Peace Corps News

Tunisia RPCV Al Kamen takes an irreverent look at current events and Washington's powerful

Journalist Al Kamen writes the popular column "In the Loop" that appears twice weekly in the Washington Post. Kamen, who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia in the 1960's, takes an irreverent look at current events in his column focusing on the the foibles of Washington's powerful. He has an eye for the revealing detail about public figures that can recast how you think of them. See if you can read between the lines and see the Peace Corps influence in his writing especially the humor in his gift for understatement. A selection of his recent writing includes:

To the uninitiated, it might seem that administration spokesmen like to hide even the most ordinary bits of information
To the uninitiated, it might seem that Bush administration spokesmen like to hide even the most ordinary bits of information, resorting to an oft-comical double talk. Take for example new spokesman Sean McCormack 's response to a question at yesterday's State Department briefing.

"Who initiated today's meeting between Condoleezza Rice and the Turkish foreign minister?" a reporter asked.

"Well, meetings are typically set up -- it requires the agreement of both parties. So it is a mutually agreed-upon time and date," McCormack said. This is a practical step taken to avoid having one party show up in, say, Cleveland at 4 p.m. on one day while the other is waiting at 3 p.m. in Denver on a different day.

"So it was by Ankara or was it requested by the U.S. government?" the reporter tried again, not knowing we were now into goofy-speak.

"I would say that, whenever we have the secretary meet with somebody," McCormack explained patiently, "that it is through mutual agreement that we hold the meeting."

Again, absolutely correct. Foreign ministers are only infrequently brought in shackles to the seventh floor at the State Department. What obviously happened in this case is Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Secretary of State Rice picked up the phone at exactly the same time and called each other to meet. Happens all the time. McCormack, who wore snappy French cuffs to his briefing on Friday, is off to an excellent start.

Clinton fired Prosecutors too
Meanwhile, amid the controversy over the administration's firing of the eight federal prosecutors, little attention has been paid to the fact that President Bill Clinton, after first sacking all 93 U.S. attorneys appointed by Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush, also fired or "resigned" three or four of his federal prosecutors.

One was Larry Colleton, who resigned shortly after he was videotaped grabbing Jacksonville, Fla., television reporter Richard Rose by the throat. Unclear why that was such a big deal.

Another Florida federal prosecutor, Kendall Coffey, resigned "amid accusations that he bit a topless dancer on the arm during a visit to an adult club after losing a big drug case." (There was a strict Clinton policy against biting.)

A third Clinton firing, noted by a Congressional Research Service report, was of San Francisco prosecutor Michael Yamaguchi, who seemed to have crossed swords with local judges and Justice Department officials. Clinton replaced him with Bush I Justice Department chief of the criminal division, a fellow named Robert Mueller, whom Bush II appointed FBI director.

Talkin' the Talk in Texas
President Bush said Wednesday that he will ask Congress for $114 million to teach Americans little-taught languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Farsi. The initiative is vital, he said, because "we need intelligence officers who, when somebody says something in Arabic or Farsi or Urdu, knows what they're talking about." Diplomats also need to speak the local language.

The new funding, he told the U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education, is needed to "defeat this notion" that the United States is "bullying" people. People who speak the same language feel more at ease with one another, he said, noting how much easier it is to conduct foreign policy with foreign leaders who've studied here and speak English.

"In order to convince people we care about them, we've got to understand their culture and show them we care about their culture," Bush said. "When somebody comes to me and speaks Texan, I know they appreciate the Texas culture. "I mean, somebody takes time to figure out how to speak Arabic, it means they're interested in somebody else's culture," he explained.

You know, people study for years to speak fluent Texan. 

Casablanca is favorite of Condoleezza Rice
Reporters know that once the deadly dull policy-wonk questions are asked and evaded by administration officials, some off-the-wall inquiries can be most revealing. This is especially the case when the subject is as sharp as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. So last weekend in Beijing, after the obligatory chat about serious matters -- North Korean nukes and the deadly terrorist attacks in London -- Fox News Channel's James Rosen asked: "What movies have you watched the most . . .?"

