The Peace Corps

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Bill Preston (Thailand 1977-80)   Writing didn’t serve the purpose I wanted it to, which was to fix the fundamentally broken relationship between myself and other people. By Kristen Roupoenian (Kenya 2003-05) The New Yorker, August 5, 2021   My favorite literary magazine is one you probably haven’t heard of. It’s called Resonance, and it’s a small annual publication featuring a mixture of fiction, poetry, and art. Although a new issue of Resonance has appeared every year since at least the early nineteen-nineties, I have read only six of them, the ones published between 1993 and 1999. I have those issues virtually memorized, as I reread the entirety of each issue, on average, once a year. I’ve probably read my favorite poems and stories in the magazine upward of a hundred times, so I think it’s safe to say that I’ve read the writing in Resonance more carefully than . . .

The House Votes a Boost in Peace Corps Funding. And Registration Is Opening Soon for Peace Corps Connect 2021. We got some good news from Congress on July 28: The House of Representatives approved a $430.5 million Peace Corps budget for fiscal year 2022. That’s an increase of $20 million — nearly 5 percent. It could point to the first meaningful increase in funding in six years. We’ve also seen increasing bipartisan support for the Peace Corps Reauthorization Act of 2021, introduced by RPCV Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) and colleague Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA). The legislation would bring some much-needed reforms for a better and stronger Peace Corps. If you’re meeting with your members of Congress in the weeks ahead, support for this legislation — and funding — are critical items to have on the agenda. The Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet taken up the State Department/Foreign Operations bill, which would include funding for the Peace Corps. But . . .

Pedals for Progres by Zachary Sherry Borgen Magazine August 5, 2021 David Schweidenback (Ecuador 1978-80) founded Pedals for Progress after his time in the Peace Corps. It is now one of the largest distributors of used bikes to developing nations. Since 1991, Pedals for Progress (P4P) has operated as a non-profit organization in New Jersey. It started when Mr. Schweidenback noticed an abundance of bikes thrown into garbage in his neighborhood during a bleak financial time while working as a carpenter. Connecting his experience overseas with what Americans were wasting at home, he chose to make a difference. Schweidenback spoke with The Borgen Project in an interview. He explained, “I decided if I wasn’t doing anything and I’m not making money and I’m just sitting here bored, I’m going to go out and collect a dozen bikes and I’m going to ship them back to Ecuador. Just like a freebie, a . . .

  A Commitment to Nonprofits, and to Each Other     In 2014, Derek Owens and Chelsea Segal randomly sat next to each other at the orientation session for their two-year stint in the Peace Corps. “Two of you will get married, it always happens,” the facilitator told the cohort of 48 people on the crest of their placement in Panama. “I was certain it would not be me,” said Mr. Owens, now 32. After growing up in the small town of Bluffton, S.C., Mr. Owens graduated from Clemson University in 2011, and then worked in a family-owned printing company. “I went into the Peace Corps wanting to learn more about myself and the people I would be living with,” he said. “I was absolutely committed to not getting attached.” Ms. Segal, now 30, felt similarly. After a childhood in Miami, she attended the University of Michigan, from which she . . .

  Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal by George Packer (Togo 1982-83) 240 pages Farrar, Straus and Giroux June 2021 $27.00 (Hardback); $13.99 (Kindle); $7.95 (Audiobook)   Reviewed by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) • I immediately said yes when I was asked to review George Packer’s new book, Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal, a self-described political pamphlet in a long-form essay, not unlike Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and other such books, written in a period of change, about that very change. Written for the moment, the authors’ hopes are that they will lead us out of our urgent predicament and tell us something we can use in the future. I remembered that Packer had been a signee of the famous or some would say infamous “Harper’s Magazine Letter,” in which established writers and artists wrote A Letter on Justice and Open Debate, decrying the fact . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Matt Losak (Lesotho 1985-87) Washington Post Jeremy M. Black (Comoros 1992-94) Jeremy M. Black, 53, beloved husband, father, son, brother, nephew, and uncle, passed away needlessly from gun violence on Tuesday, June 29, 2021. Jeremy is the husband of Cathy Feingold and father of two sons, Myles, 17, and Alex, 15. He dedicated his professional life to international development. After earning an undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis, he served as a volunteer for the Peace Corps in the Comoros Islands, leading to a lifelong passion of promoting a deeper understanding between people across and within borders. Jerry went on to receive his graduate degree from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, along with his wife, Cathy Feingold. Jerry and Cathy worked together at the Ford Foundation before moving to Washington, DC, where Jerry worked at the Aspen Institute . . .

A Peace Corps worker was on a date in D.C. with his wife. Then came a stray bullet. Jeremy “Jerry” Black, a Peace Corps worker, was fatally shot on 14th Street NW on June 29, 2021. By Theresa Vargas Columnist Cathy Feingold doesn’t know who the women were or what lives they had led. All she knows is that they appeared during one of her darkest moments and knew exactly what to do as her husband lay on a busy Northwest D.C. sidewalk, dying from a gunshot wound. That night in June, as Feingold tells it, she and her husband, Jeremy Black, a Peace Corps worker who had dedicated his life to helping others, had been on a date. They had enjoyed dinner with two friends at a 14th Street restaurant and, because the weather was welcoming, decided to take a walk. The four made it only a few blocks . . .

