My hotel, the Virginian Suites in Arlington, is right across the road from the Iwo Jima memorial. Sometimes Washington seems just one big memorial to war and death. Inside the Peace Corps office, one of the first things you'll see, if you take the time to look around instead of zipping right through, is a carved granite plaque of all the Peace Corps volunteers who have died during their service. Compared the number of volunteers who haved served, the percentage is rather small. It's not any more dangerouss being a PCV than it is driving on the highway in the USA. I looked for and found the names of Zachary Merrill, who died in Mali earlier this year, and Nancy Coutu, who's journal I recently read