Coyne Comes in From the Cold
John, Thank you so very ,much for your amazing contribution to the entire Peace Corps community and to writers inn…
I am closing down www.peacecorpsworldwide.org website this month. Marian Haley Beil and I
started a newsletter RPCV Writers & Readers 32 years ago. We then shifted to our website in 2000. We started our newsletter in April 1989 as a Third Goal project to promote and encourage stories and books about the Peace Corps and our experiences as a way of educating Americans about the developing world. We had hoped with the website to have a place where RPCVs could share points of view and their own stories. While this has happened, but for the most part our 245,000 plus RPCVs do not look back and reflect on their time overseas, caught up naturally with their current lives, families, and careers. The Peace Corps is history for most RPCVs.
I am happy to say that Marian will continue to develop Peace Corps Writers Books imprint where 89 RPCVs and Staff have already published, with Marian’s help, their memoirs, novels, and poetry collections. We began this imprint in 2010.
I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed books, told their stories, and shared their experiences in the Peace Corps. Thank you for your contributions.
It has been impressive to see how many fine books have been written by former Volunteers. This is a contribution to American culture, knowledge, and international understanding that the Peace Corps agency—unfortunately–has never recognized or supported.
But nevertheless, as we say in Amharic, ameseghinallehu.
John
Thank you very much John for all your work and dedication. Will you be turning off the website and destroying the data or simply not adding to it anymore? When you said “close down” it implies the former but wanted to be sure. Maybe some of its contents could be added to the website of the Museum of the Peace Corps Experience.
John,
Say it ain’t so.
Peter Reid
John and Marian,
I can’t begin to tell you how very sad this news makes me as I am sure many others will tell you as well! I have so enjoyed reading all the posts and reviews you have put on this website. I am sincerely saddened and hope you get enough positive feedback that you might reconsider this most unfortunate decision.
John, this will be a big loss to the Peace Corps community. I sure do appreciate your efforts and view the website several times a week.
Best wishes in your new ventures.
Dan Campbell
El Salvador, 1974-1977
Dear John,
It is a bit of an understatement to say that I will miss your daily emails and the extraordinary gift of your time and commitment not only to the Peace Corps but to the thousands of us whose lives have been so enriched and changed by our years of service. I can only imagine how much of your day and week and life has been consumed with your generous service to the Peace Corps and to us. So thank you and, as you said, አመሰግናለሁ
Sometimes we don’t know how much we miss something until it’s gone–but this time I know how much I will miss these gentle reminders of the continuing good work of thousands of my fellow returned Volunteers.
I know you and it cannot go on forever, but do hope that someone steps up in their own unique fashion to continue this good work. (looking to you younger returnees now!)
best wishes–and thanks so much for all you’ve done!
I can barely speak or write, my sadness is so great! I’ll have more to say when I recover from the shock! Marnie Mueller
Sorry to see this, John. Thank you for all you’ve done for Peace Corps and Peace Corps Writers!
John and Marian,
We’ve all really appreciated your dedication to this project. I support the earlier commenter that hopefully this will be left intact on the web as long as the web chooses to allow such things to exist. Possibly an archives operation can preserve it some way. Best to both of you and many, many thank you’s and asante sana’s ,
Well done, John. We’ve loved your labor of love. Kind regards, Will Newman, PC/Nepal
Dear John,
This website (and really your insights all along) are a crucial piece to the institutional memory of the Peace Corps. I understand that your dedicated service cannot last forever, and am truly thankful for all it has done to inform the story of the Peace Corps. At the same time, I sincerely hope that you will keep this website online with this incredible body of information about the agency and its volunteers.
As a community, we have been immeasurable lucky to have had you and Marian run this website for as long as you have!
Thank you!
Alana
Hi John, I am recently a subscriber to your wonderful website and marvel at the number of Peace Corps stories you have enabled to be told – or learned about. Just today I was stunned to see that 488 memoirs have been written by former volunteers about their experience and 235, stories told. You have filled in a great vacuum. Part of the problem of keeping the Peace Corps alive and well is the lack of historical data (not compiled by the Peace Corps) about the impact of the volunteers on their host countries or the impact these countries have on them. Your service has helped fill that gap. Thanks so much for doing that. Tom Scanlon Chile’ 61
Chile 61 is impressive. I was with John and Marian in Ethiopia 62
Coyne, you rat!
But, good grief, if anybody has earned a break, you have.
