2006.07.26: July 26, 2006: Headlines: COS - Malawi: Married Couples: Older Volunteers: knox.VillageSoup.com: Greg and Susan Dorr are serving in the Peace Corps in the central African country of Malawi
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Malawi:
Peace Corps Malawi :
The Peace Corps in Malawi:
2006.07.26: July 26, 2006: Headlines: COS - Malawi: Married Couples: Older Volunteers: knox.VillageSoup.com: Greg and Susan Dorr are serving in the Peace Corps in the central African country of Malawi
Greg and Susan Dorr are serving in the Peace Corps in the central African country of Malawi
"As we’ve been exploring needs more we have also started to incorporate plans for a possible HIV/AIDS hospice care facility. The idea is to inform the community about the need for greater nutritional support for HIV positive individuals as well as providing just the most basic level of care and comfort to persons in the last stages of life. We have learned that due to the utter lack of services or treatment options people tend to die alone having been abandoned by helpless family members and friends. Pretty awful. So we’re trying to bring together different stakeholders in the community, agricultural workers, forestry agents and the medical officers as well as NGOs that are working in the area."
Greg and Susan Dorr are serving in the Peace Corps in the central African country of Malawi
Dorrs check in from Malawi
By Greg and Susan Door
MALAWI (July 26): Camden residents Greg and Susan Dorr are serving in the Peace Corps in the central African country of Malawi. Greg Dorr is the former Rockland city attorney and Susan Dorr is a former maine State Representative and most recently served on the Camden Select Board. Below is their most recent letter home, sent via email on July 25, 2006
Dear Friends:
The weeks are flying by here in Malawi – only 92 remaining until we are winging our way back to you, but who’s counting! In spite of myself, with each passing week I am feeling more comfortable and inspired with the direction things are taking. I owe that in large part to how much fun Greg and I have been having playing house – we think of it as Martha Stewart meets the Flintstones with a nod to Dr. Seuss as Greg whips up whimsical marvelous items from found objects.
With significant work we’re actually coaxing some veggies out of the ground after double digging and adding significant amounts of compost and watering like crazy. I had a minor setback the other day when a pig got in through my fence and tossed my baby beets and carrots out of the ground and sheared the tops off all my lovely leaf lettuce. Ah well, not to worry – we’ve got a 12-month growing season so start again! Our house is all whitewashed inside so the light from our tiny paraffin lanterns bounces around and makes our evenings cozy and warm as we listen to the BBC Africa and floss our teeth! Peace Corps has the wisdom to give us 3 months to settle in before we are actually held accountable for anything and we have savored this opportunity to really make the place livable. I’m actually cooking in our outside kitchen on the classic non-aligned nation style on 3 stones with a wood fire and having some significant successes. We happened upon a man selling freshly butchered pig out of a wheelbarrow and I made an (excuse me) kick-ass rolled roast stuffed with garlic. I now have a source for fresh milk and after much boiling am making cheese which has been the main shortcoming of the entire experience here in Malawi – the pronounced lack of dairy products! So worry not, we are not relying on the local fare of nsima, the maize paste that is the staple of all Malawian’s diets.
Our work in the community is starting to take shape as we meet key players each and every day (as the Malawians say). We were invited to our site to help determine a use for a lovely riverside campground that was left to the community by a German NGO and is under the control of 45 different chiefs and traditional authorities. Greg has been attending the organizational meetings – I don’t have a great deal of interest in meetings although as the plans are coming together I will start to get into it more. It is an ideal spot for some demonstration organic gardens and a fruit and indigenous tree nursery. As we’ve been exploring needs more we have also started to incorporate plans for a possible HIV/AIDS hospice care facility. The idea is to inform the community about the need for greater nutritional support for HIV positive individuals as well as providing just the most basic level of care and comfort to persons in the last stages of life. We have learned that due to the utter lack of services or treatment options people tend to die alone having been abandoned by helpless family members and friends. Pretty awful. So we’re trying to bring together different stakeholders in the community, agricultural workers, forestry agents and the medical officers as well as NGOs that are working in the area. If you listen too much to anyone who has tried to do anything here you might give up before you begin but we are trying to lay the groundwork among responsible and concerned leaders and hope for the best. Everything we have in mind to do is pretty low budget. However, as we flesh out the plan more we will be putting the plan up on the Peace Corps website and you will have the opportunity to provide financial support!
We have so many moments of longing for Maine and all of our loved ones. We are deeply disturbed when we listen to the news about what is going on in Lebanon and wish that there was a peacemaker coming forward to help resolve the situation but fear that isn’t going to happen. It is easy to be lulled into ignorance here; focusing only on the huge problems of Malawi is more than enough to take our attention. We are confronted every day with need beyond our wildest imagining. And yet, the Malawians continue to amaze us with their warmth and kindness and compel us to engage in their lives as consultants, helpers and friends.
