Search Results for “Eres Tu” – Page 13

Will Newman (Nepal) Remembers Early Peace Corps Years

Dec 16 2023

By 1970 most of the country desk officers had been Volunteers and APCDs in the field. We were a noisy, can-do bunch, within the NANESA Region roughly half females. I was on the Nepal desk my second 30-month tour from mid-1970 through early ‘73. Don Hess was the Peace Corps Director, leading the formerly independent agency that was then part of ACTION. On my last day Hess called me to his office and asked me to contract to lead a team to revise the entire Peace Corps Manual. [It was not lost on me that the last gasp of a dying bureaucracy was to redo their rule book.] I did agree, provided I could hire an editor and an experienced typist. I also asked for someone from A&F to serve with me. Hess agreed. Don Romine joined our little team. My first act was to visit the Peace Corps print . . .

Mad Men and Women of the New Peace Corps

Dec 12 2023

John writes — In this series that I published years ago and republishing for those who have come lately to the site, I will attempt, in short-hand fashion, to tell the history of the first years of the agency and the men and women who created the Peace Corps. The history begins In those early days of 1960s the agency was full of Mad Men (and a few Mad Women) who were living in a world-of-work atmosphere very much like the provocative TV AMC drama Mad Men, the program that followed a handful of ruthlessly competitive men and women in New York City who worked in advertising on Madison Avenue. They were living (in case you never saw the series) in an ego-driven world where “selling” was all that matters. That series, set in the early Sixties and has everything many of us grew up with: cigarette smoking, drinking, . . .

An interview with North Africa Folklorist Deborah Kapchan (Morocco)

Dec 11 2023

RPCVs in the news — Deborah Kapchan is an American folklorist, writer, translator and ethnographer, specializing in North Africa and its diaspora in Europe. In 2000, Kapchan became a Gugenheim fellow. She has been a Fulbright-Hays recipient twice, and is a Fellow of the American Folklore Society. She is professor of Performance Studies at New York University, and the former director of the Center for Intercultural Studies in Folklore and Ethnomusicology (now the Américo Paredes Center for Cultural Studies) at the University of Texas at Austin. After completing her Bachelors of Arts in English Literature and French at New York University while studying flute performance with Harold Jones in New York, Kapchan went to Morocco in 1982 as a Peace Corps Volunteer. There she learned Moroccan Arabic, and in 1984 got a job doing ethnography in Marrakech and in El Ksiba, Morocco. This experience reoriented her life and in 1985 . . .

“Peace Corps signifies true Gambia/US friendship” — US Ambassador

Dec 06 2023

In the news — Africa-Press – Gambia. Her Excellency Sharon L Cromer, United States of America Ambassador to The Gambia, has said the mission of Peace Corps signifies and facilitates true understanding and friendship between the peoples of The Gambia and the United States of America. Ambassador Cromer made the remarks on Wednesday at the Peace Corps Massembeh Training Center in Lower River Region during the swearing in of the most recent group of Peace Corps volunteers in agriculture and health. The swearing-in ceremony marked the completion of a 10-week Pre-Service Training (PST) that prepared the 12 trainees for service in the respective communities. During the training, trainees learned to communicate in local languages, gained a deeper understanding of the rich patterns that make up the Gambian culture, and learned to take responsibility for their health and safety as well as their security while in The Gambia. Since 1961, Peace . . .

Establishing the Peace Corps

Dec 05 2023

Establishing the Peace Corps by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) Let me start with a quote from Gerard T. Rice’s book, The Bold Experiment: JFK’s Peace Corps: In 1961 John F. Kennedy took two risky and conflicting initiatives in the Third World. One was to send five hundred additional military advisers into South Vietnam; by 1963 there would be seventeen thousand such advisers. The other was to send five hundred young Americans to teach in the schools and work in the fields of eight developing countries. These were Peace Corps Volunteers. By 1963 there would be seven thousands of them in forty-four countries. Vietnam scarred the American psyche, leaving memories of pain and defeat. But Kennedy’s other initiative inspired, and continued to inspire, hope and understanding among Americans and the rest of the world. In that sense, the Peace Corps was his most affirmative and enduring legacy. Historical Framework . . .

