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OCTOBER, 1963
VOL. 1, NO. 12
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20525
.U
School ProiectAttractsFormerVolunteers
Nine former Vol~tnteers began newjobs in September :,s leachers in a highschool in a dis:!dvanlaged :crea of Wash-ington, D.C. They are working in a proj-CC1to revitalize s,tbjcct matter and teach-ing ,nctbods for children of a crowded,IIm$rly all. Negro district.
The Peace Corps veteran-seven ofwhom wrved in tbc Pbi[ippines, one inTt, rkcy, and one in I>akisti!n-are te:,ch-ing :,1 Cardozo High School, which has:,” cnrollnlent of 1900. They handle 24rcgul:)r classes, co,np rising 800 slttdents.
Some of lhc problems (he Pilot Projectin Urban TeachinU will attack arc the
~ “.htgh dropout rates in schools like Car-do~o. low motivation of stttden=, manyof whom k.ce nn t,nccrtain job f,tture,:IIId ;, c~,rrictdlf.~ that tiils to meet theirneeds.
‘rhe ex-Voh, nlcers will h:,ve wide lati-tt,dc in experi,llcnti!tion with mat.ri:ds:!nd tech.iques. according to Uennetta13, Washington. principal of Card020 anddirector of the project. As interns,” tbeformer Voht.teers will be gl!ided by.&master” teachers of extensive experiencein ([,. field. In addition 10 P.,rti.iP. tin6 inccl,,c, i[ion %nlinars at lhc school, the in-tcr,ls will be able to work toward mns-tcr’s degrees in te;$ching arts from How-:>rd Univcrsily in Washington.
The project is financed by the Presi-
(Cortfitittcd 0:1 page 9)
NEW MEXICO TRAINING HOI dip is o prelude to .ti,k~..pi.ti.g . ...,;,.,Pall of the ro.tine .$ u“lvers,ly of New Mexia
6eld site near Taos, where trainees sf.dy comm..lly development for Loti. American mssig..m.nts. Trai.ees Ieorn—. mong other t~ngs—r.d[me”ts of chicken.roising, porf of wtiti is..lt.g and Kll;ng .6 infer:or tird$. For more pictures of tr.ini”g program, I... +. peg. 6.
Bi-Partisan U.S.
Support ContinuesThe Peace Corps contin,,cs to bnvc bi-
p!rti%$n sllpporl froln pronlincnt Ameri-cans.
Gov. Nelson Rockcf.llcr of New York,in answer to :, reporter’s qtlest ion aftern speech at H~lnt in&ton. W. V... said.,The P~ace Corps has been the ot,titand-ing achievement of the Kennedy adminis.
(Co,tlilt,tcd “,! flog. 4)
I Graduate-Study Tests Set II
Pcam Corps Volu”tecrs consideringgradt>ate study on lbeir ret”r” to theUnited States shotdd recognize thatgraduate ;Ind professional institt!tionsgenerally reql,irc ;!pplicants to take anad,nission 1.s1, Each Voll, nteer she, ddfind o~)t WCII in ad. . . . . of bis proposedentrnn.c dnte wbicb, if any, test is re.q,,ired.
Among tbc lCSIS which may be rc-ql,ired are the Adnlission Test for Grad.uate S{.dy in Business, the Graduate
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Record Exs!n,inatio,ls, the Law Schoo~Admission Test. and the Medical CollegeAdn>ission Test. The first three are ad-n,inistered by the Ed.calional Tcsd.gService, Princclon, N. J., and the 1.s1 isadministered by th. Psycbologi=l Corp.,304 E, 45th St., New York 17, NV.Interested Vol~tnlcers should rcqtlcst aP-pli~ntio” forn>s fro., tbe appropriate.Ecncy .1 the cz!rliesl date possible.
Testing centers for the= examinations(Co,rli!zt,cd otz p.gc J9)
Here’s HowThey SeeIt Now
As the first Volltntcers ~tme home at{he cnd of their Peace Corps service,newspapers over the Uniled Slates askedthe”? what being i“ the Pe,$ce Corps wasreally like. Here are excerpts from recentinterviews with returning Vohtnteers,
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DOUG DARLING
Tulsa, Oklo.; Ph;lipp;nes
“When 1 went into the Pea= Corps;DotIg soid, “there was lots of publicityabout the challenge to work for man-kind ,!nd a betler world.
cLSon>eof the voltlnteers thot,ght theywo,dd bring about a great chnnge for thektter wherever they went. 1 didn’t. But Iwas very idealistic, even after we’d cOm-pleled training.
“NO one expected the work we ~(dto take so much time. We not to ourvilla$e, a“d found the people didn’t care.Americ,ns have to &o, go, go, but thefilipino has no con=pt of time. Hewants to do things next week, and nextweek “e”er cOmeS.
“Then YOU get discouraged. You won-der: Why am I here, 11,000 miles fromhome, wbcn 1 cotlld be back in the sk!tesrn<,ki”g money?
3<BLIt after about six months i. thefield, YOLI become realistic. YotI become.warc of the people and lheir ctdtttre,and YO,I learn why they arc the way theyarc.
“AS I Iwk back, I realize IhcPeace Corps is a wonderful thing. It iscre,(ing a” new inlnge of the American:tbro:,d, and we do need :, new ima6e.Historically, the An>erican is a n>ilitaryman or a diplomat. He lives i. a ‘littleAmerica.’
“The Peace Corps volunteer movesinto the back col,ntry and plays it cool.He gels 10 know the people and sets up alittle hot,sehold, 11,s never bee. donebefore.
,.The rcol good of the Peace Corps is“ot so much m:tki”g great changes to-ward progress, ht
West Cbmtcr Locol New.
RAY SPRIGGS
West Chester, Pa.; Ghana
“11 was wonderftd in Ghana. It’s sum-mer .0 the time, with the temperatureranging from 60 or 70 degrees. Unlik.America, Lher. is little httstle and bustleand no racial discrimination. Peopleseem to have a greater respect for eachother here. They care less about moneytoo, and don’t have that yours-and-mineat(itt, de about possessions. They alsovnht. friendship m{,ch more.
.,People think nothing about droppingi“ to visit a friend. They come just to sitin silence, for instance, to listen to music,to read or to talk, if talk is called for. InAmerica, people feel uncomfortable iflhey don’t talk aboktt something whenthey visit a friend. In Gh:>na, I madewhat l,d call eighl really close friends.Ghanians just like to visit and relax.They do not like to k alone,” he oh-served.
For a year and 10 months. Spriggswas a“ instrl,ctor of English, EnglishIiteratt,re, economiw and lo~ic at FijaiSecondary School in a village which waspart of Africa’s old Gold Coast.
Commenting on the experience, Spriggsemphasized, ‘,120 tell you lhis for sure.I know (hat at least 50 Americans willret(jrn to the Uni!ed Sfides with a greatert,nderstanding of Africa.
‘Africa is dcfini[cly not the ludicrous,distorted and ecro”eo”s pict~,re the comicstrip Jungle Jim or Hell ywood Tarzanfilms hnve cre:tted in the minds of far100 many Americ~ns, Such a false pic-ture is a disgrnce 10 lhe American ptlbJic:,”d hinders this cot, ntry’s relations withAfrica.
‘The Peace Corps workers h.,v. dem-onstrated to Ghanians that the Westernworld is not a duplicate of the effectsbrought abotd by coloniidi=dion andGrtilt Britain’s influence?’
Spriggs noted thnt Western Africansin general and Fijai st,,dents in partic-ular, minced no words in disc~lssing andasking probing questions abet, t ,’racialdiscrimination, bias and bigotry” inAmerica.
“lt seemed slr;knge to live in a coun-try without a trace of dislllrbance andthen have someone show you headlinesand pictures in a foreign newspaperabo,,t troubles back home. In one news-paper there was :1 headline: ‘America theBeautiful.’ Below it was Z( picture of awomnn taking a child to school with abaseball bat i. her hand. Another pic-ture showed a Negro woman on thegrot,nd with a policeman’s knee in herstomach.
‘,And yet Ghaninns want to visit Amer-ica; Spriggs said.
\vcst Cbcstor L...! ,Y.w.
BRUCE LANE
Austin, Tex.; Colomb;a
‘cIt [the Peace Corps] sounds bea.tifuJin theory, ” said Lane, bul “lhere are somereaJ problems involved.” He said theCorps has been sllc-ssful, but only withqualifications.
The people have been responsive onthe whole. Lane said, bllt “these peoplejllst aren’t acct)stomed to democraticlife:’ Too often lhey’ve ken bossedaco~,nd by poli[ ical figures and priests.Now that they 3r. ready for self-govern.ment in a democratic manner, these samebosses have shown reluctance LO acceptit, he said,
‘If the government of the country isn’tbehind it; said Lane, “the peasants prob-ably won’t h~ve any way of carrying itThrough the Peace Corps is sorl ofhl,ng up in the air.”
‘al got awfully tired of it,” Lane ad-mits, C$b.t I think it’s definitely worth it.”
Lane cited two areas in the Corps’operation which he feels need closeanalysis.
Coordination between the Peace Corpsand olher US agencies—Al D, whichst,pplies foreign aid funds and equip-me”l, a“d United St:,les lniormal ionAgency, the government propaganda out-let—is ‘<very poor,” Lane said.
“TO me lhe Peace Corps is j(zst onepart of the whole overseas operation oftbe US,” Lane said. If lhe different ag.n-cies cross each other, he slid, it de fe:btsour purpose.
