Peace Corps News

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and Gay Marriage

Togo RPCV Evan Wolfson is married to the cause of Gay Marriage
Evan Wolfson spent two years with the Peace Corps in Togo in West Africa, and had his first gay relationship. After law school, he was recruited by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, then run by Elizabeth Holtzman. He worked as a prosecutor from 1983 to 1988 (and wrote amicus briefs arguing for a ban on racial discrimination in jury selection and the abolition of the marital rape exemption) and, with Ms. Holtzman’s blessing, moonlighted free at Lambda from 1984 to 1988. Which meant he had to “come out” professionally.

In 2004, he wrote a book, “Why Marriage Matters,” in an attempt to generate dialogue with (mainly) heterosexual Americans who don’t realize that civil unions are a parallel alternative, not on an equal footing with marriage. “One state down, 49 to go,” Mr. Wolfson says of Freedom to Marry’s success rate. “Gay marriage is not what we’re looking for. We’re looking for the legal right for gays to marry. You don’t ask for half a loaf. We don’t need two lines at the clerk’s office when there’s already an institution that works in this country, and it’s called marriage. One of the main protections that come with marriage is inherent in the word: certainly in times of crisis any other word than marriage would not bring the same clarity or impart the same dignity.”

“The classic pattern for civil rights advancement in America is patchwork,” he says, “but I see equal marriage rights for gays becoming a nationwide reality over the next 15 to 20 years. I really believe it will happen in my lifetime.” Read more.

Cameroon RPCV Margaret Krome writes: Gay marriage proposals carry the message of hate
Several years ago we had a sign in our front yard in support of gay rights. A young visitor from elsewhere in the state came and whispered his amazement to my then-young son. "Do you know what it means? It means homos!" Yes, my son knew, and was startled that our visitor voiced such repugnance.

But almost no gay man or woman I've ever known would be surprised. Such cultural hostility is simultaneously the cause, result and direct purpose of the anti-gay rights amendments at both the national and state levels.

Are gays a legitimate enemy? Well, the right says it loves them despite their sin, but it seems that because they are "fallen," their claims to even the most basic human relationships aren't justified. Conservative hate-mongers challenge the common figure that 10 percent of the population is gay, as if by making the number smaller, they can attack them more freely. Yet many families I know have a brother, aunt, cousin, uncle or even a parent who's gay. Several of our children's friends have gay parents. Are we the enemy to ourselves? Why would we support a law that would make it harder for these people, no less law-abiding than others in the state, to be deprived of health insurance, medical care, retirement benefits, legal protection and all of the other benefits conferred by marriage?

Numerous commentators, including Wisconsin's Sen. Russ Feingold, have criticized President Bush for advancing an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment as strictly a divisive tactic to galvanize conservative voters prior to the 2006 fall elections. It's particularly blatant this time, since the amendment stands no chance at all of passing the Senate. Politicians, especially those with low popularity, have a long history of advancing measures based on the sure social calculus that setting up a clear enemy rallies the troops. Anti-communist rhetoric, complaints about trading partners, patriotic calls to arms, and mean-spirited attacks on vulnerable targets get louder before a national election. Read more.

Guatemala RPCVs Lara Weiss and Nora Wynne — accompanied by their 3-year-old twin daughters —turned down for marriage license
“In accordance with the laws of the state of California, a marriage license can only be issued to an unmarried man and an unmarried woman,” said Vicki Cushman, supervisor of vital records. “Until the law is changed, we are bound to uphold that law and can only issue a marriage license to an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. “If you would like the law changed, you need to contact your government officials at both the state and national levels.” Cushman then handed the couple three pages, neatly stapled together, that contained Cushman’s speech and contact information for several politicians — from President George W. Bush to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to Assemblymember Patty Berg.

Wednesday marked the fifth year demonstrators congregated outside the Humboldt County Courthouse, as multiple same-sex couples rode the courthouse elevator to the fifth floor to apply for marriage licenses.

Nora Wynne said she and Lara Weiss met in Guatemala in 1995 while in the Peace Corps. After a year, their friendship blossomed into something more. The two married in San Francisco in 2004 after San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom directed the county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Although Wynne said she is aware that until laws change, her marriage to Weiss is not legally valid, events such as Wednesday’s are just one of many steps to marriage equality. “We know that when people realize it’s not a religious issue, but a civil rights issue, and they change the laws accordingly,” Wynne said. “These are all just steps toward the goal.” Read more.

Caption: Friends Abigail Frankel, left, and Abigail Hastings-Tharp, right, both 4 1/2 years old, stand on the Humboldt County Courthouse steps in the rain, Wednesday afternoon, while couples of the same sex apply for civil marriage licenses. Photo: Katie O’Neill/The Eureka Reporter

Read more about Gay Issues and the Peace Corps.

Remember those who dared imagine a peaceful world

Uganda RPCV Edward P. Fisher writes: Remember those who dared imagine a peaceful world
A lot has changed in America since that tragic day in Dallas, now more than 40 years ago, when the music died. For somebody like me, who lived through those times, I can still hear that clarion clear voice, and these famous words from the Kennedy inaugural: "Now the trumpet summons us to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself ..."

Many who heard those words have forgotten, and others will never know, how great it felt to be an American in those days. I can tell you those were exciting times, full of danger and challenge, risk and anticipation, but, honestly I never felt more alive, never believed in my country and the good it could do more and was never more inspired by and proud of the high-minded qualities of its leaders.

Unfortunately, however, the days of "the Ugly American" are back, and average citizens like you and me are becoming painfully aware of the fact that our corporate culture of greed is not always something to be glorified — that its excesses and pitiless ethos tend to exploit and marginalize the poor, the undereducated and the racially disenfranchised — in other words, most of the people of the world.

After the catastrophe and upheaval of World War II, and especially after the apocalyptic dread that the Atomic Age ushered in, almost everyone understood we had to put an end to war before it put an end to us. President Kennedy struck a chord among the young when he called on them to imagine an "army of peace" — a Peace Corps. He understood that the universal dream of peace was not impossible but, in the final analysis, a technical problem requiring rigorous experimentation and vigorous practical application.

America's reputation has suffered in recent years because of a series of fateful misjudgments. To bring it back will take hard work, but the task is not impossible. During the terrible tsunami following Christmas Day 2004, even after the worldwide condemnation of our pre-emptive war in Iraq, America redeemed itself in the eyes of the world, if only for a moment, because of our prompt humanitarian response to the crisis. I thought to myself at the time: "If only we were doing more of that — helping people!" Imagine if, over the past half-century, America had spent as much on promoting and preparing for peace as it has on its bloated, oversized military budget!

Imagine if these vast resources and sums, and the creative energies of our best minds, had gone to fund an "army of peace" instead of overthrowing and undermining governments all over the planet, or bombing millions of simple peasant people back into the Stone Ages. I guarantee you the world would be a quite different place. Read more.

Tschetter meets with UN Secretary General Ki-moon

Tschetter meets with UN Secretary General Ki-moon
Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter traveled to New York yesterday to meet with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon. This is the first time in the 46-year history of the Peace Corps that a meeting has been held between the Peace Corps Director and the Secretary General of the United Nations. During the meeting, the two discussed possible areas of meaningful collaboration.

A native of South Korea, the Secretary General thanked Director Tschetter for the work that Peace Corps accomplished during its time in South Korea. Over 2,000 Peace Corps Volunteers served in South Korea from 1966 – 1981. “Many successful Koreans in the private and public sector were taught by Peace Corps Volunteers,” said the Secretary General, “and now Korea is using the Peace Corps as a model to do aid work in Africa.”

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged that he shares the vision of the Peace Corps and is a proponent of its work promoting world peace and understanding. “Your organization might be the largest and most respected Volunteer organization in the world,” says Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Director Tschetter. Read more.

Read more about Ron Tschetter, the 17th Director of the Peace Corps.

Read more about the Peace Corps and the United Nations.

