Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) – Peace Corps Worldwide

Playwright Tom David Barna (Burkina Faso)

Oct 18 2023

The Minnesota Playwright Born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania-USA, Tom David Barna is a graduate of Kaiserslautern American High School in Germany and New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico-USA. A a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Burkina Faso (1979-80) and a retired Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel. His paternal grandparents immigrated from Russia. Tom’s father, Thomas Barna was the first family member born in the United States and buried at Arlington National Cemetery having served in the Korean Conflict and the Viet Nam War. Tom David Barna, playwright, has penned more than forty-two full length plays, forty-nine short plays, co-author for a 13-part radio series and author of four children’s books (Cantata Publishing) and several eBooks (Rakuten Kobo Publishing). He has been commissioned for projects as varied as episodic radio and children’s musicals and recently collaborated on a new full-length musical with Melody Bay Productions/Publisher, a . . .

Joseph Monninger (Burkina Faso) — GOODBYE TO CLOCKS TICKING

Jun 22 2023

Goodbye to Clocks Ticking By Joseph Monninger (Burkina Faso 1975–77) Steerforth Publishing March. 2023 208 pages $9.99 (Kindle); $16.99 (Hardcover), (Audiobook) An uplifting journey of truly seeing and appreciating what makes life worth living in the year following a terminal diagnosis • Goodbye to Clocks Ticking is an unforgettable book that tells the story of a singular year of challenges, insights, and peculiar gifts. It is also a sort of postcard from a place many of us will one day visit. After thirty-two years of teaching, Joe Monninger, an avid outdoorsman in robust health, was looking forward to a long retirement with the love of his life in a cabin beside a New England estuary. Three days after his last class, however, he’s diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, even though he has not smoked for more than 30 years. It was May, and he might be dead by early fall. Soon . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers | May — June 2023

Jun 05 2023

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers to order a book and/or to VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions. P.S. In addition to the books listed below, I have on my shelf a number of other books whose authors would love for you to review. Go to Books Available for Review to see what is on that shelf. Please, please join in our . . .

Peace Corps Burkina Faso Volunteers evacuated safely

Sep 03 2017

https://www.peacecorps.gov/news/library/peace-corps-burkina-faso-volunteers-evacuated-safely/?utm_campaign=&utm_medium=email&utm_source= WASHINGTON, D.C., September 03, 2017 – The Peace Corps today announced that, acting with an abundance of caution and considering the unique circumstances of their service, all Peace Corps Burkina Faso volunteers have been successfully evacuated out of the country due to security concerns. The Peace Corps has been closely monitoring the safety and security environment in Burkina Faso and will continue to assess the situation. The Peace Corps looks forward to a time when volunteers can return while underscoring that the safety and security of its volunteers are the agency’s top priority. There were 124 volunteers working in Burkina Faso on projects in community economic development, education and health. The Peace Corps has enjoyed a long partnership with the government and people of Burkina Faso and hopes to be able to continue volunteers’ work there. More than 2,075 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Burkina Faso since the program . . .

Review — IN THE BELLY OF THE ELEPHANT by Susan Corbett (Liberia)

Aug 24 2017

In the Belly of the Elephant: A Memoir of Africa Susan Corbett (Liberia 1976–79) CreateSpace March 2016 396 pages $14.99 (paperback), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Brooks Marmon (Niger 2008–10) • IN THE BELLY OF THE ELEPHANT is Susan Corbett’s memoir of her life as an aid worker with Save the Children in Burkina Faso (then called Upper Volta) in the early 1980s, following her Peace Corps service in Liberia. Amidst descriptions of a hard scrabble life in Dori, a small town near the border with Niger, Corbett weaves in occasional reminiscences of her service in Liberia and the harsh attitudes of many of her family members in the US to her decision to work in west Africa. Much of the work can be quite jarring — a reflection of both Corbett’s experiences in the harsh climate of the Sahel as well as an extremely candid writing style. While the book . . .

I Was Raped in Burkina Faso

Jan 18 2016

Jezebel is a feminist blog. This piece by RPCV Yaara Zaslow was published on the site a few days ago. It is a profound and powerful account of what happened to her in Burkina Faso. It is also a sad story of what can happen to women in the Peace Corps. I’d served in Burkina Faso in West Africa with the United States Peace Corps. I was raped, and because I did everything “right” afterwards-I talked to the Peace Corps, talked to the Embassy, completed a rape kit-I didn’t understand the nausea that came over me whenever I did anything aside from hide in my bed. Soon after, I was evacuated from the country with a canvas backpack and a change of clothes. I stayed home, in Seattle, for three months, while the Peace Corps did a full investigation. In this investigation, the Peace Corps noted the three broken locks . . .