baha'i

A Bahaacute;'iacute; from Amherst, MA who grew up with the Bahaacute;'iacute; Faith. Her father was Curtis Kelsey, who learned about the faith when he was a young man. Carol's husband, Nathan Rutstein, wrote the book, target="_blank" href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?r=1amp;ean=9780853981213"He Loved And Served, The Story of Curtis Kelsey. Carol talks about Nathan's writing career and talks about how his career got started when her daughter inspired him to write target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Go-watch-TV-should-children/dp/083620588X"Go Watch TV. Carol was a professional singer performing in musical theater and spending about a year traveling with target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Waring"Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. When I finished the interview, Carol handed me a CD recording of a talk her father gave in 1970. I took snippets from the talk and created a 20 minute excerpt which I play following Carol's interview.

A Bah#225;'#237; from Iran whose paternal grandfather was a Zoroastrian in the 19th century. When her grandfather heard about the Bah#225;'#237; Faith he wrote to Baha'u'llah, the prophet-founder of the Bah#225;'#237; Faith and asked Him seven questions. In the Zoroastrian Faith, seven is a very holy number. Baha'u'llah responded to her grandfather in a tablet called "Seven Questions Answered". It has been recently translated into English and can be found in the Bah#225;'#237; compilation Tabernacle of Unity.

An American Bah#225;'#237; now living in Bulgaria. Greg went to Harvard to study physics but ended up getting his PhD in Economics. After college Greg worked for the International Monetary Fund of the World Bank for 27 years. His work took him to such countries as Haiti, Sierra Leone and Madagascar. In the interview we discuss globalization and his new book One World, One People: How Globalization is Shaping Our Future. I apologize for the poor quality of the recording. I was having difficulty with VFR's studio telos (the thingy that transfers the output of the soundboard to the telephone line). Greg couldn't hear me, so I had to have the microphone way up, which created a terrible hum and allowed background noise to filter into the interview. However, the interview is still well worth listening to. I started our interview by asking Greg where he grew up and what was it like growing up there.

A Bah#225;'#237; from the Boston area who is a pediatrician and founder of the children's organization, Raising Peacemakers

This is a continuation of my Lars Patenaude. In this second telephone interview Lars describes his journey from the point at which he became a Bah#225;'#237; at the Bah#225;'#237; Academy called Landegg in Switzerland. He describes his involvement with the World Summit for Sustainable Development in South Africa and his work for the non-governmental organization called Education for Peace in Bosnia.

A Bah#225;'#237; friend of mine, Mike Andros, gave me a cassette tape labeled 1977/1978. When I listened to it, it was a recording of a dialogue between Jimmy Seals, Dash Crofts and their producer Marcia Day after a Seals and Crofts recording session, talking about the Bah#225;'#237; Faith. Seals and Crofts are best known for the 70's hits Summer Breeze and Hummingbird.

A graphic designer who started his career family in Ireland then returned to the US and established himself in CT. He joined an industrial design firm in Farmington, CT and ended up buying the firm with a partner.

Jeanine is an educator and is currently the co-administrator of the Green Acre Bah#225;'#237; Conference Center in Eliot, ME with her husband Jim. Together, when they were a young family with two pre-school children, they packed up their belongings and headed for South America. They eventually started a school inspired by the principles of the Bah#225;'#237; Faith called The School of Nations. They nurtured it for fifteen years, seeing the school mature and stand on its own.

A Bah#225;'#237; from Suffield, CT who is an actor by training. In the interview she describes how after meeting her husband they soon went to Ireland and when they returned they settled in Suffield, CT. Mary K. has been in plays with the Suffield Players as far back as 1983. She describes how she used her acting talent to help create and perform the two-woman production, Amazing Grace: Stories of Personal Transformation. I started the interview by asking Mary K. where she grew up and what was it like growing up there.

Manal Gillett is a Bah#225;'#237; of Iranian descent, but who was born in Iraq. She knew only Arabic when she moved back to Iran at the age of 22, and then moved to Africa a few years later teaching math and science for nearly 30 years in the country of Cameroon. I start the interview by asking Manal how it ended up that she, being of Iranian descent, was born and raised in Iraq?

A Bah#225;'#237; who has lived in Africa, in the country of Cameroon for thirty years teaching English in the public school system.

The co-administrator of the Green Acre Bah#225;'#237; Conference Center in Eliot ME with his wife, Jeanine. Jim got his doctorate in education at the University of Mass. After getting married and having two small children, Jim quit his job as an assistant professor at the University of MD to go to serve the Bah#225;'#237; Faith in Paraquay. Eventually the Saccos ended up in Brazil starting up a school called the School of Nations, which is a Bah#225;'#237; inspired school in the town of Brazilia. In this interview Jim shares his thoughts and experiences of living as an American in Brazil.

A Bah#225;'#237; from Amherst, MA who ran into the Bah#225;'#237; Faith in California after finishing nursing school, then went to Africa for 8 years and when she returned got her doctorate at the University of Texas.

A Bah#225;'#237; from Rochester, VT, who had a rough childhood, left home at an early age, served in World War II and the Korean War, and an engineer job-shopper who traveled throughout New England and as far south as Richmond, VA.

A Bah#225;'#237; originally from Malawi who is now a professor of mathematics at Springfield College.

A Bah#225;'#237; from Wilbraham, MA who escaped Iran with her family after the Islamic Revolution.

In the first segment Ash described his experiences as one of the first peace corps volunteers, and his adventures in Ethiopia for that assignment. Ash concluded that segment by describing his experience as an educator in the Washington DC school system and the start of the Upward Bound organization. In this segment Ash continues his journey by describing how he ended up in Amherst, MA and ultimately to Uganda and Botswana.

A Bah#225;'#237; from Chapel Hill, NC who is a commercial designer by trade, but his first love is discovering spiritual truths from the Bible and the Bah#225;'#237; writings. This interview is the first in a series. In this interview, Ray describes his upbringing and his spiritual journey leading him to the discovery of the Bah#225;'#237; Faith. To him "Life is an adventure".

A Bah#225;'#237; youth currently an undergraduate student at UMASS who did a year of service in India between high school and university.

Bah#225;'#237;s from Nepal currently living in Amherst, MA