Guatamela – Peace Corps Worldwide

“Traveling Through Guatemala with Granddaughters,” by Mark D. Walker

Dec 09 2024

“Traveling Through Guatemala with Granddaughters,” by Mark D. Walker (Guatemala 1971-1973) is part of The Yin & Yang of Travel Series and was published by The Wanderlust Journal. Although Walker took his granddaughters to the Peace Corps site where he met his wife, this story is about more than what happened over fifty years before. According to Walker, “Over the last fifty years, the why and where I travel have changed radically. In 2013, my wife Ligia and I took two of our three children, along with their significant others, to Guatemala to reintroduce them to the country they were born in and to their extended family. We covered a lot of ground, as my children spoke fluent Spanish and were already global trekkers. But ten years later we had eight grandkids, some of whom only spoke English and had never traveled outside the continental U.S., so Ligia and I . . .

Review — WALKING WITH EVARISTO by Christian Nill (Guatemala)

Jul 14 2024

Walking with Evaristo: A Memoir of Celebration and Tragedy in the Land of the AchÍ Maya Christian Nill (Guatemala 1978–82) Peace Corps Writers May 2024 383 pages $17.99 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Mark Walker (Guatemala) • • • Fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Christian Nill has written an engaging story about the impact and consequences of his experience as a volunteer in the highlands of Guatemala. He’s also made a timely contribution to our understanding of the devastating ten-year period of violence there. Although I was a volunteer five years before Nill, the similarities were amazing. I worked on a study for CARE identifying some of the management and conservation practices used for the Food-for-Work program implemented in conjunction with the group Nill worked with, INAFOR (National Forestry Institute). My second site was also in Baja Verapaz, where I found my bride. I raised money for the program in the . . .

“Writers from the Peace Corps” by John Coyne (Ethiopia)

May 09 2024

John writes — Since 1961, Peace Corps writers have used their volunteer service as source material for their fiction and nonfiction. Approximately 250,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps. Of these volunteers and staff, more than 1,500 have published memoirs, novels, and poetry inspired by their experience. Many former volunteers have gone on to careers as creative writing teachers, journalists, and editors, while others have discovered a variety of jobs outside of publishing where their Peace Corps years have contributed to successful employment. A Peace Corps tour has proven to be a valuable experience — in terms of one’s craft and one’s professional career—for more than one college graduate. The first to write The first book to draw on the Peace Corps experience was written by Arnold Zeitlin (Ghana 1961–63), who had volunteered for the Peace Corps in 1961 after having been an Associated Press reporter. That book, . . .