Search Results for “Tongue” – Page 4

“Toothpaste” by E.T. Stafne (Senegal)

Aug 03 2016

Toothpaste E.T. Stafne (Senegal 1994–96) • I never knew such goddamn pain in all my life. My fingers searched out the offending patch of skin and found it just above my mouth. In my groggy, half-awake half-asleep state it felt like a fist-sized plug of tobacco shoved between my teeth and upper lip. That explained the bulging I felt, but not the intense pain. Slowly, I rose up from the hot and uncomfortable foam mattress, threw aside the frayed Peace Corps-issued mosquito net, and dragged myself over to the lone mirror in my possession, the one on the inside cover of a Silva compass. Not meant for self-inspection of deformities, its size did not allow for the full effect of horror that I would have realized with a regular-sized mirror. This small one gave me the illusion that it wasn’t all that bad, just a small bump. But as . . .

Kitty Thuermer Remembers Sydney Hillel Schanberg

Jul 14 2016

Kitty Thuermer (Mali 1977-79) recalls Sydney Schanberg, who passed away recently, and his friendship with her father when she was a child growing up in New Delhi. Sydney Hillel Schanberg (January 17, 1934 – July 9, 2016) was an American journalist who was best known for his coverage of the war in Cambodia. He was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, two George Polk awards, two Overseas Press Club awards, and the Sigma Delta Chi prize for distinguished journalism. Schanberg was played by Sam Waterston in the 1984 film The Killing Fields based on the experiences of Schanberg and the Cambodian journalist Dith Pran in Cambodia. — JC • Kitty’s story . . . In the New York Times‘ obit of Sydney Schanberg — whose Cambodia stories inspired “The Killing Fields” movie — there is little to smile about. It describes him as tough and fearless, ready to pursue any story at any cost. Sure enough, back in 1970 while bureau chief in . . .

Review — THE GIRL IN THE GLYPHS by David C. Edmonds (Chile)

May 23 2016

The Girl in the Glyphs by David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963–65)) and Maria Nieves Edmonds Peace Corps Writers January 2016 354 pages $12.99 (paperback), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Andy Martin (Ethiopia 1965–68) • The Girl in the Glyphs was a surprisingly enjoyable book. I say surprisingly because I chose to review the book from a list of available titles, each of which had a short paragraph synopsis. I believe the synopsis for this book said it was a romantic adventure story. John Coyne, who saw a proof copy of the book said it was “a splendid tale of love and intrigue in a dangerous country . . ..” When the book arrived in the mail, I didn’t know what to think. I was definitely trying to judge it by its cover and that was a bit unfair. It’s 6″ x 9″ with cover art that harkens to Indiana Jones. The inside has one illustration, a map, and . . .

“Impressions of Cuba” by Patricia Taylor Edmisten (Peru)

May 21 2016

• Impressions of Cuba A Thirty-Year Retrospective by Patricia Taylor Edmisten (Peru 1962-64) • Why Cuba? The year before my mother married my dad, she and her cousin Celia took a Greyhound bus from Milwaukee to Miami. After sight-seeing in Miami, they took an amphibian plane to Havana where they ran into some wealthy American men (playboys) who showed them the sights, including the newly opened Tropicana night club that still entertains visitors with scantily clad women dancing to fiery salsa. I don’t know why my mother, a first-generation daughter of a Bavarian-born pastry chef, chose Cuba. Her affinity toward Latin America developed after that trip even though she returned only once, after she had talked my dad into a family road trip from Milwaukee to Mexico City and Acapulco in 1956. It was my mother who encouraged me to say yes to a 1962 telegram from Sargent Shriver inviting me . . .

Andy Martin (Ethiopia) still explaining American English to the world

May 15 2016

It is impressive what creative things PCVs do in the classroom to teach and have their students understand — in English — what in the world we Americans are saying. It is more impressive when an RPCV, some fifty years after his tour, is still experimenting with new devices to help foreign students in the US learn our particular (and peculiar) language, this time using the Internet and social media. Meet Andy Martin (Ethiopia 1965–68) who lives in New York City and has come up with two ingenious ways to explain to non-English-speakers our humor and the way we Americans talk among ourselves. As Andy wrote me . . . • When I came home from Ethiopia after three years in the Peace Corps teaching ESL, I had no desire or intent to teach ESL — or anything else. I mostly wanted to play rock and roll and join the revolution. I played at both of these for . . .

