Newsletter - San Diego Peace Corps Association

Index: click on your choice:
Hometown: My Turn	On Our Doorstep
We Need Your Time & Assistance	Community Action
Pres Message: A Limitless Year	Board Minutes-November & December
SDPCA Board Members..pt 2.	Mexico Lunch
Mark J Tonner Global Awards	Potpourri
New Members	Recruiting Corner
Newsletter Credits

Love builds bridges, cuts through barriers

Hometown: My Turn

Everyone has daily routines but some people step out of them long enough to discover that there’s life and love out there where you least expect it. Write of your experiences. Send to HOMETOWN, South Bend Tribune, 225 Colfax Ave., South Bend, IN 46626 or e-mail to Hometown@sbtinfo.com.

Their names are Stanley and Sim, and they gave me enough fruit to last for days. We didn't speak the same language, but that didn't seem to matter; they were masters at smiling. They smiled when I juggled the fruit and when I showed them how to throw a baseball (i.e. fruit). It didn't matter that we weren't able to small-talk, because we had already surpassed that with a much deeper human connection. These smiles were like nothing I had ever seen before, they were not rehearsed before mirrors, yet they were some of the most beautiful signs of compassion I had ever seen.

Stanley and Sim are brothers, each less than 5 years old, who live amidst the vibrant community of villages around Adaklu Mountain, which is in the Volta region of Ghana in West Africa. Their brilliant smiles were more than just contagious; they opened an entirely new perspective to me on the magnificent bond that all humans share: Love.

Before embarking on the journey across the Atlantic to participate in the International Summer Service Learning Program (ISSLP), sponsored by the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame, I had been confronted by many differing views of what this "service" experience would entail. Often, I would hear about the importance of helping those "less fortunate," the definition of which was almost always derived from differences in material wealth.

In these conversations, very few ever stopped to think that our "less fortunate" brothers and sisters in the Third World could possibly be "wealthier" than us in the social realm. However, this idea presented itself in my mind often as I participated in the social interactions of Ghanaians and felt the welcoming compassion of people like Stanley and Sim.

Is it possible that the idea of fortune is more dynamic than the measurement of material wealth? If I could choose only one aspect of this experience to incorporate into my own life and to share with others it would be this: We all need help! Service, charity, assistance or whichever word you choose, is as much about receiving as it is about giving.

This does not mean being patted on the back for work that has been done, it means humbly opening yourself and your community to others around the world in an exchange of knowledge and resources. America may be the most materially wealthy nation in the world, but in our country I have rarely seen the widespread inner joy that covered the faces of the Ghanaians I had the privilege to live, work and laugh with.

Many new avenues are opening up that allow us to exchange knowledge and resources with people around the world. My experience in the Volta region was made possible by a new organization named BRIDGE, formed by former Peace Corps volunteers who worked in the Volta region.

Specifically, I worked alongside a fellow Notre Dame student, Adam Dell of Elmhurst, Ill., to instruct two grass-roots organizations on bookkeeping and funding proposal writing. BRIDGE is an organization that seeks not only to share the wonders of Ghanaian culture with the rest of the world, but also to find funding to enable villages in the Volta region to keep organizations running.

Adam and I worked directly with two important groups in the Adaklu Mountain community -- the Ecotourism Committee (EC) and the Orphan Committee (OC). Both were established in conjunction with the Peace Corps and have successfully completed projects benefiting their communities.

For example, the EC has been operating tours of Adaklu Mountain for visitors from around the world for a few years now. These tours not only provide income for residents of the nine villages surrounding Adaklu Mountain, but they also directly protect the natural ecological beauty of the area for the enjoyment of generations to come. The OC is directly involved in the lives of orphans throughout the nine villages and has recently embarked on a project to provide school uniforms and tuition for some 300 orphans for the next two years.

An identical project was completed in the recent past, thanks to the generosity of Fran McDonald of South Bend.

