Publication Year: within 25 Years / Topic: Peace Corps

Author:: Mark Wentling
Publication Date:: 08-2020
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: American Diplomacy
Abstract:: My friends say I was born and raised in Kansas, but I was made in Africa. I first stepped on the continent in 1970 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo and stayed much longer than expected, serving with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and working with non-governmental organizations across the continent. I ended up knowing firsthand in varying degrees each of Africa’s 54 countries.
Topic:: Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Memoir, Peace Corps, and USAID
Political Geography:: Africa and United States of America

Author:: Brittni Foster
Publication Date:: 12-2018
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:: How a class assignment led to MAAS alum Dan Walsh’s lifelong passion for preserving Palestine’s visual heritage. When Dan Walsh (MAAS ’11) was serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Marrakesh in the early 1970s, his language tutor encouraged him to practice his budding Arabic and Moroccan Darija skills by translating the posters that papered the buildings around town. Walsh, now the curator of the world’s largest collection of posters on Palestine, remembers how grateful he was for the break from verb conjugations but says he never could have imagined how that assignment would change the course of his career. He credits his hours spent walking the streets of Marrakech and Rabat reading posters—Arabic dictionary in hand—with not only improving his language skills, but also igniting what has become one of his life’s passions.
Topic:: Culture, Media, Peace Corps, and Higher Education
Political Geography:: Middle East, Israel, Palestine, North America, and United States of America

Author:: Ben East
Publication Date:: 12-2017
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: American Diplomacy
Institution:: American Diplomacy
Abstract:: I pictured myself in a Peace Corps-issue hammock on an island somewhere, or crossing high glaciers in the glaring Himalayan sun. Then the recruiter called and offered Malawi. Pointless to remind her what I’d written where the application asked my preference: ‘Anywhere but Africa.’ Before that call, a recruiter—maybe the same recruiter—offered another would-be Volunteer a choice. Would she prefer Nepal, or Malawi? A logical thinker with a Math degree and an Indian heritage, she chose Malawi. ‘I can travel to Nepal on my own any time. When will I travel to Africa outside the Peace Corps?’ So when the recruiter called me, fate was already decided.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Memoir, and Peace Corps
Political Geography:: Africa and Malawi

Author:: Bob Baker
Publication Date:: 03-2016
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: American Diplomacy
Institution:: American Diplomacy
Abstract:: Malaria was like having a pain X-ray of all your bones, but after a fever bout, shaking chills diverted attention from your aching bones. I had taken all the anti-malaria pills but had evidently bumped into a new strain upcountry in Mali, West Africa. Catching bugs was also easy in Liberia, and Congo.
Topic:: Diplomacy, Health, Memoir, and Peace Corps
Political Geography:: Africa, Mali, and United States of America

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