Chile

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2024 Peace Corps Writers’ Marian Haley Beil Award for Best Book Review to Ben East (Malawi) for IF YOU TURN TO LOOK BACK by Tom Hazuka (Chile)
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BLUE MAGIC ON MUSHROOM ISLAND by David C. Edmonds (Chile)
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New books by Peace Corps writers | January — February 2024
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DYLAN by David J. Mather (Chile) — A story of relationships
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New books by Peace Corps writers | November — December 2023
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Review | IF YOU TURN TO LOOK BACK by Tom Hazuka (Chile)
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ENERGETIC HERBALISM by Kat Maier (Chile)
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 Father Ted Hesburgh and the Peace Corps: A Story Not Often Told 
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Review | THROUGH GRATEFUL EYES: The Peace Corps Experiences of Dartmouth’s Class of 1967
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Review | LOUIE by David Mather (Chile)
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EarthCorps in Seattle founded by Dwight Wilson (Chile & Honduras)
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The Peace Corps, RPCV Tom Scanlon, and the President of Notre Dame
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Review: ¿ERES TU? by Frank Tainter (Chile)
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Novelist David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963-65) Wins Two Book Awards
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Myrna J. Aavedal (Chile 1967–68)

2024 Peace Corps Writers’ Marian Haley Beil Award for Best Book Review to Ben East (Malawi) for IF YOU TURN TO LOOK BACK by Tom Hazuka (Chile)

  2024 Peace Corps Writers’ Best Book Review Award is named in honor of Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962-64), co-founder and publisher since 1989 of the Peace Corps Writers newsletter, website, and book imprint. Following her tour of service, Marian worked for 4 years in the Office of Reports and Special Studies at Peace Corps Headquarters. She founded the Ethiopia & Eritrea RPCV group in 1991, and later co-founded Rochester RPCVs.   If You Turn to Look Back: A Memoir and Meditation by Tom Hazuka (Chile 1978-80) Woodhall Press 388 pages September 2023 $19.95 (Paperback); $9.99 (Kindle) If You Turn to Look Back combines memoir with political, social, and economic investiif gations of what it means to be an American and a citizen of the world. American influence is ubiquitous in South America, and If You Turn to Look Back explores these relationships in a personal context. For Tom Hazuka was once part . . .

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BLUE MAGIC ON MUSHROOM ISLAND by David C. Edmonds (Chile)

  by David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963-65) Add Blue Magic on Mushroom Island to the growing list of magical/realism/romance/ action-adventure thrillers in exotic places by David C. Edmonds! The story Adriana Alvarado, an American TV journalist in Nicaragua, is contemplating another romantic evening with the man she met at an US Embassy soiree when her rendezvous is ruined by a close encounter with gunfire and death. Blood is on her hands — literally — and she’s been in Nicaragua long enough to know that witnesses to assassination do not always live to tell their story. The US Embassy is no help. Neither is the embassy man who stole her heart. They want Adriana to cooperate with the dreaded Directorate of State Security. But if she cooperates, they’ll learn about her past and she’ll be in even greater danger. Her only hope for escape is to pretend to chase a story . . .

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New books by Peace Corps writers | January — February 2024

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 Third . . .

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DYLAN by David J. Mather (Chile) — A story of relationships

      Dylan David J Mather (Chile 1968 – 70) Peace Corps Writers, 2024 306 pages $14.95 (paperback), $7.99 (Kindle)   • • •  Donald MacGregor is a writer who values his freedom above all else. He wants no responsibilities.  He travels to the quiet Honduran Bay Islands to finish writing a blockbuster novel.  On New Year’s Eve, however, he makes a big mistake with his beautiful neighbor and a year later a black baby boy is delivered to his doorstep.  The baby’s eyes are as blue as Donald’s.  Both commercial fiction and family saga as well as multicultural, Dylan will appeal to anyone who has raised or tried to raise a child. It is a novel of 91,000 words about a white man raising his black son alone on an island off Honduras. Several islanders become surrogate family and rally around Donald and his son Dylan.  However, Donald’s father, James . . .

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New books by Peace Corps writers | November — December 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 Third . . .

