Thailand – Peace Corps Worldwide

Tony Waters Remembers . . . and Returns to Thailand

Dec 04 2022

Tony Waters (Thailand 1980-82) is czar and editor of Ethnography.com. He was a professor at the Sociology department at California State University at Chico since 1996. In 2016 though he suddenly found himself with a new gig at Payap University in northern Thailand where he is on the faculty of the Peace Studies Department. He has also been a guest professor in Germany, and Tanzania. In the past, his main interests have been international development and refugees in Thailand, Tanzania, and California. This reflects a former career in the Peace Corps (Thailand), and refugee camps (Thailand and Tanzania). His books include: Crime and Immigrant Youth (1999), Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan (2001), The Persistence of Subsistence Agriculture: Life Beneath of the Marketplace (2007), When Killing is a Crime (2007), and Schooling, Bureaucracy, and Childhood: Bureaucratizing the Child (2012). His hobby is trying to learn strange languages – and the mistakes . . .

THE RAZOR’S EDGE by Robert Gurevich (Thailand)

Jul 06 2022

What’s it like being the only expatriate manager of a multi-million dollar development project with a staff of over 200? What’s it like having to start off dealing with a major embezzlement on a previous project that occurred prior to your arrival? What’s it like to work with senior staff who hate each other and could be complicit in the embezzlement? What’s it like having to deal with a donor agency and host government that view you with deep mistrust while demanding that that you get project activities up and running quickly? These are but a small part of the complex challenges depicted in this novel that are involved in fulfilling a development missios abroad. Robert Gurevich is an Applied Anthropologist specializing in education and development. In addition to service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand, he undertook long-term assignments in Indonesia, Somalia, Albania, and Ethiopia, along . . .

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 . . .

RPCV Peter Navarro (Thailand) arrested

Jun 04 2022

A federal grand jury indicted former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro (Thailand 1973-76) on criminal contempt of Congress charges after he refused to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Jan. 6 committee. The FBI arrested Navarro Friday morning. In his first court appearance Friday afternoon, Navarro said that he was on his way to Nashville for a television appearance Friday morning, and that an FBI team let him get to the airport and try to board a plane before putting him in handcuffs. Navarro said during his court appearance he was put in a jail cell Friday.

Review — TRIAL AND ERROR by Lawrence Licht (Peru)

May 01 2022

Trial And Error (poetry and photography) Lawrence E. Licht (Peru 1963–65) Independently published April 2022 40 pages $15 [plus shipping to the USA, $6-10] (paperback), Contact the author Reviewed by Bill Preston (Thailand 1977-80) • The array of living forms is staggering, diversity incomprehensible in real terms. A description of even one is like holding the wind with open palm. So begins poet and photographer Larry Licht’s slim and noteworthy book, Trial and Error. Minimalist in design, the book features a series of two-page spreads, arranged in corresponding pages of poetry and photographs. As the poetic opening lines express, ordinary language seems insufficient to describe the natural world in its multitude of diverse forms. Perhaps a more satisfying approach, Licht suggests, is to explore nature’s exquisite intricacy via metaphor and image. Fittingly, each of his twenty spreads is a kind of meditation in words and images on facets of . . .

Review — NAKHON PHANOM by James I. Jouppi (Thailand)

Jan 02 2022

Nakhon Phanom: The Domino That Did Not Fall (and my Thai hometown) James I. Jouppi (Thailand 1971–73) Liberty Hill Publishing, 2021 450 pages $30.99 (paperback), $2.99 (Kindle), $8.66 (hardcover) Review by D.W. Jefferson • If you want to learn about the Peace Corps in Thailand and in particular about the period of the early 1970s this is an extensively researched memoir you will find useful. An engineer, the author, has an engineer’s eye for detail. Myself, I was surprised to find that Peace Corps remained in Thailand throughout the Vietnam War period. Mr. Jouppi’s book is 411 pages, 79 chapters, maps, a glossary of terms, a list of acronyms, an appendix, a bibliography and 128 endnotes. To fully appreciate how well researched the book is, I recommend reading the endnotes! This is the fourth book this author has written and the third memoir of his experiences in Thailand. His . . .

