Search Results for “Eres Tu” – Page 107

Bachrach Reviews Ethiopian Novel Cutting For Stone

Jul 28 2009

John Coyne recently published an interview with Abraham Verghese, whose first novel, Cutting For Stone, was published this past winter. [https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/verghese/] A well-regarded author of nonfiction and a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Verghese has a day job as a physician and a professor at Stanford University’s medical school. Much of Cutting For Stone takes place in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, a rare setting for fiction. Verghese brings the unusual perspective of having been born, raised and educated in Addis, even starting his medical training there. He uses his familiarity with Addis life, but it is a rather precious slice of that life. Verghese was born to Indian parents who taught in the private schools for the prosperous middle class and above, who lived nicely in a city where the vast majority struggled in poverty. Verghese’s fictional Addis suggests that he didn’t often venture much beyond the circle of expatriates . . .

Talking With RPCV author Robert Albritton

Jul 15 2009

A few weeks ago, Phil Damon (Ethiopia 1963–65) wrote a review of Let Them Eat Junk: How Capitalism Creates Hunger and Obesity by Robert Albritton (Ethiopia 1963–65) for Peace Corps Worldwide. Phil was nice enough to contact Robert again to interview him. Special thanks to both Robert and Phil, two RPCVs who are still doing their best. • Phil Damon: Well, Rob, since this interview is for PeaceCorpsWorldwide.org, maybe we should get this question taken care of right away: how did your Peace Corps experience shape your sensibility in directions that shaped your career and ultimately this admirable book? Robert Albritton: First I want to thank you for writing such a thoughtful review of my book, and for formulating the questions of this interview. There were three formative experiences that had particularly strong influences on my thinking as a young man. First, I studied at UC Berkeley and lived in the International . . .

Capital Hill Chatter About The Peace Corps

Jul 13 2009

A Washington friend of Babbles dropped us a note with some interesting, and unsubstantiated, gossip: At a Washington dinner party over the weekend with journalists and Capital Hill staff types, I heard two bits of gossip which intrigued me. The first is that the $450 million Peace Corps appropriation may be in trouble because, as one staffer told me, “The director of the Peace Corps hasn’t made a personal visit to Senator Leahy asking for the money.” “Humm,” I replied, “There is no Director of the Peace Corps. Obama hasn’t appointed one yet. I’m not sure the acting director is expected to do that sort of thing.” This stumped my source who said he was just repeating Hill gossip that Leahy was somehow offended. So never mind all the lofty arguments about Peace Corps needing a larger appropriation, it may come down to ego and a protocol misstep. The second point has to do with lack of action on the Peace Corps director. “If you think that is a problem, what about . . .

Novelist Abraham Verghese Writes of Addis Ababa

Jul 13 2009

This is an interview I did recently for the Ethiopia & Eritrea RPCVs newsletter (The Herald) that I thought would-be writers would like to read. Dr. Abraham Verghese used aspects of his own life story to write this novel, setting his narrative in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the U.S. Dr. Verghese is not only a noted doctor, he is also a well published writer of fiction and non-fiction. jc • Abraham Verghese was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and is the Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. In February 2009, Knopf published his first novel, Cutting for Stone. The novel is set in Addis Ababa. Dr. Verghese is also the author of two books of non-fiction, My Own Country and The Tennis Partner. Dr. Verghese began his medical training in Ethiopia, but his . . .

So, What's with the NPCA?

Jul 10 2009

I have been around the Peace Corps so long that I remember the first RPCVs who organized against the Vietnam War back in 1965. This group managed, by the way, to take over the old Peace Corps offices in the Maiatico Building at 806 Connecticut Avenue during the Nixon years. Various local and county-of-service groups began to organize in the mid-sixties. One such group in Washington, D.C. iniated planned and launched the 25th anniversary conference on the Mall in 1986. At that same moment in time a national RPCV organization began, this time in Colorado at a reunion of RPCVs. They were spurred into action because Sam Brown, who was running ACTION and the Peace Corps for Jimmy Carter, told the RPCVs he wouldn’t have anything to do with them (yes, the distrust by the Peace Corps administration for RPCVs started way-back-then: disown the kid once he’s/she’s served!) The Colorado crowd of RPCVs didn’t want anything . . .

