Peace Corps News

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.

RPCVs - Believe it or Not

RPCV living in Oregon refuses to heat his house
Guatemala RPCV Dave Kaplowe and his roomate Stuart McDougall try to use as few resources as possible, such as keeping the heat off in their Portland Oregon house. Girlfriends Andrea Walter and Katy Daily do their best to humor them.

“We’re not burning fossil fuels,” Kaplowe says, “and we’re very efficient thermoregulators.” McDougall laughs at this. He’s wearing a T-shirt and is barefoot on the hardwood floor. “The no-heat thing started in college when we didn’t have the money for it and then realized we didn’t need it anyway,” Kaplowe says. The household heating bill from NW Natural arrived Nov. 1. The total due was $6.54. The men are so pleased they present a hard copy while Daily rolls her eyes. The women may wish for warmer digs, but Kaplowe says there can be no compromise.

Kaplowe manages fish and wildlife mitigation projects with the Bonneville Power Administration in Portland. The University of Oregon graduate was drawn to the BPA after serving nearly four years with the Peace Corps in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. While in the Peace Corps he helped rural communities, nongovernmental organizations and trinational government organizations adopt sustainable forestry and watershed management practices. Instead of working on watershed management in three Central American countries, he now works with very similar issues in the four states that make up the Columbia Basin — Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. “I believe hydroelectric power is a renewable resource and a great alternative to the burning of fossil fuels or nuclear-derived power,” Kaplowe says. “The BPA demonstrates environmental stewardship and public responsibility.”

Bolivia RPCV plays Mozart concerto on a garden hose
Howard Pink learned of the unique musical instrument while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia in the late 1960s. At that time, he found a recording of noted horn player Dennis Brain playing a piece by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's father, Leopold Mozart, on a garden hose. "A garden hose is nothing more that a French horn played in the technique used in Mozart's time when they didn't have valves. I thought it was a really good idea," he said. At that point, he ran out and bought a standard variety garden hose in a market and went on tour. He soon reached some level of regional acclaim on a South American television show — similar to The Ed Sullivan Show — as "the man who played the hose."

Pink was a French horn player for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra for more than 25 years, where he continued his garden hose show for local school groups and libraries. His program, "Howard Pink and His Musical Garden Hoses," isn't just entertaining, it's also educational. Pink goes into the history of wind instruments and hopes to instill a love of music, if not creativity, with the younger members of the audience. "By the time I'm done, you should have a good idea of what it takes to play not only the French horn but members of the entire brass family. But if nothing else, I hope they learn to appreciate music and want to become a member of an audience. Maybe go to a symphony concert sometime," he said.

Costa Rica RPCV sells Coconut water imported from Brazil
Mark Rampolla decided to sell coconut water, imported from Brazil and marketed as a high-potassium, sugar-free alternative to Gatorade and other sugary sports drinks. The product, Zico, is now sold for $2 per 11-ounce container in yoga studios, health food stores (including Whole Foods) and other outlets.

Because the Rampollas want to support economic development in Latin America, Zico is produced and packaged in Brazil. That creates factory jobs, not just the agricultural work of harvesting the young coconuts. The company has also pledged to give 5 percent of its net profits to improve health and education in the communities where the product is produced. The marketing budget is small, so the approach is "grassroots and guerrilla" - no advertising, but a lot of free samples at health stores and athletic events. There have been anxieties and some scary moments, as in any new business. Soon after Zico got started, a paperwork problem with U.S. Customs halted shipment of the product from Brazil, a mess that took two months to untangle. And living without a reliable corporate paycheck has required some adjustments by the Rampollas, who have two young daughters. But the company is growing, and Rampolla hopes to hire five people, mostly in sales, in 2007.

Having lived as both a poor Peace Corps volunteer and an affluent executive in the Third World, Rampolla has a different perspective on business ups and downs. "We always know if things really go south, we'll wind up on a beach in South America, and as long as I have my wife and kids, I'll be happy," Rampolla says. "I just really enjoy everything that's involved in trying to make this happen."

Carol Bellamy writes: We need an Earth Corps to work with existing service organizations all over the world to recruit and help citizens address the U.N. Millennium Development Goals

Carol Bellamy writes:  We need an Earth Corps to work with existing service organizations all over the world to recruit and help citizens address the U.N. Millennium Development Goals
National service is a worthy idea -- after all, at least 30 countries, including Norway, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Chile and Israel, require every 20- and 21-year-old to serve one or two years in either military or alternative national service. But national service is not enough. The crises we face are global crises, and they need global solutions.