One mother’s story of how the Peace Corps failed her daughter

Apr 26 2016

This is a long, heartbreaking and true story of the experiences of a PCV who served in Malawi, became ill overseas as a Volunteer, and had the Peace Corps turn their back on her plight while overseas and when she was home again. Why the Peace Corps didn’t help Meghan Wolf receive medical care is the fault of the Peace Corps Staff and the Peace Corps legislation. Why the legislation hasn’t been changed is the fault of the agency, the US Department of Labor (the agency responsible for managing medical claims and loss of wages for Peace Corps service-related health issues) and Congress, which sets the budget and determines laws governing the care PCVs and RPCVs. RPCVs, the NPCA, and those who support the Peace Corps are also at fault for not having successful argued all these years to have the laws changed so sick and injured RPCVs are properly cared for . . .

“Notes on the Common Practice of Rape” by Bob Schacochis (Eastern Caribbean)

Mar 14 2016

Bob Shacochis wrote this essay for Roxane Gay who is putting together a rape anthology that will be coming out next year. After reading it, I asked Bob if we might put it up on our site, as in this piece he discusses several rapes that happened to women — and almost Bob — in the Peace Corps. As we know, the issue is a serious one for PCVs women, and what is being done about it — and not being done about it — continues to be a problem for Volunteers in-country and for the Peace Corps here at home. • NOTES ON THE COMMON PRACTICE OF RAPE by Bob Shacochis (Eastern Caribbean 1975–76) A friend, an architect in Manhattan, has a default mantra, an unwanted but repeated thought that loops through his brain as he walks from his Soho loft to his downtown office or further south to Battery Park — There is something wrong with us. . . .

THE TOWERING TASK — A Film by Alana DeJoseph (Mali)

Mar 04 2016

It isn’t until you lose something that you realize how important it was. For several years now, I have appreciated John Coyne and Marian Beil’s amazing website on so many levels. I have used it for research, to keep up-to-date on everything Peace Corps, for historical information, to fritter away many an hour, and to learn of the next great Peace Corps book. It made me feel good to know this incredible body of work was at my fingertips anytime I needed a dose of Peace Corps in my life. And then the website went down. To be revamped, John assured me. It would be back up soon, he said. Days went by without John’s familiar emails in my inbox, enticing me to spend another few educational minutes on one of the great articles at peacecorpsworldwide.org. When just weeks before I had filed away several of John’s updates, knowing that I would . . .

This article about Rajeev Goyal (Nepal 2001-03) Written by Peter Hessler (China 1996-98)

Dec 20 2015

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker emailed this morning, December 20,2015, about The Business of Giving and remarks in his Introduction to a series of articles on ‘giving’ about Peter Hessler’s article on the Peace Corps, writing, “a volunteer in an eastern part of Nepal later becomes an expert fund-raiser for the organization, and within ten minutes at a dinner on Long Island raises eighteen thousand dollars.” That ‘volunteer’ was Rajeen Goyal (Nepal 2001-03). He then publishes (again) “Village Voice” an article written by Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) about Rajeen that appeared in the December 20, 2010 issue of The New Yorker. Here it is again, if you missed it the first time the piece was published. A Reporter at Large DECEMBER 20, 2010 ISSUE Village Voice The Peace Corps’s brightest hope. BY PETER HESSLER Rajeev Goyal in Namje, Nepal. Instead of introducing American values abroad, Goyal aims at the reverse. . . .

More on the "Less" Medical Help for RPCVs

Dec 14 2015

(Thanks to Nancy Tongue(Chile 1980-82) founder of Health Justice for Peace Corps Volunteers (HJPCV) for Leading this fight for better health for RPCV.) CBS NEWS December 14, 2015, 7:43 AM Ex-volunteers accuse Peace Corps of health care neglect The Peace Corps says 91 percent of volunteers are satisfied with their medical care, but government reports as far as 1991 found problems with that care. Some returned volunteers tell CBS News they’ve fallen through the cracks both during and after their service — in some cases, for decades, reports CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave. In 1965, Nancy Minadeo Flanigan was a Peace Corps volunteer in Malaysia. She was raped by local men and impregnated with a daughter, who died at birth. “I started having depression and nightmares and flashbacks,” Flanigan said. In 2012 she got word she would be reimbursed for 50 years of medical bills, but she needed receipts. “Well, . . .

