by Aaron Barlow
“The Baobob Tree” by Kara Garbe published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Kara Garbe.
“The Sports Bar” by Leita Kaldi Davis published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Leita Kaldi Davis.
“One Last Party” by Paula Zoromski published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Paula Zoromski.
“The Peace Corps in a War Zone” by Tom Gallagher published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Tom Gallagher.
“Holding the Candle” by Suzanne Meagher Owen published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Suzanne Meagher Owen.
“A Morning” by Enid S. Abrahami published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Enid S. Abrahami.
“A Brother in Need” by Genevieve Murakami published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Genevieve Murakami.
“A Tree Grows in Niamey” by Stephanie Oppenheimer-Streb published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Stephanie Oppenheimer-Streb.
“Jaarga” by Betsy Polhemus published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Betsy Polhemus.
“For Lack of a Quarter…” by Irene G. Brammertz published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Irene G. Brammertz.
“Crazy Cat Lady” by Michelle Stoner published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Michelle Stoner.
“Elephant Morning” by Aaron Barlow published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Aaron Barlow.
“At Night the Bushes Whisper” by Jack Meyers published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Jack Meyers.
“Children of the Rains” by Michael Toso published with permission from the author. Copyright © 2011 by Michael Toso.
Special thanks to
The Jason and Lucy Greer Foundation
for the Arts for their generous support of
the Peace Corps at 50 Project.
About the Editor
Before joining the Peace Corps as an agricultural extension agent for animal traction (plowing using oxen) in Togo, Aaron Barlow spent two years teaching at the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, where he was Senior Fulbright Lecturer in American Studies. Fascinated by Africa, but realizing the city experience was far from the whole, he wanted to live and work in a village.
Barlow’s Ph.D. from the University of Iowa was capped by a dissertation on the science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick and completed in 1988. He did not become a full-time academic in the United States, however, until 2004. In the meantime, in addition to his Peace Corps experience, he co-founded and ran a café/gift shop in Brooklyn, New York, called Shakespeare’s Sister, dedicated to the idea that there is talent and art in every individual.
Now a specialist in the intersection of technology and culture, Barlow has produced four books over the past six years, two relating to film and two to new media and the blogosphere. He teaches at New York City College of Technology, a part of the City University of New York where he enjoys working with a student body representing over 100 different languages and cultures, a diversity he learned to appreciate while a Peace Corps Volunteer.