Philippines – Peace Corps Worldwide

Review | A JOURNEY FOR PEACE: A JOURNAL OF PEACE by Donald Yates (The Philippines)

Nov 12 2023

A Journey For Peace: A Journal of Peace Donald Yates (The Philippines 1962–64) Austin Macauley Publishers 122 pages March 2023 $10.95 (paperback) Review by Douglas Garatina (Ghana 1971-1973) • “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” It didn’t take long for Don Yates to answer this challenge made by President Kennedy. He made the decision to join the recently formed Peace Corps. In 1962 Don transitioned from a recent college graduate living in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, to an elementary school teacher on the very remote Philippine Island of Jolo in the middle of the Sulu Sea. To make things even more interesting, the people on Jolo were Muslims even though 95% of Filipinos were Catholic, so Don’s Peace Corps training did not prepare him for the Muslim traditions and culture he was about to enter. His training as . . .

Review | IN THE AMBER CHAMBER by Carrie Messenger (Moldova)

Oct 08 2023

In an Amber Chamber, Stories Carrie Messenger (Moldova 1994–96) Brighthorse Books 260 pages August, 2018 $16.95 (paperback) Reviewed by Eugénie de Rosier (Philippines 2006-08) Carrie Messenger’s short stories paint dark and disturbing settings for people who lived in Eastern Europe under strangling communism. Romania and Moldova are noted. The former’s Ceaușescu brutalized his country. Famine was a scourge in the 1940s and in the 1980s, deprivation was widespread; and state enforced-pregnancy led to too many children that couldn’t be supported by their parents. The government opened orphanages which were run by people who seemed unaware of children’s needs. Themes of despair, loss, and vulnerability run through these 18 stories, but there are also uplifting moments . . . when a child’s laugh can be heard, a dog’s bark echoes in frolic, the surprise of a holiday in a new free country. About the stories In Edgewater, three Romanian . . .

Brandeis University remembers Lawrence Fuchs (Philippines staff)

Sep 22 2023

In the news Faculty, alumni remember Prof. Lawrence Fuchs An American Studies pioneer, a giving mentor, a champion of social justice First Peace Corps Country Director in the Philippines Photos/Brandeis University Archives by David E. Nathan, March 21, 2013 Former colleagues and students this week remembered longtime professor Lawrence Fuchs as an intellectual giant whose accomplishments in and out of the classroom were matched only by the outsized impact he had in shaping Brandeis’ core values. Fuchs, the Meyer and Walter Jaffe Professor of American Civilization and Politics, died on March 17 at the age of 86 at his home in Canton. He was a longtime resident of Weston. Fuchs began his Brandeis career in 1952, while still a doctoral student at Harvard. He retired 50 years later, having established himself as a renowned authority in the emerging field of American studies, a giving mentor to students . . .

THE MAGIC HOUR by Janice Durand (Philippines)

Jun 08 2023

The Magic Hour unfolds in the era when State Street was filling up with specialty stores selling soap, shoes, bikes, clothes, gifts, pets, records, dishes, books, tobacco, hats, ice cream and toys, run by a new kind of trailblazing entrepreneur. It tells a story of personal success, failure, and retrenchment. A national shopping spree explodes on the scene, ignited by globalization and a furious growth of monopolies that would radically change the nature of retail, the economy and the class system. This book blends U.S. history with the city of Madison and State Street’s history and the author’s personal life. The reader gets a lively course in economics and business ownership through the main character’s experience. About the author: A native of Chippewa Falls, Janice Durand served in the Peace Corps for two years in the sixties, moving to Madison with her husband and two children in 1969. In 1974 . . .

Review | THE FALLEN by Edna G. Bay (Malawi)

Apr 12 2023

The Fallen: A Novel Edna G. Bay (Malawi 1965-68) Peace Corps Writers December 2022 220 pages $9.50 (paperback) Reviewed by Eugénie de Rosier (Philippines 2006-08) • Edna G. Bay served in the Peace Corps in Malawi in the 1960s. She has published a handful of academic books about Africa, and “The Fallen” is her first novel. Naïve, 30-year-old American Anna Moretti knows little of her mother’s death, an accident in east Africa’s Malawi, where her parents were development workers with the Peace Corps. Her dad, silent about her mother and Malawi for three decades, has just died, after raising Anna alone in the U.S., and she receives her mother’s African diary from her grandfather. Still dissatisfied with unanswered questions about how and why mother died, Anna flies to Malawi to locate and interview her parents’ friends, and learns her dad was accused of his wife’s murder, and was to be tried . . .