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The second aspect of the Corps’ prob-lem, according to Ubne, is a lack ofplanning ahead. The time hz,s conle foran ewdt,:i (ion of the Corps’ Iong-rangeoperations, L.$ne dcclarcd. The CorPs h:!sbeen working hard trying to brin6 de-mocr;)cy to lhesc people, but ‘<what dothey do when they are ready for detlloc-racy~
Too often the Corps gets bogged downin local probl.ms—’’working too hardtrying 10 do too nlany things,” Lane snid—and lows sight of [he overall piclllrc.
..1 think it (the Corps) has helped?said Lane, “but it cottld be a 101 better.”
Atx81i!, A,”crko,a.Sl<cte.r,,,tJL
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L.__\.-! . ...- .1
JIM PUCCETTI
San Francisco; Colombia
“We went out there idealists, we’recoming home realists.”
The assignment handed to Pumetti andhis fellow voJ.nteers was wrapped up inthe misleading simple two words: tom.m.ni(y developnlent. In n nation and acontinent where individualism and ini-tiative have been punished and corruptedfor five mnturies, the prospect of a com-m(,nity actinfi to help itilf is wnlethingless than hopeful.
But after nine weeks of training atRt~lgers and another six weeks in Bo-got:t,” P.ccctti says, “we wcnl oul tothe job feeling that we could walk rightin and change everything.
“Well. wc were wrong. Changing aoi.tt!des like thos we found will take along, long time.
.’Gelting a WCII dug; Pucwtti S?YS,“iseasy by con~parison with getting n conl-munity to express ic NEED for II well+r 3 school, or ;I bridge, or anythingelse.
<W. didn’t do it by bringing lhc people“p to o“r level,” l>l,cwlti SUYS, “or bylowering ?urselvcs to their ICVCI. 1( hadnotbin~ to do with Jcvels. It W,IS sinlply:, “latter of plain, personal convact thatmade the di%erencc.
.It cha”Bes you,’, Puccetti SOYS. .’Be-fore lh. Pe:!cc Corps came :don8 1 wasgoing to San Ffi!ncisco St~te Collegestltdying business :tnd man:) gcn~ent, MYfriends were going into real CSOIIC orteaching.
‘,fJut whc,l the Corps cam. alongweJl, 1 cotdd never BO back to a Jifelike th~t. I see things diKercntly. I’mdifferent. Th. world is diflerent?
...”!$.”,,”,),, K,,,c!,,,!,i”. A,,,,.
Another Opinion
B;lly Gruham: Peace Corps .Peace Corps ‘a Tremendous Idea’Has ‘Useful’
The following mesoge was recei..d by thePeace Co,p, on the eve of it, secondo“”;”,,.saw, Sept. 22—fhe dote in 1961 when PresidentKennedy signed the legl>lo+lon .re.ting Iha
By-Products P..., Corp,.
By Billy Gmham ~
The followl”g ordcle 1, Copy,ight by the fimesP“bli,&ng Company Umbed, 1963. All right,re!ewed. Rep,intod by permission, from rhoI;me’ (London] of Aug. 13, 1963.
When the America” Pea= Corps wnsbeing set up most of the discussion was,Lbo.t the contribution it would or woiddt,ot make to the cot, ntries i“ which itworked. Much [.ss was heard z,ho”t tbecontrihtblion which its members cot,ldmake to Americ,l. life when they re-t,,r”ed, although this has bee. very muchin [he minds of its originators, [n thePJS1 few weeks the first b.[ch of ‘vet.erans”, as they :~re inevitably called, havebeen returning ho”,c. To the s“rprisc ofthose who ttsed to scoff :,1 them aswoolly-minded ,Gdo.gooders<, and .,dr;~fl-dodgers,,, or who fenred th,)t they wouldbe branded as st,cb by cmPlOyC,,. theyare fi”di”g the Iabour morket clamot!ri”gfor [heir services. Big corporations areimpressed nol only by their experienceof foreiw cotlntries but, ;,s one tycoonP1lt it, by their “abilily to t:tkc on tot!ghjobs t,nder extremely difficidl condition s<,.Government agencies also want them,So do ““diversities, trade .“ions, and,of co,!rse, voltl”t:lry orga. izalio”s.
The Peace Cocps is a. ima~inalive a“dconstr”cdve concept. 1 have e“co””.tered a “ttmber of Corps members i“ mytravels, a“d I blieve they are doing asuperb job in btlma”itarian serviw. Itis sig”ifica”t that such a large amount ofAmerican manpower is being used “otin military opernlions, but i. creatinggood will ;~”d in rendering helpful serv-ice around tbe world.
I happen 10 have been with tbe Presi-dent when (be Pe:>ce Corps was beingformulated. When he asked me whal 1lhougbt of it, 1 told him tbal 1 thoughtit was a tremendous idea. I still think so,The fact tba( it h;is grow. from a fewhundred to seve~d lho~Lsa”~ me”>bersindicates Ih;o American yo~tn~ peoplewill still respond to a great challenge.
One faub of our youth today arises
the United Sv.[es with a steady stream ofpeople possessing a n>t~ch more intimateknowledge of life i“ less deve16ped cot,”-tries than bas been generall~ nvai! ablein tbe P:ISI,
False romanticism bas bee” eschewed,a“d the original aims have ke” held 1..
becau% the dare, tbe challenge has hensap~d 0“1 of mt,cb of modern society,Youth has alW~yS “eedcd :, ca,tse toserve, a song to sing, and :, flag to wave.J. “Iy estim:ttion. lbc Peace Corps doesmuch more tk,n achieve a grent de:tl oigood tbro,,ghout the world. 11 fi[[S :, needin lhe lives of many of our YOL,”B .,. ”a“d women wbo are %rvi”g i“ this co”>-pa%ionate cat~%.
Not only do Pea= Corps membershave a“ opportt,nity to relieve some ofthe suffering, poverty, and i~”or;, nce inlhe world, but by their example nnd theirunderstanding they can do t“t,ch toerase the ‘,”gly American,< image whichsomehow has bee” left in certain areas ofthe world.
I have been delighted to learn of tbecareful orga”izatio” of tbe Pea= Corpsand of the freedom which [he individualmembers h:,ve i“ fulfilling Ibeir OW”dreams and visions.
MaY God i,se o,,r Peace Corps andmake these men and women 10 be mod-ern mission:trics of freedom to tbe ““-derdeveioped ztire:!s of tbe world,
This m“sl be gratifying 10 those who Only aholo ten per =.1 of applicants
had hoped lbat one of the most ttseftd are admioed, ;s”d of these nearly a q“ar-
hy-PrOd.cfs of the corps would h Ihe ter fall o.1 dt,ring trai”i”g. Vol. ”teers
knowledge and exWrie”ce which it live roughly al tbe level of those theyhrotlgbt home, If the early signs are con. have been trying to help, findl bnve fre-firmed il is now well placed to st,pply q.entl Y achieved >, remarkable dexrce
THE PEACE CORPSVOLUNTEER AS SEEM’ BY:
FLEAS, ZCK$ ~tiOSqUITOES, E ~C,.-.
B -
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HIMsE Lt..__
I@-&:
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h] Bob faf ler ~ B,azid
of personal contact with them. Many oftheir stories could have con>e straightfrom THE UGLY AMERICAN, i“ ●which the hero revolutionizes the irri~k-[ion methods of Asia” Pasants by show.ing them how to make a primitive p..,p.There have bee” mistakes, failt,res a“dsix de:~ths b“t the figures keep rising.There are “OW nearly 5,000 vohlnleersworking abroad, a“d by January Iberewill be 9,000 i“ forty-seven cot]ntries,Only one stlrprisc (which is “ot reallysurprising) remains. hfany of the r..turn, ng “ve[eransz’ are spurning tbe “f-fers of big b,,si”ess i“ favoktr of tvdch-ing. study, or Government service. Itwill be interesting to see whether il be.comes a habil of these now am bass;tdorsto reject (be conventional rewards oflheir OW” co(,. try,
Peace Corps
Support Contjnues(C<,,,ri,r,ic<f fro,>, P“ZC 1)
lrutio”. It is a syn,bol abro:,d of theheart and conscience of America.<,
S... B;trry Goldwater of Arizona toldU. S. Net,,. & W“rl’1 Rcpo,t, i“ :$ copy.righted interview Sept. 2, ‘I wo~,ld rathersee this forcig”-economic.aid moneychanneled into technical assistance andthe Peace Corps co”cepl, becatlse 1 thinkthis is going 10 prove desirable, ~vc nl-ways hld f.ilb in it.,,
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2 Peace Corps Officialsa Return to Former Fields
Two high Peace Corps officials haveresigned to relurn to fields from whichSargent Shriver had lured tiem WOyears ago. William F. Haddad, Asso.ckate Director for Planning and Evah!-ztio., is now directing a three-man re-POrti.E team for the New York HeraldTribt,”e. Sam,tel D. Prmtor, AssociateDirector for Pence Corps Volunteers,has returned to the presidency of NorthCarolina Agricldtural & Technical Col-lege, Greensboro.
