Search Results For -Eres Tu

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New List of RPCV & STAFF Authors
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Review | BIODIGITAL: A NOVEL OF TECHNOPOTHEOSIS by John Sundman (Senegal)
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The Peace Corps experience changed lives (Burkina Faso)
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“On Essential Islands” by Nathan Fitch (Micronesia)
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Bob Vila (Panama) remembers “This Old House“
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Need Help Writing Your Peace Corps Book?
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To Die On Kilimanjaro by John Coyne (Ethiopia)
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WHY WE TELL STORIES by Arthur Dobrin (Kenya) and Kenyan Dorcas Kiptoo
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Two Peace Corps Legends: Moritz Thomsen and Patricia Wand
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Peace Corps Director Spahn visits Colorado State University
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New York Times “Literary Destinations” by Paul Theroux (Malawi)
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Connor H. O’Brien (Ukraine) Peace Corps Volunteer says: Choose violence
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One Day in Ethiopia
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Catherine Trevathan (Bulgaria) | New school superintendent
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Courtney Copeland (Ukraine) welcomes Ukraine refugees

New List of RPCV & STAFF Authors

Here is our new list of RPCV & staff authors we know of who have published two or more books of any type. Currently—in June 2023–the count is 488. 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 60 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 1962-65) 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) Allman (Nepal 1966-68) Nancy Amidei (Nigeria 1964–65) Gary Amo (Malawi 1962–64) David C. Anderson (Costa Rica 1964-66) Lauri Anderson (Nigeria 1963-65) Peggy Anderson (Togo 1962-64) James Archambeault (Philippines 1965-67) Ron Arias . . .

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Review | BIODIGITAL: A NOVEL OF TECHNOPOTHEOSIS by John Sundman (Senegal)

  Biodigital: A Novel of Technopotheosis John  (F.X, Compton, Damien) Sundman (Senegal 1974-76) Rosalita Associates 2015 $5.99 (Kindle) Review by: D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador, Costa Rica) • This is a novel by a computer, biology, and sci-fi nerd for other nerds in particular, and for anyone who strives to understand the space between technology that we know exists and that which either may currently exist or likely soon will exist in some form. Most of us are likely in this latter category! Sundman states that he is especially interested in the convergence of biological and digital technologies. He has been a hardware, software and science technical writer, and a manager of information architecture in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. Biodigital is a sci-fi thriller about a fictitious Silicon Valley tech genius/messiah named Monty Meekman and the quasi-religious cult of transhumanist computer designers and brain hackers who are his devoted followers. It . . .

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The Peace Corps experience changed lives (Burkina Faso)

Peace Corps experience changed lives Scooter MacMillan, Editor MAY 25, 2023They came from all over the United States and were going to live in a foreign country for two years where most of them didn’t speak any of its languages. They were enthusiastic and idealistic. They were in their early 20s and had recently graduated, lots from Ivy League Schools. Some of them had teaching, clerical or administrative work experience. A few had done manual labor. In their bios for the Peace Corps, lots of them said they liked tennis and skiing. It wasn’t in their bios, but it goes without saying: They all were going to change the world. Maybe they did. It’s interesting to ruminate on how the world might be different if there had never been a Peace Corps. Jim and Susan Hyde of Charlotte were part of a group of 40 Peace Corps volunteers who were . . .

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“On Essential Islands” by Nathan Fitch (Micronesia)

  In 2018, at the invitation of the college there, I traveled to the Federated States of Micronesia (“FSM”) to screen a documentary that I had made called Island Soldier. The film explores the service of Micronesian citizens in the United States armed services during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Peace Corps (1967–2018) As I arrived in the islands, bleary from my long flight (more than twenty hours of travel with layovers), the United States Peace Corps program was about to end after 60 years of continuous operation. The program has long been a visible symbol of the relationship between independent countries in the Western Pacific. A few days after I arrived, I spoke to Peace Corps Volunteer Sorcha Vaughan as she was preparing a farewell speech that she would be delivering to the state legislature and governor to close out the program on the island of Kosrae. Sorcha said, . . .