RPCVs return to their Countries of Service in Africa

Congo Kinshasa RPCV Beth Duff-Brown writes: I kept my promise. The last time I was here, I told the village I would come back again in 10 years
I kept my promise. The last time I was here, I told the village I would come back again in 10 years. My cook, Tshinyama, is still alive, despite rumors to the contrary. The tin roofs are rustier, and some of the mango trees are gone. But the same bells rang at 5:30 this morning at the old brick church, where I've been given a tiny room and cot, and the choir sang hymns that I knew by heart when I first was here.

We started off yesterday morning, shopping in Kananga, the diamond-rich province in south-central Congo. We went by the Beltexco, a massive provisions chain, so I could shop for the children and buy myself some beans and rice. With Jim's old pickup truck, we bought 200 notebooks - something many children can't afford - and hundreds of pens, rubber balls, powdered milk, soap, onions and oil. The head of Beltexco, when he heard what we were doing, donated 10 cartons of high-glucose biscuits for the kids.

We then transferred everything to a Nissan 4x4 for the 100-mile drive south. A trip that would take about 90 minutes on a paved road takes us six hours. The road is so red and sandy that getting up to 40 mph is rare. There's a debate in Congo on how many miles of paved roads there are in a country the size of the United States east of the Mississippi - some say 300 miles, others say 600 miles.

We arrive at dusk, and the priest at the mission does what most Congolese do when they meet a stranger from a foreign land: He welcomes me in and makes me at home. When word gets out that I've come back, people from around this village of about 3,000 people gather at the church rectory, quietly whispering my name and asking if it's really me. Read more.

Constance G. Konold revisits Cameroon
In December 2003, I made a sentimental trip back to my former Peace Corps posting in Central Africa. Comparable in population size only to my hometown of South Bend, the city of Garoua and the village of Pitoa where I had taught English are dusty sub-Saharan outposts cornered by Nigeria, Chad and the Central African Republic.

Thirty-five years ago, joining the Peace Corps was so daring for its time that I knew I was doing it over my father's protests from the grave. Friends were impressed when FBI agents called on them to check my references. I had recently earned my master's degree from the University of Notre Dame, but when I was assigned to "the Cameroons" (those recently joined French and English colonies were once known as that), I thought I was headed to islands in the South Pacific rather than a country in Africa.

My arrival -- just as Angela was finishing her first three months of Peace Corps service -- was portentous. I was amused and alarmed to see her mirroring events and emotions I had experienced. I found myself parroting Peace Corps Proverb No. 1: Stick out the hellish first three months and be rewarded with a lifetime of heavenly memories. I skipped the corollary to that which is: You can never go home to mall-heaven again. This she will learn in two years when erstwhile friends will inspect her as an oddity from a safe distance and her family, after an initial attempt at enthusiasm, will eventually change the subject whenever Cameroon is mentioned.

When we met, Angela was suffering from Peace Corps doldrums. A volunteer's mother had just been trampled to death by an elephant in the nearby bush. Five volunteers had just been sent home HIV-positive. She was underemployed with only eight hours of work per week, teaching math and biology in English at the Garoua high school. And when she taught, she had to deal with 60 students per classroom. She was trying to fill time by learning the Fulani language, Foufulde, or improving her French.

Pretty, slim, bright and blonde, she was also dealing with the frustrating realization that platonic friendships are deemed fairy tales in this culture where polygamy is still condoned. And there didn't seem to be any potential women friends beating a path to her door. Angela also was upset that the locals labeled her "nasara" or foreigner. That very morning I had been thrilled to be greeted by "Nasara! Nasara!" as I strolled the legendary Pitoa market, a weekly crossroads of Hausa, Fulani, Fali, Kirdi and M'Bororo ethnic groups. With time, Angela will learn that nasara is not pejorative but merely descriptive. She will learn how to feel comfortable being the only white face in the crowd.

Despite the physical and emotional challenges of Peace Corps service, I told Angela that those two years were the best and most informative of my life. I wanted to take myself totally out of context to test my mettle, to find out if I was a survivor without the framework of my family and community. I gained a clear view of myself and my country from a new perspective, through a different ethnic and cultural lens. What I learned gave me the self- confidence and flexibility to live a fascinating existence in many foreign countries on several continents with people from all walks of life. I also gained in friendship thanks to my Peace Corps volunteer network which, to this day, remains a precious touchstone for me in the U.S. while I continue to live abroad.

The new breed of volunteers, many of whom are mall-trained and addicted to the Internet, are apt to complain if they so much as lose cell-phone service. My generation-old tales of having to harvest peanuts with a machete, deal with hot- and cold-running cockroaches, learn to dunk eggs in a bucket of water to test for freshness, buy live chickens rather than possibly tainted butchered ones, and not think of the flies that had swarmed on the gorgeous pieces of beef fillet on my dinner plate might now be nothing more than engrossing hardship stories used as a Peace Corps leadership tool.

Since our meeting, Angela has decided not to throw in the towel. She has come to see Cameroon as one of the most hospitable countries in the world and that it is possible for Cameroonians to excel intellectually and professionally. Read more.

Return to Guinea-Bissau by RPCV Matthew Bremen
I spent this past summer as a U.S. Department of State intern in Guinea-Bissau, where two years before I had finished a stint as a Peace Corps volunteer. Upon arrival, as soon as I left the aircraft, it felt like being home again. It was 2:00 a.m. on a hot and humid night. Familiar faces, smells, and sounds surrounded me. Although it had been two years, it felt like I had left Bissau only yesterday. During the usual hour spent waiting for my backpack, I realized that my experience this time around would be quite different. Not only was I whisked through customs by one of the U.S. Embassy drivers, but my apartment in the U.S. Embassy compound was more comfortable than the apartment I had just left in Washington DC. My work would be quite different too. Needless to say, my Peace Corps days were over. It was time to get used to being a part of the diplomatic community.

Administering the Ambassador’s development project fund exposed me to a different type of development work. The Special Self-Help fund assists local groups by providing financial aid to build schools, wells, dispensaries and other public works. The process was complicated from the start because of budget cuts at the Department of State. Upon my arrival, I was expected to solicit and review proposals, make site visits, oversee the final selection process, and do all the paperwork necessary to commit the funds, including drafting the grant agreements all in three months. As many of us have learned while working at the local level, development initiatives are most sustainable when launched from within the community. I was lucky to team up with a Foreign Service National with nine years of institutional memory from working on SSH programs in Guinea-Bissau. I soon began to understand the philosophy behind the fund.

Returning to Guinea-Bissau as a State Department intern allowed me to gain a broader understanding of development work. Whether or not one agrees with the source or management of "development project" funds, understanding a foreign government or international organization’s objectives is important. While waiting at the airport before I was to leave for the United States, a friend of mine asked if I would return to Guinea-Bissau. "Of course," I replied, knowing that I would, although not knowing when or in what capacity. After I said tearful good-byes and took in the sounds and smells of the country for one last time, my plane took off. Looking out of the window during takeoff I noticed a change. There were far more zinc-roofed houses than I recalled from before. In Guinea-Bissau, zinc is more expensive than thatch, and zinc roofs can be seen as symbols of prosperity. With the proliferation of NGOs, varied international support, and a greater emphasis on local initiative, positive change does seem to be taking place.  Read more.

Read more about Peace Corps Volunteers who return to their Countries of Service.

Spotlight on Peace Corps Malawi

RPCV Janet Littlefield has built an orphanage in in the village of Chigamba to shelter, feed, and give medical care to homelss children
Janet Littlefield first went to Malawi as a Peace Corps volunteer after she graduated from Skidmore College in 1998. She was assigned to teach in the Ntaja region in the small, landlocked African nation tucked between Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia. While there, she funded the education of an orphan almost her age name Shaibu Kaliati, who today is the director of the Little Field Home, named by the staff in honor of its founder. Littlefield sends the money, Kaliati oversees the orphanage. Littlefield guesses so far the investment into the orphanage has totaled $15,000.

The orphanage is impacting more than just children in Malawi. This summer, Janet Littlefield brought four teenagers from the academy with her to Chigamba for a month-long trip that affected the students and fortified her mission. "It changed their lives going there; they think differently," Littlefield said about the students. During the recent trip to Chigamba, the four Hebron Academy students slept on the cement floor of the home along with the children, living without electricity or running water. They taught seminars on nutrition, AIDs, goat husbandry and health. The group was met with singing by the villagers.

