Nepal – Peace Corps Worldwide

FEUD’s Truman Capote by Larry Grobel (Ghana)

Mar 16 2024

In the news — Feud’s Truman Capote Doesn’t Shine Like the Man I Knew Yes, he was a lonely, tormented alcoholic at the end, but he was also a riveting dinner companion and a transcendent writer. by Lawrence Grobel (Ghana 1968-71) Vanity Fair March 13, 2024 Capote does his version of a fan dance to the disco beat at Studio A minute before the Today show’s cameras rolled in February 1985, Jane Pauley smiled and said, “I’ll begin by asking you about Truman’s hate list.” My own smile disappeared, and my eyes widened in fright. I was about to go on national television to promote my first book, Conversations with Capote, and she wanted me to talk about some of the two thousand people Truman Capote claimed to have on his “hate list.” In the seconds before the camera’s red light turned green, my mind whirred through some of those people, and I didn’t feel . . .

A Journey of Resilience: Bishnu Maya Pariyar (Nepal)

Mar 09 2024

After overcoming caste-based discrimination in her early years, Bishnu Maya Pariyar is now known for tireless efforts in uplifting marginalized communities. by Jagdishor Panday Katmandu Post 3/8/2024 Bishnu Maya Pariyar was born and raised in a supportive home in Shahid Lakhan Municipality Ward 4 in Gorkha District. She calls herself fortunate not to have experienced gender violence in her younger years. However, being born into a Dalit family, she faced caste-based discrimination. Her parents, farmers by profession, were also not financially well off. She remembers that her mother, like many Nepali women of her time, never learned to read. “Growing up, girls—especially ones from the so-called ‘lower castes’—weren’t sent to school. Even when we did go, we were teased and bullied by other kids,” she recalls. Despite these challenges, she remained resilient and continued her education. Pariyar considers herself fortunate to have a father who recognised that education was . . .

Jonathan Zimmerman (Nepal) | WHOSE AMERICA?

Oct 07 2023

Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools by Jonathan Zimmerman (Nepal 1983-85) University of Chicgo Press August 2022 $22.94 (Paperback), In this expanded edition of his 2002 book, Zimmerman surveys how battles over public education have become conflicts at the heart of American national identity. As the headlines remind us, American public education is still wracked by culture wars. But these conflicts have shifted sharply over the past two decades, marking larger changes in the ways that Americans imagine themselves. In his 2002 book, Whose America?, Zimmerman predicted that religious differences would continue to dominate the culture wars. Twenty years after that seminal work, Zimmerman has reconsidered: arguments over what American history is, what it means, and how it is taught have exploded with special force in recent years. In this substantially expanded new edition, Zimmerman meditates on the history of the culture wars in the classroom—and . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers | July–August 2023

Sep 04 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 . . .

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

Jun 23 2023

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 . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers | March–April 2023

May 01 2023

The Volunteer Who Published Nationally on Wealth Inequality in the U. S. | Robert H. Frank (Nepal)

Apr 11 2023

by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1966-68) Robert H. Frank served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, 1966-68. Afterwards, he received a B. S. in Mathematics from Georgia Tech University in 1966, then an M. A. in statistics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1971, followed by a Ph. D. in Economics from UC Berkeley in 1972. Until 2001, Robert was the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy in Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences. For the 2008-09 academic year, he was a Visiting Professor at the New York University Stern School of Business. He contributes to the “Economic View,” a column that appears every fifth week in The New York Times. Alongside these academic achievements, Robert was the chief economist for the Civil Aeronautics Board, a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences from 1992 – 1993, and a Professor . . .

Award goes to Jonathan Deenik (Cameroon, Nepal)

Mar 18 2023

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research goes to RPCV Jonathan Deenik College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources University of Hawai’i at Manoa 17 March 2023 Jonathan Deenik received his BA in History and Art History (College of Wooster), and then joined the Peace Corps, where he served as a teacher and teacher trainer in a rural community in southern Cameroon (1985-87) and remote central Nepal (1987-91). He came to Hawaiʻi in 1992 and completed his MS and PhD degrees at UHM in Soil Science. Jonathan joined the Dept. of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences in 2003 with a three-way split (Extension, research and instruction). His work focuses on soil nutrient management and soil health across the spectrum of tropical agroecosystems. He works with farmers throughout the Hawaiian Islands and Micronesia. He enjoys collaborating with faculty from a range of disciplines with a history of large projects covering soils . . .