THE SHOWGIRL AND THE WRITER by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador)

Dec 04 2023

Dear Friends, Family, and Colleagues, My latest book, The Showgirl and the Writer: A Friendship Forged in the Aftermath of the Japanese American Incarceration was published in July of this year by Peace Corps Writers, an Imprint of Peace Corps Worldwide. I am grateful to many of you who have read, reviewed, and referred the book to potential readers. For others, The Showgirl and the Writer is a hybrid memoir/biography about my long friendship with Mary Mon Toy, a Nisei performer who had been forcibly removed from her home to an American concentration camp in Idaho during WWII. Our underlying bond was the incarceration of Japanese Americans; I was born in the Tule Lake Japanese American high security camp in California where my Caucasian parents had volunteered to work. This book has been a labor of love, a personal and political journey. When I learned upon Mary’s death in 2010 that she had been keeping . . .

New List of RPCV & STAFF Authors As Of December 2023

Dec 03 2023

New List of RPCV & STAFF Authors December 2023 Here is our new list of RPCV & staff authors we know of who have published two or more books of any type. Currently—in December 2023–the count is 523. If you know of someone who has written two books and their name is not on this list, then please email: jcoyneone@gmail.com. We know we don’t have all the Peace Corps writers. Thank you.’ Jerome R. Adams (Colombia 1963–65) Tom Adams (Togo 1974-76) Thomas “Taj” Ainlay, Jr. (Malaysia 1973–75) Elizabeth (Letts) Alalou (Morocco 1983–86) Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) Robert Albritton (Ethiopia 1963-65) Usha Alexander (Vanuatu 1996–97) James G. Alinder (Somalia 1964-66) Richard Alleman (Morocco 1968-70) Hayward Allen (Ethiopia 1962-64) Diane Demuth Allensworth (Panama 1964–66) Paul E. Allaire (Ethiopia 1964–66) Jack Allison (Malawi 1967-69) Allman (Nepal 1966-68) Nancy Amidei (Nigeria 1964–65) Gary Amo (Malawi 1962–64) David C. Anderson (Costa Rica 1964-66) Lauri Anderson (Nigeria . . .

Review | ST. PETERSBURG BAY BLUES by Douglas Buchacek (Russia)

Nov 26 2023

St. Petersburg Bay Blues Douglas Buchacek (Russia 2001-03) Independently published 201 pages April 2021 $15.00 (paperback) review by Steve Kaffen (Russia 1994-96) St. Petersburg Bay Blues is a lively and engaging account of the author’s experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Russia, and a member of Russia 9, the last Western Russia (Moscow-based) group before the program closed. Of note is the author’s impressive recall, without notes, of people, places, and events. He tells us, “Everywhere I went I carried a composition book, which I titled St. Petersburg Bay Blues. In it I wrote songs, poems, and the odd note or observation.” Unfortunately, the notebook was stolen. “I scrambled to write what I could remember. That’s what I have here, my attempt to document an experience that seems simultaneously alien and essential to my life.” Expectations are dangerous for a book reviewer, and I was looking forward to a . . .

I AM A FACT NOT A FICTION by Edward Mycue

Nov 20 2023

I Am a Fact Not a Fiction: Selected Poems by Edward Mycue (Ghana 1961-63) 58 pages October 2023 $10.00 (Paperback); $2.99 (Kindle) “Ed Mycue’s poetry is a lifetime of surprises. He was born surprised, grew up on wonder, and now surely lives under the ever crashing waterfalls of amazement. His language is pure chirp, flip and rouse. It never ever sleeps. Savor his lines — like memory — for as long as you dare” — Hiram Larew, author of More Than Anything and Part Of “The precision of Ed Mycue’s dreamscape is laser-sharp and as warm as chocolate. Images rush pell-mell across the page, jumbling and tossing each other aside as one supplants the other in a rush to break the barrier between words and meaning, perception and feeling.” — Laura Kennelly, Ph.D., Associate Editor, BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider, Bach Institute • San Francisco poet Edward Mycue was born in Niagara Falls, . . .

DARK STAR SAFARI by Paul Theroux (Malawi)

Nov 19 2023

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town by Paul Theroux Friday, November 17, 2023 — Book Review Two decades ago, the novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux took an overland trip through Africa, starting in Cairo, Egypt and ending in Cape Town, South Africa. This certainly isn’t the safest or the most comfortable means of experiencing the supposed “dark continent”, but it makes for some interesting experiences and insights. Keeping in mind that Theroux’s observations are just one point of view among many, his resulting book Dark Star provides a unique look at a region of the world that holds a permanent place off the beaten path. While Dark Star is an easy book to read, breaking it down into its individual elements is a good way to approach its merits and examine its flaws. The first element of importance is Theroux’s sense of place. Wherever he goes, . . .

