Peace Corps News

An Exhibit of RPCV David Whitman's photographs of Brazil opens in Key Biscayne September 9

An Exhibit of Saint Lucia RPCV David Whitman's photographs of Brazil opens in Key Biscayne September 9
Six years ago Miami photographer David Whitman visited Ilha de Maré, an island in northeastern Brazil. His friend Jorge Antonio Espirito Santo Batista, a teacher there, had promised Whitman a glimpse of a Brazil that was disappearing—an island without cars, where you arrive by boat and wade through the surf to the shore, a place still dependent on the sea and the legendary tides that give the island its name. As they wandered along streets made of crushed shells and earth, Whitman noticed two barefooted boys playing marbles. “From where I stood, they happened to form a yin-yang shape,” Whitman recounts, “and I quietly reached for my camera, hoping I could record the moment before they shifted positions.” He did, and the young marble players—Jefinho and Darlei—famously landed on the cover of the International Calendar of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers in 2005. Jefinho and Darlei inspired the calendar’s theme that year: Harmony in Play. “The two boys playing marbles convey the age-old concept of Yin and Yang—opposites that fit together perfectly to make a whole—a reminder that harmony does not come from being the same. It comes from embracing differences and discovering how we complement and balance each other, thereby making the world a richer place.” Whitman’s photo—and the story behind it—were featured at the time on Progreso Weekly and Progreso Semanal, and also caught the attention of Alhemar Altieri, the publisher of InfoBrazil, a site that offers independent analysis and opinion on Brazilian current affairs. “With most Brazilians absorbed by the annual Carnival celebrations, we at InfoBrazil decided to break away from the usual political, business and economic content, and asked David Whitman, an accomplished photographer, to reflect on his time spent in Brazil.”

Last November, Whitman returned to Ilha de Maré during a four-week photographic journey through Brazil. As he was walking along the same road where he’d encountered Jefinho and Darlei six years earlier, he passed two boys—about the same age as the marble players had been—seated at a cement table. He gave them each a keyring from Miami, and asked if he could take their picture, the first shot of the day. That photo, “Best Friends,” is now the announcement for an upcoming exhibit of Whitman’s work, in Miami, called “Luminous Youth.” Reviewing an exhibit of Whitman’s work in Berkeley, California, Stephanie Hornbeck, now a conservator at the National Museum of African Art, wrote, “Whitman’s photographs evoke a gentle world. Beneath leafy trees in sunny, seemingly carefree settings by the sea, warm smiles and bright eyes engage the viewer directly. He focuses on the inner warmth and outer beauty of his young subjects, separating them from their often sad circumstances.” “Luminous Youth” runs from September 9 to November 2 at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center in Crandon Park, Key Biscayne. The opening reception is on Sunday, September 9, from 3 to 6 pm, with Brazilian music performed by Rose Max and Ramatis.  Read more.

Read more about Peace Corps Saint Lucia.

Read more about Peace Corps Brazil.

Read more about Photography and the Peace Corps.

Read more about Peace Corps Exhibits.

Watch Dodd's Peace Corps Hearings tomorrow on the web

Enhancing The Peace Corps Experience: S. 732, The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act

PCOL will not be in DC tomorrow morning to cover the hearings live but Senator Dodd's office has informed us that the hearings will be webcast and we will be watching them live and reporting on them.

The link to the video will be on Senator Dodd's Home Page and will begin about 15 minutes prior to the hearings.

We will be providing copies of all the witnesses' statements on our web site and photos from the hearings.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Time: 9:30 AM
Place: 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Presiding: Senator Dodd

Read a copy of the proposed legislation.

Read Senator Dodd's remarks on introducing the legislation.

CSPAN has informed us that they probably won't be televising the hearings but that they are still finalizing their schedule.