We live in a time of unprecedented planetary crises -- global warming and climate change, species loss, the depletion of groundwater and fossil fuel, the pandemic spread of HIV/AIDS, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and small arms, the expanding gulf between the rich and poor, the conflict between secularism and fundamentalism -- the list goes on. These crises are coming to a head in the next 10 to 20 years. Something must be done about each and every one of them now. We propose to establish an independent, nongovernmental, all-volunteer Peace Corps for the whole earth, an Earth Corps.

What would an Earth Corps actually do? It would work with existing service organizations all over the world to recruit and help citizens address the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. They include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and women's empowerment, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.

Volunteers would work to monitor and reverse global warming, clean up polluted rivers and toxic waste sites, teach basic computer skills and business practices to the recipients of micro-credit loans, provide information and medical care and so forth. Together, working with our neighbors, and in voluntary service settings around the world, we can make a difference -- perhaps the critical difference.

During her professional career, Costa Rica RPCV Carol Bellamy has been a lawyer, banker and politician
During her professional career, Carol Bellamy has been a lawyer, banker and politician. "If you add Realtor into the mix, I'd have done all the jobs your mother wouldn't admit to your next-door neighbors," Bellamy joked. While demonstrating a keen sense of humor, Bellamy's purpose is much more serious. Bellamy  served as UNICEF's executive director for 10 years. UNICEF is the world's leading children's organization.

She discussed her experiences heading UNICEF and her previous jobs as a Peace Corps volunteer and New York state senator. "I was a banker," Bellamy said, "but it took me coming to UNICEF to realize that something like helping a young woman is more likely to multiply." She meant that by investing in education of an underprivileged young woman, that person is more likely to raise a family, not get infected with HIV and be a stable adult. "Where else can you get that return in an investment?" Bellamy said.

Read more about Carol Bellamy.

Recent RPCV Obituaries

Obituary for Liberia RPCV D. Michael Van De Veer
On December 19, 2006, shortly after returning to Hawaii from Nepal where he was working as an independent journalist, D. Michael Van De Veer died from an infection from which he could not recover.  An active member of SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association), Van De Veer was a long time social activist around the world and best known as the colorful and compassionate voice of Kauai Community Radio KKCR’s weekly “Out of the Box” call in talk show.  But as large as his presence in radio was, Michael was also very active as a journalist, writing and reporting for Pacifica’s Free Speech Radio News, UnitedWeBlog, Voice of Democratic Nepal and other independent news outlets.  An active member of SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association), Michael frequently traveled to and wrote about, social and political affairs in Nepal.  A KKCR website biography notes that Michael was a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia and the former Planning Director of Santa Cruz County, CA.  Michael served on KKCR’s Board of Directors and was active in supporting charitable causes in Nepal. 

Obituary for India RPCV Ken Miller
There was another side of Ken Miller known best to his neighbors in Morgan County. He was a farmer and a dedicated citizen. His sense of service had been honed in India as a member of the Peace Corps for two years. He was on the board of the Morgan County Hospital and a member of the Mooresville Nature Club.

Obituary for Ecuador RPCV Jack Thornborrow
Thornborrow's life of service may have begun after college when he volunteered in agriculture for the Peace Corps in Ecuador. He met his wife, Darcy, in London, and they traveled to Afghanistan, where they taught English. They married in the Katmandu Valley in Nepal before returning to the United States and moving with his family to Buhl in 1974. In the early 1990s, Thornborrow bridged his agricultural background with local politics and took a seat on the Planning and Zoning Commission. "I think my dad was one of the most fair people you would ever meet," Jenah said. "He would make decisions to his detriment if he knew they were right. In the farm, he made those decisions as well as in the bigger community."

Obituary for Costa Rica RPCV Langdon Barone
After graduating from West Virginia University, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica. From 1985 to 1998, he worked overseas with the Department of State. In 1998, he was sworn in as a Foreign Service Officer and had postings in Dakar, Senegal and Washington, D.C., where he was serving at the time of his death.

