Peace Corps Worldwide – Page 78 – promoting Peace Corps writers since 1989

Finding inspiration in NIGERIA — Stint in the Peace Corps results in novel 45 years later

Jun 17 2022

By DAVID JASPER The Bulletin, Bend OR Dec 26, 2019 Updated Jan 29, 2021 After Tom Wangler entered the Peace Corps as a 25-year-old in 1974, he thought he might write about his adventures in Africa. “I had full intentions of writing a book when I got back,” said Wangler, of Bend. “It took me a while.” Four decades later, Wangler has realized his dream with the publication of his first novel, Nigeria: An Ancient Secret Becomes the Adventure of a Lifetime, a thriller about a Peace Corps volunteer who goes missing while searching for a hidden oasis, triggering a desperate search and rescue mission. Inspired by events Wangler witnessed while in Africa 45 years ago, it was published earlier this month by Bend’s Dancing Moon Press. Today, Wangler serves as education program coordinator at the Oregon Youth Challenge Program, an alternative high school for at-risk youth run by the National Guard. . . .

PCVs teach Spanish in the Dominican Republic

Jun 16 2022

Peace Corps Dominican Republic is currently the only Peace Corps program with a program focused on Spanish literacy. Spanish Primary School Literacy Promoter Volunteers provide critical support to enhance Spanish literacy rates within the Dominican education system. Volunteers work in Spanish to support childhood literacy in the native language of the Dominican Republic. By strengthening childhood literacy programs, Volunteers strive to decrease the number of children who are over-age for their grade, repeat grades, or who drop out of school. The work of Volunteers and their Dominican counterparts helps to lay a foundation for students’ lifelong learning and supports communities’ development priorities through access to quality education, effective reading and writing skills. Continue reading HERE.

Bill Josephson Has the Last Word

Jun 15 2022

Bill Josephson, who was the General Counsel at the agency, sent me this email to correct some of the information I had included in my blogs about the establishment of the Peace Corps. When the Kennedy administration took over the White House in 1961, Josephson was at the International Cooperation Administration, an agency within the Department of State that had principal responsibility for foreign aid programs under the Mutual Security Acts of the 1950s. He had joined the ICA’s General Counsel’s office in the Fall of 1959 as Far East Regional Counsel. About the same time, Warren W. Wiggins, a career ICA economist (all but thesis from the Harvard Economics Department) became the Deputy Director of Far East Regional Programs. Wiggins had served in Norway, the Philippines and Bolivia in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. Josephson and Wiggins bonded. Having been bombarded by the New Frontiersmen with . . .

Pets in Your Life by Tim Wall (Honduras)

Jun 15 2022

Tim Wall covers the dog, cat and other pet food industries as a senior reporter for WATT Global Media. His work has appeared in Live Science, Discovery News, Scientific American, Honduras Weekly, Global Journalist and other outlets. He holds a journalism master’s degree from the University of Missouri–Columbia and a bachelor’s degree in biology. By Tim Wall (Honduras 2005-07) Pet treat companies could be one tool for economic development in the United States and around the world. For low-income individuals, small-scale pet treat production allows entrepreneurs to start with utensils they may already have or can obtain inexpensively, ingredients from the grocery store and science-based recipes. While moving into retail outlets will require that pet food entrepreneurs consider larger legal and logistical issues, a start-up pet treat company could be within reach of many. If one is going to produce pet food, they should comply with the rules for labeling, . . .

RPCV couple and their California “Singing Frogs Farm”(Gambia)

Jun 14 2022

The founders of Singing Frogs Farm, Elizabeth and Paul Kaiser, met in the Peace Corps in Gambia, West Africa in 2003. Paul has a background in Agroforestry and Sustainable Land Management and Elizabeth in Nursing and Public Health. They’ve been farming together since 2007 in Sebastopol, CA, where they’ve been raising their two children while developing their innovative no-till soil management system for intensive vegetable production. Singing Frogs is a small farm—just three cultivated acres—but they are reaping BIG results using Regenerative Farming methods. They’ve increased the organic matter in their soil by 400% in just six years, without nutrient leaching, while almost tripling the total microbial life in the soil. They’ve also dramatically reduced their water usage per crop, starting at three hours of drip irrigation every other day and now down to about 20-30 minutes per week (when they need to irrigate at all). But . . .

RPCV Writer Tom Corbett (India)

Jun 14 2022

Tom Corbett (India 1966-68) is emeritus senior scientist and an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he served as associate and acting director for a decade before his retirement. He received a doctorate in Social Welfare from the University of Wisconsin and taught various social policy and program evaluation courses there for many years. During his long academic and policy career he consulted with government at the local, state, and national levels including a stint in Washington D.C. where he helped develop President Clinton’s welfare reform legislation. He has written dozens of articles and reports on poverty, social policy, and human services issues and given hundreds of talks across the nation on these topics. The author lives in Madison Wisconsin. Our Grand Adventure: The trials and triumphs of India-44 is a just out, improved upon, re-release of an earlier Peace Corps work It Seemed . . .

This week in Congress

Jun 13 2022

Tuesday, June 14 House Foreign Affairs — 10 a.m. — 2172 Rayburn International Development budget State Department officials will testify on the fiscal 2023 budget request for the Peace Corps and U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.

