Summer 2005
 In this issue...
RPCVs
Recycle LA
At the (Cross-Cultural)
Movies: Saving Face
Congratulations to LA RPCV Stefan Cajina
Peace Corps Information Sessions
Malaysian Reunion
TGIF / TGIS Survey Results
RPCVLA’s 1st
TGIS
June TGIF - River Dreams
July TGIF - Free Shakespeare in Barnsdall Park
Peace Corps Boo Boo?
Asian Americans Key to Peace Corps Efforts
Peace Corps Suspends Program in Gabon
The New York Times Wants Your Mail
Last Moon Dancing: A Memoir of Love and Real Life in Africa
Pub Crawling for Beginners
RPCVs Recycle LA
On Saturday May 7th several
RPCVLA volunteers participated in two separate events aimed
at improving life in Los Angeles: the rebuilding of an elderly
couple’s home and the cleaning of the Los Angeles River.
Here are two accounts of the day’s accomplishments.
(Aren’t they cool?)
LA’s Bulging
River Loses 25 Tons
by Tai Sunnanon
 The
16th Annual Great Los Angeles River Clean Up took place on
Saturday, May 7 from 9 AM to noon. The clean up was put together
by Friends of the Los Angeles River, which mobilized over
3000 volunteers throughout the city to remove over 25 tons
of garbage, recycling almost half of it.
Known as the largest urban river clean
up in the country, the event focused on 12 different sites
from the Sepulveda Basin to Compton Creek. Four RPCVLA volunteers
participated in cleaning up the Griffith Park, Bette Davis
Picnic Area. As you can see from the photos the day was both
delightful and challenging as we removed LA’s finest
junk from the banks of the river.
For more photos, click
here and view the 16th Annual Great Los Angeles River
Clean Up album.
Rebuilding Together:
One House at a Time
by Brian Biery
On the morning of May 7 dozens of hardy
volunteers, including several RPCV's, arrived at the home
of Nina and George Prieditis, an elderly brother and sister
couple who needed help repairing and cleaning up their historic
home on Garfield Ave. in Pasadena.
 The
work was organized by Rebuilding Together, a national non-profit
organization dedicated to assisting low-income, elderly and
disabled persons with basic home improvements which allow
them to remain independent. The Pasadena chapter has repaired
and spruced-up more than 100 homes in the Pasadena/Altadena
area in the past ten years.
After a long morning of trimming trees
and bushes, hauling branches and garbage to the dumpster,
and preparing interior and exterior walls, the volunteers
focused their afternoon energies on painting the large, two-story
house. With so many hands available the barely habitable
structure was transformed in one day to a clean, safe and
attractive home. Tired and very dirty, the volunteers left
at sunset feeling extremely satisfied with their efforts.
But with the enormous scope of the damage
to the historic building there wasn’t enough time to
finish the job, so another date was scheduled to follow up.
For more information on this project and others lead by Rebuilding
Together, please visit: www.pasadena.rebuildingtogether.org
For more photos, click
here and view the Rebuilding Together in Pasadena album.
At the (Cross-Cultural) Movies: Saving
Face
by Lee Brainerd (Senegal '72-'74)
Too bad we can't convince
the big movie studios to put some of the millions of dollars
in advertising that support such noisy films as Mr. & Mrs.
Smith behind some of the dozens of wonderful foreign
films that arrive quietly in art film houses.
Each of us has a favorite foreign film
or two that we wish millions, instead of thousands, of Americans
had been exposed to, right? I think last year's great, French,
anti-war love story A Very Long Engagement -- while
publicized more than most foreign films -- should have been
required viewing for all adults.
Since my husband and I crave intelligent
scripts about vital themes such as culture clash and generational
tensions, we went to see Saving Face, the compelling
comedy/love story by filmmaker Alice Wu. In it a brilliant,
shy, Chinese-American surgeon living in Manhattan must help
her widowed mother save face when she shows up on her doorstep
pregnant. To avoid the Chinese taboo of unmarried pregnancy
the doctor helps her 48-year-old mom find Mr. Right. Meanwhile
the daughter is resisting falling in love… with another
woman.
Cultures collide in touching and hilarious
ways as this film explores how we fall in love, how we accept
those we already love, and the ways we all try to "save
face."
With mixed English and subtitled Chinese.
Congratulations to LA RPCV
Stefan Cajina
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 24,
2005 – Eleven former Peace Corps volunteers from across
the nation were recognized for their service on June 23 with
the Franklin H. Williams Award at the Peace Corps Headquarters
in Washington, D.C.
