The Peace Corps

Agency history, current news and stories of the people who are/were both on staff and Volunteers.

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New PCVs to Moldova
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RPCV Dr. Autumn Beavers–Fulbright Scholar–To Tanzania
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Memorial celebration set for RPCVs Joe and Cristina Kessler
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Colombia One PCV Dennis Grubb Final Home
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Some Thoughts on the Paris Olympics by Steve Kaffen (Russia)
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Obituary | Donna Jean Fiebelkorn (Nepal)
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Defending Girls’ Right to Learn Is Why I Joined the Peace Corps
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Peace Corps Volunteers Sworn In: New Faces, Fresh Hope for Sierra Leone
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The Lion in the Gardens of the Guenet Hotel (Ethiopia)
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Emily Brandt (Armenia) | Program Manager for CEPA
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Phoebe Cohen (Mongolia) | Guest Writer for Huffington Post
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Suzy McKee Charnas (Nigeria), writer of feminist science fiction, dies at 83
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Bonita Schwan (Samoa) | Marco Island City Council candidate
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Review | Theroux’s Close Shave by Christopher West Davis
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Lisa Einstein (Guinea) | at Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

New PCVs to Moldova

PCVs in the news –   Twenty Peace Corps Volunteers from the United States have taken the oath to serve Moldovan people. Starting today, they will begin their roles as English teachers, health educators, and consultants in community and development in Moldova.     Among those who have taken the oath is Ryan Bell. He lived with the Căpăţină family in Ruseştii Noi for 10 weeks. Today, the Căpăţină family was present to support him. “We considered him our third son. He is kind, helpful when needed, and tolerant. After he left early this morning, my husband and I felt a void. It feels empty without Ryan; the atmosphere is not the same,” said Domnica Căpățină. “We want to assist the people of Moldova. I appreciate your culture and the hills. I am very excited; it is a significant moment,” declared Ryan Bell, a Peace Corps volunteer.   The Darii family from . . .

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RPCV Dr. Autumn Beavers–Fulbright Scholar–To Tanzania

Dr. Autumn Beavers is a surgical resident at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and heading to Tanzania as a Fulbright Scholar. Sometimes the road to success comes with detours. That’s what Dr. Autumn Beavers discovered after taking a long break between college and medical school. The demands of medical school are well known, and Beavers said she is so busy she’d nearly forgotten about her application for the prestigious scholarship program. “I had just arrived home from a long day at work. And I opened my email and it said you’ve been awarded the Fulbright,” she said. “And I was like, oh yes, I remember I applied for this. It was very exciting.” Fulbright scholars get the opportunity to study, teach, and do research in other countries. While in Tanzania, she will be working at a local hospital, continuing research started by a fellow University of Alabama at Birmingham . . .

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Memorial celebration set for RPCVs Joe and Cristina Kessler

  Memorial celebration set for Joe and Cristina Kessler PCVs from 1973 to 78 in Honduras, Kenya, and Seychelles     by Sara Kirkpatrick  Virgin Islands Daily News   Friends and colleagues of former St. John residents Joe and Cristina Kessler are invited to gather for an online memorial celebration of the couple at noon Sunday. They died earlier this year. The Kessler and Dombrowski families have asked participants to join them on Zoom and raise a glass at 12 p.m. EDT for a simultaneous, worldwide toast with a drink of their choice. Dombrowski is Cristina’s maiden name. Following the toast, family, friends and colleagues will be able to share remarks and remembrances in smaller break-out rooms. Joe and Cristina Kessler were well-known throughout the Virgin Islands. Joe served as president of the Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park for 17 years before retiring in 2018. He also organized the . . .

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Colombia One PCV Dennis Grubb Final Home

Thanks to Ana Carmen Neboisa for this photograph Dennis was one of the first PCV and a ‘famous’ figure in the early years of the agency. His remains are in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington DC, main alley towards the chapel and bench. It is in a side of the cemetery facing an area called “Little Arlington” (if you ever visit).  

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Some Thoughts on the Paris Olympics by Steve Kaffen (Russia)

by Steve Kaffen (Russia 1994-96) The Paris Olympics had something for everyone. For those like myself who wanted to see many different sports, there was a wide selection of matches daily from morning until late at night. With careful scheduling and some fast walking, it was possible to attend a few events a day. For those interested in particular sports, the ticketing website was set up to show availabilities by date and sport, and another website offered tickets for resale. I used the resale website to find tickets to three hard-to-get sports—swimming, tennis, and skateboarding, and to substitute purchased tickets for others with teams and sports I wanted to see. I was fortunate: I got to see the USA quarterfinal in soccer, USA vs. France in rugby, and USA runners and swimmers, plus a few hometown skateboarders. Some attendees stayed for most or all of the Olympics, and others arrived . . .

