Search Results For -Eres Tu

1
Another Point of View of the Peace Corps in Afghanistan
2
RPCV Jeremy Black and staff member Dr. Robert Textor: A Peace Corps Story
3
“Round ’em Up and Move ’em Out!” by Jerry Redfield (Ecuador)
4
Inside Peace Corps — Issue 2
5
The Author, the Work, and the No. 1 Fan — Kristen Roupoenian (Kenya)
6
Review — WARRIOR LOVE: Silas Loves Lili, Weirdly Lili Loves Silas
7
Review — LAST BEST HOPE: America in Crisis and Renewal by George Packer (Togo)
8
A Peace Corps worker was on a date in D.C. with his wife. Then came a stray bullet.
9
Nominations Open for Peace Corps Prestigious John F. Kennedy Service Awards
10
Travel Writer RPCV Andy Trincia (Romania)
11
The Volunteer Who Became “One of the Most Influential Observers of American Politics”*— Chris Matthews (Swaziland)
12
Janet Lee (Ethiopia) receives 2021 John Ames Humphry/OCLC/Forest Press Award
13
Review — AFGHANISTAN AT A TIME OF PEACE by Robin Varnum
14
Chuck Woodard Passes—Early PC/W Staff
15
Talking with Robin Varnum (Afghanistan)

Another Point of View of the Peace Corps in Afghanistan

by M. Jamil Hanifi The information and discussion about the activities of and the accumulation of various forms of capital by some Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs)—all in South America—is interesting (Anthropology News, December 2011, March 2012). President John Kennedy adapted the blast “ask not what this country can do for you, ask what you can do for this country” from his prep school headmaster’s command “ask not what this school can do for you, ask what you can do for this school”. The predecessor of the American Peace Corps (PC) project was the “Community Development” (CD) model housed in several American universities funded by the government and designed to coordinate various “development” projects in foreign countries and to cloak the real intentions of the American “foreign aid” program which was intervention in and control of the civil and political societies of the “Underdeveloped World”. During the 1950s the University of Wyoming was . . .

Read More

RPCV Jeremy Black and staff member Dr. Robert Textor: A Peace Corps Story

(Thank you to John Coyne and Marian Haley Beil for their advice and editing) Decades separated the Peace Corps service of Dr. Robert Textor (PC staff 1961-62) and RPCV Jerry Black (Comoros Island 1992-94, DC staff: OIG 2010-21). But they shared a special commitment to Peace Corps Sadly, neither are still with us. But their contribution to Peace Corps endures. Dr. Textor, age 89, died January 3, 2013. Tragically, Jeremiah Black was killed, caught in urban gun violence crossfire, in Washington, DC. June 29, 2021.   Their story begins In February of 2011, the Peace Corps Office of the Inspector General announced it would evaluate “Impacts of the Five-Year Rule on Operations of the Peace Corps.” The Five Year Rule is unique among Federal Agencies because it limits employment with Peace Corps to Five Years, with some critical exceptions. This evaluation was conducted under the direction of Jim O’Keefe, Assistant . . .

Read More

“Round ’em Up and Move ’em Out!” by Jerry Redfield (Ecuador)

  This is a “slice of life” from a Peace Corps Volunteer that captures the adventures and frustrations of one newly arrived volunteer living in a new culture in southern Ecuador.  It is from a “work in progress” entitled “While You Were Out”, by Jerry Redfield. Peace Corps Volunteers, Jerry, Joe Orr of Utah, and Doug Strauss from New York had arrived in a remote mountain top little village about two months earlier as their initial in-country assignment working on a school construction program. This covers the time between the end of that assignment and the transition to a new one. John Smith was the Peace Corps Area Representative, and Steve Caplin, the Peace Corps doctor assigned to the Area.   Round ’em Up and Move ’em Out! by Jerry Redfield (Ecuador 1963-65) As November ended and the cold winds of December started to roll in, the time in our . . .

Read More

Inside Peace Corps — Issue 2

  Acting Director’s Message Welcome back to Inside Peace Corps, where we share updates on our work, both at headquarters and in the countries where our Volunteers are invited to serve. Today is International Day of Friendship, a good day to reflect on the power that relationships have to achieve world peace. I am incredibly grateful that the Peace Corps has given us the gift of friendships that span the globe. As a Country Director in Malawi, I heard countless Volunteers share that the relationships they developed with their host community – with local leaders, neighbors, counterparts, and friends – were what they valued most from service. In a similar way, I was frequently approached by Malawians seeking to reconnect with a Volunteer with whom they had worked side-by-side. As we continue to support staff, partners, and communities around the globe and navigate the ongoing complexities of COVID-19, we are . . .