Thanks for all the news, and reviews, and for keeping so many of us in touch. It’s a wonderful service you and Marian have performed, and as vital a part of Peace Corps life as anything anybody has ever done with the possible exceptions of Sarge, Harris, and JFK.
I mean, NOW WHAT???
Happy trails, and Arrgghh.
I support everything you have to day about John. My mailbox will be strangely empty everyday without something from John! I hope you are all ok back there in the east. I haven’t been there for months given COVID but hope at some point this year I can come back. It has been a very long time….Sue Hoyt Aiken
Thank you for all the hard work in keeping this project alive. Your voice will be missed. Josh
John, your work has been faithful, impassioned and significant to so many of us RPCV’s — I understand that there comes a time to step back, but wow, please know how much your work has meant to so many of us. You’ve been terrific: so smart and devoted to capturing the depth and richness of the Peace Corps experience. Thank you, thank you. I too will miss your daily items — I’ve been so impressed with how you’ve managed to keep it up. You have made a difference.
Dear John,
I follow few sites as regularly as I have yours. I’ve often marveled at how you kept it going with such topical issues, reports, & reviews. I appreciate the time & effort you put into this endeavor & hope you will now move on to something equally essential.
John, so sorry to see you go from this site and hope the content will be preserved some how and not lost to the dust bin. You and Marian have contributed a treasure trove to the Peace Corps story and the volunteer community. You have been extremely committed to keeping PC alive and in front of us all these years and I’m grateful. The quality of what has been highlighted in your content and the publications of the former PCVs is a true testament to the quality of the human beings that represent(ed) the Peace Corps both overseas and back home. Thank you for your years of dedication!! I’ll miss seeing your name pop up in my email almost every day. Stay well and a big hug.
What a great job over the years. Sorry to see it go away.
John and Marian, I agree with Lipez, but wasn’t sure of the spelling, was it Rats or Ras? But either one, you both get
Canonized.. Donohoe’s Ethie 1.
John,
Thank you for your excellent initiatives on behalf of the Peace Corps and Volunteers. Your promotion of PCV writers has led to an unsurpassed treasure of literature which will continue to explore and enrich the American experience for years. I have sampled only a fraction of the writers you’ve introduced me to and have enjoyed them all. You have my very best wishes for many more successes and pleasures.
Dell
But wait! I am just getting started in the happy habit of reviewing RPCV”s books! Honestly, what ARE you going to do with your time now? It really is incredible that after your career and other aspects of your life, that you found time to be the Pied Piper of the RPCV’s as we follow all that you say, post, edit, discuss and pass on to so many good people connected with the Peace Corps.
I was thinking how long ago Marian and others, but mostly her, started our Ethie 1 Newsletter to keep us both informed and connected. Both of you are tireless in your commitment to us.
Can any of us imagine what our lives would have been like without our PC experience? Imagine not going to GeorgeTown University in DC during the months of July and August (!) for training including very early physical workouts, learning in a language lab a new language Amharic from Ethiopians, drinking beer in some bar in downtown Georgetown, exploring DC and finally, after many hours of learning all about so many aspects of Ethiopia, we went to the Rose Garden to meet you know who! What an unbelievable thrill!
And who can forget the prop plane ride from Rome to Addis Ababa. We flew right over the Sudan where the Blue and White Niles merge! What a sight!
And then there we were! On the tarmac waiting to disembark on our new adventure. Most of our 300 or so volunteers were fresh out of college, ready to teach! . There were a few young couples and of course, two lovely women, in their older years, as teacher trainers.
Thanks, John, for helping us preserve our memories and so much more….
Susan,
I just came across your name as I was reviewing the many letter of thanks to John Coyne upon his retirement.
In doing so, I read your comments and also took note of your mention of reviewing the work of incipient Peace Corps writers … of which I am one.
Mine is a novel, Peter’s Perils, a fiction placed within the time frame of my service in Malawi (1964-1966). The narrator is a young woman who questions her decision to ship off to Africa.
Survival comes in the form of her chance meeting with Canon Peter Kilakwa … the slave boy
who became a priest.
I have had difficulty finding willing readers, especially those with their own Peace Corps experiences.
My greatest need right now is for readers willing to provide honest feedback about the story. Is it a pleasurable read, can the reader relate to the main characters and, perhaps most importantly, does it satisfy as a work that educates the reader about a unique time when independence was
coming to Africa.
Although many of the events were ones I observed, writing as a piece fiction made it possible to steal from others and craft a story which I hope can stand on its own.