"There are probably a couple," Rice said. "'Casablanca' I watch whenever it comes on. . . . 'Here's looking at you, kid' -- who doesn't love that line? I love Humphrey Bogart . I love everything about that movie. It's in many ways my favorite movie."

Who isn't thrilled at that scene where the French all stand in Rick's bar and sing "La Marseillaise" to defy the Germans who are to steal France's personal colony, Morocco? (Unclear how Moroccans react to this.) "But I'll give you a real scoop," Rice said, warming to the inquiry. "I've also watched 'The Way We Were,' the Barbra Streisand - Robert Redford flick, and  'Trading Places,' the Eddie Murphy - Dan Aykroyd comedy, many, many times."

"I generally don't watch movies of redeeming value," she said. "I tend to take them as entertainment."

Read more about Al Kamen.

Read more about Peace Corps Tunisia.

Spotlight on Peace Corps Niger

Michael R. Bell writes: Most farmers are subsistence farmers trying to produce enough food to feed their families
I have been in Niger for almost two weeks, experienced four very interesting bus rides, toured a small part of the Sahara desert and tried many new foods. One of the most impressive things I have seen over my time here is the complete dedication of these mostly young Peace Corps volunteers. Niger is the poorest country in the world today. When my daughter came here two years ago, it was the second-poorest country. The conditions under which these volunteers work and live is difficult at best. You should be very proud of the work these young adults do as Peace Corps volunteers serving around the world representing the U.S.

Most farmers are subsistence farmers trying to produce enough food to feed their families, share with others and possibly use as barter to obtain other needed items for survival. In the bush, which is where most Nigeriens live, daily routines are the same except during planting and harvest times. Families will raise livestock and poultry, vegetables, fruit if possible and all grow millett as their food staple. Feed for livestock is not grown. Land capable of growing a crop is used only to produce commodities to be used directly by humans. So how do they feed their livestock? Each morning a worker (probably one of their children) is assigned the task of taking the animals out further into the bush to forage. Animals that can find feed survive, those that can't don't. Since Niger is mostly desert, finding forage can be difficult. The Fulani are nomadic herders of animals such as cattle, goats, donkeys and camels, and are allowed to use certain areas of the country. After a day of grazing, the worker will lead the livestock back to the village for the night.

Nigeriens as a whole are a hardworking, intelligent, caring and happy people. They are generous with what they have no matter the circumstance. Those whom I have encountered during my stay here have all been quick to smile and find pleasure in everything, no matter the conditions. It has not taken long to get used to seeing camels grazing, being ridden or lead down a main street in a large city with typical automobile congestion as I saw just a few minutes ago. Read more.

PCV Joshua writes: Eco-Farming in Niger
Last week we visited a terrific place named ICRISAT. ICRISAT is the leading West African seed bank and scientific location for testing new farming practices and developing improved crop varieties of millet, groundnuts, beans, cowpeas, and many other vegetables resistant to both pest and drought. There is a lot of information disseminated from this place but what caught my attention most for the purpose of this blog imput was their efforts towards developing eco-farming.

Eco-Farming is a term used to describe using a plot of land to its maximum potential incorporating both intercropping and agro-forestry in concert to reduce or eliminate the use of fertilizers and additional irrigation. A critical aspect of eco-farming is to reduce land erosion by making a snake like terraces or demi-loons (terrace like half moons) along the contour of the land. Within these terraces trees useful for nitrogen fixing, mulch, fruit, and other useful improvements are placed in these half moon circles.

The social impacts of this type of agriculture is that it provides the farmer with labor for nearly 10 months out of the year instead of the typical 5-6 months usually attributed to a typical growing season. The impacts of this aspect are incredible because when the farmer has income generation throughout the year there is no need for the farmer to "€œexode€". Which means work as a migrant laborer in neighboring countries depriving their families and nation of its most critical workforce and most productive of individuals. Read more.

Niger RPCV Angela "Khadija" Williams is helping gain asylum for Ansam, a translator for coalition forces in Iraq
Angela "Khadija" Williams, 53, is a veteran U.S. foreign-service officer who embraced Islam nearly three decades ago and now serves as a U.S. cultural affairs liaison at Camp Fallujah. A State Department colleague familiar with Williams' devotion to the translator's case affectionately described her as "a pit bull in hijab."