Established in 1999 the award pays tribute
to returned volunteers of color who continue the Peace Corps
mission through their commitment to community service and
supporting the Peace Corps’ third goal. The award is
named after former Peace Corps African Regional Director
and U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Franklin H. Williams, who was
instrumental in assisting the first Peace Corps Director,
Sargent Shriver, in advancing the agency’s mission
across the globe.
 Among
the 2005 winners were Stefan Cajina, who originally joined
the Peace Corps to connect with his Nicaraguan roots. Cajina
was placed in neighboring Honduras, where he spent two years
constructing water systems. “The water projects taught
me to appreciate my engineering education, but the Hondurans
I worked with taught me about my family and myself,” Cajina
said.
The project worked with small subsistence
farming and fishing communities. Cajina acted as one of five
project engineers constructing water systems to serve nearly
4,000 people. He also taught courses on topographic surveying,
gave presentations on HIV/AIDS prevention and water issues,
as well as worked on educational campaigns against cholera
and dengue fever in connection with the Honduran Ministry
of Health.
Cajina was recently promoted to District
Engineer at the Department of Health Services, where he supervises
a team of engineers who oversee about a third of the water
systems in LA County. He also volunteers with Outward Bound
Adventures, which offers outdoor learning excursions for
at-risk urban youth and teaches safety skills for backcountry
travel through the Sierra Club’s Wilderness Travel
Course. He is also active in the Los Angeles County Bicycle
Coalition, working to make bicycling a more feasible transportation
option.
In an email to RPCVLA Stefan wrote, “I
suspect that my nomination was due in large part to folks
on the RPCVLA board… I’m pretty excited about
it and will do my best to represent our group well. (Plus,
I’ve never been to DC – this will make up for
never getting that coveted 'wisdom tooth medevac'!)”
 Peace Corps Information Sessions
If you're interested in sharing
your Peace Corps experience with potential volunteers you’re
welcome to attend an information session in Long Beach.
Saturdays: July 23 & August 27
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Long Beach Library - Los Altos Branch
5614 Britton St
Long Beach, CA 90815
(South on Bellflower Bl from 405, East
on Britton St)
Parking at library and Los Altos Market Center
For additional information, contact:
Emily Farrell
(310) 356-1105
efarrell@peacecorps.gov
Malaysian Reunion
 Malaysia
XII volunteers will be returning to Hilo, Hawaii for a 40
year Reunion towards the end of July 2005.
Charles Escoffery
RPCV Malaysia XII
TGIF / TGIS Survey Results
We surveyed our readers to find out if
they preferred the monthly dinners on a Friday or a Saturday
night. Here are the results out of 87 responses...
8 people preferred Friday night.
54 people preferred Saturday night.
24 people said either night was fine.
1 person said another night. We're not
sure what night, nor are we sure why we included that option
on our survey. Perhaps a TGI Wednesday every leap year?
We'll keep the results in mind as we plan
future TGI dinners. Thank you for the great response. If
you'd like to participate in future surveys, be sure to join
our mailing list if you haven't already.
RPCVLA’s 1st TGIS
This past May, a bunch of
us gathered at Raffi's Place for RPCVLA's first TGIS (Saturday).
Our guests included two former Americorps volunteers: one
had also served in the Peace Corps in Georgia where he had
met his wife (who was also at the dinner); the other was
thinking of joining the Peace Corps in the near future.
 As
usual, conversations ranged from politics and culture to
running marathons. All the while we feasted on mouth-watering
kabob, rice, hummus, yogurt and other Middle Eastern culinary
favorites. For more photos, click
here.
Raffi's Place is an Armenian-owned restaurant
located at 211 E. Broadway in the heart of Glendale. It’s
famous among locals for its tender and delicious kabob. Be
sure to try their side dishes with a yogurt drink. They're
open every day except Monday. Reservations are not allowed
so arrive about half an hour early at dinner time, because
it gets crowded fast.
June TGIF - River Dreams
Ever wish you could redesign
LA? Reclaim the industrialized parts of the river? Increase
affordable housing? Expand the amount of open space and parks?
Improve public transportation? Create a spirit of community?
And while you’re fantasizing, how about you accomplish
all of this in one evening while managing to stay within
your budget!
 Well,
on June 3rd nearly a dozen RPCV's put on their thinking caps
and participated in a "conceptual model-building charrette
investigating the structure and potential of the Los Angeles
River" called River Dreams. Long surrounded by
rail yards, industrial parks, freeways, and skyscrapers,
this exercise was designed to envision bringing nature back
to the river and allow for the creation of a livable and
sustainable community.
