My Hanukkah Miracle in Costa Rica
An RPCV shares how his Jewish heritage and the traditions of Hanukkah helped nurture camaraderie and memorable bonds between him and the community he served as a Volunteer in Costa Rica. By Joel Rubin (Costa Rica 1994–96) We’re now in the holiday season, including the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. This holiday has always been special to me because it spiritually connects the Jews of today to the Jews of 2,200 years ago, when we fought to maintain our identity and community. When I joined the Peace Corps, I knew that I’d be going to a distant country to live in a community where I...
Tales of Cartography
Mapmaking with fabrics and dances and sloths By Nathalie Vadnais Consider the map. We’ve all used one to get from point A to point B, to navigate the geography of the place in which we find ourselves. We also live in a world profoundly shaped by the arbitrary drawing of borders on colonial maps decades or centuries ago. But change the way you map the world around you, and you might see and hear and taste anew. That’s an idea that resonates with the Peace Corps community — which is why Hannah Engel-Rebitzer launched the World Maps Collaborative, through which...
Peace Corps Achievements — June 2022
News and updates from the Peace Corps community — across the country, around the world, and spanning generations of returned Volunteers and staff. By Peter V. Deekle (Iran 1968–70) Jamie Hopkins, who served as a Volunteer in Ukraine 1996–98, leads the Eagan Community Foundation in Minnesota and spearheaded a three-day film festival in support of Ukraine in April and May. Krista Kinnard (Ecuador 2010–21) has been named a 2022 finalist for the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal, for her work spearheading new, efficiency-boosting and cost effective technologies for the Department of Labor (DOL). Rob Schmitz (China 1996–98) had a stint as guest host of NPR’s All...
A Humble Man Who Believes There Is Good in Humanity and Is Committed to Justice
American Dreamer Memoirs of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Central America and Beyond By David Taylor Ives Epigraph Publishing Reviewed by Jim Skelton Decades before David Taylor Ives took on responsibilities as the executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute of Quinnipiac University, he served as a Volunteer in Costa Rica 1980–82. Included in this first-person chronicle, anchored by that experience, is a foreword by Leymah Gbowee and an introduction by Muhammad Yunus, both Nobel Peace Prize laureates. They introduce Ives as a humble man who believes there is good in humanity and is committed to justice. Ives grew up in Pierpont, Ohio, a...