Angela Williams went to the University of Denver - the same institution from which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice received her undergraduate degree - before dropping out of graduate school in 1978 to join the Peace Corps. "The bug just got to me," Williams said. "I was so anxious to go out in the world and do something."

After volunteering in the West African nation of Niger, Williams joined the World Council of Churches relief agency in Senegal. A Muslim housemaid there helped Williams convert to Islam in 1981, the culmination of a longtime spiritual quest. Switching faiths proved just as controversial for Williams as for Ansam's family. She lost her job with the Christian relief group and faced a strained relationship with her parents, who were devout followers of the Church of God and Christ. "My father hung up the phone," Williams said. "I called back again and my mother answered this time. She said, `I still love you,' then she hung up too."

Williams remained in Senegal, where she studied Islam and married a local Muslim activist. He died of a heart attack when she was five months pregnant; she miscarried three months later. That experience, Williams said, helps her empathize with the grief of the Iraqi women she reaches out to in Anbar. "I was a 24-year-old widow, so I understand how it is out here to be a young widow," Williams said. "I would walk the streets in Washington, D.C., and ask myself, `Why am I alive?'" Struggling to recover from the tragedy, Williams dabbled in agricultural studies, then worked briefly at the World Bank. She found her calling in 1989 when she joined the U.S. Foreign Service, which offered her the opportunity to create cultural affairs programs in far-flung posts across the globe.

Ansam and Williams first crossed paths when they worked on an empowerment program for Iraqi women in Anbar. They clicked instantly, marveling at the parallels in their lives: grief for their parents, tests of their faith, life as civilian women among battle-hardened Marines and a determination to improve the lives of ordinary Iraqis. Ansam and Williams spent the past week in Baghdad, where Williams lobbied U.S. refugee officials, compiled Ansam's recommendation letters, surfed the Internet for federal resettlement options and sent flurries of e-mails to military and civilian friends with influence in Washington.

When Iraqi officials stalled on Ansam's passport, Williams picked up the phone and warned them in Arabic to issue the document or face her wrath. "I believe God has his angels and Angela is one of them. If I get out of this, I owe her my life," Ansam said. "The others tried; I know they did. They wrote nice letters, but it always ended with a problem with the law."

The friends cut a striking pair as they strolled together through the ornate marble halls of the Republican Palace one recent day. Ansam was in full camouflage and toted a Burger King sack. Williams was in her trademark black and yelled, "Assalamu alaikum!" - the Islamic greeting of "Peace be upon you" - to Iraqi colleagues. They walked to lunch, oblivious to the double takes of the soldiers and security contractors who roam the palace. Williams put her arm protectively around Ansam, looked her square in the eye and said: "No one's forgetting you." Read more.

Caption: Ansam, an Iraqi translator for coalition forces whose last name is withheld because of death threats against her, at Camp Fallujah. Ansam hasn't been able to gain asylum in the United States, despite letters of recommendation from a Marine brigadier general, several colonels and a number of other officers who praised her service as a translator and guide. Photo: Hannah Allam/MCT

Niger RPCV Charles Dufresne is a Partner at InterWorks, a Madison firm that helps agencies around the world respond to disasters and provide humanitarian aid
"I started off as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa and did that for two years. I was involved in community development programs and . . . I got involved in setting up groups and technical experts to transfer those skills. Then I worked with a language and literacy training organization in Minnesota, the Minnesota Literacy Council, their English as a second language program, with refugees and immigrants settling in the Twin Cities. Quickly I got involved in setting up training and recruiting tutors so I found myself again involved in that. I got increasingly intrigued in how people learn."

I work with people who are trying to do humanitarian work and they're working in extremely complex situations, places like Sudan and Afghanistan . . . to say nothing of New Orleans. They're often put into positions and jobs where they have the desire to do something but not the refined skills and knowledge to do it. So again you come back to training and learning to equip these people to be more effective. "There's no such thing as perfection. There's only the process of perfecting." Read more.

