Peace Corps Worldwide – Page 22 – promoting Peace Corps writers since 1989

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers visit Belize

Mar 12 2024

BELMOPAN, BELIZE March 7, 2024 Seven Returned Peace Corps Volunteers visited the Peace Corps headquarters March 6, 2024. They are in country to visit decades after having served as volunteers and to learn about the work that Peace Corps Belize is currently doing in the education and youth development sectors. The group was led by former Ambassador Frank Almaguer. Frank Almaguer is an American retired diplomat and career Foreign Service Officer. Almaguer served in the Peace Corps as a volunteer in Orange Walk Town, Belize from 1967 to 1969. In 1999, Almaguer served as United States Ambassador to Honduras from August 1999 to September 2002. The returned Peace Corps Volunteers had worked in the education sector during 1960s and 1970s. Since President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps by executive order on March 1, 1961, more than 240,000 Americans have served in 143 host countries. Peace . . .

Sarah Quinn (Morocco) | Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center

Mar 11 2024

RPCVs in the news School of Law, University of Georgia Friday, March 1, 2024 Sarah Quinn (Morocco 2011-14) currently serves as the director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center, which has served as a nucleus for global research, education and service for the University of Georgia School of Law since 1977. Previously, she was the associate director for global practice preparation and managed the school’s Global Governance Summer School (a four-decades-old summer study abroad offering), Global Externships, the Graduate Certificate in International Law and other academic and research initiatives. Before coming to the School of Law, Quinn was the coordinator of faculty-led study abroad and domestic field study programs at the UGA Office of Global Engagement. She oversaw the development, management and assessment of almost 200 programs annually. Quinn designed and led a variety of professional opportunities for faculty and staff involved in study abroad programming at the . . .

“Photos from Afghanistan” from Juris Zagarins

Mar 09 2024

Picture the way it was — My wife Robin Varnum showed me your article suggesting that she send you eight photos to share. Since I am the family photographer, I am sending you eight photos chosen by me and Robin, also a recent head-shot of myself. I worked for two years with Afghan “counterparts” in the Ghazni office of the National Science Center 1972-1973, visiting all the secondary schools in Ghazni province to help improve science instruction. Then I extended my tour for a third year, 1974, teaching physics and such at Kabul University Faculty of Engineering, as did my friend Guy Toby Marion. I took many, many photos, so it was very hard to pick eight. Robin and I decided mostly on images of individual Afghans. • • • • • •

A Journey of Resilience: Bishnu Maya Pariyar (Nepal)

Mar 09 2024

After overcoming caste-based discrimination in her early years, Bishnu Maya Pariyar is now known for tireless efforts in uplifting marginalized communities. by Jagdishor Panday Katmandu Post 3/8/2024 Bishnu Maya Pariyar was born and raised in a supportive home in Shahid Lakhan Municipality Ward 4 in Gorkha District. She calls herself fortunate not to have experienced gender violence in her younger years. However, being born into a Dalit family, she faced caste-based discrimination. Her parents, farmers by profession, were also not financially well off. She remembers that her mother, like many Nepali women of her time, never learned to read. “Growing up, girls—especially ones from the so-called ‘lower castes’—weren’t sent to school. Even when we did go, we were teased and bullied by other kids,” she recalls. Despite these challenges, she remained resilient and continued her education. Pariyar considers herself fortunate to have a father who recognised that education was . . .

Interview with Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn

Mar 08 2024

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Dale Gilles (Liberia 1964-66) In this episode of ‘@ HydePark with Indeewari Amuwatte,’ Carol Spahn, the Director of Peace Corps, who is in Sri Lanka, to oversee the swearing in of 20 Peace Corps Volunteers from the United States, discuss the educational program that is set to be implemented in the country. The 25th group of Peace Corps volunteers to be posted there, are set to embark on a two-year service journey as English teachers in the Central and Uva provinces. The Director of the Peace Corps, Spahn said that Volunteers will work alongside their Sri Lankan counterparts, including English teachers and principals, to deliver English language instruction to Sri Lankan school children. Further, she also discusses the challenges and opportunities experienced by the Peace Corps while commending the support of the local authorities and added that the Peace Corps is willing to . . .

