The Peace Corps

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Dale Gilles (Liberia 1964-67)   Without providing any proof, Peter Navarro (Thailand 1972-75) accused China of purposely weaponizing the virus to kill Americans and blasted Dr. Fauci while boasting about himself By PETER WADE  Rollingstone White House trade adviser Peter Navarro (Thailand 1972-75). In an obvious attempt to deflect blame from President Trump’s dismal handling of the coronavirus pandemic in America, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro went on an extended rant on Friday, tossing out unproven conspiracy theories as if he were holding court in a QAnon forum. Navarro, a now-infamous, bomb-throwing advocate of Trump’s more than suggested that China was somehow able to “weaponize” the virus to kill Americans, while at the same time allowing many other countries to contain the spread. China “spawned the virus,” Navarro said. “They hid the virus. They sent hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals over here to seed and spread the . . .

  Reginald Brown (Micronesia 1990-02) helps Audra Elam (Togo 2019-20) save dog from being sent back overseas after COVID-19-forced separation By Sydney Czyzon Chicago Tribune, July  02, 2020 • A Peace Corps volunteer feared her beloved dog would be sent back overseas Friday because of issues with his paperwork. Then, a former Peace Corps worker used his legal expertise to help stop the separation. Audra Elam, the 27-year-old dog owner, originally from western Illinois, was teaching children in Togo in western Africa when she had to leave in mid-March because of the spread of coronavirus. “He would follow her to school,” Andrew Orland, another Peace Corps member, said of the dog. “When she did English classes in the afternoon, he would come hang out with the kids.” Elam left behind the terrier mix, Socrates, with the hope she could return to the village and extend her stay. But when it became clear . . .

Pandemic Positive by Ada Jo Mann (Chad 1967-69) • I wake to find this virus has stopped time and everyone on earth must make a change to focus effort on the greater good and forge a path that creates something new that urges us to find ways to relate to demonstrate the many ways we care. A daily focus must be on self care, if not our strength will surely fade in time. Technology can help us to relate and guide us as we navigate the change. Our innovations usher in the new. Our actions must support the greater good. How is it we can’t find the needed goods? It seems our current leaders just don’t care, though early on the highest levels knew and kept denying, wasting precious time It’s mandatory now that we must change For now it’s at a distance we relate. So ZOOM it is, that helps . . .

  From 1966 through 1981 the Peace Corps sent more than two thousand volunteers to South Korea, to teach English and provide healthcare. A small yet significant number of them returned to the United States and entered academia, forming the core of a second wave of Korean studies scholars. How did their experiences in an impoverished nation still recovering from war influence their intellectual orientation and choice of study — and Korean studies itself? In this volume, Peace Corps Volunteers and the Making of Korean Studies in the United States, former Volunteers who became scholars of the anthropology, history, and literature of Korea reflect on their experiences during the period of military dictatorship, on gender issues, and on how random assignments led to lifelong passion for the country. Two scholars who were not volunteers assess how Peace Corps service affected the development of Korean studies in the United States.   Co-editor . . .

  Ursula Bendix (Colombia 1967-69) was born in Germany in 1945 and immigrated with her family to Portland, Oregon, when she was ten. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Portland State University, she joined the Peace Corps as an educational television volunteer in Columbia, South America. At the end of her two-year volunteer service she returned to Portland, completed her master’s degree, and finished working on a secondary school teaching credential. She moved to Yreka, California, in 1976 teaching adult education and Spanish for the College of the Siskiyous many years. She also taught at a polytechnic high school in southern Chile in 2018 as part of the English Open Doors program sponsored by Chile’s Ministry of Education and the United Nations. She is owner/broker of Bendix Real Estate specializing in Yreka and much of Siskiyou County for twenty years. Bendix’s Land • Home • Mountain View is her first . . .

  The Last Rhino (novel) Robert E. Gribbin (Kenya 1968–70) iUniverse April 2020 218 pages $24.15 (paperback)   Reviewed by Sandy Seppala-Gyr  (Kenya 1977-79)  • Are there any white rhinoceros left in Africa? Who is poaching elephants, which are killed for their ivory to send to China? This book takes you to Central Africa where you’ll see what it takes to overcome strife in the name of conservation to protect wildlife and preserve cultures. Elephants and rhinos were furthest from retired big-game hunter Philippe’s mind as he relaxed on his rigged sailboat in St. Martinique. He’d run chartered tours for five years when his Aussie friend, Sheila, suggested he was bored and getting boring. Agreeing, he guessed he needed an ‘adrenaline rush’. Responding to an advert, he put behind his comfortable life and flew to London to interview with the Elephant Conservation Project for a position in the Democratic Republic . . .

  In 2019, Cindy Mosca (Ethiopia 1967-69) went back to Ethiopia for the first time in 50 years. Former Ethiopia PCV Rick Stoner and his wife Elsa put Cindy and her group in touch with Cheru, an Ethiopian tour guide, who took them all over the country, including Woldia. Cheru, in the red hat here in the video, with Cindy, and her young friend Susan Kosmoski, not an RPCV, and Cindy’s partner, Dennis Schulz (in the red shirt), had a beautiful day in Cindy’s Peace Corps home. Join their visit on YOUTUBE p.s. The next round is on Cindy.