Littlefield, a science teacher originally from Union, started the home in 2003 with money she donated from her teaching salary and from fundraisers. Since then, the orphanage has grown from 20 children to 56. They are cared for by a staff of 14 teachers and workers. An international AIDs charity called Avert reported that in 2005 more than half a million children in Malawi had been orphaned by AIDs. By 2003, roughly 14 percent of the country's adult population had been infected with HIV, according to data from the United Nations Development Programme.  Read more.

Greg Dorr describes Peace Corps stay in Malawi at Camden Public Library
Dorr said that the sheer joy of the work he does is that there is no schedule or itinerary. “I get up in the morning and am free to do whatever I want that day. It makes you extremely motivated. More than that is almost too complicated to describe, but remember it does take some time to boil water for tea first thing in the morning and, without electricity, night comes early (6 p.m.), so you’re limited to what you might want to read or write by kerosene lantern. I’m greatly enjoying writing letters with my Cross fountain pen.”

“From my village to the nearest town of any size is a 20-mile ride in the back of a pickup truck. I’ve counted 47 people in the back of that truck with me. I was holding on to the rollbar with only one foot inside the truck body, as were the two people in front of me and the two behind me. I’ve never traveled on the paved road from Mzuzu to Lilongwe (the capital city) without passing a couple of overturned vehicles. Every vehicle is loaded with passengers. It feels like just a matter of time before you’re going to end up in the ditch,” he said.

The Tumbuka are a handsome, proud, friendly, gracious, engaging people, he said. “Greeting is nearly mandatory, so we foreigners refer to a Malawi traffic jam as the delay you experience where ever you go in having to exchange greetings, handshakes etc with everyone you meet,” Dorr noted. “I’ll often go for a walk with my violin, that way I can play music and not have to be speaking all the time to all the people I meet, and they enjoy the Irish jigs and reels immensely,” he said. He said he is unaware of any melody instruments in the community, outside of his violin, but drumming is everywhere. “Groups of boys seem to be either drumming or playing soccer. And singing is ubiquitous. People walk the path past my house on their way to their gardens singing. At night groups of people gather and sing and dance to the most exotic drumbeats. The absence of electricity seems to contribute to community cohesion. You don’t have people sitting in their individual houses starring at a small lit screen, not speaking to each other.”  Read more.

Speech by President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi: American Peace Corps Are Best Friends Indeed
Let me begin by extending to you all a very warm welcome to the residence as we celebrate 40 years of Peace Corps volunteerism in Malawi. This is a great day to you as well as to us Malawians because it marks the spirit of sharing and solidarity that the United States of America and Malawi have enjoyed together through Peace Corps Volunteers over the years. It is indeed now 40 years since the first group of Peace Corps Volunteers came to Malawi as part of President John Kennedy's commitment to nation building in developing countries in 1963.

I invited you to come here today for me and the entire Malawians society to experience the joy in solidarity with you that 40 years have passed since the first group of Peace Corps Volunteers came to Malawi. Today I want to congratulate you all and express the gratitude of the government of Malawi and my own, for entering into relations of friendship with us for the good of our two countries.

I congratulate you because it is always the young people with the spirit of self-help and discipline, concern for others and their aspiration who pioneer to a new era. It is the young people who are the engine for reform, whether it is Nicole Nelson teaching at Chikangawa Community Day Secondary School in Mzimba or Emily Petersen working at Tulonkhondo Health Centre in Mwanza. I cannot therefore underestimate the remarkable contributions Peace Corps Volunteers have made in Malawi during the past 40 years.

Moreover, it is my ardent desire that the Peace Corps Volunteers should expand their programmes of activities to include teacher training, agriculture and vocational training. These are very pertinent areas for this country to achieve sustainable development. I am aware that this would require an increase in the financial resources usually made available to the Peace Corps development assistance programme. Certainly, Ambassador Meece will look into his request with the necessary authorities in Washington.

I am also aware that as Peace Corps you live under difficult conditions in the rural areas and that your wages are small but you do worthwhile work. I thank you most sincerely for all the sacrifice and efforts of walking together with Malawians and placing your individual skills and talents at their service to shape a better Malawi.

Let this be a day of celebration as well as a day to reaffirm our commitment to work hand in hand in the development of Malawi, and strengthen the good will and mutual understanding existing between the citizens of our two governments. Read more.

Read more about Peace Corps Malawi.

Coffee and the Peace Corps

Honduras RPCV Jon Ferguson owns Cultiva  where he sells organically grown, fair-trade coffee
"I was a Hillside Farming Agricultural Extensionist Peace Corps Volunteer in Northwestern Honduras in 2000," Ferguson said. “I took three months of extensive language and technical training, mostly related to soil conservation and organic farming.” The group worked a little with coffee production and visited a few farms, he said.

After the Peace Corps, Ferguson relocated to Seattle and found a job with Zoka Coffee and Tea Co., famous for training its baristas for competition. After returning to Lincoln, Nebraska Ferguson tried his hand selling records, but he got sick of haggling with buyers and sellers. “I always felt that I wasn’t going the right direction in my life,” he said. “I kept on thinking about my experiences in the Peace Corps … and decided that I should get into coffee.”

Coffee is the second largest commodity traded in the world, just after oil, and it uses more pesticides in its production than any other agricultural product. “Most everything I have is organically grown, fair-trade coffee,” Ferguson said. Ferguson opened Cultiva Coffee, which he describes as a micro-roastery, on Dec. 20 of last year. Café Imports, where Ferguson buys his beans, sells direct relationship coffee, meaning the people who buy the coffee have direct dealings with the people who grow the coffee, as opposed to buying beans from a coffee broker, which is basically commodity coffee. “I wanted to help improve the lives of marginalized peoples in coffee producing countries, aka the third world,” Ferguson said.  Read more.

Donna Tabor, a Nicaragua Peace Corps worker, told them, "We can sell your beans"
In January 2002, the banks were about to foreclose on El Porvenir, this 640-acre cooperative coffee finca, or farm, in northwest Nicaragua. A rustic wooden warehouse held a 30,000-pound harvest in want of a market. Gaitan, the co-op's vice president, listened stoically as Donna Tabor, a Peace Corps worker, told them, "We can sell your beans." Such confidence is characteristic of Tabor, who lives in Nicaragua. But when she presented the idea to Building New Hope, the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit she works with, its co-founder Barbara Wein took a deep breath and wailed, "How are we going to sell 30,000 pounds of coffee?"

On the morning of May 7, 2002, a 20-foot truck pulled up to the loading dock at the La Prima Espresso Co. roastery in Pittsburgh. John Notte, La Prima's roaster, had met Tabor the year before when she was in Pittsburgh for a visit. "I'm a coffee man, and these farmers are coffee men," he said, explaining his motivation to help. "I didn't want to just write a check. I wanted to be part of something." What Notte and La Prima owner Sam Patti agreed to be part of was a project to roast the first 2,000 pounds of the harvest for free, the rest at cost, and to sell it in their coffee shops, remitting more than half from the sales to Building New Hope. Meanwhile, the nonprofit shot off an initial payment of $3,000 to El Porvenir to keep the banks at bay.

The 43 families at El Porvenir share the anxiety of another lean season. But the cooperative and the nonprofit arrived at an encouraging milestone this month. Wein, with a small entourage that included Notte, made the two-hour, bone-jarring, four-wheel trek up what in few spots only vaguely resembled a road to hand-deliver the last payment. At a makeshift ceremony to mark the occasion, Gaitan and Eugenio Laguna Gutierrez, the president of El Porvenir, sat at little school desks with their guests on a covered concrete porch amid the ballyhoo of chickens and roosters. "Everything you have sent us has gone toward our debt, which is now a very small amount," Gaitan told the group. He said the farm incurred much of its debt to repair property after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. "The policy of the government here is that the poor person does not exist. Had it not been for your effort, there would be 43 more families in the streets.

