Peace Corps Worldwide – Page 39 – promoting Peace Corps writers since 1989

“A GENTELMAN IN MOSCOW is Waiting to Meet You” | Chuck Lustig (Colombia)

Sep 05 2023

Many years ago I learned from John Irving that if you want to convert readers into avid fans who will slog through hundreds of pages with you, arrange to have something horrible happen to the principal protagonist early on — something that’s no fault of his own. Despite character flaws, that inciting incident gives us, the reader, a stake in the story. It makes us care because our hero is obviously innocent. But why? I think it’s because we detect grace, or at least the potential for grace, even if it comes only thanks to a writer’s cruelest plot-turn. John Irving had a penchant for having characters lose body parts through no fault of their own. Charles Dickens, long before him, preferred treating, well-meaning, smart children cruelly. And then there was Barbara Kingsolver’s recent reworking of David Copperfield, entitled, Demon Copperhead, demonstrating that today’s opioid-addicted times are no less cruel than those . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers | July–August 2023

Sep 04 2023

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 . . .

“Discovering the Courage to Pursue My Dreams” by Sarah Busch (Botswana)

Sep 04 2023

RPCVs in the News: UWMedicine as told to Nicole Beattie Sarah Busch (Botswana 2018-20), a third-year medical student at the University of Washington School of Medicine, shares how scholarships are helping her become a doctor and fulfill her passion for public health. • I was born in Great Falls, Montana, the oldest daughter in a family with nine children. I raised a lot of my younger siblings, and maybe that’s where taking care of people started. But it was a fundamentalist environment that didn’t believe women should have careers or pursue big things. And I got to the point where I realized that the life my parents were living — and that they were giving me — was not the life I wanted. I liked science, and when I was in high school, I took Advanced Placement Biology. The teacher was a huge science nerd and really unashamed about . . .

John Chromy (India) writes: “Small Things Make Great Things Possible”

Sep 03 2023

A Fifty-Year Perspective on Ten Peace Corps Programs That Enabled Their Host Country People, Communities and Institutions to Substantially Improve the Lives of Millions! • Premise From its very founding the Peace Corps believed that Americans willing to voluntarily dedicate two years of their lives to helping people and communities in countries where there existed great needs, could in multiple ways make important improvements in peoples’ daily life. Since 1961 more than 250,000 American Peace Corps Volunteers have responded to President Kennedy’s call to “serve in the huts and villages” around the world. While not all the Volunteers were successful, most experienced some modest success in their communities, a few made large impacts and in some case the cumulative efforts of many Peace Corps Volunteers, in partnership with their host country people and institutions, laid the groundwork for great achievements that have grown, blossomed withstood the test of time . . .

Fall RPCV Writers Workshop — Sign Up!

Sep 02 2023

SPACES STILL OPEN FOR FALL RPCV WRITERS WORKSHOP; REGISTER TODAY! Fall RPCV Writers Workshop Are you writing a novel, a memoir, a scholarly essay, poems, and/or short stories? Whether what you’re working on is about the Peace Corps or not, you are invited to the Second Peace Corps Writers Workshop this October on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. The Workshop—open to a maximum of 15 RPCV writers—will be held from Thursday, October 5, to Sunday, October 7, at Shore Retreats on Broad Creek. The cost ranges from $100 to $500, depending on the applicant’s economic circumstances, and includes shared living quarters and most meals. If interested, please contact Matt Losak (Lesotho 1985-87) at: tokamaphepa@aol.com. The Workshop, organized by Peace Corps Worldwide and supported by the Peace Corps Fund, will be led by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-93), an English professor at West Virginia University, where he directs the Creative . . .

Watch A TOWERING TASK this September

Sep 01 2023

A Towering Task Coming to PBS Nationwide A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps is coming to PBS stations across the country. There will be a nationwide premiere of A Towering Task on the PBS World channel on Friday, September 29th at 8pm and Saturday, September 30th at 3am, 9am, and 3pm. In addition, individual stations are scheduling the film in local markets starting September 2nd. You can click this link to see the broadcasts that have been scheduled so far. And we are adding stations and dates every day. To help get the story of the Peace Corps to as many audiences as possible, you can encourage your local station to schedule broadcasts of A Towering Task for your region! Simply call your station and ask them to schedule A Towering Task. Your station’s membership services will take note! The film is available to PBS stations (through PBS distributor NETA) for the next three years – and possibly longer, if stations feel there . . .

“A Gabon Memory” by Bonnie Black

Sep 01 2023

by Bonnie Black (Gabon 1996-98) August 31,2023 • The coup that occurred in Gabon this week was a yawn to most news consumers in the West. Just another disputed election and military takeover in another African country; there have been many in recent years. So what. At the time I read about this coup in the New York Times early Wednesday morning, it had drawn only ONE comment, whereas normally by this time lead NYTimes articles garner comments in the hundreds, sometimes thousands. Who cares about Africa after all? And Gabon? Where’s Gabon? Well, I, for one, care, as do most of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers who served there decades ago, when such doors were still open to us. I was (informally) adopted by a Gabonese family in Libreville, the capital, in 1996, when I was in Peace Corps training there, and I’ve stayed in touch ever since with one special member of the family, . . .

Peace Corps reauthorization vote looming, needs support

Aug 31 2023

By Joel Mullen (Ecuador 1970- ) Special to the Standard-Examiner | Aug 30, 2023 • In the next three months, 12 Utahns who are joining the Peace Corps will each ship off to spend two years at a site in a country that has requested Americans to live and work among them. I envy their coming adventures and experiences in learning new languages, cultures, foods, geographical landscapes, histories, and especially getting to befriend those they otherwise would never have gotten to know. In 1970, I was a new Peace Corps recruit in Ecuador. On the ride into town from Quito’s Mariscal Sucre International Airport, I marveled at how young men jumped on and off moving city buses. They were daring and competent. Over my next few months in Ecuador, I became adept at running for public transportation, eventually expanding my skills to jump and run for my favorite train from . . .

