Life Treks and Trails My Journey From Vale to Kathmandu Robert V Thurston 9781449970185 Books
Download As PDF : Life Treks and Trails My Journey From Vale to Kathmandu Robert V Thurston 9781449970185 Books
"Can you give our group a two-hour talk on US Foreign Assistance?" asked Bill Kemper, Program chairman of the Corvallis Academy for Life Long Learning. Having worked overseas within the Agency for International Development (AID) for nearly 25 years, plus several years in connection with the Peace Corps, I was happy to comply. Preparation for that presentation led me to jot down many personal observations and anecdotes. I'd been telling some of those stories for years. Once started, this exercise took on a life of its own, and before I knew it, I'd written this memoir.
Life Treks and Trails My Journey From Vale to Kathmandu Robert V Thurston 9781449970185 Books
This book will not help you get to sleep. I could not put it down once I got started. Mr. Thurston created a tale of adventure with twists and turns in most unexpected ways. The cool thing is this is real stuff from a life in the Peace Corps that morphed into USAID work that took him to remote places around the globe. He spins this story in short little packages that string together to make an amazing odyssey that landed him back here in the USA. Each small foray ended with me turning the page to see what hot water he managed to step into next. This is a wonderful view into the lives of those we try to help, and those trying to help. Along the way he paints a picture of life in these remote places. He ends the book with a little paragraph hinting at the other stories with titles refering to Frogs, Sheep, UFOs and other curious references. He says "Perhaps I'll also write them up someday." Please do. This stuff is too good to not be told and he tells these stories in a direct and compelling way.Product details
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Tags : Life's Treks and Trails: My Journey From Vale to Kathmandu [Robert V. Thurston] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Can you give our group a two-hour talk on US Foreign Assistance? asked Bill Kemper, Program chairman of the Corvallis Academy for Life Long Learning. Having worked overseas within the Agency for International Development (AID) for nearly 25 years,Robert V. Thurston,Life's Treks and Trails: My Journey From Vale to Kathmandu,CreateSpace,1449970184,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Adventurers & Explorers
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Life Treks and Trails My Journey From Vale to Kathmandu Robert V Thurston 9781449970185 Books Reviews
The intro to Chapter 4 on page 50 should be required reading for officials of international development organizations. Great insights on the developing world and aid community. Entertaining way of presenting serious issues. Would recommend to anyone interested in starting a carreer in international development.
Robert takes us through his life with both humor and interest. It is like walking through the forest with a botanist that can give you interesting fact about the plants. Read it!!
Thurston's book reminds me that sages walk amongst us, unnoticed for their own humility cloaks them. As a youngster with free-spirited parents, Thurston lived and studied in Mexico. After university studies in the motherland, he volunteered for the Peace Corps, post-service became a Peace Corps associate country director then, moved to the U.S. Agency for International Development (A.I.D.). This organization provides loans and technical expertise to foreign countries concerning development. Although the United States government provided such assistance for most of the twentieth century, such aid was consolidated by President Kennedy in 1961, including 8,600 federal employees. A controversial part of foreign policy, it included 2,900 employees in 2009. Thurston's journey lasted two decades, about the same time that Odysseus needed to return home. In the author's case, his work and travels took him to Venezuela, Belize, Honduras, Bolivia, India, Nepal and Indonesia.
Like most sages, Thurston is honest. He describes his 1968 Peace Corps training as "awful" and also notes that during his two-year assignment in Venezuela, the Peace Corps was experimenting with the recruitment of married couples. In fact, the author was recruited with his own wife. Of the total 57 in his training group sent to Venezuela, only 11 completed their service, representing an attrition rate of 81% (and he does not count those recruits who were sent home during "staging"). Very sobering.
The author is equally honest about A.I.D. When explaining American tax dollars at work in Bolivia, he concludes that it had become "a grab bag for local politicians and pork barrel projects." Projects in India represented "a flow of kick-backs and pay-offs."
Sprinkled throughout this memoir are adventures. Thurston met Evo Morales 20 years before his rise to the Bolivian presidency. In the 1980's, Evo was the jefe máximo of coca growers, guarded by men carrying Uzis. Thurston describes how he and a volunteer were briefly lost along a maze of unpaved North Coast Honduran roads. He outlines how he dealt with a nude Peace Corps volunteer who kicked and punched in the air.
Anyone interested in American unarmed foreign policy should read this book. The author is thankful for his experiences and has no complaints. He and his book are products of the new Print-On-Demand revolution publishing without censors. It is unusual and refreshing.
This book will not help you get to sleep. I could not put it down once I got started. Mr. Thurston created a tale of adventure with twists and turns in most unexpected ways. The cool thing is this is real stuff from a life in the Peace Corps that morphed into USAID work that took him to remote places around the globe. He spins this story in short little packages that string together to make an amazing odyssey that landed him back here in the USA. Each small foray ended with me turning the page to see what hot water he managed to step into next. This is a wonderful view into the lives of those we try to help, and those trying to help. Along the way he paints a picture of life in these remote places. He ends the book with a little paragraph hinting at the other stories with titles refering to Frogs, Sheep, UFOs and other curious references. He says "Perhaps I'll also write them up someday." Please do. This stuff is too good to not be told and he tells these stories in a direct and compelling way.
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