Rachel Surls (Honduras) cultivating a healthier LA County

Nov 15 2023

In the news — UC Agricultural and Natural Resources Nov 14, 2023 UC Cooperative Extension advisor who promotes school gardens, urban agriculture to retire after 35-year career A stroll through a leafy, green garden can give one temporary relief from life’s harshness. During her career, Rachel Surls has used gardens to cultivate healthier communities, whether they are growing nutritious food or providing science lessons for students. Over the past 35 years, Surls, University of California Cooperative Extension sustainable food systems advisor in Los Angeles County, has witnessed many changes – such as promoting public events on Instagram rather than typing and mailing press releases. A comforting and consistent presence has been the UC Master Gardener Program, part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. “As I look back, the UC Master Gardener Program has been a constant in my work. It helps so many people,” said Surls, who joined UCCE as . . .

Peace Corps/The Gambia

Nov 14 2023

In the news — by Pa Modou Cham The Point Nov 14, 2023 Peace Corps/The Gambia, on Monday, concluded a three-day youth convergence in their quest to contribute to the Gambia’s youth employability and development initiative and the fight against irregular migration. The event held at the GPI exposed participants to different domains of youth employability and empowerment such as Gender and Youth, sexual reproductive health rights and first aid, workplace norms and behaviours, orientation on CV development, job searching and matching, care guidance and interview techniques, migration and survival skill, peace-building, and social cohesion and conflict. Siiri Morley(Lesotho 2001-04), Peace Corps The Gambia Country Director explained that Peace Corps is a US agency working in partnership with countries around the world. She added that they are in the country through the invitation of the Gambia government to provide American skills and to partner on locally prioritising projects working with . . .

Review | A JOURNEY FOR PEACE: A JOURNAL OF PEACE by Donald Yates (The Philippines)

Nov 12 2023

A Journey For Peace: A Journal of Peace Donald Yates (The Philippines 1962–64) Austin Macauley Publishers 122 pages March 2023 $10.95 (paperback) Review by Douglas Garatina (Ghana 1971-1973) • • • “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” It didn’t take long for Don Yates to answer this challenge made by President Kennedy. He made the decision to join the recently formed Peace Corps. In 1962 Don transitioned from a recent college graduate living in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, to an elementary school teacher on the very remote Philippine Island of Jolo in the middle of the Sulu Sea. To make things even more interesting, the people on Jolo were Muslims even though 95% of Filipinos were Catholic, so Don’s Peace Corps training did not prepare him for the Muslim traditions and culture he was about to enter. His . . .

“Carlos and the Parrot” by Becky Wandell (Ecuador)

Nov 12 2023

A Writer Writes Throughout my service, I lived in the rural outskirts of a bustling city, and sometimes I walked to town. It was a 45-minute stroll, all downhill, which gave me a chance to wave to the shop owners setting out their brooms, their fresh-baked rolls and their publicity boards announcing a new item. If I timed it right, I passed by Luis. His black bowler hat made him look taller than he was as he shuffled up the sidewalk with his large black cow in tow. I’d give him a nod and smile, his coffee-brown wrinkled face always emitting enough sunshine to fill my day. While hopping over the heaved slabs of sidewalk and steering around the sections of mud and litter in the path, I took in the distant vistas, the passing cars and the groans of buses grinding up the hill. After several months of living . . .

Florida State U launches new Peace Corps Prep program

Nov 12 2023

BY: HELEN BOYLE | PUBLISHED: JULY 30, 2018 Florida State University will launch a new program this fall that will prepare students to volunteer in the Peace Corps or work abroad. The Peace Corps Prep program will help undergraduate students explore and discover the Peace Corps service opportunities that interest them and the skills they need to be a competitive applicant for those positions. “FSU is delighted to extend its ongoing work with the Peace Corps through this program,” said Helen Boyle, associate professor of education and program coordinator. “It will be invaluable for undergraduates who are thinking about international careers in government, development or teaching abroad.” Through a partnership with the College of Education, FSU’s Peace Corps Prep will assist new graduates through the application process to the Peace Corps Education volunteer program. The Peace Corps established the preparation program in 2007 to support universities’ efforts to provide substantive, globally focused . . .

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