Gorilla Doctors of Rwanda

Aug 30 2023

By Susan E. Greisen (Liberia 1971-73, Tonga 1973-74) 26 August 2023 I have always been skeptical of habituating wild animals to humans. I’ve seen the damage this has done to the bears in the National Parks in the 60s when I vividly remember traveling in Yosemite as a 12-year-old with my family. Dad encouraged us to crack our car windows to feed bread to the bears…and, so we did. We have home movies of this insanity. Over ten years later when I tent camped there again as an adult, bears were rummaging campgrounds to access the campers’ delicacies. That night armed rangers roamed our campsite tranquilizing the bears as they ripped open a Fiat convertible seeking store-bought food. The damage humans have done is evident. My third blog on Rwanda provided me with another great lesson about humans and wildlife. Now, 60 years later, what good would . . .

Ursula Foster (Uganda) to share Peace Corps experience in Madison VA

Aug 30 2023

Ursula Foster (Uganda 2001-03 & 2010-12) will read from her book, From Gulu With Love, and share about her time working with the Peace Corps in Uganda at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 1 at Revelation Vineyards, located at 2710 Hebron Valley Road in Madison, Virginia. The native of Esslingen, Germany, now a resident of Madison, has traveled the world to create “Völkerverständigung” (understanding between nations). She firmly believes “if we get to know each other, we would see each other as fellow humans and not as enemies,” according to a business release. This belief led her to spend time, in her retirement, as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. “As a Peace Corps volunteer I had the opportunity to live alongside Ugandans pretty much in the same way they live, to become a part of their everyday life,” she said. The things she values most from her time in . . .

12 new PCVs in Liberia

Aug 29 2023

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Dale Giles (Liberia 1964-66) Peace Corps Liberia Empowers Educational and Health Sectors as 12 new Volunteers Assigned to Margibi, Bong and Grand Bassa By Gerald C. Koinyeneh August 21, 2023 MONROVIA – In a concerted effort to boost Liberia’s educational and health sectors, Peace Corps Liberia welcomed a new group of volunteers into its ranks for a two-year service in Liberia. The 12 new volunteers are the first batch of volunteers to return to Liberia since 2020 when the Peace Corps evacuated volunteers because of COVID-19. After 11 weeks of language and cultural training, the volunteers were sworn-in on Thursday, August 17, 2023, by USAID Mission director Jim Wright, who is also serving as acting deputy chief of mission at the United States Embassy in Monrovia. Wright urged the volunteers to exemplify the highest standards that the United States has to offer the world, . . .

Twenty-Six PCVs sworn-in for Kyrgyz Republic

Aug 28 2023

Bishkek, August 25, 2023 – Twenty-six newly sworn in Peace Corps Volunteers will co-teach English with local teachers in secondary schools across Chui, Naryn, Issyk-Kul, Talas, Osh and Jalal-Abad regions over the next two years. This is the 29th group of Volunteers to serve in the Kyrgyz Republic. In attendance at the ceremony were U.S. Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic Lesslie Viguerie, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aibek Moldogaziev, Head of the international cooperation and investment department of Ministry of Education and Science Aizada Apysheva, Peace Corps Regional Director for Europe, Mediterranean and Asia Rebecca Sharp, and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, former Volunteers, as well as local teachers and directors of schools where the Volunteers will serve as co-teachers. “For 30 years, Peace Corps Volunteers and the communities in which they serve have collaborated to increase student and teacher capacity in English and have built relationships that continue long . . .

Talking with Marnie Mueller (Ecuador) about her new book THE SHOWGIRL AND THE WRITER

Aug 27 2023

PCW: The Showgirl And The Writer is an unusual book about an unusual friendship. What initially drew you to your subject? Marnie: For fifteen years I was friends with Mary Mon Toy, a Japanese American showgirl who had been incarcerated in an America concentration camp during World War II. Our bond was the fact that I, though Caucasian, was born in the Tule Lake Japanese American High Security Camp in northern California, where my parents, young leftists, had gone to work . . . much as I joined the Peace Corps decades later, As Mary aged, I became her Power of Attorney and, when she died, the Executor of her estate, and it was only upon her death that I learned that during her entire theater career, after being released from camp, she had passed as Chinese American. She had often regaled me with the story of her Chinese father, though she did . . .

Ex-Peace Corps Volunteers Deserve Recognition

Aug 27 2023

Ex-Peace Corps Volunteers Deserve Recognition by Victor Barbiero (Ethiopia 1973-75) ”We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough — more than enough — of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we labor on, not toward a strategy of annihilation, but toward a strategy of peace.” President John F. Kennedy June 10, 1963, American University Candidate John F. Kennedy spoke to a crowd of 10,000 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and challenged the students to work and live overseas. He implored . . .

Westbury Imagined by Arthur Dobrin (Kenya)

Aug 27 2023

Westbury Imagined: Based on True Stories by Arthur Dobrin (Kenya 1965-67) Nsemia Publishers August 2023 $9.99 (Kindle); $32.00 (Paperback) The first encounters between Indigenous people and Europeans, the enslavement of Africans and their fight for freedom, fox hunting millionaires and Italian immigrants, and the development of suburbia until the present day—all this is presented in Westbury Imagined, a book of history, fiction, memoir and poetry that celebrates this diverse Long Island community. Arthur Dobrin (Kenya 1965-67) has lived with his family in Westbury since 1969. He is Professor Emeritus of University Studies at Hofstra University and Leader Emeritus of the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island. His books have been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Bangla, Dutch and Spanish.