On Monday, January 21, 2008 from 10:00 - 11:30 PM EST, PBS will air American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver, a biographical documentary about Robert Sargent Shriver, the founder of Peace Corps, Job Corps, VISTA, Community Action, Head Start, Legal Services for the Poor, Youth Corps and more.

This summer NPCA hosted an advance screening.

The news from Kenya seems to get worse each day and I know that all of us are very distressed. Friends of Kenya board member Carolyn Kari and her daughter are visiting in Kenya. Member Paula Hirschoff and her husband Chuck Ludlam are visiting there also after finishing their tour with the Peace Corps in Senegal. Paula was Peace Corps/Kenya in the 70s. Member Ray Goldstine lives near Kisumu and Mark Hankins lives near Nairobi.

If you have news or views you'd like to share on the situation in Kenya--no political rants, please--send them through the Contribute News section of the website or directly to me (sansep19@earthlink.net) and I'll post them.

From the mailbag comes this appeal: I need a working e-mail of any Maasai scholar or student in the US, Canada or East Africa itself for a brief research project. Contact Joseph at chikowero@wisc.edu.

Dan Polk, Founder/Director of the Daraja Academy of Kenya (www.daraja-academy.org), is developing a volunteer program while in California. The school is near Nanyuki, and was formerly the school shown in the film "The Boys of Baraka."

Speaking at a gathering hosted by the Friends of Kenya-DC group, RPCV Mark Hankins spoke about two of his passions: music and renewable energy. Mark (a.k.a. Markus Kamau) is a well-known singer and songwriter in Nairobi. He has also been working to bring renewable energy to Kenya and other African nations since his Peace Corps service in 1983–87.

Go to the National Peace Corps Association website for the full story. Click here

A new glossary collection of Swahili-English / English-Swahili dictionaries is now available. The collection of dictionaries provides clear and precise translations and it is absolutely free of charge.

Basically, "Look up" is a search-box (like Google) but it's focused on both the Swahili and English languages and the following is the link to it: http://www.babylon.com/define/120/Swahili.html

Check it out!