Morocco – Page 2 – Peace Corps Worldwide

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 . . .