Search Results For -Eres Tu

  by Jamie Kirkpatrick (Tunisia 1970-72) “How many of you who are going to be doctors are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world? On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.”  — John F. Kennedy   A few days ago, a good friend of mine quietly celebrated its 58th birthday. I know the possessive pronoun in that sentence sounds a bit strange, but I . . .

  by Mark Walker (Guatemala 1971-73) Revue Magazine, February 3, 2021 • Anna Zauner received the evacuation notice at 10 p.m. on March 15th, 2020: Have all of your things packed and ready in an hour. “I was 30 minutes from home with nothing packed,” according to Anna, “home” being the highlands of Guatemala where Anna was one of 165 Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) serving in the “Land of Eternal Spring.” Due to the global outbreak of Covid-19, over 7,300 PCVs were being evacuated from sixty-one countries. Departure for Anna was chaotic with many “stops and starts.” After saying goodbye to as many friends as possible in Santa Lucía Utatlán, Sololá, Anna headed to a hotel near the airport in Guatemala City to await a chartered flight that was to depart the next morning. After a sleepless night, Anna and her fellow Volunteers found out that the flight had been canceled . . .

Alana DeJoseph has made her award-winning documentary about the Peace Corps available for college and secondary school teachers. RPCV teachers, this is a great opportunity for you to tell your Peace Corps story to your students and also, with the film, tell the story of the agency. • Director of the film, Alana DeJoseph, writes: The feature documentary A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps is going to school! We are developing lesson plans for middle schools, high schools, and universities to teach the history of the Peace Corps through the lens of various fields of study. And we would love to take advantage of the expertise so many RPCVs have. So, we are asking RPCV professors (current and retired) from the following fields of study to connect with us at info@peacecorpsdocumentary.com to help us make these lesson plans the best they can be! Areas of study: – International Studies . . .

  Evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers had no time to prepare their communities for their emergency departure. That loss has been described  many times by  the Evacuated RPCVs.  Now, Peace Corps has developed a pilot program to help 45 ERPCVs to reconnect with their communities. There are plans to expand the program. Here is the link: https://www.peacecorps.gov/news/library/evacuated-volunteers-participate-virtual-service-pilot-program/ Read the announcement Evacuated Volunteers Participate in Virtual Service Pilot Program December 18, 2020 WASHINGTON – Peace Corps Director Jody K. Olsen announced the completion of the first phase of the agency’s new Virtual Service Pilot program, which connected host country communities with returned volunteers who were evacuated due to the coronavirus pandemic. Nine posts participated in the first phase of an 11-week pilot. A total of 45 returned volunteers donated their time voluntarily serving as private citizens to conduct virtual engagements with our host country partners and, were selected based on a match between . . .

  Published in Writers on the Range   When “All in the Family” hit the TV screens in 1971, the war in Vietnam was raging, cities from Washington, D.C., to Detroit, were charred from riots in the wake of Martin Luther King’s assassination, and many young people like me were leaving those cities, moving West to rural America. Archie Bunker stayed in Queens, where a “bar was a man’s castle,” while daughter Gloria and son-in-law “Meathead” tried to help Archie grasp hippies and anti-war protests. We called ours the “back to the land” movement, and we chuckled with Meathead as Archie Bunker got chuckles from our dads. But we were done watching “Leave it to Beaver” and “Ozzie and Harriet.” Our flexible families were radically changing. Well, the family has changed again, and, I’d argue that my own, occasionally dysfunctional family is closer to what’s happening in America now than . . .

By Harrison Smith November 16, 2020 Laurence Pope (Tunisia 1967-69), a veteran diplomat and counterterrorism expert who came out of retirement to serve as the top U.S. envoy to Libya weeks after the 2012 attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, died Oct. 31 at his home in Portland, Maine. He was 75. The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his wife, Elizabeth Pope. In his 31 years as a diplomat, Mr. Pope helped shape Iran and Iraq policy at the State Department, was appointed ambassador to Chad by President Bill Clinton and served as political adviser to Gen. Anthony Zinni, head of Central Command, which manages U.S. forces in the Middle East. He had been retired for more than a decade when Islamist militants launched an assault on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012. The attack marked the first time a U.S. . . .