Would you be willing to lend me a hand?
Thanks,
Kevin
Hi John,
Thank you, John. Your work has touched all our lives.
You have been with Peace Corps from the beginning.
You were with Peace Corps when Peace Corps was
just a vision from a young president named John F.
Kennedy. 60 years later, we are still going strong.
It important for all of us who have joined the Peace Corps
during different eras to have someone tie it all together
for us and document this important history. Yesterday
and today, America is only 5% of the world’s population
and just one voice among the United Nations. The United
Nations started with 51 member states and now there are
193. Kennedy recognized the need to know and cooperate
with the changing world in both the 20th and the 21st Century
and the need for “grassroots ambassadors”. You were able
to witness those changes, the ups and downs and document
them for us.
You have given a voice and a platform for past, present
and future volunteers to better understand the Peace Corps.
You have highlighted the wonderful work that Peace Corps
does as part of a global society. You are opening doors to
worlds that leave us both transformed and changed. Thanks
again John for your great work.
Kind Regards,
RPCV Jeff Walsh (South Africa 2016-2018)
Dear John,
Thank you so much for all you and Marian have done.. There would not be a RPCV community without your efforts. Those efforts began when you first came home and continued with helping the National Peace Corps Association develop, honoring President Kennedy on the sad 25th Anniversary of the assassination with the Beautiful Journals of Peace, helping to start the JFK Library Peace Corps Archives, and creating the Writers and Readers News Letter and then Peace Corps World Wide as well as so many other works, seen and unseen.
It is so good to know Marian will continue with Peace Corps Writers. The new generations of RPCV writers will find a home, here.
I want to thank you both for all the support and opportunity I have had. I am forever grateful,
John and Marian.
The two of you have contributed so much of your personal lives to the literature of our disparate Peace Corps adventures and have been a constant and inspiring reminder to many of us of what Peace Corps has allowed us to do. Your partnership has carried many of us through years of this evolving Peace Corps community history.
I’m sorry you’re giving it up, but know that as a revered shemagliye you now deserve to wake up whenever you want to, and do whatever else there is in the world that you want to do, such as writing another 20 or so books of your own.
David
John, I think I’ve met you in person only one time but I feel as though I’ve known you a lifetime. In my hometown, Milwaukee, we would call this kind of talk schmaltzy, but my eyes are welling as I write this.
You have done so much to boost the morale of Peace Corps writers. I often wondered from what fountain emerged that fierce dedication.
I do believe the Jesuits had a little something to do with it.
Vaya Con Dios,
Patricia Edmisten, Peru, 1962-64
A great contribution, John and Marian. Thank you.
Peace Corps for me was a life changing experience at the young age of 22 ro 24 just out of college. When i first heard i was accepted to train for Ethiopia that was a slight let down. I imagined it would be more exciting to go to one of the newly independent from colonialism countries. Even as i first gathered with everyone at Georgetown University for training it began to occur to (I think) all of us that we were part of what would be a key Peace Corps experience and country: 300 of us going to a unique country in Africa. A place that had not been colonized (except for a short incident) and was led by a leader committed to the League of Nations and the United Nations. I remember visiting Africa Hall, headquarters for the Organization for African Unity.
I remember driving a Jeep from Addis to Asmara and continuing to Masawa.
I have recently begun reading articles in Great Decisions 2021 Edition of the Foreign Policy Association. I read about the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative building a new rail line from Djibouti to Addis Ababa. When I was among 100 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (and spouses, children, etc.) who visited Ethiopia on the 50th anniversary of the 1962 Ethiopia I group that I was part of we saw the New Africa Hall built by the Chinese for the Africa Union.
The Peace Corps continues to be a life changing experience for me as I try to relate my experiences today to everything I’ve learned as a “World Citizen” beganning in 1962.
Thanks to John, Marian, Paul, Harris, Sarge and everyone else who has contributed to my life experience. My Peace Corps Ethiopia friends continue to be the one group from my youth that I most associate with and look to for support in my life (more than my high school or college class).
Ray Donaldson in Maryland at rtdonaldson@gmail.com
This has been such a great resource. I will miss it, but I’ll remember many of the things you have passed on to all of us. Best wishes for the years ahead.
I’ll miss PC Worldwide and your wit and wisdom, John. Congrats on a job well done. Please stay in touch.
Thank you for your dedication John. I have enjoyed the stories and they will be missed. However, I certainly understand the time and commitment. You most definitely, deserve a break.