The brainchild of RPCV James Ortiz (sic), River
Dreams was hosted by Gallery 727 on Spring Street in
Downtown L.A. As a community art space, Gallery 727 provides
an opportunity for local, up-and-coming artists to display
their work and to explore their creativity.
River Dreams ran at the gallery
from May 12 to June 18. For more information about the Gallery
727 and its exhibits and programs, contact James at 626-437-4446.
July TGIF - Free Shakespeare in Barnsdall
Park
There are more things in heaven and earth
than are dreamt of in your philosophy... and one of these
may be a superb, FREE, open-air performance of Hamlet .
Odds Bodkins! A saucy group of RPCVs and their loved ones
thoroughly enjoyed a picnic and a performance of the Bard's
greatest tragedy in Barnsdall Park, Hollywood on Friday,
July 1st. As the stars came out, alas and alack, a chilly
breeze came up, but that didn't deter the talented players,
nor the hardy RPCVs! The audience--some 150 people of all
ages--bundled up in blankets and costumes that the actors
tossed to us during the intermission.
The talented actors model themselves on
a Renaissance touring troupe--using minimal sets, props and
costumes--and alternating three Shakespeare plays every summer,
budgeted solely on donations. Their brochure reads: "Independent
Shakespeare Co.'s most important project is forging ever-stronger
ties with the tremendous community of Los Angeles; free performances
and student workshops are two of the ways the ISC can say
thank you."
Come support this great community troupe;
bring a picnic, a jacket AND a blanket. Hamlet will
be repeated on July 24, 31 and August 7, 14, 21, and 27.
Remaining performances of Richard III are on July
22, 23 and August 5, 6, 20, 25, and 28. Performances of The
Two Gentlemen of Verona are on July 29 and 30 and August
12, 19, and 26. All plays begin at 7:30 pm; come an hour
early for a picnic with the panoramic view of L.A. or a walk
around Frank Lloyd Wright's renovated Hollyhock House, next
to the stage. Forsooth, check out their website: www.independentshakespeare.com
For more photos, click
here and view the Shakespeare in Barnsdall Park album.
Peace Corps Boo Boo?
 Do
you have a chronic illness or disability related to your
Peace Corps service? Are you dealing with OWCP to obtain
medical benefits or disability payments? If so, the following
group may be of interest to you:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/owcp
A group of RPCVs with OWCP claims are banding
together in an attempt to get better service from OWCP, PC
Medical Office, etc. Please feel free to join us!
Asian Americans Key to Peace
Corps Efforts
El Segundo, June 1, 2005 – Asian
Americans are shattering stereotypes and myths about Americans.
By serving as Peace Corps volunteers, Asian Americans demonstrate
that Americans come from all backgrounds, cultures, and faiths.
Currently, 333 Asian/Pacific Americans – 110 from California – serve
in such diverse fields as education, health, HIV/AIDS awareness
and education, information technology, business development,
the environment, and agriculture.
“People are surprised to see me,” says
Shannon Hy, Vietnamese-American volunteer, “especially
when they find out I’m American. Hy was born in Vietnam
and immigrated with her family to Los Angeles. Although she
lost the use of her legs to polio as a child, she now works
with disabled youth in Paraguay to help them achieve their
goals. She hosts self-esteem classes and teaches employable
skills to people with disabilities.”
Volunteering often comes with cultural
challenges, however. “My Ecuadorian-American mother
was horrified,” says Tai Sunnanon, a recently returned
volunteer to Palau. “She asked, ‘Why would a
graduating senior choose Peace Corps over med school?’ My
Thai-American father thought I was ‘copping’ out.
Now three years later with my Palau Peace Corps experience
on my résumé, I’m fortunate to have my
pick of Ivy League graduate schools. Obviously my parents
are pleased and so am I. Instead of limiting my opportunities,
my Peace Corps experience expanded them,” Tai Sunnanon
told prospective Peace Corps volunteers.
Sunnanon was one of four returned Peace
Corps volunteers participating in a recent Asia and Pacific
Island panel discussion at the Peace Corps Los Angeles Regional
Office. Moderated by recruiter Chiraphone Khamphouvong, a
Laotian-American RPCV who served in South Africa from 1998-2000,
the event celebrated Asia/Pacific Heritage Month.
Khamphouvong also shared the experience
of initial resistance from her family. “As a Returned
Peace Corps Volunteer and a recruiter, I’ve learned
that Asian families are reluctant to have their first offspring
graduating from college leave for two years with the Peace
Corps. Many parents are first generation Americans from refugee
or immigrant backgrounds and are not familiar with both the
tangible and intangible benefits of Peace Corps service.
