Ethiopia

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New books by Peace Corps writers | January — February 2024
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8 U.S. BIKE TOURS by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia)
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Carolyn Mulford (Ethiopia) sums up her long writing career
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Pocket Stories by Kathleen Coskran (Ethiopia)
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Review | FACE TO FACE WITH WAR by Leo Cecchini (Ethiopia)
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Conversations with Self by Racine Frank Poetry (Ethiopia)
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NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK by Benjamin Crabtree (Ethiopia, Korea)
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New books by Peace Corps writers | November — December 2023
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Review | William Hershey’s TAKING THE PLUNGE INTO ETHIOPIA
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Remembering Jane Campbell (PC Staff — DC and Ethiopia)
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William Hershey’s (Ethiopia) book on his Peace Corps experience
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For 20 plus years, Phil Lilienthal (Ethiopia) has been making a difference
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“The Day the President Died” by Nyle Kardatzke (Ethiopia)
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John Rex (Ethiopia) Remembers —
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New books by Peace Corps writers | September — October 2023

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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8 U.S. BIKE TOURS by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia)

  8 U.S. Bike Tours Historical Routes by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia 1965-66) Fohr + Son Publisher 12–18 years January 2024 233 pages $6.99 (Kindle); $12.00 (Paperback)   8 U.S. Bike Tours Historical Routes is a travel book, not a guide book.Routes are given historical context so you are knowledgeable about the place. Descriptions of the rides tells miles, altitude gains, revelations, and practical tips. The physical and emotional experiences on the ride is told from a first-hand account. Description of the rides tells miles, altitude gains, revelations, and practical tips.   Tours featured from Lizard Head Cycling Guides trips Colorado/Utah/Arizona Redrock Canyon and Monument Valley Mississippi Natchez Trace Northern New Mexico South Dakota Black Hills/Badlands Utah National Parks Arizona Trail of the Apaches Pennsylvania Bridges and Battlefields New York-Vermont-Montreal    

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Carolyn Mulford (Ethiopia) sums up her long writing career

  Fall, 1949, is scary, but exciting, for farm-girl Gail Albright. When she begins junior high at the nearby town of Craigsburg, she has no idea of the struggles and friendships she will find. She’s the butt of jokes made by class snob Veronica Holt, and Veronica’s stuck-up clique. And they especially make fun of Gail for wearing a feedsack dress her mother made for her. After Gail’s first taste of humiliation, she knows she must find a way to overcome her embarrassment and anger. The only thing harder than putting up with Veronica’s mean teasing is finding the strength to beat her at her own game. With a little help from her friends, Gail might just pull it off.   Why I Wrote THE FEEDSACK DRESS Posted on February 12, 2024 by Carolyn Mulford  . . .     Over more than 30 years, I wrote and rewrote The Feedsack Dress, . . .

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Pocket Stories by Kathleen Coskran (Ethiopia)

  Why write stories? A story is the most universal narrative, told by everybody around the world. We all lean forward when somebody says let me tell you about the time when, we wait for the and then, and we watch the story unfold in our mind’s eye. We see him crouched there, hear her voice, feel the stroke of the cat against our leg, hold our breath when the door creaks. Stories are words at their most powerful. Stories make us laugh, cry, sweat, hold our breath, fall in love, and remind us of the infinite ways we are human. Nobody is too young or too old for a story. My stories are short—pocket stories—a title inspired by the Beatrice Schenk de Regniers poem “Keep a Poem in Your Pocket.” I write more stories than poems, but some of them are as short as poems so I post them . . .

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Review | FACE TO FACE WITH WAR by Leo Cecchini (Ethiopia)

  Face to Face with War by Leo Cecchini (Ethiopia 1962–64) Independently published October 2022 254 pages $15.00 (paperback), $9.00 (Kindle) Reviewed by Mike Donovan   • • •  Leo Cecchini, the author of Face to Face With War, has lead the kind of life most of us can only imagine. His book takes us from his Peace Corps experience as a geography teacher and soccer coach in Asmara, Ethiopia at the beginning of the 30 year struggle for Eritrean independence to his many experiences in the U.S. foreign service. His first assignment in the foreign service was in Panama where he met some decidedly shady characters trying to run weapons to Biafra during the breakaway war with Nigeria. He outsmarted them! From Panama he was sent to Vietnam during the period of heaviest fighting. He was part of a joint military/civilian program designed to help stabilize the country. Each of his new . . .

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Conversations with Self by Racine Frank Poetry (Ethiopia)

  Conversations with Self by Racine Frank (Ethiopia 2019-20) Poetry Lulu Press October 2023 44 pages $10.00 (Paperback)   Racine Frank began to write poetry in December 2019 during her time as a PCV in Ethiopia. She started by writing haikus and then branched into free verse poetry incorporating rhyming schemes. From an early age, she traveled to and lived in multiple countries with Ethiopia being a time of tremendous growth and transformation. Her writing surrounds the power of love — not only for others, but for oneself. With love being the core of her creative writing, Racine explores other aspects of life that aid in the self-discovery and evolution of individuals. She recently shared with the world this, her first ever self-published poetry chapbook titled Conversations with Self. She is enthusiastic about creativity, whether that be in the form of dancing, singing, writing, or inspiring others to live life . . .

