"Among the scholars who have built the field of Korean studies are former Peace Corps volunteers who served in South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s before pursuing advanced degrees in anthropology, history, and literature. These scholars, who formed the core of the second generation of Korean Studies scholars in the US, reflect in this volume on their personal experience of serving during Korea's period of military dictatorship, on issues of gender and the Peace Corps experience, and on how random assignment to Korea sparked fascination and led to lifelong professional involvement with the country. Two chapters by Korean studies scholars who were not Peace Corps volunteers (one American and one Korean) assess how Peace Corps volunteers have influenced development of the field"--
A complete and revealing history of the Peace Corps—in time for its fiftieth anniversary When the World Calls is the first complete and balanced look at the Peace Corps's first fifty years. Stanley Meisler's engaging narrative exposes Washington infighting, presidential influence, and the Volunteers' unique struggles abroad. He deftly unpacks the complicated history with sharp analysis and memorable anecdotes, taking readers on a global trek starting with the historic first contingent of Volunteers to Ghana on August 30, 1961.
Fifty years after President Kennedy signed the 1961 Executive Order creating the Peace Corps, nearly 100 former volunteers who joined the new organization in the first year for service in the Philippines recall why they joined, what they experienced, and how this service in the Philippines affected their lives. In addition a half dozen members of the Peace Corps staff in the Philippines and a similar number of Filipinos have contributed their recollections from the period. The book includes photos of individuals from both the 1960s and more recently as well as maps showing communities of service. The Peace Corps program in the Philippines was the first in Asia. Three factors set it apart from others during the early years of the Peace Corps' existence. First, it was the largest program in the world, absorbing 25 per cent of all volunteers at the beginning. Second, all volunteers in the first years were assigned to be "teacher's aides," a position that was never clearly defined and that the Country Director later admitted was a "non-job." And third, the Philippine program occurred in a nation that only fifteen years earlier had become independent from the US, having been America's single effort at establishing an imperialist colonial empire. This history gave the Philippine program a distinctly different political and social dynamic from what was the case in all of the other early Peace Corps countries. These are the reminiscences of a group of young Americans of varying degrees of idealism who answered President Kennedy's call to do what they could for their country. Assigned each to a separate school in the central part of the country, they lived far from the bright lights of Manila. The stories illustrate varying degrees of integration into the local culture, different ways of coping with the frustrations of their "non-job," and what many learned as they came to terms with themselves living far from familiar comforts on a salary of about $55 per month. Above all the stories tell of the determination and spirit of these early volunteers in establishing a strong basis for one of the important first Peace Corps programs.
This is a police state This is a democracy This is rot-gut vodka This is $2 prostitutes This is Peace Corps This is good intentions This is Ramadan This is loyalty This is power outages This is corruption This is the Silk Route This is the former USSR This is Uzbekistan Tom Fleming went to Uzbekistan as a forty year old Peace Corps volunteer. He was a fish out of water, an infidel in a Muslim land, teaching AIDS prevention and sex education in the most conservative region of Central Asia. With humor and poignancy "Taxi to Tashkent" portrays a land little known in the West. Instead of a nation rife with Islamic extremists as portrayed in the Western media, Fleming discovers a land of Korean discos, where blue eyed Muslims listen to Shania Twain, and where shop owners break into applause at the mention of America. Fleming travels throughout Uzbekistan, from the ecological disaster site of the Aral Sea, to the ancient Silk Route cities of Bukhara and Samarkand. "Taxi to Tashkent" describes a little-known corner of the world where nothing appears as it seems.
In 2004, Sam Tranum moved to Turkmenistan, an isolated, totalitarian petrostate bordering Iran and Afghanistan, to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer. That same year, the Economist magazine predicted his new home would be the worst place in the world to live, despite the fact that its leader, known as Turkmenbashy, insisted that his country was experiencing a Golden Age. This is the story of Tranum's nearly two years in Turkmenistan, dodging secret police, exploring ancient Silk Road cities, covertly teaching classes on democracy and human rights, and learning to appreciate fermented camel's milk.
In 1971, Arthur Panaro joined the Peace Corps and was posted to Kabul, Afghanistan, to teach English at the University there. A year later, he was joined by his brother Adrian and the two set off to explore the regions surrounding Kabul and beyond. In the process, they shared a camera to record their impressions of the land and its people. This book documents their journey in photographs and essays.