Haddad joined the Peace Corps inMarch, 1961. He helped to establish thePr.ce Corps training camps in PuertoRico, the talent search for staff members,:ind the educational television projectfor Colombia. He organized the 1962Middle-Manpower Conference of 43countries in Puerto Rico ;!nd served osits %cretary-general. Out of this confer-ence have come the activities of morethan a do=n countries to set up na.Iion:d torus for service nt home orabrm!d,
Haddad had previotts newspawr ex-perience as a reporter for the New YorkPo,st, where in three years he won theHeywood BroLI” Award, the New YorkNewspawr Guilts Page One Award
Brazil VolunteersFight Forest Fires
A dozen Vol,lntee= and two PeaceCorps physicians in Brazil joined disaster-aid tean>s i“ the southern stale of Paran&i“ Septen>ber as widespread forest fireskilled more than 100 persons, injuredhc,ndreds more, and left tens of thou-sti,lds homeless,
Voh,ntcen worked at medical stationsand emergency feeding stations, helpedto establish fire lines and check fir-,and assisted in building temporary hous-ing.
Bond Program
For VolunteersA U.S. S.lvi”gs Bond program .n-
abling Volunteers to allot portions oftheir termination allowances for the pur-ch:tse of bonds during Peace Corps sew-ice has cone into effect under a recentagreenle~t ktween the Pe~!ce Corps andthe U.S. Treasury.
Vol””teers receive at the end of P-!..Corps. .ssiBnments $75 for each monthof sattsf:kctory service. They now mayelect to put a portion of this money—asit acc. n>tdates-into savings bonds.
Vol.nleers interested in details shouldco. stdt Peace Corps Representatives.
Wlhom F, Haddad
(twiw), the George Polk MemorialAward (twice), a“d lhe Newspaper Re.porters Assn. Gold Typewriter Awarda“d also its Byline Award.
Proclor served 13 months as PeaceCorps Representative in Nigeria. In be-coming Associate Director for PeaceCorps Volunteers last Jc,nuary, he as-sumed responsibility for .0 Peam Corpsselection, training, ~nd Volunteer sup-port.
He served as dean of the seminary,vice president, then president of Rich-mond’s Virginia Union University, hisalma nlaler. He holds a doctocate intheoio~y from Boston University.
He was ncimed by Ebo,,y magazine asone of the 100 most prominc”t Negcmsin the country.
Peru, Cameroon
G;ve lhanks
10 VolunteersVolunteers i. PCCL, and Cameroon
have rccenlly been honored for theirwork.
High in the Perllvian Andes, 45 Vol-t,nteers in the city of Arequivd were pre-sented with lhat community’s Silverhledal, in wremonies stoendcd by Fer-nando Belatinde Terry, president ofPert,, who read the citation.
Voh,”teers Were :!w.trded the medali. recognition of their work in squattersettlcmcnti of the city. In addition, Vol-unteers were also thanked for their con.tribloions to lhe planning and guidanceof construction of lhe new civic centerof Ar.q. ipa, the first of its kind in thecity.
Arequipa Volunt=rs :,rrivcd at theirassignment in September, 1962, and weremet by Communist tat, ”ts and by signsreading “Dealh to tbe Yankees.”
In the West African Repl, blic of Cum-eroon, a note from the Ministry ofForeign Affairs 10 the U.S. Embassy i“Yaoundc bets expressed tbe thanks ofthe government ‘for the excellent workperformed by the Peace Corps in WestCameroon in the fields of education,pt,blic. heallh, and technology,,,
Ass,gned 10 seconds!ry schools r~ndcolleges of the English-speaking portionof the counlry, 39 Vol~!nt~rs have b..”working i. West Can>eroon si”cc Sep-tember, 1962.
HAMMER ANO PUNCH work f., lhii student of Voluntoer Kchard Cog:, o+ Wn,l.od, S.C., whoteoche, metalwork in . schoolal Befize, Brbish Ho.du, of. Ncho,d doubles os a ‘b.,cb.11. coach.
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R.cr. if, ~,.po,,bre.kf.sf . . fo”,.d.y
wilder.,,, trek
Cisler. is hell.w,d ..+by trainee,
for 100, f.,me,
t
Southwes~ Proving Ground1.New Mexic.,s rugged .o. nt,yside, Pea.. Corps t,.inees f.. Latin Ame,ic. n community de.
●.elopment p,oiecls undergo 13 we~k, of prep. r.ti.. ronging from language o.d other or.. s..
demi. instruction to .ctivilies pict”,~d here. After four weeks at +h. university of New M.xim
.O~P.S .1 Alb. q.. rq.., wh..r. ..yen!r. ted I.”g.mge !roi”ing, in,tr.cii.n in technicol skillsand ,O”twa,d B..ni physical lrm!”ing .,, offered, recruit, go t. n field ,1!. ., the D. H,
Low,ence Ranch near T..s, 1. the ;moiestic Sang,. de crlst. Range i. the .o,th of the stat..There, with c.ntitions rem.rkmbly ;1.s. 1. +hose they will encounter in Lotin Ame,ico, t,. ineeswork i. $moll Spani$h. Americ. n mmm. ni!ies wi+h ❑cf”.1 development proiects,
S.,, Feb...ary of this year, when the .omtin}d academic .nd phy$ic.1 ,r. ini.g wos i.s,i+.+ed .+ N.”Mexico, some 6M Vol. ”ieers h.,. gr.d..led from the program ond gone to over,eo, a$sig..
ments. Currently training are groyPs destined for Brazil, Colom &a, Ec”.dor ..d H..d.,.,,Included o. the New Mexico lr. inlng staff -,. 6v. former v.l.. t..,s fr. m the 6,,, Col.mtia
Proiect: John Arongo (lo.donvill./ NY.), Dennis Gr. bb (WeStPO.t, c....), Nch..l L.. ig..(Wa,h;ngto”, D.C.), Lyle Smith (Grajn Valley, M..) .nd Brodford WMPple (Do,.he,ler, M.,,,),
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IT,ainee, help farm,, add room to h..,., using adobe b,i,k,
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‘P..ce Corps photos by P.. I C..kf;.
,D,ow..p,.ofing, make, ,ecr. ii, unsi”k. ble
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St.de.l driver 1. . ..s mysteries of four.wheel dri,e
At well.boby clinic, ,ecr”it tends mother and .Mld
RopPalLno down “.,IIcoI ctiff
sive~ ,e<r.lt unimpeded ViEW
Porch roof goes up with recruitaid at Taos poroctial school
New rider tries techniques d.ri.g ho,,em.n, hip tr.i.i.g
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Returning Volunteers Urged to Be
In Educating Americans on, ForeignBY SatI1ucl P. Hayes
No o“e needs to tell n Peace CorpsVoh,.teer that the forei~n relations ofthe United Slates are of critical import-ance to oi)r security a“d progres; orthal public opi”io” *1s tbe limits andlbe character of decision-making o“ “a-lional policy; or [hat many Americansare apa[he(ic about foreign affairs, are
mrlY informed or e.en misinformed,and are still to some extent isolationist,wiving their frustrations in this complex:irca by It, rning their backs, or trying to.
A tremendous ed~tcational job needsto be done. to upgrade levels of i“for-malio” a“d understanding, to modifyaltil.des. even to change people,s ovetikhavion for edltcatio” in world affaimis a failure if it doa not influence be-havior. W. need more me” a“d womenactive in politics, voting more inlel[i-ge,lt[y, stating tbeic views more force-fully, devoting more time to sl.dy offorci~” affaira. receiving fOreiE” visitorsmore intelligently, and behaving moreadmirably when they EO abroad for b“si-ness, for pleasure, or for sl.dy.
This edtncationa[ campaign ca” “se thehes[ skill a“d whatever energy a Peace
Corps Volunteer can offer. whether beworks at it F,dl time or only as a sideline.
What ca” a ret”rninz Peace COTSVol,,”teer do?
. He might take o“e of a few paidjobs :trot, nd the cot,nlry i“ this work.Most of them are in ci[ies where thereis :) World Affairs Council, or a “niver-sily exlensio” service, or a regional of.ficc of the Forcig” Policy Ass”., or someother organization working pro fessio”al-!Y i. world-affairs edt,catio”. such jobs,nvolvc contact with all groups in thecomm. ”ity. stimt,lati”g them 10 activityi“ world-arairs programs. smoothingovor differences, mobilizing the com-“>c,”ity.s resources for major events, a“dw on. VoltIntecrs who have worked i“comm~, ”ity dcvc[opn,cnt abroad will findthat this sort of work i“ the U.S. can
& iclsl as demanding. .11 has its own sat-isfactions, a“d it also may lead to otherjobs, How Ibcl[er to seart i“ politics, forexample, than through bringing local or-@tnizations together to engaEe i“ aworld-affairs edttc:itio” program?
● He might join the New York orWashinglo” staff of a national organiza.tie” concer”cd with world-aKairs cd”-cotio.. FPA is the largest s,,ch orga”i.mtio., having about 70 employees. ~crcare n few other national orga”izatio”sprimnrily concerned with foreim policy,as well as a n,, mber “hich, altho”~b not
Samuel P. Hayes (Ph. D., Yale, 1934) ha, sewed0, leacher o.d ., mo,ket researcher. He ho,held various U.S. government petitions i“Woshi.glen, Algie”, London,Sca”di.ovia, andIndone,ia. A, a p,ofenor of economic,,ha w.,dre~o, ,f ,he C..,,, f., ~e,eo,ch .n F,..nomic Developmentat the UniversiV of Wchi.9... H. :%the .ulhor of A. l.te,..f;...i p..,.Co,ps. s.,. la,+ yea,, he ha, been p,e,iden!of lhe Foreign Pohq A,,.., . “otionol organizo.do. concerned w;th wo,ld.offeirs educofio.,lhe Foreign POMV As,.. i! a+ 3~’ E. 461h S1.,New York 17, N.Y.
primarily so co”cemed, do have a de-pafime”t or small staff devoted to inter-national relations.
