CROSSINGS

Winter 2013 — Volume 47, Issue 1

The newsletter of the Milwaukee Peace Corps Association

From the President

As I’m writing this at the beginning of March, the official “Peace Corps Week” is wrapping up,

celebrating 52 years since President Kennedy initiated Peace Corps. I’m amazed that over

210,000 volunteers have served since 1961, and can’t even imagine the millions of people

around the world whose lives have somehow been impacted by a Peace Corps Volunteer.

But the big national news story at the moment is the sequester, the across-the-board cuts to

federal spending. Unfortunately, Peace Corps is not immune to the cuts. Along with all the

other programs in the International Affairs portion of the budget (like USAID and the State

Department), Peace Corps funding has been cut by around five percent. This means a cut of

about $20 million, likely resulting in a reduction of 200-300 volunteer opportunities. Between

the sequester and other funding cuts, there will probably be fewer than 8,000 PCVs in the field

by the end of the year, a significant drop from the over 9,000 that have been serving annually

over the last few years.

Although most of us reading this are not currently active Peace Corps Volunteers, we are still

committed to the three goals of Peace Corps – to help people in underdeveloped nations, to

promote a better understanding of Americans in those nations, and to promote a better under-

standing of those peoples back here in America. And as Peace Corps funding declines, it is in-

creasingly important for RPCVs to recommit themselves to these three goals. Here in the Mil-

waukee area, there are a few key things we can all do:

The cuts make it harder for our regional recruiting office (based in Chicago) to reach out to

potential volunteers. But RPCVs can help supplement Peace Corps recruiting efforts by

participating in career/volunteer fairs, speaking one-on-one to prospective volunteers, and

by attending events like the MPCA Nomination Party on March 19. Without spending a

penny, the Peace Corps community in southeast Wisconsin can connect with a significant

number of potential volunteers. As these opportunities become available throughout the

year, we will be posting them to the listserv and our website.

(continued on page 2)

Crossings — Winter 2013 Page 2

MPCA Social Hour!

The MPCA Board meets the fourth Thursday of every month, from 6:00-7:30 pm at Shore-wood Public Library (3920 N. Murray Ave., Shorewood). Following the meeting we head over to Oakcrest Tavern (4022 N. Oakland Ave., Shorewood) for a social hour. Note the new location! ALL members of the MPCA community are welcome to join us for food, drinks, and conversation! It’s a great oppor-tunity to connect with fellow RPCVs and offer support and encouragement to future PCVs and their friends and family. Join us!

(continued from page 1)

Likewise, Peace Corps has less money to pursue “third goal” projects, bringing the cultures

of host countries back to America. Throughout the year, schools, churches, and various

community organizations are always looking for RPCV speakers: the next time you see

one of these opportunities come up on the listserv, please consider volunteering.

With less money available for USAID and other foreign aid programs, the small-scale

grassroots projects that many PCVs work on are increasingly important. I encourage you to

attend our next Peace Corps Partnership Lunch on April 13, whose proceeds will support

PCV-assisted projects in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. And, of course, your MPCA

dues and donations help us to support mini-grants that go directly to these types of pro-

jects. If you have not renewed your membership for 2013, please take a moment to do so

now – you can do it quickly and conveniently from our website.

I hope to see you at some of these upcoming events. And be sure to join us at our regular social

hours, which are now at the Oakcrest Tavern in Shorewood.

Chris

MPCA Board of Directors

President: Chris Wilson

(Burkina Faso 05-07)

Vice President: Vacant

Treasurer: Chris Reed-Waddell

(Kazakhstan 07-10)

Membership Coordinator: Chris Reed-

Waddell (Kazakhstan 07-10)

Grants and Giving Coordinator:

Meghan Jones (Thailand 08-10)

Editor: Gail Rautmann (Poland 94-96)

Web Manager: Meera MacDonald

(Zambia 09-11)

Historian: Paul Kinsley (Turkey 65-67)

Calendar Coordinator: Vacant

Special Projects Coordinator:

Michael Farmer (Nepal 63-65)

Events Coordinator: Maggie Krochalk

(Togo 91-94)

Member-at-Large: Dzidra Benish

(Poland 92-94)

