The Life of an African Peace Corps Child

The Life of an African Peace Corps Child PDF Author: Chia Tasah
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491771577
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 178

Get Book Here

Book Description
My autobiography recounts my life from 1980 as an African Peace Corps child until I became a US citizen in 2012. I lived a full life as a needy child from a poverty-stricken nuclear family of nine and believe I have something fascinating to share with the world. Despite my pennilessness, I made great strides in my endeavors and thrived. I call myself a Peace Corps child of Africa because American Peace Corps volunteers, with benevolent and philanthropic gestures, encouraged my growth into an authentic adult. Mr. Alan Lakomski whisked me away from my job as bartender and manager of a confidential decadent brothel at Club 185 Njinikom at age fourteen and sent me to secondary school. He returned to the United States when his term expired. Bill Strassberger replaced Dan Hunter and supported my education. Christine Swanson advised me to apply to the master-of-education program in human resource development at the University of Minnesota in 2003. I graduated in 2005 with an MEd and now work as an independent team-building and cultural-diversity consultant at All World Languages and Cultures, Inc., in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Life of an African Peace Corps Child

The Life of an African Peace Corps Child PDF Author: Chia Tasah
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491771577
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 178

Get Book Here

Book Description
My autobiography recounts my life from 1980 as an African Peace Corps child until I became a US citizen in 2012. I lived a full life as a needy child from a poverty-stricken nuclear family of nine and believe I have something fascinating to share with the world. Despite my pennilessness, I made great strides in my endeavors and thrived. I call myself a Peace Corps child of Africa because American Peace Corps volunteers, with benevolent and philanthropic gestures, encouraged my growth into an authentic adult. Mr. Alan Lakomski whisked me away from my job as bartender and manager of a confidential decadent brothel at Club 185 Njinikom at age fourteen and sent me to secondary school. He returned to the United States when his term expired. Bill Strassberger replaced Dan Hunter and supported my education. Christine Swanson advised me to apply to the master-of-education program in human resource development at the University of Minnesota in 2003. I graduated in 2005 with an MEd and now work as an independent team-building and cultural-diversity consultant at All World Languages and Cultures, Inc., in Kansas City, Missouri.

Life of an African Peace Corps Child

Life of an African Peace Corps Child PDF Author: Tasah Chia (author)
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781649089427
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description


Monique and the Mango Rains

Monique and the Mango Rains PDF Author: Kris Holloway
Publisher: Waveland Press
ISBN: 1478609028
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237

Get Book Here

Book Description
In a remote corner of West Africa, Monique Dembele saved lives and dispensed hope every day in a place where childbirth is a life-and-death matter. Monique and the Mango Rains is the compelling story of the authors decade-long friendship with Monique, an extraordinary midwife in rural Mali. It is a tale of Moniques unquenchable passion to better the lives of women and children in the face of poverty, unhappy marriages, and endless backbreaking work, as well as her tragic and ironic death. In the course of this deeply personal narrative, as readers immerse in village life and learn firsthand the rhythms of Moniques world, they come to know her as a friend, as a mother, and as an inspired woman who struggled to find her place in a male-dominated world.

No Hurry in Africa

No Hurry in Africa PDF Author: Theresa Munanga
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1450251560
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 155

Get Book Here

Book Description
Have you ever dreamed about joining the Peace Corps? Unemployed and aching to really make a difference in the world, Theresa Munanga applied to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer. When she left for her assignment in Kenya, she had no idea what the three years from 2004-2007 would hold. No Hurry in Africa follows the author as she teaches computer skills to Kenyans, some of whom have never seen a computer before, in areas where electricity comes and goes, and where four computers serve to teach up to forty students per class. Riveting journal entries and emails home introduce Kenya as a beautiful country, yet a country of contrasts: where people walk miles out of their way to direct you to your destination. Where men can have multiple wives. Where women wash clothes by hand and carry babies on their backs. A country with friendly, hard working people, but also a country with a lack of safe drinking water, poverty, corruption, and less than adequate medical services in the remote areas.

