The Peace Corps

In the Fall, 1999 issue of the Friends of Nigeria Newsletter, Frank recalls the incident and those early tense days in Ibadan, Nigeria. Murray writes: The Postcard Affair began October 14, 1961. That was the day Peace Corps Nigeria almost came to an end . . . before it started. And I was in the middle of it all. Nigeria I had arrived in Ibadan early in October. Volunteers were settling into dormitories at the University of Ibadan (then a part of the University of London and called University College of Ibadan) where they would continue the training started at Harvard. I was the Western Region Peace Corps Representative. My family and I arrived in September, ahead of any other Regional Representatives and their families. Brent Ashabranner, who left AID to become Nigeria’s first Peace Corps Director, helped us get settled. We had a house in Bodija, a middle-class development between the center of . . .

  Thanks to John Dougherty, Co-Coordinator, Thirsters, for this notice. * VISIT FROM PEACE CORPS THAILAND GROUP 1 – OCTOBER 20th 2016 Dear Thirsters in Residence: On Thursday, October 20th, some of the folks from Peace Corps Thailand Group 1 will visit with us at McMenamin’s. They are in Portland to celebrate their 55th anniversary on October 17-21. Bob Textor was one of their teachers and a friend until his death, and Bob attended the 50th reunion in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit the Friends of Thailand website: http://www.friendsofthailand.org/thailandrpcvs/groups/thai01/Thai01.html On the website, take a look at Sumner Sharpe’s Recollections, the 1972 January Graduation: Thai I Group and the 50th Anniversary. Sumner talks about Bob Textor in his recollections. At the 1972 graduation and the 50thAnniversary in Washington, DC, there are pictures of Bob. UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSION TOPICS: November 3rd: What users want from smart phones – Zara Logue November 10th: . . .

[A number of people have emailed me to ask about my mentioning of the “Marjorie Michelmore Peace Corps Postcard.” It is a story that they never heard before. What was that, they ask. Well, here’s the full story again (I first blogged it back in 2009), in ten short blogs.] Marjorie Michelmore was a twenty-three-year-old magna cum laude graduate of Smith College when she became one of the first people to apply to the new Peace Corps in 1961. She was an attractive, funny, and smart woman who was selected to go to Nigeria. After seven weeks of training at Harvard, her group flew to Nigeria. There she was to complete the second phase of teacher training at University College at Ibadan, fifty miles north of the capital of Lagos. By all accounts, she was an outstanding Trainee. Then on the evening of October 13, 1961, she wrote a postcard to a . . .

 From the archives  What JFK Had To Say To Us On The White House Lawn APRIL 8, 1993 BY JOHN COYNE A police escort with sirens blaring led our dozen Peace Corps buses in one long continuous caravan through every downtown light in Washington, D.C. It was high noon in the District the summer of 1962, less than a year after the famous postcard dropped by a PCV had been found on the Ibadan campus that almost doomed the Peace Corps and we–the 300 Ethiopia-bound Peace Corps Trainees at Georgetown University–were on our way to meet John F. Kennedy at the White House. There were other Peace Corps Trainees as well meeting the President that afternoon. Peace Corps Trainees at Howard, American, Catholic, George Washington universities, and the University of Maryland, over 600 in all, gathered in the August heat and humidity on the great lawn below the Truman Balcony. Arriving at the White . . .

  A Hundred Veils Rea  Keech (Iran 1967–69) Real Nice Books 2015 310 pages $9.99 (paperback), $27.99 (hardcover), $2.00 (Kindle) Reviewed by Darcy Munson Meijer (Gabon 1982–84) • Rea Keech has written a novel that informs, inspires and delights. A Hundred Veils is a love story that takes place in 1968 Iran. The protagonist is Marco, a young American teaching English at the University of Tehran for the International Teachers Association. As Keech served with the Peace Corps in Iran at the same time, his novel necessarily draws much of its verisimilitude from his experiences there. Of all the books Peace Corps Worldwide’s editor offered me to review, I immediately chose this book. My family and I have just left the United Arab Emirates after 7 years of contented living, and I am eager to read anything about the Middle East. I miss the Emiratis’ generosity, their keen sense of . . .

 John F. Kennedy Service Award Each member of the Peace Corps family contributes to the agency’s success. The John F. Kennedy Service Award honors just a few of these individuals who go above and beyond for the Peace Corps and America every day. The Peace Corps established the John F. Kennedy Award in 2006 to honor the hard work and sacrifice of six individuals who have given outstanding service to the Peace Corps at home and abroad. The award is presented every five years to two current Peace Corps Volunteers, one returned Peace Corps Volunteer, one returned Peace Corps Response Volunteer and two Peace Corps staff members. Award recipients demonstrate exceptional service and leadership and further the Peace Corps mission and its three goals: To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained Volunteers To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of . . .

Lisa Einstein (Guinea 2016-18) is currently working as a physics teacher in the Let Girls Learn initiative. She studied physics and dance at Princeton, and her goal is to combine her artistic and scientific passions to address social issues, especially through girls’ education. Yesterday, on the International Day of the Girl, Scientific American Magazine published Lisa’s music video on its site. Take a look at her amazing blog to see how she is achieving her goal….teaching science and math to young girls in Guinea, and changing minds about girls’ education! https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/girls-can-t-do-math-or-science/    

It is that time again….a new administration in January, and a “new” direction for the Peace Corps. This is the document written in the fall of 2008, shortly before President Obama took office. It is fascinating to see how few of these recommendations from the Task Force (not surprising, I’d say) were adopted by the Obama Administration. I have ‘pulled’ one of those suggestions out and highlighted it. How often have we heard about the increasing of PCVs?  This is a Word Document taken from a PDF.  (John Coyne) During the Presidential campaign, President-elect Obama made the following comment in a speech at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa when introducing Senator Harris Wofford, a person with a close association to the Peace Corps since the days of John Kennedy: “It is an honor to be introduced by Harris Wofford – one of America’s greatest advocates for public service. Starting with . . .

