November 15, 2005: Headlines: COS - Zambia: The Olympian: Amy Longmire serves as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia
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November 15, 2005: Headlines: COS - Zambia: The Olympian: Amy Longmire serves as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia
Amy Longmire serves as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia
Amy has no cell phone in Zambia because there is no cell phone service where she lives. She must ride her bicycle for 3.5 hours on a dirt track to get to the nearest town with occasional, unpredictable internet service. That town is also the nearest location for running water, indoor plumbing, and electricity. We visited Amy in August. October was the next, and last, time we heard from her. So whether it's a different Peace Corps today depends on where a volunteer is serving.
Amy Longmire serves as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia
Teaching, training in rural Africa
Thank you for publishing an article about the opportunities for service the Peace Corps provides around the world. You can be sure I was quick to scan the list of countries in which local volunteers are serving; because my daughter, Amy Longmire, is currently a volunteer in the Peace Corps. I was happy to read that Zambia, a country in southern Africa where Amy has served for almost two years, was included. Amy's service includes staffing well-baby clinics, providing HIV/AIDS prevention information and training, subtitute teaching at the elementary school in her catchment area, and coaching a coed youth volleyball team (the team won the district championship).
I would like to offer additional information with regard to comments attributed to Amon Johnson. He says it's a different Peace Corps than it was when his mother and grandmother served. He has a cell phone and can get on a bus for a 15 minute ride to an internet access site. Amy has no cell phone in Zambia because there is no cell phone service where she lives. She must ride her bicycle for 3.5 hours on a dirt track to get to the nearest town with occasional, unpredictable internet service. That town is also the nearest location for running water, indoor plumbing, and electricity. We visited Amy in August. October was the next, and last, time we heard from her. So whether it's a different Peace Corps today depends on where a volunteer is serving.
That said, Amy tells us that she is glad she volunteered for service. We're proud of her and look forward to having her home safely next spring.
Nancy L. Nelson
Thurston County
When this story was posted in November 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Peace Corps at highest Census in 30 years Congratulations to the Peace Corps for the highest number of volunteers in 30 years with 7,810 volunteers serving in 71 posts across the globe. Of course, the President's proposal to double the Peace Corps to 15,000 volunteers made in his State of the Union Address in 2002 is now a long forgotten dream. With deficits in federal spending stretching far off into the future, any substantive increase in the number of volunteers will have to wait for new approaches to funding and for a new administration. Choose your candidate and start working for him or her now. |
| Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject. |
| 'Celebration of Service' a major success The Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' on September 29 in New York City was a major success raising approximately $100,000 for third goal activities. In the photo are Maureen Orth (Colombia); John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board. Read the story here. |
| PC apologizes for the "Kasama incident" The District Commissioner for the Kasama District in Zambia issued a statement banning Peace Corps activities for ‘grave’ social misconduct and unruly behavior for an incident that occurred on September 24 involving 13 PCVs. Peace Corps said that some of the information put out about the incident was "inflammatory and false." On October 12, Country Director Davy Morris met with community leaders and apologized for the incident. All PCVs involved have been reprimanded, three are returning home, and a ban in the district has since been lifted. |
| 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. |
| 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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Story Source: The Olympian
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Zambia
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