Rumor# 1: Tonight I ventured to Ann Arbor to attend a Peace Corps reception at U of M. Overall, it was quite enjoyable- I’m glad that I took the time to go. Just before I left to go home, one of the recruiters at U of M mentioned something interesting to me. She asked if I was the one going to the Philippines (we had all introduced ourselves) and mentioned that she thought that the Peace Corps Director would be at our staging next month. To be VERY clear, she was not sure about all of this- it was just something that she’d heard about (and to be honest, I think I’ve heard the same thing somewhere). It was also mentioned that we might spend one evening of our staging in Ann Arbor for something related to the PC diretor’s visit to the area- I dunno. Very vague, quite the peace corps speciality- not that this vagueness is her fault, she’s not the one in charge of our staging or its planning. I think that sounds like quite a nice prospect, as Ann Arbor is far nicer a place to spend an evening over “near the Detroit International Airport” hotel area.
Rumor #2: I heard this a week or two ago and had almost forgotten about it, but listening to NPR on my way home from the aforementioned reception jogged my memory. They were talking about this whole issue of domestic surveillance and the shrub’s knowledge of such acts. A few weeks ago, my mother ran into an old friend of ours and upon telling her that I am soon to be leaving the country for the peace corps she mentioned something interesting to my mother. This friend is quite active with various conservationist/environmentalist groups, one of which is Greenpeace. She mentioned that once the whole business of domestic surveillance hit the public, Greenpeace (figuring that they were probably being monitored) did some digging to see who was being listened in on. Surprisingly, she said, Greenpeace was not on that list- but the Peace Corps was. Interesting. Now mind you, this is based on what I interpreted of what my mother interpreted from someone who probably, in turn, interpreted it from the person(s) who did the actual digging. Not exactly reliable, but interesting nonetheless. I halfheartedly searched around online to see if any of that information was disclosed to the public and came up blank (though I did find this at truthout.org– with the $$$ conveniently blanked out.