Thank you, John. Hope someone picks up where you will end your appreciated service.
I have really enjoyed your posts and am sorry that you’re “retiring.” Thank you for all you have done for returned Peace Corps volunteers and writers.
John and Marian. Your efforts and work have been superb, gratifying and great motivation as well as enjoyment to many with each of our contributions to add to the mystery and appreciation of what so many tried to do as we gradually became some one else in our journey and growth to different cultures and to gain appreciation of where ever we were and what we tried to do as well as maintain contact with those we knew years ago. The mission both of you is a true gift to so many and part of the mission that must continue to be sparked again and again as others follow you. Patrick O’Leary: Tanzania XIII but diverted to Sierra Leone 1967-68
John, you’re right that life goes on and PC experiences become history for most RPCVs, but for most, as for me, time in the Peace Corps is one of the most important experiences of a lifetime, never forgotten. Thanks for your sixty years of supporting the Peace Corps and those who served, helping them remember and reflect on and share what they lived through., It has been a great contribution to the all important third goal. And best wishes for the future!
John, I fully understand your desire to leave the website behind. Before you go, you should know how much your writings and your highlighting of RPCV works meant to the Peace Corps community. For many of us, the Peace Corps service years changed the trajectory of our lives, such that we are always returning to our memories to see how much we were changed by exposure to other cultures, other peoples, other values, other ways of thinking. I will miss the website, but nothing can take away from how our involvement in the Peace Corps community affected who we wound up becoming as human beings on this challenging earth. All the best to you, and may you continue to savor how much Peace Corps has meant to you.
So sudden John. I thought you would go on forever. You’re right though. There is little linking present day America
with experiences in the Peace Corps, at least not for me. That’s why you filled an essential void; one I hope will be filled by someone else…assuming you don’t change your mind. There used to be Peace Corps Online, but your site has been more about stories.
Several times in the last couple years I’ve used your search tool and then gone back to find stuff you posted years ago. Stuff not available anywhere else. When you say you’re closing the site, I hope that doesn’t mean it just disappears, because it’s a Peace Corps history book. Thanks for all you’ve done, and good luck with your next endeavor. .
Dear John — This is “So long” (to the site) but not “Goodbye,” right? So I refuse to be sad about your decision. You deserve a break now. You’ve earned it. I’ll add my voice to the booming chorus of thanks for all you’ve done for us RPCVs. I’m especially thankful to you and Marian for publishing my PC memoir, How to Cook a Crocodile, in 2010 as one of the first in your PCW imprint. I wish you all good things, and I hope we’ll always stay in touch. — Affectionately, Bonnie (Gabon 1996-98)
Incredible! Sad! But a joyful moment to celebrate your 32 years of dedicated work, and the vision that inspired it (and all of us).
One testimony to John’s impact is that I’m the 40th person standing in line to say Thank You on your retirement day. I’ll say “Y’kenyele” instead of “Amesegenalehu” to strengthen the frayed bonds between Ethiopia and Eritrea, our two beloved nations. Your dedication to helping Peace Corps volunteers find their voices united not just our community, but the whole world. This mission continues, even if the estimable careers and blogs that expanded our world come to completion.
I don’t mean to suggest that there could be any replacement for Peace Corps Worldwide, but all volunteers with stories are welcome to send them to the Museum of the Peace Corps Experience. (Just write those worlds in one string and tack on .org.) Look for “Share Your Story” and take it from there.
John has already contributed his books and writings to help the Museum progress from a dream to reality. We will try to emulate his unique ability to communicate with the Peace Corps community—and keep the dream alive.
John, I have really appreciate all you have done to share you knowledge about the Peace Corps and enthusiasm for Peace Corps authors. Your blog has been a great service to all. I hope perhaps you can find someone to keep it going. They would have quite big shoes to fill.
Dear John:
Many thanks for the excellent work and devotion to the Peace Corps, To say that you’ll be missed is the understatement of the Millenium. Who knew so many PC-related writers would appear on the web?! When is your history of the PC coming out? I want a prepublication version. Keep up the great work!
Dear John and Marian:
You both deserve a medal. Your unswerving dedication to the preserving the stories of the Peace Corps and its history is truly important to the American experience, not just the Peace Corps experience. I have watched you labor all these years and very few could sustain your dedication, energy and display your passion and skills.
