The Peace Corps

  Caleb Williams has spent the last two years teaching ninth graders in Richardson, Texas Independent School District. But this August, he will be traveling to Cambodia to teach English as part of The Peace Corps. Williams is originally from Oklahoma, but said he was drawn to Texas schools by better pay and more diverse schools. In his time at Richardson ISD, he’s taught students from all over the world, including Nigeria, Iraq and Burma. He’s also had experience teaching across different achievement levels, having taught on-level, special education inclusion and AP English classes. “It has been great getting to teach the full range of freshman students,” Williams said. “Different kinds of students use different parts of your energy, so it doesn’t feel like doing the same thing over and over again each period.” Of course, finishing out this past school year was bittersweet for Williams after committing to the . . .

After 60 years and almost as many books, the novelist and travel writer, 83, will stop when he falls out of his chair. Interview by Guy Trebay July 3, 2024 The Unstoppables is a series about people whose ambition is undimmed by time. Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65) explains, in his own words, what continues to motivate him. After 60 years of writing and publishing — and almost 60 books — I feel ordering my thoughts on paper to be not a job but a process of my life. You always hear writers complain about the hellish difficulty of writing, but it’s a dishonest complaint. So many people have it much harder — soldiers, firefighters, field workers, truckers. The writer’s profession is a life of self-indulgence. With luck and effort, you make a living. The only difficulty is its necessity for solitude. Writing is not compatible with anything — its utter . . .

  Sept. 26, 1967 Dear Walt, I figured you would be in that piss hole by now and would eventually write. Don’t sweat the year away from women. I’ve been away from the Canadian girl for a year now, and although at times frustrating, it’s gone quickly. Trouble is I’ve got another one now who is rather keen on getting married. Beautiful, brilliant and rich (irrelevant). Anyway, we’re travelling down to S. Africa together this December and on the way hope to find out if the match is feasible. (ed.  It wasn’t feasible.) Hope to see Neville, Dupe, and Ralph if we get into the country. (ed. The aforementioned were Oklahoma teammates from South Africa.) If you’re American, it’s tough, and if the South Africans find out you’re ex-Peace Corps, forget it. I’m getting a tourist passport now. We’ll buy a car here in Kenya and drive through Tanzania, Malawi, . . .

  About DAKAR 2000 In Senegal on the eve of Y2K, an idealistic Peace Corps Volunteer survives a mysterious car accident. An imposing State Department operative arrives at his hospital where she immediately takes command of the situation and his safety. Though they couldn’t be more different, they form an unlikely relationship. But when it becomes clear that they both have secrets, the volunteer is roped into a darker side of public service–one he can’t come back from. Unpredictable at every turn, this world-premiere thriller was commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club. About Rajiv Joseph (Senegal 1996-98) Rajiv Joseph’s play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama. He has twice won the Obie Award for Best New American Play, first in 2016 with Guards at the Taj (also a 2016 Lortel Winner for Best Play),  and then in 2018 with Describe the Night.  Other . . .

    HUSTLE The Making of a Freelance Writer by Lawrence Grobel (Ghana) In my career as a freelance writer, I’ve had moments of doubt. I’ve suffered rejections and cancellations. But there were crossroads along the way that allowed me to continue pursuing my dream of working for myself, doing what I wanted to do, and figuring out how to survive. Freelancing is a lifestyle. In preparing this book, I marvel at how I somehow managed to avoid all the pitfalls and not drown in pessimism. When Alfred Hitchcock, Leonard Bernstein, and Fred Astaire all backed down from interviews they had agreed to, I had to learn how to bite the bullet and move on, how to move forward, and not backward, and that’s what this book is about. It begins with my first byline for an essay I wrote when I was just 15. It continues with articles I . . .

