Tanzania (Tanganyika) – Peace Corps Worldwide

New books by Peace Corps writers | July through August, 2024

Sep 03 2024

New books — 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 maybe 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. PLEASE, PLEASE join in our Third Goal effort and volunteer to review a book or books!!! Songs of Mali by Ruth Gooley (Mali 1980-81) Peace Corps Writers May 2024 102 pages $15.00 (paperback) Songs of Mali . . .

WE CAME, WE SAW, WE CHANGED edited by Dennis Warner (Tanzania)

Jul 31 2024

A new book — We Came, We Saw, We Changed:Creating a Peace Corps Legacy in Tanzania 1964-1966 by PCV Members of Tanzania 5; Dennis Warner, Editor Independently Published June 2024 245 pages This book provides a glimpse of some of the most memorable experiences in the lives of 74 Tanzania-5 Peace Corps Volunteers in the 1960s as they ventured into the little-known cultures of a country striving to enter the modern world. Told in their own words, this diversity of stories form a mosaic of life as the volunteers go about their work and play in towns, villages, and the bush. A total of 58 short stories describing key memories are clustered as “Recruitment and Training, Life in the Bush, Village Life, Urban Life, Work Assignments, Travel and Transport, Social Encounters, Health, and Post Peace Corps Stories. A common thread in most of the stories is how the experiences of . . .

“Writers from the Peace Corps” by John Coyne (Ethiopia)

May 09 2024

John writes — Since 1961, Peace Corps writers have used their volunteer service as source material for their fiction and nonfiction. Approximately 250,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps. Of these volunteers and staff, more than 1,500 have published memoirs, novels, and poetry inspired by their experience. Many former volunteers have gone on to careers as creative writing teachers, journalists, and editors, while others have discovered a variety of jobs outside of publishing where their Peace Corps years have contributed to successful employment. A Peace Corps tour has proven to be a valuable experience — in terms of one’s craft and one’s professional career—for more than one college graduate. The first to write The first book to draw on the Peace Corps experience was written by Arnold Zeitlin (Ghana 1961–63), who had volunteered for the Peace Corps in 1961 after having been an Associated Press reporter. That book, . . .

Dwight Yates (Tanzania) Obituary

Dec 08 2023

In the news — Published by Redlands Daily Facts Nov. 21, 2023 We sorrowfully announce that Dwight Yates (Tanzania 1964-66) passed away Sunday, November 12th, 2023, at the age of 81. Dwight was born in Helena, Montana, and traveled widely in his youth. He taught in Tanzania, East Africa, during his time with the Peace Corps and continued his education in Arizona, where he met his wife, Nancy Carrick. Dwight moved to Redlands, CA in 1980 and quickly became a staple within the academic community in the Inland Empire. He was a widely-published writer and professor of creative writing at UC Riverside. He knew how to connect deeply and – in written word – capture the range of our humanity completely. Dwight Yates’ stories have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. His first collection, Haywire Hearts and Slide Trombones, received the Serena McDonald Kennedy Award from SnakeNation Press. His second, Bring Everybody, was . . .

Johnnie Carson (Tanzania) Special Presidential Representative for U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit

Jun 12 2023

Ambassador Johnnie Carson was appointed as the Special Presidential Representative for U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Implementation in December 2022. Formerly, he served as the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of African Affairs from May 2009 to March 2013. Prior to this he was the national intelligence officer for Africa at the National Intelligence Council, after serving as the senior vice president of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. (2003-2006). Ambassador Carson’s 37-year foreign service career includes ambassadorships to Kenya (1999-2003), Zimbabwe (1995-1997), and Uganda (1991-1994); and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs (1997-1999). Earlier in his career he had assignments in Portugal (1982-1986), Botswana (1986-1990), Mozambique (1975-1978), and Nigeria (1969-1971). He has also served as desk officer in the Africa section at State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (1971-1974); Staff Officer for the Secretary of State (1978-1979), and Staff Director for the Africa Subcommittee . . .