Those benefits must be communicated. It’s a lesson
for all of us that anyone considering the Peace Corps – regardless
of ethnic or socio-economic background - needs to effectively
research facts about the Peace Corps and communicate them
with their families.”
Neha Bhandari echoed the experience. “My
family comes from North India and was also upset. They worked
so hard to get us here and couldn’t understand why
I would want to go back to a third-world country. But as
a result of my experience, they gained a lot of respect for
me. After a few months in Mozambique, concern changed to
pride as they began telling our Indian-American friends what
great work we volunteers were doing for the education of
the youth of Mozambique.”
“Peace Corps allows we, the everyday
Americans, to serve and learn alongside our everyday host
counterparts around the world.” comments Khamphouvong. “It’s
a remarkable and powerful process when people want to make
a positive difference in our local and global communities.
And it’s all the more effective when first and second
generation Americans show their willingness to commit 27
months to that effort.”
Hy adds that cultural differences have
made for some challenging experiences, “but at the
same time, these challenges have enriched me and the people
around me.”
Sunnanon shows a prospective applicant
a carving made for him by his village chief for his departure
from Palau. The carving depicts the folk tale of a very special
bread-fruit tree that provided for its village. The tree
situated on the island’s shore sent its roots into
the ocean enabling the capture of fish during high tide.
Carrying the fish up its trunk and out into branches, the
tree dropped its fish -- and bread fruit -- into the baskets
of village women gathered below.
Peace Corps Suspends Program
in Gabon
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 8,
2005 - Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez announced today
that the Peace Corps will officially suspend its program
in the African nation of Gabon effective August 31. The decision
comes after a 2-year review of operations that showed significantly
higher costs to support the volunteers in Gabon relative
to other Peace Corps programs in Africa.
 "The
Peace Corps regrets the necessity to suspend the program
in Gabon after a 31-year partnership with its citizens. More
than 1,460 Americans have respectfully and honorably assisted
the people of Gabon as Peace Corps volunteers through a long
history, dating back to 1963 when the first group arrived
to build schools in rural areas," said Director Vasquez.
All Peace Corps volunteers in Gabon completed
their primary projects in the sectors of health and HIV/AIDS
awareness and prevention, education, and environmental education.
As of July 5, all Peace Corps volunteers had completed their
service and left the country.
Factors contributing to the program suspension
include the high cost of the Gabon program, weighing in at
over three times as much as the average Peace Corps program
in Africa, and a scarcity in finding host country counterparts
to work with the volunteers and ensure their transition into
the community - an element that is critical in the volunteers'
success. In addition, a 2003 Inspector General report documented
safety and security costs of $1 million that would be necessary
to keep the program operating successfully. The Peace Corps
will continue to assess the situation in Gabon and will look
at the possibility of re-entry in the future.
The New York Times Wants Your
Mail
 Sahar
Habibi, an assistant to a New York Times reporter, has contacted
us regarding a story they'd like help with. It's about the
way that people have placed stamps on envelopes through history
and how there is an age-old code of things you can convey
by placing the stamp in a certain fashion. The most common
remaining remnant of this code is to place the stamp upside
down, which is typically a sign of affection.
If you or anyone you know serving in the
Peace Corps has written or received letters with stamps positioned
in some special way please get back to him at this address: sahar_habibi@hotmail.com.
Last Moon Dancing: A Memoir of Love
and Real Life in Africa
 LA
RPCV Geraldine Kennedy of Clover Park Press has published
a debut book by another RPCV, Monique Maria Schmidt, called Last
Moon Dancing: A Memoir of Love and Real Life in Africa.
It's a searingly honest account of the two years she spent
as a PCV in Benin, when the author, the daughter of a Mennonite
sheep farmer and a big-city sorority girl, embarks on a quest
to find her true self and perhaps her true love.
The soul of her journey takes place amidst
the pulse of voodoo drums, the gift of a dinner rat, chants
of machete-wielding students, and choking heat inside a mosquito
net. She lives alone, the only white teacher, struggling
to find her place in a French-speaking, West African village.
Students test her. Gendarmes leer. Big Mama gives advice.
Daily life is redefined in the search for scarce food, in
shutting out the beatings of neighborhood children, and in
devising routines to stay sane.
 Schmidt
draws on the resourcefulness of her rural South Dakota childhood
in the ongoing struggle with cultural isolation and illness.
She seeks comfort in a romanticized relationship with the
wrong man, and most stunningly, finds tender and raucous
humor in a bewildering world.
