Peace Corps News

RPCV Diplomats in the News

Christopher R. Hill says North Korea has agreed to disable its main nuclear fuel production plant by the end of the year
The New York Times reports that Hill met in Geneva for two days of one-on-one negotiations with Kim Kye-gwan, who heads the North Korean negotiating team, and that North Korea had agreed to disable its main nuclear fuel production plant by the end of 2007 and to account for all of its nuclear programs to international monitors. North Korea had also agreed to turn off its main nuclear reactor this summer. "One thing that we agreed on is that the D.P.R.K. will provide a full declaration of all of their nuclear programs and will disable their nuclear programs by the end of this year, 2007," Hill told reporters.

If the North Koreans meet the schedule and disable their equipment, it would be a major victory for the Bush administration, at a time when it is eager to claim progress on some diplomatic front to offset its problems in Iraq. Whether to offer the North rewards, including oil and, eventually, removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and diplomatic recognition, has been the subject of a six-year struggle within the Bush administration.

The hawks are still unhappy, and have suggested that Mr. Hill is giving away too much. “There is still simply no evidence that Pyongyang has made a decision to abandon its long-held strategic objective to have a credible nuclear-weapons capability,” John R. Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations and, in President Bush’s first term, the top State Department official on counterproliferation, wrote in The Asian Wall Street Journal this weekend. Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon. Read more.

Robert Blackwill handling contract to help pave Ayad Allawi's attempt to oust the current Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
No sooner did Allawi hire Barbour Griffith two weeks ago than congressional staffers said they began to be bombarded with e-mails from Allawi (from an Internet domain registered by the lobbying firm) featuring news stories that depict the Maliki government as hopelessly deadlocked and riddled by sectarian militias. “All the e-mails make the Iraqi government look bad,” said one congressional staffer who asked not to be publicly identified talking about the Iraq issues. Adding further intrigue to the lobbying campaign was the disclosure that the Barbour Griffith principal overseeing the firm’s Allawi account was former ambassador Robert D. Blackwill—the former Bush White House deputy national-security adviser in charge of Iraq policy, who later served as U.S. special envoy to that country. Documents filed by Barbour Griffith with Justice show that Blackwill personally signed the firm’s contract with Allawi on Aug. 20, stating that he will “lead the team” that will assist “Dr. Allawi and his moderate Iraqi colleagues as they undertake this work.”

In light of Blackwill’s close ties to Bush White House policymakers, his role has lead to speculation that the retention of Barbour Griffith was a move at least implicitly endorsed, if not encouraged, by some elements of the administration that are fed up with Maliki. While the White House has been critical of Maliki, they maintain official support for his government and have had no comment on Allawi’s campaign.

Robert Blackwill served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi,  Ambasssador to India, and as a Deputy National Security Advisor to Condoleezza Rice. Read more.

Read more about  Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Read more about Robert Blackwill, former Deputy National Security Advisor to Condoleezza Rice.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers: Wine, Wild Women, and Song

Drink With Paraguay RPCV Philippe Newlin For a Solid A
For two nights every week, Philippe Newlin holds forth at the Business School and SIPA on the more exciting parts of the vinous world: the political economy of Spain, the open rebellions in Australia, the terroir-istes in Burgundy. As the tasting director for Wine & Spirits magazine and a long-time instructor at New York's International Wine Center and the Wine & Spirit Education Trust of London, Newlin has a story or two to spin.

A fast-talking native of Manhattan, who would be mute without his arms, Newlin knows how to relate the complexities of wine to just about anyone. At age 42, he has been a Peace Corps volunteer in Yhu ("blackwater"), Paraguay, a cab driver at the height of the crack epidemic, a waiter at Brasserie Les Halles ("back when the celebrities still went there"), and an investment banker with Swiss Bank Corp., now UBS. He speaks five languages and is leading the IWC's first courses in Spanish this spring. He doesn't come across as a wine geek, and his classes are more about enjoying what's in the glass than figuring out what rootstock a vintner's using.

He feeds off the raw wackiness that comes from mixing people and alcohol, even as he tries to maintain order and focus. The format of the class helps, with everyone seated in a semicircle around him, and the assistants only pour two wines at a time. There are notes on the blackboard, but the lecture is extemporaneous and always passionate. "If you like strawberries, gamay is your wine," he says, twirling a Beaujolais Villages. "Put this one in your lunchbox." For pairing food with a Volnay: "You have those garlicky snails, and then you have that bright cherry fruit, and then you're like, oh yeah. Or you're like, yuck, because it's snails."

