Morocco – Page 2 – Peace Corps Worldwide

U of Illinois Graduate Ajai Rajeev begins life after college with Peace Corps service

Jan 26 2023

The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Aerospace Engineering 1/24/2023 by Debra Levey Larson Ajai Rajeev, BS ’22 Ajai Rajeev (Morocco 2022-24) received his B.S. in ’22 with a major in aerospace engineering and a minor in political science. After graduating, he decided to join the Peace Corps, and is currently serving in Morocco for two years. Learn more about his experiences in Morocco, what he enjoyed while at Illinois, and his plans for the future. • AE: What influenced your decision to join the Peace Corps? AR: When I first entered UIUC, I fully intended to work in the space sector, and I still do, but in a different capacity than what I originally intended after using my time in undergraduate studies to fully understand my best skills and my interests. I want to go into law for the space sector. I felt that going to the Peace . . .

Justin D. Bibee (Morocco) | Human rights advocate and refugee resettlement case manager

Nov 25 2022

North Providence so far only municipality to back Human Rights Day proclamation by Zack Deluca The Valley Breeze zack@valleybreeze.com Nov 22, 2022 • NORTH PROVIDENCE – A local human rights advocate is looking to make history by uniting every Rhode Island municipality with the signing of a Human Rights Day Proclamation by Dec. 10. Justin Bibee [Morocco 2014–16], a human rights advocate and a refugee resettlement case manager for Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, established the Rhode Island Human Rights Project with the goal of having every municipality in the state sign a Human Rights Day proclamation this year. North Providence is so far the only community to sign a Human Rights Day Proclamation, doing so in the spring. Gov. Dan McKee also signed a Human Rights Day proclamation. Bibbee said he is continuing to speak with other cities and towns to have them join the proclamation by next month. . . .

Craig Storti (Morocco) — THE HUNT FOR MT. EVEREST

Oct 16 2022

The height of Mt. Everest was first measured in 1850, but the closest any westerner got to Everest during the next 71 years — until 1921 — was 40 miles. The Hunt for Mt. Everest tells the story of the 71-year quest to find the world’s highest mountain. It’s a tale of high drama, of larger-than-life characters — George Everest, Francis Younghusband, George Mallory, Lord Curzon, Edward Whymper, and a few quiet heroes: Alexander Kellas, the 13th Dalai Lama, and Charles Bell. It is a story that traverses the Alps, the Himalayas, Nepal and Tibet, the British Empire (especially British India and the Raj), the Anglo-Russian rivalry known as The Great Game, the disastrous First Afghan War, and the phenomenal Survey of India — it is far bigger than simply the tallest mountain in the world. Encountering spies, war, political intrigues, and hundreds of mules, camels, bullocks, yaks, and two zebrules, . . .

RPCV Park Ranger Gregg Moydell (Morocco)

Aug 09 2022

Gregg Moydell doing a research study on brants geese in Fairbanks Alaska Photo By Tiffany Natividad | Story by Tiffany Natividad, Tulsa, OK August 8, 2022 Having grown up in Fort Gibson and enjoying many years of recreation on Fort Gibson Lake, park ranger Gregg Moydell (Morocco 1990-92) is happy to be able to spread his knowledge as a U.S Army Corps of Engineers employee and enjoys the family-type atmosphere of working with the Tulsa District. Gregg began his educational path receiving Wildlife Management and Wildlife Research Biology degrees from North Dakota State University and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks respectively. Upon completion of his degrees, Gregg performed and participated in research studies on Brant geese, moose, grizzly bear, and polar bear populations in Alaska. After that he joined the U.S. Peace Corps and traveled to Morocco where he authored a feasibility study for the creation of a nature preserve for . . .

19 New books by Peace Corps writers — March and April, 2022

May 01 2022

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 now include a brief description for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers 1) to order a book and 2) 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 copy along with a few instructions. 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 Goal . . .

Review: NUNS, NAM & HENNA by Larry Berube (Morocco)

Mar 20 2017

Nuns, Nam & Henna: A Memoir in Poetry and Prose Larry Berube (Morocco 1977-79) Peace Corps Writers Imprint January 2017 59 pages $5.99 (paperback), $1.99 (Kindle) Review by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993-96) • In Nuns, Nam & Henna: A Memoir in Poetry and Prose, the two-page prologue is one of the most powerful openings I’ve ever read. The author is six years old. His three sisters and mother are at the kitchen table when the father comes in and starts striking the mother in the face with a hammer! Shock and bedlam ensue, his mother screams to her son to get help, but he is paralyzed, and his sister instead runs for help. This moment haunts him, perhaps for his whole life. His mother could not forget it, as she brought it up whenever they got drunk together. “Why didn’t you go get help?” “The unanswerable question finally stopped . . .