Peace Corps Writers will review it in its
August issue and also publish an interview with Monique by
John Coyne.
Monique will be in Los Angeles the weekend
of August 13-14:
Saturday, August 13 at 2:00 pm
Duttons Brentwood
Reading & Signing
11975 San Vicente Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
310-476-6263
Sunday, August 14 at 3:00 pm
Launch Party - all members of RPCVLA are invited!
For address and info RSVP by email to:
info@cloverparkpress.com
put "Launch Party" in the subject and identify yourselves as members
of RPCVLA.
For an excerpt from the book, photos and
early reviews check:
http://cloverparkpress.com
Pub Crawling for Beginners
by Thaine H. Allison, Jr. (Borneo I, Sabah Malaysia 1962-64)
Getting around Los Angeles
at "go home time" on a Friday is always a challenge.
For whatever reason Peace Corps Volunteers that have explored
the world without the benefit of a private car or other vehicle
seldom brave one of the bright spots in Los Angeles’s
public transportation "system," the Gold Line.
The Gold Line runs from Union Station downtown to Pasadena,
stopping in Chinatown, Highland Park, and the Southwest Museum
along the way. On this particular Friday in May a small contingent
of us gathered at Union station's Trax Bar for libations
to prepare us for a grand adventure: The Peace Corps First
Annual Pub Crawl.
 The
event was actually organized by the Metro as a way to introduce
even meeker travelers than us to the magic of the rails.
We RPCVs were just along for the ride – and getting
us to gather at a bar is about as difficult as getting mosquitoes
to gather at a picnic on the river at sundown. Since I live
and work in Pasadena I trundled over to my local Gold Line
stop at Memorial Park and bought my all day pass at around
5:30. The train showed up shortly afterwards, and I was treated
to a peaceful, scenic half hour ride downtown, watching the
sun set amongst the hills and the Arroyo. Trains always present
you with things you never get to see from the highway.
 Arriving
at Union Station I followed the noise through the sixty-five
year old Moorish-Spanish style landmark to the Trax Bar in
the lobby. The place was packed to the rafters. The crowd
had a head start on me, and I quickly identified my fellow
RPCVs by the beer bottles in their hands. Everyone else was
sipping margaritas, daiquiris and martinis. Soon it was time
to head over to the loading platform for our first jaunt:
Chinatown.
In Chinatown we all walked over to Kwan
Bros. Grand Star, 943 Sun Mun Way. There was already a large
contingent of the Crawl at this venerable way station. The
patrons were loud and brimming with excitement.  I
don’t know if it was the time of night or the free
hot dogs and other goodies. We spent an hour there. I’ll
limit my review to the locations and not the conversations.
Needless to say RPCVs can always find some appropriate tall
tale to tell.
When it was time to move on to Lincoln
Heights we were reminded why more people don’t take
the Metro. You would think that on a night planned to advertise
the convenience of the system the powers that be would inform
train operators that an extra three hundred people would
be riding their little street cars. But the first train -
two cars - was OUT OF SERVICE! And the next was a single
car train half full of regular commuters heading home after
a hard week at the office. Surely they appreciated being
crushed by loud, intoxicated Pub Crawlers, as yet not on
their knees.
On to the Little Cave in Highland Park:
5922 N. Figueroa. Forget it. They were over-flowing to the
point where cops were greeting us outside with suggestions
that we move on. Great planning here. We improvised with
Mr. T's Bowl, 5621 N. Figueroa. The place was rocking with
a couple of bands that I put in the category of  “you
know you’re getting old when all the music sounds like
noise.” But some folks seemed to enjoy it. And getting
off the street, refueling with some more libations, and taking
a much-needed bathroom break made it worthwhile for all.
OK, on to our ultimate destination. (I’m
always hesitant to use that phrase: isn't the ultimate destination
truly some place like Forest Lawn?) Anyways, on to the Memorial
Park stop in Pasadena, where we undertook a challenging four
block tromp to Bar Celona, 46 East Colorado Blvd, Pasadena.
This was certainly the classiest of the venues for the night.
The music was tolerable and the crowd was gorgeous. We Peace
Corps Volunteers were so outnumbered we only marginally lowered
the bar for dress code and acceptability.
All in all it was a fun evening. I was
able to walk home without endangering anyone on the open
road, I met some new people, and I visited places I didn't
even know existed. Getting to know your neighborhood is always
exciting no matter which continent you are on. Come join
us next year.
Email me at thaine_allison@theactorinthehat.f2g.net or
check out my web site http://TheActorintheHat.f2g.net.
For more photos, click
here and view the Pub Crawl album.
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