Praise for Niger RPCV Susan Rich's "Cures Include Travel"
"Susan Rich writes gorgeous lyrical poetry which so courageously tells us the truth about the world, tells us the world is much larger than we Americans usually like to admit. Her beautiful ear, her fierce attention to detail, her deeply human empathy inspire me and make me glad. I am glad, no €”thrilled that there exists such a unique and memorable voice writing today about the joys and grievances of our planet, writing with such charge in ideas and language. In this age of irony as an end in itself and of art for art's sake, it is a rare luck to encounter a poet such as Susan Rich for whom living in this world and writing about it is one and the same flash of poetry's transforming revelation."

A generation of war-lords have made Somalia an archetype of natural disintegration and the power of tyrants. Even now, with the death of Mohammed Farah Aideed, there is no end in sight. But there is another dimension to Somalian politics: the radical role of women. Two years before the entire country collapsed into civil war, in Kismayo, Somalia's southern coastal city, something happened that momentarily interrupted the slow march of strife over the body politic. A few dozen women, defying the conviction that enjoins female sartorial modesty, bared their breasts in public in front of a crowd of men. Fists raised, voices harsh, they shouted "Rise, Rise!", challenging the men to action, reproaching them for their failure to confront the excesses of the dictatorship. By challenging the men in this manner, the women implied that they would not from then on defer to them as husbands, fathers, or figures of authority. (From The Times Literary Supplement (London), (November 15, 1996), pp. 44) Read Susan Rich's Poem "the Women of Kismayo" about this event:

The Women of Kismayo

The breasts of Kismayo assembled
along the mid-day market street.

No airbrushed mangoes, no
black lace, no underwire chemise.

No half-cupped pleasures,
no come-hither nods, no Italian

centerfolds. Simply the women
of the town telling their men

to take action, to do something
equally bold. And the husbands

on their way home, expecting
sweet yams and meat,

moaned and covered their eyes,
screamed like spoiled children

dredged abruptly from sleep—
incredulous that their women

could unbutton such beauty
for other clans, who

(in between splayed
hands) watched quite willingly.

Give us your guns, here is our
cutlery, we are the men!

the women sang to them
an articulation without shame.

And now in the late night hour
when men want nothing but rest,

they fold their broken bodies, still
watched by their wives cool breasts

round, full, commanding as colonels—
two taut nipples targeting each man.

— Susan Rich, from her collection of Poetry "Cures include Travel" Follow this link to order the book.

Read more about Peace Corps Niger.

Returned Volunteers and Staff honor Peace Corps Architect Warren Wiggins at Memorial Service

Returned Volunteers and Staff honor Peace Corps Architect Warren Wiggins at Memorial Service
Returned Volunteers and Staff came to the "Bull Run Unitarian Universalists' Church" in Manassas, Virginia from all over the United States on May 4 to attend a Memorial Service honoring Peace Corps Architect Warren Wiggins.

Mrs. Edna Wiggins and her children greeted guests at the door of the church.  Inside the church Peace Corps Volunteers and Staff like former Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn, former Peace Corps Country Director for Ethiopia and Pennsylvania Senator Harris Wofford,  former Country Director for Togo and Niger and later Peace Corps Africa Regional Director and President of Africare C. Payne Lucas and his wife, Sierra Leone RPCV and NPCA Chairman Emertisus Pat Reilly and her husband Philippines RPCV Dick Irish, NPCA President and Thailand RPCV Kevin Quigley, and David Arnold, Editor of NPCA's Worldview magazine. Other RPCV and Staff attending included Kevin Lowther of Africare, Gretchen Handwerger, Ruth McKennzie Scott, B. J. Warren, and Carolyn Ramsey.

The Memorial Service began at 1 pm with Gathering Music played by Annease Hastings on the piano. Reverend Lou Mitchell gave the Opening Words and Prayer of Thanksgiving. After the choir and congregation sang "Gather the Spirit", John Bender read a selection from the writings of Warren Wiggins from a boy of 6 who wanted to "lasso the moon" to a young man who served in the Army Air Forces during World War II flying transport planes "over the Hump" in the China-India-Burma theater and received a Distinguished Flying Cross. The choir sang the anthem "Fire of Committment."

