The Peace Corps

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Bea Hogan (Uzbekistan 1992-94) A World Turned Upside-Down In 1966, the writer Paul Theroux was in Uganda at a time of curfew and violence. It shaped his thinking about travel writing’s imperative to bear witness. Smoke rising in Uganda during the 1966 upheaval.Credit…Priya Ramrakha/Getty By Paul Theroux New York Times March 30, 2020 In this season of infection, the stock market little more than a twitching corpse, in an atmosphere of alarm and despondency, I am reminded of the enlightenments of the strict curfew Uganda endured in 1966. It was, for all its miseries, an episode of life lessons, as well as monotonous moralizing (because most crises enliven bores and provoke sententiousness). I would not have missed it for anything.   That curfew evoked — like today — the world turned upside-down. This peculiarity that we are now experiencing, the nearest thing to a world . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Matt Losak (Lesothe 1985-88) Volunteer recounts being part of global Peace Corps evacuation by Dennis Webb, The Daily Sentinel 3/29/2020   Steve Vanderleest was serving in the Peace Corps in Peru when he was sent back home to Colorado because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Vanderleest worked in water systems, sanitation and hygiene during his time in the Peace Corps. In this picture, he’s shown helping demonstrate how to shake hands dry after hand-washing. Up until this month, Steve Vanderleest was reveling in his experience in the Peace Corps, helping people in the high-country town of Cajabamba, in Peru, and taking in the Peruvian scenery and culture. All of that changed this month thanks to the COVID-19 crisis. Before he knew it, he found himself in Grand Junction, where he’s been spending two weeks in self-quarantine, as part of the first- ever total evacuation by . . .

The RPCV Community immediately reached out to the Volunteers as the evacuation was announced and begun.  RPCV Joshua Johnson (2009-2011) generated a Face Bookpage which is the “go-to” site for EPCVs. It is a private group and  now has over 8000 members.  This is what it offers: Fellow RPCVs share their concern and their support for the EPCVs, establishing that the EPCVs are not alone. Fellow RPCVs are offering support via leads on jobs, obtaining health care, and places to “self-quarantine”. ( EPCVs have been ordered to self-quarantine for 14 days.  Peace Corps should reimburse for expenses associated with this as some EPCVs can not go home because relatives may be at high risk.  Finding places immediately upon re-entry can be a problem.) The Facebook page organizes these offers. EPCVs are posting specific requests for help in specific locations. Any RPCV can offer help  by becoming a member of the . . .

    Jack Allison (Malawi 1966-69) presently serves as Professor Emeritus of Emergency Medical Care, College of Health & Human Sciences, Western Carolina University, where he teaches, performs research, and spearheads faculty development. In 2012 he volunteered during the month of February with Medical Teams International in Kenya and Somalia where he provided both emergency medical care and public health education to Somali refugees; and in October he volunteered with Marion Medical Mission on a public health project in Malawi and Zambia where he helped to install 112 shallow water wells. Allison’s avocation is singing/songwriting. He has written over 100 songs and jingles, and recorded over 80 of those. Since 1967 he has raised $150,000.00 with his music, and he & his wife, Sue Wilson, have given away all of these monies to various charitable organizations, including $30,000.00 to help feed Malawian children who have been orphaned because their parents have . . .

    Recalled Peace Corps Volunteers Are Thrown Into A Terrifying New Reality The 7,300 volunteers face lost stipends, housing and health benefits amid a pandemic and economic crisis.   By Alex Leeds Matthews   Reporter Alex Leeds Matthews served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from January 2014 to October 2015.    

      The National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) presents —   The Unfinished Business of Peace Corps Volunteers Evacuated from Around the World

Click on photos for more articles.   Clintandra Thompson is a web manager at the Atlantic Council and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Senegal from 2012-2014. Here is her article. Peace Corps faces new challenge with coronavirus “On March 1, over 240,000 returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) marked the fifty-ninth anniversary of the volunteer service organization by sharing their unique experiences on social media, in classrooms, or during other special events. Founded in 1961, the Peace Corps sends thousands of Volunteers every year to interested communities across the world to build mutual understanding and provide technical assistance for economic and social development. Glenn Blumhorst, who served in Guatemala and is president and CEO of the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA), used the anniversary to connect RPCVs with lawmakers to “share their experiences with elected officials on Capitol Hill…who decide the fate of Peace Corps’ future.” According to . . .

The Death of Idealism Development and Anti-Politics in the Peace Corps by Meghan Elizabeth Kallman Columbia University Press 320 pages $24.48 (Kindle), $110.00 (Hardback), $28.00 (paperback) April 21, 2020     Meghan Elizabeth Kallman is an assistant professor at the School for Global Inclusion and Social Development at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is coauthor of The Third Sector: Community Organizations, NGOs, and Nonprofits (2016) and an elected official in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. A case study of the conflict between professionalization and idealism in the Peace Corps. Shows how organizational practices affect people’s ideas and values in ways that have long lasting consequences for their lives and careers. Based on interviews with over 140 current and returned Peace Corps volunteers, brings a new perspective on how people lose their idealism and why that matters. Peace Corps volunteers seem to exemplify the desire to make the world a better place. Yet . . .

