Search Results for “Eres Tu” – Page 65

Review: LA FAMILIA by Mary Martin (Bolivia)

Jul 21 2016

La Familia: An International Love Story by Mary Martin (Bolivia 1976-78) Book on Demand Publisher February 2016 299 pages $19.95 Reviewed by Bob Arias (Colombia 1964-66) Gaining Ground was the “how to” that walked us thru the creation of the US/Bolivia NGO Mano a Mano International…the creation of Joan Swanson White, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and Segundo Velázquez, who would later become Joan’s husband. Joan a polio victim as a child, found Peace Corps her calling. Married at the time (1976-1978) to David White, she was concerned to discover that 37% of rural children suffer from chronic malnutrition, and ten percent of rural children die before age five. La Familia is more than a “love story,” but a trip down memory lane for the Velázquez family, especially the siblings, always working together as a unit in true Quechua fashion, Segundo, José, Ivo, and Blanca. Segundo, an active . . .

Marlboro College’s Writing Intensive: Words Against War

Jul 20 2016

The Brattleboro Reformer newspaper yesterday carried an article about the summer program at Marlboro College and quoted former PCV Thailand 1976-79 and CD Thailand 2013-15, as well as the recent past president of the NPCA, and now President of Marlboro College, Kevin Quigley: “The Summer Writing Intensive grows out of Marlboro’s fundamental commitment to writing. Our Clear Writing Requirement stems from the belief that clear writing leads to clear thinking, and clear writing in all its forms is a constant focus in the intellectual, political, and social life of the Marlboro community. ” I’d ask Kevin who never was in the military–as many PCVs were–but built his career on Peace Corps service, why doesn’t he honor the many fine Peace Corps ‘vets’ writers and offer them grants to attend this writing intensive?–JC The Brattleboro Reformer article This summer, in collaboration with Words After War, Marlboro College will once again honor . . .

Why the National University MFA in Creative Writing is ideal for PCVs or RPCVs

Jul 18 2016

About the University National University (NU) is a fully-accredited, not-for-profit university that offers undergraduate and graduate online classes in an accelerated format where courses last either four- or eight-weeks long, and students take only one course at a time. This format offers flexibility to students to take time off from the program for employment, travel, or other obligations. This asynchronous online format allows students to study from anywhere in the world that has an Internet connection. Graduate students at National have completed their Masters Degrees from places as distant as Japan, Guam, Alaska, and Afghanistan. About the Creative Writing MFA Established in 2005, the National University’s Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing (MFA/CW) offered by the School of Arts and Sciences offers four genres of study: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or screenwriting. Like Masters Degrees in all fine and applied arts, the MFA in Creative Writing is considered a terminal degree. It thus qualifies a graduate to . . .

The Wetback and Other Stories by Ron Arias (Peru)

Jul 15 2016

The Wetback and Other Stories, by Ron Arias ISBN 978-1-55885-834-3 Publication date: September 30, 2016 Trade paperback, Arte Publico Press, University of Houston, $17.95 I felt reading these wonderful stories that I was admitted to an adjacent neighborhood, a rich culture that is another world—call it Amexica—both mysterious and magical, that is persuasive through its tenderness. My hope is that Ron Arias continues to write short stories that tell us who we are. – Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65) This collection brings together the short fiction of an acclaimed journalist and Chicano literature pioneer. In the title story, Mrs. Rentería shouts, “David is mine!” as she and her neighbors gather about the dead but . . .

Review: DEATH IN VERACRUZ translated by Chandler Thompson (Colombia)

Jul 09 2016

Death in Veracruz (thriller) Hector Aguilar Camin (author), translated by Chandler Thompson (Colombia 1962–64) Schaffner Press 2015 304 pages $16.95 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Suzanne Adam (Colombia 1964–66) • Photos of eight semi-nude cadavers still fresh and bleeding lie displayed on the table before Negro. His onetime schoolmate and friend, Francisco Rojano, asks Negro, an investigative journalist, to help him find the assassin, whom he suspects is Lacho, the powerful leader of a northern oil workers union. Rojano claims that Lacho is after the oil-rich land owned by the assassinated farmers, but Negro is reluctant to get involved with Rojano, an ambitious politician. He learns that Rojano owns an extensive tract of land bordering Lacho’s farm. He guesses that there’s more to the story than Rojano is revealing. To complicate matters, Negro holds a torch for his friend’s wife, Anabela. The story is set in Mexico during the 1970s. . . .

