Asia & Pacific Islands
Peace Corps Volunteers tell compelling stories from China, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, and other Eastern Hemisphere countries, accompanied by lesson plans that enhance their classroom value.
- The Blind Men and the Elephant
- Long ago six old men lived in a village in India. Each was born blind. The other villagers loved the old men and kept them away from harm.
- Help! My Father Is Coming!
- The idea was all my father's, my 74-year-old father who had never been outside America and who suddenly thought that Sri Lanka, where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer, would be a jolly place to visit.
- Just Like the Old Days
- Take an imaginary trip with me for a moment. Think of where you live right now. Now imagine it a thousand years ago.
- Living by the Book
- Books were scarce in our village, Naqelewai, in Fiji. All material possessions were scarce because of the village's remote location.
- Respect for Authority
- For most of the 20th century, Mongolia was a socialist state under the strict shadow of the Soviet Union. When the Russian influence and aid ended abruptly in the early 1990s, Mongolia was left to start a market economy on its own from scratch.
- Running
- In the mornings I often ran to the summit of Raise the Flag Mountain.
- A Single Lucid Moment
- The mountains were dramatic and thick with rain forest. No roads had ever scarred them. We had loaded a four-seater plane with cargo (we would fly out every three months to resupply) and flew for 30 bumpy minutes southwest to the mountain ridges.
- The Train Ride Home
- As my taxi slows to approach the train station, it attracts a crowd of young men who begin to run swiftly behind the car. Even before the taxi stops, they are opening the doors and the trunk to grab my bags.
- A Typical Day
- Every day, whether I want to or not, I wake up when the rooster crows at dawn. As I climb out of the mosquito net that hangs over my bamboo bed, I hear swish-swish sounds outside my mud hut—the women have already begun sweeping leaves from the courtyard.
- Under the Tongan Sun
- I lived in a tiny hut made of bamboo and coconut leaves and lined with dozens of mats, pieces of tapa cloth, and wall-to-wall children.
- Waking Up, Stepping Out
- I wake to chattering voices, a bus horn, bells ringing, an old man with a hacking cough, the squeak of a rusty latch opening across the hallway.
- What's Integrity?
- I once heard "integrity" defined as the quality of a person who does what's right when he or she knows that absolutely no one else is watching.
- What's Mongolia Really Like?
- No matter how much an outsider researches and studies another country, it's difficult to really understand what's going on there until you're physically present.
- Where There's Smoke
- One day last fall, my Nepalese friend Kumar invited me to have lunch at his family's home. Like most homes in the surrounding village, his is built from packed clay and cow dung.