  Please read the following announcement from the NPCA website about this program.  At the end of the announcement there is a link to register. • Now is the time for some tough questions. How do we confront systemic racism as it shapes the work we do — here and around the world? And how do we ensure that our community lives out principles of equity and justice?As part of our commitment to convening‌ ‌conversations‌ ‌around‌ ‌service and‌ ‌opportunity, National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is joining the Building Bridges Coalition and the International Volunteer Programs Association to host a dialogue about racial equity in international service. Speakers will share their experiences as Black volunteers and staff on service programs, and as organizational leaders with longstanding commitments to institutional and systemic change. Join us for this important dialogue. In the weeks ahead, NPCA is hosting a series of conversations around racial equity. Those will help shape the . . .

  HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS & OTHER STORIES by Clifford Garstang (Korea 1976-77) Press 53 Publisher 172 pages May 2020 $17.95 (paperback)   Reviewed by Bill Preston (Thailand 1977-80) “Bad men,” wrote novelist and short story writer Jean McGarry, “make for more interesting stories.” I imagine that Clifford Garstang would be inclined to agree. You could certainly make that case for many of the male characters in his new collection, House of the Ancients & Other Stories. Such a sentiment crossed my mind more than once as I read through this strange and often disturbing collection. But hold on. What, exactly, do we mean by bad? And just who, really, is qualified to pass such judgment? Those who live in glass houses, as the saying goes, should not be quick to throw stones. Are we not, as human beings, all flawed? The twenty-three stories in House of the Ancients reflect, . . .

  To further fulfill its goals to encourage, recognize and promote Peace Corps writers, RPCV Writers & Readers, the newsletter that was the precursor of PeaceCorpsWriters.org and PeaceCorpsWorldwide.org, presented its first annual awards for outstanding writing in 1990. A total of 163 awards have been given since that time. When possible, Peace Corps Writers Awards are presented at the RPCV Conference Awards Ceremony. The awards are: The Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award The Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award The Maria Thomas Fiction Award The Award for Best Book of Poetry The Award for Best Short Story Collection The Award for Best Travel Book The Award for Best Photography Book The Award for Best Children’s Book about a Peace Corps Country Other Awards Send you nomination(s) to John Coyne at jcoyneone@gmail.com (You may nominate your own book. Make sure you are nominating a book that was published in 2019.)

  I disagree with Ms. Melillo’s statement that “Peace Corps advertising emphasize myths about heroes, adventure . . . But fighting communism was among the agency’s original foreign policy purposes, according to Peace Corps historians and other scholars.”  Ms. Melillo cites virtually no authority for that statement. The origins of the Peace Corps include the bills sponsored by then Senator Hubert H. Humphrey for a Point Four Youth Corps, Representative Henry Reuss and others, particularly Congressmen who had had missionary experience. Point Four, of course, was President Harry S Truman’s proposal for technical assistance worldwide, particularly the developing nations. “Fighting communism” certainly was not the point of the University of Michigan students who urged President Kennedy, as a candidate, to create the Peace Corps. “Fighting communism” was not mentioned in President Kennedy’s Cow Palace speech formally proposing a Peace Corps. “Fighting communism” was not a theme of Warren Wiggins and . . .

  By Patricia Edmisten (Peru 1962–64) I am preparing breakfast for my husband and myself. Today I will use the last of the milk to make lattes. I pack the little metal coffee container of our espresso machine and turn it on. While it starts to steam, I hear Andrea Bocelli on National Public Radio. He is singing Panis Angelicus. I am taken back to St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I attended Mass six mornings a week during the school year and once a week during the summer. I sang with the grade school choir comprised of 7th and 8th graders who had good grades and passable voices. One of the hymns we sang was Panis Angelicus, “Bread of the Angels.” As I listened to Andrea, the bagels with cream cheese and lattes had to wait: Tears streamed, sinuses filled, lips trembled, as longing and nostalgia commandeered . . .

    Bill Josephson Responds to Wendy Melillo’s “How the US Government Sold the Peace Corps to the American Public.”   I have tried to make sure that what I have received is the complete document that she published in Conversation.  I’m not sure that I have succeeded. I disagree with Ms. Melillo’s statement that “Peace Corps advertising emphasize myths about heroes, adventure . . . But fighting communism was among the agency’s original foreign policy purposes, according to Peace Corps historians and other scholars.”  Ms. Melillo cites virtually no authority for that statement. The origins of the Peace Corps include the bills sponsored by then Senator Hubert H. Humphrey for a point four youth corps, Representative Henry Reuss and others, particularly Congressmen who had had missionary experience. Point four, of course, was President Harry S Truman’s proposal for technical assistance worldwide. “Fighting communism” was not a theme of the University of . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Steven Saum (Ukraine 1994-96) GUEST ESSAY Northern Express Traverse City JUNE 13, 2020   THE PANDEMIC, OR HOW PEOPLE ARE LIKE BUTTERFLIES by Kathleen Stocking (Thailand & Romania) When did I become more interested in reading about the plague than daily dealings with it? The internet mediates all information. The telephone is part of every conversation. I have not seen a friend face-to-face in so long I can’t remember what it’s like. I am sick and tired of my hot and germ-infested blue-green surgical mask, dangling from one ear when I’m not wearing it, and the pervasive smell of hand sanitizer. Please God, when I die, let me not smell like hand sanitizer. It’s early June in the year 2020 on the northern shores of Lake Michigan. The stores are starting to open again, but there will be no National Cherry Festival in Traverse . . .