The Peace Corps

This article I wrote in 1999 and I repost it now so new Volunteers will know the early history of their agency. JC Let me start with a quote from Gerard T. Rice’s book, The Bold Experiment: JFK’s Peace Corps: In 1961 John F. Kennedy took two risky and conflicting initiatives in the Third World. One was to send five hundred additional military advisers into South Vietnam; by 1963 there would be seventeen thousand such advisers. The other was to send five hundred young Americans to teach in the schools and work in the fields of eight developing countries. These were Peace Corps Volunteers. By 1963 there would be seven thousands of them in forty-four countries. Vietnam scarred the American psyche, leaving memories of pain and defeat. But Kennedy’s other initiative inspired, and continued to inspire, hope and understanding among Americans and the rest of the world. In that sense, . . .

  William Josephson writes…..   Five Peace Corps scandals could have benefited from some fact checking, editing and consultation. The overall impression is that they are characteristic.  They are not.  They occurred over a very long period of time. “Scandal” is a misnomer in many of these cases. The Kate Puzey 2011 murder is so well known that it engendered a congressional reaction, and the Peace Corps’ continuing efforts to develop effective policies that reduce Peace Corps volunteer sexual harassment or worse. The death of the PCV wife of a Tanganyikan PCV dates to my 1960s time as Peace Corps General Counsel.  Not so incidentally, the husband’s verdict was “not proven,” not not guilty.  The Scottish system of three verdicts, guilty, not guilty, not proven, was followed there at that time. The Tonga killing occurred in 1977.  Sex would seem to have been a, or the, motive.  Tragic it was, . . .

  Peace Corps Zambia swore into service 31 Volunteers following 11 weeks of training in technical skills, language, and inter-cultural understanding. The Volunteers will work with community members in rural areas of Zambia on education and health programs in the Central, Eastern, Luapula, Northern, Muchinga, Northwestern, and Southern provinces. Eighteen of the Volunteers will serve under the Ministry of Education to support teachers in primary and lower secondary schools (grade 5 to 9) in developing innovative and gender-equitable teaching methodologies, in addition to teaching English. The remaining 13 Volunteers will serve under the Ministry of Health to support community health workers in promoting strategies to improve maternal, neonatal, and child health, in addition to teaching about malaria control and prevention methods. The Minister of Education, Honorable Douglas Syakalima, was the guest of honor at the ceremony. His Royal Highness Chief Chamuka VI of the Lenje people, and Director of Public . . .

President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, doled out Halloween candy Monday to trick-or-treaters dressed up as everything from Spider-Man to a flamingo to a monk to a zombie founding father at a soggy celebration on the south side of the White House. It was the Bidens’ first time welcoming trick-or-treaters as president and first lady. They were in Europe for Halloween last year, their first in the White House. They had the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the executive mansion lit up in orange for the spooky holiday. Despite rainfall Monday, some 5,000 guests — children and their adult chaperones — were expected to stream through the event, where Biden and his wife handed out treats as part of this year’s “Trick-or-Treating in the President and First Lady’s Neighborhood.” The invitation list included children of local firefighters, nurses, police officers and National Guard members invited through local community groups, labor unions and other organizations, the White . . .

  October 28, 2022 The arrival of this inaugural cohort of Trainees is a significant milestone for bilateral relations between the United States and Viet Nam. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Peace Corps has announced that 10 Peace Corps Trainees arrived safely in Hanoi, Viet Nam, in an historic first. Earlier this week, Peace Corps headquarters staff organized a sendoff event in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the landmark occasion. The Honorable Nguyen Quoc Dzung, Ambassador of Viet Nam to the U.S., offered the Trainees his support for their service. Next week, the U.S. Ambassador to Viet Nam, the Honorable Marc Knapper, will welcome the Trainees to Viet Nam at the Peace Corps office in Hanoi. “Formalizing our country partnership with Viet Nam began with discussions in 2002, which led to the signing of an implementing agreement in 2020, and culminated in yesterday’s joyous moment when the first Trainees stepped foot on Vietnamese soil,” said Peace . . .

The CorpsAfrica team comprises people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, bound together by our commitment to youth leaders and communities across Africa. We work across seven countries, supporting 600+ Volunteers and alums. To meet the needs of our growing organization, we are currently seeking several impact-driven, dynamic individuals who will be instrumental to the organization’s growth in the following leadership positions: At the Global Support Office: Chief Development Officer Chief Financial Officer Human Resources Manager In Senegal: Deputy Director of CorpsAfrica/Senegal Please apply and share these opportunities with anyone that might be interested. You can also find the position descriptions on the jobs page of our website here. Thank you for your ongoing support! Sincerely, Liz Fanning (Morocco 1993-95) Founder and Executive Director

from John Coyne —   I found this item on Library Thing   In 1959, a groundbreaking study of nonverbal communication, The Silent Language, was published to international acclaim. Written by Edward T. Hall, a cultural anthropologist, it was one of the first books to examine the complex ways people communicate with one another without speaking. More than thirty years later, The Silent Language has never been out of print, has been translated into several languages, has sold more than 1.5 million copies in the U.S., and remains the definitive book in its field. Today, Ned Hall is a world-renowned expert in intercultural communication, sought after by government agencies, businesses and universities throughout the world for his expertise in interpreting the hidden meanings behind what people are saying to one another. Now, in a remarkably candid and personal book, he tells the story of the first fifty years of his . . .