FPA, like other orga”imti~ns i“ lhisfield, is always Iwki”g for gwd newstaff. It needs vigorous, imaginative,dedicated workers having a lively ~L”der.standing of fo,ei~ Ia”ds a“d i.ter”a.[ion.] relations, a“d having a“ abilityand interest in working with local or-S.nizaliOns to Plan, amanEe, and carwot, t programs of education in foreignpolicy,
B“t whatever job a rett,r”ihg Vol.”-twr may take to eam a living, thereare many oppotiu”itim for civic leader.ship which Peace Corps exper~encc willslIrely enhance.
He can become active in one of the35 World Affairs Councils or similar or-ganizations in major cities a~otlnd thecountry, or become active in one of lhena[io”al orga”i~tio”s with a“ intern a-lio”al program. Iikc lhe American Ass.,for the United Nations, Junior Chambersof commerce, and various churchgrot~ps. He ca” find i“ FPA,s Ann”alProgram Handbook, p.hlisbed each fall,dozens of suggestions for ways to be-come involved.
He can become active in a. \informaldisc. ssio” group i“ the a“”.al, eight.week ‘.Great Decisions>, progmm, spo”-sorcd by FPA.
If a Volttnteer ca” find “o iriterestinggroup to join, he can organize one, Inthe “Great Decisions” program, all behas to do is invite a gco”p of f~iends tomeet regularly for eight weeks dt, ringFebmary and March, “si”g FPA discus-sion materials. This program needs notrained disctlssion leader. B~tt the bet(erthe leadership, the better the discus.S,O”.
A Vol.”teer can go eve. ft,rihcc a“dplay a comm.”ity-wide role as a“ orga”-izer a“d leader in world-a~airs edttca-tional activities for any of several or-ganiralions. All dcpe”d o“ vbl.ntaryworkers to make them succeed, Needlessto say, the educational activities of FPA
8’
Active
Relations@
and other private agacies are entirclvsupported by private ftl”ds a“d co””-trolled by private citizns.
Before making a decision, the ret.rnedVol.”teer will want 10 think abotlt whatkind of educational ac[ivity ca” be effec-tive with ad~,lts, His experience over~ashas probably reinforced Ihe general pri”.ciple that passive learn ing—absorti”~somebtiy elsc,s writing or spesking—isonly a minimal kind of learning experi-ence. Active lenrni”g brings much great-er dividends. This is wby FPA. forexample, specializes in Sro”pdisc”ss;onprograms. Mainly, th~e take the form ofinformal discussions in people,s hot]ses.using specially prepared, inexpensivematerials which do not require a traineddisc. ssio” lender,
More important than working wilbpersons h.bit”ally concerned with worldaffaim (who number only some lens ofthousands) is the stimulating and Ihccducati”g of millions of persons whomust become reasonably informed nbot, tforeign a~airs if a mature public opinionis to develop How c.” one reach the“no”habh~,als,, and capture (heir i“-terest?
hfany of them already belong to someOrganizal ia” and can be reached by a“ypromam their organization puts o.. FPAhas, for example, developed co-o~erativeeducational proarams wilh h,, ndreds ofOrga. izatiO. ~ which include ““onhabit -ltals” i“ the, r memberships. Thus, FpAworks with local chapters of the Amer-ican Ass.. of University Women. Jt, ”iorChambem of Commerce. ch~,rch g,O”pS,labor t!nions, companies, and so on—i.fact, with a“y ’group held together by acommon i“leresl or backgro,,.d, if ilcan be attracted inlo an active disct,ssio.Of foreign policy,
This is grass-roots diplomacy in action.Nationally designed programs must beadapted !. local needs, a“d at [he sametime local groups musl be made awareof the availability and pertinence of “a-tonally designed programs, Local groupswilh different objectives mt~st be brottghttogether for commt, ”ity-wide programs,smoothing over local differences in orderto ~rve common objectives. The politicaland social a“d financial leadership of Ihecommunity must k interested, a“d ex-tremists of richt and of left must bewarded off
All in all, this is a“ exciting cd”ca-lio”al activity which can be carried o.in some way anywhere in tbe U.S. It
PreXnts . real need and opport~,nity forrelttrning Peace Corps VOlunteeB. Comeon in, the water,s fine!
VISITING FIREMAN is Vol”n+eer Ku,+ Nygren(Hebren, Con.,), eletied . member of Bob..hoyo, Ecuador, fire d,porlmen+, Nygren helpedr.vise ❑lorm ,y,fem, set VP first.aid coursefor firemen, H. s!. ”d, watch, o.,w.,s alarms1“ odditlom ,. hi, ,egular wo,k O, Ag,ic”l+”,olExten, ion Agency. Chosen first assistant tothe fire chef, here he displays Ms uniform.
School Proiect(Co,rri,t!,ed fro,?, p.gc 1)
denl,s Commiltee o. Jttvenile Deli”-q....y. Each i.(er.-:eacher is receivins$4500 for [hc year.
Coming to the project from the Philip-pines, where they served as co-teachersin elementary and high schools, are DirkBa[ie”dorf ( Philadelphia), Brenda Brow”(Baltimore), J~tdy Cridlec (Grand Rap.ids, Mich. ), Dick Lewis (Birmingham,Ala, ), Tom Wilson (Norlh Scit,tate, R.1.), Carolyn Wylie (Merriam. Ka”s, ),und Duncan Yaggy (Phoenix, Md, ),
Serving in Turkey as :, high-schoolEnglish teacher was Carolyn Helm, ofSanta Barbara, Calif. Freeman McKin-d~, (Springfield, Ark.), W,SSnssig”ed toWest Pakistan as a zoology teacher.
The 10[h inter” in the Cardozo proj-ect is Esther Shtdl, n“ Oberlin Collegegraduate who was a volunteer worker i“Berlin wilh the America” .Friends Serv-ice Com”)itlce.
Rec;pes WantedA recipe-collecting Volt, nteer in East
Africa want~ to know what problemsVolt, nteers aco~,nd the world are havingwith food preparation,
Then> Ris (Denver, Co].), a teacher inSomalia, wat~ts Voh]ntcers to send himrecipes they have adapted to use localfoods. He promises to share fi”di”gs wi[hVolunteers unhappy with their diets. Ad.dress bin, CIO American Embassy, Moga.disb~t, Sontnli Republic.
East Afr;can Countr;es af WorkSett;ng Up Serv;ce Corps Units
A tour of East Africa by staff membersof the Interns! tional Peace Corps Secre-tariat has revealed activity in formingdomestic. service organizations like thePeace Corps.
The IPCS team, consisting of threeAmericans, nn Israeli, and a German,found:
. More th;in 20 voh,.teers in tvdin-ing in Tanga. yika as the nucleus of thatcollntry’s organization, called NationalService.
. Interest in Northern Rhodesia informing a service corps; lPCS bas sub-scqtlently assigned a Briton with volun-teer-service experience to assist for sixn,onths in the formation of the North-ern Rhodesian unit.
. Kenya ready to organiz a “nit andrequesting st$,ff aid from lPCS.
T“ Dar.es-S,dXim, the capital of Tan-ganyika, the IPCS team found trainingunder way for yol,ng men who will heleaders of National Service as it expands.Four Israelis and one Y{,gosl:tv, all ex-perienced in grol!p orga~ization or Ia”dsettlement, ,tre assisting I. training.
The National Service voll]nleers willassist in rt, ral development: schools,roads, irrigation, Welidriiling, land set.Oeme”t, nnd sanitation. The first vol.n-teer workers are to b selected this fall.Ta”canyikan officials have asked IPCSto help in progr:,m development.
Another IPCS program moved a step
_——-. . ..-. .._ —-... _—_.
forward when tbe Organization of Amer-ican States .nnnimot) sly npproved Argen-tina’s “Teachers for Americh” plan. Theprogram is a pilot project of . . .Nortthrotlgh the Alliance for Progress toeliminate illiteracy in Lalin America by1970.
The OAS approval will now ptlt intoaction Argentiw.1’s offer to SLIPPIYa totalof 50 teachers to countries reqt,e,stingthem. Tbe lPCS is 10 help in the tra)ningof these teachers.
Can You Spare
Some Old Stamps?A Volunteer in Per. who wa”ti to
organize a stnmp club in his con>munityasks help from Volt, nteers in other lands.
Br.e Ellison (Chicago) hopes thatVol””teers around (he globe will eachsend him sole two dozen or so canccl ledstamps from their host countries. Elli-son says he has sevefitil thousandPertlvian stamps for lrading, and will beglad to send some to anyone who writes.
His address: Peace Corps, Casilla 175,
Puno, Peru. Ellison is working i. Pttno,near Lake Titicaca in the sot,th of thecot,ntry, with a Peace Corps projecthelping to organize rcgion;d savings-and-Ioan associations
RAISING THE ROOF are Volunteer, Dole Judtinx (1.S1) of F,,,.., CoI., a“d Robe,t Ulna of St.Pa”l, M..., as Ih.y ossist a G.bo. ese i“ M, COU.IV,S school.building program, Wth 80 pe,..”, of school.oge pop.lotio. enrolled o> students, G. bo”-whi.h lie, in Africa, on the equator—needs new b.il~. gs to replace old m“d..nd.watlle hut,; the 39 Vol”nte. rs . . . worfing i“c,ew, to P., up ,<h.o!, while teaching Gabon,,. the +echniques, Anolhe, g,ou P o+ ,<hool..o”sfr.ction worker, will go to Gabon next Januo,y. In September, 17 Volunteer, took UP
PO,+, os t.. chers i. se.o. dory schools of the former Fre”.h l.rrilory, independent since 19W.