Review | BURMA SAHIB by Paul Theroux (Malawi)

Mar 08 2024

Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65) Mariner Books February 2024 400 pages $14.99 (Kindle); $30.00 (Hardback); 1 Credit (Audio book) Reviewed by Mark D. Walker (Guatemala 1971-73) • • • Here one of the more prolific, best-known Returned Peace Corps Volunteer authors reimagines one of English literature’s most controversial writers in his early, formative years. Theroux leads us on the journey of Eric Blair, a British Raj officer in Colonial Burma to his transformation to George Orwell, the anti-colonial writer. Blair set sail for India shortly after graduating from the same prestigious private school of Eton whose alumni included Boris Johnson and nineteen other British prime ministers. Despite his young age (19), he would oversee local policemen in Burma and deal with his fellow British’s racial and class politics while trying to learn new languages. His father, a middling official in Britain’s opium trade, had served in India, and . . .

Peace Corps Volunteers sworn in, marking historic return to Sri Lanka

Mar 07 2024

Colombo, March 06, 2024 – In a ceremony held in Colombo on March 6, Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn, U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung, First Lady Professor Maithree Wickremesinghe, and Minister of Education Dr. Susil Premajayantha officiated the swearing-in of 20 Peace Corps Volunteers from the United States. This marks the 25th group of Peace Corps Volunteers to serve in Sri Lanka since 1998. The cohort of skilled, diverse Trainees arrived in November 2023 to begin 12 weeks of training. Following three months of intensive training in language, culture, and effective engagement within Sri Lankan schools, these Volunteers will now embark on a two-year service journey as English teachers in the Central and Uva provinces. They will work alongside their Sri Lankan counterparts, including English teachers and principals, to deliver English language instruction to Sri Lankan school children. Addressing the swearing-in ceremony, U.S. Ambassador Julie Chung . . .

Zack Guido (Bolivia) . . . Climate Change RPCV

Mar 06 2024

Zack Guido is Program Manager at the University of Arizona’s International Research and Application Program (IRAP). climate impacts on water resources, co-producing end-to-end climate services, and climate risk management. Guido has also conducted research to advance climate adaptation planning with Arizona municipalities and worked with Federal emergency managers to develop tailored climate information. In these efforts, Guido employs frameworks for the co-production of science in order to make climate information more credible, relevant, and useful. Guido has extensive international research and practice experience. A three-year Peace Corps stint in Bolivia between 2000 and 2003 subsequently paved the way for him to co-found a 501(c)3 non-profit organization to work with rural Bolivians to make their water resources more resilient to shortfalls from drought and retreating glaciers. This topic also became part of Guido’s PhD dissertation (2015) at the University of Arizona’s School of Natural Resources and Environment. Guido has also . . .

Lisa Curtis of Kuli Kuli Foods

Mar 06 2024

Lisa Curtis (Niger 2010-11), founder and CEO of Kuli Kuli Foods, traveled the world with the hope of making it a better place. Working in the Peace Corps in Niger, Africa, she realized the infinite power of moringa, an ingredient made from the “drumstick tree” that is known for its antioxidant and inflammatory properties. “I was working in a very rural village where I was eating rice every day,” says Curtis, who is a vegetarian. “I was pretty tired and wanted to feel better.” While volunteering, some of the women told Curtis to eat moringa and showed her a fried peanut snack called kuli kuli that’s made with moringa leaves. “It had an incredible impact on me,” Curtis says. “It made me feel energized.” High in protein, calcium and iron, moringa is a nutrient-dense superfood with 27 vitamins and 46 antioxidants. Medical News Today lists several benefits of moringa, with links . . .

