The Peace Corps

  We are currently hiring for the following headquarters positions:   Chief Operating Officer Deadline to apply is December 10, 2021 Accounting and Evaluation Manager Deadline to apply is December 10, 2021 Communications and Development Associate Deadline to apply is December 10, 2021 Training Coordinator Deadline to apply is December 10, 2021

Kwamboka’s Inquiry by Arthur Dobrin (Kenya 1965-67) Nsemia Inc. Publishers 146 pages March 2017 $8.99 (Kindle); $25.73 (Paperback)     Reviewed by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia 1965-67) The opening scene: Funeral preparations in a churchyard for a murder victim, the respected co-founder of a Kenyan school, who was inexplicably shot to death in her home. Nothing was stolen. Inspector James Dingiria, from Nairobi, outside the district, was sent to investigate. This is the set-up of Arthur Dobrin’s novel, Kwamboka’s Inquiry, which is much about Kenyan society as a murder mystery. Dobrin has an acute eye for physical details that puts the reader on the scene, and an understanding of the underlying social, tribal, and economic tensions that inform the story. He and his wife served in the Peace Corps in Kenya, which made them first-hand witnesses. Initially, the murder was thought to be the work of the Sungu Sungu, originally formed . . .

Peace Corps has been working to establish a program in Vietnam since  2004 and today much has been done in anticipation of Peace Corps in Vietnam next year.  Read: “Annual Report July 2020 to July 2021 Building a Foundation” Peace Corps Vietnam From that report: “The Peace Corps opening in Viet Nam represents decades of work involving hundreds of people with a collective vision for promoting closer people-to-people ties between the United States and Viet Nam. In 2004, Le Van Bang Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs formally invited Peace Corps to Vietnam. Two years later, Peace Corps sent a four-person assessment team led by John L. Williams, the then Peace Corps Thailand Country Director, to Viet Nam to conduct a new country assessment. The report concluded that Viet Nam would provide a welcoming environment in which Volunteers would be successful. On May 24, 2016, during President Obama’s only official trip to . . .

Memorial Service          November 16, 2021 Time: 12 pm ET Location: Washington National Cathedral Address: 3101 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016  live stream link to the service for anyone who can’t travel to D.C. but wish to join online is here: https://youtu.be/qbjbNMRznrE W. Dennis Grubb  Member of Colombia One group of Peace Corps Volunteers (1961-1963), Dennis peacefully entered into eternal rest on October 25, 2021. The Peace Corps, education, global development, and the church have propelled his lifelong service to help others in developing nations on five continents.  “I have worked in 23 countries, which included some of the world’s poorest nations. I experienced suffering and plain simple happiness first hand. I have left many of these countries leaving behind most of my belongings, as I felt the poor people needed my clothes and shoes more than I did.” (sermon St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, 2014). Sargent . . .

  Peace Corps Volunteers Fall Through the Cracks of a Student Loan Fix “Your Money” By Ron Lieberm New York Times Nov. 13, 2021   A deserving group of dedicated people has been left out of the government’s latest patch for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.   When the Education Department announced fixes for its deeply dysfunctional Public Service Loan Forgiveness program last month, hundreds of thousands of long-suffering borrowers were suddenly given a chance at the kind of relief that the federal government had long promised them. But a small, highly deserving group was left out, even though its volunteers passed through a particularly venerable government service program: the Peace Corps. Many Peace Corps alumni say they — like others who are now getting help, including members of the armed forces — received bad advice that set back their attempts to wipe away their loans. But the federal government hasn’t seen . . .

  The Serpent of the Nile: A Novel by Robert Gribbin (Kenya 1968-70) Independently Published August, 2021 138 pages $13.99 (Paperback), $3.99 (Kindle) This novel is about an RPCV who is now a Nairobi based free-lance journalist pursuing stories of corruption, arms smuggling and human trafficking in war-torn South Sudan. He becomes caught up in the violence and intrigue that plagues the world’s most desperate nation. Set against the grim reality and history of the region, this novel accurately portrays the despair, hope and aspirations of South Sudan’s beleaguered people. Reviewed by Alan Johnston (Kenya 1968-71) • The last place that you want to end up is in a prison cell in some remote part of Africa, whether that cell is controlled by a rebel group, an opposition warlord, or a government.  Especially if you happen to be a journalist. Bad things happen in those cells. Yet that is exactly . . .

Here is our new list — as of November 2021 — 407 RPCV & staff authors who have published two or more books (of any type). If you know of someone who has and their name is not on this list, then please email me at: jcoyneone@gmail.com. I know I don’t have all the writers who have been Volunteers or Staff in the Peace Corps over these last 60 years. Thank you. Jerome R. Adams (Colombia 1963–65) Tom Adams (Togo 1974-76) Thomas “Taj” Ainlay, Jr. (Malaysia 1973–75) Elizabeth (Letts) Alalou (Morocco 1983–86) Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) Robert Albritton (Ethiopia 1962-65) Usha Alexander (Vanuatu 1996–97) James G. Alinder (Somalia 1964-66) Richard Alleman (Morocco 1968-70) Hayward Allen (Ethiopia 1962-64) Diane Demuth Allensworth (Panama 1964–66) Paul E. Allaire (Ethiopia 1964–66) D. Allman (Nepal 1966-68) Nancy Amidei (Nigeria 1964–65) Gary Amo (Malawi 1962–64) David C. Anderson (Costa Rica 1964-66) Lauri Anderson (Nigeria 1963-65) Peggy . . .

