The Peace Corps

JULY 29, 2016 DEBORAH GARDNER, DENNIS PRIVEN: ‘PASSPORT TO MURDER’ LOOKS BACK AT 1976 PEACE CORPS MURDER IN TONGA BY JEALOUS, OBSESSED MAN Deborah Gardner, the young teacher and Peace Corps volunteer who was stabbed to death by a jealous suitor on the island of Tonga 40 years ago, will be the next story to be documented on Passport To Murder on ID. Passport To Murder has done an excellent job of taking Investigation Discovery viewers across the globe to the most exotic locations, where American tourists end up murdered in paradise. Deborah Gardner’s story will air on the episode titled, “The Devil In Paradise.” The murder, which has been covered on CBS’ 48 Hours, will trace the steps of a beloved volunteer worker who was found stabbed dozens of times by another volunteer. Tune into Passport To Murder tonight, Friday, July 29, 2016 at 10/9 p.m. Central on Investigation Discovery. A Find A Grave entry for Deborah Gardner describes . . .

Jocelyn Zuckerman is the Executive Editor of Modern Farmer. She is also the former executive editor of Whole Living, deputy editor of Gourmet, and articles editor of On Earth. She is also a recipient of a James Beard Award for feature writing and of fellowships from the Peter Jennings Project and The Carter Center….as well, she is a former PCV in Kenya. She is also the mother of two lovely daughters and lives with her husband in Brooklyn. What more would anyone want? Well, we decided she needed to be interviewed for our site. What is this all about, Jocelyn…. in your bio from Modern Farming As a teacher in Kenya, Jocelyn once opened her door to find a particularly grateful student bearing a live chicken in a plastic bag. Oh, the mag wanted some little anecdote involving farming. I had a student I was very close to when I . . .

Tony D’Souza (Cote d’Ivoire  2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) widely lauded for his  novels Whiteman (a New York Times Editor’s Pick) and Mule  (optioned for film by Warner Bros.) has been based in  Sarasota, FL, the past few years, where he is raising his  two young children and is a contributing editor at Sarasota Magazine. He’s regularly been winning Florida magazine and  journalism prizes, and this past Saturday in Miami, he took  home three more awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. This year, he took first prizes in Public Service Reporting and Investigative Reporting, as well as a  second prize in Investigative Reporting. His long form feature stories which were recognized by the SPJ include “Going Nowhere,” a months-long investigation of  the homeless and their treatment by the affluent communities of southwest Florida. https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/articles/2014/12/31/41465 “Going Nowhere” also received the 2015 Florida Magazine Award for Best Public Service Coverage and has been featured  on long form magazine websites and public radio. Another is “The Sky is . . .

Averill Strasser (Bolivia 1966–68), who lives in Mount Shasta, CA, is co-founder (with fellow Mount Shasta resident JahSun) and Chief Operating Officer of Water Charity. As a PCV Strasser taught engineering at the University of San Andres in La Paz. Averill received a JD degree in Law from University of West Los Angeles, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Systems Engineering from UCLA.  He worked as a lawyer in Beverly Hills for many years, before embarking on a new career as a businessman and philanthropist. As he says today, “The Peace Corps experience has had a profound influence on every aspect of my life, including educational and career pursuits. It continues to drive me today.” The following story is from MountShastaNews.com and quotes JahSun who teamed up with Strasser to create the non-profit, Water Charity. Thanks to Tony DeSouza for the “heads up” on the article — JC •     Mount Shastan’s . . .

  Clifford Garstang (Korea 1976-77) just announced the coming publication, on September 26, 2016, of Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, Volume II. Like the first volume, this anthology includes 20 stories by 20 writers set in 20 countries, and features the work of several RPCVs: Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1990-93, staff 1995-96); Pamela Hartmann (South Korea, 1973-75); and editor Clifford Garstang. Cliff is the author of In an Uncharted Country and What the Zhang Boys Know (Winner of the 2013 Library of Virginia Award for Fiction) and Editor of Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet.  