"We know you made a sacrifice to come here," Gaitan said. "Access is difficult, and, this is Nicaragua." He smiled at the chuckles that conceded Nicaragua's status as a tourist destination. "It was a leap of faith on both our parts," said Wein. "But when John committed to roast the beans, how could we say no?" Wein founded Building New Hope in 1992 with her husband, Jorge Portillo, a native of El Salvador. They initially set out to help civil war refugees repatriate in El Salvador, in a village the returnees named Nueva Esperanza - New Hope. Since then, with Tabor on the ground and vigorous in the cause of Nicaragua's betterment, Building New Hope has helped construct and support schools, small businesses, a women's clinic and water systems in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Read more.

Congressman Sam Farr supports the International Coffee Organization
Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world and over 25 million people depend on it for their livelihood. After hitting a 30-year low in 2001, the price of coffee has begun to recover. But the extra cents in no way signal an end to the coffee crisis. Despite higher prices, small-scale farmers still cannot earn a decent income. As a result of the crisis, many coffee farmers have lost their farms or have been forced to migrate to cities or other countries. In Colombia, farmers who once could make a good living harvesting coffee often have turned to growing coca, the base ingredient for cocaine.

"Though prices have recovered somewhat recently, the effects of the coffee crisis are still reverberating among the many millions of vulnerable people dependent on coffee for their livelihoods," stated Congressman Farr. "Back when I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia, local coffee farmers were able to support their families with a stable income. Now that we have rejoined the International Coffee Organization, I hope the United States will be able to take an active role in returning that kind of stability and security to coffee farmers throughout the world." Congressman Sam Farr served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia in the 1960's. Read more.

Read more about the Peace Corps and Returned Volunteers working with coffee growers in Central and South America.

Two Senegal RPCVs fight AIDS

In "The After-Death Room" Senegal RPCV Michael McColly catalogs his trips through Asia, Africa, and the United States as he attempts to get a grip on the global AIDS crisis
There are a lot of emotional and intellectual benefits to working as a journalist and activist: See the world, bring the news, have a hand in improving people's lives. But as Michael McColly well knows, more tangible perks are harder to come by. In The After-Death Room: Journey Into Spiritual Activism, he catalogs his trips through Asia, Africa, and the United States as he attempts to get a grip on the global AIDS crisis. It's a powerful, panoramic glimpse into the religious aspects of AIDS activism, the reality of the problem among poor sex workers, and the various bureaucratic bottlenecks that hamper better treatment.

A native of Marion, Ind., McColly moved to Chicago in 1980 to pursue an acting career, followed by stints in the Peace Corps, the University of Chicago Divinity School and the University of Washington, where he earned a degree in creative writing. In 1996 he was diagnosed as HIV-positive, which inspired him to become more closely involved in studying the AIDS crisis. Much of The After-Death Room paints an alarming portrait of the epidemic: The president of South Africa standing at a 2000 conference denying that HIV causes AIDS; doctors in India who refuse to treat AIDS patients; the difficulty of getting medicine in Vietnam (in 2001 he was told that exactly seven people in the country had access to HIV combination-drug therapy).

Chicago, the subject of one chapter in the book, has its own concerns. McColly interviews local activists, social workers, and doctors at Cook County Jail, which takes in an estimated 4,000 HIV- positive people every year. Public-health programs are overwhelmed and better health care for criminals tops no politician's legislative agenda, but McColly argues that such willful ignorance only perpetuates the problem. "We can't give them anything but the very basic health care," he says. "But the fact is, these people go back into their communities. They go back and they have sex . . . I know that you don't want to give them much health care, but these people affect others."

Fixing the problem, McColly says, requires a host of changes: stronger international public-health initiatives, more financial cooperation from pharmaceutical companies, and more work to remove the stigma of HIV from communities. And in The After-Death Room, he also writes at length about the small but substantial role that his yoga training has played in his own treatment, and some of the most intriguing passages in the book follow him passing that knowledge on to others. Read more.

Senegal RPCV Jennifer Astone devotes herself to the “AIDS orphans” of sub-Saharan Africa as Director of the Firelight Foundation
Jennifer Astone earned an undergraduate degree in political science from Barnard College, then joined the Peace Corps and was sent to a village in Senegal because she spoke French. “It was a real eye opener.” There was no plumbing, the adults were illiterate. The market was an eight-mile walk away. “It was a very humbling experience, and very exciting,” she said. She worked to identify the needs of the village and get funding for projects, helping villagers make a living through local crafts including furniture making. Her French, as it turned out, did not help her. “No one in my village spoke French,” she said.

She earned a doctorate in anthropology from Binghamton University in New York, where she continued to study the African continent and the causes of its poverty. In her studies, she was exposed to the views of anthropologists who stressed that people seeking to help underdeveloped parts of the world should set aside their preconceptions about how to “help,” and instead ask the local folks to identify their needs. She performed field work in three African villages. She studied archival economic information including records from tax collectors. She interviewed elders. She developed a greater understanding of Africa’s complex issues, learning how colonialism, labor migration and World War II contributed to the continent’s poverty. She deepened her understanding of the world as a “smaller,” interconnected place, studying how Africans helped ease the Allies’ rubber shortages during World War II, and how they helped fight the Axis on the Belgian front.

Jennifer Astone became a program officer for the Global Fund for Women, working in the area of women’s human rights. She became more involved in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and met Kerry Olson, founder and president of the then-recently-launched Firelight Foundation. In 2000, he asked her to join the foundation’s advisory board, which she did. In April 2001, she became the foundation’s first director. “Since then I’ve had quite the ride,” she said. The donor list continued to grow, and after three years of support mostly from individuals, entities such as the Johnson & Johnson Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation came on board. “Our work resonates with the donors,” she said. Read more.

Read more about the Peace Corps and AIDS.

Fathers and Sons: Tom Bissell tells the story of how Vietnam came home to the family

Tom Bissell tells the story of how Vietnam came home to the family
Tom Bissell was not yet born when his father, Marine Lieutenant John Bissell, spent his combat tour on the battlefields around Danang. He was barely out of infancy when Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) fell to communist forces in 1975 – itself an event that was highly traumatic for many returned war veterans like the elder Mr. Bissell. The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam, by Tom Bissell is a highly ambitious and ultimately successful work by a very talented young writer. Part history, part travelogue, part painful family biography, it centers on the two men's 2005 trip to Vietnam.

There had been a close but sometimes uneasy relationship between the two ever since Tom Bissell's parents divorced when he was still a young child in northern Michigan. That prickliness flared now and then on the trip. But there was also an opening up between father and son. " 'Look at these hills,' my father said, pointing at the slopes and rises all around us. 'How we fought and scratched for them.' "Some brief, terrible recognition in his voice and eyes – some distance closed too quickly, some unexpectedly recovered past – spooked me deeply. My father was softly shaking his head." Having studied the war in great detail (which he analyzes quite convincingly in "The Father of All Things"), the younger man finally asks his father: " 'Dad, forgive me, but how the hell did you guys manage to lose? You had every imaginable advantage.' " 'Funny,' my father said, looking away. 'I was just thinking the same thing about that myself. What can I tell you?.... We had a lot of advantages, that's certainly true. But this wasn't our country. We were all a long way from home.' "  Read more.

Daniel Ford reviews:  Tom Bissell's "The Father of All Things
In the end, I found myself liking the father more and the son less. The Bissells' visit to Hue -- the city near the Demilitarized Zone where, during the 1968 Tet offensive, the U.S. Marines won the battle but lost their country's support -- captures the flavor of "The Father of All Things." When the two men arrive at the Citadel, an imperial palace complex, Bissell Sr. pronounces the enclave "neat." That's not good enough for Bissell Jr., who prods his father throughout the trip for therapeutic exchanges that never come. At Hue, Bissell Jr. chides his father ("Come on, 'Neat'?") and then launches into a description of how the French, who once ruled Vietnam, found it "humbling" that Vietnamese culture was "hundreds of years older than French culture." Thus, Bissell Jr. says, the French were willing to negotiate once war started.

He asks his father repeatedly whether he is "bitter" that the Marines didn't train him in cultural sensitivity. Bissell Sr. won't confess to bitterness on that score, but after sucking his teeth and thinking a bit, he allows that the U.S. could have accomplished a lot with humanitarian aid in rural areas if we had understood the country better. Read more.