Read More

The Author, the Work, and the No. 1 Fan — Kristen Roupoenian (Kenya)

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Bill Preston (Thailand 1977-80)   Writing didn’t serve the purpose I wanted it to, which was to fix the fundamentally broken relationship between myself and other people. By Kristen Roupoenian (Kenya 2003-05) The New Yorker, August 5, 2021   My favorite literary magazine is one you probably haven’t heard of. It’s called Resonance, and it’s a small annual publication featuring a mixture of fiction, poetry, and art. Although a new issue of Resonance has appeared every year since at least the early nineteen-nineties, I have read only six of them, the ones published between 1993 and 1999. I have those issues virtually memorized, as I reread the entirety of each issue, on average, once a year. I’ve probably read my favorite poems and stories in the magazine upward of a hundred times, so I think it’s safe to say that I’ve read the writing in Resonance more carefully than . . .

Read More

Review — WARRIOR LOVE: Silas Loves Lili, Weirdly Lili Loves Silas

  Warrior Love: Silas Loves Lili Weirdly Lili Loves Silas by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia 1964-66) Published by Stephen Foehr 373 pages July 2021 $6.99 (Kindle); $10.98 (Paperback Reviewed by D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974-76) • I am not the ideal person to review this book. I am approximately three times the age of the average member of the book’s target demographic. Also, I have never in my life gone into a bar (much less a biker bar) with the expressed purpose of starting a fight to test my bravery and courage. The one time I did step between two would-be combatants trying to prevent a fight, I was extremely grateful that neither of them decided to attack me! In the opening scene, Silas walks into a biker bar named the Knotty Hole wearing a kilt, no shirt, and a black leather vest with a rhinestone eagle on the back. And . . .

Read More

Review — LAST BEST HOPE: America in Crisis and Renewal by George Packer (Togo)

  Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal by George Packer (Togo 1982-83) 240 pages Farrar, Straus and Giroux June 2021 $27.00 (Hardback); $13.99 (Kindle); $7.95 (Audiobook)   Reviewed by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) • I immediately said yes when I was asked to review George Packer’s new book, Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal, a self-described political pamphlet in a long-form essay, not unlike Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and other such books, written in a period of change, about that very change. Written for the moment, the authors’ hopes are that they will lead us out of our urgent predicament and tell us something we can use in the future. I remembered that Packer had been a signee of the famous or some would say infamous “Harper’s Magazine Letter,” in which established writers and artists wrote A Letter on Justice and Open Debate, decrying the fact . . .

Read More

A Peace Corps worker was on a date in D.C. with his wife. Then came a stray bullet.

A Peace Corps worker was on a date in D.C. with his wife. Then came a stray bullet. Jeremy “Jerry” Black, a Peace Corps worker, was fatally shot on 14th Street NW on June 29, 2021. By Theresa Vargas Columnist Cathy Feingold doesn’t know who the women were or what lives they had led. All she knows is that they appeared during one of her darkest moments and knew exactly what to do as her husband lay on a busy Northwest D.C. sidewalk, dying from a gunshot wound. That night in June, as Feingold tells it, she and her husband, Jeremy Black, a Peace Corps worker who had dedicated his life to helping others, had been on a date. They had enjoyed dinner with two friends at a 14th Street restaurant and, because the weather was welcoming, decided to take a walk. The four made it only a few blocks . . .

Read More

Nominations Open for Peace Corps Prestigious John F. Kennedy Service Awards

July 20, 2021 From July 19 to August 13, the Peace Corps will accept nominations for awards to honor exceptional returned volunteers and staff WASHINGTON – Today, nominations for the Peace Corps’ John F. Kennedy Service Awards will open and be accepted until 11:59 p.m., Friday, August 13, 2021. The award, presented every five years, honors President John F. Kennedy’s vision, leadership, and commitment to public service by recognizing members of the Peace Corps community who have made exceptional contributions toward realizing the mission and goals of the agency. “The Peace Corps community is made up of incredibly dedicated people who share a passion for service above self,” said Acting Director Carol Spahn. “I am inspired every day by the fierce commitment of our staff and volunteers and it will certainly be a challenge to select the winners.” John F. Kennedy Service Award candidates must demonstrate outstanding service and leadership . . .

Read More

Travel Writer RPCV Andy Trincia (Romania)

  Interviewed by Rolf Potts, International Known Travel Writer   Andy Trincia (Romania 2002-04) is an American freelance writer and editor based in Romania. Having visited nearly 60 countries, he writes mainly about travel, with special focus on Eastern Europe. He recently edited three European history books, and a travel guide focused on Jewish history in Romania. Before embarking on a lengthy career in corporate communications and public affairs, he was a newspaper reporter in North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, and Kansas. He also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer, doing economic development in Timisoara, Romania. More than a decade later he moved back to Romania — he and his family now divide their time between Timisoara (2021 European Capital of Culture) and the Transylvania countryside. How did you get started traveling? I grew up moving around – mostly in suburban Philadelphia but with stints in Houston, Tampa and Charlotte – . . .

