By Admin1 (admin) (98.188.147.225) on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - 12:09 pm: Edit Post |
RPCV Elissa Mays Donovan writes: My students love to hear about how my Botswana students and I would drive two hours out into the Kalahari bush in a flatbed lorry to a dried-out river bed and use pick axes to dig out the rock-hard clay
We would haul it back to school and use stones and bricks to grind it into a fine powder and sift it through the screens taken from my cinderblock house. We would then mix it and build our projects. Since we didn't have an electric kiln, we would fire the clay in an aluminum trash can with holes drilled in it and pack the clay in sawdust. We would set the whole thing on fire, watch it through the night and by the next day the pieces were finished! It's a far cry from the processed clay we currently get from a box and throw into our electric preset kiln.
RPCV Elissa Mays Donovan writes: My students love to hear about how my Botswana students and I would drive two hours out into the Kalahari bush in a flatbed lorry to a dried-out river bed and use pick axes to dig out the rock-hard clay
ELISSA MAYS DONOVAN: Botswana, 1994
PEACE CORPS ALUMS TELL THEIR STORIES
October 17, 2010
I was a Peace Corps volunteer teaching art to middle-school kids in Botswana from 1994-1996.
I continue to teach art to middle-school kids at Seven Hills School. I always find ways to share my experiences with my students, especially when we are working with clay. My students love to hear about how my Botswana students and I would drive two hours out into the Kalahari bush in a flatbed lorry to a dried-out river bed and use pick axes to dig out the rock-hard clay. We would haul it back to school and use stones and bricks to grind it into a fine powder and sift it through the screens taken from my cinderblock house. We would then mix it and build our projects. Since we didn't have an electric kiln, we would fire the clay in an aluminum trash can with holes drilled in it and pack the clay in sawdust. We would set the whole thing on fire, watch it through the night and by the next day the pieces were finished! It's a far cry from the processed clay we currently get from a box and throw into our electric preset kiln.
I loved my time in the Peace Corps - it could be very harsh and a wonderfully fulfilling adventure at the same time.
Elissa Mays Donovan
Kennedy Heights
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Headlines: October, 2010; Peace Corps Botswana; Directory of Botswana RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Botswana RPCVs; Art; Secondary Education
When this story was posted in November 2010, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
Support Independent Funding for the Third Goal
The Peace Corps has always neglected the third goal, allocating less than 1% of their resources to "bringing the world back home." Senator Dodd addressed this issue in the "Peace Corps for the 21st Century" bill passed by the US Senate and Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter proposed a "Peace Corps Foundation" at no cost to the US government. Both are good approaches but the recent "Comprehensive Assessment Report" didn't address the issue of independent funding for the third goal at all.
Memo to Incoming Director Williams
PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams
Join Us Mr. President!
"We will double the size of the Peace Corps by its 50th anniversary in 2011. And we'll reach out to other nations to engage their young people in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity," said Barack Obama during his campaign. Returned Volunteers rally and and march to the White House to support a bold new Peace Corps for a new age. Latest: Senator Dodd introduces Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2009 .
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