The Peace Corps

Sara Wagner (Nepal 1996-98) left the United States for the first time on the cusp of her 24th birthday, to become a Community Health Volunteer Coordinator with the Peace Corps. Upon returning Stateside, she delved into public health on the country’s largest tribal nation, with the Navajo Area Indian Health Service. She has lived in Northern Arizona for the past 18 years yet still feels an affinity for distant Himals rising in the north, foothills and river valleys cascading down from every direction, flowing to India, to everywhere – for taking a step back in time, as if into a storybook, to a simpler time and place, awakened her heart. While it sometimes feels like this experience never happened, something, or someone, always comes along to remind her that she did not imagine it, that these people who embody love are real.   Discovering Bhagawan By Sara Wagner A magnificent sunset engulfed . . .

I had a long conversation this morning with an RPCV who is lobbying the White House to be the next director of the Peace Corps. (Yes, Virginia, there are Republican RPCVs). The candidate wants to be Director to improve the agency and the role of PCVs overseas. This former Volunteer served for three years in the Peace Corps, in Africa, and in the early ’70s.  A successful business person who wants to improve the agency, the candidate is seeking ‘your ideas’ to take to any forthcoming meetings with the Trump Administration.  You can post your opinions and ideas on the site now and I’ll see that the RPCV candidate receives the information. This RPCV candidate for Director will also be attending the NPCA Conference next week in Colorado. The candidate will send me the time and location where you can talk personally in Denver and share your ideas. I’ll post the information . . .

  Brian Minalga (Niger 2008-10, Namibia 2010-12) served as an educator in the Peace Corps in Niger and Namibia. He then was a Peace Corps Recruiter from 2013-2014. Brian also completed a Master of Social Work degree as a Paul D. Coverdell Fellow. He now lives in Seattle where he works nationally to advance justice for historically underrepresented communities in HIV clinical and behavioral research. •   Honey for the Heart by Brian Minalga   A ga kanu ay se.  It is sweet to me.   THIS IS HOW YOU SAY that you like something in a dusty town called Dosso in Niger, West Africa. The language is called Zarma, and Zarmaphones are very interested in what’s sweet to you: Dunguri nda mo, a ga kanu ni se? (Beans and rice, is it sweet to you?) Kaidiya wate, a ga kanu ni se? (Rainy season, is it sweet to you?) . . .

 Op-Ed in The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina, July 21, 2017 (Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Bea Hogan (Uzbekistan 1992-94) • Trump, lies, and the Peace Corps BY GENE NICHOL Contributing columnist Gene Nichol is Boyd Tinsley distinguished professor of law at the University of North Carolina. His daughter in a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia. She would be unaffected by Trumps proposals. Several times each week, Americans are pressed with an odd question – how did we come to this? Who would have thought it possible, for example, that when the presidents of the United States and Russia give conflicting accounts of their joint discussions, most of us would assume that a murderous, dictatorial KGB operative was closer to the truth. Even Republicans seemed to wince: “It’s certainly conceivable Putin is lying, but we know Trump lies constantly – all day, every day, whether he . . .

If you read Peter’s letter about “How residents of a rural area started copying the President” you might have been surprised when you read these two paragraphs. “In Grand Junction, I learned to suspend any customary assumptions regarding political identity. I encountered countless strong working women, some of whom believed in abortion rights, who had voted for Trump. Cultural cues could be misleading: I interviewed one gentle, hippieish Trump voter who wore his gray hair in a ponytail. An experience like leaving a small town for an Ivy League college, which might lead some people to embrace more liberal ideas, could inspire in others a deeper conservatism. And so I wasn’t entirely surprised to learn that Tyler Riehl, like me, was a former Peace Corps volunteer. “He had served in Slovakia. “Every time you get to look at how somebody else lives, it gives you perspective that’s useful,” Riehl told . . .

At the August Conference of NPCA tables will be available for you to sell your books.  Registration fee is $100. Find out more:  https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/events/peace-corps-connect-conference-partner-exhibition  

  This is a brilliant article by Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) in the current issue of The New Yorker. My only regret is that in the bio about Peter they never mention his Peace Corps service. It’s as if he never served in the army, was a Boy Scout, or was a bed wetter as a child. Nevertheless, we PCVs will prevail. — JC ♦ How Trump Is Transforming Rural America In Colorado, the President’s tone has started rubbing off on residents. By Peter Hessler When Karen Kulp was a child, she believed that the United States of America as she knew it was going to end on June 6, 1966. Her parents were from the South, and they had migrated to Colorado, where Kulp’s father was involved in mining operations and various entrepreneurial activities. In terms of ideology, her parents had started with the John Birch Society, and then they became more . . .

First Peace Corps Fund Writing Award Winners The Peace Corps Fund announces its first 2017 writing contest winners. Prizes range from First Prize of $1000, Second Prize $750. Third Prize $500 and numerous Honorable Mentions. Top prizes will be published on the Peace Corps Worldwide website and promoted throughout the Peace Corps community. Eligible for these writing awards were Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and Former Peace Corps Staff. Submissions were judged on how well they advanced the Third Goal of the Peace Corps Act: To increase the understanding of the peoples served on the part of Americans Founded in 2003, the Peace Corps Fund is an independent, 501-c-3 nonprofit organization founded by Returned Peace Corps Volunteers to support and advance the Third Goal of the Peace Corps. Congratulations to everyone who submitted an essay or poem. The winners are! First Prize–$1,000 Penye Nia, Pana Njia by Kristen Grauer-Gray (Tanzania 2007-10 . . .