Inside Peace Corps Issue #6

Jun 13 2022

Published May 18, 2022 Chief Executive Officer’s Message On March 15, 2022, two years after the Peace Corps’ first-ever global evacuation, our first group of Volunteers returned to service in Zambia! Since then, Volunteers and Trainees have arrived in nine countries and many more will depart for their countries of service in the coming months. This long-awaited return is about connecting across difference. It is also about taking action in the spirit of humble partnership and in the face of incredibly challenging and uncertain times. Over the past two years, we have seen staff, returned Peace Corps Volunteers, counterparts, and host families step up in so many remarkable ways to support each other, their communities, and their countries. The care and concern displayed by the Peace Corps network has so clearly demonstrated that the Peace Corps is much more than a service organization. It represents a lifetime of connection and solidarity. The . . .

Feds warn Navarro to stop making “Numerous False Statements” about his arrest

Jun 11 2022

From Daily Beast Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) Trump loyalist Peter Navarro has made “numerous false statements” about his arrest, federal prosecutors wrote in a new court filing Thursday urging a judge to reject Navarro’s request for more time until his next court hearing. Navarro was arrested last week for refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. He was not denied food, water or a call to a lawyer, prosecutors said in the new filing shared by Politico. In fact, “At the time of his arrest, the Defendant first requested to call the press, which was denied,” it says. The feds say Navarro’s arresting officers — who Navarro called “kind Nazis”— told him he could call an attorney, but he instead said he needed to go on live TV that night and had to call to say he wouldn’t be there. Navarro . . .

Nominate Your Favorite RPCV Book Published in 2021

Jun 11 2022

To further fulfill its goals to encourage, recognize and promote Peace Corps writers, RPCV Writers & Readers, the newsletter that was the precursor of PeaceCorpsWriters.org and PeaceCorpsWorldwide.org, presented its first annual awards for outstanding writing in 1990. The awards are: The Award for Writer of the Year The Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award The Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award The Maria Thomas Fiction Award The Award for Best Peace Corps Memoir The Award for Best Book of Poetry The Peace Corps Writers Publisher’s Award The Peace Corps Writers Publisher’s Special Staff Award The Award for Best Short Story Collection The Award for Best Travel Book The Rowland Scherman Award for Best Photography Book The Award for Best Children’s Book about a Peace Corps Country The Award for Best Book for Young Adults The Marian Haley Beil Award for the Best Book Review The Award for Advancing the Mission Other Awards . . .

The Volunteer Who Was Named One of Most Powerful Women on Wall Street — Patricia Cloherty (Brazil)

Jun 10 2022

by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) (A cautionary note to readers: a significant portion of Patricia Cloherty’s professional career involved her firm’s investments in Russia at a time when it was a viable member of the Community Nations. That status has been tabled since its February, 2022 unprovoked invasion of Ukraine). • Patricia Cloherty earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of San Francisco, followed by two MAs from Columbia University. After hergraduation, she became a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil from 1963 to 1965. She began her career in venture capital at Patricof & Co. in New York, which she joined in 1969. She was named a partner and later would become resident and co-chair of the firm, along with founder Alan Patricof. After she left the firm, Patricof & Co. (now known as Apax Partners), became one of the largest private equity firms globally. In an interview with . . .

RPCV Peter Navarro (Thailand) Net Worth: How This Person Became so Rich? Latest Update!

Jun 04 2022

by Fred Tucson June 4, 2022 Peter Kent Navarro is an American economist and author who was born on July 15, 1949. During the Trump administration, he worked as an assistant to the president, director of trade and manufacturing policy, and coordinator of policy for the National Defense Production Act. He used to be Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House National Trade Council, which was a newly created White House Office until it was folded into the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy in April 2017. He is also an emeritus professor of economics and public policy at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of many books, including Death by China. Five times, Navarro ran for office in San Diego, California, but he lost each time. Other economists think of Navarro as a fringe figure . . .

RPCV Peter Navarro (Thailand) arrested

Jun 04 2022

A federal grand jury indicted former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro (Thailand 1973-76) on criminal contempt of Congress charges after he refused to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Jan. 6 committee. The FBI arrested Navarro Friday morning. In his first court appearance Friday afternoon, Navarro said that he was on his way to Nashville for a television appearance Friday morning, and that an FBI team let him get to the airport and try to board a plane before putting him in handcuffs. Navarro said during his court appearance he was put in a jail cell Friday.

Peace Corps Volunteers Return to the Americas

Jun 03 2022

Peace Corps Volunteers Return to the Americas for First Time since 2020 Evacuation WASHINGTON – Today, the Peace Corps announced that Peace Corps volunteers have arrived in seven countries in North, Central, and South America. These volunteers are the first to return to the region since the agency’s unprecedented global evacuation in March 2020, when global operations were suspended and nearly 7,000 volunteers from more than 60 countries were evacuated. “Our volunteers are ready to work hand in hand with communities across the Americas to meet this moment,” said Peace Corps CEO Carol Spahn. “The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are far-reaching and the work of our partners and volunteers is critical to response and recovery efforts across the globe.” As of May 31, Peace Corps Volunteers are serving in Belize, the Eastern Caribbean, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru, in the Americas region. Volunteers will collaborate with their host . . .

11 new Peace Corps Volunteers take their oath in the Dominican Republic

Jun 03 2022

Santo Domingo .- The Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the United States in the Dominican Republic, Robert Thomas, swore in 11 new Peace Corps volunteer technicians, the first new group to start their work after the pause caused by the pandemic of the COVID-19. The volunteers will be sent to different communities in Azua, Monte Plata and Peravia, to work on community development and education projects, respectively. Thomas commended the volunteers for their dedication, level of commitment, and willingness to share their knowledge and American culture with the Dominican people. In addition, he recognized the hospitality of the Dominicans who receive the volunteers. “On behalf of the United States, I extend my gratitude and appreciation to the Dominican people who have opened their arms to receive our volunteers and have allowed our collective friendship to grow through exchange, placed in strategic places.” The first PCVs went to . . .