Read More

The Volunteer Who Became “One of the Most Influential Observers of American Politics”*— Chris Matthews (Swaziland)

  A Profile in Citizenship by Jeremiah Norris — Colombia, 1963-65 •   Chris Matthews (Swaziland 1968–70) recently published a book entitled: This Country: My Life in Politics and History (2021) As one reviewer commented: Chris “shares the many stories that show us the greatness of our nation and her people.” And another stating: “. . . a must read for all, no matter where you self-identify on the current political spectrum.”. So, who is this former Volunteer that was so instrumental in green-lighting Peace Corps’ 3rd Goal while providing ‘friend and foe’ alike some great insights into the cultural values that have informed his public commentary and world view”? After graduating from Holy Cross College in Massachusetts, Chris pursued a Ph. D. in Economics at the University of North Carolina. Then, after completing his graduate studies, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Swaziland. There his two years of service as a . . .

Read More

Janet Lee (Ethiopia) receives 2021 John Ames Humphry/OCLC/Forest Press Award

  CHICAGO —Janet Lee, Retired, Dean/Professor Emerita, Dayton Memorial Library, Regis University Dean, has been named the 2021 recipient of the American Library Association (ALA) International Relations Committee’s John Ames Humphry/OCLC/Forest Press Award, presented to a librarian or person who has made significant contributions to international librarianship. The award, sponsored by OCLC/Forest Press, consists of $1,000 and a plaque to be presented at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois, USA. OCLC/Forest Press donated the cash award. In addition to her academic and professional success at Regis University, Lee is a Fulbright Scholar (2017-2018) in Ethiopia. Janet made impressive contributions in these key areas, promoting open access publishing and digital libraries, implementing a library catalogue, expanding the African Storybook Project, and assisting in the opening the Axumite Heritage Foundation Library. Janet’s ties to Ethiopia go back to 1970s when she served as Peace Corps Volunteer before beginning her career as . . .

Read More

Review — AFGHANISTAN AT A TIME OF PEACE by Robin Varnum

  Afghanistan at a Time of Peace by Robin Varnum (Afghanistan 1971–73) Peace Corps Writers June, 2021 201 pages $25.00 (paperback), $10.00 (Kindle) Reviewed by Will Irwin (Afghanistan 1966–67) • Robin Varnum tells the story of serving as a PCV in Ghazni, Afghanistan in 1972–73 with her husband Mark and another PCV, Juri Zagarins, fluidly and with engaging detail, from beginning to end. Afghanistan at a Time of Peace (Peace Corps Writers, 2021) is a nicely-designed volume, liberally illustrated with color photos taken by Juri when she was in her early 20s and newly married. Robin tells her story chronologically, from the invitation she and Mark received to go to Afghanistan in December 1971 as TEFLers through training, their assignment to teach in Ghazni, and the quotidian and unusual experiences they had living and teaching there until their departure in December 1973. A sampling of each: Bouts with amoebic dysentery for all . . .

Read More

Chuck Woodard Passes—Early PC/W Staff

Charles C. Woodard, Jr., “Chuck” of Medford, NJ and formerly of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY passed away on June 11, 2021. He was 97. Chuck Woodard was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1923. He enrolled at UCLA in 1941 and subsequently joined Army ROTC after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. While still at UCLA he renewed an acquaintance with Margaret McHaffie, his future wife. He famously asked her out and when she said she was interested in another man and asked why he would want a date he replied “you’re better than a blind date”. In January 1944 he was ordered to Fort Benning, Georgia for infantry officer training. While there he and Margaret became engaged and set a wedding date in June 1944. Chuck was unable to get enough leave to get back to Los Angeles for the planned wedding so they instead met in New Orleans, where they married . . .

Read More

Talking with Robin Varnum (Afghanistan)

  In June, Robin Varnum published her Peace Corps memoir Afghanistan at a Time of Peace. Peace Corps Worldwide asked Robin about her service, and about the writing and promoting of her book. • Robin, where and when did you serve with the Peace Corps: I served in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan (1971-1973), and  taught English (grades 8-12) in a girls school. Where did you live and work? I lived in Ghazni, a small city around 85 miles southwest of Kabul. I taught at Lycée Jahan Malika, the only girls school in either the city or the province of Ghazni. At the time, it served around 400 girls from kindergarten through 12thgrade. What kind of work did you do? I taught English. Although I did not understand initially why my students needed to learn English, I soon saw that a knowledge of English could open doors for students with serious ambitions. It was necessary, for example, for those who wished . . .

Read More

Copyright © 2022. Peace Corps Worldwide.