Security! What would Sarge say?

The National Peace Corps Association has discussed the new political appointees to the Peace Corps and notes that we still do not have a nomination for Peace Corps Director.  None of the appointees profiled here are RPCVs. Since 2007, when then President Bush appointed RPCV Ronald Tschetter Peace Corps Director, each Director has been a RPCV. John Coyne notes Carol Bellamy (Guatemala 1963-65) and that Mark Schneider (ElSalvador 1966-68) both were RPCVs and had the directorship. There is an interesting article in Government Executive suggesting that the deadline for temporary appointments to leadership postions in the federal government is approaching in November. Many vacancies remain. Currently, the Peace Corps Director is a temporary appointment.  Her leadership team is dominated by temporary appointments.  At the Peace Corps Connect Gathering last August, Ashley Bell suggested that we might have a Deputy Director before we had a permanent Director. Read the article about November deadlines, . . .

The Hill BY MELANIE ZANONA – 10/05/17 01:39 PM ED Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao flew on taxpayer-funded government planes seven times this year, The Washington Post reported Thursday. It appears the flights were taken when cheaper options wouldn’t work, last-minute changes were made to Chao’s schedule or it was more time-efficient to do so. As Transportation chief, Chao has access to a small fleet of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) jets that have served the travel needs of other Transportation secretaries and are regularly loaned out to other government agencies. But the revelations come as the Trump administration faces heavy scrutiny for Cabinet members’ use of private planes. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned on Friday after Politico reported he spent more than $1 million of taxpayer money on military flights and private jets this year. And a House GOP chairman is investigating Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke over his reported use of charter flights, including a $12,000 one from a dinner hosted by a former campaign donor. A . . .

  PRESS RELEASE Marlboro College President Kevin F F Quigley (Thailand 1976-79) has been named to the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) by Vermont Gov Phillip B. Scott. Before joining Marlboro, Quigley served as Peace Corps country director in Thailand, and as president and CEO of the National Peace Corps Association, a global alumni organization for the more than 200,000 former Peace Corps staff and volunteers.  Quigley has a deep appreciation for academia, holding degrees from Swarthmore College, National University of Ireland, Columbia University and Georgetown University. He has been a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow at 12 liberal arts colleges from 2004 to 2012, and a faculty-practitioner graduate instructor teaching about international studies and management from 1995 to 2011. Earlier, he was guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the recipient of several other international professional fellowships. He is the author of For Democracy’s . . .

  Lora King served as an agriculture and environment Volunteer in Ethiopia from 2012-14. She primarily worked with farmers on crop production, but also worked with students from local primary and secondary schools, and on after-school clubs and summer camps. She currently works as a Peace Corps Placement Officer for Ethiopia. • To qualify for the Peace Corps by Lora King (Ethiopia 2012–14)   AS A PLACEMENT OFFICER,  I often get asked at the end of the interview, “How can I be more competitive for this position?” This is a great question and one that I’d encourage anyone applying to become a Peace Corps Volunteer to think about. Why do I need to be more competitive? In 2015, the Peace Corps received a 40-year high of nearly 23,000 applications for approximately 4,000 open positions. Hard skills are some of the first things I see when I look at an application, and I’d . . .

  From The Denver Post — • DU creates professor of diplomacy post, aims for a bigger role in world events By MONTE WHALEY | mwhaley@denverpost.com | The Denver Post October 3, 2017 at 5:37 pm     “The University of Denver says it wants to play a bigger role in world events and is kickstarting those efforts by giving former ambassador to Iraq Christopher R. Hill [Cameroon 1974–76] a new job. Hill, dean of DU’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies for the past seven years, on Tuesday was named chief adviser to the chancellor for global engagement and professor of the practice of diplomacy, a first-of-its-kind role for a major American university, school officials said. In this newly created role, Hill will provide leadership on the global stage, drawing upon his experience and relationships with people, governments and organizations around the world, DU chancellor Rebecca Chopp said. “We are living . . .

Volume III of Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet will be published by Press 53 in the fall of 2018. The editor is open for submissions from now until November 30, 2017. The anthology series includes short stories of any length set in countries around the world. The first two volumes included several RPCV writers, who tend to have deep understanding of the culture they’re writing about. As an RPCV (Korea 197-77), Cliff welcomes submissions from current and returned Peace Corps Volunteers. Writers should review the submissions guidelines carefully. Note that he will not repeat any of the countries covered by the first two volumes (except the US, where we won’t repeat states), so he has included a list in the guidelines. https://press53.submittable.com/submit/94181/everywhere-stories-short-fiction-from-a-small-planet-volume-iii Clifford Garstang, Author of In an Uncharted Country and What the Zhang Boys Know (Winner of the Library of Virginia Award for Fiction) and Editor of Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small . . .

Thanks to a ‘heads up’ from Dale Gilles (Liberia 1964 & 67; PC/W 1968-73 & 1990-93) Mitch McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao may be forced to resign in scandal from Donald Trump’s cabinet From the Palmer Report http://www.palmerreport.com Bill Palmer Updated: 8:10 pm EDT Sat Sep 30, 2017 Even as Donald Trump has spent the day frantically tweeting angry and defensive rhetoric about Puerto Rico and other controversies, he has yet to address the exploding scandals within his own cabinet. It’s already prompted last night’s resignation of HHS Secretary Tom Price, and at least four other cabinet members have been caught in similar infractions. But the next cabinet member to resign may be due to a different kind of financial scandal: Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Chao is best known for three things. 1) She was embroiled in a drug shipment scandal before Trump appointed her (link), and objectively speaking, should not have . . .