During our time in the Volta region, Adam and I worked closely with these two committees in developing their ideas into workable plans and funding proposals. One of the biggest obstacles to securing funds is the popular idea that donated or loaned resources will be used carelessly or squandered once they arrive in the Third World.

Adam and I spent five weeks running workshops in which we showed how to keep sound records of financial activity and to create biannual reports for BRIDGE. The bottom line is that there is simply not enough money available within Ghana to make these projects happen; cooperation between those of us who are materially wealthy and those who are on the ground bringing these proposals into reality is vital for improvement to continue.

To learn more about direct service opportunities, making a donation, or the culture of the Volta region, visit the BRIDGE Web site at: http://www.bridgingdevelopment.org

Leaving the Adaklu Mountain community was not easy, especially with countless images of smiling children etched into my memory. I could not help but think about the future of these children and the difficulties that they will inevitably face throughout their lives. However, I find a great deal of hope and optimism in the benevolence of philanthropists like Fran McDonald and the positive results that I have seen from the Ecotourism and Orphan Committees.

My Ghanaian brothers and sisters showed me the powerful beauty of the collective human soul that links us all together in a way that easily transcends language barriers and skin colors. We all have the tremendous opportunity to act on our smiles and change our world for the better; smiles are contagious, and so is love.
Justin Brandon grew up in South Bend, graduated from Clay High School in 2000 and is a senior at the University of Notre Dame, studying sociology and theology.
--BRIDGE, Inc, P.O. Box 1984, Baltimore MD, 21210
http://www.bridgingdevelopment.org/
[article from South Bend Tribune, featured in Peace Corps Online at http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/2629/2015729.html]

[The following article was submitted by Carol Wahlen, who recently relocated to San Diego]

On Our Doorstep

by Carol Wahlen

After spending two years in Romania as a Peace Corps Volunteer (1995-’97), I thought I had seen poverty beyond belief. However, a recent weekend to Mexico revealed far more hardship on our San Diego doorstep.

This will not be a chronological recounting of the trip offered by Third World Opportunities, but my observation of places and people that continue to haunt my thoughts.

The most desolate sight and most heroic was seeing the people who live and eke out a living at the huge Tijuana dump. As we drove through the rough terrain, we saw Mexican families busily digging in layers garbage, looking for recyclable materials, the source of income.

Living in the dump is not free, a guide from Red Casa Del Migrante, tells our group of six women and George Johnson, a tour leader from Third World Opportunities. They pay $3,000 to $5,000 to erect makeshift shelters, many of which were made out of garage doors discarded by Americans, the guide says.

The shanties have no running water or heat. Trucks wind through the dump, selling drinking water and wood to those lucky enough to have the pesos.

Our last view as we leave the dump is the forlorn cemetery at the dump entrance. It is decorated with sad, wilting flowers, placed on the graves a week earlier on the Day of the Dead.

Another unsettling image: The long double fence that the US government has erected to keep the Mexicans from crossing into America. The 15 foot high fence, adjacent to Borderfield Park in the US, extends into the ocean 30 to 50 feet. Much of the fence is falling apart as relentless waves pummel it. Between the two fences, lampposts, every 30 feet, have four-sided fixtures that turn a 10 p.m. night into high noon.

Through the barriers, US border guards can be seen patrolling the beach in jeeps, a warning to any Mexican who would dare to try entering America from Tijuana.

People don’t try to cross the border here very much, the guide says. Project Gatekeeper, the latest US program aimed at keeping Mexicans out of land that once belonged to their forefathers, has moved the migration east into the desert and mountains, a far more dangerous route, he explains.

Our guide takes us to another area of the border barrier. White wooden crosses, two feet by three feet, adorn the Mexican side of the wall each signifying a body found along the route to the US. Some of the crosses have names on them, but most say: “Unidentified.”

There are some decorative coffins hanging together on one part of the wall, each listing the number of deaths on the border each year since the 1990s. In early November, the number on the 2003 coffin was 385.
We spend the night at Red Casas Del Migrante, a Tijuana hostel that provides temporary food and shelter for up to 28 Mexican men, men who had been deported from the US because they did not have legal papers.