Go to the New York Times site for the article with pictures –     ‘None of Us Saw It Ending This Way’: Peace Corps Volunteers Evacuate Abruptly By Mariel Padilla for the New York Times March 25, 2020 Updated 2:12 p.m. ET • When the agency suspended all operations for the first time in its history, more than 7,000 volunteers in about 60 countries packed their bags, said their goodbyes and rushed to get home. The urgent update from the Peace Corps landed abruptly in the email inboxes of volunteers on March 15: It was time to evacuate. Miguel Garcia, a 27-year-old volunteer leader for the corps in the Dominican Republic, had just reassured someone that the corps would be staying on the job. With a sinking heart, he read the detailed instructions three times. The tears would come later. Now he had a job to do. He had 24 . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Jim McCaffery (Ethiopia 1966-69)     Devastated, not fired March 23, 2020 by Courtney Eker (Panama) • It was 9 PM and I was sitting on a plastic lawn chair with my favorite family, barely able to communicate over the sound of loud accordion “típico” music, when my phone started buzzing out of control in my pocket. I remember thinking I did not want to take it out because I wanted to enjoy my evening, as it would be one of the last family gatherings I would have in my site before leaving the following Saturday. I was one week away from finishing my two years of service in Peace Corps Panama. I looked at the screen anyway, only to read the text, “You may pack two checked bags and one carry on. You must get on your earliest transport out of site whether . . .

A Towering Task Reviewed by Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65) “A Towering Task” puts a human face on the Peace Corps – and makes sense of its history of idealism, improvisation, politics, and at times its failings. It is the most coherent and satisfying documentary I know, of the Peace Corps, and I can’t imagine a better one. For its truth and its scope, its arc is complete – from the germ of an idea to help the world, spoken late at night by JFK on his presidential campaign, to its execution later, an Act signed into law and carried out – thousands of young women and men leaving for remote places, to teach, to advise, to inspire – and to be inspired themselves by their work. I was an early volunteer, my group was “Nyasaland III” (1963) – we went to Central Africa and saw Nyasaland become the independent republic of Malawi; . . .

  The current issue of The New Yorker, March 30, 2020, has an article entitled, “Life on Lockdown” Forty-five days of avoiding the coronavirus in China by Peter Hessler (China 1996-98). Peter and his wife with their nine-year-old twin daughters, Ariel and Natasha, went to China in August where his next book will be set. And then came the virus. Two weeks ago Peter wrote about the China PCVs being terminated in his host country for The New Yorker. Peter Hessler joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2000. From 2000 until 2007, he was the magazine’s correspondent in China and, from 2011 to 2016, he was based in Cairo, where he covered the events of the Egyptian Arab Spring. His subjects have included archeology in both China and Egypt, a factory worker in Shenzhen, a garbage collector in Cairo, a small-town druggist in rural Colorado, and Chinese lingerie dealers . . .

For the first time, all Peace Corps volunteers are called back home: ‘It feels like a bad heartbreak’ by Grace Wong, CHICAGO TRIBUNE MARCH 22, 2020 04:00 AM Read more at the Miami Hearld website • Chicago On the eve of her one-year anniversary in the Peace Corps, 23-year-old Katie Bassett packed up the last year of her life in the northeastern Isan region of Thailand and prepared for emergency evacuation. Her last two days were filled with tearful goodbyes to teachers and students she had built deep relationships with and to her Peace Corps colleagues. She gave her blender and a three-pound bag of Sour Patch Kids to her neighbors – she had bought the candy during a recent trip home to Bourbonnais and was hoping to save it for a rainy day. Her nail polish, makeup brushes and headbands went to the girl across the street, and her game . . .

  Commentary: Peace Corps evacuated all 7,300 of its volunteers due to coronavirus. They need immediate help. by Glenn Blumhorst in the Chicago Tribune 02/21/20 01:24 PM EST • Imagine, if you can, a scenario in which the Department of Defense saw the need to recall for emergency security purposes the entirety of its service corps in one fell swoop. That’s essentially what happened over the past week, when the U.S. Peace Corps agency made the difficult and unprecedented decision to suspend its programs indefinitely, evacuating all 7,300 volunteers serving in more than 60 countries — including 280 from Illinois — due to the coronavirus outbreak and informing them their service has ended. As the virus spread rapidly worldwide, travel restrictions quickly tightened, risks to the personal health of volunteers rose rapidly and the window to bring America’s “grassroots diplomats” home was closing swiftly. Understandably, the top priority of the agency was . . .