  Stealing Fortune’s Brick: The Audacious Tea Heist by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia 1965-66) Foehr & Son Publisher 285 pages June 2020 $7.00 (Kindle); $11.00 (paperback)   Reviewed by Sue Hoyt Aiken (Ethiopia 1962–64) • You might ask why anyone would want to steal tea so badly they would commit violence, lies, deception and danger! This story is based in modern day London but harkens back to early Chinese history intertwined with British history in China. The clever character development involves an American, Tom, invited by his maternal Chinese grandfather he has never met, a Rosemary, who joins him in his pursuit as a way of making her life more exciting, her London based gang boss brother, Ow, whom she adores. And a precious brick of exceptional tea valued in the millions! One might say the brick of tea is the main character! The Chinese regarded Robert Fortune as a criminal, . . .

  by Bill Josephson (PC/Washington 1961-66) The adequacy of health care for Peace Corps volunteers and former Peace Corps volunteers who have service connected health issues seems to be a recurrent and unresolved problem.  The following thoughts are based on memories from 1961 to 1966, and I’ve made no effort to fact check those memories. The early Peace Corps was fortunate in respect of its healthcare staff because Selective Service still existed, and as the Vietnam War began in 1965, Selective Service became an even more important source of physicians. A plan that I recall as the “Berry Plan” enabled physicians to meet their Selective Service obligations through public health and similar medical assignments in the public interest. This meant that the early Peace Corps was virtually assured of the availability of high-quality medical staff both overseas and in Washington. Moreover, the first Peace Corps medical director, whom I recall . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Barry  Hillenbrand  (Ethiopia 1963-65)   Nina Boe, shown at a wedding, has been living in New York since her work as a Peace Corps volunteer was put on hold and she was ordered to evacuate North Macedonia because of the coronavirus pandemic. • by Carol Morello Washington Post Oct. 15, 2020 NINA BOE’S LIFE is as much in limbo now as it was the day in March when her work as a Peace Corps volunteer was put on hold and she was ordered to evacuate North Macedonia. She has been living in New York ever since, interviewing for jobs that have not materialized. She misses her friends in Skopje, North Macedonia’s capital, who became like family, and cries after they call to keep in touch. But she has been advised it could be mid-2021 before she is recalled, and she does not know if . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Paul Koprowski (Ethiopia 1962-64) The Peace Corps Is Suspended—Here’s Why We Need to Make Sure It Returns By Jessie Beck (Madagascar 2011-13) AFAR Travel Magazine 04.30.20   Ninety-two percent of Peace Corps volunteers say the experience has changed their lives. In the Peace Corps, you learn that travel isn’t just about hotels and the sights. It’s about the people and connections you make. On March 15, 2020, the Peace Corps announced the evacuation of all 7,000+ volunteers from 60+ countries and suspension of all operations. With just 24 hours’ notice, all volunteers were asked to pack up their bags, say goodbye to their host communities, and return to the United States. I can only imagine it was a difficult, but necessary, decision. Keeping volunteers safe and healthy is a top priority for the organization, and it would have been a struggle to provide adequate healthcare to . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65)     Peace Corps faces uncertain future with no Volunteers in field BY REBECCA BEITSCH – 04/16/20 06:00 AM EDT 36   The Peace Corps has found itself in uncharted territory after evacuating all 7,300 of its volunteers worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic. The agency, which places volunteers in more than 60 countries, has never before evacuated its entire volunteer roster, leaving questions about what lies ahead for evacuees and how the Peace Corps plans to rebuild once the outbreak subsides. Volunteers, who typically spend two to three years living and working in impoverished communities, had in some cases just a day’s notice to evacuate aafter Peace Corps made the move official last month. “When someone tells you you have one day to pack up three years of your life into two suitcases, it’s just so overwhelming but also so emotionally draining you . . .

  ERPCVs! — USAID opportunities US Agency for International Development (USAID) Human Capital and Talent Management (HCTM) has released a batch announcement for positions specifically for RPCVs to use their non-competitive eligibility. Please share far and wide among your networks! Exclusive Advertisement for Peace Corps Eligibles Great opportunities for those evacuated Volunteers to consider. International Cooperation Specialist (GS-0136-13) As an International Cooperation Specialist, you are the key communication link and liaison between the headquarters Bureaus and the Mission(s) in areas such as strategic planning and budget preparation, and program reviews. You will represent your selected Bureau’s interests to senior-level and other host-government officials, as well as representatives of local private sector and non-government organization (NGO) entities. Democracy Specialist (GS-0301-13) As a Democracy Specialist, you will serve as a technical expert on democracy, human rights, and governance (DRG); provide technical DRG advice and support to Missions overseas; formulate policy and programming guidance . . .