Surprisingly enough, this light approach wasn't born from childhood familiarity with great wine, though his mother is from France. "Growing up, I spent every summer in the Loire Valley drinking bad wine mixed with water," he says. "It was only as a banker visiting South Africa that I had really good wine, and chucked the beer in favor of this stuff." Despite the loose structure, most of the course is focused on the practical side of things. After pouring the third and final round, he gives the temporarily restrained class his tips for enjoying wines as delicate and fragrant as pinot noir. Read more.

If wild women are said to wear red, then Namibia RPCV Toddre Monier must have a closet full of the hue
The owner of the "Wild Women Wear Red" shoe boutique knows a fashionable, comfortable pair of shoes when she sees them, and she knows how best to sell them. "I wanted to create a store that would not only be a sanctuary and communal space for women, but would also be a place of inspiration featuring shoes that comfort the soul," Monier says.

As a Peace Corps volunteer, Monier was on assignment in Namibia when she dreamt she owned a shoe store with a name that represented the fire, passion and wildness that exists in every woman. Upon returning to the United States in 2000, she and her husband opened the boutique, which owes its success to serving a specific niche market. The business was profiled in the Washington Post in May 2002.

"Washington, D.C., is a walking city, and we carry what no one else in the area has," says Monier of her stylish, functional footwear and handmade crocheted bags. "Although our clientele comes from all walks of life, our main customers tend to be professional women and graduate students." Based on her shop's steady business, Monier hopes to open another shoe boutique in the area and someday buy a home overseas. Until then, she is content to empower women to be both fashionable and comfortable in their footwear. Read more.

Korea RPCV Cris Groenendaal has played the role of the Phantom in the hit musical "The Phantom of the Opera" more than 860 times on Broadway
After Groenendaal graduated from college, he joined the Peace Corps and spent two years in South Korea. Then he returned to Erie, got a job in a bank, and auditioned for local theater productions. "There was a lot of local really wonderful community theater," he says of Eerie. "I started doing all these different roles, from Shakespeare to Eugene O'Neill. I got a lot of wonderful experience." In July 1975, a stint with a summerstock theater in Ohio helped Groenendaal earn membership with Actors' Equity -- the national union for performers and stage managers in professional theater. By September of that year, Groenendaal had decided to move to New York to pursue acting full-time. "There were a lot of unknowns, but I wouldn't have taken such a plunge if I didn't feel like I could do it," he says of the transition.

There were plenty of challenges in New York, from finding an apartment to auditioning for four years before finally landing a role in the Broadway show "Sweeney Todd." "You go with a little bit of money, and you just start to learn the ropes by talking to the right people, auditioning and taking the right classes," he says of starting out in New York. Groenendaal says his "big break" came when he was hired as a chorus member and understudy for the lead male role of Anthony in "Sweeney Todd" in 1979. Victor Garber, who originally played Anthony, left the show after six months, leaving Groenendaal to take over the role.

In the 26 years since then, Groenendaal has performed in a myriad of other productions -- including "The Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway, where he started with the role of Monsieur Andre and later went on to play the phantom -- and produced two albums with Anderson. The couple also has performed together across the country. He has soaked up the limelight in a slew of other roles on Broadway, including the original Monsieur Andre in "The Phantom of the Opera;" Miles Gloriosus in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum;" Major Rizzolli in "Passion;" Louis in "Sunday in the Park with George;" and Anthony in "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Read more.

Read more about the Peace Corps and Small Business.

Read more about the Peace Corps and Fashion.

Read more about the Peace Corps and Music.

Read more about Peace Corps Humor.

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."

Christopher Hill announces Draft Accord reached in North Korea Nuclear Talks

Christopher Hill announces Draft Accord reached in North Korea Nuclear Talks
The American envoy, Christopher R. Hill, said diplomatic teams from the United States, North Korea and the other four participating countries — China, Japan, South Korea and Russia — pushed negotiations past a self-imposed Monday deadline into early Tuesday before finally agreeing on a final text. The six chief envoys are scheduled to reconvene at 10:30 a.m. in Beijing (9:30 p.m. Eastern time on Monday) to learn if each nation has approved the deal. The agreement is expected to include some significant concessions by the North Koreans, although they did not agree to give up their existing nuclear weapons.

Mr. Hill declined to offer any specifics about the new accord until approval was assured. But he suggested that the pending agreement was essentially the same as the draft proposal that has been under discussion for the past five days — except for revisions in a single paragraph. That paragraph presumably has focused on the question of energy assistance for North Korea. The North Koreans’ demand for huge, upfront shipments of fuel oil and electricity had threatened to scuttle the talks. “Everybody had to make some changes to try to narrow the differences,” Mr. Hill told reporters as he returned to his hotel at 2:41 a.m. local time on Tuesday. He added: “One would hope that we can all agree on this.”   Read more.