The Museum of the Peace Corps Experience Virtual event, July 31 at 7:00pm EDT   Join us for the launch and panel discussion of John Fleming’s new book Mission to Malawi: Memoir of an African American Peace Corps Volunteer 1967-1969 (McFarland 2024), featuring Reginald Hodges (RPCV Sierra Leone 68-71), J. Henry (Hank) Ambrose (RPCV Kenya 71-73), and John Fleming (RPCV Malawi 67-69).  The event will be hosted by MPCE Board Member Nicole Banister and MPCE Director Zack Klim. Unlike the vast majority of Peace Corps volunteers in the 1960s, John Fleming was a young Black man who was assigned to an all-white agricultural project in Malawi, an emerging African country surrounded by White-ruled Southern Rhodesia, Mozambique, and South Africa. John wanted to be a missionary in Africa, but was put off by his encounters with self-serving White missionaries. The Civil Rights and Black Power movements influenced his world view while navigating life in an African country still controlled or greatly influenced . . .

By Andrew Silow-Carroll  Kinky Friedman (Borneo 1967-69), the cigar-chomping, mustachioed Texan country singer and mystery novelist whose body of work often seemed like the un-kosher marriage of the Borscht Belt and the Bible Belt, died June 27 from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 79. As frontman for the flamboyant 1970s country group Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, he was notorious for satirical songs such as “They Don’t Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” a raucous sendup of racism, and “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in Bed,” which poked fun at feminism. He could also turn serious, with songs dealing with social issues such as abortion and commercialism. His 1973 song “Ride ’em Jewboy” is a haunting elegy on the Holocaust, recorded by Willie Nelson and sung in concert by Bob Dylan. The lyrics transform cowboy cliches into a rumination on Hitler’s victims: Now the smoke . . .

JUNE 26, 2024 Inaugural Recipient: Harris Wofford Joint Service Award Peace Corps and AmeriCorps! Published by ghettogirltravels Welcome to GhettoGirlTravels.com KJ Hunt, aka “GhettoGirlTravels,” was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. A former sergeant in the United States Air Force and Peace Corps Volunteer in East Africa, Armenia and Ethiopia GGT longs for the open road, a hot cup of tea, and free Internet service. Instagram @Ghettogirltravels TikTok @GhettoGirlTravels Facebook @GhettoGirlTravels View all posts by ghettogirltravels   Harris Wofford served as an advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr. Wofford also helped to launch the United States Peace Corps and served as its Associate Director. While a member of the US Senate, Harris led the effort to establish the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) which created the AmeriCorps program. The Harris Wofford award is given to individuals who have successfully completed full-time service in both AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps (including . . .

  The current issue of Worldview (Spring/Summer 2024) has an article by Beatrice Hogan (Uzbekistan 1992-94) entitled Common Cause. It is about RPCVs who have built communities around issues and affinities. We were selected to be profiled. Thank you, Beatrice!   Peace Corps Worldwide Friends since their Peace Corps days together, John Coyne and Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962–64) together produce the blog Peace Corps Worldwide and the Peace Corps Writers imprint. Their efforts lie at the heart of the Third Goal of the Peace Corps —  bring the world back home — and they’ve helped hundreds of writers tell their stories and publish their work. “RPCVs are the ones who tell the real story of the Peace Corps,” Coyne said. “They tell of their experiences in essays, articles, short stories, and memoirs. Stories that are the true historical documents of the agency.” Coyne and Beil’s collaboration began in the . . .

Photographed By Dave Buchanan, 2024 Peace Corps Pioneers Marker – 1 Inscription In 1961 President John F. Kennedy established the US Peace Corps, concept originally proposed by Minnesota Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. The Peace Corps was created from the President’s call to “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” Among the first Peace Corps Volunteers answering the President’s call in 1962 and completing their tours in 1964 were Plainview area residents: Kenneth Fliés serving in Brazil, Philip Mahle in Sierra Leone, Walter Mischke in Venezuela and Charles Rheingans in Thailand. “I was present at the creation, when the bright flame of conviction took hold in the imagination of the country and the Peace Corps became a promise fulfilled.” – Journalist Bill Moyers In 1962 there were some 25,000 incorporated cities and towns in America, many with populations in the tens . . .