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Bob Vila (Panama) remembers “This Old House“

Bob Vila (Panama 1969-70) The project manager turned television host built home renovation entertainment. by KAREN HERMAN There was a time before home improvement shows existed, but a likeable project manager named Bob Vila changed that. After Vila restored his own Boston home and was asked to host a local television show to explain the process, the public’s interest in home renovation was unleashed and a new category of entertainment was born. For nearly thirty years Vila hosted multiple shows, starting with This Old House on PBS, then moving on to Bob Vila’s Home Again, Bob Vila and Restore America with Bob Vila. In the nineties, Vila appeared as a guest on the ABC comedy Home Improvement, acting along Tim Allen as a TV handyman. Today Vila’s videos are popular on YouTube and can also be seen at his website, BobVila.com. Vila was awarded a Daytime Emmy lifetime achievement award in 2022, and he’s also the author . . .

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Need Help Writing Your Peace Corps Book?

Book Helpline is a small international book editing company who have helped RPCVs writers. The company is over 10 years old and has worked with hundreds of authors from all over the world in both fiction and nonfiction.  Among the writers have been a former political prisoner in Brunei, a government minister in Zambia, and a homeless Englishman in Thailand. Book Helpline editors are experts in developmental editing—Is the story right? Is it interesting, consistent, logical, and easy to follow?—and copy editing, where grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word choice are corrected. They also evaluate a client’s work and suggest one or both types of edits depending on the material and the author’s goals. Today they have editors in the US, UK, and the Netherlands. Contact: Judith Henstra judith@bookhelpline.com  

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To Die On Kilimanjaro by John Coyne (Ethiopia)

I posted an earlier version of this essay on this site in 1997 To Die On Kilimanjaro When I first visited the Blue Marlin Hotel in Malindi, Kenya, in the summer of 1963, it was after my first year of teaching at a PCV in Addis Ababa. The hotel was located on the edge of the Indian Ocean and crowded with British families in the final days before Kenya’s independence from Great Britain. We were the only Americans in the hotel. I didn’t return to Kenya or the Blue Marlin until the early ’70s when the hotel was now filled with German tourists and the few English-speaking tourists gravitated to one end of the bar. It was there traveling through Africa and writing for Dispatch News when I met a British couple and their two little girls. Phillip and April were ‘on holiday’ as the English like to say. Phillip . . .

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WHY WE TELL STORIES by Arthur Dobrin (Kenya) and Kenyan Dorcas Kiptoo

  Two Westbury, New York, residents , Dorcas Kiptoo and Arthur Dobrin, who both have a long history with Kenya, will read from their new children’s book, “Why We Tell Stories,” on Thursday, June 1 at 7 pm at the Westbury Memorial Library, 445 Jefferson Street, Westbury, NY. Dorcas Kiptoo, a Kenyan, came to the US in 2010 seeking a better life for herself and her three daughters. After arriving she heard about the Dobrin family and their connection to Kenya, and the Kiptoos ended up living with the Dobrins in Westbury for three years. Arthur and Lyn Dobrin had been Peace Corps Volunteers in Kenya in the 1960s, lived there again in 1975 and then led numerous educational safaris through Adelphi University. Both Dobrins have written books related to Kenya. Why We Tell Stories–with tales such as ”Why Goats Don’t like Leopards,” “Why Hyenas Walk on Stilts,” and “Why There . . .

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Two Peace Corps Legends: Moritz Thomsen and Patricia Wand

Patricia Wand (Colombia 1963-65) wrote this article for our site in May 1997. Finding Moritz Thomsen (Ecuador) “THE MESSAGE FROM ECUADOR TODAY IS: NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED.” So wrote Moritz Thomsen on June 29, 1990, and what he meant was that he was angry at me. He was angry because I nominated him for the Sargent Shriver Award; because I suggested his traveling to the U.S. when I knew of his frail health; and because I described his living conditions in my letter of nomination. But this all happened after I got to know him a bit. Let’s start much earlier than that; when I read his first book. Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle spoke to me and for me. Moritz Thomsen captured the essence of Latin American village culture as I too knew it. I saw in his village the same people, the same breadth of character, the same . . .

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Peace Corps Director Spahn visits Colorado State University

Over the course of the day, more than 120 students, staff, alumni and community members came to campus to welcome Carol Spahn and to honor the Peace Corps. Colorado State University has a long history with the Peace Corps, dating back to 1961 when researchers Pauline Birky-Kreutzer and Maurice Albertson published one of the original feasibility studies that led to the creation of the organization dedicated to international development and cooperation. The largest event included more than 90 guests, who were able to hear more about current affairs and the future for the Peace Corps during a facilitated dialogue between Spahn and KUNC’s Stephanie Daniel. Another highlight involved students from across campus, who were able to learn more about Spahn’s international career path and opportunities with the Peace Corps. Thanks to CSU’s commitment and the generosity of several donors, CSU has most of the funding needed to fully construct the . . .

