(via peacecorps.gov)

Ask nearly all Peace Corps Volunteers to describe their experience, and they’ll undoubtedly share stories about the local people they met in their host country. Stories of extraordinary marriage proposals, parades of curious children at their heels, or bus rides without personal space can make for hours of entertaining conversations. Most Volunteers understand the contrast between America and their host country, and the many comforts we enjoy in the U.S.

Many Volunteers have demonstrated that assimilating into the culture of the host country can be a challenge. For no matter how hard you try, some American habits just stand out. “My town is too small for me to get by as anonymous,” says Volunteer Hannah Mintek, a EFL/English teacher in Georgia. “Nobody is anonymous here, even if they are Georgian. I fare well in simply being of similar complexion and hair/eye color. I don’t fare so well when I go for runs into the surrounding villages. It is strange to see a new face in the villages, and extremely uncommon to see a young woman exercising here.”

Through it all, returned Peace Corps Volunteers, almost unanimously, advise to appreciate and make the most of these relationships. Many Volunteers discuss this topic on their blogs and Web sites, offering tips for those having difficulties in their new communities, including: attending local events, networking (having a friend introduce you to a friend), starting a club, and especially making friends with a few well-connected youth in the area. To stay motivated, they also recommend setting goals and continually asking yourself: “What do I want to get out of my service?” And, according to most, the hard work will pay off. When service is over, no matter how difficult, Volunteers report great satisfaction and a willingness to do it all over again.

“For me, it was the people I grew close to—my neighbors and students — that allowed me get the most out of my time in Guyana” says Kati Ringer, who just finished her service. “Now that my Peace Corps service is over and I have left Guyana I remain deeply connected with those who became my extended family.”

(via economist.com)

A pontoon ferry putters on demand across the Takutu river not far from the small border towns of Lethem in Guyana and Bomfim in Brazil. It is the only surface link between two countries that have traditionally ignored each other. Guyana, though geographically part of South America, has colonial and linguistic links with the English-speaking Caribbean. Most of its 750,000 people live within a few miles of the Atlantic coast. Portuguese-speaking Brazil has looked to its Spanish-speaking neighbours.

This mutual indifference is slowly changing. In December Brazil’s government agreed to spend $3m on a bridge over the Takutu; work may start later this month. Or rather restart: an earlier attempt ground to a halt five years ago, when the Brazilian courts detected financial irregularities.

There are bureaucratic hurdles to cross too. A road-transport agreement has not yet yielded a system for insuring vehicles on short cross-border visits. A trade agreement was signed in June 2001, but Bomfim is not yet an official point of entry for goods. While legal Guyanese exports are blocked, illicit cross-border trafficking in guns, drugs and diamonds thrives.

A dirt road links Lethem to Georgetown, Guyana’s capital, but carries only five or so vehicles a day each way. Most cross-border travellers are Brazilian GARIMPEIROS, who mine gold and diamonds in Guyana’s interior. A Brazilian airline runs a turbo-prop service from Georgetown to the Brazilian town of Boa Vista.

There is potential for much more. A Brazilian company wants to grow sugar cane for ethanol on a large scale in eastern Guyana. Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, a Brazilian mining giant, is interested in Guyanese bauxite, and there is talk of Petrobras getting involved in oil exploration.

The interest is mutual. “More people are looking south. We see it as a huge possibility,” says Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana’s president. “We have a deep water harbour. If the road from Boa Vista was upgraded, it would cut three days for traffic from Manaus to the Atlantic.” Maybe, though there are environmental objections and the deep water port has yet to be built. But diplomatic ties are growing. Guyana attends the annual South American summit; last year it chaired the Rio Group of Latin American nations. Georgetown is “twinned” with Boa Vista. The bridge may serve a purpose.

(via BoingBoing.net)

Andrew Brandou has a new show of paintings opening tomorrow night (4/14/07) at the Corey Helford gallery in Culver City, CA. The exhibition, titled “As A Man Thinketh, So He Is,” is based on the history of Jonestown, the commune in Guyana where more than 900 members of the People’s Temple, under the guidance of cult leader Jim Jones, killed themselves or were murdered in 1978. I find Brandou’s juxtaposition of extreme cuteness and dark imagery to be deeply moving. Seen here, “Medication,” a depiction of People’s Temple members lining up for a cup of cyanide-laced Flavor Aid.
Link Here and Here

(via HuffingtonPost.com)

The Philippine police and military are searching for a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer missing for nearly a week in a mountainous northern area, officials said Saturday.

Julia Campbell, 40, was last seen on April 8 in the town of Banaue in Ifugao province, where she had planned to hike alone, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop.

The area, about 160 miles north of Manila, is famed for its mountainside rice terraces and pine forests. The armed wing of the Communist Party _ the New People’s Army _ also operates there.

In 1990, the New People’s Army seized Peace Corps volunteer Timothy Swanson and held him for 50 days on central Negros island. He was released unharmed to the Red Cross.

Lussenhop said the Peace Corps started looking for Campbell after she missed appointments on April 11.

“Embassy security officials and Peace Corps security and local authorities are in that region right now looking for her or finding people who may know where she is,” he said.

Regional police commander Chief Superintendent Raul Gonzales said at least four teams from the provincial police office have been mobilized for the search, after the U.S. Embassy told them Campbell was missing.

He said the directive to conduct the search came from the national police headquarters in Manila.

Maj. Gen. Rodrigo Maclang said members of an army company in Banaue also joined the search Saturday, after receiving an order from the military’s Northern Luzon Command.

A military helicopter will help with the search, he said.