  Representative Jared Huffman (D.CA) has introduced legislation that would provide more funding for Peace Corps as well as other service programs.  I would think that there is little chance of the legislation passing.  However, it is comprehensive;  provides incentatives for serving; and, may provide a great model for some future Congress. — JR Read article here. • Huffman seeks more funding for civic service programs by Richard Halstead, Marin Independent Journal POSTED: 07/10/17, 5:59 PM PDT | 4 COMMENTS   Rep. Jared Huffman has introduced a bill that calls for increased funding for the Peace Corps and similar domestic service programs such as VISTA and AmeriCorps. The International and National Service Promotion to Ignite Renewed Engagement (INSPIRE) Act would provide a new education grant to Peace Corps volunteers and would increase an existing education grant for domestic service volunteers. The bill would also increase loan forgiveness for volunteer teachers . . .

  “We (EXPERIMENTERS) learned by first-hand experience the reality of one world. We learned the language because we had to. We did not do what we wanted to do but what the people of our host country did. We sang their songs, played their games, danced their dances. We walked or rode bicycles as they did. We saw the world through their eyes.” Sargent Shriver  The Experiment in International Living dinner, 1965    • SARGENT SHRIVER, SALLY & LIONEL EPSTEIN, PEACE CORPS and THE EXPERIMENT IN INTERNATIONAL LIVING  by Geri Critchley (Senegal 1971–72)   I first met  Sally & Lionel Eptein in 1976 when I co-directed the DC Office of The Experiment in International Living/EIL (www.experiment.org/) founded in 1932, the oldest international education exchange organization in the USA. The Experiment in International Living is now under the umbrella of World Learning (https://www.worldlearning.org/)    In 1934, Sargent Shriver received an Experiment scholarship to participate in one of the first . . .

http://files.peacecorps.gov/documents/MS-131-Policy.pdf Peace Corps Act, 22 U.S.C. 2501, et seq. 3.0 Organization “The Office of External Affairs is headed by the Associate Director for External Affairs. The Associate Director for External Affairs reports directly to the Chief of Staff. The Office of External Affairs includes four sub-units: the Office of Strategic Partnerships and Intergovernmental Affairs; the Office of Gifts and Grants Management; the Office of Communications; and the Office of Congressional Relations. Each office is headed by a Director or Officer who reports to the Associate Director for External Affairs. 4.0 Office Missions 4.1 Office of External Affairs The mission of the Office of External Affairs to provide coordination and support for the Peace Corps external engagement with other agencies and partners, the media and Congress. 4.2 Office of Gifts and Grants Management The mission of the Office of Gifts and Grants Management is to oversee and manage the solicitation and . . .

  Washington, D.C., July 7, 2017 — The White House has appointed Ashley Bell as the new Associate Director for External Affairs at Peace Corps. As head of External Affairs, Bell will oversee Peace Corps’ Offices of Communications, Congressional Relations, Gifts and Grants Management and Strategic Partnerships and Intergovernmental Affairs.   “Peace Corps volunteers represent the best the United States has to offer and I am grateful for the opportunity to support an agency founded in the American ideal of serving others,” Bell said. “As head of External Affairs, my hope is to highlight to the public the vital role Peace Corps plays in irrevocably changing the lives of both volunteers and the communities they help.” Bell joins Peace Corps with a wealth of experience in external affairs and international relations. Prior to Peace Corps, Bell served as a special advisor in the Public Affairs Bureau of the Department of State, where . . .

https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/articles/peace-corps-museum-its-about-time “By the Committee for the Museum of the Peace Corps Experience If you are like most Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, you consider your national service in the name of peace as a critically informative and influential life experience. With this in mind, we have formed a nonprofit organization to establish a national Museum of the Peace Corps Experience to educate people about Peace Corps and preserve its legacy. Museum Mission Our mission is to inspire connection with the world by sharing the Peace Corps experience of living in different cultures.  Returned Peace Corps Volunteers’ rich understanding of world cultures and empathy for diverse lifestyles will be harnessed to produce engaging, educational exhibits, both physical and virtual. The museum is dedicated to sharing the Peace Corps story, expanding human understanding and promoting the values of civil society.  The museum will take on a major documentary role as well as collecting and exhibiting artifacts and producing . . .

  Now isn’t the time to cut Peace Corps funding by Taylor Dibbert (Guatemala 2006-08) first published by The Hill 7/5/17 •   Donald Trump’s transactional tendencies, proclivity for autocrats and superficial grasp of world affairs means that there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about American foreign policy in the coming years. With the release of the Trump administration’s proposed budget, it’s obvious that the president doesn’t understand the importance of American soft power. Trump’s plans to gut funding for international development, foreign aid and diplomacy are woefully misguided. He needs to urgently reconsider his current approach because it’s harmful to American interests. More specifically, team Trump plans to reduce Peace Corps spending by close to $12 million immediately. While many had been worried about an even bigger Peace Corps funding cut, this is not good news and could portend even deeper cuts in the years ahead. It’s time for Trump . . .

These writers are all RPCVs whom I wrote about recently for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs website. The eight writers tell how they have used their overseas experiences in their writing careers. JC Writing From Another Country Throughout the history of literature in the United States, American writers have looked towards, and gone to, foreign countries to seek inspiration, new experiences, and find work. Henry James in The American (1878) and Samuel Clemens in The Innocents Abroad (1869) were early writers who wrote about their new experience in Europe. Next, we had Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel of a half-dozen ex-pats in Paris The Sun Also Rises. Not only novelists, but poets, too, traveled abroad. T.S. Eliot and Robert Penn Warren are two. They went to England to find work and sources of inspiration. Robert Penn Warren, the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry, first went to London in . . .