Thailand – Page 2 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Robert Gurevich (Thailand) Remembering November 22, 1963

Nov 29 2023

I was a PCV (Thailand 1963-65) assigned to the Pibulsongkram Teachers College (TTC) in Pitsanuloke,Thailand as a faculty member in the English Department. My daily routine after waking up was to turn on my short-wave radio and listen to the English language news broadcasts of any station I could pick up (usually VOA or BBC). That morning, I got up a little later than usual and missed my usual start time of 6:30 am by a few minutes. When fiddling with the dial in search of a news broadcast in English, I hit upon the NHK news broadcast out of Tokyo. Since the broadcast had already started, the first thing I heard was that the Japanese Prime Minister had sent his condolences to Mrs. Kennedy. It only indirectly suggested that JFK had been killed. No other details about the events. Having missed the first sentence announcing the death of . . .

Peter Navarro (Thailand) convicted

Sep 07 2023

WASHINGTON — Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro (Thailand 1973-76) was convicted Thursday of criminal contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to the plot to overturn the 2020 election. The jury deliberated for about four hours before finding Navarro, 74, guilty of two counts of contempt for refusing to testify before the House Jan. 6 committee and turn over subpoenaed documents. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta scheduled his sentencing for Jan. 12. The two counts each carry a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in prison, in addition to a maximum fine of $100,000. “There’s no mistake, no accident,” prosecutor John Crabb told jurors in the Washington, D.C. federal courtroom during closing arguments Thursday morning. “That man thinks he’s above the law,” Crabb said. “In this country, nobody is above the law.”

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 . . .

RPCV Thomas Tighe (Thailand) — President & CEO Direct Relief

May 13 2023

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Matt Losak(Lesotho 1985-87) Thomas Tighe has served as President and CEO of Direct Relief, a nonprofit humanitarian medical organization, since October 2000. Since Tighe’s arrival, the organization has provided cash grants of more than $170 million and furnished more than $9 billion in essential medicines, equipment, and supplies to support health services for low-income people in over 100 countries and all 50 U.S. states, where the organization conducts the country’s largest nonprofit charitable medicines program. During Tighe’s tenure, Direct Relief has been named among the world’s most innovative nonprofits by Fast Company, has been rated by Forbes as being 99 percent efficient or better in fundraising since 2001, won the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation, the CECP Director’s Award, the Esri President’s Award for GIS innovation, the Office of the Surgeon General’s National Leadership and Partnership Award, and became the first U.S. nonprofit to . . .

Exploring the Peace Corps’ sixty-year history in Thailand

May 12 2023

Peace Corps in the news Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Dale Gilles (Liberia 1964-66) by Samantha Rose Thaiger Latest News The Peace Corps is a United States agency established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy to promote peace and friendship worldwide. Peace Corps volunteers have been working in Thailand since 1962, assisting Thai government agencies in various fields. Currently, they operate in two main projects: Teacher Collaboration for Development and Youth Development. Over 5,500 volunteers have worked with Thai communities for more than 60 years, but their work was halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This year, Peace Corps volunteers returned to Thailand and underwent a 10-week training programme before being dispatched to 29 provinces across the country. Their swearing-in ceremony coincided with the 60th-anniversary celebration of Peace Corps cooperation in Thailand. It is always exciting and impressive when encountering foreigners who can communicate excellently in the . . .

“And then Sarge said to me . . .” | Judy Guskin (Thailand)

Apr 08 2023

Judy Guskin (Thailand 1961-64) can rightly claim to be the “mother of the Peace Corps.” In the fall of 1960 she was a young married graduate student studying comparative literature at the University of Michigan when, with her husband, Alan, she heard John F. Kennedy speak on the steps of the Student Union and introduce the concept of a peace corps. Kennedy had arrived late at Ann Arbor that chilly October night and had not expected to speak, but a word-of-mouth rumor had spread around campus that he was spending the night at the University before campaigning in Michigan and over ten thousand students gathered around the Union building. Leaving his car and walking up the Union steps, Kennedy paused to say a few words to the students. It was late and cold and the crowd was edgy, having waited for him all night. Now, after 2 a.m. in . . .

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 . . .

The Volunteer Who Found Himself through a Garden of Remembrance | Patrick Logan (Thailand)

Apr 27 2022

by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) (This Profile is drawn from a sensitive and warm-hearted book review by Donald Dimberger, Eastern Caribbean/Antigua, 1977-78 of Every Day Since Desenzano: A Tale of Gratitude, by Patrick Logan, Thailand, 1984-86. • In the popular film It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey longs to hear the sounds of “anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles.” Patrick Logan also longed to hear them. However, to his father they meant separation from the things he held dear. He fought in Italy during WW II and survived through luck and by writing letters almost daily to the woman he’d married just before shipping out. In contrast, his younger son, Patrick, sought overseas adventure, initially as a Peace Corp Volunteer in Thailand. Then, following his father’s death, Patrick inherited those wartime letters, and in them, he learned much about the man from whom he’d grown distant, emotionally at . . .

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 . . .