Talking with Larry Berube (Morocco)

Mar 15 2017

Last month Larry Berube (Morocco 1977–79) published with Peace Corps Writers his memoir Nuns, Nam & Henna: A Memoir in Poetry and Prose. The poems and prose are recollections from his boyhood experiences at St. Peter’s Orphanage in Manchester, New Hampshire, from the age six to twelve; his time as a young soldier in the U.S. Army with the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam; and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco where he worked in small villages of the Middle Atlas Mountain region of Morocco on various water projects. We talked to Larry recently about his life and his new book. • Larry, you were a PCV from ’77 to ’79. Where were you and what was your job? I was in Beni Mellal, Morocco, which was a provincial capital. But my work took me to small villages in the Middle Atlas mountain region. My job was leading a local government surveying team, which . . .

Julie R. Dargis (Morocco 1984-87) Asks: What MORE Can You Do For Your Country?

Jan 06 2016

Wake Up, Peace Corps! Lest you think me crazy, or worse, an irritant, let me assure you that I am not tying to shame. I am advocating for civilized debate. Yet, as Americans we are more interested in one man’s scripted quest for love then we are about our own welfare and that of our neighbors. On Monday, 7.5 million Americans in the 18-49 age group tuned into Season 20 of the Bachelor. Many were disappointed that there was only one brown-eyed crazy, although their interest was piqued with the inclusion of a set of blonde twins. How do I know this? I also tuned in, spiking the documented viewers with the addition of the 50-78 demographic. Meanwhile, across the pond, the petition to ban Donald Trump from entering the UK was put on the docket in Parliament. The debate is scheduled to appear on www.parliamentlive.tv on January 18, 2016. . . .

RPCVs from Morocco in Opposition to Islamophobia

Dec 29 2015

I received this Petition from Sharon Keld (Morocco 2006-08) and Ann Eisenberg (Morocco 2006-08) who wrote me “Many of my RPCV colleagues were individually speaking out against Islamophobia and in support of Syrian refugees on social media, drawing from their Peace Corps service in Morocco. A few of us agreed that the RPCV perspective could have a more powerful impact if we spoke out together, so we drafted the open letter and are circulating it in petition form. We felt we had an important point of view and a unique duty to speak out as members of a very small group of Americans who have lived and engaged in public service in majority-Muslim countries for non-military reasons. Here is the link to the petition that I have copied below:https://www.change.org/p/the-american-public-statement-in-support-of-syrian-refugees-and-in-opposition-to-islamophobia?recruiter=452278202&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink Petitioning The American Public Statement in Support of Syrian Refugees and in Opposition to Islamophobia Concerned Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Secretary . . .

27-MONTHS on NPR Northern Community Radio

Feb 24 2015

Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65) who blogs on this site, as you know, at Peace Corps: Public Records and does a wonderful job of keeping tabs on the agency sent me this link on an RPCV in Grand Rapid, Mn. who has on a local NPR station done a whole series about the Peace Corps entitled, 27-MONTHS. The newly returned RPCV David McDonald (Morocco 2012-14) during his tour interviewed over 40 fellow Peace Corps Volunteers as well as recorded the ‘sounds” of Morocco for his ten-part audio documentary.. The series looks back at being a PCV from his first day in Philadelphia for orientation to the close of service in Morocco two years later. The NPR station says in its promotion of the program. “With a mixture of David’s narration, wide-ranging interviews with his colleagues, every day sounds from Morocco, and loads of different music, 27 MONTHS explores whether the Peace . . .

Maid in Morocco

Oct 14 2013

by Orin Hargraves (Morocco 1980–83) First published at PeaceCorpsWriters.org in March of 2006, this essay was the winner of the 2007 Moritz Thomsen Experience Award • I LEARNED A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO of the death Fatima Meskina, on January 9, 2006. I’m sure that no obituary appeared in any newspaper, and that her death and burial were modest and attended only by a few. But for me — and I expect for a handful of others — her death marked the passing of a legend: in the three years I spent in Morocco she was the most helpful, sometimes the most difficult, the most vivid, and for me personally the most influential person I met. Fatima worked as a maid for a succession of Volunteers in various programs in the middle Atlas town of Azrou. She signed on with Volunteer Jeanne Spoeri in 1977 and got passed down, like . . .

Marilyn L. Charles (Morocco 1962–64)

Feb 13 2010

Monday, November 21 7:27 pm This summer I had a unique opportunity to become acquainted with Moroccans in a “big family-like” situation where I was accepted as the sister of all in the community. I spent 6 weeks at a camp on the Mediterranean, near the Algerian border, just outside the resort village of Saidia. Another PCV, Dave, and I were members of the general staff, which overlooked the activities of the 400 campers, mostly little boys ages 7-14. Actually, our position was rather honorary. Our time was occupied with assisting informally in the art workshop, with sports, in the health dispensary (I was the camp nurse for 8 days when the regular nurse was absent by virtue of the fact that I was the only female in the camp), and learning Arabic. The latter activity was a necessity since Arabic was the major means of communication in that particular . . .