• April 22, 2005: Headlines: COS - Nepal: Mountaineeering: Writing - Nepal: Everest Speakers Bureau: Nepal RPCV Broughton Coburn fulfilled a destiny with the Himalayas -- where he has worked two of the past three decades.  Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 9:36 pm [1]

• April 13, 2005: Headlines: COS - Nepal: Writing - Nepal: The Third Goal: North Kitsap Herald: Broughton Coburn returns to the Pacific Northwest to tell of his tales in Nepal where he first went as a Peace Corps volunteer, focusing specifically on experiences he had with a Nepalese woman named Aama  Thursday, November 03, 2005 - 11:33 pm [2]

Aama's Journey by Nepal RPCV Broughton Coburn is a Pilgrimage Between Continents and Cultures is a touching pictorial excursion



Aama's Journey by Nepal RPCV Broughton Coburn is a Pilgrimage Between Continents and Cultures is a touching pictorial excursion

Broughton Coburn's unusual, illustrated lecture program, Aama's Journey, headlined America's Knife and Fork Clubs (35 appearances!) and has thrilled museums, associations, social groups, universities, schools, libraries and professional societies across the United States. Coburn, a best-selling author and Harvard graduate, has spent two of the past three decades in Nepal and the Himalayas. If you are looking for a reasonably priced, budget speaker with a professional delivery and an engaging message, this program is guaranteed to suit your event's needs. Aama's Journey is listed in the ASAE directory.

In Aama's Journey, the audience is taken on more than an unusual travelogue. Beginning in Aama's subsistence farming village in the foothills of the Himalayas -- where she has taken Broughton Coburn in as her adopted son -- we are immersed in the cosmology, philosophy, hopes and humor of a woman with virtually no exposure to Western civilization.

In 1992, Aama turned 84, a watershed year sanctified by a long-life ritual that relieves the elderly from further worldly duty - the perfect time to go on a pilgrimage, to travel on a circuit of holy sites.

That's when Aama came to America.

Along with Coburn and his girlfriend Didi, Aama sets off on an odyssey that evolves into a 12,000 mile search for the soul of America. Aama visits cities, advises farmers, kisses a killer whale, bathes ritually in the ocean, rejoices in Disneyland, gambles in Las Vegas, meets with Native Americans, finds kin among the Hutterites, and prays at Old Faithful. Aama's reactions to our country are amusing, surprising, and sometimes disconcerting, yet we find that her emotions and sensibilities are not unlike our own. Aama is a universal spirit, and she has discovered the vitality and sacredness that surrounds us and breathes within us.

Aama's Journey: A Pilgrimage Between Continents and Cultures is a touching pictorial excursion into and beyond the two books that are based on this program, Nepali Aama: Life Lessons of a Himalayan Woman and Aama in America: A Pilgrimage of the Heart (Anchor/Doubleday). This is one rollicking, warm, thought-provoking, poignant and powerful journey.

When this story was posted in April 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:


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The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today.

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April 17, 2005: This Week's Top Stories The Coyne Column: A Peace Corps Writer Discovery 17 Apr Chris Van Hollen supports Peace Corps budget 17 Apr Joseph Goldstein founded Forest Refuge 17 Apr Judge Flemming Norcott wins community service award 16 Apr Wangari Maathai meets with Kenya Country Director 15 Apr Simon James says corps' days numbered in Uzbekistan 15 Apr Peace Corps not heard anything about Uzbekistan 15 Apr Novak says Chris Dodd attacking anti-Castro officials 14 Apr Taylor Hackford not pleased with content editing 14 Apr Activist W. Retta Gilliam dies in DC 13 Apr Alberto Ibargüen studying newspaper options 13 Apr Christopher Hill says Korea nuclear talks can work 12 Apr DNA undercuts verdict against Jerry Marks 11 Apr Tom Bissell discusses recent events in Kyrgyzstan 11 Apr Chris Gobrecht named Basketball Coach at Yale 11 Apr Glenn Ivers does "Splash for Cash" in icy waters 11 Apr Chris Shays says Delay should step down 10 Apr

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April 17, 2005: Special RPCV Events RPCV Kent Island Family Weekend on May 6 - 8 Joseph Opala speaks in Rhode Island on April 19 South Carolina RPCVs to see off PCVs on April 18 Terry Deshler speaks in Wyoming on April 18 Cameroon RPCVs selling special Pagne Bush proclaims National Volunteer Week RPCVs: Post your stories or press releases here for inclusion next week.

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RPCVs and Friends remember Pope John Paul II Tony Hall found the pope to be courageous and capable of forgiving the man who shot him in 1981, Mark Gearan said the pope was as dynamic in person as he appears on television, Maria Shriver said he was a beacon of virtue, strength and goodness, and an RPCV who met the pope while serving in the Solomon Islands said he possessed the holiness of a man filled with a deep love and concern for humanity. Leave your thoughts here.

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Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong 170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.

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