A Thailand Memoir by James Jouppi

Oct 20 2021

After graduating with Cornell’s civil engineering class of 1971 and a five-week stint as a taxi driver in New York City, Jim Jouppi (Thailand 1971-73) shipped out for a Peace Corps adventure in Thailand. After completing his two-year tour, he was ready to go back home when, after meeting a flirtatious Thai jownatee, he decided to take a home leave and return for one more year. Upon his return to Thailand, he found himself immersed in a very personal dilemma while trying to escape the confluence of Thai government, Peace Corps, and counterinsurgency politics in the Communist sensitive province where he was stationed. Jouppi was later employed in America as an engineer-in-training, carpenter apprentice, refugee worker, and postal worker, spent three years in the Army as a medic, and earned a master’s degree in tropical public health civil engineering in England. His first sustained attempt at memoir writing was . . .

Review — I AM FARANG by Amy McGarry (Thailand)

Jul 03 2019

I Am Farang: Adventures of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand Amy McGarry (Thailand 2003–05) Self-published January 2019 213 pages $14.95 (paperback), $2.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Jim Skelton (Ethiopia 1970-72) • In the opening paragraph of the Preface to Amy McGarry’s book about her Peace Corps service in Thailand, she declares that As a foreigner [farang in Thai language], I was biased, and for that I apologize. My descriptions of Thai culture should always be read with that “grain of salt.” That statement really caught my attention and made me wonder what kinds of prejudiced revelations could possibly be contained in her tome. What I discovered is that Amy has written a very humorous, painfully honest and deeply insightful view of her service and life in Thailand from 2003 to 2005. She describes what could be characterized as a love/hate relationship with the Thai social culture, despite the . . .

Review — LADYBOY AND THE VOLUNTEER by Susanne Aspley (Thailand)

Mar 09 2019

Ladyboy and the Volunteer (Peace Corps Memoir) by Susanne Aspley (Thailand 1989–91) Peace Corps Writers November 2014 288 pages $13.99 (paperback), $2.99 (Kindle Reviewed by Dean Jefferson (El Salvador 1974–76; Costa Rica 1976–77) • Ladyboy and the Volunteeris a novel masquerading as a memoir. The protagonist, Susan, describes her adventures and misadventures as a Peace Corps Volunteer stationed in a rural village in Thailand in the 1990s. She gets to know many of the locals, but none is more interesting than Christine who helps support her family in the village by working as a prostitute in the city. Christine is a “ladyboy,” the term Thais use to describe transgender people born male, but dressing and living as females. The book is written in a conversational style, allowing the reader to experience emotionally what the protagonist is living. The imagery is vividly descriptive and at times raw. Because it . . .

Review — BREATHING THE SAME AIR by Gerry Christmas (Thailand, Western Samoa)

May 18 2016

Breathing the Same Air: A Peace Corps Romance Gerry Christmas (Thailand 1973–76; Western Samoa 1976–78) Lulu April 2015 366 pages $22.95 (paperback), $8.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by James Jouppi (Thailand 1971–73) • FOR HIS INTRODUCTION, Gerry Christmas uses an eighteen page “Peace Corps Termination Report” dated April 16, 1976. The body of his memoir consists of sixty-nine letters — he calls them “Epistles” — written after his three-year Thailand Peace Corps tour was complete. While these Epistles, at times, are very “newsy,” they also express, sometimes in intimate detail, his feelings about his girlfriend Aied, and, in more general terms, his evolving philosophies about true love between American men and “nice” Thai women. He wrote the first five Epistles while preparing for another Peace Corps tour of duty, this time in Western Samoa, and these were sent to people he’d known in Thailand. Thirty-five more were sent from Western Samoa, mostly to . . .