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Review | IF YOU TURN TO LOOK BACK by Tom Hazuka (Chile)

  If You Turn to Look Back: A Memoir and Meditation by Tom Hazuka (Chile 1978-80) Woodhall Press 388 pages September 2023 $19.95 Paperback; $9.99 (Kindle) If You Turn to Look Back combines memoir with political, social, and economic investigations of what it means to be an American and a citizen of the world. American influence is ubiquitous in South America, and If You Turn to Look Back explores these relationships in a personal context. For Tom Hazuka was once part of that influence, from 1978-1980 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chile, first in the capital of Santiago, then in the far northern city of Arica, near the Peruvian border. In a chain of events springing from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in 2003 Hazuka returned to Chile to examine changes in the country, the people and himself. He left Chile at twenty-four and returned at forty-seven. Every human knows what it’s . . .

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ENERGETIC HERBALISM by Kat Maier (Chile)

  Energetic Herbalism by Kat Maier (Chile 1978-79) Chelsea Green Publishing November 2021 392 pages $18.99 (Kindle); $22.49 (Paperback) In this indispensable new resource both for the home apothecary and clinical practitioners, a celebrated herbalist brings alive the elemental relationships among traditional healing practices, ecological stewardship, and essential plant medicines. By honoring ancient wisdom and presenting it in an innovative way, Energetic Herbalism is a profound and practical guide to family and community care for those seeking to move beyond symptom relief and into a truly holistic framework of health. Throughout, author Kat Maier  invites readers to explore their personal relationships with plants and their environs as they discover diverse models of healing. Inside Energetic Herbalism The elements and patterns of Ayurvedic doshas for greater self-awareness as well as positive lifestyle choices. A deep appreciation of the wisdom of indigenous peoples, which is the foundation of sacred plant traditions. The relationship of well-being . . .

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 Father Ted Hesburgh and the Peace Corps: A Story Not Often Told 

by Tom Scanlon (Chile 1961-63)   Father Hesburgh was leaving his office at the Civil Rights Commission on March 1, 1961, walking through Lafayette Square across the street from the White House, when he encountered two friends – Harris Wofford, a former legislative assistant on the Commission, and Sargent Shriver, with whom he had a long-time friendship, and who was the brother-in-law of President Kennedy. Wofford and Shriver were ebullient. They held in their hand the text of a Presidential Executive Order that President Kennedy would sign that day, creating the United States Peace Corps.  Returning to South Bend and the Notre Dame campus, Father Ted was working late in his office that same evening and received a call from Wofford and Shriver, still together and still “celebrating.” In the call they challenged him to “bring us a Peace Corps project.”  Father assembled the Notre Dame Latin American faculty and . . .

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Review | THROUGH GRATEFUL EYES: The Peace Corps Experiences of Dartmouth’s Class of 1967

  Through Grateful Eyes: The Peace Corps Experiences of Dartmouth’s Class of 1967 by Charles A. (Chuck) Hobbie (Korea 1968-71) — Compiler/Editor iUniverse Publisher 273 pages July 2022 $2.99 (Kindle); $39.99 (Paperback); $31.95 (Hardback) Reviewed by Evelyn Kohl LaTorre (Peru 1964-1966) • “Talk less and listen more.” “Accept the values of the population you’re working with.” “Adapt to being comfortable being uncomfortable.” These are a few of the sage learnings found in this 2 ½ pound, 8 1/2” x 11” tome that relates the Peace Corps experiences of 19 members of the Dartmouth class of 1967 and several of their spouses. All served in the Peace Corps in the late sixties and early seventies, and their exploits are a sampling of the 30 Dartmouth ’67 graduates who went on to join the Peace Corps. Their fascinating, and often humorous, stories are punctuated with 146 photos that show the youthful volunteers . . .

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Review | LOUIE by David Mather (Chile)

    Louie — 5th in the Crescent Beach Series by David J Mather (Chile 1968– 70) Peace Corps Writers August 2022 323 pages $14.95 (paperback), $7.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Dean Jefferson (El Salvador 1974-76 and Costa Rica 1976-77) • 330 pages, 37 short chapters, Louie is another opportunity to enjoy David Mather’s unforgettable characters from Florida’s rural Big Bend region on the gulf coast, also known as the Redneck Riviera. This is another page-turner, leaving you wondering where the time went after spending a couple hours immersed in the story. And the chapters are short enough that you feel like you could read just one more! I strongly recommend that you read the whole five book series starting with Crescent Beach, followed by Raw Dawgin’, then The Biloxi Connection and Gator Bait, then finally this volume. However, this well-written novel also stands on its own very well. Most of the . . .