Witnesses speaking on the legislation will include:

Peace Corps Director Ronald A. Tschetter

Former Director Mark L. Schneider

David Kotz, Inspector General of the Peace Corps

Ms. Kate Raftery, Country Director, Eastern Caribbean

Chuck Ludlam, Volunteer, Senegal

Paula Hirschoff, Volunteer, Senegal

Kevin Quigley, President, National Peace Corps Association

Nicole Fiol, Applicant to the Peace Corps

Call for stories to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps

Call for stories to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps
The Peace Corps will turn 50 in 2011. To celebrate the occasion, the editors of Peace Corps at 50 invite all volunteers, in-country staff and trainers to submit their best stories to a four-volume anniversary collection. The site www.PeaceCorpsAt50.org marks the spot with information on the project, the editors, and writers’ guidelines.

“Everyone who has served in the Peace Corps has a story,” said series editor Jane Albritton. “We tell them when we get together; our families know them by heart (our kids sometimes roll their eyes). We include at least some of them in job interviews and when we meet new friends.”

However, the editors agreed that even good stories can get lost in time, and with them vanishes a piece of vital knowledge about an organization that has to date sent roughly 187, 000 volunteers into 139 different countries. These four books and the stories in them will document that we in this country can engage fully with other cultures, have our preconceptions smashed to smithereens, and live to tell the tale.

“Most people may not remember, or ever have known, that before Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, there were three African American volunteers in Pakistan,” Albritton said. “Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of race and sex, Pauline Birky-Kruetzer had completed her appointment as in-country director for Pakistan 1. Peace Corps was way ahead of the curve.”

In those days it might not have been entirely wise to give a woman a leadership role in a Muslim country, but director Sargent Shriver was adamant. Birky-Kruetzer prevailed, winning the respect of even the rugged Pathans. Birky-Kruetzer, now 91, has vivid memories of those times.

“Willie Douglas, who was very dark, taught agriculture up in Pathan territory where farmers worked the fields with guns on their shoulders,” she recalled. “They loved him and wanted another volunteer just like him.”

The series will include four volumes, each with its own editor: Africa and the Middle East (Dennis Cordell); Asia and the Pacific (Jane Albritton); South America, Central America and the Caribbean (Pat Alter); and After the Cold War: Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia (Jay Chen). (Please see the site for biographical information.)

“We are all aware that the Peace Corps experience was not always rosy or uplifting,” Albritton said. “Sometimes volunteers can’t avoid scary, ethically murky situations. We are prepared to include well-told stories that recount those parts of the Peace Corps experience along with the more familiar memories of just what do you do when presented with a plate of freshly fried crickets by a smiling girl from Chad?”

For further information on this project please visit the website.

Caption: Working along with their instructor, Willie Douglas, high school students who belong to a vocational agriculture program work in their classroom - the fields. The scene is in Katlang, a remote mountain village in West Pakistan, near the Afghan border. Photo by Paul Conklin.

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.

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.

Maryland Returned Volunteers to screen "American Idealist" at UMBC on March 3

Maryland Returned Volunteers to screen "American Idealist" at UMBC on March 3
Maryland Returned Volunteers invites you to a special advance screening of the inspiring documentary American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver on Saturday, March 3 at 7:00 p.m. at The Shriver Center, UMBC.

Discussion and social will follow the film. Outgoing Peace Corps Volunteers will be honored. This event is free, however, your donation will benefit a local service project. The Shriver Center is located on the first floor of UMBC’s Public Policy Building. For directions and parking please visit: www.umbc.edu. Parking is open on streets and lots during this event. For more information contact: Joby Taylor at 410-455-6398 or joby.taylor@umbc.edu

American Idealist tells the story of Sargent Shriver
Sargent Shriver has arguably touched more lives than any American since Franklin Roosevelt. Television journalist and former LBJ aide Bill Moyers calls him “the best all-around politician I’ve ever seen.” Yet, Shriver remains unknown to most Americans today.