Philippines RPCV Dick Irish asked how many members of the memorial service had served either in the Peace Corps or with TransCentury and then gave his personal tribute to Warren Wiggiins remembering  how Wiggins gave him his first job at Peace Corps Headquarters after he returned after his service in the Philippines, how he went with Wiggins to the first TransCentury offices in Washington DC, Wiggins' management style, and the first government contracts. Faye Cowan rose and read excerpts from a letter from a group in Sierra Leone who came together through TransCentury and are still working for the goals of social justice twenty years later.

After the BRVV Adult Chior sang "God in my Head," Reverend Nancy McDonald Ladd gave the eulogy to Warren Wiggins recalling his many contributions and the love his family and friends had for him. After the service, the Wiggins famiy invited all the guests to stay for light refreshments in the Fellowship Hall after the memorial service.

Warren Wiggins once said of former Peace Corps Director Jack Hood Vaughn (right with Africare President emeritus C. Payne Lucas): "I worked more with Vaughn than any other person in my life, four separate long-term assignments, back to back.  Mostly I have co-workers; Vaughn was a friend.  Vaughn and I traveled at length in Bolivia together, the two of us, when we were both in the ICA Mission to Bolivia.  He's got a lot of Teddy Roosevelt in him.  He was a former prizefighter.  On the other hand, he's cautious, conservative and sometimes not terribly involved in some of the broader sweep of things.  Vaughn stands up and is counted and is determined.  He is a good administrator.  he is an excellent person. He is my friend." Read more.

Read the Obituary for Warren Wiggins.  In 1961, Mr. Wiggins, who became one of the top leaders of the high-profile agency in its earliest years, was an unknown foreign policy adviser whose brief paper, "The Towering Task," landed in the lap of the Peace Corps' first director, R. Sargent Shriver, just as he was trying to figure out how to turn President John F. Kennedy's campaign promise into a working federal department. The response to it became legendary in the agency as "the midnight ride of Warren Wiggins." Shriver, burrowing through correspondence shortly after midnight on Feb. 6, 1961, was electrified by the treatise, which urged the agency to act boldly. A small agency was more likely to fail because its projects would not be consequential enough, Mr. Wiggins wrote. Using specific examples, with a proposed staff size and budget, Mr. Wiggins suggested that Kennedy act through an executive order for the quickest start. "Shriver from the beginning saw him as someone who had the spirit of moving big and fast," former senator Harris Wofford (D-Pa.), who was there, said in an interview. "The Peace Corps, small and symbolic, might be good public relations, but a Peace Corps that was large and had a major impact on problems in other countries could transform the economic development of the world."

Read excerpts from "A Towering Task."  Most of the academic and other institutional approaches to the opportunity of the National Peace Corps suggest tentative pilot projects, involving small numbers of people and consequently a limited political, economic and psychological impact. This cautious approach is proposed by many because of the clear possibility of a fiasco. The organization and administration of a large number of Americans working on a variety of programs and projects in many countries with varying cultures and needs undeniably is an extremely complex and difficult undertaking. It is the prevailing view that if a great many Americans are scattered abroad and if significant numbers of them fail either in their own eyes or in the eyes of the recipient peoples, or if large numbers of the Americans have severe health, emotional or other problems, the resulting criticism will extend far beyond the project per se.

The purpose of this paper is to advocate consideration of a "quantum jump" in the thinking and programming concerning the National Peace Corps. Its postulate is that America ought to consider initiating the program with several thousand Americans participating in the first 12 to 18 months - say, 5,000 to 10,000. The ultimate level of manpower to be utilized in this program will of course depend upon its initial success and difficulties. However, the potential of this program is great and it may prove to be the case that it should be at the 30,000, the 50,000 or possibly even at the 100,000 level. Even this latter higher level Corps over the past 35 would mean that only one out of every 30 youths would serve in the Peace Corps.

Caption: Mrs. Edna Wiggins, widow of Peace Corps Architect Warren Wiggins, with (left to right) Director Jack Vaughn, Senator Harris Wofford, and Peace Corps Online Co-Editor Hugh Pickens near the end of the reception.  All Photos:  PCOL  Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0.