9
RECREATION PROGRAM f., c,ippled .tildre. ❑t Hospit.1 Def.rmes in V.lp. rais. occupiesWCA Vol. ntee,, Nancy Gon. awoy (<..,.,) of Lockpo,l,111.,and Shoro. S1... of No,lhridge, C-l.
IV,l.n,eer J.. K“;pP.r, of Lowrenceburg, 1,”.., miles is .n~rodt, ctive, more than three-rec. ived . B.A. degree i. commercial .fi andS-.!$h tram the UniversiV of Ten..,,.., ..d
quarters of its pop.lalio” of 7,500,000inhabi( the fertile Central Valley. Most
ha, worked in rod;. ond televisiono, . . .r,lsta“d mucicion,She i, at pres.”1 work;.g ,. 611the o.~o.,l, uol need, of TECHO, a h.v,ingo,e. nization, in Sontiogo, ond i, .&tlng .“ewdette, f., ,he CMle Volunteer,.
By J“. Knippers
When the firsl Vol””teers arrived inChile i“ July, 1961, they were jeered bythe Com”,unist press as a grot,p ofAn,ericl,n spies,, and cheered by the pro-Wester” press as a gro,,p of America”ex~rls. >, The second j(,d~ment wasalnlost as wrong .s the first. TO be st,rethere were special lechnictd fields inwhich each VolLIrIteer htid sf.died a“dworked, but to the college philosophymajor involved in orgd”izi.g a hog coopor the psychology major working as amech:, ”ic the word ..rpevf sot,nded likesomething from a cruelty joke. Jobdefinition has bwn n Ereat problem forthe Voltl”teers i. Chile, a“d they havecome to renli7z that ‘adaptability,,me>lns :h gr%t[ deal more than thecapacity to adjust to a new c,dt(tre. Nodoubt each Volunteer will rctt!rn homewi!h ;> greater diversity of skills a“dinterests than [h:,t with which he c:in,e.
Chileans ray of [heir cot, ntry that itis ,.el pais e“ q,). 1. cordillcra se moja10s pies en el mar,< (the co,,nlry in whichthe mo~tnlai”s wet their feet i“ the sea).Fro., tbc great A1acama De&rt in thenorth to the massive glaciers i“ thesouth, from the majestic snow-cappedA“dea” p,.k$ of (he east to the cwas[alranges ““ the west, Chile is a co””[ryof incomparable “at. rai bea~tty and ofgreat diversity in topography a“d climate.
As most of Chile,s 286,396 sq~,ce
of the f;,rmland is i“ Iotif,,,tdi., ithe largeeslatcs owned by a small prcetIvAge ofthe po. platio”. The co,,, pesinos’ (pe:tsa”tfar.>ers) either live on and till this landfor s“bsisten~ wages or own their ownsmall acreages. Owners of smalll porcclascannot afford modern farm techniques,so prod. ctio” is limi[ed, often to sub-sistence levels,
This unfortt,”ate sili, alien in rt, ralarez)s leads to an even more ““fort .natc
situation in urban areas. Large “.mkrsof farm Wople migrate 10 cities i“search of a better life, b“t there [heyfind jobs and housing scarce; a“d aPOpLdaliOn increase of 2.5 Wr cenl peryear which hamwrs their absorption.Conseq”e”lly more than a million per-SO”S are living in bells of misery st,r.roLlndi”g Chilean cities. 1“ t,hes~ pobl..
; cio,rc.s c.//.,,,p.., they are c“t off fromm.cb of the co””try,s eca”omic, social,and cult~,ral activity. The government,logelber with v:trio~,s private o)ga”iza-lions, has made great strides iri recentyears toward the relief of this sit. atio”.But most of lhe battle lies ahead.
(‘Lfy Ho,),e—Ye”, Home,
The Chileans are a very friendly :t”dEenerous wople. When they say a<mi
CaSa es S. c~sa” (my ho.= is yourhouse), they mean it.
They ;gce a patriotic people, prottd oftheir bea”tif”l landsca~s, their ttdtt, ralheri[ age, and their democracy. ! whichhas proved to be one of the most stablein Latin America. That Chileans areindividualistic finds evide”m in lhe fact
(10
SNOWY ANDES tower .,., Sonfiago and much of Chl,
Cl,ile FactsCtile i, Io,ge, in ,.,.1 .,.. ,ha. ,he$,.1. of 1...s. 1!sIeng!h is 2600 mile,,its overage wldih about 120. Th. peaksof !he Andes mark if, eoste,n fronflar.The arid deser!s of northern Chile(whe,e in soma pk.., . . ,a;nf.11 hasever bee” ,..orded) contain ..,, d..Posi,sof iron, .0.1, c. PP.,, nilrat., o“dother minerol,. lhe U.S. i, CMle,, be,tcustomerfor copper and nifr.fe.For cenl”rle, before Col.mb., d;,,.,..,ed Am. ri<Q, !he 1“,. Empire domi.noted tbo nor,hern pa,, of Chile andAr..mni. ns inh. bted the ..:. f.,.stsof the south. The .. . . . Empireof Chilewas in,. ded in 1536 ❑.d w., ,u~u.goled in 1540 by Ped,o de V.l&via, aIie”teno.t of Fran.;,.. W..,...Ctile w., ruled by gover.or,.g.n.,.lunder the Spon;shvi.e,oy$ .1 Pe,. . . .lit it g.ined independencein ,he ,,,.9g!. of 1S10.18. 1! is “OW . republic.The pop”l. ti.n is ch;efly of Sp. nijhorigin, wt!h . sm.11 ,egmen, of roes.*iz.s ..d Indians. Cath.b<ism I, thedominant religion but ;s not s,.,..supported,
lhal [her. are 14 recognized politicalp.,rties,
The gaiety of the Chilean people ismanifest in their brightly coloredPO,I.60$ ( blankeu which they wear aswraps) and 6/,<1.ro (cowboy) Coslllnles,and their 6c.I<,s, i. which wine, g~titarmusic, and the CI’CC<,, (heir nationaldance, keep them entertained f.r intothe nicht.-..
Chileans :tre idealistic a“d imagina-tive, .ltho.Bh they have not Ee”erally
oemphasized organizational skills a“d,get-upa”d-go,, initiative. The PCRCC
n—
CO.OP MEETING i, led by Volunteer D... Coombs fin 01.,,. s), of Del<.” Sea<h, F!.. Dave, withfirst Vol”.teers to CMle, worked with co.operatives . . . . Cti!l o., 250 miles from Sonliago.
Corps is trying to help overcome lhescIuoer problems,
Al present there are 53 Voltt”teersin Chile, scaoc red over 1800 miles north:,nd sot,th, from Antofagasta. a wiiportlocated in the Atacan>a Desert, to Anc.d,on the island of Chilo6. The Volunl.crsof the first Volunteer groL,P, who workedexcl,tsively under the lnslit.te of RuralEducation, ended their tot]r of duty herein July. Another group of about 60;Irrives this month. The Voluntwrs ofthe second tbnd third Chile nroctPs aredivided among lhree Chilean- orianim-tions: the Institute of Rued Education(I”stitt,[o d. Edtlcaci6n Rural), theYWCA (Asociaci6n Cristiana Femeni-na ), and TECHO, a housing agency.
The lnstitt~te of RLlr:d Edt,cation( IER ), a private organization s,,pportedby donations and government subsidy,t,,ainl;! ins 20 bmirdi.g schools (nine forboys and 1 I for girls in rural areasthro,lgbo.t the country) :tnd a country.wide C,)nlnlllnity-development program.
Most of the Volunteers live in theseboarding school, or ..,,1,<, /..?. Some of thewomen work as home economists, teach-
ers, nurses—or as all three—in the ccn-t,alcs. Evidence of their eflorts may ap-Far in the form of more nutritiousmerit, s, better economic management. “.wmeasures of sanitation (window screens,hot water for disbwashing, etc.), broaderknowledge in Sllch matters as first-aidand child care. and greater sensitivityto mrsonal hygiene..-
The men are also leaving their markso“ the cetifrolc.v. They :,re improvingteaching melhods in mechanics. carpentry,am!ct,lturc, and animal h~!sbandry. Thetrwork is by no means limited to Ibewboarding schools; Volunteers h:,ve alsokcomc an integral part of cOm.lltnitylife.
In Loncoche, a peaceful, rain-swakedtown siluated in the bcaLOifld lake-and-volcano region, where ox-drawn cartsprexnt the only traffic hazard. J:!ck andCharlotte Reimche (Lo,t: ‘-1 > ‘-s,-
x’
o
m
‘z
..!, -... , 1.’. . .
~!’,’Ma!fO$pJr, “’Ra~Cag”a ~
become well-known fi6.res. Jack is the‘,chic ken expert.” and his cooP. incl, hater.
● ::;:”:y’e ) ‘< “’‘“’p ‘~urlc6 ,, ~ ,, g ~and Feeding methods have become modelsfor farmers in tbe arc.. Charlotte Teaches working sites ~“’= I. ..
