THE PEACE CORPS MISSION is accomplished through three goals: First, to provide the host nation with skilled men and women. For Cambodia that means healthcare educators and English teachers. In other countries, that might be expertise in business, agriculture, or technology.

 

The second goal is to promote understanding of America to the people of the country served.

That part of the job is 24/7. As a Peace Corps volunteer you represent your country in the classroom where you teach, and on the street when you greet the neighbors.

 

The third goal is this—what I am doing right here: writing and talking about my experience in Cambodia with my fellow Americans, and showing pictures of life in another part of the world. As part of my Peace Corps service (2015-17) I wrote a blog and posted photos in an ongoing journal titled Postcards From Cambodia. The final entry in this series is The Last Postcard. As you scroll down, you can read my Peace Corps saga in reverse.

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The photo looks a bit spooky, but it's only the neighborhood kids peeking through a fence, curious about the PCVs next door who were building an organic garden. The mask was the little girl's playful attempt to get our attention. Her little brother looks serious, but in the next photo he's laughing.

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Some of those small stories from my blog emerged into a bigger book: Mistranslations from the Kingdom of Wonder, which weighs in at about 70,000 words with photos and poems—now in search of a publisher. 

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