The Peace Corps

State Department From RPCV long-time journalist with Newsweek Magazine in Asia You are hearing right.  The exodus is quite serious and runs deep. People talk literally of desks piled in the halls ways at State. It’s reached the highest levels, so there are no assistant secretaries. They are losing so many and such experiences that it will take years to recover, say people who know about these things. The institutional memory and professional experience is disappearing.  It’s quite serious. And while it’s not as bad, a similar loss of expertise is taking place at the C.I.A. (One little ironic silver lining which benefits us old-timers is that many retired foreign service officers are called back into service and to serve six-month temporary duty in places that are shorthanded. That’s how Taylor ended up a temporary ambassador to Ukraine.) Yes, of course, it is Trump and his inconsistent foreign policy.  And . . .

  Race across America: Eddie Gardner and the Great Bunion Derbies by Charles B. Kastner (Seychelles) On April 23, 1929, the second annual Transcontinental Foot Race across America, known as the Bunion Derby, was in its twenty-fifth day. Eddie “the Sheik” Gardner, an African American runner from Seattle, was leading the race across the Free Bridge over the Mississipi River. Along with the signature outfit that earned him his nick name white towel tied around his head, white shorts, and a white shirt — Gardner wore an American flag, a reminder to all who saw him run through the Jim Crow South that he was an American and the leader of the greatest footrace in the world. Kastner traces Gardner’s remarkable journey from his birth in 1987 in Birmingham, Alabama, to his success in Seattle, Washington, as one of the top long-distance runners in the region, and finally to his . . .

    Mother Martha Driscoll, O.C.S. O., (Ethiopia 1965-67) graduated from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (at that time, women were not allowed in the undergraduate A&S College) and joined the Peace Corps. After Training at the University of Utah, she went to Ethiopia as a secondary school teacher in Addis Ababa, where, as a wonderful singer and actress, she also “starred” in several play productions staged by British Ex-pats in the city. After her tour, she returned to New York City and Staten Island where she had grown up and worked for a while in New York before going to Boston and earning an MFA in Theater from Brandeis University. It was during this period, she told me, that she began to question what she wanted to do with her life, and on a trip to Europe she visited and then entered a monastery in Italy where she . . .

    Early Days — When the Peace Corps Had Innovative Training   One of the first and most unique Training site programs for the Peace Corps was in October of 1962 with 90 training for Colombia. They went to train in slum neighborhoods in New York City. Manhattan’s lower East Side, East Harlem, and Chelsea. Organized by the New York School of Social Work of Columbia University, the Training program had seven hours a day of community work with New York City welfare agencies, in addition to classes in social work and in Spanish. This phase of Training for Colombia followed eight weeks of training at the University of New Mexico and four weeks in Puerto Rico. The total Training program of 16 weeks at the time was the longest ever undertaken by the Peace Corps and the first to include fieldwork in a specifically urban environment. The New . . .

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2013/09/you-must-not-worry-about-santa.html   In 1961, immediately after overhearing her parents discuss the possibility of Soviet nuclear tests at the North Pole, 8-year-old Michelle Rochon grabbed a pencil and wrote a letter to U.S. President John F. Kennedy, in which she asked him to prevent the tests for one particular reason. Her letter, and the reply she soon received from Kennedy, can be read below. (Source: The Letters of John F. Kennedy, published by Bloomsbury Press on October 29, 2013; Photo above: 8-year-old Michelle holding Kennedy’s letter.) Dear Mr. Kennedy, Please stop the Russians from bombing the North Pole because they will kill Santa Claus. I am 8 years old. I am in the third grade at Holy Cross School. Yours truly, Michelle Rochon ————————– THE WHITE HOUSE October 28, 1961 Dear Michelle: I was glad to get your letter about trying to stop the Russians from bombing the North Pole and . . .

    To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans — the Third Goal, Peace Corps Act     My Contribution to the “Third Goal” I went to Botswana as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1968 with a master’s degree in classical history – and I actually taught some history in the secondary school to which I was assigned.  But I was also asked to teach English, and that became my passion and my main contribution to the young men and women of Botswana.  When I returned to the United States in 1970, I enrolled in another MA course, English as a Second Language, at the University of Hawai’i, and then a PhD in Applied Linguistics at Edinburgh University in Scotland. I didn’t begin “educating America” quite yet, though, as my wife (whom I had met and married in Botswana) and I spent several . . .

      On Saturday, December 7, NPCA President and CEO Glenn Blumhorst (Guatemala 1988-91) represented the Peace Corps community at the christening of the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) nuclear-propelled aircraft carrier being constructed at the shipyards in Norfolk News, VA. Over 20,000 attended the event, including shipyard laborers who had worked on the construction of the ship. Speakers including Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly, Former NASA Administrator Major General Charles Bolden, and Former Secretary of State John Kerry. The Honorable Caroline Kennedy, sponsor of the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79), smashed the ceremonial bottle of champagne over the hull of the ship that bears her father’s name.  This is the second aircraft carrier to be named after the 35th president, the first being the conventional-powered CVA 67, also christened by Caroline in 1967.  