John, you had one of the first blogs in the entire country–the first I was ever aware of.You were our Boswell. Please find a way to preserve all the wonderful stories you both told. I feel very sad, like the home team is folding.
A huge thank you.
Maureen Orth
Colombia 1964-66
John,
What an incredible run and hell of a ride it has been. What a truly astonishing body of work you’ve shared via this website and its earlier incarnations. What a community you and Marian have built over the years, encouraging and enabling so many to share their Peace Corps stories. I owe a special personal debt of gratitude to you both for publishing my poetry collection Strange Beauty of the World. I remain in awe of your dedication to Peace Corps, past and present, and all you have contributed to PCW and the Peace Corps Writers imprint, not to mention your own writing, teaching, and advocacy. It boggles the mind. As others have expressed, I hope the PCW website will live on in some form and/or can be archived so all the wonderful stories are preserved. It is way too valuable a resource to lose. My deep appreciation for your passion and hard work, and for inspiring us to share our stories. Take good care, carry on, and stay in touch.
Dear John,
My heartfelt thank you for your work to encourage and support Peace Corps writers. So much of what I know of the Peace Corps comes from their work and yours. These contributions to the American fabric are critical and precious. I hope that one or more other RPCVs will step up to continue your work.
I’m pleased that my book made it under the wire to be listed and reviewed. I’m deeply grateful.
I’ll miss your morning emails.
Most sincerely,
Dorothy Brown Soper
Ghana, 1963-65
I imagine you’ve been inundated since your cameos in A Towering Task, making you even *more* popular (if that’s even possible!), adding further demands on your time and attention. While I don’t know Marian, John, I would like to join all of your other admirers in saying THANK YOU (to Marian as well) for sharing from your heart––thank you for your tireless dedication and daily inspiration (toward reflecting, integrating, and doing our part in continuing this cycle you have modeled so well––yes, here in this modern world where it’s easy to pretend our Peace Corps experiences never happened….I’d argue you never let us forget!). It did not go unnoticed. Your need to come in from the cold is completely understandable, especially after so many decades of committed service––I hope you find a warm fire (“ago tapne,” or warming one’s hands by the fire, was one of my favorite things to do with friends who became family while I was in Nepal).
Sara
(PC/Nepal 181, ’96–’98)
I’m echoing Alana de Joseph’s comment. It’s really important to keep accessible to the public all the material you’ve created on this website. If that’s not your plan or you need help doing it, maybe I can help. Lex
I was a Volunteer in Chile (64-66) but only learned of this website a little over a year ago. During that time I have devoured most accounts from PC Volunteers who served in Chile and South America in general. As I read each I was reminded of my own experiences and this has added further enrichment to my own experience. I hope there will be some kind of replacement for this site, it is too valuable to lose. John Coyne deserves a gold medal for his devotion and professionalism in his contribution to the website and to the Peace Corps.
Needless to say …. really sorry to hear this … but totally understandable…. I spend time with you several times each week … certainly will miss it. Wish you all the best in whatever comes next. You must have one hell of a mailing list …it is indeed a valuable resource … hope you find some way to keep using it. DALE
John,
You’ve provided millions of RPCVs with such an important platform for so many years that this news comes as a shock. You and Marian have done such a great job for all of us for so long that we know you deserve a break from the the daily pressure of posting relevant and meaningful stories, book reviews and other information about RPCVs. But the idea of you retiring from this noble cause is really too much to comprehend. All I can say is thank you very much and best wishes for the future.
All the best, Jim
John and Marian,
In a world where kindness has become an endangered species, you are both standouts. The number of lives you have impacted will forever remain immeasurable, but the way you have done it will always endure as a shinning example.
Thank you for resigning: It gives us all the opportunity to stop and appreciate all that you have done for so many of us.
We look forward to the announcement of your next and newest undertakings.
As the Irish pray, “May your cares of tomorrow wait ’til this day is done.”
With great thanks.
Hard to believe that the website will not be there when I got to check it daily! WHAT A MARVELOUS JOB THE TWO OF YOU HAVE DONE!!
Any chance you’ll reconsider….. 🙂 There will always be hope!
CONGRATULATIONS on a marvelous job. Boy, will it be missed!!
Ken
John, you have done a profound service to us all. Thank you.
John, thank you for your tremendous work on this over the decades. Before I left for my Zambia service in 2000, and years before social media, your collection of PC writing was one of the few things to be found online. It inspired me, motivated me, prepared me. I hope the content here will be preserved. There are still so many more stories to be written down and passed along. Thank you.