Paul McLeary reviews: Tom Bissell's "The Father of All Things
Their exchanges, in revealing the chasm between father and son, suggest how war creates two kinds of people: those who lived through it and those who will never understand what it was like to live through it. During the trip, Tom tries, time and again, to get his father to admit that the war isn't finished for him, and the more the father protests that he has come to terms with it, the more the gap between them seems to grow. When they visit the beach where his father first set foot in Vietnam, Bissell tries to get his father to talk. His father asks for a moment, staring at the ocean in confusion and recognition. "This was where the man I knew as my father was born," Bissell writes. "It was as though he were looking upon himself through a bloody veil of memory."

Sons have always had to tell themselves a great many things about their fathers, those tall, whiskered, larger-than-life figures they aspire to be — and sometimes fear becoming. Perhaps no son ever fully reconciles himself to his father, for good or ill. Bissell's beautifully written book adds a chapter to the rich literature of familial struggle. Read more.

Joe Klein reviews: Tom Bissell's "The Father of All Things
It is a supreme act of authorly self-abnegation, and an utter relief from the solipsistic memoirs that clutter the shelves, that Tom Bissell allows his father to be a far more sympathetic character than he portrays himself to be. After a visit to the Cu Chi tunnels, young Bissell insists on firing an AK-47 at a shooting range the Vietnamese have opened next to the museum, as if unaware that the very sound of the gun would raise horrific memories for his father. '' 'Now imagine,' my father piped up, 'that 20 guys are firing back at you, and people everywhere are screaming.' ''

It would be wonderful and heartwarming to report that the Bissells eventually have a transcendent moment of father-son bonding, but this is far too honest a book for that. The distance between them diminishes, but it never really evaporates. John Bissell does have an emotional moment where he puts the war to rest, but it is with a South Vietnamese veteran, not with his son, and I won't ruin it for you by describing it in detail.

Tom Bissell seems more frustrated, and incomplete, than his father in the end -- which may well be the fate of his generation, and the next generation, of soldiers' kids. The devastating, messy slog of Bissell's literary journey reminds us that the answer to his question -- ''Why another?'' -- applies not only to books about Vietnam but also to arrogant, futile wars like Vietnam ... and Iraq: Why another? And again, why another?  Read more.

Read more about Uzbekistan RPCV Tom Bissell and his writing.

Read more about Peace Corps fathers and sons.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and Global Warming

Congo Kinshasa RPCV Beth Duff Brown writes: Global Warming Effects Hunting for Inuit
Nattaq and other Inuit, the Arctic people of the United States, Canada, Russia, and Greenland - in Alaska where they're known as Eskimos - have been warning the world for more than a decade about the shifting winds and thinning ice. Hunting patterns thousands of years old are in jeopardy. 'Our way of life is at stake,' says Sheila Watt-Cloutier, just nominated with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore for a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on climate change. Watt-Cloutier will argue before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington on Thursday that the United States, as the world's largest emitter of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, is violating her people's rights.

While for many global warming is a distant threat, for the Inuit its impact is a reality now. 'It's about real people who live on top of the world,' she said this week before leaving for the hearing. The commission, part of the Organization of American States, has no authority over the U.S. government. But Watt-Cloutier says she's looking for a moral and political victory, to help make climate change a bigger issue in future elections. Nattaq is one of 63 Inuit from Canada and Alaska on the OAS petition she is representing, filed on behalf of the world's 155,000 Inuit. Read more.

RPCV Mike Tidwell's house, once an ordinary 1915 bungalow, has become perhaps the closest thing to a "zero-carbon" home in the area
Across the Washington area, homeowners alarmed about utility rates and greenhouse gases are seeking to slash their power use or produce their own energy from renewable sources. Among them, Tidwell and a handful of others have succeeded in creating homes that require only minimal energy from power plants and fossil fuels. Tidwell, an environmental activist concerned with climate change, has outfitted his home with energy-efficient appliances, a corn-burning stove and solar panels. Now, the two-story house sometimes produces more electricity than it needs and sends the surplus to Pepco's distribution system.

Tidwell and his then-wife started with a $7,500 home-equity loan. They replaced incandescent light bulbs with more costly compact fluorescent bulbs, which work in the same fixtures and provide the same light but use a third as much energy. They bought an EPA-designated "Energy Star" refrigerator, which cost $150 more but used less than a third as much power. For heat, they replaced a natural-gas furnace with a $2,400 stove that burns corn kernels. Because corn consumes carbon dioxide as it grows, burning it doesn't release new greenhouse gases, he said. The corn, of a type used for animal feed, is grown in Mount Airy and brought to Takoma Park in a truck that burns soy-based biodiesel fuel. In town, the corn is stored in a 25-foot-tall silo owned by a community cooperative. In especially cold months, Tidwell has to get a load once a week. Author Mike Tidwell, founder of the Chesapeake Climate Action  Committee, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Congo Kinshasa. Read more.

Congressman Thomas Petri working on bill to ease global warming
Thomas Petri has co-authored legislation with Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., called the Keep America Competitive Global Warming Policy Act, a bill that gradually imposes restrictions on the carbon-based pollution that many scientists believe is causing global warming. A little over a week ago Petri and Udall met with leaders of major businesses and environmental groups in Washington, D.C., to discuss global warming issues and the framework advanced at that meeting calls for a mandatory cap-and-trade program with specific limits on greenhouse emissions. Petri said businesses that succeed in reducing emissions would be allowed to sell unused emission allowances to other businesses that are having greater difficulty complying with limits.

Petri said the legislation that is being proposed is very similar to what European countries are doing to help the environment but admitted that it would be impossible for every industry to reduce all of their emissions. “The whole idea of making limestone is to heat it, and it emits carbon,” Petri said. “But we need it for cement and a variety of other things. So if you had a one size fits all and you said you can't emit, they would be out of business and it would disrupt our economy.  “This is more of a balance approach that will enable people to emit if it is really necessary, but will kind of discourage them from doing it and encourage people to use technology to reduce emissions as much as possible,” he added. “It's a place to start. It doesn't make everyone real happy but it looks like it is going to get pretty broad support.”

Petri admitted there is a large amount of controversy surrounding global warming and that most people think carbon-based emissions have some sort of an effect on the issue. “It is true the Earth warmed and cooled a number of times before people got involved, but it's also true that there has been a big increase in carbon-based emissions into the atmosphere,” Petri said. “Mostly everybody thinks that has some contributing factor to global warming.”  Congressman Tom Petri of Wisconsin served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Somalia in the 1960's. Read more.

Read more about what Returned Peace Corps Volunteers are doing about Global Warming.

Kenya RPCV Guy Consolmagno blends faith and science as astronomer for the Vatican

Kenya RPCV Guy Consolmagno blends faith and science as astronomer for the Vatican
As a student and budding scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brother Guy Consolmagno used to wake up on Tuesday mornings excited to start his day. He was eager for a class on meteorites. "You're touching bits of outer space," Consolmagno, now 54, said in an interview, holding out his hand as if his empty palm was filled with a rock propelled from the heavens. "It's as good, sometimes better, than moon rocks." The self-professed nerd would go on to combine his love for the physical world with a passion for the spiritual one. Now, as a Vatican astronomer, Consolmagno spends much of his time talking to fellow astronomers, nonscientists, clergy, kids and skeptics about how science and faith, despite public perception, coexist.

Consolmagno says many Catholics have been taught that Catholicism and science don't mix, though they always have. The Big Bang theory that the Earth originated in an extremely dense and hot space and expanded was developed by a Belgian priest. Though many people believe that Galileo was shunned by the Church for saying the sun was the center of the universe, he was close to many church leaders. Consolmagno said church officials don't advocate for a strict interpretation of the book of Genesis, which includes the Christian creation story. "The cosmology of Genesis is not only not the cosmology of the 21st century. It wasn't even the cosmology of the second century," he said. "The Romans knew that the world looked different from a flat plane with a bowl over it and water above and below. And that didn't seem to bother them."