“Memoirs of a White Savior” by Jonathan Zimmerman (Nepal)

Dec 10 2022

Thanks for the ‘head’s up’ from Alana DeJoseph’s (Mali 1992–94) by Jonathan Zimmerman (Nepal 1983-85) Published in Liberties Fall 2022 • Last year, a student came to my office hours to discuss her post-graduation plans. She said she wanted to travel, teach, and write. “How about joining the Peace Corps?” I suggested. She grimaced. “The Peace Corps is problematic,” she said. I replied the way I always do when a student uses that all-purpose put-down. “What’s the problem?” I asked. “I don’t want to be a white savior,” she explained. “That’s pretty much the worst thing you can be.” Indeed it is. The term “white savior” became commonplace in 2012, when the Nigerian-American writer and photographer Teju Cole issued a series of tweets — later expanded into an article in The Atlantic — denouncing American do-gooder campaigns overseas, especially in Africa. His immediate target was the “KONY 2012” video . . .

Richard Adkins, Tempe Urban Forester (Nepal)

Oct 27 2022

Richard Adkins, Tempe’s urban forester, is covering Tempe in shade as part of the city’s Urban Forestry Master Plan By Tyson Wildman, StatePress.com October 26, 2022 • As a teenager, Richard Adkins went into the Virginia forest alone one day and decided to sit under a Pin Oak tree. He stayed there awhile, observing his surroundings. By the time he got up, he knew that trees were going to be his future, so that was the path he pursued. Adkins is the urban forester for the city of Tempe and has been for the past three years. He has traveled the world doing what he loves, taking care of and sharing his knowledge of trees. “Trees are where it’s at,” he said. “Trees are good for humankind, good for animals, good for the environment.” Adkins grew up in Virginia and has done tree forestry, the science of developing, caring for . . .

Talking With Danusha Goska (CAR & Nepal)

Oct 18 2022

An interview by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962–64) Danusha Goska (CAR 1980-81) and (Nepal 1982-84) was born in New Jersey to peasant immigrants from Poland and Slovakia. She has lived and worked in Africa, Asia, Europe, on both coasts, and in the heartland of the US. She holds an MA from the University at California, Berkeley, and a PhD from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her writing has been awarded a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grant, the PAHA Halecki Award, and others. Her book Save Send Delete was inspired by her relationship with a prominent atheist. In 2018 she published God Through Binoculars: A Hitchhiker at a Monastery. Danusha, you did two tours as a PCV. What were your assignments? I was assigned to teach TEFL, English as a foreign language in the CAR and Nepal. What did you bring away from those tours? Were they alike? The most . . .

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 . . .

RPCV Photographer Kevin Bubriski’s NEPAL 1975-2011

Jan 14 2022

Nepal: 1975-2011 by Photographer Kevin Bubriski (Nepal 1975-1978) Preface by Robert Gardner, Essay by Charles Ramble Radius Books/Peabody Museum Press 304 pages September 2014 $108.10 (hardcover) In 1975, as a young Peace Corps volunteer, Kevin Bubriski (Nepal 1975-78) was sent to Nepal’s northwest Karnali Zone, the country’s remotest and most economically depressed region. He walked the length and breadth of the Karnali, conducting feasibility studies for gravity-flow drinking water systems and overseeing their construction. He also photographed the villagers he lived among, producing an extraordinary series of 35mm and large-format black-and-white images. Over more than three decades, Bubriski has returned many times to Nepal, maintaining his close association with the country and its people. Nepal 1975-2011 presents this remarkable body of work — photographs that document Nepal’s evolution over a 36-year period from a traditional Himalayan culture to the globalized society of today. Both visual anthropology and cultural history, it . . .

Growing Dreams: A Peace Corps Volunteer reflects on his service in Nepal

Feb 05 2021

by Teagen Barresi (Nepal 2016-18) I joined the Peace Corps because I was looking for a way to serve. Simultaneously, I wanted to give myself an opportunity to grow and learn more skills. I had previously learned about food systems in the U.S., and I wanted to test what I knew about food systems in another part of the world. The Peace Corps gave me the opportunity to learn an enormous amount while working to make a positive impact in the lives of others. I credit my aunt who served in the Peace Corps in the Solomon Islands in the 1990s with inspiring me to serve. Her experience there, and the stories she told, were always in the back of my mind. It was the final push I needed to send in an application. During my two years in Nepal, I lived and worked in a rural agricultural village. Most members . . .

“One Monsoon” by Don Messerschmidt (Nepal)

Dec 07 2016

This essay by Don Messerschmidt (Nepal 1963-65) appeared on December 2, 2016, in The Common, a print and digital literary journal published biannually, in the fall and spring. Issues of The Common include short stories, essays, poems, and images that embody a strong sense of place. The Common Online publishes original content four times per week, including book reviews, interviews, personal essays, short dispatches, poetry, contributor podcasts and recordings, and multimedia features. Based in Amherst, Massachusetts, the magazine is supported in part by Amherst College and The Common Foundation. • ONE MONSOON Don Messerschmidt December 2, 2016 One Wednesday morning late in the rainy season of 1964, I sat at the open window of my room overlooking the tiny hill town of Kunchha, Nepal where I lived. I was watching huge clouds expand overhead, upward and outward across the blue Himalayan sky. I knew that by noon the temperature and the humidity would rise proportionately. . . .