Johnnie Carson (Tanzania) Special Presidential Representative for U.S.-Africa Leaders

Feb 20 2023

MEDIA ADVISORY | February 23 Digital Press Briefing with Johnnie Carson, Special Presidential Representative for U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Implementation EVENT: Please join us on Thursday, February 23, 2023, for a digital press briefing with Ambassador Johnnie Carson, Special Presidential Representative for U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Implementation. Ambassador Carson will discuss his recent high-level engagements with African leaders on the margins of the AU Summit and his plans to continue his important dialogues with members of civil society and the business community. After brief remarks, Ambassador Carson will take questions from participating journalists. Date: Thursday, February 23, 2023 Time: 10:00 Johannesburg | 09:00 Abuja | 8:00 GMT | 03:00 Washington Language: English. Ground rules: The briefing will be on the record. Login info: To be provided upon RSVP. RSVP: Please RSVP by clicking here Twitter: Join the conversation at #AFHubPress; follow us @AfricaMediaHub. Biography: Johnnie Carson Special Presidential Representative for U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Implementation Ambassador Johnnie Carson was appointed as . . .

“Peace Corps and Beyond: A Fordham University English Alum Shares Her Story”

Nov 10 2022

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Barry Hillerbrand (Ethiopia 1963-65) “AlumAdvice” from Amy Glasser (Tanzania) Nov 4 By Elissa Johnston Just a month and half after graduating from Fordham in 2016, Amy Glasser packed her bags and went to teach math in Tanzania with Peace Corps for two years. She had come into Fordham fully expecting to pursue a career in publishing, but at the very beginning of her senior year — fall 2015 — she had a conversation that suddenly changed her career trajectory. At a back-to-school barbecue, Amy found herself talking to the new graduate assistant for the honors program, who had just returned from working with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. “It had never occurred to me that this kind of work was an option,” said Amy in our interview. “I went back to the dorm that afternoon and immediately looked up the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. . . .

RPCVs who made significant contributions to sports

Aug 26 2022

by George Brose (Tanzania 1965-67) There are lists of politicians, writers, CEO’s, artists, and film people, even an astronaut who were in the Peace Corps in their early or later years. But I’ve yet to see anything about sports figures who have been PCV’s. I personally know of a few who I would call major sports figures and in talking with John Coyne we decided that these folks should not go unnoticed for their service in the Peace Corps and their contributions on the playing fields. My area of expertise is track and field, and this sport is where I have found most of my subjects. They include an Olympic champion, a Boston Marathon champion, a famous coach, a not so famous runner but one who has been a long-time contributor to the sport, and another lesser known gem, and I’m even going to include a sportswriter who described . . .

RPCV John Peterson (Senegal) gets out of jail . . . out of Tanzania . . . out of the Peace Corps

Jul 13 2022

Story Highlights—from USA Today Peace Corps employee John Peterson was paid $258,000 while on leave and under investigation after killing a woman in a 2019 hit and run in Tanzania, records show. The Peace Corps paid the family of the woman Peterson killed just $13,000, despite a federal law that allows the agency to settle such claims for up to $20,000. The crash happened after Peterson had been drinking at a bar and picked up a sex worker, according to the Peace Corps. Peterson never faced charges in Tanzania or the United States. John Peterson sat in a Tanzanian police station in August 2019, capping off a chaotic driving spree that left a mother of three dead on the streets of Dar es Salaam. But before he could be criminally charged, Peterson’s employer — the United States government — whisked him back to America and put him on leave while he . . .