A moment to remember a special individual of my youth shared with my beautiful Peace Corps Colombian wife Gloria. It began April 1968 during the riots in the District of Columbia after the death of the Reverend Martin Luther King. We were being posted to Colombia to be Peace Corps Colombia staff, I was to be a Regional Director for the North Coast. But, in order to accept the assignment, Gloria would have to become a US Citizen, State Department policy. Gloria was (is) very proud of Colombia, why should she change being Colombian? Being a strong Liberal, I convinced her that if she became a US Citizen, she would be able to vote for Bobby Kennedy in the California primary…she accepted! Because of the riots in DC and curfew, our stay would be shorten and we would be in Colombia by the end of the week. On our second . . .

Ambassador Christopher J. Stevens was a Peace Corps Volunteer in from 1983 to 1985, he taught English in Morocco.  He joined the Foreign Service utilizing the cultural and skills he gained from his time in Morocco. He was assassinated at the Benghazi, Libya Outpost on September 11, 2012.  Three other Americans were also murdered. The terrorist attack at Benghazi was the subject of numerous Congressional Hearings, although no legislation was ever presented to  prevent such attacks on diplomatic posts in the future.  Now, the tragedy of the lost American lives at Benghazi has become a rallying cry for Republicans in their vendetta against Hillary Clinton.  One grieving mother even spoke at the Republican Convention.  Another, the mother of Ambassador Stevens has pleaded that her son’s death not be used in this manner.  Read her letter, here: To the Editor: As Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens’s mother, I am writing to object to . . .

The Brattleboro Reformer newspaper yesterday carried an article about the summer program at Marlboro College and quoted former PCV Thailand 1976-79 and CD Thailand 2013-15, as well as the recent past president of the NPCA, and now President of Marlboro College, Kevin Quigley: “The Summer Writing Intensive grows out of Marlboro’s fundamental commitment to writing. Our Clear Writing Requirement stems from the belief that clear writing leads to clear thinking, and clear writing in all its forms is a constant focus in the intellectual, political, and social life of the Marlboro community. ” I’d ask Kevin who never was in the military–as many PCVs were–but built his career on Peace Corps service, why doesn’t he honor the many fine Peace Corps ‘vets’  writers and offer them grants to attend this writing intensive?–JC The Brattleboro Reformer article This summer, in collaboration with Words After War, Marlboro College will once again honor . . .

The Wetback and Other Stories, by Ron Arias ISBN 978-1-55885-834-3 Publication date: September 30, 2016 Trade paperback, Arte Publico Press, University of Houston, $17.95 I felt reading these wonderful stories that I was admitted to an adjacent neighborhood, a rich culture that is another world—call it Amexica—both mysterious and magical, that is persuasive through its tenderness. My hope is that Ron Arias continues to write short stories that tell us who we are.                                                                              – Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65) This collection brings together the short fiction of an acclaimed journalist and Chicano literature pioneer.  In the title story, Mrs. Rentería shouts, “David is mine!” as she and her neighbors gather about the dead but . . .

  Kitty Thuermer (Mali 1977-79) recalls Sydney Schanberg, who passed away recently, and his friendship with her father when she was a child growing up in New Delhi. Sydney Hillel Schanberg (January 17, 1934 – July 9, 2016) was an American journalist who was best known for his coverage of the war in Cambodia. He was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, two George Polk awards, two Overseas Press Club awards, and the Sigma Delta Chi prize for distinguished journalism. Schanberg was played by Sam Waterston in the 1984 film The Killing Fields based on the experiences of Schanberg and the Cambodian journalist Dith Pran in Cambodia. — JC • Kitty’s story . . . In the New York Times‘ obit of Sydney Schanberg — whose Cambodia stories inspired “The Killing Fields” movie — there is little to smile about. It describes him as tough and fearless, ready to pursue any story at any cost. Sure enough, back in 1970 while bureau chief in . . .