    For future information: https://www.peacecorpsdocumentary.com/screenings-event       Chicago Cultural Center  78 E. Washington St Wednesday, December 11, 2019 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM (map) VIEW EVENT → Clinton Street Theater  — Portland 2522 SE Clinton Street Sunday, December 15, 2019 2:30 PM 5:30 PM VIEW EVENT →    Williwaw Restaurant — Anchorage, Alaska 609 F  Street Anchorage, AK — 99501 Thursday, December 19, 2019 5:30 PM 8:00 PM

    Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Dale Gillis (Liberia 1964-67)   Photo by Gbatemah Senah MONROVIA, Montserrado – The economic and financial crisis in Liberia has spread beyond the banking sectors and into Liberia’s struggling education sector, with a direct impact on the work of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers teaching in schools in rural Liberia. In a statement from the Peace Corps Liberia office posted on Facebook on Thursday, Dec. 5, the group confirmed that a significant amount of its volunteers are being recalled from all other counties except three. Peace Corps attributed the move to the acute shortage of cash in the country, and the associated difficulties with accessing money from commercial banks. It appears the crisis has significantly impacted the Peace Corps’ ability to sustain its volunteers working outside of Monrovia. “Consequently, the Peace Corps has made the decision to reduce temporarily the number of volunteers . . .

In the December 6, 2019,  Holiday Books issue of the NYTIMES, the TIMES features Paul Theroux’s (Malawi 1963-65) book: On The Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey in Monica Drake’s list of best travel books. Drake, an assistant managing editor at The Times, and a former editor of the Travel section writes, “Paul Theroux, who is adept at immersing you fully within a setting by the time you’ve finished the first page, recounts a sprawling road trip that delves headlong into the current debate about immigration from Mexico. Reading this work feels like the opposite of scrolling through a photo feed.”         In the 100 Notable Books of 2019 is OUR MAN: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century by George Packer (Togo 1982-83). Summing up, the TIMES writes, “Packer’s portrait of the well-known American diplomat offers a ‘warts and all’ picture, describing a highly . . .

    CELEBRATING THE THIRD GOAL Peace Corps Volunteers as Global Citizens “I therefore propose . . . a Peace Corps of talented young men and women willing and able to serve their country . . . as ‘ambassadors of peace.’” — John F. Kennedy in his campaign speech at the Cow Palace, November 2, 1960 A day after his inauguration, President Kennedy called Sargent Shriver and asked him to start figuring out if the Peace Corps idea really made sense. Shriver immediately called Harris Wofford, who had worked on the campaign, and the two of them reached out to others. Among those were Warren Wiggins and Bill Josephson, who had written a 30-page proposal, “The Towering Task,” which became the new agency’s blueprint. This task force established three official goals for the Peace Corps, which Wofford later summarized in his book Of Kennedys & Kings: First Goal: It can . . .

To Preserve and to Learn Making David Schickele’s Peace Corps Film by Roger Landrum (Nigeria 1961–63) • A COUPLE OF YEARS AFTER WE SERVED together as PCVs in Nigeria, David Schickele asked me I would be part of a film project he was proposing to the Peace Corps. The basic concept was to capture the adventure of crossing into another culture and the rewards gained from escaping the cocoon in which Americans living abroad typically enclose themselves. It is an experience common among many PCVs to one degree or another, and for the Peace Corps, this film could be used to recruit the next wave of Volunteers, focusing on its two mandated cross-cultural goals rather than the more commonly publicized development assistance goal. Our personal experiences in Africa had been a revelation to us in numerous ways, and David wanted to make a documentary providing Americans with a new perspective . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Glenn Blumhorst (Guatemala 1988-91) West Side Runners keep making big strides Herald and News   Bill Staab, right, talks with a group of Ethiopian runners after a short workout at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx borough of New York, Tuesday. AP NEW YORK (AP) — A no-name entrant at this month’s New York City Marathon — literally, he didn’t even qualify to have his name printed on his bib — Girma Bekele Gebre crashed the elite field and finished third in the largest 26.2-mile race in the world. A week later, the Ethiopian runner sat in Bill Staab’s (Liberia 1963-65) Upper West Side apartment, smiling and nodding while Staab recounted details from his stunning podium finish. “It’s a life-changer,” Staab said. Staab, the 80-year-old president of the West Side Runners Club, has helped numerous careers during his 42-year term, making the American dream . . .

    KERA TV presents WAGING PEACE: The Peace Corps Experience a film by Allen Mondell (Sierra Leone 1963-65), a Media Projects, Inc. production “We wanted to make a difference and change the world. And the world changed us.” — Allen Mondell • In 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked a generation of Americans to volunteer and make a difference on a global scale. Since then, more than 200,000 volunteers have answered his call. WAGING PEACE: The Peace Corps Experience weaves  personal letters, journals, emails and blogs written by Peace Corps Volunteers with profiles of four returned volunteers showing the enduring impact of these experiences on their own lives and the lives of others. “I’ve recounted our stories that capture the seemingly insurmountable challenges of ordinary Americans who were willing to endure vast cultural isolation, poverty, suspicion and, at times, antagonism–all in the hopes of making a small difference.” — Allen Mondell   Celebrating  the power of volunteerism . . .

    The European athletic games took place in Minsk, Belarus, in June 2019. About 3,600 athletes competed in 15 sports, many of which were qualifying opportunities for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Join Steve Kaffen at the European Games, and experience the people, sights, and local color of historic and picturesque Minsk. Using over 200 original photographs and descriptions, the author showcases the host city and the Games’ exciting activities including four final events and the spectacular closing ceremony. Steve brings an unusual diversity of life and travel experiences to his writing. He has explored most countries and is a long-time member of the famed Explorer’s Club. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Russia ( 1994-96) and later as the Assistant Inspector General for Auditing at Peace Corps for its worldwide operations. Among interesting experiences, the author has monitored elections for the UN, written the soccer . . .