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My Current Peace Corps

Experience in Bulgaria Submitted by Kevin Kuschel, PCV Bulgaria The role of a Peace Corps volunteer is to develop a sustainable legacy. Ah, legacy, sustainability, development. All those buzzwords we hear so often and know and love. In reality, the majority of us volunteers hate these words. Why is that? We’re either not accomplishing them, or we don’t recognize our minute changes precisely because they’re mi-nute. We join the Peace Corps with the intention of changing the world, or at least the commu-nities we live in, into “better” places, whatever that means. We hear about how you end up being the one who changes, and that’s part of the goal for most of us. But us changing more than the country we’re in? That’s silly. It ends up being true, though, and it’s this: the fact that you don’t see the immediate results, which leads you to see yourself as a failure. Because, ulti-mately, the Peace Corps is a development agency. Where’s the development? We love the countries we end up in, and want to help the people we eventually end up mak-ing strong connections with. Many of us don’t believe that two years is enough, myself includ-ed. The first year you’re struggling, learning the language. By the time the second year has come around and you’re making friends and starting to understand the way things work, well, your time is up. That’s why the relationships you make is probably the most important development you can make. It’s through them that you make the biggest difference, be it as small as changing someone’s stereotypical views on Americans. It’s also through these rela-tionships that you change, from something as minuscule as learning a word to show your ap-preciation. I think one of my most cherished memories I have is when, on my last night living in Chirpan, I desperately called my friend Ivan to have him help me pack. Without question (though with much heckling) he came over and helped. During one of our breaks, he turned and looked at me and said, “Man, Chirpan’s never going to be the same without you”. I will never be the same, and if I could, I wouldn’t go back to who I was. Chirpan, it seems, won’t be either. At least I know my friend Ivan won’t be. I often joke that I am the Peace Corps legacy. It comes across as arrogant but funny. It’s true though, since without the Peace Corps I wouldn’t exist. But it’s really not just me who is the Peace Corps legacy. It’s anyone and everyone who has been touched in some way by the Peace Corps. So, while I haven’t changed Bulgaria, or done much in what I would find as valuable, I have done something in the three years I’ve lived here in Bulgaria. I expected something else from myself, from Peace Corps, and from Bulgaria. But what I got wasn’t bad either. And I suspect that when I get older, I’ll look back on these years as well spent. I definitely don’t re-gret them now.

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Nomination

Party!

Join The Milwaukee Peace Corps Associa-tion for the Annual Spring Nomination Party to celebrate the Peace Corps and to join in the excitement of those newly nominated to serve.

This year’s event will feature a presentation by Jeffery Rhodes of the Chicago Peace Corps Office and a panel presentation by recently returned volunteers.

The event will be held on Tuesday, March 19,

from 6:00 – 7:30 pm, at the Shorewood Village Center, Combined North and South Rooms (3920 N. Murray Ave., lower level, Shore-wood). This event is sponsored by the MPCA and a social hour at the Oakcrest Tavern (4022 N. Oakland Ave., Shorewood) will follow the meeting.

If you would like to speak on the panel or as-sist with the event please contact the MPCA Board at info@milwaukeepeacecorps.org

Peace Corps

Partnership Lunch

On Saturday, April 13, the MPCA will be hosting a Partnership Lunch to benefit Peace Corps projects in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This lunch will take place at 12:00 pm at a location as yet to be determined. Watch your e-mail and the MPCA website for more information. Family, friends, and anyone in-terested in the Peace Corps or MPCA are wel-come to attend.

The cost is $20 per person and the proceeds will go towards supporting Peace Corps pro-jects which we will vote on during the lunch. Please RSVP at meg11jones@gmail.com.

Thanks for Your Support! Submitted by Greg Deuchars, Ukraine ‘05-’07

Thank you to all who purchased 2013 RPCV calendars last year! As a result of your gener-osity and support for this important fundrais-er, the Milwaukee Peace Corps Association was able to sell over 300 calendars. The pro-ceeds earned from calendar sales go to help fund Wisconsin PCV development projects around the world. A special thanks also goes out to the Milwaukee area businesses which

helped sell calendars. Beans and Barley (East North Ave. in Milwaukee), Fair Trade for All

(West North Ave. in Wauwatosa), and Arti-

sans of Morocco (at Bayshore Town Center in Glendale) all worked with MPCA to make last year’s calendar sale a success. Please visit these local businesses and show them your gratitude for their support of Peace Corps!