\< ‘M...<
~)”’:~ : ,., ,, ~~home economics and plans menl,s Forthe cettfrales in Loncoche and nearbyHuiscapi,
CHILEArea
includeinlargemap
HELPING OUT in ho”,ing development or.Volunteers Ke[lh ti”io (with ,OW] of Chico,Cal,, and Robert MKollum (background) ofSantmC,”., CoI., ond a young Chile. ” helper,
Voltt”tecrs also plp,y a m:tjor role inVariolls special cot,rses for cooks. honeEconomists, and dclcg<,do,, (yok,”g Foplewho are selected from the ce,, (r(des forf,,r[ her tr:ti”ing to ctrry o“ the workof the Instil, oe).
A nt,mber of Volt, nteers are now co”.centrali”g lheir efforts o“ the commt, nity.development prog,am. They serve asregional secretaries wilh the respontihilityof co-ordin:tting the work of the dclcgod”s,)nd providing the”, with working male-rials and i“f”rmalio”. The job at handvaries greatly, in Cholchol, for example,where Jim D“”gan (Crisper, Wyo. ) re-cently completed a road-huildi”g project,Laum Chris”la” (Thzyer. Kan. ) is teach-ing India” women how to prepare mealsof the new “Food for Peace” productsfrom the U.S.
hl.lti-Purpose Co-ops
A major contribution of 1ER Vol(,n -leers has he” i“ the field of co-opcra -lives, \Vhcn the first Chile Volunteersarrived. there W.IS “ot a single ‘,Co-operativa C!mpesina” (a multipt,rposcCO-OP inclt, di”g consumer, credit, a“dprOd~Lction benefils) i. all of Chile.Now, due ,tt least i“ p:$rt to Vol””[eers,efforts, there are three. The Vol,, nteershtve :IISO been responsible for theini[ia[io” or stlcccssf.1 operation of some35 smaller rtlral co-operatives.
Vol~tntecrs i“ the ce.tr:d lER officein %t”tiago may be credited with lhcdcvelopn,en[ of :, phoiogr,, phy Iubor:,.tory, si~nificant expansion in the Audio.Vis,) ai Dept. inclt, ding the addi[io” of :,film-distribution prog~!m :,nd effectivepromotion of ‘Radio bct!ela” (radioschool- instrtlc[ ion re.,chi”g r,tral chil.dren) :tnd the formation of a co-opera-tives deparln>ent.
The 18 Volunteers of (he Chile 2group amived on July 6, 1962, to kgi.work with (he YWCA, They are theonly Peace Corps group thus far towork under contracl with this i.tcrna-tional organization. Their sphere ofoperations has bee” limited to Santiago:Lnd its se,~port, Valparaiso. I
The work of the Santiago Voh~”teershas bee. concentrated ,,ntil recently i“Poblaci6n Sa” Grcgorio, a housing devel-opment of 4000 t,nits. const[uctcd byCORVI, a Chilean gover”merit agc”cy,
Seven of [he Volunteers are at presentliving in a bt,i[ ding bordering lhe poblo-ci6”.
They work wilh nursery schools, daycamps, clubs for mothers. fathers, a“dadolescents, sports clubs and choralgrollps, the Boy Scott&, and a ,’buyingclub,,, which may i“ time kcome aconsumers> co-op.
Kei[h Minlo of Chico, Cal., considersthe mere existence of his m$n,s cluba forward pit, nge, for the men meet aidwork on Sunday. their only free day.Pat Han”ah (Stt,rgis, S.0. ) is ? physio-therapist. Besides working in’ one ofthe clinics in Santiago, she has a “.rseryschool for crippled children. Shc h~shad [he gr:stifying experience of seeinga formerly crippled child under her carehccome the best relay racer in tbepobloci6”.
A similar progr:)m has recenily beenIat,”ched i“ a housing developmentcalled Lo Fra”co in Poblaci6? PaloJaraq.cmada. I“iti;ll contacts were madelhro”gh the showing of films which drewatger rows of spectators.
The Volunteers in Valparafso areengaged in similar activities to provideed.catia” and wholesome recreation forinhabira”ts of the hillside pohlociottes.Theic work is “ot limited to this area.Don Boucher (Lawton. Okla, ), who(rained in YMCA group work at,Spring-field ( Mass. ) College, a“d Gene Johnson( Passde”a, Cal.) recently worked i“ co-ordination with the Carabineros (wlice-men) de Chile i“ a rehabilitation pro-gram i“ the local prise”.
TECHO (the Spanish word for ,oonis a relatively new Organim,tion. Itdeveloped i“ 1958 as n movement toprovide housing for Ibo”sn”ds of c. I1o,,I.PCI dwellers :ind in 196 I received legalstalt, s nnd broadened its activities toincli, de prodt,ct ion co-operatives, ,edt,ca-tion. medical %rvices, a“d general com-mt!nity-development work.
When Ihe Volunteers for the TECHO
ErOuP arrived last November, We weremet wilb the problem of an organizationstill in its for!nati.c stages a“d further.more completely baffled as to what togo with 18 cager newconlers. Thhs o,trenthusiasm was somewhat dampened bya slow slort and by necessity of creatingot!r own jobs. The situation for the10 Voh,”teers al outlying staliOns—Anlof:tgasta, Ancud, Vlldivia, andOsorn_ was still more difficult thanfor those of LISin Santiago, for TECHO
i“ the provinces was vir~. ally dormant.Al this writing, the project is definitely
on the “pgradc. 1. the three so~,ther”provinces, with the help of grants fromthe U.S. Agency for I“ter”ations!l Devel. 9
opment, the Volunteers are engaged i“the operation, co”strt,ction, or planningof carpcn[ry shops through which thepobladorcs of orgonixd or forminghot!sing co-ops will be nble to rccon-str”ct their houses, damaged by earth-quakes and floods, as well as b,!ild fttr-niture for their OW” LISe and for themarket,
Other Co-ops
In s...parched Antofagasta, Do” Rich-ardson ( Mo~,ntai” View, Cal. ) is work-in~ with a fishing CO*P, Tony Picariello(Medford, Mass. ) with a bas,,re,o,r cm
OP (a group which lives in the dttmpand scavenges bones, glass, rags, andscrap-mcta[ for sale to various proccssi”gplants), Nelson Black (Santa Rosa, Cd. )wilh a co-op of tinsmiths, a“d MarcyCarroll (Princeton, N.J. ) with 13mothers, sewing centers,
There are I I Vol~t”teers now workingwith TECHO in Santiago. A largemeast, re of their energy has been exertedin Poblaci6n La Victoria, where Darwinhfay (La C a “ a da, Cal.) and SallyL~!ebbt” (Bel[eville, 111.) XI into opera-tion a Iro.%rs.making shop i“ which52 women are employed. From thisbeginning, the operation expanded toi.clt, de a nursery school, first-aid station,and Iihr:,ry. O1hcr Vobjtiteers workwith the prodt, ctio” co-operatives, lhe ●P.P./eras (P. Per-collectors), and molh-.,s, centers.
Minor fr”st~ttio”s have arisen fromdific~dty i“ transpor[atio” and com-munication, scarcity of meat, hot water.wntral heating, the a.”oyance of stepPig into a basket of chickens on tighOy -packed city bt~ses or of geoi”g stttck ina Jeep on a muddy road, .,chilitis,, (the
reactiOn Of l,nacc.stOmed g r i n g 0stomachs to Chilean food), :tnd themo,io,to philosophy of doing things. But[hese are e~sily overcome by a goodsense of humor,
Real fr”stratio”s are brought ab”ttt
by .O.~u.sion i. the work sit,tz,tion.under-utd,zation of Vol~ImeerS, or i“.ability to get a job done.
one veteran Volunteec of the Chile 1grO~,P 0.ce told me {hat the best W.Yto ;,void frtlstration and achieve satisf:tc.tion is to aim low?’ The state.,ent wasmad. i. jest; nevertheless i[’ m“tains a“element of truth. Vol,, nteers who expectmonumental changes as Ibe immediateand obvious res.l[s of lheir work :Ircbound to be disillusioned. B“t if theycan find satisfaction in rhe pride on theface of a girl j~,st completing her firstknitted garment; in the plump, rosycheeks of a child who n few monthsearlier had %emed at death,s door; orin a change of attilt,de from one offatalism a“d dis~mbli.g to o“. of ~lf.help and cooperation, their ~Korts ~ill ●not seem i“ vain
12I
‘Siem~re Mas Alta’
— Volunteer Lucille Bell!, (PhiledelpK.) h., aB.S. 2. clemonta~ ed..allon f,om TomplB un;.“er,iy and h., ,,udied social p,ycholoey .,C.l. m&o University, Before entering the PeaceCorps, she was te.c~ng i. Chellenham, Pa.Shs i, wo,~ng in +hee,labb,hmenf of doyca,ecenter, i“ the slum, of San,i. go. Volunteer1.. 8oltis (Wnler Pork, F1.,) received . B.A.1,.m ,he Univer,iV of Florid., where hemaiored i. economics.He is .! presentconduct.ing o $urvey of TECHO .o.oper. !lwer, H. hosfo,med . shoomoting c-P.,.?;,.,
By Lt,cillc :,nd Lee Belcs
La Victoria is a Santiago s“b”rbhousing 30,000 persons. It is part ofone network of Santiago suburbs ho,,sing300,000 persons. 11 is close to the center
of Santiag=nly 10 minutes away—but the socioeconomic distance betweencity and suburb is nearly infinite.
