Search Results for “Eres Tu” – Page 14

Lizzie Heilmann (Zambia) awarded Domer Dozen

Nov 11 2023

In the news — Lizzie Heilmann, daughter of Dr. Timothy and Sue Heilmann, graduate of Loyalsock Township High School and 2015 graduate of the University of Notre Dame has been award the “Domer Dozen” award for her work promoting better health care and prevention in Africa. The Domer Dozen program, according to a news release, is the signature initiative of YoungND, the Alumni Association’s young alumni group. The 2023 honorees have displayed extraordinary dedication to the Alumni Association’s mission and have excelled in public service, health care, immigration, church life and entertainment, among other areas. Heilmann was chosen by a selection committee consisting of the YoungND board, university officials and Alumni Association staff, which considered 182 nominees this summer and evaluated them based on a weighted ranking system and their contributions in their respective fields. “Taking to heart the call to serve those most in need across the world, Lizzie . . .

Places that “Made” Me — Tony Headrick (Poland)

Nov 10 2023

I was a Peace Corps Volunteer and was sent to PĨock, Poland, a beautiful and fascinating city located on the Vistula River, to complete my Pre-Service Training (PST), a demanding educational regime that was designed to see if I’d be up to the various challenges I’d certainly encounter once I was sent off to the town or city I’d be living and working in. A very exciting moment came in late summer, at the conclusion of the third month of PST. It was referred to as “placement day.” I’d already successfully survived what amounted to the Peace Corps’ version of “boot camp” and was about to be told the name of the place in Poland I was going to be sent off to do my service, which amounted to teacher training, educational consulting, among other duties. On this day, we gathered together in the “aula,” the auditorium, the . . .

Julie Balzano (Costa Rica) leaves Miami for Colombia

Nov 09 2023

Miami got too expensive so she moved to Colombia By Tamara Hardingham-Gill November 7, 2023 Julie Balzano (Costa Rica 1988-91) been living in Miami for around three decades and had built a life that she loved. Originally from Long Island, she found herself struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living in the “Magic City,” recently ranked as the 10th most expensive city in the world on Swiss private bank. After selling her home in 2021 with the intention of downsizing, Balzano couldn’t find anything within her price range and decided to rent a townhouse for a year in order to “let the market stabilize” and eventually “buy back in.” However, as time went on, the 60-year-old, who is divorced with two grown-up children, realized that this was unlikely to happen anytime soon, and she’d need to come up with a different plan for her future. “Property prices . . .

Brian Silverman (Haiti, Guatemala) | Actor, Writer, Director

Nov 07 2023

Brian Silverman (Haiti & Guatemala 1991-94) is a Los Angeles actor, writer, director, and former Peace Corps Volunteer. He produced and starred in the independent feature, After We Leave, which premiered at Sci-Fi-London in May 2019 and took home the festival’s prize for Best Feature Film. It went on to win Best Ensemble Cast and Best Cinematography at OtherWorlds in Austin and is currently streaming on Amazon. Currently, he is in post-production on his directorial debut through Three Rivers Films LLC on his original feature script, Two Lives in Pittsburgh, which was filmed as a SAG ULB feature during the summer of 2021 in Pittsburgh, PA. He was a writer, director, and lead actor on West Rosencrantz, a web series comedy. Some of his television credits include guest starring roles on NCIS: Los Angeles, Grimm, Leverage, Cold Case, S.W.A.T., and Ray Donovan. On the LA stage, he has played numerous . . .

Kitchen Medicine: Kathleen Maier (Chile)

Nov 06 2023

Countryside: Kitchen Medicine: Herbalist Chooses the Plants at Our Doorstep By Theresa Curry November 3, 2023 Kat Maier (Chile 1978-79) loves the types described in Ayurvedic medicine and has studied plant traditions in Chile as a Peace Corps volunteer, went to an internationally known herb school in England, spent time in the lush hedgerows of Ireland and learned from herbalists all over the world. But, “Don’t go online and order exotic powders and tinctures from afar,” she said. “Let’s start with the local plants that are appropriate for us.” Maier, owner of Sacred Plant Traditions in Charlottesville, and the author of the best-selling book Energetic Herbalism, spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at the Rockfish Valley Community Center late last month as part of public radio WMRA’s Books and Brews series. She said our fertile mountains are known for high-quality, potent plants that grow wild and thrive. “People all over the world . . .