Sexual Assault Issues with Peace Corps to be aired on CBS This Morning

Nov 29 2015

Health Justice for Volunteers Founder, Nancy Tongue send out this notice: “The journalist who has been working on the sexual assault issues has notified us that her piece is going live on Monday on CBS This Morning, the national broadcast, sometime between 7 and 9am ET on Monday.” From the information that Nancy Tongue mailed, my understanding is that the focus will be on Peace Corps’s implementation of The Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act of 2011. For a good overview, read the Peace Corps Performance and Accountability Report FY2015. It has just been published. Here is the link: http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/policies/annrept2015.pdf The last section is by the is the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The OIG reviews its previous recommendations to Peace Corps management and the current status of those recommendations. One ongoing concern of the OIG has been the training of overseas staff, particularly in regard to the law and sexual . . .

A Writer Writes:The Lesson of the Machi by David C. Edmonds

Nov 09 2015

A Writer Writes The Lesson of the Machi By David C. Edmonds (Chile (1963-65) Mapuche village near Chol Chol, Arauca, Chile September 1964 Friday-The drums wake me again. Now what? Another funeral for some poor child? A wedding? No, the village Machi, who performs all healing and religious rituals, is going to offer another lesson for the young girls. I don’t know the details because things that happen here don’t always make sense. So when I see the Machi’s seventeen-year-old daughter, Ñashay, passing by my little dirt-floor ruca with a pale of milk, I ask her what is going on. “It is called the Lesson of Two Loves,” she tells me in her broken way of speaking Spanish, standing there on the mud walkway in her head dress and shawl, all four feet, ten inches of her. “What is the Lesson of Two Loves?” “Yes, the Lesson of Two Loves. . . .

Report from Congress on post service disability benefits

Oct 31 2015

Nancy Tongue (RPCV Chile) is a tireless advocate for RPCVs who have had service contacted medical problems and who have had difficulty receiving the help to which they are entitled. She founded Health Justice for Volunteers http://www.healthjusticeforpeacecorpsvolunteers.org Nancy’s group is an associative group of the National Peace Corps Association. The group is working with both the NPCA and Peace Corps to create better solutions for RPCVs. Nancy has updated the work of her organization in an email and also attached the report from the GAO on post service disability benefits. From Nancy’s email message:letter-from-nancy-tongue “The Senate Foreign Relations Office has just posted the findings from their recent GAO report analyzing the difference between the benefits from the USDOL vs: what employees of the State Department receive. You will see that it was noted that they did not conduct actuarial analysis, which was what was needed in order to really understand . . .

Response from Peace Corps on Mefloquine

Jun 04 2015

There is much concern, as reported here on the risk/benefits of the use of mefloquine as a anti-malaria medication for Peace Corps Volunteers. It is important to raise awareness in the Peace Corps community about this issue. Here is the letter from Dr. Nevin Remington, a leading expert on this medication, to Peace Corps: text to link to: http://www.remingtonnevin.com/rpcv20150305.pdf RPCVs were urged to read Dr. Nevin’s letter and review some of the information posted about the drug and then write to Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet urging Peace Corps to accept Dr. Nevin’s recommendations. See: https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/malaria-mefloquine-and-peace-corps-what-price-protection-part-one/ and https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/malaria-mefloquine-and-peace-corps-what-price-protection-part-two/ In reviewing the following correspondence, it is important to note that Peace Corps is currently being sued by a RPCV over the use of mefloquine. See: John Coyne’s article on the law suit by Sara Thompson: https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/rpcv-sara-thompson/ I would presume that there are legal issues involved that might influence Peace Corps’ public response. I followed my . . .

Anti-Malaria Medication and the Peace Corps

Apr 29 2015

In a medically hostile environment, malaria is one of the fiercest enemies. Peace Corps has been fighting it for over fifty years; not only to help the people Volunteers serve, but to protect Volunteers, who are also targets of the disease. From 1961 to 1990, Volunteers in malaria areas, took chloroquine, brand name, Aralen, to protect against malaria. There was a increase in the incidence of malaria among Volunteers in West Africa beginning in the mid-80s due to the development of Chloroquine-resistent malaria. In 1989 thru 1992, Peace Corps Volunteers in West Africa participated in research studies for a relatively new anti-malaria drug, mefloquine, (for a time, the drug was marketed under the brand name, Lariam). The drug was effective against the chloroquine-resistent form of malaria, but was not without its adverse side effects. RPCV Sara Thompson has filed suit charging that Peace Corps failed to adequately inform her of . . .

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