Name

After a long, by-land trip from Bolivia to the U.S., I enrolled in George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (my home town) and received a Master's in Latin American Studies in 1971. I roomed with fellow volunteer Jim Wright for a while.

In the early-mid 70's I got involved in protest politics, both anti-war and anti-imperialism, joined the Committee of Returned Volunteers, got married, had a baby, and then got divorced. I also managed to get myself arrested at an anti-freeway demonstration.

In 1971 I began what turned out to be a career with the National League of Cities, a D.C.-based nonprofit urban advocacy group, where I ended up working for 32 years in a variety of positions, mostly in member services and communications and marketing. Obviously, I enjoyed working with local elected officials, mayors and city council members, very much.

I retired from NLC in 2003 and have since been working part-time for a D.C. neighborhood historic preservation group. I do some consulting work for a nonprofit that serves city and county public information officers, I serve on a neighborhood zoning committee, and I am on the boards of Amigos de Bolivia y Peru (your organization: join now!) and the Kolmac Clinic Foundation, a group that provides financial support to people seeking substance abuse treatment.

I met Tara Hamilton (another native Washingtonian) at work, and we've now been together for nearly 30 years, including 22 as a married couple. Tara is the Public Affairs/Media Relations manager for the airports authority than runs Dulles and National airports in D.C. My daughter Allison works for a nonprofit worker rights group here in D.C. My father and mother passed away in 1988 and 2000, respectively.

In my "gearing down" phase I have picked up an old hobby--photography--and Tara and I bought a getaway cottage on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Deale, Md., a couple of years ago. I am a voracious reader of spy stories, mysteries, and police procedurals. My politics have changed over time from "smash the state" to liberal democrat to centrist democrat, I contribute a little money and some time to local and national Democratic causes, but I am much more involved in local politics than I am in national party activities.

I have done fairly extensive travel in the U.S, but overseas trips have been limited to date to Mexico, England, continental Europe, Sweden, and Brazil. I have never returned to Bolivia, but follow events there closely

PC In Your Life

I was raised in the Quaker tradition, so PC experience reinforced my belief in the need to seek peaceful solutions to conflict in all aspects of life, gave me a good grounding in the importance of diversity in all cultures, and provided me with a realistic view of how difficult and inter-connected poverty-related problems really are.

Leaving aside emergency aid and medical groups, it seems to me that organizations like Acción, Finca, Heifer Project, Oxfam, and Technoserve are doing valuable international work. I enjoy the reading the perspectives in Upside Down World newsletter.

The PC experience was a good one in many ways and for many reasons.
I especially remember:

• the extremes of hot
  • rainforest jungle
  • infected mosquito bites
• the extremes of cold
  • frostbitten toes wading through Altiplano arroyos in winter
  • travelling in a boxcar to Tarija;
• the fun train trips featuring cacho and lomo montado;
• the excellent Kauppi-provided meals (and baked bread!) in Atocha;
• the emotional highs and lows of the Pues newsletter experience;
• Oruro devil dances;
• Four Seasons music at the American-style restaurant in Santa Cruz;
• getting used to "violations of personal space;"
• fear of the jungle and the yoporopojobo;
• dynamite "fishing";
• getting bitten by a rat;
• tiring of giardia lambia after about 23 months straight;
• the purple burps;
• chuño;
• being mistaken for Regis Debray;
• being out of the U.S. during a particularly turbulent time in history;
• learning to use a machete;
• trying unsuccessfully to get high on coca leaves;
• striking miners and flying dynamite;
• deaths of Ché and Barrientos;
• Big Al and Gino;
• and many other memories that are not suitable for publication.