When the World Calls

This week I read the book “When the World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and its First Fifty Years.” I had read several books on the history of the Peace Corps when I was in Morocco, and I’d been waiting for the “official” 50th anniversary book. This one was written by a journalist who was an evaluator for Peace Corps in the sixties. About half of the book was about that first decade, the formation of the Peace Corps and the legacy of Kennedy and Shriver. I knew already about the Nixon years, when he tried to more or less eliminate the Peace Corps entirely. I didn’t really know about the Carter years – basically, he continued Nixon’s system, where Peace Corps was combined with VISTA. Reagan appointed a strong director and, well, it seems that things have been more or less the same ever since, with about 8000 volunteers in the field. The author’s perspective on the numbers of volunteers was interesting. The early years had the largest numbers – they kind of threw a lot of volunteers into many countries without meaningful work. The Vietnam war and the Nixon era saw a plunge to what has been more or less the steady state ever since, despite more-than-occasional calls for increases. What I thought was particularly interesting was that in the 60s, numbers in Latin America were high as a counter to Castro’s Cuba. The numbers in Honduras went up in the 80s as a reward for that country allowing the contras to stage there. And then in the post-Soviet era there was a mad rush to pump volunteers into Eastern Europe (which, I suppose, is still on!). The book answered a question I always wondered about – why the Peace Corps building and World Wise Schools program are named after Paul Coverdell, one of the Peace Corps directors (and not, say, Shriver). After he was director, he served in the Senate, and when he died suddenly while in office, his fellow (Republican) Senators were moved to name things after him. There are also some country-specific anecdotes. The book ends by asking whether the Peace Corps does any good – and I don’t think I need to tell you the conclusion.

Speaking of World Wise Schools, I have been writing to the same class that I’ve been partnered with before – the seventh-grade class at my niece’s school. Only now she is in the seventh grade! When I write to them, my priority is not to embarrass her! And also to give information about Armenia and Peace Corps, of course. The class asks good questions; I am happy to be involved in this program. All you teachers out there, or parents, or students with influence on teachers – sign up for this program and get partnered with a PCV! www.peacecorps.gov/wws - that web site has a lot of fun information, too!

The photographs here are of khatchkars, the “cross-stones” that are endemic to Armenia. There are 40,000 in the country, and no two are alike. I hadn’t posted any before, because they’re a tad on the religious side, but as I was putting together a photo montage for my partner class, I realized how crucial they are to Armenia – and of course they are works of art.

From When the World Calls to World Wise Schools to Lonely Planet – quite a theme for this post! I knew that at some point I would write to Lonely Planet to tell them about Zina’s bed and breakfast. The bed is comfortable, the shower hot, the food delicious, and more, Zina is really caring and loves to host guests. It helps that she speaks English so well. And the price is right! Then, a couple of weeks ago, a PCV in Goris mentioned that the Lonely Planet writer was headed down there and asked if we had any suggestions – I told him to mention Zina. Earlier this week I emailed him to see if he had mentioned her; he said he forgot, but gave me the email address of the writer. I emailed him – and he said he had just been to Zina’s the day before and she told him she wasn’t interested! She had told me about some man knocking on her door and that she had told him there was no room. So – I clarified with her that she wanted to be listed in the book and made it clear to him that there was a misunderstanding. He had asked her if she wanted to be in it and she had told him only that she wasn’t in it; she had told him she had no room (because I am here!) and he thought she was saying she didn’t want tourists. Timing is everything – he’s traveling around now but will be back next month, and I hope he will stop by and check out the place; either way, I think she can be listed in the next edition. That would be big for her! When she gets internet I’ll help her with email, and maybe I will make a web site for her. Secondary project! Small business development!