During his tenure in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Shriver created the Peace Corps, directed the War on Poverty, and served as U.S. ambassador to France. The programs he created—including the Peace Corps, Head Start, Legal Services for the Poor, VISTA, Job Corps, Foster Grandparents, and Special Olympics—have improved the lives of millions. Sarge’s story offers both a guiding paradigm and a source of inspiration for those who wish to serve.

Learn more about Sargent Shriver, founding Director of the Peace Corps.

Peace Corps Documentary "Jimi Sir" now available for free viewing on the internet

Peace Corps Documentary "Jimi Sir" now available for free viewing on the internet
Filmmaker Claude von Roesgen announces that "Jimi Sir," an original and intimate portrait of Peace Corps volunteer James Parks' experiences as a high school science, math and English teacher during the last 10 weeks of his service in Nepal, is now available for free viewing on "Google Video" at: Google Video: Jimi Sir. The film is also available for purchase on DVD at Amazon. "Jimi Sir" has been called the best movie ever made about the Peace Corps experience.

Take a journey to the rugged terrain that separates the barren Tibetan plateau and the plains of India. Live alongside Jimi, a Peace Corps volunteer in Melung, a days walk south of the trail from Kathmandu to Mt Everest base camp. Delve into the ways of the Tibetan Buddhist people living and farming side by side with the Hindu Sanskrit culture. Witness the Buddhist prayer wheels and flags alongside the Hindu puja rituals. Understand the challenges facing Nepal as its citizens struggle with overpopulation, deforestation, and drinking water quality. Celebrate the festival of Tihaar, a tribute to the animals. Watch Jimi as he strives to finish a water quality and educational development projects before the deadline of his completion of service.

Benefit from Jimi's two years of Peace Corps experience in Nepal as a high school math/science and English teacher by seeing Nepal through his eyes. Jimi speaks Nepali fluently and brings you into the culture. Come to understand what it means for a Westerner to spend two years in the Middle Ages where there are no roads, vehicles, electricity, plumbing, telephone or radio. Experience Jimi's unique perspective on our Western way of life.

A must see for anyone interested in visiting Nepal or has traveled there themselves. You'll feel like you're back in this enchanting land of mountain peaks that reach as high as the highest thunderheads. With rivers that churn their way furiously through narrow valleys flanked by rice paddies rising thousands of feet above the river bed. If you're a returned Peace Corps volunteer, interested in becoming a Peace Corps volunteer, or know anyone who did Peace Corps service you'll definitely want to watch "Jimi Sir."

Read more about Peace Corps Nepal.

Read more about RPCV Documentary Filmmakers.

PCOL Co-Editors will be out of the country until January 29

PCOL Co-Editors will be out of the country until January 29
"Peace Corps Online" announced today that their Publisher and Co-Editors will be out of the country until the end of January and that the web site will not be updated during that period.

"We will be out of contact with no internet connection.  During the next week we will not be publishing any new stories," Peru RPCV Hugh Pickens announced.

"Of course, the web site will remain open in the interim and we expect to begin adding new stories on January 29," he added. "In the meantime, we invite readers to read stories from among the 40,000 index entries in the Peace Corps Library and read about the History of the Peace Corps."

Caption:  Hugh Pickens, Publisher and Co-Editor of Peace Corps Online, with Dr S. J. Pickens, Co-Editor

Father of PCV Stephen Lotti, killed in Plane Crash in Peru in 2005, is searching for Monica Glenn who survived on the same flight

Father of PCV Stephen Lotti,  killed in Plane Crash in Peru in 2005, is searching for Monica Glenn who survived on the same flight
We received the following message which we have been asked to post on our Bulletin Board:

"My name is David Lotti. Stephen Lotti was my son who died in the plane crash in Peru 8/23/05. My attorney would very much like to contact Ms. Monica Glenn and talk with her about that day. Since both Steve and Ms. Glenn served in the Peace Corps we feel that at some point in the flight they may have made a connection. If you have a means of contacting her, please have her contact me at jblotti AT comcast.net OR David M. Lotti 115 Ashton Park, Peachtree City, Ga 30269. Phone 770-486-8502. Thanks for your help in this matter."

