Pres. Kagame Explains What New Peace Corps Volunteers Will Learn in Rwanda

Peace Corps Volunteers know their experiences are life-changing, that they get more from their service than anyone they could ever possibly give back.

Paul Kagame on a 2006 White House Visit

The Rwandan president Paul Kagame spelled out what is in store for the new group of Volunteers in his country in the Huffington Post yesterday. I don’t usually like to quote long bits from other blogs, but I can’t bring myself to cut anything out:

Peace Corps volunteers are well educated, optimistic, and keen to assist us as we continue to rebuild, but one must also recognize that we have much to offer them as well.

We will, for instance, show them our system of community justice, called Gacaca, where we integrated our need for nationwide reconciliation with our ancient tradition of clemency, and where violators are allowed to reassume their lives by

Public Lands Service Corps Act of 2009 Passes Committee in the House

Citizens Conservation Corps of West Virginia corps member cuts a fallen tree.

Today the House Natural Resources Committee passed the Public Lands Service Corps Act of 2009.

H.R. 1612, the Public Lands Service Corps Act of 2009, aims to mobilize thousands of service corps participants over the next few years to help the national parks and other public lands restore and repair lands; engage exponentially more volunteers to serve episodically in the parks; to invest in a new, more diverse generation of National Park Service leaders.

Introduced to the House of Representatives in April by U.S. Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) and Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), the bill next goes to the floor of the House for a vote. (Go here to contact your Representative in favor of the bill.) No companion legislation has been introduced in the Senate yet.

Projects could include rehabilitating campgrounds, restoring historic structures, eradicating invasive