Editor’s Note: Thanks so much, Greg Deuchars, for serving as the MPCA Calendar Coordinator for the last couple of years! The board is so grateful for all of your hard work and great organizational skills. You will be missed on the board but we look forward to seeing you at future MPCA events.

MPCA 2013 Event Schedule

Nomination Party March 19

Partnership Lunch April 13

Summer Picnic July 20

Partnership Lunch October 12

Family & Friends Social November 9

Holiday Ethnic Potluck December 7

Watch for more information in the newsletter and at www.milwaukeepeacecorps.org

Crossings — Winter 2013 Page 5

Working for Peace Corps Vanuatu Submitted by Allegra K. Troiano, Senegal ’80-’82; Director of Programming and Training,

Vanuatu; past President, MPCA

Since my arrival in Vanuatu in mid-January, my life has been full of adjusting: to the heat, to a new staff, a new boss, a new job, a new culture, and a new language. Vanuatu is very undeveloped. Even Africa (unless in the deepest bush of Central Africa) seems more developed in some ways. Our 67 Volunteers are on 16 islands, which poses many prob-lems for us as flying them into the capital, Port Vila, is very costly. By Peace Corps standards, Vanuatu is the most dangerous in the world in terms of natural disasters and is one of the most expensive. Some Volunteers live in Kastom houses, made of bamboo walls and palm thatch roofs. Others live in half cement, half tin for the upper part of the walls. Most don’t have electricity in their houses, so they get a solar panel to charge up their SAT phones. Many times they don’t get good reception for their cell phones, so some have to walk up to the top of hills or down to the water. Almost all the PCVs have VIP (ventilated improved) toilets rather than long drops, which are squat toilets with a hole in the ground. There’s a lot of walking involved to get to site. Sometimes they have to walk hours, up and down mountains, and through rivers, as neither roads nor transportation exists. You may ask what it’s like to be in a country where the people are considered among the hap-piest in the world. It’s great! There’s no extreme poverty as in Latin America. People can al-ways garden; the soil is so rich that anything grows: coconuts, bananas, yams, taro, potatoes, manioc (cassava), and island cabbage are their basic foods. For my culture/language immersion, I went out to the village of Tassiriki on Moso island dur-ing my first weekend in country. I made simboro, which are like Greek dolmades; rolls of is-land cabbage (like large kale leaves) filled with fresh grated coconut mixed with coconut milk. I had to grate the coconuts and then squeeze out the milk, and then fill the cabbage leaves with the grated meat. Afterwards, my host mama cooked them in the coconut milk. The last day I went to the other side of Moso with some villagers. It was a 45-minute walk through forests, past charcoal making pits, up and down to the other side where the beach was exquisite. The guys went spear fishing and caught reef fish: red, rainbow, and black fish, which we fried on the beach. The kids collected hermit crabs, wrapped them in leaf bundles, tied off with vines, and threw them in the fire to steam them. People are also some of the friendliest I’ve ever met. Everyone wanted to ‘storian’ with me (“to story on”—or tell stories). They’re used to talking, some talking a lot. There’s no other form of entertainment. Few people in villages have electricity. By comparison to any other language, Bislama is extremely easy—similar to the African pidgin they spoke in Cameroon. My staff say I speak good Bislama, “Yu tok tok gud Bislama,” but I think they are just being polite and just are happy that I’m trying.

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MPCA Board Vacancies

The MPCA Board has three vacancies: Vice President, Events Coordinator, and Calendar Coordinator. The Board meets the fourth Thursday of every month from 6:00-7:30 pm at the Shorewood Public Library. The main responsibilities for the Vice President include:

Taking minutes at Board meetings and maintaining a file for MPCA’s records

Chairing meetings and representing MPCA when the President is not available

Supporting projects and providing leadership as needed

Discussing issues with the President as needed to determine course of action The Event Coordinator manages the details for major social and outreach events, delegating responsibilities to volunteers as appropriate. This includes:

Promoting and marketing events

Renting venues

Soliciting donations of food or drink from local businesses

Coordinating event management with the Chicago recruiting office

Encouraging members to organize additional events The Event Coordinator is responsible for the following events: Nomination Party, Summer Picnic, Friends and Family Brunch, and Holiday Potluck. Two people may share this position. The Calendar Coordinator manages the purchase, sales, and distribution of the RPCV calen-dars. This includes:

Purchasing and arranging the receipt of the calendars

Selling the calendars at MPCA events

Contacting local businesses about selling calendars, distributing calendars to them, collect-ing sales money from them, and thanking them afterwards

Compiling an annual report of businesses who supported our sales If you are interested in joining the board, please fill out the application, which can be found on the MPCA website: http://www.milwaukeepeacecorps.org/board-of-directors/

Crossings — Winter 2013 Page 7

Living Conditions and Cultural Differences Excerpts from “Answering Kennedy’s Call”, Borg, et al. Ed’s, Peace Corps World Wide Written by Charles Terry, Philippines ‘61-’63 They built a wood frame house for me on an elementary school grounds, with a palm thatch roof, woven palm wall sections, wooden floors and windows without screens. I had a wooden bed, mosquito netting, a trunk full of books, a short wave radio and a kerosene pressure lan-tern. Though 70-80 degrees year round, it felt cool at night after your blood thinned out. I had a well until the kids broke it by playing on the handle. You could read easily by moonlight.

A young Filipino was paid to haul water for me, deliver breakfast makings and polish the floor, dancing on it with coconut husks, I had lunch with the family of the barrio’s vice lieuten-ant. Instead of the poor rice farmer’s everyday meal of cold rice, tiny salty fish and a root crop, I was treated to plump fish, chicken and pork morsels with hot rice and elaborate salads. Din-ner was somewhat upscale, companionably spent with a nearby volunteer. I got to take a cold shower after negotiating the entrance of a small structure shared by a pig .

On a (loftier?) plane, I became intensely intrigued by the differences between Filipino and American culture and language (e.g., was shame vs. guilt culture a valid if oversimplified dif-ferentiation and how could they have only one word for he and she) Living in what seemed like a very different culture made you understand your own American culture very clearly.

Filipino culture seemed based on the group vs. the individual and on the external constraints of shame vs. internalized guilt. It seemed they assumed we were pretty much all alike, for ex-ample, that we had never eaten rice before and that we were rich (which was relatively true). Our stipends placed us in the lower middle class - not poor but not that rich. They also as-sumed that a Filipina I courted (despite both of us playing by Filipino rules with the constant presence of a chaperone, mandatory from 400 years of Spanish colonial culture) was essential-ly a fallen woman. Their view of Americans came perhaps from G.I.s who were generous with blankets and chocolates and their desire for local women.

Filipino culture was very welcoming: when the school district’s Superintendent and I went into the mountains for a visit, the feast of a chicken slaughtered in our honor was inevitable.

Filipinos laughed and coped easily. They had a saying: “Bisan sagin basta labin”. [Even if we have only bananas as long as we have loving.] The everyday rice farmer had little materially, but poverty was more benign than in many developing parts of the world because the climate and soil were good, there was clean water and serious diseases like malaria or cholera did not threaten relentlessly.

Although I don’t recall experiencing very much culture shock or homesickness, I did go through a very serious period of psychological paralysis because I didn’t think I could do what we were there to do (Overcome by help/time/action).

Milwaukee Peace Corps Association

P.O. Box 511322

Milwaukee, WI 53203-0221

Our Mission

MPCA is a community of former and future Peace Corps volunteers and fami-lies who continue to promote Peace Corps ideals through cultural education and the support of both local and inter-national development organizations. It also provides social activities and emo-tional support for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and those returning from abroad.

Crossings Newsletter

The Crossings Newsletter is published three times a year as part of fulfilling the third goal of the Peace Corps: to bring the world back home. The name, “Crossings,” signifies the various “crossings” that Peace Corps Volunteers and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers make: crossing oceans and borders to serve and then to return home; crossing cultures, both abroad and through the process of re-entry; and crossing paths with other PCVs and RPCVs to share stories, provide support, and create community. Sharing our various “Crossings” is what this newsletter seeks to achieve.

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E-Mail:

info@milwaukeepeacecorps.org

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