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NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK by Benjamin Crabtree (Ethiopia, Korea)

Needle in a Haystack:  Searching for the World’s Last Cases of Smallpox in Ethiopia by Benjamin F. Crabtree (Ethiopia 1974-75) & (Korea 19676-78) Peace Corps Writers 230 pages October 2023 $7.95 (Kindle); $13.95 (Paperback)   Needle in a Haystack: Searching for the World’s Last Cases of Smallpox in Ethiopia describes the high stakes adventure of bringing to fruition the greatest public health accomplishment of the 20th century — the global eradication of smallpox — as the political situation in Ethiopia deteriorated and the World Health Organization and the Peace Corps were at odds about the rising dangers this posed to workers in the field. The book is a first-person narrative non-fiction account of one Peace Corps Volunteer’s year-long encounters while searching for the final cases of smallpox in remote areas of Ethiopia in the mid-1970s as part of the World Health Organization’s Smallpox Eradication Program. Smallpox had raged across the . . .

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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 | William Hershey’s TAKING THE PLUNGE INTO ETHIOPIA

  Taking the Plunge into Ethiopia by William Hershey (Ethiopia 1968-70) The University of Akron Press 134 pages 2023 $24.95 (paperback); $18.99 (Kindle)   Reviewed by Cynthia Nelson Mosca (Ethiopia 1967-69) • For those of us who are old enough to have served in the Peace Corps in the ’60s and ’70s those years conjure up vivid images of the war in Vietnam, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy, the targeting of groups like the Black Panthers by the FBI, and of course the hippie movement, rock and roll, flower children and protest songs performed by Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and Buffy St. Marie. Taking the Plunge into Ethiopia is a sobering look at the second largest country in Africa as well as our own past and present turbulence. Bill was part of a team of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists at the Akron Beacon Journal. . . .

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Remembering Jane Campbell (PC Staff — DC and Ethiopia)

by Bill Josephson (HQ Staff 1961-68)   Jane Campbell who died on December 19, 2023 at the age of 89, was unusual among original Peace Corps staff people. We all were smart, dedicated, reliable, hardworking, insightful, and Jane had all of those virtues. Plus, she was exceedingly well bred and stylish, never a hair out of place. Always looked her absolute best. A stalwart in the Division of Volunteer Support, Jane had already had significant international experience. In fact, as events unfolded, I realized that under that Green Springs Valley Maryland veneer beat the heart of a genuine international adventurist. Jane was a staff person in Ethiopia after three years at Peace Corps Washington. She became somewhat famous there for nursing and nurturing three lion cubs. When the cubs began to be of a certain age and size, she arranged for them to be donated to an English wildlife farm. While . . .

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William Hershey’s (Ethiopia) book on his Peace Corps experience

  by Michael Douglas Beacon Journal editorial page editor (retired)   William Hershey admits to “a touch of idealism” in joining the Peace Corps nearly six decades ago. He also had in mind avoiding the draft. As a twentysomething completing graduate school, he easily could have found himself on a path to joining the massive American military deployment in Vietnam. Thus, a persistent tension informs his engaging and insightful new book, “Taking the Plunge into Ethiopia: Tales of a Peace Corps Volunteer.” American idealism contends with indelible realities. In telling his story, Hershey also helps us understand our own time and dilemmas, from the plight of refugees to the Russian aggression in Ukraine. The book is part of the indispensable (to followers of Ohio political life) Bliss Institute Series, published by the University of Akron Press. Hershey has made multiple contributions, including an entertaining biography of Ray C. Bliss, “Mr. Chairman,” written with . . .

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For 20 plus years, Phil Lilienthal (Ethiopia) has been making a difference

  Phil Lilienthal went to Ethiopia in the Peace Corps with his lovely wife Lynn after graduating from the University of Virginia law school in 1965. He worked as a PCV lawyer with a variety of Ethiopian government offices in Addis Ababa, and while there, also started Ethiopia’s first permanent summer camp program. For two years he had two-week summer camps for over 280 Ethiopian children. When his Peace Corps tour was over, he turned the summer camp over to the YMCA and they ran it for 7 more years until Emperor Haile Selassie was removed from power and a new dictatorship closed down the camp. Returning to the States and Washington, D.C. Phil continued for five years with the Peace Corps as the Attorney Regional Director Advisor, then was on the PCV staff of Mindanao Island for a year, and two years as the Deputy Director in Thailand. In . . .

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“The Day the President Died” by Nyle Kardatzke (Ethiopia)

  by Nyle Kardatzke (Ethiopia 1962-64) On Friday evening, I stayed in Adi Ugri for a quiet weekend rather than making the bus trip to Asmara. My housemate, John Rude, had gone to the city, so I had the house to myself. When I turned off my light it was 9:00 p.m. in Adi Ugri. It was 12:00 noon in Dallas, Texas. Saturday morning, November 23, 1963, was a typical Eritrean morning in the dry season. It was chilly at sunrise under a clear blue sky, and by late morning the air was warm and scented with flower blossoms and cooking fires. Our maid, Lete cooked scrambled eggs and coffee for my breakfast that morning and went to work on laundry. On Saturday, November 24, Khasai Ghebrehiwet, an Eritrean friend came to visit. Kasai glanced at my poster of John Kennedy that was just inside the front door. “There’s President . . .

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John Rex (Ethiopia) Remembers —

The Day Kennedy Died by John Rex (Ethiopia 1962-64)   The most difficult part of my service in Ethiopia was the two year separation from home. In the present Internet era, it is probably hard to believe the extent to which we volunteers were isolated, out of touch with anything outside of Ethiopia. Air Mail from Ethiopia to the USA took about two weeks each way, so it was at least a month before we received responses to our letters.   Ethiopia had no TV  or regular source of news, rather it was the radio, especially BBC and international editions of Time and Newsweek, printed on very thin paper that we received regularly and shared widely. Of course, the biggest change in two years was a change of presidents.  Though my parents were devout Republicans, my involvement in the Peace Corps led to a major shift in my thinking. Along with most . . .

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New books by Peace Corps writers | September — October 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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