The conflict between evolutionary science and creationism in the United States comes from the Protestant tradition, not the Catholic one, he said. "American Catholicism is in a Protestant culture," he said. "We borrow a lot of our attitudes, along with a lot of our hymns, and not always the best of either." Instead of being at odds with each other, God's universe and physical reality are one, he said. He often is asked if the Church will meet its downfall if intelligent life is found on another planet. Consolmagno argues that such a discovery would only heighten the mystery of the Catholic God. "It will help us remember that we're not as clever as we thought we were," he said.  Read more.

Consolmagno discovered he loved teaching while serving in the Peace Corps in Kenya
"At one point I wondered why was I wasting my time doing astronomy when people are starving in the world - a little voice of conscience. So I joined the Peace Corps. While I was there, I discovered that I loved teaching. But mostly I discovered that the people in Africa, the people in Kenya, where I was, wanted to know about astronomy. That's what they wanted from me. And they were as fascinated and as excited about it as I was, as anyone in America."

"And I understood then why it's important. It's one of those things that makes us more than just well-fed cows. It satisfies a really deep hunger to know, to go someplace, to explore. And that is a hunger that is as human, as basic to human beings as food and shelter and anything else. And it's denied to a person only at the cost of denying them their humanity. By telling poor people, "No, no, you have to go hunt for food, you can't do astronomy," you are saying that they're less than human. And that's wrong. And it's a tragedy."

"When I came back from the Peace Corps, I taught for four years, and enjoyed it so much I decided to teach full-time. And so I entered a teaching order, the Jesuits. What I didn't realize was that they were going to pull me out of teaching to do full-time research at the Vatican. There's a small group of about a dozen Jesuits at the Vatican. I'm one of them. We come from all over the world. We all do just full-time astronomy. But in addition, I do a lot of public talks and things like my participation in this conference." Read more.

Consolmagno says the space within the human soul where religion and science overlap is inhabited by poetry and metaphor
Even the most calculating scientist entered the field through the doorway of a heart filled with passion for the work, whether he believes in a supreme creator. And that passion can lead right to the feet of Almighty God, Consolmagno says. “What gets you up in the morning and into the lab?” he asked. “Day to day, what motivates you? It’s love for what you’re doing, and wherever you find that love, you’ll find God. That’s where you’ll find your religion.”

Those overlaps within the human heart are why different scientists analyzing exactly the same data can come to vastly different conclusions. “Scientists are human beings who make choices based on their own perspectives and experiences,” Consolmagno says. “All are accurate, and all are different. People bring different ideas to the equation.” Science doesn’t actually “prove” anything. It merely “describes,” he said. “When someone says something has been proven scientifically, all that’s been proven is that the person doesn’t know what science is,” he said. “There are big differences between information, understanding and wisdom.”

Scientific theories must do more than merely satisfy the data. They must do so in a way that is “elegant.” For example, when Einstein once heard that a rival scientist had completed experiments that disproved much of his Theory of Relativity, the renowned genius simply said, “He must be wrong,” Consolmagno said. “Einstein held his theory was true because it was so elegant, it fit together so well, that it had to be true,” he said. Science is not “literal,” Consolmagno said. It’s “poetry and metaphor” for how the universe works. “The same God who came to save you, an individual, created individual molecules, atoms and electrons,” Consolmagno said. “When I’m doing science, I’m playing with God.”  Read more.

Learn more about Vatican Astronomer Guy Consolmagno.

Astronaut Mae Jemison was the Peace Corps Medical Officer in Sierra Leone and Liberia

Jemison says people often assume that she considers the space mission her proudest achievement, but she jokingly downplays her trip into space
Mae Jemison worked as a doctor and as the Peace Corps medical officer for Liberia and Sierra Leone. She has also been a college professor and started her own companies. She says people often assume that she considers the space mission her proudest achievement, but she jokingly downplays that trip. "Basically, you just sit on top of a rocket, and someone else pushes a button," Jemison said.

Jemison, who now lives in Houston, describes her experience as a doctor, scientist, astronaut, entrepreneur, teacher and one-time aspiring dancer. To succeed, she says, the students have to sidestep mental obstacles and not conform to other people's expectations. Jemison can remember looking up to the stars as a child and deciding that one day she would go into space, even as the National Guard patrolled her South Side Chicago neighborhood to quell urban unrest in the late 1960s. The day came on Sept. 12, 1992, when Jemison rode aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor and became the first black woman to go into space. But back in 1968, none of the astronauts looked like her, and the times were turbulent, but she still dreamed. "When I talk about optimism, that young girl is the most important, cherished part of me," she said. "She's my hero."  Read more.

As a Peace Corps Medical Officer, Jemison once ordered the evacuation of a volunteer to Germany saving his life
"In the early 1980's, I served as a doctor for Peace Corps volunteers in Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa. Within the first two weeks I was there, a volunteer got sick. Another doctor diagnosed malaria, but after the man had been on chloroquine for 24 hours, it didn't look like that to me. He got progressively worse, and at 2 a.m., after a power failure in the hospital, I started rummaging around our medical unit with a flashlight to find antibiotics for a broad-based medical cocktail."

"I was sure it was meningitis with life-threatening complications that we could not treat successfully in Sierra Leone, so finally, I called for a military medical evacuation on an Air Force hospital plane based in Germany. Just to start the process cost $80,000. When I gave the order, the U.S. Embassy personnel just looked at me. I was 26."

"They started questioning whether I had the authority to give such an order. Yet, after being up for 36 hours — familiar territory for a former Los Angeles County hospital intern — I was very calm and knew what the issues were. I patiently told them I didn't need anyone's permission or concurrence. By the time we reached the Air Force hospital in Germany, I had stayed up with that patient for 56 hours. Of course, he survived."  Read more.

Mae Jemison wears red for charity
New York Fashion Week opened amid an international debate about too-thin models, yet the first major runway show of the event featured women of all shapes, sizes, ages and colours. And the crowd loved it. That first show on the catwalks at Bryant Park was the Heart Truth show, an annual event in which celebrities wear red dresses created for them by famous designers. Heart Truth is part of the Red Dress project, a federal initiative spearheaded by Laura Bush, to raise awareness about heart disease. Read more.

Caption: Mae Jemison, wearing Lyn Devon, walks the runway at the Red Dress Heart Truth fashion show during Fall 2007 Fashion Week in New York on Friday, Feb 2, 2007.(Fashion Wire Daily/Gruber)

Read more about Peace Corps Medical Officer Mae Jemison.

Senator Chris Dodd introduces Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act

Senator Chris Dodd introduces Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act
The bill will provide seed monies for active Peace Corps volunteers for demonstration projects at their specific in-country sites. It authorizes $10 million in additional annual appropriations to be distributed by the Peace Corps as grants to returned Peace Corps volunteers interested in undertaking "third goal'' projects in their communities. The bill will also authorize active Peace Corps volunteers to accept, under certain carefully defined circumstances, private donations to support their development projects.

For any organization to thrive, managers and leaders must have access to first-hand knowledge and perspectives of those working on the front lines. And so, this bill will establish mechanisms for more volunteer input into Peace Corps operations, including staffing decisions, site selection, language training and country programs. This bill will also explicitly protect certain rights of Peace Corps volunteers with respect to termination of service and whistleblower protection.

We must bring the Peace Corps into the digital age. To that end, this bill will provide volunteers with better means of communication by establishing websites and email links for use by volunteers in-country.

Inadequate funding and internal structural roadblocks have unfortunately resulted in an unfulfilled Presidential pledge to double the size of the Peace Corps by 2007. Despite a large increase in volunteers signing up for the Peace Corps immediately after September 11, the Congressional Research Service reports that the number of Peace Corps volunteers actually declined in 2006. It is crucial that we work to reverse this troubling trend. That is why this bill authorizes active recruitment from the 185,000 returned Peace Corps volunteer community for second tours as volunteers and as participants in third goal activities in the United States.

This bill will also remove certain medical, healthcare and other impediments that discourage older individuals from becoming Peace Corps volunteers. It will create more transparency in the medical screening and appeals process, and require reports on costs associated with extending post-service health coverage from 1 month to 6 months. 

Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic in the 1960's.  Read more.

