Peace Corps Worldwide – Page 90 – promoting Peace Corps writers since 1989

Inaugural Issue of the RPCV Oral History Project

Jan 24 2022

Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Archive Project January 2022 Newsletter Welcome to the inaugural issue of the RPCV Oral History Archive Project (OHAP) newsletter. We plan to use the newsletter to keep you informed on OHAP developments. We will let you know about important ways in which you can help us achieve our mission to preserve Peace Corps experiences through in-depth oral interviews of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), evacuated volunteers, Peace Corps staff and, we hope soon, host country counterparts. 2021 recap Our numbers are soaring! As of the end of 2021, OHAP volunteers have conducted over 1300 oral history interviews with RPCVs and Peace Corps staff. Of these, about 800 audio interviews, conducted from 1990 through 2019, are archived at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives and Records Administration. Since June 2020, more than 550 video interviews have been conducted remotely using a . . .

Review — DISCOVERING TUNISIAN CUISINE by Judith Dwan Hallet (Tunisia) et al

Jan 24 2022

Discovering Tunisian Cuisine Judith Dwan Hallet (Tunisia 1964–66), Raoudha Guellali Ben Taarit, and Hasna Trabelsi; photographs by Judith Dwan Hallet and Stanley Ira Hallet (Tunisia 1964 – 1966) Spirit of Place/Spirit of Design, Inc December 2019 148 pages $36.00 (hardcover) Reviewed by Vana Prewitt (Liberia 1983–86; Peace Corps Response/S.t Lucia 2016 • Discovering Tunisian Cuisine is as much a table-top photo book as cookbook, and sized appropriately so at 9″x12″. One can see the artist’s eye in the exquisite photos of food, scenery, and people. The authors admitted to struggling over the photos until they got it right. It is a nice balance of interesting history, beautiful photos, family recipes, and stories. As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, I especially appreciated the insights to culture and history as it revolves around food. For example, there are three theories about the origins of Brik, a traditional dish of North Africa that looks a whole . . .

FROM KALAMAZOO TO TIMBUKTU by Paul Guenette (Senegal)

Jan 23 2022

A young boy waves at passing cars on a dusty rural road in Upper Michigan, and dreams of the wide world. Then step by step he follows his dream, becoming his family’s first college graduate, and studies in Europe help him realize the excitement and diversity of the wide world. Peace Corps service brings him to Senegal on the edge of Africa’s Sahara Desert where he experiences first-hand the hardships of the world’s poorest people – who teach him important lessons about generosity, sufficiency and luxury. In Africa, he finds love and discovers a career that opens the world to him, eventually visiting 90 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, working to make the world a better place. His adventures lead him to ride wild stallions, camels, and elephants. He gets into and barely out of trouble in the Grand Canyon. He climbs mountains and . . .

“Climate Change & Wildlife Crime” — Jessica Kahler (Vanuatu) on ZOOM 1/27

Jan 23 2022

Two of the greatest threats to biodiversity and sustainable development are climate change and wildlife crime. It has recently become apparent that these two threats are interrelated in complex ways with implications for human and wildlife security. However, the mechanisms driving these complex interactions are not well understood because the relevant bodies of literature are largely disparate. To address this gap, we propose a new conceptual framework for understanding complex interactions between climate change and wildlife crime that explicitly draws on climate change research in criminology, geography, sociology, and wildlife conservation. Jessica Kahler (Vanuatu 2004-07) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida, and affiliate faculty for the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research, Center for African Studies, and the Tropical Conservation and Development Program. Prior to joining the university Dr. Kahler consulted on the Wildlife Crime . . .

RPCV who served in Zaire joins U.S. Mission in Dutch Caribbean as Consul General

Jan 22 2022

Press release: WILLEMSTAD Jan 21, 2022 The United States Consulate General in Curacao is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Margy Horan Bond (Zaire 1988-90) as the U.S. Consul General to Curacao and Chief of Mission to Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten. Margy Bond is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with over 25 years of experience in the State Department, both at home and abroad. She assumed her duties as U.S. Chief of Mission to the Dutch Caribbean and Principal Officer of the U.S. Consulate General in Curaçao on January 21, 2022. Most recently, Margy served as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central African Affairs after having been Director of Central African Affairs since July 2020. She was the Director of the Office of Economic and Development Assistance in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs from 2018-2020 where she focused on advancing sustainable development, . . .