I Miss the Rain in Africa

I Miss the Rain in Africa PDF Author: Nancy Wesson
Publisher: Modern History Press
ISBN: 1615995749
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Get Book Here

Book Description
At a time when her friends were planning cushy retirements, Nancy Wesson instead walked away from a comfortable life and business to head out as a Peace Corps Volunteer in post-war Northern Uganda. She embraced wholeheartedly the grand adventure of living in a radically different culture, while turning old skills into wisdom. Returning home becomes a surreal experience in trying to reconcile a life that no longer “fits.” This becomes the catalyst for new revelations about family wounds, mystical experiences, and personal foibles. Nancy shows us the power of stepping into the void to reconfigure life and enter the wilderness of the uncharted territory of our own memories and psyche, to mine the gems hidden therein. Funny, heartbreaking, insightful and tender, I Miss the Rain in Africa is the story of honoring the self, discovering a new lens through which to view life, and finding joy along the path. "Inspiring and educational when it comes to what we can accomplish when we put our best foot forward, I Miss the Rain in Africa shows how Nancy Daniel Wesson and others are putting the needs of others ahead of themselves-and what we can all do when it comes to stepping out on faith and choosing to act." -- Cyrus Webb, media personality and author, Conversations Magazine "I would think that many of us could learn or strive to live life to the fullest by following Nancy's example. Imagine venturing into new realms-especially at a later time in life when we possess meaningful knowledge for analyzing, but also for applying a critical philosophical perspective on new experiences." --Gary Vizzo, former management & operations director, Peace Corps Community Development: African and Asia "I Miss the Rain in Africa is an absorbing record of the exploration of self by a woman who, at age 64, enters a remote area of Africa to work with an NGO. Part adventure, part interior monologue, this is an account of a 21st century derring-do by an intrepid, intriguing and always optimistic woman who will, undoubtedly, enjoy a fourth and maybe even a fifth act wherever she may find herself." --Eileen Purcell, outreach literacy coordinator, Clatsop Community College, Astoria, Oregon "Wesson offers a montage of stories and experiences that introduces the reader to the colorful people and challenging life in Uganda. Wesson's observations are shared with humor, respect, and compassion. For anyone who has ever wondered what serving in Peace Corps or immersing oneself in a radically different life overseas might be like, this book provides a portal." --Kathleen Willis, Retired Peace Corps Volunteer-Community Organizer, former organizational development consultant Learn more at www.NancyWesson.com

Nine Hills to Nambonkaha

Nine Hills to Nambonkaha PDF Author: Sarah Erdman
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466850051
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 374

Get Book Here

Book Description
A portrait of a resilient African village, ruled until recently by magic and tradition, now facing modern problems and responding, often triumphantly, to change When Sarah Erdman, a Peace Corps volunteer, arrived in Nambonkaha, she became the first Caucasian to venture there since the French colonialists. But even though she was thousands of miles away from the United States, completely on her own in this tiny village in the West African nation of Côte d'Ivoire, she did not feel like a stranger for long. As her vivid narrative unfolds, Erdman draws us into the changing world of the village that became her home. Here is a place where electricity is expected but never arrives, where sorcerers still conjure magic, where the tok-tok sound of women grinding corn with pestles rings out in the mornings like church bells. Rare rains provoke bathing in the streets and the most coveted fashion trend is fabric with illustrations of Western cell phones. Yet Nambonkaha is also a place where AIDS threatens and poverty is constant, where women suffer the indignities of patriarchal customs, where children work like adults while still managing to dream. Lyrical and topical, Erdman's beautiful debut captures the astonishing spirit of an unforgettable community.

A Life Inspired

A Life Inspired PDF Author:
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 156

Get Book Here

Book Description
Contains a collection of autobiographical reminiscences written by about 28 former Peace Corps volumteers.