  Read about Patrick O’Leary’s long history with Sierra Leone in his newly published memoir From Freeborn to Freetown & Back. Patrick was a Minnesota farm kid who grew up in Freeborn County, Minnesota, when he became  a Peace Corp trainee at Syracuse University in 1966 for the Tanzania XIII program. But once training was completed the program was cancelled, and many of the trainees were sent to Sierra Leone, West Africa — including Patrick. He became a agricultural advisor and worked with farmers in an upcountry chiefdom. As a Volunteer Patrick had a number of adventures including being bitten by a poisonous snake, driving over and killing a pregnant cow, and raising chickens that were quickly killed by driver ants. During Patrick’s Peace Corps service he developed a relationship with the village chief that lasted 40 years. He accompanied the chief to Sierra Leone’s diamond mining area, and later was the guest of the chief’ — then a member of Parliament— at the . . .

In the Peace Corps world of the early Sixties, the noun “Shriverized” meant “to enlarge, to speed up, to apply greater imagination.”  As an English major I had never heard of the word, but in the linqua franca world of the new Peace Corps, this ‘noun’ changed my life. I had come of age with the Presidency of John F. Kennedy, and was a small part of the New Frontier as a PCV. I was ‘Shriverized” by the man himself, R. Sargent Shriver. It was as a Trainee for the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1962, when I first met President Kennedy, and when I first met Sargent Shriver. I was a “Kennedy’s Kid’ and, yes, I was, like hundreds, and then thousands, of others going to change the world forever in the New Frontier. And, yes, we really, really believed we would. We believed because . . .

  Living a Life by Don Beil (Somalia 1964–66) Robert (“Bob”) W. Blackburn (Deputy Director/Somalia 1964–66), 81, died Saturday, September 10, 2016. For several weeks before his death he knew his heart was giving out, and he spoke openly of the wonderful life he had enjoyed, and the realization that it was coming to an end. On Friday evening he felt it was imminent and all of his immediate family gathered to spend that evening talking warmly with him until past midnight. In the early morning they found that Bob had died peacefully in his sleep. Those of use who knew him can take comfort in his open acceptance of the inevitable and repeated assurances of his appreciation for the life he enjoyed with each of us. Bob spoke to those near him in his last days in such a calm manner that he was comforting us, thinking of others as he . . .

Clinton’s national service plan is great Mark Lenzi in USA Today Mark Lenzi, a former spokesman for the New Hampshire Republican Party, was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kielce, Poland. He owns a steel sheet piling company based in New Hampshire. During my Peace Corps service, I would sometimes be asked by genuinely inquisitive students whether Americans were as shallow as reality TV shows and Hollywood movies seemed to indicate. Was it true that the average American could name three pro wrestling stars (“And you do understand it is fake, right?”) yet have no idea millions were being killed in places like Congo? Could a typical person in New Hampshire find a country such as France let alone Sudan on a blank map? Though I would often find myself getting defensive with questions like these and tried my best to refute or at least deflect them, I now find myself faced with the irony of a . . .

  NPR’s Michel Martin interviewed Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet and Dr. Vanessa Kerry, Executive Director of Global Health Services Corps, January 14, 2013.  Read the transcript of the interview “New Ground for Peace Corps.” In the interview, Director Hessler-Radelet explains that Peace Corps doctors and nurses have served in the Peace Corps since its very beginning. The majority of these serving medical professionals were in community health programs. The partnership with Global Health Services Corps will emphasize  building health system strengthening  and will begin with medical education. This new partnership with Global Health Services was discussed on Peace Corps World Wide when it began. Here are links to other sources that provide additional information about the partnership. This is the link to a pdf of the original Peace Corps contract with Global Health Services. The following interview, “A Peace Corps For Doctors, Built By A Senator’s Daughter,” is the first one on . . .

Concept Paper for the Peace Corps Global Health Service Partnership  “How many of you who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? . . . On your willingness to do that not merely to serve one year or two years . . . . but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.” Senator John F. Kennedy during the 1960 Presidential Campaign on the first mention of what became the Peace Corps Speaking before 5,000 students at The University of Michigan, 2 a.m., October 14, 1960  “As we transition from an emergency response to a more sustainable approach, we are supporting partner . . .

State Department-funded nonprofit that John Kerry had ‘No Role’ in, was rounded in his home  U.S. Senator John Kerry waves as he escorts his daughter Vanessa. (Reuters/John Schults) A nonprofit created in Secretary of State John Kerry’s upscale Boston home and managed by his daughter Vanessa Kerry has received more than $9 million from the Department of State, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found. Seed Global Health was founded at 19 Louisburg Sq in Boston’s Beacon Hill, tax forms indicate.News reports show that’s Kerry’s home address, which Zillow estimates is worth nearly $18 million. Kerry’s wife, Teresa, is an heir to the Heinz family fortune. Beacon Hill is the most expensive block in Boston, with median home values estimated at $6.7 million in 2015, a Boston Globe affiliate reported. The Boston Business Journal ranked Kerry’s house the third most valuable home in the city in 2013. The Department of . . .