NH Vote Fraud Trial Postponed for RPCV/Country Director (Honduras)

Jan 21 2022

Tony Schinella, Patch, CONCORD, NH, 1/20/22 • — A former PCV and Country Director, accused of illegally registering to vote in New Hampshire and voting, has chosen to fight the charges in court. MaryKate Lowndes (Honduras 1989-91 & PC/W Staff of Hyannis, Massachusetts, faces four voter fraud charges in Rockingham County Superior Court — a single felony count of wrongful voting as well as two counts of misdemeanor wrongful voting and a single count of misusing an absentee ballot. She was indicted in September 2020, when she was living in Washington, D.C., and was a Peace Corps director. Originally, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office filed seven charges against Lowndes including a felony voter fraud charge as well as two misusing absentee ballots and four voter fraud misdemeanor counts. On Sept. 18, 2020, one absentee ballot and two voter fraud charges were nolle prossed. The charges stem from incidents . . .

Mother cut off from PCV daughter after Tonga volcanic eruption

Jan 20 2022

WAVERLY, Iowa (KWWL) – Eastern Iowa and the Island Kingdom of Tonga are 7,000 miles apart. This week, it feels even farther for one family. “It’s been kind of hard not having that connection right now,” Barb Corson of Waverly said. After graduating from Central College in 2016, Barb’s daughter Carolyn joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to Tonga. She began teaching at a Christian boy’s school. “She amazes me all the time,” Barb said. Carolyn stayed in Tonga until March 2020, when the Peace Corps brought all of its people back stateside because of the pandemic. However, in June 2021, she was allowed to return to Tonga because of her status as a teacher. She quarantined in New Zealand for three weeks and then rejoined her boyfriend Fine (pronounced “Fin-a”), who is from Tonga. The two got married soon after. “We were able to watch a livestream . . .

Review — HISTORY SHOCK: When History Collides with Foreign Relations by John Dickson (Gabon)

Jan 20 2022

History Shock: When History Collides with Foreign Relations by John Dickson (Gabon 1976-1979) University Press of Kansas 248 pages June 2021 $26.49 (Kindle); $34.95 (Hardcover) Review by Eric Madeen (Gabon 1981-83) • John Dickson’s recently released book History Shock: When History Collides with Foreign Relations is ambitious and makes good on its ambitions: to delineate where and when America’s foreign policy “spills across national boundaries.” Indeed: how this book spills across the world map! As he notes, recently no other country blundered as much and easily as the United States, resulting in countless faux pas, cross-cultural insensitivities, outright missteps and innumerable aggressions, all adding up to obstructions of cooperative efforts on mutual interests. There’s much ground covered with chapters on Mexico and Canada (both partly concern “Forgotten Wars” there and the shocking reminder that the United States seized half of Mexico’s territory as a result of wars instigated by . . .

RPCV Olivia Shaffer (Fiji) writes children’s book

Jan 20 2022

Olivia Shaffer (Fiji 2017-20) of Hamburg, Pennsylvania, wrote a children’s book inspired by a boy she met while a Peace Corps Volunteer in Fiji By Lisa Mitchell Berksmont News| January 19, 2022 • While living in a remote village, Shaffer became fast friends with her neighbors, a family with a 3-year-old boy nicknamed Ulu. “Ulu and I became inseparable since the day I moved in next door. We didn’t understand each other’s languages, but we still connected through music, dances and laughing,” said Shaffer. “No matter what language someone speaks, smiling and laughter is something that connects us.” After she returned home to Hamburg, she wrote a children’s book in dedication to Ulu. The book, “I am loved, I am worthy,” is written in “I am” statements meant to spark confidence and feelings of worthiness into the young reader’s mind, Shaffer said. During her time in the Peace Corps, . . .

Support RPCV Dave Harden (Botswana) with Your Vote and $$$

Jan 19 2022

Dave Harden (Botswana 1984-86) WE NEED RPCVs IN CONGRESS ! I grew up in Carroll County on a small farm in Westminster – we raised chickens, steers, and horses. I spent my summers shucking corn and listening to the Orioles play ball while I mowed more grass in a few years than most people do in a lifetime. I started first grade at Mechanicsville Elementary school in Gamber and graduated from Westminster High School many, many years ago. I’m a public school kid – and those schools did right by me. I learned to think critically, apply reason to problems, and envision a bigger world. In the 12th Grade, long-time English teacher Barry Gelsinger taught us how to write – to craft – A-level college term papers so we could compete with prep school kids from around the country. With Barry Gelsinger’s push, I did well in college and was . . .