“Oral Tradition in Writing” by Jeanne D’Haem (Somalia)

Nov 03 2023

In the News — by Jeanne D’Haem (Somalia 1968-70) Somalis are known throughout East Africa for their beauty and for their poetry. In this oral tradition, poems are used to communicate, to share news and even to settle disputes. A poet insults another clan in a poem. For example, “You have mistaken boat-men and Christians for the Prophet.” News and other communication had to be oral because the Somali language was not written even when I lived there in 1968. This was due to a dispute over what kind of letters should be used. Religious leaders wanted an Arabic alphabet, business people wanted a modern Latin one. When Siad Barre, a military dictator, took over the county in 1969, his goal was rapid modernization under communism. He sent a delegation to China where Chairman Mao held similar views. When Mao was informed about the dispute, he suggested the Latin . . .

Peace Corps | First-Of-Its-Kind Park (Minnesota)

Nov 03 2023

Small Minnesota city establishing first-of-its-kind park By Tim Blotz Published November 2, 2023 Minnesota PLAINVIEW, Minn. – Leaders from America’s top government service organizations are coming to a small, rural Minnesota town on Saturday to promote an idea as old as the country itself. The idea is service to the nation. Retired Army four-star general Joseph Votel along with Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn, AmeriCorps Director Ken Goodson, and Colonel Eduardo Suarez from the Minnesota National Guard are appearing and speaking at Plainview High School to promote the establishment of a National Service Park on the south side of the southeast Minnesota town. “There’s nothing quite like that, that we know of in the country,” said Ken Flies, president of the Peace Corps Legacy Association. The Volunteers Flies represent a unique contribution to the legacy of service to the country. When President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961, an idea first proposed by . . .

Bring Peace Corps Stories to Life on Stage in Washington, D.C.

Oct 30 2023

Growing Together: Stories from the Peace Corps Calling all RPCVs! Join us as we celebrate Peace Corps Week 2024 with a memorable storytelling contest that will illuminate the amazing work and spirit of RPCVs and the entire Peace Corps network. On March 1st, 2024, contest winners will have their stories performed by local students on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in Washington D.C. Winners will receive public recognition from the Peace Corps and be invited to attend the in-person storytelling event. For those who are unable to make the trip, the event will be livestreamed. The theme of the Storytelling Contest is Growing Together: Stories from the Peace Corps and we hope to capture stories about the shared progress, relationship building, and intercultural exchange that happens between all members of the Peace Corps community. Eligibility: Individuals from across the Peace Corps network are eligible to submit a story, including: Counterparts Current Peace Corps or . . .

Tribute to John F. Kennedy by Tom Scanlon (Chile 1961-63)

Oct 17 2023

In the early days of the Peace Corps, President Kennedy greeted the first Peace Corps Trainees on the White House lawn and even invited the first Volunteers to Colombia into the White House. Then on June 20, 1962, when Kennedy was welcoming to Washington Summer College Interns — not PCVs — he delivered this short story about a PCV serving in Chile. Recently I heard a story of a young Peace Corpsman named Tom Scanlon, who is working in Chile. He works in a village about forty miles from an Indian village which prides itself on being Communist. The village is up a long, winding road which Scanlon has taken on many occasions to see the chief. Each time the chief avoided seeing him. Finally he saw him and said, “You are not going to talk us out of being Communists.” Scanlon said, “I am not trying to do that, . . .

New List of RPCV & STAFF Authors (October 2023)

Oct 16 2023

New List of RPCV & STAFF Authors October 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 October 2023–the count is 513. If you know of someone who has and their name is not on this list, then please email: jcoyneone@gmail.com. We know we don’t have all such writers who have served over these past 62 years. 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) . . .