Settlers h:tve come to La Victoria inlhe contemporary patter” of migrationfrom country to city. Having little workand social mobility in the cot, ntry, tbep.Ople begi. ro m?~e to cilies, firstperhaps tO small cltles like Valdiviabefore .om,ng to Santiago, Santiago,the capital, represents for them the.Itimnte in opportunity, b“t it also rep-resents, of course, the .Itimatc in com-petition for jobs and ho~,si”g.
Since La Victoria was settled undersquatters> righls, a“d most residents pay
,YANQUI MAMITA, i, who, ,ewing women <011DoWin May. A gradu-.1. in economim, ho hod to learn tro.sert toiloring in order to teach.
TROUSERSFACTORY, coiled Troller L. WC+OriO,now provide, work,mo. oy, and o ,,cooperolive experience,, for more Ih.n 50 women.
no rent for their properly, the Cbilez”governn~ent has been unable to financeho”si”g construction tbro”gb a revolv-ing f“”d. .rhe two. or three.rwmwooden or adobe shacks US”.]ly housetwO or three ad.lls, six or seven chil-dren, at least one dog, a few cbickcns.and possibly a horse, a donkey, or agoat. Crossing the unpaved streets d(Lr-i“g the rainy xaso” is like attempting10 ford a river. When tk rains cease.lhere is left only tbe ankledcep n?t,dwith rivers of stagnant green slime.
When Volu”teec assignments weregiven last De.ember, wc were askedto help establish a day-care ~“ter iorchildren of women employed at :,TECHO trot,ser shop. The site for lb.n“rscry had been t,sed as a garbage dttmp:!nd bdri”e. 1 could not completelycomprehend how we wotdd ever make
IN EARLY DAYS, LUW Belt;,,, nvr,er, school for cMUren of sewlnamothers had few chlidren, Now It has 50 ond permanent buildi.~.-—
— .-. —..—._ . .__..!
EXAMINING CHILDREN of nursery !.h..l and r.nnin~ firs+.aid st.tionin L. We?.ri. is the iob of Roberto Cooke, who $er, es .$ TECHO nurse.
this into 8 habitable place For babiesand children. But the women workersht,d insisted that they couldn’t sw t,nlessIhccc was a place for their children.With the help of Volunteers and resi.dents, we cleaned ,1P the site and buill:, lean-to of used lumber to protect thechildren from tbe e!cments.
The” came opening day. Our nurse,Bobby Cooke ( Meriden. Corm.), W:IS onhand to check the cbildrcn for illness.Five other Volunteers were there tohelp in “registering” the children. Weexpected 50. Three tt)rned t8P
This was the first of many perplexingsittlations we e!lcolln[ered. The n!lrserywas ‘<an urgent neefl of the dtstrict,r,nd yet when the F:]cilities bec:,me avail-:,ble, the mothers ignored them. .,Why~wc rtsked. But gradtjally, the news ofthe nursery travelled around and chil-dren did begin 10 come. We now haveour enrollment of 50 per day.
Project Took Time
EvenluaOy TECHO erected a per.n>anent building for our day<are center.Two women have been trained to takeover tbe nursery. A feeding programhus been established. The building nowh:!s a community library, and our nur=now has a small clinic. But, oh! howmtlch of our time went into the devel-opment of just this one project.
In retros~ct. the physical draw-hicks now seem the least of the prob-lems we had to face. Our main problemhas been in learning to understand Cbil.
YWCA WORKERSId. ChambK,, (left) of Rob.,
ean thinking. Slowly we baye learnedto work wi[h the uprooted ca,ftpesir!o inhis new role as city dweller., We havedirected our efforls toward women sincewe have Fot!nd them easier to work with.
Women, relatively unskilled both insewing and organization, have suddenlybeen put into the positions’ of xam.stresses and organi=rs, ope,n~ng a newworld for them and subjecting them topressllres unfamiliar in the past. Therehrts been r-tction from those who do not<understand tbe need for shop disciplineor a production schedule, And .Ianynow bold responsibility as breadwinnersfor Families as large as 10. ;
Slowly, too, we have learned to opratewith our Chilean co-workers, whosebackgrounds are more nearly like ours.We have grown accustomed 10 the pres-ence of fine plans and the absence ofa mrson willing to lake responsibilityfor decisions.
MY work with nursery-school childrenhas been secondary. k(ost of my workhas be. in ed..aling mothers. Anursery school For children allowsmothers to work: this proposition seemsobvious to us Americans bit it is abaffling and alien concept to manyChilean women.
Other Volunteers have fo.”d them.selves unwittingly involved in labor prob-lems such .s strikes for higher wagesand shop disputes. Nevertheless, we allare s,tpposed to carry on our work, beit nursing, accounting, education, orcensus-taking.
Ours is not the physically rugged,
41.., and S“,.. Brodey of r., R.ckdwoy, N.Y.,serve in poor &slricts around S.nllogo, Both of #hem hove held ,ecreation iob, I. the U.S.
mud-hll: type of life. We are deniedeven the satisfaction of saying that wehave not seen a supermarket or a hnm- .burger for the past year. But our fr”slra-tions, too, have been n>a”y. blosl of ●“,,, work wjll go unseen since we are
the basic framework for (Lltt,relayingCommllnity-deve! opv.. t W“rk. The.initial education of the slum dweller,if we can start i(, will be O“C of ot,rgreatest contribl,tions. We shall needcontint)cd p:dience, understanding. :ind—most of .Ildonfidence in the valuesof the people with whom we are work-ing.
Days and weeks seem to Pnss likewater thro,tgh a sieve. ~nd we .01.Iit(le progress bi,t there are encot,r:,gingsigns. hfy Chilean nt,rsery-school direc-tor. Angela. sunlmed up her philosophy
iicn~prc 1:70s 0/1. (always). She is living her philosophy,rking seven da!,s a week tO PaY
for m;: .Shigher)
by wo,for her children’s education. She” [sinstillinthat they can rise thrn,,.h their own ~eKorts. Sbe feels [histo her children and 10 Chile. Sbe says:.,MY family and I deserve no bctler thanwe are willing to work to *ttii in.” To
lg in her children the realizatiO.
is her obligation
work beside her is a pleasure
~CA AssistsSusan Brodey, of For Rockowoy,N,v,, ,ecoivedher B.A. in Ame,lcan literature from Brooklyn●College. She is assigned 10 the WCA pr.iect -in Santiago, CMle.
BY S.sn. Brodey
The YWCA is known in Chile as LnAsociaci6n> Cristiana Femenim$. 1ISprecepts have much in common wilhthose of the Peace Corps, but ils specialpurpose is to bring to lhe women of thecountries which it semm a greater undcr-sta.ding of their lives, their country, andtbe world.
In Chile. the woman is eq~d beforethe law; her vote is intensely sot,ght-after; she fills most positions in edt]ca-tion, social work, and public welfare.B~,t the majority of women in Chilehave no knowledge of their lefial righs.their career opportunities, their recot]rseto social institutions. The life of the
average woman of the lower class is oneof early mnrriage. annual childbirth. :!nddrudgery without vacation.
The YWCA works with women ingroups. 11 requested the assisti!nce ofPeace Corps Volunteers to enable il toG,rry on its educational and recreationalactivities in lhe government.bt,ilt. low-income housinz projecu on the outskirtsof Santiago and Valpnraiso.
The housing development where wework and live is hu~e. The inhabitantsare largely people transplanted from
rural to urban areas; they are L,nder-going the special problems and presst,resof [heir new environment. ●
Most Santiago ci[izens are badly in.
SOUTHERNMOST POST of entire Peace Corps COOKING CLASS for YWCA mo!hers< dubis A.cud: in . suburb coiled Co,ocoles, Ed heeded by Beverly Bo.cher (fourth from left)Butler (UPper Monl<lai<, N.J.) and Jerv emphasize. increasing n“lrit:onol vole forFo.ch.r (W i I I i . m a . se t+) work and liYe. family meols, Beverly (1”1,., Oklm.) rv”s ltisHome ,izo and gro.ping ore typical of are.. <1.s, i“ government housing in Volp. roiso.
formed about their new neighbOrs. The‘Y’ serves the imporlant role of bring-ing into immediate and meaningfcd con-tact tbc woman of the sltlms x,nd thewoman of better co”di[ ion, thereby pro-viding education a“d pers~ctive forone and the challenge of confrontationfor the other.
1“ a tiny, egg-sh:,ped holtse withinthe com,nt~nity, Peace Corps Volunteers,along with the ‘.Y staff a“d Chileanvoh, ”te.r wockers, have meetings ofclubs geared to mothers, fathers, girls,a“d boys. They also have two nurseryschools, a library, and a girls, basket-ball team.
We Volttnteers have found here notthe cb,tllcnge of difficult living and dis-comfort many of ,IS expected to en-co~tnter in Chile, lnslead we helped tocreate :$ window on a world that perhaps“ever existed beyond the limits of tbegarde. for a woman and her Pdn>ily.
‘Here We Go’
Nelson Ble<k of Sent. u.,., Cal., received hisB.A. 1. political s.ie”ce from the Unlversiw ofCo~for:io at Berkeley. He is now working withpr.d.ct,o. .o-pa, alives in A.to+ogasta.