Obituary for Venezuela RPCV Debbie Jirak
After graduating from Temple University with a degree in Spanish, Mrs. Jirak became one of America's first Peace Corps volunteers, working in a village in the Andes in Venezuela for two years. Returning to the United States, she earned her master's degree at Duquesne University and taught Spanish in a number of Pittsburgh Public Schools. That's where she met her husband, likewise a teacher and eventually a vice principal. The couple helped finance their 1981 honeymoon in the Galapagos Islands by arranging a tour group of 34 friends. That led them to start their own travel company. In a 1995 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story on the agency, Mrs. Jirak said, "Adventure should not be reserved for the advantaged, nor should world travel be exclusively for the wealthy." Mrs. Jirak and her husband were sensitive to the various cultures they visited with their tours, holding several orientation sessions before trips to familiarize travelers with their destinations. "We find that people appreciate a trip more when they know what to expect and they become sensitive to the particular culture being visited," Mrs. Jirak said in the article. The couple visited the Galapagos numerous times and also traveled to China, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Germany and the Arctic, among other locations. Mrs. Jirak would document their trips through photographs and writings. The Jiraks also hosted Mexican, Japanese and Inuit exchange students.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: More questions you were afraid to ask about the Peace Corps

Can I be a vegetarian in the Peace Corps?
Peace Corps Applicant "Peaceful Core" writes: "So it all started when I had my first conversation on Monday with Placement Officer J about me being a vegetarian. After 15 minutes it was apparent that the Peace Corps does not appreciate vegetarians and that being one during your 27 months service is not a good thing. She kept asking me how I was going to explain why I was a vegetarian to people in my host country, which will be in Africa. I tried to explain myself. She then said that with the language barrier, I would not be able to be understood. I got the feeling that she was basically asking me to eat meat. She then tells me that another Placement Officer, P would call me later this week. And that I should meanwhile think about how I will approach this."

Answer: They're not lying when they say that it's not culturally appropriate to turn down food that is offered to you. I'm sure that's as true in Africa as it is in Latin America, where I've studied and traveled. PC has told me several times that I'm perfectly welcome to try to keep any type of diet that I'd like, but that I should recognize how difficult it might be, both in terms of food availability and cultural norms. When it comes down to it (and it may), will you choose to eat meat to integrate into your community, or ET and come home? That's what PC wants to know. They want to know that if you were faced with that situation, your desire to serve is stronger than your desire to keep vegism." Read more.

Can I be terminated for being away from my site without permission?
Costa Rica Peace Corps Volunteer Gringa Perdida writes: This week we've lost a volunteer. Saturday, Mike is leaving on a jet plane. This is nothing less than tragic. Actually, I believe 'ironic' would be a better describer. Mike was faced with 'administrative separation' for not calling Peace Corps to tell them that he would be passing the night out of his site. He was working in San Jose, and simply forgot to call in. It's something I, in my gnat-like attention span and attention to detail, have done more than once. Peace Corps found out and he was given the option to quit or be fired. So he had 24 hours to pack his things, say goodbye to his community and get out of the country. There is a policy, of course. The new policy is 'zero tolerance' and he is being made an example of. Anytime subjectivity is removed from punishments, it always seems to fall on the people that deserve it the least.  Read more.

What is Peace Corps' policy on Tattoos and Piercings?
A Romania RPCV writes: "It has sadly come to my attention that Peace Corps is looking to become more discriminatory of applicants based on their artistic expression. Applicants who have tattoos will be heavily screened if not totally rejected from going to Asia, Central Asia and Eastern European regions because PC wants to give the world "a more professional view" of Americans.

According to Peace Corps, countries in Central Asia and also Ukraine have a view of tattoos as a sign you have been in prison. I know this is true to a certain extent because I know a few returned volunteers who have served in Central Asian countries. But as a lot of you RPCVs out there who have served in EE/CA regions can attest to is that tattoos are growing within the region in popularity with host country nationals, as are piercings. As a returned volunteer from Romania, I certainly can say this. Volunteers got facial piercings in-country, tattoos in country, did it compromise their job and the respect they had gained while there? No, not at all. Some of these volunteers ended up extending.

So my big issue here is where will Peace Corps draw the line? If there is a totally qualified primary education teacher trainer, certified with experience, who has a tattoo on her ankle, and then another primary education candidate with no certification and 6 months primary tutoring experience, with no tattoo, who are they going to choose? Is it about physical professionalism now in PC instead of what skills you can bring to your Peace Corps country?"  Read more.

Read more questions about the Peace Corps for Miss Lonelyhearts.