Review | AFGHANISTAN: CROSSROADS AND KINGDOMS by Guy Toby Marion

Mar 05 2024

Afghanistan: Crossroads and Kingdoms — My 1970s Peace Corps Service and Recent Afghan History by Guy Toby Marion (Afghanistan 1971-75) Peace Corps Books January 2024 280 pages $21.95 (Paperback); $8.95 (Kindle) Reviewed by Robin Varnum (Afghanistan 1971-73) • • • In 1974, after serving for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan, Guy Toby Marion (known to his friends as Toby), returned to New York on home leave and was greeted by a family friend, who said, “welcome to civilization.” Toby smiled politely, but he thought privately that, “despite its poverty, Afghanistan was cultured and civilized.” Toby’s Afghanistan: Crossroads and Kingdoms (Peace Corps Writers, 2024) displays its author’s deep appreciation of Afghanistan’s culture, Islamic religion, poetry, and history. Sadly, that history has often been violent, since as Toby points out, “from ancient times Afghanistan has been an historical crossroads, seeing many wars and changes of empire.” When Toby arrived . . .

CoastLine: How Peace Corps service influenced four volunteers . . .

Mar 04 2024

In the news By Rachel Lewis Hilburn WHQR, Wilmington, NC February 26, 2024 . . . they worked in Ukraine, Namibia, Armenia, and Tonga Since 1961, the Peace Corps, envisioned and created by President John F. Kennedy, has sent volunteers around the globe to help developing countries. The obvious aim is to meet the goals identified by the host country – not the Americans. But just as important are the relationships that develop from this work, promoting world peace and friendship. “How many of you who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana?… on your willingness to contribute part of your life, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete.” Those are the words of then-Senator John F. Kennedy, delivered in a 2 AM impromptu speech at the University of Michigan. It was October 14, 1960, during his presidential campaign, when . . .

Picture the Way It Was

Mar 03 2024

After seeing the photos Guy Marion (Afghanistan 1971–75) shared at “Photos from Afghanistan” that showed what it was like for Guy in-country, I thought “that’s what we need!” John agreed! So if you would like to share what it looked like where you were and what you were doing, send me — a maximum of 8 in-country photos with a caption for each — your work, your living quarters, your town, etc, a recent head-shot of yourself and a paragraph about what you did, and when it was. Marian marian@haleybeil.com

Peter Hessler Sells His Car in China

Mar 03 2024

CENSORED ESSAY: PETER HESSLER SELLS HIS CAR Posted by Alexander Boyd | Feb 29, 2024 Acclaimed writer Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) is selling his car in Chengdu, after leaving China in 2021 when his teaching contract was abruptly terminated. Online, the sale of his Honda CRV has spurred a series of reflections on Hessler’s impact on China and on the closing of a chapter in U.S.-China relations. Hessler wrote three famous books on China: River Town, on his Peace Corps service in rural Chongqing; Oracle Bones, a portrait of China past and present with the recurring eponymous motif of China’s oldest recorded writing system; and “Country Driving,” a travelogue detailing his journeys across China. (A fourth, Other Rivers, is on the way.) Some of the reflections on Hessler have proven politically sensitive. In an essay that was later censored, the writer Zhang Feng took to WeChat to lament Hessler’s departure as a . . .

The Volunteer Who Became the U. S. Ambassador to Finland | Charles C. Adams, jr. (Kenya)

Mar 01 2024

by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) Charles C. Adams, jr. was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the son of a career diplomat in the U. S. Department of State. He was raised in the countries of his father’s assignments, including Canada, France, Germany, Ghana, Morocco and Senegal, including Washington, D. C. Charles attended Dartmouth College, receiving a BA degree in 1968. From 1969 to 1970, he was a Peace Corps Volunteer, serving in Kenya, where he taught French, German and Swahili. Following his service, he attended law school at the University of Virginia, and received his J. D. degree in 1973. Thus was he was prepared to undertake a professional life focused on international Humanitarian activities and foreign service. He became a partner in an international law firm based in the U. S. and he lead the firm’s international arbitration practice, with a focus on high-value disputes, and serves . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers | January — February 2024

Mar 01 2024

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers to order a book and/or to VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions. P.S. In addition to the books listed below, I have on my shelf a number of other books whose authors would love for you to review. Go to Books Available for Review to see what is on that shelf. Please, please join in our Third . . .