May 20, 2003 - Moon Handbooks: Randy Wood and Joshua Berman first joined forces as co-editors of Peace Corps Nicaragua's quarterly publication, ¡Va Pué!

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Nicaragua: Peace Corps Nicaragua: The Peace Corps in Nicaragua: May 20, 2003 - Moon Handbooks: Randy Wood and Joshua Berman first joined forces as co-editors of Peace Corps Nicaragua's quarterly publication, ¡Va Pué!

By Admin1 (admin) on Tuesday, May 20, 2003 - 5:34 pm: Edit Post

Randy Wood and Joshua Berman first joined forces as co-editors of Peace Corps Nicaragua's quarterly publication, ¡Va Pué!



Randy Wood and Joshua Berman first joined forces as co-editors of Peace Corps Nicaragua's quarterly publication, ¡Va Pué!

Randy Wood and Joshua Berman first joined forces as co-editors of Peace Corps Nicaragua's quarterly publication, ¡Va Pué!, which they helped turn from an 18-page administrative newsletter into a 70-page volunteer magazine. Throughout their two-year tour, they continually grumbled that Nicaragua lacked a decent traveler's guidebook--so they wrote one.

JOSHUA BERMAN

Joshua Berman is a freelance writer and Outward Bound Instructor, constantly figuring out how to support both habits. Born a Jewish hillbilly in Clarksburg, West Virginia, Josh moved with his family to Long Island when he was 12 and quickly gained a New York attitude, a Grateful Dead tape collection, and eventually, a lot of facial hair. Despite New York, Joshua's favorite class during four years at Brown University was "Country, Bluegrass & Old-Time Music." He graduated with a B.A. degree in Environmental Studies, and went on to serve a year as an Americorps volunteer in Northern California, where he swam with salmon and hooted at spotted owls. During the next two years, he found himself getting paid to sew backpacks in Maine, bounce rock concerts in Boulder, photograph Ozzy Osbourne in Denver, and write about inline skating and BASE jumping (neither of which he's ever tried). Some of the things he did not get paid to do were snowboard, hike, and serve as a rural EMT.

During his Peace Corps service in Nicaragua's misty mountains, Joshua--now known as Josué--started a listserve called NicaDayz that eventually served as the basis for an epistolary novel about his experience there. His articles have appeared in Hooked On the Outdoors, Gravity, Backcountry, Transitions Abroad, Emergency Medical Services, and Brown Alumni Monthly magazines.

Summertime finds Joshua leading wilderness expeditions for Outward Bound, teaching teenagers about things like fungus prevention and the "warrior spirit" while backpacking and canoeing through the north woods of Maine and the wilds of New York City. Between trips, he plays guitar, banjo, and mandolin, and tries to read, write, and travel as much as possible. Joshua's website is www.stonegrooves.net.

RANDY WOOD

Born on the sandy shore of New York's Atlantic coast, Randy Wood spent his childhood in various small sailboats, developing a mariner's curiosity for what lies over the horizon. His first opportunity to find out was at the age of 11, when his family crossed the United States from New York to California in a beat-up Volkswagen bus.

After nearly 20 subsequent years of traveling, exploring, and switching jobs, Randy has crossed the United States several more times, traveled and worked his way through Pennsylvania's Amish country, Europe, Indonesia, Singapore, the Caribbean, and finally Central America, where he's resided since 1998. He's worked as a pizza chef, deep-sea salmon fisherman, teacher, surveyor, agronomist, and civil/environmental engineer. One of his most rewarding experiences was teaching English to refugees and immigrants in Boston; one of his least was pumping gas at "Woody's."

Shortly after arriving in Nicaragua to teach soil conservation to rural Nicaraguan farmers, Randy experienced the devastation of Hurricane Mitch firsthand when he found himself trapped on the wrong side of a swollen, bridge-less river during the brunt of the storm. After the Peace Corps, he remained in Nicaragua as the in-country manager for the Army Corps of Engineers' Hurricane Mitch Reconstruction program, during which time he met and fell in love with the Nicaraguan woman he would later marry.

In his limited free time, Randy enjoys playing 12-string folk guitar, swimming and surfing, salsa, tango, and swing dancing, backpacking, making maps, and fiddling with Linux-based computers. He remains an insufferable "gearhead" whose challenge to find the perfect backpack and its contents continues unabated.

Randy's mother relates that when he was only three years old, he would surprise people asking him what he wan



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Story Source: Moon Handbooks

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Nicaragua; Travel Guides

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