The Volunteer Who Went onto National Media with His Political Views — Bob Beckel (Philippines)

Feb 09 2023

Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) • Robert (Bob) Beckel served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines from 1971 to 1972. Prior to that, Bob graduated from Wagner College in Staten Island, where he played football and worked for Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1968. After returning home from his Volunteer assignment, Bob was a graduate school professor of politics at George Washington University in the District of Columbia. In 1977, Bob joined the U. S. Department of State as deputy assistant Secretary of State in the Carter Administration. In that role, he helped to shepherd the Panama Canal Treaty through the Congress to ratification. The following year, he was appointed as Special Assistant to the president for legislative affairs, working on ratification of Salt II and Mideast treaties. Subsequently, Bob was the campaign manager for Walter Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign. During that campaign, he became known as . . .

Phil Olaleye (Philippines) wins Georgia 59th District seat

Nov 09 2022

Phil grew up in a working class family in Stone Mountain, GA, the son of immigrants. As a youth, Phil had to travel two hours one-way to school each day to receive a decent public education. As soon as he was old enough, Phil began working at Waffle House and Best Buy to help support his single mother and family. These childhood experiences cemented values of sacrifice, dignity in work, and the value of a quality education. Phil attended Duke University as a working student, spending school breaks studying predatory lending policies across Georgia and the Southeast. After working at Citigroup to pay off college loans, Phil left to serve his country in the United States Peace Corps. After three years of supporting an indigenous community in the Philippines, Phil returned to the U.S. to study at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and organize in the Mississippi Delta (Baptist . . .

Peace Corps CEO Carol Spahn visits The Philippines to celebrate 61 years of Peace Corps in the Philippines

Oct 28 2022

October 27, 2022 MANILA – Today, Peace Corps Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Carol Spahn, participated in a joint press conference with Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency (PNVSCA) Director Donald Gawe. CEO Spahn’s remarks: “I am here this week to celebrate the 61st anniversary of Peace Corps Philippines, witness the tremendous work of our staff and partners in support of Filipino communities, and share how excited we are to welcome Peace Corps Volunteers back to the Philippines in January 2023. In January, 60 volunteers will arrive and work for two years at the invitation of host communities across Luzon and the Visayas in the project sectors of education, youth development and coastal resource management. “I am excited to say that this group will be one of the largest that the Peace Corps has organized since resuming overseas operations in March 2022. By September 2023, I expect more than . . .

Review — THE GECKO IN THE BATHTUB by Janina Fuller (Philippines)

Aug 17 2022

The Gecko in the Bathtub: Encounters with Marvelous Creatures by Janina Marie Fuller (Philippines 1978-80) with illustrations by Maggie Demorest Peace Corps Writers June 2022 178 pages $17.50 (paperback) Reviewed by Andy Amster (Philippines 1978-80) • The Gecko in the Bathtub, Janina Fuller’s collection of stories about her interactions with a wide variety of animals, in settings both mundane and exotic, is subtitled Encounters with Marvelous Creatures. And I must say that while reading these stories, I came to realize that I was having an encounter with a marvelous writer, one whose love of nature and respect for its ecosystems and their inhabitants artfully enlists the reader into “allyship” in that love and respect. From the moment I glanced at the “Table of Contents” before settling down to read this wonderful book, I knew I was putting myself in the hands of an assured and engaging writer. “So Much Alaska,” “Visit from . . .

16 New books by Peace Corps writers — May and June, 2022

Jul 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 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 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 . . .