A Photographic Celebration: 60 Years of Peace Corps Service (Madison, Wisconsin)

Jan 19 2022

Jan 18, 2022 to Jan 30, 2022 Capitol 2 E. Main St., Madison, Wisconsin 53703 This exhibit of photographs was coordinated by Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Wisconsin-Madison about life in the Peace Corps draws from some 60 years of photos from the yearly RPCV of Wisconsin International calendar. This weekend includes a half-day in-person question-fielding session at the Capitol, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Jan. 22, with current recruiters who can answer questions about volunteering. The Capitol is open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. For the last 34 years, the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Wisconsin – Madison have celebrated Peace Corps service every month of the year by producing the International Calendar. For this 60th Anniversary, they have prepared a traveling exhibit from their photo archives of photos that demonstrate the beauty and diversity of the countries and people. These will be on display at the Capitol Rotunda for . . .

‘They’ve covered it up’: Backlash swells over Peace Corps worker’s involvement in death in Africa

Jan 18 2022

by Tricia L. Nadolny, Donovan Slack and Nick Penzenstadler, USA TODAY; Kizito Makoye The mother of a man killed in a 2019 car crash involving an American woman who left the United Kingdom and avoided prosecution said she was stunned to learn a similar incident occurred just days before in Africa. In that case, U.S. officials whisked from Tanzania a Peace Corps employee who killed a mother of three in a car crash after drinking at a bar and bringing a sex worker back to his home. Charlotte Charles — whose 19-year-old son Harry Dunn died when the wife of a U.S. State Department employee driving on the wrong side of the road struck him with her car — called U.S. officials “barbaric” for helping Peace Corps employee John M. Peterson avoid prosecution in Tanzania after he fatally struck Rabia Issa. The U.S. Department of Justice has also declined to pursue charges against Peterson, citing . . .

The Volunteer Who Went on to Become the Solicitor General of the United States — Drew Day (Honduras)

Jan 18 2022

by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia, 1963-65) • After graduation from Hamilton College cum laude in 1963, with an A. B. in English literature, Drew S. Days III, inspired by the civil rights leaders of that time, then went on to earn a law degree from Yale in 1966. He briefly practiced law in Chicago before serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras from 1967 to 1969. Returning to the U. S. in 1969, Drew became the first assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City. He worked there for eight years, litigating a range of civil rights cases. He was admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court, and in the states of Illinois and New York. In 1977, then-President Jimmy Carter nominated Drew to serve as the Assistant General for Civil Rights in the Department of Justice. His tenure was . . .

Tamara Solum (Cameroon) looks back at 20 years of making a dramatic difference in the life of kids

Jan 18 2022

Drama Kids of Manasota celebrates 20 Arts and Entertainment Monday, Jan. 17, 2022 by: Marty Fugate Contributor • Some talented kids want to grow up to be actors when they grow up. Some adult actors are still kids at heart. Tamara Solum (Cameroon 1989–91) is one of them. Her inner child loves the magic of make-believe. She shares the secrets of that magic with area children at Drama Kids of Manasota, an after-school, dramatic arts program, serving children between the ages of 5 and 18. This local offshoot of Drama Kids International is nearing its 20th birthday. Solum’s has been its happy director and owner for 18 of those years. Drama Kids is a perfect fit for her passion and talents. Solum graduated with a theater degree from Occidental College in L.A. in 1988. You’d think her path to Drama Kids was a straight line. It was actually a winding road … “I did . . .

In Lockdown, a Long-Distance Romance Grew Stronger — Maheisha Adams (Kenya)

Jan 15 2022

Maheisha Adams and Meerim Ilyas met at a conference in Ukraine in 2019, and solidified their bond a year later while quarantining together in Washington. By Louise Rafkin for “VOWS,” New York Times Jan. 14, 2022 photos by Ed Pingol • Meerim Ilyas and Maheisha Adams (Kenya 2005-07) met in April of 2019 while attending the European Lesbian Conference in Kyiv, Ukraine. When the two decided to meet for dinner one night after the conference, both assumed it was a professional invitation. Yet by the end of the meal, the flowing conversation turned decidedly personal. Both left the dinner besotted. “Meerim is beautiful and intelligent, a fabulous conversationalist, and is always bubbling with ideas, Ms. Adams said. But romance presented challenges: they lived thousands of miles and an ocean apart and their backgrounds were wildly different. Ms. Adams, now 42, was raised on the plains of Guthrie, Okla., by her . . .