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EarthCorps in Seattle founded by Dwight Wilson (Chile & Honduras)

EarthCorps family kids volunteers Join EarthCorps on MLK, Jr. Day to plant trees and restore park space. naturalnewd.com By Cheryl Murfin Young adults and those who mentor them at the Seattle-based nonprofit EarthCorps have a big vision: an equitable world where all people and nature thrive together. The EarthCorps mission sets out the organization’s role in bringing about this world. How EarthCorps fulfills its mission The organization brings young adults from around the country and around the world who are passionate about preserving the environment to participate in a year-long leadership training program in Seattle. Their class? The diverse ecosystem of Puget Sound. Each year, 40 new program participants between the ages of 18 and 25 join EarthCorps as crew members. Thirty crew members come from across the United States and their positions are funded by the national Americorps, while 10 crew positions are filled by young people from around . . .

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The Peace Corps, RPCV Tom Scanlon, and the President of Notre Dame

  © 2022 University of Notre Dame June 15, 2022   In a speech to college summer interns in 1962, President John F. Kennedy stumped for the Peace Corps international volunteer organization he created by telling a motivational story about Tom Scanlon (Chile 1961-63), a graduate of Notre Dame University. The president didn’t mention that Scanlon was a 1960 Notre Dame graduate or that the “friend” who told him the tale was Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C.  President of Notre Dame. Nor does the history timeline on the Peace Corps website mention the 45 young people who trained at Notre Dame and landed in Chile about a month after another cohort (Ghana) is celebrated as the first group to serve. Ditto for a recent documentary celebrating the Peace Corps’ history, which didn’t mention the role Father Hesburgh played in helping Sargent Shriver make Kennedy’s vision possible. Even Father Hesburgh hints at some secrecy in his 1999 memoir. “Everybody . . .

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Review: ¿ERES TU? by Frank Tainter (Chile)

    ¿Eres tú?: A History of Lonquimay Frank Tainter (Chile 1964–66) Go to Publish December 2019 328 pages $17.80 (paperback), $2.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by David Mather (Chile 1968-70)   There are several reasons why I was eager to read “?Eres Tu?.”  The author and I were both forestry volunteers (different groups) in the mid to late ’60s in Chile. According to the jacket of the book, his time there, like mine, was “the most significant experience of his life.” We both ended up writing “novels” about ‘our’ Chile and both books have a young American fall in love with a campesina who was taller than most, had long black hair, and, of course, beautiful eyes. Even the consummations of the two love affairs are similar in that his takes place in a canelo(tree) grove whereas mine was in an alerce grove.  Finally, both of us used the love stories as the vehicle to demonstrate our . . .

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Novelist David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963-65) Wins Two Book Awards

Lily of Peru published by Peace Corps Writers books and written by David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963-65) recently won two awards. It was selected in second place in the category of Latino Theme Movie by Non-Latino Author. These awards are sponsored by Latino Literacy Now and were presented in 16 key categories during the 2015 Los Angeles Latino Book & Family Festival. Copies of all winning books will be presented to key television networks and movie studios. The novel also won the silver in the Readers’ Favorite International Book Award-Silver in the category of Thriller/Terrorist. Readers’ Favorite has become the fastest growing book review and award contest site on the Internet. More than 300 authors and guests attended the awards ceremony in Miami this year.

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Myrna J. Aavedal (Chile 1967–68)

Monday, November 21 6:54 pm MR. PRESIDENT, I want to tell you about my experience in the Peace Corps. I was 24 when I went off to training at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque – still a bit unworldly as I left my home in Montana. At the time I, of course, wasn’t sure what was in store for me, but I wanted adventure, travel, and an opportunity to use my nursing skills to help people in need. I was very proud that I had been selected to serve. Yes, I did get the adventure and travel, and I did use my nursing skills among needy people. I also got a lot more. The first surprise came when some of the Trainees who looked so good and talked so wise washed out of training or gave up and went home early. For me the Peace Corps was a . . .

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