From the Editor: This Time
Peace Corps teaches us a new way to think about time. Pandemic does, too. So what do we do with this? By Steven Boyd Saum ACROSS THE DECADES and countries and communities where tens of thousands of Peace Corps Volunteers have served, there are a few things we share. One: a new grasp of time. Be it seasons or how we count the days, a revised sense of punctuality or the value of hours in terms of money or daylight, be it devoted to sleep or preparing a meal or hiking to the well, be it in the presence of friends or alone with this self you are...
Letters Fall 2020: WorldView Readers Write
Unprecedented Times We set aside the standard magazine playbook for our summer edition. We’re happy to bring back your letters — to continue the conversation.Write us: [email protected] I’m writing to congratulate and thank you for the current issue of WorldView. It’s the most powerful thing in print I’ve seen from Peace Corps since I received my acceptance letter in 1969. Congrats to everyone involved on a mammoth job so very well done. Stephen Barefoot Kenya 1969–72 Most remarkable WorldView ever, both the quality of the product and the effort it took to gather and edit the stories. What we may have is the substance for a book, proceeds from which would...
Looking Back at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: A Conversation with Betty Currie
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King gave the “I Have a Dream” speech that has become a defining moment in American History. Women of Peace Corps Legacy interview founding member Betty Currie about her experience there. by Katie McSheffrey Betty Currie‘s long career with Peace Corps began in 1969, after her job at USAID ended. She was initially recruited to work in the Africa Region as the secretary for the regional director. When the newly appointed Peace Corps Director, Joseph Blatchford, needed a secretary, Betty’s talents were already known at the agency. “The job was a crucial one. It had 10,000 people spread out over...
Black Lives Matter: Voices and Scenes from Protests with the Peace Corps Community
George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Tony McDade. Elijah McClain. A fraction of a terrible litany of Black lives taken by police. Since Memorial Day Returned Volunteers have been on the streets to join protests—and lead them. “Racism cannot be cured solely by attacking some of the results it produces, like discrimination in housing or in education ... We must also treat the disease of racism itself.” —Sargent Shriver | Founder of the Peace Corps, in a speech at the First National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice, 1958 Elizabeth Smith went to Myanmar in January to serve as a Volunteer. When...
I’m Tired
Reasons why. And some serious advice. It’s a matter of life and death. By Missi Smith ON MEMORIAL DAY a Black man named George Floyd was senselessly murdered in broad daylight on a Minneapolis street corner by a now former police officer. In the immediate wake of this completely avoidable tragedy, Minneapolis was rocked by protests, looting, and riots — exacerbated by ineffective leadership from all levels of our government, including detrimental interference from the White House. Yet Floyd’s killing has also launched a global movement in some 50 countries. I’m a Minnesota native. As a child, I attended my...
Opinion: We are the problem.
From someone who has worked in international development: We must stand with Black Americans and acknowledge the role racism plays in our institutions — and the work itself. By Tasha Prados Photo of Stockholm protests by Frankie Fouganthin / CC As the granddaughter of immigrants, I grew up knowing how privileged I was simply by the sheer luck of having been born in the United States. Being multicultural and Latinx, I spent most of my formative years between two worlds, never quite fitting in either, eager to connect more deeply with my Latin American roots. I went to El Salvador with a nonprofit...