Sixth Anniversary of the Disappearance of Bolivia PCV Walter Poirier

Family says it has been a constant battle to insure that Missing PCV Walter Poirier III is not forgotten by the Peace Corps
It has been exactly 6 years today since my son was declared "officially" missing by Peace Corps. Since then it has been a constant battle to insure that he is not forgotten by Peace Corps. Very little communication has been coming out of Peace Corps since the House hearing on Volunteer safety in 2004. It took some arm twisting by the Massachusetts senate delegation and our 5th District congressman to even get Peace Corps to keep Walter on the active list. As of this year, there has been no communication from the new Director regarding our son's status. Come to think of it, there has been no communication from him at all. The Poirier family is still hoping against hope that Walter will be found, but there is little if anything being done by Peace Corps it seems at this time.  Signed Walter Poirier

Statement of the Peace Corps on the Current Status of the Investigation
The Peace Corps Office of Inspector General (OIG) is currently analyzing past investigative/search activities to determine what, if any, further efforts can be undertaken with respect to Walter’s Poirier’s disappearance. We will advise the Poirier family of any new activities shortly. The OIG considers this matter to be an open and active case and we continue to coordinate with our Bolivian counter-parts and pertinent factions of the U.S. law enforcement community to follow-up on all actionable information.

From 2005: Probe botched, say family of Peace Corps Volunteer Walter Poirier lost in Bolivia
Mr. Poirier joined the Peace Corps shortly after graduating from Notre Dame University in 2000 and had been in Bolivia for about six months when he was declared missing. An extensive search was carried out soon by U.S. and Bolivian authorities in the Zongo Valley, near the room where he stayed and at places he frequented. In addition, a publicity campaign was conducted on Bolivian radio and television, and in newspapers. At the insistence of the Poiriers, the Peace Corps recently boosted to $50,000 the reward for information leading to the recovery of their son's body. The family is contributing half the amount.

But U.S. authorities said they have gotten nowhere. "The effort to obtain additional information on the disappearance of Walter Poirier has been extremely frustrating," the U.S. Embassy said. "Despite a number of apparently promising leads, every trail thus far has been unproductive." In June, under pressure from Mr. Meehan and Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry, the Peace Corps agreed to hire a full-time investigator. The unidentified investigator began work in September and was given six weeks to do an in-country assessment, said a Bolivian private investigator hired to assist him. The Bolivian investigator said they had not identified any solid leads, nor finished reading the mounds of paperwork given to them to review when the Peace Corps investigator left Bolivia in mid-November.

Raising hope for a break in the case, a formal criminal complaint was filed with La Paz police in August against two persons in connection with the volunteer's disappearance. In the complaint, which obliges La Paz police to investigate, Ramiro Machaca, 22, an Aymara Indian, said he was kidnapped May 23 and held for six days in a Zongo Valley river tunnel near the Wahi electric plant. Mr. Machaca, who worked at the plant, said he was kidnapped because in February, while cleaning the machines at the plant one evening, he had overheard two other employees discussing Mr. Poirier. Mr. Machaca said they were celebrating and drinking alcohol. "One of them made a toast to 'el chango' Walter Poirier," Mr. Machaca said, using slang for "the kid." "Then, they began talking about what they did with his body," he said, adding that the two mentioned it was buried in the mountains below Zongo Pass.

Several witnesses have corroborated to La Paz police the kidnapping of Mr. Machaca. A medical report from Agramont Hospital in El Alto, near La Paz, said he was brought there May 30 in a "metabolic coma." A doctor wrote that Mr. Machaca also bore head injuries, with signs of strangulation and lack of oxygen to the brain. But formal criminal charges have not been filed. La Paz District Attorney Audalia Zurita said the authorities need more evidence. She said last month that she last communicated with the U.S. Embassy about the Poirier case in late September. She said her office wants to conduct a monthlong search for Mr. Poirier's body in the areas of Zongo identified by witnesses who have come forward in connection with the Machaca case, but the U.S. Embassy wants a more precise location before it hires specialists and equipment.

"I still believe the information we have on the possible whereabouts of Poirier is credible, but I need help convincing the U.S. Embassy," Mrs. Zurita said. But others say Bolivian authorities share much of the blame for the failed investigation into Mr. Poirier's disappearance. His parents also think more can be done. "We are perplexed as to why the embassy and Peace Corps have not embraced this lead," they said. "The Poirier family feels that, from the beginning, the Peace Corps was inept and unprepared to handle our son's disappearance - they simply did not know what to do."

Caption: The Mountains near Zongo Pass in Bolivia where Ramiro Machaca alleges the body of Walter Poirier may be buried. Photo:  scropy Flickr Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

Read more about the disappearance of Peace Corps Volunteer Walter Poirier III.

RPCV Donna Shalala to co-chair bipartisan presidential commission

Donna Shalala and Robert Dole co-chair bipartisan presidential commission charged with looking into the care of wounded service members
President Bush named Donna Shalala and Bob Dole to head the commission, which he formed in response to a growing outcry over the care of wounded outpatient soldiers. Demands for corrective action arose among the public and in Congress after The Washington Post last month exposed squalid living conditions in a decrepit Army-owned building just outside Walter Reed and highlighted bureaucratic obstacles and delays in the outpatient treatment of soldiers who suffered serious injuries, including brain trauma, in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This is going to be comprehensive; it's going to be vigorous," Shalala said as she and Dole stood outside the White House after their meeting with Bush. "And neither one of us are afraid of talking to the brass, whether it's the president of the United States or a general." Read more.

The Miami Herald writes: University of Miami President Donna Shalala is an invaluable community
asset
People throw around terms like ''transformational leader'' and ''change agent.'' President Shalala brings life and meaning to those words. She has reinvigorated the already-strong UM, bringing new faces and energy to the senior leadership, revamping the curriculum, improving our students' experience and growing our medical enterprise. We hosted the 2004 presidential debate that focused the world's spotlight on our campus and on South Florida. We raised more than $1 billion well ahead of schedule. That money is being pumped into scholarships, academic programs, infrastructure and our community. We named two of our schools -- the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine and the Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music -- thanks to the generosity of two distinguished and philanthropic families.

The transformation of our medical school is astounding. Faculty and students are making incredible strides in research and patient care that have an immeasurable impact on the quality of our lives and on life itself. President Shalala's decision to invest in the biosciences will jump-start a new industry for South Florida that will provide jobs and, more important, cure diseases.  Read more.

RPCV Donna Shalala says:  "I like to think of the Peace Corps as the 51st star on the American flag, because it represents the very best in the American character"
"I like to think of the Peace Corps as the 51st star on the American flag, because it represents the very best in the American character. The Peace Corps is a voice for democracy and American values. Like the stitching of a quilt, it helps bring together the world's diverse cultures. And the Peace Corps sows the seeds of peace by planting the enthusiasm, ideals, and skills of America's young people in the soil of other nations. I know this from my own service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran in the 1960s."   Read more.

Donna Shalala says: "I'll never forget my own family's reaction in 1962 when I told them I was going to go half a world away to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran."
I'll never forget my own family's reaction in 1962 when I told them I was going to go half a world away to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran. As you can imagine, they were less than thrilled. You want to do what? For how long? My father even tried to bribe me by offering me a car if I chose Cleveland over Iran. I said, "No. I'm going."  And that was that. My grandmother had other ideas. She handed me this very gracefully worded letter -- in classical Arabic -- addressed to the headman of the village that I would be living in. She made it very clear that she expected her granddaughter to return to Cleveland -- in one piece. Her note read, "This is the daughter of a very important headman in the United States -- take care of her." Read more.

Find out more about Iran RPCV Donna Shalala.

RPCV Owen Cylke writes: Taxi in the Rain

RPCV Owen Cylke writes: Taxi in the Rain
As I was walking across Key Bridge this morning on my way to work, it suddenly started to pour rain.  Totally unexpected.  Totally unprepared.  But a cab honked, picked me up, and, as expected, an Ethiopian driver was behind the wheel.  So I used my "fluent" 35 words to start up a conversation.