July 20, 2021 From July 19 to August 13, the Peace Corps will accept nominations for awards to honor exceptional returned volunteers and staff WASHINGTON – Today, nominations for the Peace Corps’ John F. Kennedy Service Awards will open and be accepted until 11:59 p.m., Friday, August 13, 2021. The award, presented every five years, honors President John F. Kennedy’s vision, leadership, and commitment to public service by recognizing members of the Peace Corps community who have made exceptional contributions toward realizing the mission and goals of the agency. “The Peace Corps community is made up of incredibly dedicated people who share a passion for service above self,” said Acting Director Carol Spahn. “I am inspired every day by the fierce commitment of our staff and volunteers and it will certainly be a challenge to select the winners.” John F. Kennedy Service Award candidates must demonstrate outstanding service and leadership . . .

  Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) has a long, long essay in the issue entitled “Year of the Bunny Hill” As China prepares to host the Winter Olympics, the country gets on skis The article is on a trip Peter and his family took to Wanlong, site of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Peter, who is teaching in Chengdu, will be leaving China soon, I’m told. His visa wasn’t renewed. Peter who has been in China with his wife and twin daughters for several years might have ‘run-up against’ the government because of his New Yorkers articles. Peter began to write for the magazine in 2000. His most recent book, based on his years in Egypt is entitled, The Buried. Peter and his family, I presume, will be returning to Colorado where they own a home in a small town an hour from Telluride. While Peter’s wife Leslie and their two girls . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Dick Lipez (Ethiopia 1962-64).   The following is an interview with Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (Cameroon 1965-66) on NBC-CT, after the bill passed the House with a unanimous vote. • Bill Passes That Could Give Hartford Woman a Reward She Was Denied in 1953 A 2008 memoir Girls of Tender Age written by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith documenting the murder of an 11-year old girl and efforts to arrest her killer inspired the bill passed by the Connecticut Congress. Lawmakers in the House recently voted to approve a bill to provide a reward to a woman in her 80s, who as a teen, helped get a murderer and sexual predator off the streets of Hartford. Connecticut’s General Assembly unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that could give a woman a reward she earned nearly 70 years ago. House Bill 5088 was introduced to recognize and compensate Ms. Patricia . . .

    Peace Corps celebrates 60th anniversary, Tuesday, July 20, 1:30 p.m. Program presented by Barry Hillenbrand (Ethiopia 1963-65), former TIME magazine correspondent. Registration # 914400-17. On the program will be a discussion of:“Peace Corps Volunteers End Smallpox In the 1970s – 73 Peace Corps volunteers helped the World Health Organization eradicate smallpox in Ethiopia and ultimately the world. The story has important parallels to today’s battle against Covid-19. To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Peace Corps, Barry Hillenbrand, former Time magazine correspondent, will share the experiences of these remarkable volunteers, as memorialized in Eradicating Smallpox in Ethiopia. • July 20 Tuesday 1:30-2:30 p.m. Virtual #914400-17 1 session” Flourishing After 55 in Arlington: 55+ Programs are virtual and outdoors. A 55+ Membership is required to participate ($20 annual fee). To join or register, go to registration.arlingtonva.us or call 703-228-4747. Local Media Connection LLC Independent, locally owned publishers of the Connection Newspapers, 15 . . .

  Please join Lew (and other writers) on Thursday, July 15 at 6 PM (PDT) as he reads from his new novel Solomon’s Net. Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino, California, requests that you register at their website:  https://www.gallerybookshop.com/event/authors-night-online-0 Solomon’s Net – A Tale Of Madness It’s the summer of 1973. Steve Williams, recently terminated Peace Corps Volunteer is being treated for paranoid schizophrenia by his doctors in Iowa. But Steve knows the real problem is evil Zar demons and only his Ethiopian lover Abebech can help. However, they’d never let Steve back into Ethiopia, not after what he did. Based on real events, through Steve, we explore how delusional disorders were treated by Western psychiatry in the early 1970s. Through Abebech we learn how traditional Ethiopian healers treated madness. • Solomon’s Net: A Tale Of Madness by Lew  Mermelstein (Ethiopia 1970 – 73) Does Not Apply, publisher January 2020 398 pages

https://www.peacecorps.gov/news/library/peace-corps-takes-steps-return-service-overseas/   “June 30, 2021 Agency will resume inviting volunteers to serve in countries that have met rigorous health, security and safety standards Today, the Peace Corps announced that it is a step closer to returning volunteers to overseas service. The agency will resume inviting volunteers to serve at posts that have met a comprehensive set of health, safety and security criteria. “Following 15 months of global isolation, tireless work by our staff around the world and incredible patience from our applicants and host country partners, the Peace Corps is moving forward in the process of returning to our overseas posts,” said Acting Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn. “The Peace Corps is advancing with an abundance of caution, flexibility and pragmatism, but also with so much hope about all the important work that is ahead of us.” While the COVID-19 pandemic remains a dynamic challenge, the agency has developed a . . .