‘You probably shouldn’t tell anyone about being Indian; people can’t tell by looking at you.’
An excerpt from An Indian Among los Indígenas By Ursula Pike Photo by Stephanie Macias Gibson Read a review of Ursula Pike’s memoir here. Bolivians told me all the time that they were proud of their Incan ancestors, and the kids often bragged that Kantuta meant Sacred Flower of the Incas in Quechua. Yet they knew what many people, especially the wealthier, whiter population of Bolivia, thought about los Indios. Few wanted to be seen as an Indian. For a young woman like Ximenita, living in a town for the first time in her life without family nearby, being seen as a cholita made...
Personal Discovery and Historical Clashes
An Indian Among los Indígenas A Native Travel Memoir By Ursula Pike Heyday Review by Rich Wandschneider There are many important aspects to this book. Here are three: Ursula Pike is a fine writer, with an eye for people and places in Bolivia, and an ear for the sounds of languages, buses, and silence; she is deeply reflective about the critical tensions of the cross-cultural experience and the mission to serve; and Pike is Indigenous herself, an enrolled member of the Karuk Tribe of Northern California who grew up an “urban Indian,” largely in Portland, Oregon. This last fact...
Refugees from the War
More than 10 million people have fled their homes since Ukraine was invaded by Russia on February 24. In March, four million people were already refugees beyond Ukraine’s borders. Two million of them were children. Not since World War II has the world seen a humanitarian crisis escalate so quickly. The devastation in cities like Kharkiv and Chernihiv and Mariupol is cruel and horrific. Amid this war, members of the Peace Corps community have been rallying to help those in harm’s way. There is one responsibility we all share: Do not look away. Leaving home: Two young children and their...
To Mark 30 Years, Peace Corps in Mongolia Is Honored with the Polar Star
The highest award given to foreign citizens was presented to Country Director Kim Mansaray. By NPCA Staff Photos courtesy the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia For the 30th anniversary of the Peace Corps in Mongolia, last summer Country Director Kim Mansaray — who served as a Volunteer herself in Sierra Leone 1983–85 — was presented with the highest award given to foreign citizens: the Order of the Polar Star. In a ceremony with Deputy Foreign Minister Munkhjin Batsumber of Mongolia, the award was bestowed on Peace Corps Mongolia and its leadership for peace-building efforts in the country. Nearly 1,500 Volunteers have served in...
GALLERY: The Face of Iran Before …
A selection from Dennis Briskin’s photos from Iran in the late 1960s. His book was recognized with the Rowland Scherman Award for Best Photography Book by Peace Corps Writers. By NPCA Staff Dennis Briskin has published a collection of 60 photographs from the city of Arak and central Iran, where he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer 1967–69. Briskin writes that he calls the collection The Face of Iran Before… because these photographs were taken before “the Islamic Revolution took the country back to oppressive intolerance and brutality. Before oil wealth brought engines and electric motors to replace mule, camel and horsepower, sometimes even human power,...
The Future Is Unwritten
Peace, friendship, and a people whose anthem is “Ukraine Has Not Perished Yet” From the editor of WorldView By Steven Boyd Saum In the summer of 2019, during early parliamentary elections in Ukraine, I served as an observer with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. With a fellow observer from Canada and a driver and interpreter from Kyiv, we visited polling places just northwest of the capital, around a pair of suburban communities — Irpin and Bucha. Irpin in particular had earned a reputation in recent years as a bucolic bedroom community, a place of fresh air and spacious green parks....
Meet the Team Behind the Winter 2022 Edition of WorldView
The editorial and creative teams who put together the special 2022 Books Edition of WorldView magazine for digital and print PUBLISHER | Glenn Blumhorst EDITOR | Steven Boyd Saum EDITOR EMERITUS | David Arnold ART DIRECTOR | Pamela Fogg ASSOCIATE EDITOR, GLOBAL STORIES | Tiffany James DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER | Orrin Luc WORLDVIEW INTERN | Nathalie Vadnais CONTRIBUTORS COVER AND BOOKS FEATURE PACKAGE Design by Pamela Fogg. Photography by Brett Simison ILLUSTRATION Montse Bernal, George Mkumbula, Mark Smith PHOTOGRAPHY Thomas F. Aleto, Dennis Briskin, Art Buck, Lisa Ferdinando, Drew Havea, Ambika Mohan Joshee, Robin Moyer, Kai Pfaffenbach, Erin Scott, Lev Shevchenko, Brett Simison, Jonathan Slaght, Terrell Starr WRITING Jake Arce, Glenn Blumhorst, Leo Cecchini, Chiara Collette, John Coyne, Chic Dambach, Michael Hassett, Tiffany James, D.W....
Experience and Empathy
The most recent Peace Corps Writers awards: love in Peru, the world’s biggest owl, a murder trial in Tanzania, and the lifetime contributions of a novelist whose characters meet racism with courage and love Photo: Persian man smoking. From The Face of Iran Before by photographer Dennis Briskin BAKED INTO THE MISSION of the whole Peace Corps experience is the work of telling stories: of listening, catching, giving voice and shape and form with a sense of fidelity to people and place, and having an awareness of audience. Nurturing stories from the Peace Corps community in words and images can be a...
Stories of Racism — Confronted by a Family with Courage and Love
A tribute to decades of work by children’s author Mildred D. Taylor. This year, Peace Corps Writers recognized her with the Writer of the Year Award. By John Coyne Illustration by Montse Bernal Mildred Delois Taylor is a critically acclaimed author of children’s novels. In 1977, she won the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature, for her historical novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. It was the second book in a series of ten novels focusing on the Logan family, and portraying the effects of racism counterbalanced with courage and love. Her latest book, All the Days...
Letters: Readers Respond to the Special 60th Anniversary Edition of WorldView
Letters, emails, LinkedIn and Instagram comments, Facebook posts, tweets, and other missives. We’re happy to continue the conversation here and on all those nifty social media platforms. One way to write us: worldview@peacecorpsconnect.org Thanks to NPCA as We Return to Service As we prepare to return to Zambia in May 2022, we want to say thank you to each of you (and all of the NPCA staff/interns) for your continued support of us — first, as many of you are RPCVs yourself, and then advocates for Peace Corps even before our service, and throughout our first service, and then as evacuees, and...