Caption: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill  in Beijing, China. Photo: Elizabeth Dalziel/Associated Press

Christopher Hill is a Celebrity In China
Little known in his home country, the boyish-looking U.S. assistant secretary of state has become a celebrity in China's capital and not just for his role as Washington's chief envoy in talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. His easygoing manner has also won over the media, in comparison to the stonewall public relations efforts put forward by some of the other countries in the talks. And with the negotiations taking place for hours on end behind closed doors, the idle time fuels speculation and jokes about Hill. Hill, who is on the evening television news every day he is in Beijing, has been mobbed at the Beijing airport with Chinese travelers rushing over to have their picture taken with him, said one of Hill's security officials, who asked not to be named.

The interest in Hill may also stem from the fact that he speaks every morning and evening to the media, while his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye Gwan, gives only the occasional chaotic news conference. Hill, a Boston Red Sox fan, also won over the Japanese media by turning up for meetings in Tokyo wearing a Seibu Lions baseball cap — the Red Sox had just signed pitching star Daisuke Matsuzaka from the Lions. Read more.

Hill learned first lessons in Diplomacy as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, who reached a tentative agreement with North Korea on ending its nuclear programs, was a fresh-faced 21-year-old Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon when he learned his first lesson in diplomacy.

Hill's job in 1973 was to ride around on a Suzuki dirt bike and audit the books of credit unions in 28 villages and plantations. He discovered one board of directors had taken 60 percent of the money, so he gave an impassioned speech denouncing the malfeasance to hundreds of villagers sitting on a mountainside. His presentation was met with applause and gratitude -- and then the assembled group immediately reelected everyone he had just condemned.

"I realized I didn't know beans about what was going on in this tea plantation," Hill recalled over breakfast recently. It turned out the board reflected a careful amalgam of tribal interests, and it didn't matter whether it ran a good credit union or not.

The lesson, according to Hill: "When something's happened, it's happened for a reason and you do your best to understand that reason. But don't necessarily think you can change it." Read more.

Read more about Christopher Hill.

RPCVs continue service on the Third Goal of the Peace Corps

When Togo RPCV Gregory Acker played African drums with a group of fourth- and fifth-grade students during an assembly, the students couldn't stop moving
Gregory Acker, of Louisville, spent four years in Togo and Morocco in the Peace Corps. He is a part-time professor at Indiana University Southeast and has been performing African music at schools around Kentucky, most of them elementary schools. "I hope these kids got a taste of the spirit that I got when I was living there," he said. Beating on African drums and creating "musical conversations," Acker described each drum and various ways to play them. Fourth-grade students then performed an African skit about unity. "I want to go to Africa now," said Kitty Williamson, a 12-year-old fifth-grader who played in the drum ensemble.   Read more.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Podcast Around the Globe
The RPCV Podcast brings you interviews with Returned Peace Corps Volunteers from around the world. Whether you have an interest in a certain region, enjoy world travel, have served or are interested in serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer, the RPCV Podcast will provide you with a unique perspective from volunteers living and working in the far reaches of the globe. The RPCV Podcast is a GSIS original created by first-year MA student Hayden Gore. Hayden—who served with his wife Lisa in the Peace Corps in Guatemala from 2002 to 2004—first came across the idea of educational Podcasts in a newspaper article in 2005. Working at the time as a bi-lingual teacher in Fort Worth, Texas, the idea struck him: why not use the Podcast as a medium through which my students can publish their creative writing pieces before an international audience? To catch everyone up to speed, the Podcast is a digital media format through which anyone with a computer and an internet connection is able to produce audio or video broadcasts and publish them online for viewing by a Web-wide audience. It represents a completely democratic form of journalism and entertainment.

Visit the RPCV podcast web site.

RPCV Edward J. Shultz creates Web Site to teach About Korean-American Experience
''Americans remain awfully ignorant about Korea and also ignorant about Korean-Americans (although) Korean-Americans have been in the States for well over 100 years,'' Shultz said Friday during an interview with The Korea Times. ''And even younger generations of Korean-Americans don't know much about their ancestors' country.'' So he hopes that his new educational Web site can help those who have tried to find interactive and in-depth materials for the study of Korea and Korean-Americans.