As we eat dinner with these displaced persons, we learn that some of them had lived and worked in the US for as much as 20 years. Some have American wives; many of them have American-born children. They can not go back to the US because they can not get the right documents. Some men say they hope to find work in Tijuana, others say they may go back to their villages south of Tijuana. Still others say they don’t know what they will do.

In Tecate, we spent the night at the Don Bosco orphanage, which is home 31 boys, ranging in age from 5 to 18. The overworked staff shows a lot of love for the orphans, who have protection here. Where they will go later is not known.

Some of us spend the day sorting socks for the boys; Hundreds of socks that have been washed and need pairing. A sign on the wall shows the size pants, shirt and socks each boy wears, a sign that the boys are treated well and cared for as individuals.

Before dinner, each of the boys approaches one of us and takes our arm to escort us to dinner. We try to communicate and enjoy the challenge.

Our final day is spent at Juan’s home, in the hills outside of Tecate. “Call me John,” Juan says. “I want to learn English.”

John and his family, there are 10 in all, live in two buildings that he has constructed. There is love and humor in this Mexican home. John has not only taken in a niece and nephew but others as well. John takes most of our group on a tour of the area. I stay behind and teach Elena, his wife some English. Alexandra, the teenage daughter, paints my fingernails as we try to communicate.

John shows us around his home, then takes us to the master bedroom. He has installed a music system using an old boom box and soft lights surround the king-size bed. He calls the place Romantica. But then he points to the crib next to the bed and says that is a reminder to not get too romantic.

Since returning from Mexico, I have read several books regarding the Mexican War and have learned how President Polk’s administration pushed the Mexicans into a war they could not possibly win. Then sued them for peace, offering the Mexican govern $15 million for land which is now, Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Colorado. It was called Manifest Destiny. Funny we were never taught the Mexican War in history.

Other groups go to Mexico on weekend eye-openers. The only problem I had with the trip was that it was religious based.

San Diego RPCVs:
We Need Your Time and Assistance!

Peace Corps Week is next month and each year during the Peace Corps anniversary, former Volunteers take time to share their knowledge and experience with their local community. As all Volunteers know, part of the Peace Corps’ mission is to educate Americans back home about the people with whom they lived and worked.

This year the Peace Corps Regional Office and the SDPCA are working together to create a small Peace Corps Festival on Saturday, February 28th and Sunday, February 29th from 11am-4pm at the NBC Building, adjacent to Horton Plaza, in Downtown San Diego.

This is a rare opportunity to promote a better understanding about the people of your host country among those in your current community.
We are looking for RPCVs that would donate their time to dress up in the garbs of their host country and to bring artifacts with small descriptions indicating the country where it’s from and the object’s use. We are also looking for artists with photos or painting depicting the country they served, dancers in cultural costumes, musicians, and local artisans to display their ethnic crafts. This is a terrific opportunity to share your overseas experience with your community, peddle your wares, plug your tribal drumming group, or flaunt your dance troupe in addition to helping to kick off Peace Corps Week 2003.

In addition, we would like your suggestions on a catchy name for the festival. Please send submissions via email to makhavan@peacecorps.gov by January 14th.

If you would like to be involved or have any leads of where we can reach dancers, musicians, and artists to donate their time, please contact Marjory Clyne at president@sdpca.org or (858)576-9909 or Melody Akhavan at makhavan@peacecorps.gov or(310) 356-1106.
Thank you!

Community Action

Among reasons to have the SDPCA is the possibility of what we might do as experienced volunteers working side-by-side, and the strength of the friendships that may ensue. The issue has been finding projects that would best utilize our backgrounds, yet fit into our busy schedules. The Community Action Committee has proposed that the SDPCA selects one project each month and we ask that EACH member commit to participating in at least one of our monthly projects each year.

Save January 17th to be part of our inaugural group volunteer effort. Our January event will be to assist in the SD Firestorm restoration effort.

February 28th and 29th will be staffing a Peace Corps table in Horton Plaza, outside the TV Studios. Future months will rotate among projects in education, health, environment, etc… as well as region of the community.

The dates and theme will be announced in our newsletters, but the details will be announced via our Evite network about 2 weeks before the specific event.

Why? Because we are coordinating our projects with other existing programs, and these are generally not announced until closer to the actual date. (If you are a member and not receiving Evite announcements, please send an email to communications@sdpca.org so we can help keep you informed.)

Remember, we ask that EACH member commit to participating in at least one of our monthly projects each year. We hope you’ll find it so worthwhile you’ll choose to do more, but at least once per RPCV is the goal.

If we do not change our direction we are likely to end up where we are headed for.—Chinese Proverb

A Limitless Year

I have participated in many self improvement workshops over the years. I have learned from all of them; personal growth and discovery leads to a happier life. The last workshops were with Landmark Education and I want to share with you some questions they asked us to answer as we headed into the year 2000. I answer these for myself every new year. I hope you find them helpful too. I wish you all an awesome year of limitless possibilities!

Marjory Clyne, David Fogelson, Nikol Shaw, Ray Slanina, Cindy Ballard, Ted Finkel, Frank Yates, and Brenda Terry Hahn attended both meetings. Barbara Casillas attended in November.

President’s Report: Melody Akhavan from PCLA has made arrangements with NBC studios in San Diego to have a display for Peace Corps Day 2004 the weekend of February 28th and 29th. Melody is asking SDPCA to set up tables of artifacts for each region of the world in which Peace Corps serves accompanied by RPCVs in native dress, as well as musical performers and RPCV artwork.

Financial Report: Frank reported balances and provided a detailed statement of income and expenses.

Membership: The SDPCA membership is at 139 current, 43 past due, totaling 182. NPCA membership is at 101 current, 27 past due, totaling 128.

Community Action: The Community Action Committee will establish dates and themes for each for each monthly service event, then sending out an Evite close to the date with the specifics.

There may also be an opportunity to “Adopt a Family” in coordination with the IRC. Somali refugees will be arriving in a few months and will be in need of everything to start their lives in San Diego. This may be a possible long-term project in addition to the monthly service projects.

Fundraising: Calendars are sold out! Entertainment Books are still available.

Communications: Our next newsletter deadline is 2/10/04.
In October, the Communications Committee held a meeting to discuss website content and establish guidelines. The following were presented to the Board:

A motion was made to authorize the Communications Chair and Webmaster to determine the contents of the website based on the guidelines of the October meeting; the motion carried.

Global Awards: SDPCA has received six proposals. The committee unanimously agreed to support two projects: Jennifer Jones’ Outdoor Play Equipment and Learning Tools in the Dominican Republic and Dana Boling’s Equipment for English Resource Center in Bulgaria. A motion was made to fund a total of $925 for these two projects, as approved by the committee. The motion carried.

Peace Corps’ response to SDPCA’s questions and concerns about funding Volunteer projects was not acceptable. The process in place gives Peace Corps complete control of funds and takes the decisions away from SDPCA. SDPCA continues to have reservations about the process and the way funds will be allocated. Rudy will write one response letter to Peace Corps and a second letter to Joseph Permetti at NPCA, reminding NPCA of their pledge to support SDPCA on this matter. If these letters do not mitigate the problem, SDPCA will write to the Senators and Representatives and ask for their support.

Speaker’s Bureau: Dave continues to receive and fill requests for speakers.

New Business: The Board accepted Barbara’s resignation as Social Chair with regrets. A new Social Chair is needed. If interested, contact Marjory Clyne.

Board Members... pt. 2

We welcome your input and participation through any of our events, or by contacting anyone on the board through the numbers listed on page 2 or on the www.sdpca.org website. Anyone wanting to participate on a committees (both the social and communications committees are actively seeking members) is encouraged to do so. Just drop us a line, and remember, the board meetings are open to the membership as well.

Our last issue included a brief introduction by half of the Board members. The remaining members are introduced below.

In the summer of 1972 my boyfriend applied to the Peace Corps and was accepted. I had no choice and neither did Peace Corps! We got married and they found me a job as a statistician for a UN doctor starting a Family Planning clinic in Samoa. (I do not have a college degree.)

The second year I taught 12th frade English, Home Economics and was the P.E. teacher/coach for a Catholic girls school. In our spare time we did some great scuba diving, flying, made some very good wine, made a movie,and compiled a cookbook. We traveled for a year in South East Asia before reluctantly coming home.

I served in Venezuela 1967-69 in a Physical Education program and became involved in adult literacy. Established and taught in a school in the Guarija Peninsula. Upon returning from Venezuela taught ESL and started a Ph.D. program in Psychology and finished with an M.B.A. in International Management. I worked for a multinational bank and spent five years doing lending in Brazil. I also did international institutional banking in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus.

For the last couple of decades I have been in the International Private Client group of a large brokerage firm. I moved to San Diego in Sept. 2001 for family reasons. Happy to share ideas with any returning volunteers interested in a career of international finance.

Dave served enjoyably in El Salvador’s Agroforestry program from 1998-2000. He graduated from the University of Evansville, Indiana with a B.A. in Biology. After Peace Corps, he worked as a recruiter for the San Francisco Regional Peace Corps office and took a great opportunity to recruit in the San Diego area in February of 2003. Dave is currently serving as Chair of the Speakers Bureau with the SDPCA. From his comfy home in Pacific Beach, Dave enjoys surfing, playing music, reading, and traveling.
As chair of the Speakers Bureau, one has the unique opportunity of connecting the public to eager Peace Corps speakers. You make great contacts with organizations like Kiwanis, Lyons, and other community groups and meet lots of RPCVs as you hook them up with sharing their experiences.
It’s a fun job, and a great way to participate in the SDPCA.

I entered Peace Corps in ’70 as a math and science teacher, but grew so fluent in Ashanti over my first year, that I was reassigned to the Bureau of Ghana Languages. There, over the next two years, I wrote “An English-Twi/Twi-English Dictionary of Chemistry and Physics.” When I returned to NJ with an Ashanti bride, the need for a job led to a decade of strategic planning and computer modeling for Union Carbide Corp. A divorce in the early 80’s and a career change brought me to San Diego by ’86, where I met people doing citizen diplomacy trips to China and the USSR.

My photos from those trips and others, along with the friends I made in the SDPCA, evolved into creating a school program called One World, Our World (www.1wow.org ). It has allowed me to share some aspects of the RPCV worldview with over 175,000 students in 25 states, plus Ireland and Mexico. Add in skills in massage, and as a broadcast cameraman - and I’ve made ends meet. This year I’ve completed a software version of the multimedia program that will allow more kids access to this experience, learning skills of leadership, tolerance and peace building.

I love being part of the SDPCA, yet this year am particularly stretched for time. Worse, my TV work always includes weekends, and falls during the same seasons as our annual holiday and organizational meetings. So for fun, I love hosting RPCVs for the Superbowl party. See you there!

Mark J Tonner Global Awards

SDPCA has received six proposals. The committee unanimously agreed to support two projects:

Outdoor Play Equipment and Learning Tools
Jennifer Jones—Dominican Republic

A motion was made to fund a total of $925 for these two projects, as approved by the committee.

Mexico Lunch

On November 15th a group of about 20 of us ventured down the trolley and into Tijuana for a walk through the cultural center and over to Roberto’s for an exceptional meal. It was a pleasant day filled with good conversations and companionship with fellow RPCVs and their families.

The hardships in Tijuana are impossible to overlook—the five year old girl standing on her brother’s shoulders and juggling oranges in traffic for anything the cars driving by are willing to give them—is just one image from the afternoon that sticks in my mind.