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Obituary | Donna Jean Fiebelkorn (Nepal)

    Donna Jean Fiebelkorn (Nepal 1979-81), passed away on August 2, 2024, at the age of 70. The daughter of the late Lt. Col. John and Tena (Baas) Fiebelkorn, Donna was born in 1953 in Bossier City, LA. She is survived by her daughter Liana Kapan of Grand Rapids (MI); and, her siblings Diana Harris (CA), Amy Warfield (MA) and Karl Fiebelkorn (AZ). As a child of a United States Air Force officer, Donna’s wanderlust began early in life as they regularly moved. She received a B.S. in Education from Michigan State and her master’s and PhD. Education from University of Vermont (UVM). Donna’s life revolved around education and world travel. Her younger years were formed by her participation in the Peace Corps — first as a volunteer in Nepal, then later in leadership roles in Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Caribbean, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. While in Nepal she “gave . . .

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Defending Girls’ Right to Learn Is Why I Joined the Peace Corps

  A volunteer explains—with poetry—why teaching physics to girls in Guinea, west Africa is so important to her. . . . Defending Girls’ Right to Learn by Lisa Einstein (Guinea 2016-18) I sat on the porch in my village of farms, When a young girl approached me, a babe in her arms. We started to talk, though a lot went unspoken. Her words were Pular and her French, it was broken. I asked her what grade she was in and she scoffed. “Failed the Brevet so dad married me off. The class all must pass this exam to continue To high school. I didn’t, in take 1 or take 2. Mon mari, il est vieux, an old man I don’t see. And now with this child? Pour moi, c’est fini. I think of that girl, alone and forlorn. We are the same, but the day I was born I won the lotto . . .

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Peace Corps Volunteers Sworn In: New Faces, Fresh Hope for Sierra Leone

  by Awoko Publications By ophanieltgooding@yahoo.com   Freetown, SIERRA LEONE:  Six new Peace Corps trainees were officially sworn in as volunteers on Friday, August 9, 2024, at the Kambia Training Site, marking the culmination of an intensive 10-week training program. Known as “Salone 12,” the group includes four education specialists and two health experts, all poised to make a significant impact in Sierra Leone. U.S. Ambassador Bryan David Hunt opened the ceremony with a powerful endorsement of the Peace Corps’ enduring legacy in the country. “Our partnership with Sierra Leone spans over six decades, built on deep friendship and cooperation,” Hunt stated. He praised the more than 3,900 American volunteers who have served in Sierra Leone since 1962, highlighting their transformative contributions to the nation’s education and health sectors. “This collaboration has been a game-changer for Sierra Leone. We are committed to continuing this vital work,” Hunt affirmed. Peace Corps Country . . .

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The Lion in the Gardens of the Guenet Hotel (Ethiopia)

John writes — In the final days of our in-country Peace Corps training in Ethiopia, we had a celebration dinner at the Guenet Hotel in the Populari section of the capital, Addis Ababa. The Guenet Hotel, even in 1962, was one of the older hotels in Addis Ababa. It wasn’t in the center of town, but south of Smuts Street and down the hill from Mexico Square, several miles from where we were housed in the dormitories of Haile Selassie I University. While out of the way, this small, two-story rambling hotel, nevertheless, had a two-lane, American-style bowling alley, tennis courts, and a most surprising of all, an African lion in its lush, tropical gardens. At that time in the Empire, no Ethiopian was allowed to keep a lion, the symbol of the Emperor, Haile Selassie, whose full title was “By the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, His Imperial Majesty Haile . . .

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Emily Brandt (Armenia) | Program Manager for CEPA

RPCVs in the news —   Emily Brandt (Armenia 2013-15) is the Program Manager for Business Development at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). The Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy institution based in Washington DC. Prior to joining CEPA, Emily held similar business development and fundraising roles of progressive responsibility at various local organizations, IREX, and Freedom House, mostly focusing on civil society, democracy, rights, and governance programs in Europe and Eurasia. She also worked for Peace Corps for six years (2013-20), including two years as a volunteer in Armenia. She is the founder of the Peace Corps Virtual Recruitment team. Emily holds a PhD in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington, and a Master’s Degree in International Studies with a focus on Eastern Europe from the University of North Texas.   .    

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Phoebe Cohen (Mongolia) | Guest Writer for Huffington Post

RPCV in the news — By Phoebe Cohen Aug 7, 2024, 07:56 AM EDT   Phoebe Cohen (Mongolia 2005-07) has walked many paths in life including living in the Gobi Desert as a Peace Corps Volunteer and working as a paramedic in several states. Cohen’s work has been featured in Graphic Medicine, Mutha Magazine, and BorderX. She regularly posts on her website Merry Misandrist. Cohen is a part-time cartoonist, writer and nursing student. She has been known to go up to five hours without coffee.  . . .  As a paramedic, I treated women who had illegal abortions. Here’s a dangerous truth JD Vance isn’t going to like.”The nurse and Exchange a glance. We know the probable reason why our patient stuck part of a vacuum cleaner up into her vagina.”   It’s 2015. I’m working as an inter-facility paramedic. Currently, I’m standing in a small rural clinic in a large conservative state. . . .

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Suzy McKee Charnas (Nigeria), writer of feminist science fiction, dies at 83

RPCVs in the news — She was best known for the Holdfast Chronicles, a series about a dystopic world in which once-enslaved women conquer their former male masters. By Richard Sandomir New York Times Published March 10, 2023 Suzy McKee Charnas, an award-winning feminist science fiction writer who in a four-novel series created a post-holocaust, male-dominated society called the Holdfast that is liberated by an army of women, died on Jan. 2 at her home in Albuquerque. She was 83. Her cousin David Szanton said the cause was a heart attack. Her death was not widely reported at the time. Ms. Charnas, whose books were well regarded but who by her account did not make a living from her writing, was best known for her science fiction. But she also wrote vampire fiction, young-adult fantasy novels with women as central characters, and a memoir about taking care of her father . . .

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Bonita Schwan (Samoa) | Marco Island City Council candidate

RPCV in the news   Bonita Schwan (Samoa 1990-91) is a candidate for Marco Island  (Florida) City Council on November 5th general election.   Schwan has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas, Austin, and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the Drake Law School, Des Moines, Iowa.Schwan served on Iowa Governor Terry Branstad’s personal staff when he was in office, where, she said, her responsibilities included providing recommendations to the governor regarding budget and policy matters for The Department of Revenue and Finance, The Department of Health, The Department of Human Services, The Department of Civil Rights and The Department of Human Rights. As an attorney, Schwan specialized in legislation and administrative rules and volunteered with the United States Peace Corps in Western Samoa. She currently serves on the board for the Cape Marco, Cozumel Building HOA. She serves as membership chair for the Marco Island . . .

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Review | Theroux’s Close Shave by Christopher West Davis

  A review by Christopher West Davis (Kenya 1975-78) Originally published in The Hawaii Review of Books     Three years ago, Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65) ended his birthday card to himself—“Facing Ka‘ena Point: On Turning Eighty,” published in The New Yorker and probably the closest thing to an autobiography he will ever offer—with the perfect vignette. He was sitting, scribbling in his favorite place to write—a folding chair on a Hawaiian beach he has watched erode away for years. A young man comes towards him, limping from a war wound. He said he remembered seeing Theroux in the same place before he went off to Afghanistan. “And you’re still here,” he said, “in that chair!” “I’m not finished,” Theroux replied. And he wasn’t, (likely isn’t still). In the same essay Theroux describes his life as writing one book after another since 1963—amassing thirty-two of fiction, twenty nonfictions, and one . . .

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Lisa Einstein (Guinea) | at Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

RPCVs in the news    CISA names Lisa Einstein as Chief AI Officer CISA said Thursday the appointment reflects the agency’s commitment to advancing the responsible use of AI to meet its cyber defense mission and assist critical infrastructure operators and owners in pursuing the secure and safe development and adoption of AI tools. CISA Director Jen Easterly said Einstein has played a central role in helping the agency understand and respond to rapid AI advancements, which have significant implications for CISA’s critical infrastructure security and cyber defense missions. “Beyond her technical expertise, she’s an inspirational leader who has brought together colleagues across the agency around a clear and impactful vision. I could not be more thrilled to have her take on this important new role, which will help us continue to build AI expertise into the fabric of our agency and ensure we are equipped to effectively leverage the . . .

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