The creation of the Web site shares the main purpose of the 2003 documentary films about Korean-Americans, which were produced as part of the project to commemorate the centennial of Korean immigration to America and shown through PBS. Shultz was also a core member for the production of the documentaries. ''The main purpose of the documentaries was to make Korea and Korean-Americans much better known across the America and also help Korean-Americans understand who they are and where they are fit in the American society,'' Shultz said.

Visit the Arirang web site.

RPCVs at University of Nebraksa/Lincoln sponsor “A Night of International Dance”
The event was not designed as a recruiting tool for the Peace Corps, but rather to celebrate ethnic diversity, said Gretchen Mills, Peace Corps coordinator at UNL. “It’s important to open the doors of the world to Nebraskans,” she said. Following the dance exhibition, the audience was invited to visit with a group of local Peace Corps volunteers and representatives from the student-led Global Friends of Japan organization. The former Peace Corps volunteers, who’d served in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, the Ivory Coast and the Kyrgyz Republic, displayed various souvenirs from their travels and answered questions about their experiences.

Don Bush, a graduate student at Union College in Lincoln, said his involvement in the Peace Corps stemmed from a personal desire to gain experience about societies other than his own. However, he said telling others about the experience he gained was not enough to make people’s lives better – a goal he aimed for during his Peace Corps service. “You can talk about it, but people have to go and see it for themselves,” he said.

Read more about the Third Goal of the Peace Corps.

Tony Hall writes: What North Korea really wants

Tony Hall writes: What North Korea really wants
In three decades as a US congressman, ambassador, and now as a humanitarian activist, I have traveled to more than 100 countries, many of them places of hunger, poverty, warfare, or oppression. I have met some of the world's worst despots and witnessed the horror they can create. I also have, as in Libya, witnessed good deeds done by those who are best known for wickedness. I have learned from these experiences that we should persist in our efforts to help the poor and liberate the oppressed. We also should be ready to engage our enemies, give them opportunities to do good – and maybe some day convert them into friends.

The pressure of UN sanctions finally helped lead Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, an international pariah, to seek a new relationship with the civilized world. One fruit of subsequent engagement with him was obtaining a better route for shipping relief supplies to Darfur's starving refugees.

The United States is missing the opportunity to directly engage North Korea in a similar process. As a result, the world is less safe. The North's inflammatory rhetoric and nuclear weapons-rattling don't exactly promote engagement. But I am convinced that, beneath the hostile noise, its leaders want to develop a better relationship with the West, and especially with the US.

I've concluded this because I was able to make six visits to the "Hermit Kingdom" while I was a member of Congress, traveling throughout that troubled country with surprising freedom. On my last visit, in late 2000, I met high-ranking North Korean officials – but not supreme "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il – who begged me to help them come to terms with the US. Some progress had been made in a 1994 agreement that froze North Korea's nuclear-weapons program. In the waning days of the Clinton administration, the North Koreans wanted to build on that. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had traveled to Pyongyang in October 2000, met with Mr. Kim, and told President Clinton he could get an agreement by going to North Korea himself.

I did urge Mr. Clinton to go, but he was focused exclusively on a final, unsuccessful, attempt to broker a Middle East peace. The Bush administration adopted a harder line toward North Korea. But we now know that Kim Jong Il continued to seek the US president's attention, sending a written personal message to President Bush through two well-regarded US foreign-policy experts who visited Pyongyang in 2002. In it, Kim said engagement could lead to a resolution of the nuclear-weapons conflict.

Despite their bravado, North Korea's rulers understand their country's dire straits. They want more help from the West, particularly from the US. Above all, they want the respect and security that they believe would spring from a lasting bilateral relationship with the US, not from the current six-party talks. They're crying for attention, and the only way they know to command it is to fire their missiles and rattle their nuclear bombs.

If the US granted that attention through direct, serious, comprehensive talks with Pyongyang without preconditions, it would have the potential of putting North Korea's nuclear-weapons program back in the freezer. And it might begin to pull the Hermit Kingdom into the community of civilized nations. Read more.

Former Congressman Tony Hall of Ohio, was ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand in the 1960's.

Hill to lead negotations with North Korea after 13-month hiatus

Hill to lead negotations with North Korea after 13-month hiatus
U.S. officials played down the chances of a breakthrough on North Korean disarmament talks, which will start this weekend in Beijing after a 13-month hiatus, but said they will press for tangible signs of progress. In a briefing for reporters on December 13, the chief U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, declined to discuss specific U.S. objectives for the talks, saying that listing them would invite reporters to measure the outcome against the original goals, resulting in possible headlines like "U.S. Fails Once Again." Hill added that when he presented his suggestions at meetings with North Korean officials in November, "there were indications that the North Koreans would be prepared to deal in specifics at the coming round." Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon.