Peace Corps Worldwide

The First Christmas Card, 1843  

  by Mark Wentling (Honduras 1967-69 & Togo 1970-73) This holiday season has me reminiscing again about my first Christmas in Africa. As I stare blankly out the window I am transported back to 1970 and my humble room in the Adjakpo family compound in the village of Agu-Gadzapé, Togo. After three months of living there as a Peace Corps Volunteer and learning how to fit in where I would never really fit, the Christmas season was upon us and I began raising questions about what to do for Christmas. Everybody in our congested compound, which was always vibrantly alive with people doing their daily chores and what they had to do to survive the poverty that engulfed them so profoundly, liked the idea of doing something to celebrate Christmas. But, they all said they had no money to do anything. They did, however, tell me how nice it would . . .

  by Jeanne D’Haem (Somalia 1968-70) On Christmas Eve my family gathered at my grandmother’s house on Jane Street in Detroit, Michigan. Her Christmas tree glittered with multicolored bubble lights. The uncles sat in the small living room, my aunts and grandmother tasted and talked in the kitchen. Cousins played with the wooden blocks and the Indian doll in the wooden toy box in the den. Sometimes there were new babies to hold. I was 22 the first time I could not attend, as I was a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Somalia, and  I wanted to at least send a Christmas gift to Grandma Carter. Newspaper cones of tea, alcohol for the tilly lamps, or the blue and green patterned cloth for sale in my village did not seem worth sending across two oceans. However, when my neighbor showed me what she gathered from distant trees, I realized I could . . .

UIC grad Bernice Heiderman, 24, was living her dream as a volunteer in Africa. She died of malaria, which the agency’s inspector general said was easily treatable with proper care. By Stephanie Zimmermann Chicago Sun Times   Serving in the Peace Corps had been Bernice Heiderman’s dream since high school. When the north suburban resident finally got accepted during her senior year of college, she wept with joy at the news, her family says. But just 18 months into her tour, the 24-year-old volunteer from Inverness was dead in a spartan hotel room in the East African island nation of Comoros, the victim of what her family calls a “preventable tragedy.” They say Heiderman endured a painful death from malaria that went undiagnosed by a local Peace Corps physician as well by a medical officer in Washington, even though the disease is endemic in Comoros. On Friday, the family filed . . .

  Evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers had no time to prepare their communities for their emergency departure. That loss has been described  many times by  the Evacuated RPCVs.  Now, Peace Corps has developed a pilot program to help 45 ERPCVs to reconnect with their communities. There are plans to expand the program. Here is the link: https://www.peacecorps.gov/news/library/evacuated-volunteers-participate-virtual-service-pilot-program/ Read the announcement Evacuated Volunteers Participate in Virtual Service Pilot Program December 18, 2020 WASHINGTON – Peace Corps Director Jody K. Olsen announced the completion of the first phase of the agency’s new Virtual Service Pilot program, which connected host country communities with returned volunteers who were evacuated due to the coronavirus pandemic. Nine posts participated in the first phase of an 11-week pilot. A total of 45 returned volunteers donated their time voluntarily serving as private citizens to conduct virtual engagements with our host country partners and, were selected based on a match between . . .

  CNN and Washington Post among others are reporting that Trump won’t be welcomed back in Palm Beach. Larry Leamer (Nepal 1965-67) author of many books, including Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump’s Presidential Palace was interviewed for today’s CNN report. Here is an edited version of what Trump and his current wife are facing when they pack their bags and grab a cab for the National Airport to fly ‘home’. • West Palm Beach-based attorney Reginald Stambaugh wrote to Palm Beach officials on Tuesday saying that Trump has already violated the agreement for visitor stays at Mar-a-Lago, noting the President’s plans to move to the club in January. The letter was first reported by The Washington Post. “It is the Town Council’s responsibility to right these wrongs and restore safety and security to the neighborhood by upholding its Use Agreement,” Stambaugh wrote. “In order to avoid . . .