Peace Corps’ 60th year marks US /Philippines’ partnership, amity

Oct 13 2021

by Philippines’ BUSINESS MIRROR OCTOBER 13, 2021 The first Peace Corps volunteers comprised of teachers arrived on October 12, 1961. THE United States Peace Corps, the US Embassy in the Philippines, the Philippine government and other partners held a virtual event to commemorate the American Peace Corps volunteers—more than 9,300 of them—who had served alongside Filipino host-communities across the country since October 1961. Hundreds of former volunteers, host organizations, Peace Corps staff, as well as youth and other beneficiaries gathered online on October 6, as they recognized contributions of American volunteers and their local partners working in education, fisheries, coastal resource management, youth development, and other sectors through the decades. Participants also reflected on the unique ability of Peace Corps volunteers to meaningfully impact and integrate into their host communities as they learned local Filipino languages and lived with Filipino host families. “Peace Corps volunteers have significantly advanced our . . .

A Writer Writes — Reflections from a Simpler Time (Philippines)

Dec 25 2020

Reflections from a Simpler Time By Ted Dieffenbacher (Philippines 1967-69) The covid-19 pandemic has forced people all over the world to change — to simplify daily living, to isolate themselves from friends, favorite places, and gatherings that had always enriched their lives. What follows is an odd COVID comparison, about a time when I had to make a dramatic lifestyle change during my time in the Philippines as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) from 1967 to 1969. Single and 22 when I arrived in Santiago, Isabela, I was suddenly challenged to change not only my daily routine but also my way of thinking (and what language to think it in). Peace Corps gave each PCV a cardboard book locker — a few shelves in a sturdy cardboard box. Each had about 60 books in it, and because no two lockers had an identical selection, I was able every so often . . .

The profile of the first group to go to the Philippines in 1961

Jul 26 2020

PHILIPPINES Peace Corps Volunteers in the Philippines will assist in improving the quality of English spoken in rural areas and in raising teaching standards in both English and general science. They will help Filipino teachers of rural elementary schools teach their students to speak better English and increase understanding of scientific principles. Volunteers will be assigned as educational aides on Filipino teaching staffs in four minor regions. They will supplement, not replace, Filipino teachers. The Philippine Government is urging a general, rapid and comprehensive upgrading of education, especially in rural schools where teaching of English and science is not yet of sufficiently high standard to prepare pupils for technical study. In the Philippines, English is the language of technology, trade, commerce and culture, but during the last five decades the influence of local languages and dialects has so altered spoken English that it is fast becoming incomprehensible to outsiders. . . .

The Innocents: A Filipina WWII Oral History

Nov 12 2016

by Diane Rodill (Philippines 1985–87) Author’s Notes: Pseudonyms were used for the Filipino nationals below for privacy purposes. Mr. “Navarro” was my host-country father. Introduction I still weep when I reread the oral history notes I recorded 30 years ago. As a child in the 1940s, in a darkened cinema, I watched shadowy newsreels of World War II raging in Europe. I was incapable of comprehending the carnage in the Pacific. Today, Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken has unveiled the cruelty faced by U.S. and Filipino POWs under Japanese occupation. But few have recorded the cruelty, without munitions, imposed on the innocents in my father’s native country. In 1985, I fulfilled a 25-year dream of serving as a PCV in the Philippines. I was further blessed to become part of a wonderful host country family, the Navarros, in Irosin, Sorsogon. Since I lived and worked at the local level, I . . .

Journals of Peace — Karin Schumacher (Philippines)

Feb 27 2016

Journals of Peace Karin Schumacher (Philippines 1968–70) Monday, November 21 3:30 pm • There was never a doubt in my mind. From the moment I heard him speak of the Peace Corps, as a high school freshman, I knew it was for me. Then, it was a simple dream of far-away places, colorful people and a chance to “help”. The assassination of President Kennedy plummeted me into a shocking realization of the real world – its irrationality and the terrible consequences of self-interested power. His death strengthened my resolve, and I entered Peace Corps training upon college graduation at age 21. I hadn’t yet formed any plans for after the Peace Corps. It was well that I hadn’t, for it was for the experience itself that I shaped my long-term goals. I spent two years in Cebu City, Philippines at the height of the Vietnam War, 1968-1970. I could never . . .