PCVs and RPCVs Tell Your Peace Corps Story & Earn an MFA

Jul 07 2016

Do you want to write a book about your Peace Corps experience and earn your Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing? The online MFA program at National University is recruiting special cohort of current or returned Peace Corps Volunteers who are interested in turning their Peace Corps experiences into books. The cohort of students will be led by former Peace Corps Volunteer and author of 26 books, John Coyne. Students in the cohort will take three classes together where they write about their Peace Corps experiences, then get to choose from a wide range of workshops with the experienced faculty and diverse student writers in the National University MFA program. The program culminates with the students writing a book-length manuscript of publishable quality. Current or returned Peace Corps volunteers who are members of the NPCA will receive a 15% tuition reduction for the entire MFA program. If you would . . .

Murder in the Peace Corps: Sky TV, July 29, 2016 (Tonga)

Jul 05 2016

I heard recently from Jan Worth-Nelson (Tonga 1976-78) that she and Emile Hons (Tonga 1974-76) were interviewed by two UK freelance producers from Sky TV about the Deborah Gardner Peace Corps 1976 murder in Tonga. The documentary is part of a series called “Passport to Murder” produced for Discovery ID TV. Their segment is luridly titled “The Devil in Paradise.” It is scheduled to air on July 29, 2016. As Jan wrote me, “Its amazing how that brutal story keeps going and going and going. It affected me strongly to talk about it again and think about it again after 40 years. Jan Worth-Nelson is a writer and former writing professor at the University of Michigan–Flint. She has published in a wide variety of publications, from the Christian Science Monitor to Midwestern Gothic. Her “Beam, Arch, Pillar, Porch: a Love Story” appears in the new Happy Anyway: The Flint Anthology from Belt Publishing. Jan has an . . .

Peace Corps Evaluator Stan Meisler Dies at 85

Jun 29 2016

Stanley Meisler, globe-trotting foreign correspondent, dies at 85 Stan Meisler was an early evaluator in Charlie Peters’ legendary Peace Corps Office of Evaluation. He did several evaluations for the agency in Ethiopia, where we first met. In 1969, five years after we had met, when I was traveling through Africa writing for the Dispatch News Service, I arrived in Kenya and was walking through a park in Nairobi at midday and spotted Stan. Seeing me, and without breaking step, Stan said, “John, how are you? How about lunch?” That was the way (then and now) Peace Corps people respond to each other. They are never surprised at seeing anyone anywhere in the Third World. Several years ago, Meisler wrote the most recent comprehensive book on the agency entitled, When The World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years. Meisler, one of the early Peace . . .

Early Termination Rates of Response Volunteers Compared – RPCVs to Non-RPCVs

Jun 16 2016

One of the major changes made by Peace Corps in 2010 was to include non-RPCVs in the Peace Corps Response Program. The decision to include non-RPCVs was announced in the 2010 Peace Corps Comprehensive Agency Assessment Report. (https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/opengov/PC_Comprehensive_Agency_Assessment.pdf) Peace Corps Response had begun in 1995 as the Crisis Corps. It was designed to utilize the unique experience of RPCVs by deploying them to help in emergencies, almost always in foreign countries. Later, the name was changed to Peace Corps Response and the mandate was expanded to send RPCVS on short term technical or professional assignments. Today, Peace Corps Response is open to returned Volunteers or those with significant professional and technical experience willing to serve usually three to twelve months in host countries. The Response Volunteers do not receive the extensive 12 week cultural and language training that “traditional” Volunteers have received. The Responsive program has a week’s orientation program. It . . .

Talking with Frank Rothman, author of BROOKLYN NY TO BOCAIUVA, BRAZIL

Jun 14 2016

In May Franklin D. Rothman (Brazil 1967–69) published his memoir Brooklyn, NY to Bocaiúva, Brazil: A Peace Corps Love Story with the Peace Corps Writers imprint. Here Frank talks about his Peace Corps days, life after Peace Corps and the writing of his memoir. • What was your Peace Corps project assignment in Brazil? Clubes Agricolas/Rural Community Action in Minas Gerais State (MG). The statewide project in selected municipalities in the interior of the state was conducted in coordination with State Secretaries of Agriculture and Education. Following a pre-assignment drop-off in the municipality of Carandaí, I expressed my desire to be assigned there, to join Lavonne Birdsall, who would be extending for her third year. Tell us about where you lived and worked. In the town of Carandai, I lived in a rented room known locally as the Palácio do Urubu (Vulture’s Palace). The property owner and his family lived . . .