Christopher Martin kicks off the first Hyde lecture of the season at University of Nebraska–Lincoln By Kerry McCulloug… October 25, 2022 The College of Architecture is excited to announce Christopher Martin (Ghana 2008-10), nationally renowned furniture design-maker, will be giving a Hyde/ Kunzendorf co-sponsored lecture titled “Design Tangents; A Story of Exploration and Common Threads” at 4 p.m., October 28, in the Union Swanson Auditorium. Martin is founder of Christopher Martin Furniture and works as a furniture designer/ maker on commission work and produces a line of small batch furniture pieces for sale online. He also collaborates with traditional artisans in Ghana and India. Before opening his own business Martin taught furniture design in the Department of Art and Visual Culture at Iowa State University starting in 1999, retiring in 2022 as an emeritus professor. In 2008 Martin took leave from his teaching position to serve as a U.S. Peace Corps . . .

5 scandals that have put the Peace Corps in a negative light Nick Penzenstadler USA TODAY  Oct. 24, 2022 The Peace Corps, an independent federal agency, was founded by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to promote “world peace and friendship.” It has dispatched more than 240,000 American volunteers to 141 countries.   Despite its noble goals, the agency has been plagued by a series of scandals, sexual abuse and violence suffered by employees and volunteers. Here are a few examples: 1. Sexual assaults and the murder of Kate Puzey In May 2011, dozens of volunteers provided written testimony to Congress about problems with the Peace Corps’ handling of sexual violence, ranging from failures to train volunteers to mistreatment after assaults. In November 2011, President Barack Obama signed the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act, named after a volunteer killed in 2009 after she reported sexual misconduct by a coworker and Peace . . .

  Steven Boyd Saum, Director of Strategic Communications at National Peace Corps Association and Editor of WorldView magazine has resigned from the National Peace Corps Association. Steve writes…. After serving as editor of WorldView magazine and directing strategic communications for National Peace Corps Association for the past several years, this is my last week wearing both of those hats. I’ll be sharing more news shortly on the new role I’ll be taking on in California. It’s been a privilege to work with stellar colleagues and to lead a hard-working and creative team during this unprecedented time. An incredible community-driven effort animated the “Peace Corps Connect to the Future” town halls, summit, and report — and laid the groundwork for the most sweeping Peace Corps legislation in a generation. Thanks to contributions of partners and interns and folks across the Peace Corps community, the stories and images that populate WorldView have shaped a magazine . . .

I am sorry for the aging information.  I received the final response to my original August 5. FOIA request on October 7, 2022. The FOIA request is 22-0141. I do not know what caused the long delay,  In June, I had made a FOIA request for the number of serving Volunteers and received a prompt and detailed response. (https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/number-of-peace-corps-voluntees-serving-as-of-june-28-2022/) This is what I had requested, anticipating the same kind of response I had received earlier.  “Documents which show how many more Volunteers entered service after June 28, 2022 and were in service as of August 4, 2022;” and on August 30, 2022, you clarified your request to indicate you would, “like to know the number of Volunteers as of  August 23, 2022.” ” A search conducted by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer provided the following information: between the dates of June 28, 2022 and August 23, 2022, an additional . . .

A spiritual memoir and travelogue, God through Binoculars: A Hitchhiker at a Monastery is about where you go when you have nowhere left to go. After a difficult childhood and a series of tragedies and misfortunes, author Danusha Goska finds herself without hope for the future. Supported by her passion for travel and discovery, as well as her commitment to Catholicism, Goska decides on a retreat at a remote Cistercian monastery. What results is a story about family, friends, nature, and God; the Ivory Tower and the Catholic Church. God through Binoculars is utterly naked and, at times, politically incorrect. Some readers will be shocked. Others will be thrilled and refreshed by its candor, immediacy, and intimacy. Her previous, highly-rated book, Save Send Delete, was enormously well-received, and readers will find that Goska’s ability to tell a masterful story with a powerful message continues in God through Binoculars. God Through . . .

Air Mail “My dad thinks it a good idea to take all the leaves off the tree and rake up the yard. I think he’s crazy.” Banana bikes, top, and a Tupperware party, above, photographed by Bill Owens. “Tupperware is a homemaker’s dream,” said one subject. “I enjoy cooking, dogs, cats, kids, soccer, and living here.”  Keeping Up with Bill Owens The chronicler of small-town America is out with a new book, corresponding to the 50th-anniversary exhibition of his seminal work, Suburbia OCTOBER 8, 2022 “I’m always interested in the story behind the story about what America is about,” the photographer Bill Owens has said. “Not the superficial images of America.” Born in San Jose in 1938, Owens was raised on a farm, then joined the Peace Corps, shipping out to Jamaica (1964-65). He took a camera with him and learned how to use it. When Owens returned to Northern California to study visual anthropology, . . .