Yet our varied experiences abroad bring home a sense that although life isn’t fair or equal, human connections are what give life joy.

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. --Buddha

An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all. --Dorothy Day

Need a Good Book to Read?

Did you resolved to make more time to read more books this year?
Here’s one to try from a returned PCV...

Inspired by campfire tales told by high Sierra cowboys and the stirring facts of the California Gold Rush, author Craig Carrozzi has created The Curse of Chief Tenaya--a historical novel of gripping content.

It is 1891 in northern California, the western frontier has only recently closed and the "Gilded Age" of "Robber Barons" is in full swing. Colorful personalities such as the acerbic newspaper columnist Ambrose Bierce, the young "Oyster Pirate" Jack London, and the great naturalist John Muir, work, play, and create their legends in this time and place.

Among them, Jeremiah Ignatius McElroy, a legendary survivor of the Irish potato famine and California Gold Rush days but now an aging bounty hunter turned tour guide, waits for life to play out its string.

Then, out-of-the-blue, he is offered a rich commission to track down and kill a phantasmal grizzly bear that is raising havoc among high Sierra ranchers. Thinking to top off his career with one final adventure, Jeremiah accepts. The stage is set for a fantastic journey, encompassing past and present, from the waterfront saloons of Jack London's Oakland to the lost Hetch Hetchy Valley of the Sierra Nevadas, Jeremiah finds love in the arms of a French writer and a final reckoning with a true Indian curse.

Aside from the obvious action/adventure, The Curse of Chief Tenaya is a "stealth" environmental story which will give you plenty of food for thought.

The Curse of Chief Tenaya by Craig J. Carrozzi
Hardcover, 226 pages, $24.95, Southern Trails Publishing
ISBN: 0-9620286-4-9
To order call: BookMasters (800) 247-6553 or go online to: http://www.bookmasters.com/marktplc/01054.htm

Host a Foreign Student
World Peace, One Friendship at a Time...

Return the great "home-stay" experience that you enjoyed during your Peace Corps service by housing a Foreign High School Student... and sharing cultures once again.

For more information, please contact: Jude Wallway, Honduras (2001-03), E-mail: judeway77@yahoo.com, Cell phone: (707) 689-7464

Welcome to New Members

We of SDPCA extend a warm welcome to our newest members. We’ve seen some of you at our events already and we want all of you to get involved in our activities. Let us hear from you!! You can reach us by the contact information listed in Contact SDPCA. Old members, use this section as your SDPCA Membership Directory update.

New members are listed by name, country and years of service, area of residence.

Recruiting Corner

Peace Corps recruitment is getting back into gear with information meetings and office hours at San Diego State. Here’s what’s on tap

There will be a San Diego Festival with NBC celebrating 43 years of Peace Corps from February 28th and 29th from 11-4pm. We need 20 volunteers total that served in various regions from 11-1:30pm and 1:30pm-4pm. It’ll be about 2.5 hours of manning a table, talking to the public. Host country dress encouraged!

We are also looking for costumed RPCVs to make an announcement on TV the morning of the 28th. Please contact Melody Akhavan if you are interested. She can be reached at 310-356-1106 or makhavan@peacecorps.gov

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” - T.S. Elliot

--David Fogelson, El Salvador Agroforestry (1998-2000), Peace Corps Los Angeles, San Diego Regional Recruiter, 619-594-2188

Pacific Waves is published six times a year by the San Diego PeaceCorps Association which is fully responsible for its content. Except for copyrighted material, articles may be reprinted without permission with credit to the SDPCA.

Contributions are encouraged: e-mailed text file on disk- Mac preferred, or typed copy.

Please send to Editor, SDPCA, P.O. Box 26565, San Diego, CA 92196 or e-mail: newseditor@sdpca.org

Contributors this issue are:
Justin R. Brandon, Carol Wahlen, Rudy Sovinee, Marjory Clyne, Ted Finkel, David Fogelson, Cindy Ballard, Jude Wallway

Love builds bridges, cuts through barriers