Stephen Mustoe (Kenya) publishes BREVITÉ

Jun 13 2016

About Brevité by Stephen Mustoe (Kenya 1983–84) • Brevité is a collection of concise, imaginative stories that range widely in focus and spirit, from poignant to upbeat, unsettling to comical. In Acceptance a son struggles to deal with his mentally ill mother’s impending death. In Dogfish Blues and Blind Faith a young boy, later a teenager, survives hilarious yet terrifying adventures in the company of his outrageous uncle. Parallel Lives has an ailing man considering a series of malaria-induced recollections that might or might not be real. A young woman tries to make sense of a quirky accident that spared her life in Encounter. Each of my brief stories has its basis in either personal experience or an event related by a friend or acquaintance. Nevertheless they are all fictional works, which gave me liberty to make things up as I went along. And that was the truly enjoyable part. . . .

THE WETBACK AND OTHER STORIES by Ron Arias (Peru) due out in September

Jun 13 2016

In the title story of The Wetback and Other Stories by Ron Arias (Peru 1963–65), Mrs. Rentería shouts, “David is mine!” as she and her neighbors gather about the dead but handsome young man found in the dry riverbed next to their homes in a Los Angeles barrio. “Since when is his name David?” someone asks, and soon everyone is arguing about the mysterious corpse’s name, throwing out suggestions: Luis, Roberto, Antonio, Henry, Enrique, Miguel, Roy, Rafael. Many of the pieces in this collection take place in a Los Angeles neighborhood that used to be called Frog Town, now known as Elysian Valley. Ron Arias reveals the lives of his Mexican-American community: there’s Eddie Vera, who goes from school yard enforcer to jail bird and finally commando fighting in Central America; a boy named Tom, who chews his nails so incessantly that it leads to painful jalapeño chili treatments, banishment . . .

Peace Corps Writers MFA Program: Now Open for PCVs and RPCVs

Jun 09 2016

Peace Corps Writers MFA Program: Now open for PCVs and RPCVs Do you want to earn your Master’s Degree in Creative Writing while serving in the Peace Corps? Or do it today as an RPCV and not have to step onto a college campus? Would you like to write a memoir or book about your Peace Corps experience? Here is your chance to do both! I have arranged with National University in California to offer an online only Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree program for Peace Corps writers. This MFA is sponsored by the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA). PCVs & RPCVs will receive a tuition discount. The tuition for the MFA is in the area of 20K. National University is the second-largest private, nonprofit institution of higher education in California and the 12th largest in the United States. It is one of the very few universities that offer a . . .

Famous RPCV Journalists: The China Gang

Jun 07 2016

Although the Peace Corps has given a start to many well-known writers—Paul Theroux, Maria Thomas, Philip Margolin, Bob Shacochis, among them—it has fostered relatively few journalists and editors. One of the first journalist was Al Kamen, a Volunteer in the Dominican Republic during the early 1960s.Recently retired after 35 years at the Washington Post, Kamen wrote a column, “In the Loop,” and also covered the State Department and local and federal courts. He assisted his Post colleague Bob Woodward with reporting for The Final Days and The Brethren. Other Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) of the 1960s who became well-known journalists include Vanity Fair’s special correspondent Maureen Orth, an urban community development volunteer in Colombia, and one of the first women writers at Newsweek, and MSNBC HardBall host Chris Matthews, who served in Swaziland. There are more, of course, with that kind of media power who went into film and the arts . . .

Advice for the graduate who wants to work in International Affairs

Jun 04 2016

Morgan Courtney is a “Design thinker + foreign policy/international development practitioner working for social impact” who wrote an article for the Huffington Post. She offers ten points of advice for the “Graduate Who Wants to Work in International Affairs.” Of interest to the Peace Corps community and prospective applicants is #2 from Courtney. Get field experience. Many field jobs in international development require prior field experience. It’s a Catch-22. How do you get field experience if jobs require you to already have field experience? There are a couple of different ways. Firstly, your summer or semester in South Africa doesn’t count as much as you think it does. Sorry. What employers are looking for is real work experience, not classroom time, in another country. (What IS good is language proficiency from your time abroad!) So what can you do after college to get field experience? In my estimation, the very best . . .

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