“We were unaware of the incident. We learned only today that someone has been missing,” he said.

Maclang said there is only a small military presence in area because “it is not a major concern now with regard to the insurgency.”

As early as Thursday, local police started checking the guest registries in hotels and inns for Campbell’s name, receptionist Lea Ananayo at the Halfway Lodge in Banaue said by telephone.

Authorities also left Campbell’s photos to be displayed in hotel lobbies, shops and market stalls in the town.

Campbell, of Fairfax, Va., has been teaching college in Albay province’s Legazpi city, southeast of Manila, since March 2005.

She was planning to hike in a hilly area near Batad village, about a mile east of Banaue’s town center, the embassy said.

The embassy appealed to the public for any information on the welfare and whereabouts of Campbell. It offered a reward, but did not specify an amount.

Campbell, who worked as a journalist in New York, contributed a story to CNN about the death and destruction in the wake of supertyphoon Durian, which hit Legazpi in late November.

Writing in her Internet blog, she said she “decided to step out of the rat race of New York” to join the Peace Corps when she was 38.

In an entry on May 27, 2005, two months after her arrival in the Philippines, she expressed anticipation about no longer having “the comfort of fellow Americans within reach.”

“I will be left to my own devices in a strange place with people and a culture I barely know,” she wrote.

Campbell is one of 137 Peace Corps volunteers currently in the Philippines.

More than 8,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served in the Philippines since 1961, making it the corps’ second-oldest program in the world, the embassy said.

UPDATE: Body in Philippines ID‘d as American & Crime probe starts into US Peace Corps volunteer’s death

UPDATE 2: Writer bumped me & I killed her, Filipino sez - Suspect confesses in death of Brooklyn journalist

Return Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), upon successful completion of their service, are told that they have “non-competitive eligibility” for federal jobs. Yet when they apply for these federal jobs, this eligibility is often not recognized. So what is this non-competitive eligibility, and how do RPCVs take advantage of it?

The term “non-competitive eligibility” is a blanket term for any applicant to the federal service who does not have to “compete” with other people through the governments two main hiring systems: Delegated Exam (for all people) and the Merit Promotion System (for federal employees). Applying to these two systems involves extensive question and answer sections to assess the applicant’s experience in certain situations that are essential to the open position.

However, RPCVs, depending upon their circumstances, are covered by a special hiring authority (or hiring flexibility) for one to three years after their close of service. This means that they can circumvent the whole competitive process and be eligible to be brought on directly into a position. Unfortunately, many government officials are unaware of this hiring flexibility. While they are not obligated to use it when they fill a position, taking advantage of the flexibility allows the officials more choice in who they hire and can save them a lot of time.

In order for an RPCV to take advantage of this flexibility, he/she should follow the steps below:

Apply for positions of interest

Even though RPCVs are eligible for federal positions under a special hiring authority, they are also eligible for and should apply to positions through Delegated Exam. Doing so will allow them to demonstrate their qualities in the question and answer sections and may also give them an option to show their non-competitive eligibility.

Target the agencies in which to work

The RPCV should speak with a recruiter and attend job fairs held by the government agencies in which he/she would like to work. He/she should make sure to inform recruiters and specialists about the Peace Corps hiring flexibility and how easy it would be to hire someone under it.

Include all necessary information on a resume

In order to develop a government résumé complete with all the information selecting officials are looking for, it is best to create it on the USAJOBS website. RPCV job seekers should make sure to include the paragraph from their description of service about the Peace Corps Act and put in a conspicuous place that because of their Peace Corps service, they have non-competitive eligibility through the Peace Corps Act.

Keep a copy of the regulation and site it

When speaking to recruiters, RPCVs should be sure to reference the actual regulation that entitles them to non-competitive eligibility. They should print out a copy to hand to recruiters as well. This can be found in Title 5, Section 315 Subsection 605 of the Code of Federal Regulations (it should be referenced as 5CFR315.605 and can be found here. (pdf)Finally, recruiters and hiring officials should be referred to the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) Guide to Processing Personnel Actions, Chapter 9, Table 9-3, Rule 40-43.

The job seeker need not worry about what all the regulations mean, but just know that they exist so that he/she may aid HR Specialists in their research to expedite the research and hiring time.

RPCVs are very lucky to have a government special hiring authority available to them. Through the proper steps, they can use that authority to their advantage to begin an exciting career with the federal government.

An RPCV from Guyana, now working with MSF (Medical Sans Frontiers), sent me this link, describing a typical day on the job.

9:00 AM: Amina, 15 years old, is waiting patiently among hundreds of people. She proceeds for a few meters but she is stopped by one of the guards. She will be able to proceed as soon as the dozen people ahead of her advance. She has returned from Uganda and heard from her mother that vaccinations were taking place in town. She knows that meningitis kills people and asks whether the needle will hurt. After a 20-minute wait, it only takes a few seconds to finish. She then proceeds to the registration table where she is asked for her age.

11 AM: While the crowd continues to grow in this site, a public-awareness campaign is taking place around town, as cars drive through the different districts of Juba. With the help of a megaphone, they are reading a message in English and Arabic urging people to be vaccinated for free. The day prior, additional information and messages also appeared in the local newspapers and were dispersed over the radio. Owen, one of the drivers, also alerts the public of the cholera treatment center run by MSF that is now open in Juba. In addition to the meningitis epidemic throughout southern Sudan, cholera has also been on the rise in the areas around Juba.

As volunteers finish up work in their respective countries, many continue on a path similar to Peace Corps work. Great job, keep it up!