Timothy Obert to begin serving sentence on May 15

Timothy Obert to begin serving sentence on May 15
Timothy Obert, who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica from September 2001 to July 2003, has been sentenced to 51 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release for sexually assaulting a minor while working in another country. As part of a plea deal, Obert admitted in February 2006 to one count of having `illicit sexual contact` with a underage boy while he was in the country as a Peace Corps volunteer working with PANI, the country's child welfare agency. At the time of the July 6, 2003 incident, Obert was 35 years old and the boy was 14, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators, the Peace Corps Office of the Inspector General and the Diplomatic Security Service of the U.S. Department of State.  The indictment alleged Obert performed oral sex on the boy and provided him with money, drugs and alcohol. He faced up to 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a requirement he register as a sex offender. Obert will begin serving the time May 15.

Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter called the sentencing `evidence of our zero tolerance policy for misconduct during Peace Corps service."

Obert is the first Peace Corps volunteer prosecuted for sexually assaulting a minor while working in another country.  The two-year investigation began after another Peace Corps volunteer stayed at Obert's apartment in July 2003 and saw the naked teenage boy exit Obert's room in the early-morning hours and reported it to Peace Corps officials. Obert was fired by the Peace Corps.  A federal grand jury indicted Obert under the Protect Act, a 2003 law that tightens enforcement of crimes against children amid the growing industry of child-sex tourism. Obert's prosecution was one of the first that used a federal statute under the Patriot Act that expanded the jurisdiction of the United States to include U.S. personnel on missions in foreign countries. Read more.

Poor screening blamed for abuse crisis in Catholic Church
Inadequate screening of potential priests, not celibacy or homosexuality, is to blame for the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, according to a blue-ribbon panel formed by the nation's Catholic bishops. The findings of the 12-member National Review Board were released in 2004 along with the first-ever report on the scope of sexual abuse of minors in the church. "Dioceses and [religious] orders simply did not screen candidates for the priesthood properly," said Bob Bennett, the Washington attorney and board member who spearheaded the report. "As a result, many dysfunctional and psychosexually immature men were admitted into seminaries and ordained in the priesthood."

The board's 145-page report probed the "causes and contexts" of the scandal, which involved 4,392 accused priests, 10,667 victims and a cost of at least $657 million that was tallied in a companion report by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The report found that 80 percent of the abuse was "homosexual in nature," but the board said an inability to remain chaste--not homosexuality--was a more direct cause of sexual abuse among clergy. "There is no doubt there are many outstanding priests of homosexual orientation who live chaste and celibate lives," Bennett said. "Whether they are capable of living the celibate life is the paramount consideration. Sexual orientation should not be a requirement, one way or the other. Priests can be homosexual, but they must be celibate."

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee, who heads the bishops' committee on priestly life and ministry, said more "up-front screening" is needed because gay seminarians and priests face "added temptations" in trying to live a chaste and celibate life. "There are pressing questions, and perhaps more urgent scrutiny, that needs to be given to a candidate who has homosexual inclinations," said Dolan, a former rector of the flagship American seminary in Rome. Dolan cautioned, however, that it is "completely absurd" to automatically link gay priests with pedophilia. The majority of gay priests, he said, are "faithful, celibate, chaste men." Read more.

Read more about Crime and the Peace Corps.

Mark Gearan Calls for Service, engaged constituency

Mark Gearan Calls for Service, engaged constituency
Mark Gearan, president of Hobart & William Smith Colleges and former director of the U.S. Peace Corps, spoke at Cornell University in a speech titled, “Public Service in the 21st Century.” Gearan was invited to Cornell as a part of the 2006-07 Colloquium Series presented by The Cornell Institute for Public Affairs.

Gearan asked those in the audience who are thinking about international development to look into becoming involved with the Peace Corps. “Allow me this commercial,” said Gearan, “to encourage you to think about the [U.S.] Peace Corps service.” Gearan said the satisfaction experienced by Peace Corps volunteers is nothing less than significant. Peace Corps volunteers make a 27 month commitment to the Corps. He conveyed that 9 out of 10 volunteers surveyed while working in the field would choose to volunteer again, while the same ratio of volunteers would recommend the experience to others.