Former CD Says What Is Right & Wrong About Step # 9

Jul 10 2009

I received an email today that I’d like to share with you. Dave Berlew, the Peace Corps CD in Ethiopia (1965-68), was in his professional life a PhD from Harvard in behavioral science and a management consultant in his career. He wrote to say what he thought of my Step #9 for the Peace Corps. Take a look. John, your list qualities for CD (Country Director) candidates, while on the one hand humorous, is also pretty close to the mark if you look at it as a Gestalt rather than item by item. But there are more systematic ways of approaching the CD assessment problem. In late 1964 I traveled to Washington to interview with Shriver for the Director of Selection position. When I got there he told me had filled the position the day before with the head selection guy at Exxon Corporation. When he offered me the job as Deputy Director of . . .

Leahy At Peace Corps Crossroad

Jul 08 2009

Leahy at Peace Corps Crossroad is a “My Turn’ column in the Burlington Free Press written by Scott Skinner (Nepal 1964-66). Scott writes: “Sen. Patrick Leahy has frequently provided courageous leadership in the Senate. But he is now faced with a major challenge, and it is not clear that he is going to step up to meet it. “Sen. Leahy is the chairman of a key Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee that funds the Peace Corps. On Thursday, this subcommittee is scheduled to meet to allocate approximately $49 billion for a large variety of foreign projects. Funding for the Peace Corps is a tiny part of this sum. As chairman, Sen. Leahy can basically decide himself how much funding goes to the Peace Corps. “The Obama administration had proposed a Peace Corps budget of $373 million, an amount that would effectively reduce the number of the Peace Corps volunteers despite the president’s . . .

Here today, Ghana Tomorrow

Jul 01 2009

An article yesterday, June 30, about the Peace Corps in Ghana appeared in a Ghanaian newspaper written by RPCV Phillip Kurata . Kurata works for the State Department and writes for www.America.gov, a webiste of the State Department, that distributes news of the U.S. to the world. I thought you’d like to read what they are saying at State about us. Of course, Kurata is one of us. The first Peace Corps Volunteers arrived in Accra on the afternoon of September 1, 1961. The article has the arrival date in Ghana as August 30, but it was the afternoon of September1, 1961 according to John Demos, a member of the Ghana I. Fifty PCVs met Kennedy on the White House lawn, then went to a send-off party at the Ghanaian Embassy in Washington, D.C. on August 31. “Many libations were poured,” recalls Demos, a 1959 graduate of Harvard who had also done graduate work at Berkeley . . .

RPCV Janet Riehl Talks about Self-publishing

Jul 01 2009

Recently Claire Applewhite, author of The Wrong Side of Memphis, posed some questions to Janet Grace Riehl (Botswana 1972-73 & Ghana 1973-75). Riehl is the author of Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary, a self-published book of story poems, many of which center on her family. This interview appeared a few weeks ago in Jane Henderson’s Book Column in the St. Louis Post- Dispatch . Janet lives in southern Illinois, graduating from Alton High School in 1967, then earned a master’s degree in English from Southern Illinois University/Edwardsville and where she was co-editor of the poetry magazine, Sou’Wester. She lived and worked for five years in Ghana and Botswana with the Peace Corps and then the British World Friends (Quakers). She lived in California for a while before returning to Midwest. In this interview by Claire Applewhite, Janet sums up the various ways to get published today. What do you think it takes to get . . .

1964 Peace Corps Book Locker

Jun 22 2009

In mid-May John wrote about the “Fabulous Peace Corps Locker” — Part I, Part II and Part III. For a time Jack Prebis (Ethiopia 1962–64) was in charge of selecting the books for the Book Locker and he shared with us the list of books provided to new PCVs in 1964. • LITERATURE Fiction American Classics Democracy – Henry Adams The Good Earth – Pearl Buck Red Badge of Courage & Four Stories – Stephen Crane Pulitzer Prize Reader – Leo Hamalian & Edmond L Volpe Outcasts of Poker Flat & Other Tales – Bret Harte The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne The Four Million & Other Stories – O. Henry The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway Turn of the Screw & Daisy Miller – Henry James Babbitt – Sinclair Lewis Call of the Wild & White Fang – Jack London Moby Dick – Herman Melville The Fall of . . .