Kevin Quigley (Thailand 1976-79 & CD Thailand 2013-15) New President of Marlboro College

Sep 14 2015

Kevin Quigley is use to small organizations. He ran the NPCA that had less than 2,000 members; was CD of Thailand which has 90+ PCVs, and is now at Marlboro College in Vermont which has an enrollment of 200+ undergraduates. Kevin, who speaks fluent Thai, became a Buddhist monk before returning home from his Peace Corps tour. His Thailand experience as a PCV and on the staff, plus his understanding and love of Buddhism, should help him recruit students from Asia. We wish him well. The following press release is from the college and was issued a few hours ago. Marlboro College welcomes new president Marlboro College: Kevin F.F. Quigley comes with wealth of experience Core value: Service ‘is a powerful foundation for a liberal arts education’ By Chris Mays Marlboro College’s newest president, Kevin F.F. Quigley, is welcomed during an inauguration ceremony. (Photo courtesy of Kelly Fletcher) MARLBORO: Marlboro . . .

Sandra Storey (Thailand 1968-71) Publishes Poetry Collection

Nov 18 2014

Sandra Storey’s (Thailand 1968-71) poems have been published in various literary magazines, including the New York Quarterly, Friction (UK) and New Millennium Writings.Two of her poems have been featured in installations at Boston City Hall. Storey, who spent her teenage and college years in Ohio and Indiana, is the formerly editor and publisher of two neighborhood newspapers in Boston, the Jamaica Plain Gazette and the Mission Hill Gazette. She is now a columnist for the Jamaica Plain newspaper. Sandra wrote poetry from 1980 to 1988 and resumed in 2004. In between, she co-authored a nonfiction book on public policy, Women in Citizen Advocacy. A member of Jamaica Pond Poets, a collaborative workshop, since 2005, she was given the “Community Champion Award” for 2014 by ESAC, a local nonprofit organization. Her first collection of poems, Every State has Its Own Light was selected in 2011 as one of twenty-five finalists from an international field . . .

A Writer Writes: Bill Preston (Thailand 1977-80) "In Search of Things Past: Wandering Bangkok Backstreets of Memory"

May 07 2013

A Writer Writes In Search of Things Past: Wandering Bangkok Backstreets of Memory By Bill Preston (Thailand 1977-80) The past is such a big place. — Neil Young, Waging Heavy Peace Having a day free to wander a city is one of life’s great pleasures, particularly one in a far-away place you came to know in youth and then lost to time. This past March, some thirty-five years on, it was both exciting and eerie to be walking again along Petchaburi Road in Bangkok, feeling a bit like Rip Van Winkle, in search of places from Peace Corps past. I began by seeking out Petchaburi Soi 7, also known as Soi Surao–Mosque Lane–so named for the mosque near its entrance, one of many sois, or small lanes, abutting Petchaburi Road . . . . From 1978-1979, my friend Dan, a fellow volunteer from Thai 58, worked in Bangkok and lived . . .

Review — WAR OF HEARTS AND MINDS by James Jouppie (Thailand)

Jan 13 2012

War of Hearts And Minds: An American Memoir by James Jouppi (Thailand 1971–73) iUniverse 618 pages $45.95 (hardcover), $35.95 (paperback), $3.95 (Kindle) 2011 Reviewed by Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963–65) • IN WAR FOR HEARTS AND MINDS, James Jouppi writes about his Peace Corps tour as a civil engineer assigned to the Community Development Corporation Thailand, and what happened to his life as a result. For those unfamiliar with Thailand and/or Peace Corps, Jouppi has provided maps and identifies key sites mentioned in the book. He has also created a glossary of terms. Jouppi intersperses an historic timeline of public events through out his narrative. In the Preface, to enhance this historical context, Jouppi states: In this memoir, I describe events which were unfolding during a War of Hearts and Minds campaign in Thailand, a War of Hearts and Minds campaign which occurred simultaneously with what, in America, is often . . .

Return of the (Non) Native

May 28 2010

by Paul Paquette (Thailand 1974–78) First published on the blog of PeaceCorpsWriters.org on June 11, 2007 • JULY 2005 I left Thailand in 1980 after spending four years as a Peace Corps English teacher in a secondary school and three more working in refugee camps. I really don’t know why it took me so long to finally make that journey back to Thailand. I guess part of it was the fear of facing the changes that I would possibly find hard to accept after all those years. The tsunami finally washed all that away, and I found myself needing to return to be reassured that all was well there. The changes in Bangkok seemed profound to me at first. It was so strange to see tall buildings, a subway and a monorail! In many ways, I felt like Rip Van Winkle waking up from a long sleep to find a . . .