Gearan defined the term “public service” as being comprised of two parts: “community service and volunteerism aspect and a public service aspect” in regards to public service with federal and state governments. “When we look back at our past as Americans, there has been an ethic of service since our founding,” said Gearan. “From minutemen, to thee early founding fathers [who established] our country in the deep routes of freedom, to Alexis de Tocqueville who was struck by the efforts of [early American] ‘joiners,’ those getting involved in their communities and meeting houses, we have [historically] fostered this sense of volunteerism during times of crisis, war and peace,” said Gearan.

Gearan expressed concern regarding the importance of volunteerism as reflected by U.S. government spending. Each year, numerous applicants are turned away by the Peace Corps because the Corps simply cannot afford to fund enough projects. “Why has the most fortunate country in the world said ‘no’ to these volunteers?” asked Gearan. “We spend more on our military marching band than on the Peace Corps. Not my priority.”

When the room opened up for questions, an AmeriCorps alumna raised concern over the budget cuts of both the Peace Corp and AmeriCorps. “Funding is being slightly shaved off every year,” said Gearan. Because there is no one really fighting against it, there is also no one strongly fighting for it. “Without an engaged constituency [the Corps] suffers.” Read more.

More about Mark Gearan
President Gearan’s appointment to Hobart and William Smith in 1999 made him one of the nation’s youngest college presidents. In the course of his tenure, he has reinforced the Colleges’ commitment to global understanding and study abroad opportunities, community service and service-learning, with the goal of providing these elements through contemporary facilities and state-of-the-art technology.             

When named president, Gearan was serving as director of the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C., a post he assumed in 1995. Under his leadership, the Peace Corps experienced a resurgence of interest. The Colleges also have progressed under his guidance. Prior to his Peace Corps directorship, President Gearan served at the White House as Assistant to the President and Director of Communications, as well as Deputy Chief of Staff during the Clinton administration. During the 1992 presidential campaign, he was Al Gore’s campaign manager, segueing to the position of Deputy Director of President-elect Clinton’s transition team.

President Gearan serves on the boards of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which operates the community-based service programs AmeriCorps and ServiceCorps; and The Partnership of Public Service, a group aimed at encouraging young people to pursue federal service careers. Additionally, he served as chair of the National Campus Compact and he is also a member of the Independent College Fund of New York.  Read more.

Read more about former Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan.

PCOL serves half million

PCOL serves half million
Our readership for April, 2007 has increased to 525,000 visitors - over seventeen thousand every day and a 50% increase over a year ago. This past year has also seen the advent of our new web site:  Peace Corps News which added to  The Peace Corps Library web site and  The History of the Peace Corps web site brings us to four web sites serving the returned Peace Corps Volunteer community.

Last year we reported that 350,000 Friends of the Peace Corps visited this web site during March, 2006. One year later our readership for April, 2007 has increased another 175,000 to 525,000 visitors - over seventeen thousand every day and a 50% increase over a year ago.

Thanks again, everybody for making PCOL your source of information for the Peace Corps community.

"They dig wells and build houses. Teach children and their parents how to read. They're America's Peace Corps Volunteers. 170,000 strong since 1961 when a young president challenged a new generation to become global citizens, to help make the world a better place. The responsibility for peace, he said, is the responsibility of our entire society. The Peace Corps: a president's idea, a generation's commitment. Democracy did it." Read more.

Spotlight on Peace Corps Guatemala

Ronny Diaz served in Peace Corps from 1979 to 1981  and found his roots in Guatemala
Ronny Diaz, an Alamogordo native in search of his Latino roots, joined the Peace Corps and traveled to Central America. Two years in the Corps gave Diaz more than he had ever expected. He returned home in better touch with his heritage, speaking a second language and accompanied by his soul mate.

Diaz said Americans were generally accepted when he served in Central America. "We as a people were very respected," he said. But he does remember one occasion in which he was searched by soldiers and led out of a cafe with his hands up. Diaz said that's the only time he felt fear during his stay in Central America. "The hardest thing is getting over your homesickness," he said. He said volunteers leave their way of life behind, including the simplest of necessities, such as hot water. "You are basically going to a Third World country," Diaz said. "You live in isolated, primitive villages."