Step # 2 Ten Steps For The Next Peace Corps Director To Take To Save Money, Improve The Agency, and Make All PCVs & RPCVs Happy!

Jun 22 2009

Step # 2 Move Recruitment To PC/Washington Today, Recruitment for the Peace Corps is divorced from the role of the staff in PC/Washington. Few people at HQ (beyond those doing selection) have any idea of what is coming down the pike. New recruits arrive at the airport ready to fly off to the developing world like so many free range chickens ready to be plucked. The Peace Corps needs to return to the most effective recruitment system the Peace Corps ever used. In April 1963, Bob Gale, who had been vice president for development at Carlton College in Northfield, Minnesota came to the Peace Corps and sold Shriver on blitz recruiting. Gale, who worked for Bill Haddad, then Associate Director for the Office of Planning and Evaluation, didn’t want to lose Gale, but Shriver told Haddad that recruiting was crucial to the Peace Corps. “The trouble,” Shriver told Haddad, “was . . .

Ten Steps For The Next Peace Corps Director To Take To Save Money, Improve The Agency, and Make All PCVs & RPCVs Happy!

Jun 21 2009

In a gesture to help the new Director so she or he can ‘hit the ground running’ I am outlining over the next two weeks 10 steps to be taken to change the Peace Corps, save the agency, and make a difference overseas and here at home. I invite everyone to add to the conversation with their suggestions about what can (and should) be done. Just add your ideas in the comments section below this entry. Many thanks. Step #1: Close The Regional Peace Corps Recruitment Offices To save money, and meet a budget crunch, two years ago the Peace Corps closed two regional recruitment offices. Now the new Director should close all of them.. Close the offices in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle San Francisco and Los Angeles. These regional offices have been replaced (like newspapers) with the Internet. We are a wired nation, from applying to college, getting a job, to finding someone to . . .

Looking For A Job? Seeking A New Career

Jun 16 2009

It is tough getting a job even in the best of times. To help RPCVs and PCVs, Peace Corps Worldwide has developed an on-line ‘talent bank’ available to organizations interested in hiring people with your experience. RPCVs and PCVs planning what to do next are registering already to be part of this job bank of talented Peace Corps veterans. Here’s how this free on-line talent bank for RPCVs works: RPCVs can set up a profile at http://pcworldwide.cambridgedata.com/apply There’s never any cost to the RPCV and we restrict access to legitimate employers. RPCVs interested in being contacted by potential employers, for work in the US or overseas, should register – it takes about 10 minutes. Once we have a critical mass of registrants we will promote this Talent Bank to organizations working internationally, as well as organizations working in the US which serve immigrant communities or otherwise might need some of the particular linguistic, . . .

Laurence Leamer in today's HuffingtonPost.com

Jun 15 2009

Larry Leamer (Nepal 1964–66), author of Madness Under the Royal Palms: Love and Death Behind the Gates of Palm Beach among other books has the following essay posted today in the Huffingtpost.com. • Join Us, Mr. President!! I was the next-to-the-last speaker Saturday at a rally in Washington to build a bold new Peace Corps. Rajeev Goyal, the Morepeacecorps.org national organizer, and I had decided to do this rally only nine days before. It would have been a formidable new task even if we have done nothing else. But we were already working ceaselessly to get the House of Representatives to appropriate the $450 million that would allow the Peace Corps to grow and to reform. We were close to success in the House thanks to a relentless group of representatives and legislative aides. Our problem was not only what would happen in the Senate but President Obama. For some . . .

Literary Agents Not In New York — For You!

Jun 11 2009

Here’s a true story. Most of the time when publishers think a book will be a hit, they are dead wrong. Last year I tracked ten books that received six-figure advances. A friend, who is in the publishing business, checked on these books a year later and not one had earned out its advance. So publishers don’t know what will work, what won’t. They just think they know. The truth is: I don’t know either! So, give your book a try. Here are a list of agent NOT in New York City, for those of you who would rather deal with an agent closer to home. I don’t know any of these agents, so I can’t recommend anyone to you. I suggest that before sending them anything, that you write a ONE page letter saying who you are and what you have written. Agents are only interested in finished manuscripts. (If you have clips, . . .

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