John and Marian, it’s true that when Volunteers return their stories drift into the past and become history. Those stories become part of our culture and identity, subtly and quietly making the world a better place. Your contribution in bringing our Peace Corps stories out and giving them air to breathe will remain in hearts everywhere. It’s sad to see it cease in this form, but thank you for all you have done.
John,
Let me add a few words of appreciation for your amazing work promoting and sharing RPCV stories for over 30 years! “Different Latitudes” wouldn’t have been possible without Marian and your efforts–not to mention that you identified an awesome editing team. This is even more impressive when I listed to all the difficulties other authors had publishing their memoirs.
And over the years your networking capabilities have been invaluable in connecting with other RPCV authors. You even introduced me to a non-RPCV–author, Tom Miller who established my interest in writing about Moritz Thomsen.
Nobody can take your place, but I do hope that a group of RPCV’s will emerge to continue this amazing website or something similar.
Cheers,
Mark, Guatemala 1971-73
Sorry, I will not accept your decision! Do you realize how significant you’ve been in keeping our Peace Corps experiences so personal, memorable and meaningful. We don’t always read everything, but we read enough to be reminded of the role it played in our lives. I think you get the point. But even if you don’t accept this “demand”, I want to thank you your gift and wish you the very best.
Allen
Thank you for your tireless work to promote RPCV books. Glad to see that Marian will continue to publish these works.
Thank you, John. Your and Marian’s work has been invaluable. Loved your commentary as well as the window you all provided of the works of RPCVs! I’m hoping the renewed interest in and efforts of the RPCV Oral History Project will entice folks who have been thinking of writing about their experience are motivated to follow-through as well as take those flights of original stories.
John – With your experiential knowledge of Peace Corps from the very beginning (“Mr. Historian”) and your commitment to take on creating and overseeing the website, your “Towering Task,” you made it required reading, a part of the daily routine. Your commentaries preceding the postings added context (and very often spin) and generously spotlighted the author and the story or comment. Much appreciated was the email interaction you had with me, and I’m sure most others, with a funny take on something in the news, or an idea on something I might work on. With your website, I reconnected with old Peace Corps friends, and made many, many new ones. Thank you.
John, I have to say that as someone who has been both a Volunteer and a staff member at Peace Corps HQ, I’ve found this site to be such an immense resource over the years — and has kept me updated on so many parts of the Peace Corps community. Thank you for so many years of service.
We will miss peacecorpswriters.org, John, unless someone else will take it on?? You are the best for assisting so many writers with their memories, but there should still be a venue for shared experiences! Why not put the word out for a replacement, or have you done that?
Dear John,
I’m still reeling since I read your announcement a few days ago. You were my first creative writing teacher. I took one of your online classes which helped me to advance the writing of my memoir. I read your missives eagerly whenever you post them. And it was such a pleasure to spend time with you and the other RPCVs at your Peace Corps writer’s workshop in Maryland. I’ll miss all of it.
Huge thank you to you and Marian for the work you have done. Please don’t disappear entirely!
Amanda Noble (Philippines 76-77)
Thank you for extraordinary gift of your time and commitment not only to the Peace Corps writers and readers but to the thousands of us whose lives have been so enriched by what you have tirelessly given over the decades to the Peace Corps community- to the volunteers, to the staff, to the world.
John, you have been with Peace Corps right from the start and while you might be leaving this- you remain a pillar to the Peace Corps community, now and always! The PC community and others have been immeasurable fortunate to have had you and Marian run this newsletter/website for as long as you have! You have also been a faithful guardian to Peace Corps in ways too many to record- you know them, and we are grateful for them!
Your dedication to sharing PC stories is beyond inspirational and which our world continues to need. You have touched countless lives of the writers and readers in ways you will never know which has touched and transformed us. We are forever grateful. Thank you- አመሰግናለሁ Āmeseginalehu (translation- “thank you” which literally means we praise you, we commend you!)
With gratitude,
Laurette Bennhold-Samaan, PC Staff 1994-2001
I miss you already, John!!! Thanks for all you did over the years……..
John,
Thank you so very ,much for your amazing contribution to the entire Peace Corps community and to writers inn particular. It has been a tremendous resource for all of us, and you have helped connect us through the many shared stories.
Enjoy your retirement, but I hope you will remain connected and engaged in the community. It just wouldn’t be the same without you.
– Chic Dambach, Colombia 1967-69