He first traveled to Costa Rica, where he immersed himself in an intensive, rigorous three-month Spanish course. Diaz said he lived with a family who didn't speak English. "I learned enough Spanish to survive," Diaz said. Then, he moved to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. His job involved teaching farmers soil conservation methods. In his time away from home, his way of life in the United States seemed to follow him around. As a young boy, Diaz helped on his grandfather's 43-acre farm. The Peace Corps assigned him to a soil conservation project due to his farming experience. Diaz was able to use his journalism experience as well. He was featured in a documentary, "Marco de San Marcos," which revolved around the work of Peace Corps volunteers. But, Diaz said, the most rewarding benefit of his Peace Corps tour was finding his soul mate, his wife of 25 years, Sonia Edith. A friend introduced them and, Diaz said, they connected immediately. "I noticed his sincerity and his heart," his wife, Sonia, said. "That's why I fell in love with him." Diaz' wife doesn't speak English and they both speak Spanish at home. They have two daughters, Raquel, 24, and Daniela, 22. "Meeting her was the highlight of my whole experience," he said. Read more.

Guatemala RPCV Mark Brazaitis wins Outstanding Researcher Awards
Brazaitis, who earned a MFA from Bowling Green University and a bachelor's degree in history from Harvard University, is a member of the English Department's creative writing faculty at Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University. A number of his writings have won national prizes, including “An American Affair,” winner of the 2004 George Garrett Fiction Prize; “The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala,” which won the 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Award; and his novel, “Steal My Heart,” which won the 2001 Maria Thomas Fiction Award. His work has also been published in prestigious journals such as “Shenandoah,” “The Notre Dame Review,” “Poetry International,” “Poetry East,” “Hayden's Ferry Review” and “The Carolina Quarterly.”

His remarkable debut collection, "River of Lost Voices," chronicles life in the impoverished Guatemalan towns of Santa Cruz and nearby Coban. The physical distance these 10 stories cover is short, but the geography of human spirit it traverses is vast. In "Gemelas," a young woman reacts with a mixture of happiness and jealousy at the prospect of her twin sister's marriage to a wealthy landowner; it is her fate to follow her sister down a tragic path. A father, his daughter and a young woman grapple with fear of abandonment and aloneness in "How They Healed." A young boy experiences the erotic thrill of mystery when he is seduced by his employer, whose face he never sees, in "Bathwater." Pervading each tale is ex-Peace Corps volunteer Brazaitis's understanding of the intricate social stratifications of his characters' rural community. Adopting the conventions of folktales in sophisticated ways, Brazaitis controls his narratives with sparse dialogue and omniscient or calmly retrospective narrators. His admirable restraint anchors the stories and connects them by a tight chain of motifs, while his lucid prose directs attention away from itself and toward the characters who provide their color and drama.

His writing frequently draws on his experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala. “Although I use small towns in Latin America as settings in some of my work,” he said, “I cast my thematic net wider, creating what I hope are complicated and rich tales of North Americans and Latin Americans meeting, approaching understanding, and sometimes even falling in love across language and culture.” Read more.

Torrey Peace's friends told her not to go to Guatemala as a Peace Corps Volunteer but she's glad she didn't listen
Torrey Peace's friends told her not to go. They said Guatemala was too dangerous, that it wasn't the place to be a Peace Corps volunteer, but the 26-year-old DeLand resident didn't listen. And she's glad she didn't.

Peace described her time in San Carlos Sija, a tiny Guatemalan town of 2,000 people, as one of the most rewarding experiences of her life. "By the end of the two years I felt like I knew the majority of the people," Peace said. "Everyone was very friendly, and even more what struck me was their generosity." People she barely knew would invite her to dinner and give her food. Someone even loaned her a gas stove to use during her stay. "How is it that a country known to have so little can give so much?" Peace said.

Her job was to help the people in her town make better use of funds from immigrants working in the United States. "It is interesting to see the other side of the situation," she said. "That is, the fear of failure and lack of opportunity drives people to the U.S., where they believe they will have a better life." Peace met many people who had not seen their mothers, fathers, sisters for more than 10 years because they couldn't get a tourist visa, yet without the U.S. funds being sent, Sija and the economy of Guatemala would suffer. Read more.

Read more about Peace Corps Guatemala.