Samoa – Peace Corps Worldwide

MALINDY’S FREEDOM by Theresa Delsoin (Samoa)

Sep 27 2024

A new book – Malindy’s Freedom: The Story of a Slave Family by Mildred Johnson & Theresa Delsoin (Samoa 2004-06) Missouri Historical Society Press May 2005 220 pages $22.50 (Hardcover) This is an account of the years 1820 to 1865 in the life of Malindy, a freeborn Cherokee who was unlawfully enslaved as a child by a Franklin County, Missouri, farmer. Married to a freedman, Malindy gave birth to five children in slavery–creating a family she would fight her whole life to keep together. As a testament to Malindy’s iron will, her great-granddaughters Mildred Johnson and Theresa Delsoin have lived to share the story passed on through their family for generations–a story of courage, conviction, and love. In Malindy’s Freedom, Johnson and Delsoin construct a narrative that realistically re-creates Malindy’s world–the individuals she encountered, the crucibles she faced, the battles she won. The authors relied principally on census records, . . .

Bonita Schwan (Samoa) | Marco Island City Council candidate

Aug 07 2024

RPCV in the news Bonita Schwan (Samoa 1990-91) is a candidate for Marco Island (Florida) City Council on November 5th general election. Schwan has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas, Austin, and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the Drake Law School, Des Moines, Iowa.Schwan served on Iowa Governor Terry Branstad’s personal staff when he was in office, where, she said, her responsibilities included providing recommendations to the governor regarding budget and policy matters for The Department of Revenue and Finance, The Department of Health, The Department of Human Services, The Department of Civil Rights and The Department of Human Rights. As an attorney, Schwan specialized in legislation and administrative rules and volunteered with the United States Peace Corps in Western Samoa. She currently serves on the board for the Cape Marco, Cozumel Building HOA. She serves as membership chair for the Marco Island . . .

Review: THE CHINESE DETECTIVE by Joseph Theroux (Samoa)

May 01 2024

The Chinese Detective: Hawaii’s Real Charlie Chan by Joseph Theroux (Samoa, 1975-78 years) Kilauea Publications 228 pages January, 2024 $12.00 (paperback) $5.00 (Kindle) Reviewed by Cynthia Nelson Mosca (Ethiopia 1967-69) • • • On cold blustery Chicago afternoons, I could be found sitting on the sofa in our living room, munching popcorn, and watching old black and white Charlie Chan movies. It never occurred to me that Charlie Chan was based on a real person. But real he was and quite a character too. Earl Derr Biggers authored six Charlie Chan novels which were made into feature films and were the inspiration for sixteen more. His Charlie Chan was modeled after Chang Apana who was a real detective in Honolulu, Hawaii. Lloyd Osbourne, the narrator of story was the stepson of Robert Louis Stevenson. The father and stepson collaborated on three novels. Osbourne went on to fill his life with the . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers | January — February 2024

Mar 01 2024

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 . . .

THE CHINESE DETECTIVE by Joseph Theroux (Samoa)

Jan 19 2024

The Chinese Detective: Hawaii’s Real Charlie Chan by Joseph Theroux (Samoa 1975-78) Kilauea Publications January 2024 228 pages $5.00 (Kindle); $12.00 (Paperback) Reading Age 15 and up . . . Honolulu, 1920 — Lloyd Osbourne witnesses the remains of a body that has washed up on the Waikiki shore, and soon finds himself working alongside a remarkable local Chinese detective. Other dead bodies appear and the detectives draw up a list of missing men in the city. Writer Earl Derr Biggers is also vacationing at Waikiki and one morning his wife suddenly disappears. A search for her results in the kidnapping of Lloyd, and a massive opium enterprise is uncovered. A scandal at the Customs House involves the suicide of a cashier named William Wilder. Is Honolulu Sheriff Charles Rose merely incompetent or is he an active conspirator in the opium ring? And how is the violent murder of . . .

The Peace Corps Returns to Improve Samoa’s English Literacy

Dec 16 2022

Samoa’s Minister for Education Seuula Ioane and US Peace Corps country director Gini Wilderson at the signing of a five-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) to continue their partnership. [photo: US Peace Corps] Apia, SAMOA — U.S. Peace Corps volunteers are returning to Samoa by early next year with the hope of improving English literacy for many young Samoans and other youth around the Pacific. The Samoa Observer is reporting that during the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting this year, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris had announced the return of the Peace Corps to the region, something which had been stopped due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and as a political decision by the then administration. Following the intensifying of geopolitical tension in the region with China, the U.S. has sought to bring the volunteers back as a means to have more engagement in the region. On Dec. 1, 2022, the United . . .

Gregory Jackmond (Samoa) | archaeologist in Samoa

Nov 08 2022

Gregory Jackmond (Samoa 1974-76) carried out extensive archaeological field work in Samoa during the 1970s when he was a PCV in the islands. He surveyed pre-historic ruins from Sapapali’I and another large settlement in Palauli district where the Pulemelei Mound is situated. The features visible include platforms (for houses), star mounds, terraces, walls, walled walkways, elevated walkways, large earthen ovens (umu ele’ele or umu ti), drainage channels, large pits, forts and just piles of stone. Umu ele’ele, according to Jackmond, were large earth ovens which were used about 500 to 1000 years ago to make sugar from ti trees. “The ti root apparently was cooked for about 10 hours in a lot of heat. The result was sugar for the people at the time,” he said. He found remnants of stone structures that dated back hundreds of years and upon his return to California in the U.S. at the . . .

Review — MY VIEW FROM THE HOUSE BY THE SEA by Donna Marie Barr (Samoa)

May 09 2022

My View from the House by the Sea Donna Marie Barr (Samoa 2007-2008) Independently published February 2022 (paperback), December 2021 (Kindle) 415 pages $15.99 (paperback), $7.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Regina DeAngelo (Ghana 2000-2002) • When the average person imagines a Peace Corps experience, they might picture a red-dirt landscape in a forsaken locale. But some RPCVs get to tell a different story, of perhaps a palm-lined, tropical idyll, set beside a clear aqua sea. This is the spot on which a 57-year-old retiree named Donna Marie Barr found herself with Peace Corps “Samoa Group 78” in of June 2007. Like many PCVs who join later than in their youth (myself included), Barr took a circuitous route to a place she’d always wanted to go. After a service in the Air Force, raising three sons, and a career in real estate management, Barr found herself starting over in her mid-fifties . . .