RPCVs Monica Glenn and Steve Lotti were traveling separately on a flight in Peru in 2005 that crashed near Pucallpa. Steve Lotti lost his life while Monica Glenn and her husband survived with second degree burns.

Monica Glenn served as a volunteer in China, her family is from the Orange County area, and her husband William Zea-Palacios is Bolivian. They were living in Arequipa, Peru a year and a half ago. If anyone in the RPCV community knows how to get in touch with Monica Glenn, please pass this message on to them.

Listen to new Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter over the internet at 11 am EST on Thursday, December 21

Listen to new Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter over the internet at 11 am EST on Thursday, December 21
Tune into "the Intersection" with Rebecca Roberts on WETA 90.9FM at 11 a.m. EST on Thursday, December 21 to hear a discussion with new Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter.  Calls and emails from returned volunteers and the Peace Corps community are welcome. You can listen to the program live over the internet by going to http://www.weta.org/theintersection/  and click the button that says "Listen live to 90.9FM." Read more.

Peace Corps Writers is seeking submissions for new book "Letters Home from the Peace Corps"

Peace Corps Writers is seeking submissions for new book "Letters Home from the Peace Corps"
Your submissions are requested for the book Letters Home from the Peace Corps

Peace Corps Writers (www.PeaceCorpsWriters.org) has agreed to edit and publish a collection of correspondence of Peace Corps Volunteers as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. Letters Home from the Peace Corps will be one way for Peace Corps Writers to preserve the history of the Peace Corps. Your letters and emails to family and friends are treasured documents that must be saved because they offer valuable insight into the experience we all shared. Your personal correspondence tells a story, and with this book, we hope to preserve your story — as expressed in your own words — for posterity, and we ask you to share them with us.

While we prefer to see previously unpublished material, letters and/or emails that have already appeared in local newspapers, self-published books, and/or family web sites are all acceptable.

Selecting your correspondence for submission

In selecting a letter or email to be considered for publication in the book, we ask that you choose it thus: Would a reader find the letter intriguing? . . . dramatic? . . . humorous? . . . historic? . . . insightful? If you can answer yes to one of these questions, please send it.

We will select the very best letters that tell the story — through the eyes of PCVs and Staff — of the Peace Corps since its beginnings in 1961.

Your letters can be about any aspect of the Peace Corps experience: Making the Decision to Join, Training, Peace Corps Service, Friends, HCNs, Family Visits, After the Peace Corps, Life as an RPCV, Returning to the Host Country.

Send us no more than three of your best letters or emails. Select the letter(s) that have the most meaning to you; that tell a story you want to tell.

Mail us your correspondence for the first round of selection by June 1, 2007. For letter(s):

• Send a legible photocopy or typed transcript. Do not send originals. We cannot return anything sent to us. (If we have trouble reading your handwriting, your letter will not be considered for publication.)

• Send to:
Marian Haley Beil
4 Lodge Pole Road
Pittsford, New York 14534

For email(s):Send to: jpcoyne@peacecorpswriters.org Put in the subject line: “Letters Home From the Peace Corps”

Please include for either letters or emails:
• Information about yourself or the PCV/RPCV or staff member who wrote the letter (e.g.,
where and when he or she served, and any other important personal and/or background
information).
• Your phone number.
• Your email address.
• Your mailing address.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Marian Haley Beil
John Coyne
Editors: Letters Home from the Peace Corps

PCOL announces News Feed for Peace Corps News

PCOL announces News Feed
PCOL announces a news feed for Peace Corps news. The purpose of the "Peace Corps Online" blog and news feed is to provide up-to-the-minute news about the Peace Corps and to provide a daily collection of top stories about the Peace Corps, the Returned Volunteer community and what Returned Peace Corps Volunteers are doing around the the world. To subscribe to our news feed, first install a news aggregator, then click on the link in the upper right hand corner of this page that says "Subscribe to this blog's feed."  Read more.