Rest assured, we are doing fine, taking good care of each other and relishing this time together. We’re in excellent health and laugh a lot, take many bike rides and are making lots of good friends in our little village. We miss you and love you all. We’ve got a lovely guest room so come ahead!
Greg and Susan
When this story was posted in August 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| The Peace Corps is "fashionable" again The LA Times says that "the Peace Corps is booming again and "It's hard to know exactly what's behind the resurgence." PCOL Comment: Since the founding of the Peace Corps 45 years ago, Americans have answered Kennedy's call: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." Over 182,000 have served. Another 200,000 have applied and been unable to serve because of lack of Congressional funding. The Peace Corps has never gone out of fashion. It's Congress that hasn't been keeping pace. |
| Changing the Face of Hunger In his new book, Former Congressman Tony Hall (RPCV Thailand) says humanitarian aid is the most potent weapon the United States can deploy against terrorism. An evangelical Christian, he is a big believer in faith-based organizations in the fight against hunger. Members of Congress have recently recommended that Hall be appointed special envoy to Sudan to focus on ending the genocide in Darfur. |
| PC will not return to East Timor in 2006 Volunteers serving in East Timor have safely left the country as a result of the recent civil unrest and government instability. Latest: The Peace Corps has informed us that at this time, the Peace Corps has no plans to re-enter the country in 2006. The Peace Corps recently sent a letter offering eligible volunteers the opportunity to reinstate their service in another country. |
| Chris Dodd considers run for the White House Senator Chris Dodd plans to spend the next six to eight months raising money and reaching out to Democrats around the country to gauge his viability as a candidate. Just how far Dodd can go depends largely on his ability to reach Democrats looking for an alternative to Hillary Clinton. PCOL Comment: Dodd served as a Volunteer in the Dominican Republic and has been one of the strongest supporters of the Peace Corps in Congress. |
| Vasquez testifies before Senate Committee Director Vasquez testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on his nomination as the new Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture replacing Tony Hall. He has been the third longest serving Peace Corps Director after Loret Ruppe Miller and Sargent Shriver. PCOL Comment: Read our thanks to Director Vasquez for his service to the Peace Corps. |
| Interview with a Hit Man RPCV John Perkins says that for many years he was an "economic hit man" in the world of international finance whose primary job was to convince less developed countries to accept multibillion dollar loans for infrastructure projects that left the recipient countries wallowing in debt and highly vulnerable to outside political and commercial interests. In this exclusive interview for "Peace Corps Online," Colombia RPCV Joanne Roll, author of Remember with Honor, talks to Perkins about his Peace Corps service, his relation with the NSA, "colonization" in Ecuador, the consequences of his work, why he decided to speak out, and what his hopes are for change. |
| Peace Corps stonewalls on FOIA request The Ashland Daily Tidings reports that Peace Corps has blocked their request for information on the Volkart case. "After the Tidings requested information pertaining to why Volkart was denied the position — on March 2 — the newspaper received a letter from the Peace Corps FOIA officer stating the requested information was protected under an exemption of the act." The Dayton Daily News had similar problems with FOIA requests for their award winning series on Volunteer Safety and Security. |
| PCOL readership increases 100% Monthly readership on "Peace Corps Online" has increased in the past twelve months to 350,000 visitors - over eleven thousand every day - a 100% increase since this time last year. Thanks again, RPCVs and Friends of the Peace Corps, for making PCOL your source of information for the Peace Corps community. And thanks for supporting the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come. |
| History of the Peace Corps PCOL is proud to announce that Phase One of the "History of the Peace Corps" is now available online. This installment includes over 5,000 pages of primary source documents from the archives of the Peace Corps including every issue of "Peace Corps News," "Peace Corps Times," "Peace Corps Volunteer," "Action Update," and every annual report of the Peace Corps to Congress since 1961. "Ask Not" is an ongoing project. Read how you can help. |
| RPCV admits to abuse while in Peace Corps Timothy Ronald Obert has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a minor in Costa Rica while serving there as a Peace Corps volunteer. "The Peace Corps has a zero tolerance policy for misconduct that violates the law or standards of conduct established by the Peace Corps," said Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez. Could inadequate screening have been partly to blame? Mr. Obert's resume, which he had submitted to the Peace Corps in support of his application to become a Peace Corps Volunteer, showed that he had repeatedly sought and obtained positions working with underprivileged children. Read what RPCVs have to say about this case. |
| 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. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: knox.VillageSoup.com
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Malawi; Married Couples; Older Volunteers
PCOL33758
49