Turns out the driver was from Adigrat and was in the seventh grade there in 1965.  He had two Peace Corps teachers.  He started to cry as he told me the first time he saw his name written out up on the board.  Then he said that the teacher used his name in English exercises.  "Hagos ate breakfast this morning".  "Hagos came to school".  "Hagos plays soccer".  As a small boy, he said this identification gave a slight shy boy new status with his classmates and served to shape the man he is today.

When I tried to pay for the ride, he absolutely refused.  Forty plus years later for the both of us.

Photo: nep Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0

Recent RPCV Obituaries

Obituary for Peru RPCV Keith McNeill
In late 1960s, the country was embroiled in the civil rights movement. Keith McNeill graduated from college and moved straight to the heart of racial conflict in Alabama and Mississippi. He lived with an black Baptist minister and worked organizing labor unions . From there, McNeill joined the Peace Corps, which took him to Peru in 1965. He organized a coffee cooperative and formed relationships with the residents there. He later returned to visit the families he'd helped. But McNeill also volunteered in his own backyard. He moved to Greeley about 30 years ago and spent many hours dedicated to movements throughout Weld County. "Whenever he saw a cause that was worth fighting, he was right there," his daughter, América McNeill, said.

Obituary for Malawi RPCV Bobbie Mullinix Miles
She was a former high school basketball coach and teacher in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. Her last position was girls' basketball coach and physical education teacher at West Montgomery High School. She retired after 36 years of service in public education. She was a member of the West Montgomery Sports Hall of Fame. After retiring she spent three years in the Peace Corps. in Malawi.

Obituary for Chile RPCV Janet Berkenfield
After graduate studies at Stanford, Ms. Berkenfield joined the Peace Corps in 1965, developing health programs in Chile. Janet Berkenfield was a dedicated public health professional who worked to help immigrants, young mothers, and children during a career that lasted more than 40 years. "Janet had a true gift in starting up new projects and in administering the details of their implementation," Cindy Rogers, Ms. Berkenfield's supervisor at the state Department of Public Health and colleague of 14 years, said in a statement. "She worked tirelessly to bring the reality of her vision of systems that worked for the benefit of children."

Obituary for Philippines RPCV Linda Laighton Bahr
A graduate of MacMurray Collge in Jacksonville, Ill., Mrs. Bahr taught hearing-impaired students through the Northwestern Illinois Association. She took a break from teaching in Illinois schools to teach the hearing impaired in the Philippines from 1985 to 1987 by volunteering for the Peace Corps. Her two-year stint in the Philippines allowed her to learn about another culture firsthand and ignited an interest in world travel. She went on to visit Nepal, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Brazil, Peru and Thailand "She liked going to places that other people don't necessarily find comfortable," explained Larry Bahr.

Obituary for Senegal RPCV Ruth Chapin Wolfe
After working 20 years as a bookkeeper and raising her children, she decided to go to college. She obtained her Bachelor of Science from Florida State University in Tallahassee. In her 50s and unable to obtain employment with her social welfare college degree, she joined the Peace Corps. She was assigned by the Peace Corps to Calack, Senegal where she spent two years teaching English to the Wolof speaking students of Calack.

Obituary for Togo RPCV Paul McKenzie
From 1975 to 1978, he taught English, coached basketball and developed a tree nursery as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, in West Africa. The Peace Corps, his wife said, was one of the formative experiences of his life. In 1980, he moved to Washington, where he joined the Department of the Navy. At the time of his death, he was deputy director for technology integration for the Naval Surface Warfare Center of the Naval Sea Systems Command.

Obituary for Somalia RPCV Charlie Nelson
After a tour together in the Peace Corps, the Nelsons -- who met while earning their degrees at the University of Minnesota -- went house shopping. He wanted a Victorian that was "untouched," Angie Nelson recalled Sunday, but he discovered the real estate agent was steering the couple clear of a fatigued section of North Minneapolis, where Nelson ended up finding a house he loved so much he purchased it on sight. "When we moved in, Minneapolis was tearing everything down around us," she said of the neighborhood. "We recruited our friends to come in and buy them up." And so began the Old Highland Neighborhood Association. Nelson joined the Historical Society that same year and supervised the statewide survey for the National Register of Historic Places. In 1974, he became the state architectural historian and in 1978, the historical architect.

Obituary for Korea RPCV David Alvord III
He and his former wife Rosemary Kirwin-Alvord served for two years in Korea, were Peace Corps recruiters in Seattle and later held administrative positions in Micronesia. Having become fluent in Korean, David taught English to South Korean Air Force pilots. Prior to his death, he completed an assignment in South Korea, where he was teaching South Korean educators English teaching methods.

Andrew Salmon writes: "He came to Korea with the first U.S. Peace Corps contingent in 1966. Stationed in rural Kangwon Province, he fell in love with the country and its people. A photograph from that time shows him carrying an A-frame, surrounded by grinning farmers. In 2002, he returned here to teach English. I am not sure what brought him back. Perhaps he had been financially unsuccessful; he certainly never had much money (though it never bothered him). He also had little time for technology. He despised cell phones, and when I set up a hotmail account for him, he insisted that he knew how to use it, but (as far as I know) never did. What he did have was time for people. His enthusiasm for travel, mountain hiking, athletics, dogs, and, of course, his beloved Korea and Idaho were infectious. Several times, just seeing his figure in the distance -- or hearing his booming voice, which preceded him by a considerable distance -- would bring smiles to faces. My four-year-old daughter loved being around him."

Chris, a confidential assistant to the Director of the Peace Corps, studied Arabic in Egypt and Yemen

Chris, a confidential assistant to the Director of the Peace Corps, studied Arabic in Egypt and Yemen
"I started studying Arabic in the fall of 2003 at Middlebury College, which is widely regarded as one of the top undergraduate institutions in America to study a foreign language. I was affected by the 9/11 attacks, and I thought that by knowing Arabic I would be able to serve my country in a beneficial way," Chris explains to Inside the Beltway.

"After the 2003-2004 academic year, I studied Arabic at a very intense level at the Middlebury College Summer Language Schools. Middlebury's Arabic summer school is regarded as the best place in the world, including the Middle East, to study the language. I then spent the entire 2004-2005 academic year studying at the American University in Cairo.

"During my entire first semester in Cairo, I only took Arabic language courses 5 Arabic courses. Upon returning to Middlebury College for my senior year, there were no Arabic courses for my level. So instead I did a one-on-one independent study with an Arabic professor, which included writing a 15-page paper in Arabic on Koranic support for a representative form of government."

In January 2006, Chris traveled to Cairo on a fellowship. There he interviewed in Arabic leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb al-Wasat for his honors thesis, which examined the two parties' calls for an Islamic democracy in Egypt. His paper subsequently was awarded Middlebury's best thesis focusing on an international issue and was nominated for a national award.

Chris is highly proficient in Arabic reading, writing, listening, speaking and extremely knowledgeable of the Middle East, its culture and its religions. In spring 2006, before graduating from Middlebury, he applied for positions at the National Security Agency, FBI, Defense Intelligence Agency and Pentagon, and forwarded several resumes to the CIA. "I never heard back from any of the agencies. None. Not one," he tells this column. "And after I returned back from Yemen, the State Department, which paid for my fellowship, never contacted me or anybody else that was in my group, all of whom achieved advanced levels of Arabic proficiency.

"Fortunately for me, I interned in the [Bush] White House in the summer of 2005, so when I graduated from Middlebury I was able to receive a schedule-C appointment focusing on international affairs. But for all those other American Arabic speakers out there including the ones that received fellowships from the State Department they are waiting to serve their country if given the chance."

In the meantime, the Peace Corps says it is delighted to have Chris on board. One official there told us yesterday that one reason Chris was hired was "because of his Arabic skills and knowledge of the Middle East and Islam." Among many regions of the world, the Peace Corps serves in several Arabic-speaking countries and 15 predominantly Muslim countries.

How many times have you seen it reported that the U.S. is in dire need of Americans with Arabic language skills, particularly as the war on terrorism escalates? The FBI currently has a backlog of untranslated audio counterterrorism materials, which nearly doubled from 2004 to 2005. Still, one has to question how anxious the federal government really is to fill its homeland security gaps with men and women who are knowledgeable about the Islamic wor