Review — EVERY HILL A BURIAL PLACE by Peter H. Reid (Tanzania)

Aug 26 2020

Every Hill a Burial Place: The Peace Corps Murder Trial in East Africa By Peter H. Reid (Tanzania 1964-66) University of Kentucky Press 332 pages September 2020 $35.10 (Kindle); $36.95 (Hardcover) A review by John Ratigan (Tanzania 1964-66) • Fifty-four years ago, in March 1966, in a small village in Tanzania, a young American woman died when she fell from a rocky hill where she and her husband of 16 months were picnicking. Peverly Dennett Kinsey, known to everyone by the descriptive nickname of “Peppy,” was a Peace Corps upper primary school teacher from Riverside, Connecticut, who had met and married her husband, Bill Kinsey, also a PCV upper primary school teacher, while they were in Peace Corps training at Syracuse University. Peppy had graduated only a few months before from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Bill was a ‘64 graduate of Washington and Lee University. At first, . . .

IN EVERY HILL A BURIAL PLACE — Publishers Weekly talks with Peter H. Reid (Tanzania)

Jul 26 2020

by Lenny Picker Publishers Weekly Jul 24, 2020 In Every Hill a Burial Place: The Peace Corps Murder Trial in East Africa (Univ. of Kentucky, Sept.), [Peter] Reid revisits a 1966 murder in Tanzania that rocked the program. Both Peace Corps volunteers involved—Bill Kinsey, who was accused of murdering his wife, Peppy—were white. What role did race play in the investigation and trial? There was an interesting dynamic in Tanzania at the time. The country had recently thrown off the chains of European colonialism and was working hard to show its independence and the power of the African leadership. These factors played into the case. There were few African lawyers and even fewer judges. The defense attorneys, expert witnesses, and the judge were almost all white, and all had far more experience than the Africans on the prosecution side. I’m not sure the case demonstrates so much white privilege as the . . .

First Prize Peace Corps Fund Award: “Penye Nia, Pana Njia” by Kristen Grauer-Gray (Tanzania)

Jul 16 2017

Kristen Grauer-Gray served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Karatu District, Tanzania from 2007 to 2010. She taught chemistry and biology at a rural secondary school, managed the school science lab, and contributed to a manual for Peace Corps Volunteers on how to conduct experiments using cheap, local materials. She is serving now as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer in Liberia, where she is teaching chemistry and education classes at a community college. The following is a true story from her service in Tanzania. Some names have been changed, but all events are true to the best of her memory. • Penye Nia, Pana Njia [Where there’s a goal, the road is wide. — Swahili proverb] “I’D LOVE FOR HER to continue with her education,” Rehema’s mother says. “But there’s the problem of the cow.” I’m sitting in the house where Rehema grew up. The dirt floor is . . .

What program was the first Peace Corps project?

Sep 21 2015

If you ever run into any RPCV from Colombia One, the first thing he’ll say (they were all guys) before giving you their name is: “We were first.” Colombia One PCVs are obsessed with this fact and that they are not given their proper pecking order. Recently my friend Ron Schwarz (Colombia 1961-63), wrote this piece on why THEY were the first PCVs, not Ghana. I asked the Director of the Peace Corps to check on this obscure (but important) fact. She was nice enough to come back with this information and statement from the agency’s General Counsel Office and the Office of Strategic Information, Research and Planning. Start dates for the early programs of the Peace Corps were corroborated and/or updated based on detailed research and analysis conducted by our Office of Strategic Information, Research and Planning on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. . . .

A Writer Writes: “Hemingway in Africa” by Geri Critchley (Senegal)

Apr 05 2015

Hemingway in Africa • By Geri Critchley (Senegal 1971-72) WHEN I EMBARKED on my travels to Africa, I had no intention of encountering Ernest Hemingway. However, while trying to get money out of a non-functioning ATM in Moshi, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, I met a travel agent who offered to somehow use his agency as an ATM so I could pay a Mt Kilimanjaro guide. In the middle of the transaction, abruptly changing focus, he told me that he had attended St Ursula’s boarding school nearby in Moshi Village with Ernest Hemingway’s granddaughter Edwina, daughter of Hemingway’s son Patrick. He continued to tell me he is still in touch with Edwina who used to live in Florida but moved to Montana and that she has the rights to Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea. Of course he now had my attention; I told him I was interested in learning more. He must have . . .