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New York Times “Literary Destinations” by Paul Theroux (Malawi)

. New York Times by Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65) April 30, 2023   My father, like many passionate readers, was a literary pilgrim in his native Massachusetts, a state rich in destinations, hallowed by many of the greatest writers in the language. “Look, Paulie, this is the House of the Seven Gables — go on, count them!” What interested him — what interests me — was not a particular book but a literary intelligence, a Yankee sensibility enshrined in many local books. Boston does not, like Dublin, have a “Ulysses” — few cities do. The nearest novel to being essentially Bostonian might be Edwin O’Connor’s “The Last Hurrah”; its protagonist, Frank Skeffington, based on Boston’s flamboyant James Michael Curley, embodies Boston’s old political culture of blarney and bribery. Richard Henry Dana Jr. fascinated my father, not for writing about Boston but for his example as an admirable Yankee. After enduring the dangerous voyage . . .

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Connor H. O’Brien (Ukraine) Peace Corps Volunteer says: Choose violence

  Why words like ‘diplomacy,’ ‘ceasefire’ and ‘negotiations’ are such rubbish in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine   The EAGLE American University   I will never forget the day I arrived in Ukraine to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer. It was a cool September afternoon, several months after I graduated from American University. After landing in Kyiv, my fellow Americans and I were whisked off to the northern city of Chernihiv for orientation. On the bus ride, as we fought against jet lag and looked out upon expansive fields of wheat, a Ukrainian woman who worked for the Peace Corps addressed us. She explained that our orientation would be in an old Soviet-era hotel and that we needed to put our luggage in the basement upon arrival. She went on to explain that the basement was built to be a bomb shelter during the Cold War. . . .

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One Day in Ethiopia

  This is a letter I wrote when I was a PCV in Ethiopia. It was published in the collection Letters From The Peace Corps in 1964, selected and edited by Iris Luce. She wrote in her introduction to her book. It was my good fortune one evening to be seated with the wife of Senator J. William Fulbright, whose daughter was working here in Washington at Peace Corps Headquarters. Mrs. Fulbright suggested that someone should compile a collection of letters from Peace Corps Volunteers in the field to give Americans a firsthand report on the triumphs and the hardships that these people have experienced while working in the Corps “One Day in Ethiopia” was a letter I had written home to my family and friends, several at the agency in Washington that Iris Luce found and included. In her introduction to the chapter, “One Day in Ethiopia,” she wrote: . . .

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Catherine Trevathan (Bulgaria) | New school superintendent

RPCVs in the news   Meet Catherine Trevathan, Hillsdale Local’s new well-traveled superintendent By Linda Hall   MOHICAN TWP. OHIO − Catherine Trevathan will bring a world of experience to the Hillsdale Local School District when she becomes its new superintendent in August. She has crisscrossed the globe as an educator since graduating from the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati, having held positions in Bulgaria, Turkey, the Hopi reservation in Arizona and most recently, the Little Miami Local Schools in Ohio. “I’ve been blessed with a lot of interesting experiences,” Trevathan said. She recalled sitting outside on a starry night with her dad when she was in eighth grade and telling him she wanted to join the Peace Corps. He may have considered it a youthful dream and been a bit surprised following her college graduation when she said to him, “Guess what? The Peace Corps accepted me.” . . .

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Courtney Copeland (Ukraine) welcomes Ukraine refugees

Alum of Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey CA sponsoring a Ukrainian Alum’s Humanitarian Parole   It wasn’t the email Yaroslav Perepadya had been hoping for. Cortney Copeland  MPA/MAIEM ’15 had bad news—the potential American sponsor for him and his teenage son hadn’t checked out. It had been six months since Perepadya MACD ’03 and his son had fled their home in Dnipro, a day after Russia invaded at the border, just 150 miles from their home. They headed first to western Ukraine, then to Ireland, where they’d been hunkering down in a hotel room for months as Perepadya looked for a long-term home in the U.S. Copeland, a board member and volunteer with the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Alliance for Ukraine (RPCV Alliance), apologized for having gotten his hopes up and said they were still looking to see if they could find a match. As she scanned his bio, a detail jumped . . .

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