    Peace Corps Continues to Strengthen Sexual Assault Risk Reduction and Response Work with Release of New Report November 10, 2021   Today, the Peace Corps released a Sexual Assault Advisory Council (SAAC) report outlining recommendations for the agency to further strengthen its Sexual Assault Risk Reduction and Response (SARRR) program. In April, Acting Director Carol Spahn requested that the SAAC, an independent advisory council established by Congress, examine the group’s last five years of recommendations and provide updated guidance on how the agency can bolster its systems to mitigate risk of sexual assault and provide victim-centered and trauma-informed care to survivors. “I am very grateful to the Sexual Assault Advisory Council members for their service. These leaders are at the cutting edge of their respective fields and have come forward at a time when we are called to help tackle an issue that is all too pervasive – both here . . .

This week, we celebrated a special moment in Peace Corps history. It was on November 2, 1960, that John F. Kennedy first gave a name to the idea that would become the Peace Corps. Running for president, in a speech at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, he declared, “I am convinced that the pool of people in this country of ours anxious to respond to the public service is greater than it has ever been in our history.” We know what it means to meet historic moments. Since March 2020, we have seen how the Peace Corps community has met unprecedented times with an unparalleled response. From working to support evacuated Volunteers to helping amid the COVID-19 pandemic, from advocating for a better and stronger Peace Corps to helping refugees, we’ve seen time and again how Peace Corps ideals make an impact. Just last week, the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee convened . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Steve  Kaffen (Russia 1994-96)   from The Hill 10/30/21 by Daniel F. Runde, Opinion Contributor     The Peace Corps celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic there are currently no Peace Corps volunteers serving abroad. As the Peace Corps program practices resiliency and adapts to a post-COVID landscape, it should also use this moment to answer long-existing questions that can redirect the Peace Corps to a more impactful and relevant future. About the Peace Corps The book “The Ugly American” caused a sensation in foreign policy and national security circles when it was released in 1958. It painted Americans as arrogant, out of touch, and insensitive to the needs of the rapidly de-colonizing developing world. It was so influential that then-Senator John F. Kennedy bought 99 copies of the book and gave it to every other Senator to read. “The . . .

No Ghosts in the Graveyard: The Life-Time Adventures of A Small- Town Oregon Boy by Bob Crites (Brazil 1964-66) Independently Published 2021 428 pages $12.99 (Paperback)     When Bob Crites was in the seventh grade in Drain, his social studies teacher Art Biederman showed the class pictures of his summer travels. It sparked what would become a lifelong passion for helping children in other countries. Crites would grow up to help feed school lunches to children in Brazil, form a charity to provide scholarships for children in Brazil and Tanzania, and bring one young athlete to Oregon, where she trained for the Olympics. Crites recently self-published his memoirs, “No Ghosts in the Graveyard: The Life-Time Adventures of a Small-Town Oregon Boy” on Amazon. Crites was born in 1940 in Drain on a farm that had been in his family since his maternal great grandfather Augustus Hickethier founded it in . . .

  Mildred D. Taylor (Ethiopia 1965-67) is our Peace Corps Writer of 2021. Millie is also the winner of the 2021 Children’s Literature Legacy Award presented by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, honoring an author or illustrator, published in the United States, whose books have made a significant and lasting contribution to literature for children. Her numerous works include “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” (Dial, 1976) and “All the Days Past, All the Days to Come” (Dial, 2020). “Taylor’s storytelling shows how courage, dignity, and family love endure amidst racial injustice and continues to enlighten hearts and minds of readers through the decades,” said Children’s Literature Legacy Award Committee Chair Dr. Junko Yokota. Mildred’s story(s) Mildred Taylor was born in Mississippi, grew up in Ohio, and now lives in Colorado. A childhood of listening to family stories told by . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Kay Dixon (Colombia 1962-64)   Tales from student immigrants in Spokane share their hardships and triumphs  By Shawn Vestal shawnv Spokesman-Review Sun., Oct. 24, 2021 Meet the Author Victorya Rouse, author of “Finding Refuge: Real-Life Immigration Stories from Young Readers,” will be featured at an event for The Spokesman-Review’s Northwest Passages Book Club on Nov. 9 at the Montvale Event Center. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the event starts at 7. Proof of vaccination required for entry. Click for more information. • When Fedja Zahirovic fled with his family from the Bosnian War to Spokane in the 1990s, he was “confused and angry,” uprooted from all he’d ever known, and didn’t know the language or the culture. The first steps in his American education occurred at the Newcomers Center at Ferris High School. “It was a safe place,” he said this week. “It was a . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’  from Jim Wolter  (Malaysia 1961–66) . . .    We also celebrate, Bob Hoyle (Philippines 1962-63), another RPCV life well-lived. One of the stories Bob loved to tell about Sarge Shriver was of the time Sarge was Ambassador to France and Bob was working with Palestinian Refugees (an emotionally draining experience). Bob was courting a woman (not his eventual wife Karen) working in London. Bob and she decided to meet in Paris for a long weekend. Bob saved to take her to the best restaurant in Paris (I don’t recall the name). During lunch, Sarge and his entourage entered and Bob, wanting to impress his date, said, “There’s Ambassador Shriver.” She said something to the effect, “It couldn’t be. How do you know?” He told her, “I know it’s him. I met him when he came to visit Peace Corps Volunteers in the Philippines. He actually . . .