Sixty Years of Service in Africa

Sixty Years of Service in Africa PDF Author: Julius A. Amin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000982068
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on previously unused primary sources obtained from both sides of the Atlantic, this study provides a more fundamental, consistent, and balanced source-based assessment of the role of the U.S. Peace Corps across its entire existence in Africa. The study sheds light on a new and intriguing historical perspective of the Peace Corps’ meaning and significance. Though the main trust is Cameroon, the study offers a window to understanding Peace Corps performance in all of Africa, and the larger global community. It examines Volunteers’ service in countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, and Guinea, showing how the agency transitioned from a Cold War agency to the Post-Cold War era, while asking important questions about the continuous relevance of Peace Corps in Africa. In addressing the topic, the book goes beyond the Peace Corps and delves into America’s "Achilles heels," which was the culture of anti-black racism, showing how it impacted U.S. foreign policy in the post-World War II era. The book interrogates modernization theories showing how those ideas shaped the creation of the Peace Corps, but ultimately contributed to the agency’s problems. The book questions the Peace Corps’ effectiveness as a development organization and much more. Yet for all the agency’s problems, the Peace Corps served as a rite of passage for returned Volunteers to make everlasting contributions to American life and society. This book contributes to modern African and American studies, and to diplomatic history.

The Mountain School

The Mountain School PDF Author: Greg Alder
Publisher: Greg Alder
ISBN: 0988682206
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 266

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Kingdom of Lesotho is a mountainous enclave in southern Africa, and like mountain zones throughout the world it is isolated, steeped in tradition, and home to few outsiders. The people, known as Basotho, are respected in the area as the only tribe never to be defeated by European colonizers. Greg Alder arrives in Tsoeneng in 2003 as the village's first foreign resident since 1966. Back then, the Canadian priest who had been living there was robbed and murdered in his quarters. Set up as a Peace Corps teacher at the village's secondary school, Alder finds himself incompetent in so many unexpected ways. How do you keep warm in this place where it snows but there is no electricity? How do you feed yourself where there are no grocery stores let alone restaurants? Tsoeneng is a world apart from his home in America, but Alder persists in adapting. He learns to grow food, he learns to speak the strange local language, and he makes enough friends such that he is eventually invited to participate in initiation rites. Yet even as he seems accepted into the Tsoeneng fold, he sees how much of an outsider he will always remain-and perhaps want to remain. The Mountain School is insightful and candid, at times accepting and at times rebellious. It is the ultimate tale of the transplant.

Peace Corps and Citizen Diplomacy

Peace Corps and Citizen Diplomacy PDF Author: Stephen M. Magu
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498502415
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 223

Get Book Here

Book Description
For over 50 years, more than 225,000 Peace Corps volunteers have been placed in over 140 countries around the world, with the goals of helping the recipient countries need for trained men and women, to promote a better understanding of Americans for the foreign nationals, and to promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. The Peace Corps program, proposed during a 2 a.m. campaign stop on October 14, 1960 by America's Camelot, was part idealism, part belief that the United States could help Global South countries becoming independent. At the height of the Cold War, the US and USSR were racing each other to the moon, missiles in Turkey and in Cuba and walls in Berlin consumed the archrivals; sending American graduates to remote villages seemed ill-informed. Kennedy's Kiddie Korps was derided as ineffectual, the volunteers accused of being CIA spies, and often, their work made no sense to locals. The program would fall victim to the vagaries of global geopolitics: in Peru, Yawar Malku (Blood of the Condor), depicting American activities in the country, led to volunteers being bundled out unceremoniously; in Tanzania, they were excluded over Tanzania’s objection to the Vietnam War. Despite these challenges, the Peace Corps program shaped newly independent countries in significant ways: in Ethiopia they constituted half the secondary school teachers in 1961, in Tanzania they helped survey and build roads, in Ghana and Nigeria they were integral in the education systems, alongside other programs. Even in the Philippines, formerly a U.S. colony, Peace Corps volunteers were welcomed. Aside from these outcomes, the program had a foreign policy component, advancing U.S. interests in the recipient countries. Data shows that countries receiving volunteers demonstrated congruence in foreign policy preferences with the U.S., shown by voting behavior at the United Nations, a forum where countries’ actions and preferences and signaling is evident. Volunteer-recipient countries particularly voted with the U.S. on Key Votes. Thus, Peace Corps volunteers who function as citizen diplomats, helped countries shape their foreign policy towards the U.S., demonstrating the viability of soft power in international relations.