Review — “LOOK HERE, SIR, WHAT A CURIOUS BIRD” by Paul Spencer Sochaczewski (Malaysia)

Oct 13 2023

“Look Here, Sir, What a Curious Bird” by Paul Spencer Sochaczewski (Malaysia 1969-71) Explorer’s Eye Press 289 pages July 2023 $17.95 (Paperback) Reviewed by Ed Putka (Malaysia 1969-72) By the time most people graduate from college, they mostly have an idea of a career. For me, the plan was Peace Corps, a little travel, a little diary, then back home to law school and a career in the law. Others let the road shape their careers. And so it seems with Paul Sochaczewski, a prolific writer and intrepid adventurer. After finishing college in 1969, Sochaczewski joined me and 125 other volunteers in Malaysia Group XXIV. Southeast Asia was in full conflict, but our destination, Sarawak, was an exotic and relatively quiet place. Sochaczewski fell for it, becoming immediately fascinated with not only the culture, but the sounds and smells, the spirits and the shamans, the flora and fauna of . . .

Review — THE SHOWGIRL AND THE WRITER by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador)

Sep 29 2023

The Showgirl and the Writer: A Friendship Forged in the Aftermath of the Japanese American Incarceration by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) Peace Corps Writers 488 pages July 2023 $16.95 (paperback) Reviewed by Eric Madeen (Gabon 1981-83) • By turns leaky and frypan, tarpaper roofed, roughshod dormitories imprisoned 18,000 people of Japanese descent by the end at Tule Lake Japanese American High Security Segregation Camp in Northern California from 1942 to 1946. One degradation followed another, as in the incarcerated being subjected to abominable hole-in-the-wood toilets open side by side all the way down the miserable line. Barbwire topped fences. Armed guards manned watch towers looking down on imprisoned Japanese Americans guilty of no crime. At night the sweep of search lights went back and forth like metronomes. Glazing the whole sad, evil spectacle at Tule Lake concentration camp was a grainy skin of black lava dust, and slathered across . . .

Peace Corps sued over mental health policy

Sep 28 2023

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from John Pettit (Ethiopia 1965-67) & Matt Losak (Lesotho 1985-87) Applicants have challenged the Peace Corps practice of rescinding invitations to applicants on the basis of mental health conditions. by Ellen Barry the New York Times Sept. 27, 2023 Lea Iodice was thrilled to hear that the Peace Corps had accepted her application and was sending her to Senegal as a community health care worker. She shared the good news with her roommates, her family and her favorite professor and daydreamed about her last day at her job, managing a gym called SnapFitness. She was crushed, about a month later, to receive a letter from the Peace Corps Office of Medical Services saying that her offer was being rescinded because she was in treatment for anxiety. Though she had been in therapy to manage occasional panic attacks, she had never taken any psychiatric medication, . . .

Brandeis University remembers Lawrence Fuchs (Philippines staff)

Sep 22 2023

In the news Faculty, alumni remember Prof. Lawrence Fuchs An American Studies pioneer, a giving mentor, a champion of social justice First Peace Corps Country Director in the Philippines Photos/Brandeis University Archives by David E. Nathan, March 21, 2013 Former colleagues and students this week remembered longtime professor Lawrence Fuchs as an intellectual giant whose accomplishments in and out of the classroom were matched only by the outsized impact he had in shaping Brandeis’ core values. Fuchs, the Meyer and Walter Jaffe Professor of American Civilization and Politics, died on March 17 at the age of 86 at his home in Canton. He was a longtime resident of Weston. Fuchs began his Brandeis career in 1952, while still a doctoral student at Harvard. He retired 50 years later, having established himself as a renowned authority in the emerging field of American studies, a giving mentor to students . . .

Review | AMERICAN VOODOO by Joseph Theroux (Samoa)

Sep 16 2023

American Voodoo (with William Faulkner) by Joseph Theroux (Western Samoa 1975-78) Kilauea Publications April, 2023 190 pages $3.00 (Kindle); $10.00 (Paperback) Reviewed by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia 1965-66) • This novel reads like a police report. The style has a James Ellroyness quality — just the facts, sketch descriptions, no setups, expositions, or transitions. Get on with the story. The reader is immediately captured by the fast pace and carried along in the torrent of a murder mystery. But an astute reader will tweak something is afoot by the name on the cover, the credit on the title page, and the subtitle “with William Faulkner in Louisiana.” Joseph Theroux’s name is on the cover in the usual author’s slot. The title page credits Lloyd Osbourne as the writer, edited by Joseph Theroux. The editor’s note identifies Joseph Theroux as the secretary for the Cemetery Advisory Committee. Lloyd Osbourne is quoted, . . .

Search Results For -Eres Tu