● BY Nelwn Black
Baseball, the brainchild of AbnerDoubleday of Coowrstown, NY., has
come to Antofagasta. Actually this sporthas been played in our Chilean dexrtcity for some years now, but TonyI>icariello (Medford, Mnss. ) and I liketo feel we h;ive injected new life intothe game. Altbo.gh our assiEned workis officially with TECHO, we have fotlnddiversion by coaching boys in tbe r.di-ments of the grand old sport.
While Antofagasta’s .02 inches ofrain yearly and temperate climate Pro-vide year-rol, nd baseball weather, weare short of equipment. We use Llnder-sized Japane= gloves and restitched,missh;,pe” bnlls. The diamond it~lf,lying alongside [he ocean, pre%nrs m.t”yhwards. In times past a brawny ballerhas hit the ball to deep right field, forcingIbe outfielder to step thro”sh salt-waterpt,ddles i“ pt,rs.it.
Tbe Chileans play ot, r game with aspirit of brotberly love which would havedriven the competitive Ty Cobb todistraction. Instead of the ,,mpire-baiting professionals we are familiarwith in lhe United States. her. the play-ers have warm embraces for everybodyon both sides before and during thegame.
The Chilean’s Iovc of i“dependc”ceon tbe bases also sbak.s .s UP. Oncetbe Chilean does get on base, the c%,chcan’t keep him Put, and tbe runner willtear hell-knt for the next base nt thefirst opport~)nity. All this base-stealing
<otIpled with vdlchcrs’ errors—resultsin scores in the 2VS.
Dspite these bind fi,nces. though, westruggle forward with an enthusiasticChilean team yelling “here we go” i.broken English.
At tin>es, however, i“ movlific.lionover the mnshaps we see, we are redticedto repe:,ling the in>”?ortal words of theurchin who sobkd O. confronting Shoe-less Joe Jackson in the Black Sox WorldSeries fix, ,,Say it isn’1 so, Jot:’
A Buyers’ Club
Wck Meyer of Red Wng, Mnn., received aB.S. from the Un:ver,ily of M.neml. andworked for w. years with the Federal LamdBank Sy,lem of fi. nesola. He is now work.i.g in Ihe YWCA proi.cl in Sa”ll. go, Chile.
By Dick Meyer
The work ttndercaken by some of tbeYWCA Volunteers could be classified .ssocial work with the objective of help-ing the poblud”re.v (slum-dwellers) learnto live together better and improve theirsocial well-being. Other Volt, nleers areworking in areas with the objective ofimproving the economic sitltation of thepobladores.
The formation of a cbickcn-raising.Itlh bv Ida Chambliss (Robs. Ala.)would ~all into this latter category. Eggsxnd broilers cost so much th:)t they areconsidered almost I,,xt]ries, A chickenprogram can help to provide some ofthe mttch n=ded protein in the t,nbal-anced diets.
Pat Hannah (Slurgis, S.D. ). a physio-thecapisl, is working with bandic;!ppedcbildrc”, who bcc, ”se of her work,sholdd be better nble to compcle withthe nonha”dicapped, Thro~tgh her efforts.perhaps more children will l~dve theconfines of their homes and attempt tolead ncdrly normal lives witbot,l feelingshameftll abot]t their handicaps.
hly wife, C>!rol, a“d 1 recently sllr.veyed some families i“ the VWCA pro-
gram tO determine their b~,ying ba~lsand their interest in a consumers’ co-operative. Wilb [h. st,rvey restdts. Carolwill attempt to improve the educationalaspects of the molhers’ clubs so thatthey might learn how to improve theirment]s and btlyin~ hmbits. This involvesthe diKlctjlt task of s!ltcmpting to changeage-old customs and habits of n Wople“ho arc “ot always eager to change justbecause a gringo tries to show them howto improve themselves.
I am organizing a ,,Club de Cotnpras”(Buyers’ Club) on the b~sis of the Favor-able response to the questionnaire. Thebig problem is in evaluating whethertie ‘yes” responses shotddn’t really be,.mny be,> or even ‘no.” The buyers’Club will try to provide const)mcrs’ goodsat low prices and to give ed”=ttion inCO-OPSwith the hope of forn>ing a realconsumers’ cooperative later 0..
15
The Vegetable PlanTom S<onlon,of D“nmore, Pa., graduated l,omNofre Dam. ;. 1961 with a B.A. in Engfi,h: heearned on M,A. in En9ti,h the some ye., f,omlb Un;ve,,ity o+ 10,0” ,0, He w,.+ 10 Chilew;lh the fir,, group of Volunteers, and hewo,ked wi,h the In,,l,ut, of Ru,al Edvcotiominbmsic ed”co, ion ond <omm”n;,y d.velopm. ”tamong field laborer, and small farmers, He!.0s here of on l“s!it.te teom,s proieo i.forming r.,al c+operotive or*. niz. tion*. Sm..10” i, among the Vol”ntee,, who completeds.r”ice ,M, ,Umm.,.
By Tom Scanlo”
Rtjpa. co, 600 miles south of Santiago,is [he site of the Hacienda R“panco.It is one of the largest ra”chcs i“ Chile,h~ving an area of more than 150,000acres. A dilapidated h“ilding lent tous by Lhe hacienda was o,tr headquartersin the area, a“d are”. d an old woodentable i. the kitchen we discussed theproject as it progressed.
Hacienda workers, the compcsitios, atR“panco live in seven colo”ie+ho.scsa“d small workshops i“ little clustersthree to five miles apart.
The coop was forn,ed wilh laboremfrom six of the seven sections of the
hacienda. MY role in the formation ofthe co-operative in R“panco was a smallone, Among tbe 750 hacienda laborenlhece, many persons had spoken of co-operatives bc[ore. Two had been formedbut they were small, only slighlly eRec-tive, a“d had lacked legal str.ct”re, IW.S invited by a schoolteacher to talk10 lhe co”s”mer CO-Op g~O,,p she wasforming nmo”g 30 members of the
molhersx club in the hacienda school.There we encountered a problem ofnumbers. Le6allY, 100 persons are“ceded to start a consumer cwop i“Chile.
1 took the problem to Don Tito
Steffens in Valdivia, 100 miles northof R.pa”co. Do” Tito is one of theleading Chilean authorities on co-opera.tiva. The solution he offered was logicalbut too sweeping for me to have daredimagine. He advised LIS to !form o“elarge co-operative For the whole h~-cienda, a“d he offered to travel toRtIpa”co to implant lhe idea among thelocal leaders.
Do” ~to came on a holiday, and weassembled everyone i“tersted in the co-O~teachers, bosses, and workyrs. DonTito talked for two hours W,th thesecomm””ity Ieadem, congrat”lati”g themon what they had accomplished so farand pointing out some shortcOminEs oftheir previous efforts. He convincedthem lhal a co-op made “p of all theworkers o“ the hacienda was, perfectlypossible,
The adva”laga were ,,nq,,estio”able,bt!t there were do.bu that the peoplecot]ld democratically control j such alarge e“lerprise. For the sake of thelaborers a“d of the movement itself,Don Tito encouraged “s TO try,
One teacher z“ggesled that the organ-izers begin teaching about co-ops im-mediately, so the laborers would becomefamiliar with the idea, Don Ti!o asceedthat this wo~,ld be “sef”l, but offered;ino[her suggestion: start with an actualtx~rie”ce i“ working together,
11 was the” that we came ; “p withCPla” Horlaliza,,—-’The Vegetable Plan.,,If the R.pa”co farm workers couldorganize and sell their prod”w in Osorno,a market town a few miles away, theycould have more money for their OW”f~d budgets.
With assistance From the l~cal 80V.ernment school for rural educat~on, we,
planned lhe details. Plan Hortaliza cailcdfor participation of 20 farm laborers;altogether they wo~dd plant 2,h acres of Lvegetables each planting one~ighth anacre in his back yard. To facilitate the a
mnrketi”g process, we decided to planl0.ly three crop% carrots, Icouce, andcabb:ige.
While Plan Hortaliza developed, t,si”gonly a few of the workers o. the h~.cicnda, the initial group of comm(, nityleaders, in Ihe meantime, began theed,, cational .ampaiEn for lhe larger co-op idea. Assisled by a teacher fro.,the hacienda school a“d by the parishpriest, workers elecled a provisionaldirectorate a“d began enrolling members.
Sy the e“d of the next month, wehad found 20 good Plan Hortalimprospecls, whose I:!nd fencing and soilwoidd enable them to carry on theproject. We began working wilh themin the planting and care of the gardens.
I“volvcd in the plan were many agri-cub,,ral techniques new to tk workers.We used “i~rate and s“perphosphntcfertilizer% seeds were certified, from areliable so. rcq weed-killers were “scd,and a disinfectant designed to blot o~,ta disease which had ruined almost everycabbage crop Lhe year before. Methodssuch as planting in rows with seeds gooddistancm apart, the” thi””ing later, werenew to many of them.
S,CM Pkd”tcd
1“ almost mid-winter we planted the ●seedbeds of cabbage a“d Ietluce anddistrib”led fertilizer a“d carrot seeds tothe people. We made co””dess visits toeach garde. during the spri”~ checkingseedlings a“d spraying.
In genera!, co-operation of the peoplewas excellent. They followed religiouslythe norms wc set down, and only oc-casionally did they hesitate. The carrelscame up so beautifully that they thot,ght
ENTERTAINMENT GRINGO STYLE is pro, ided by Volunteer Leader Roger PRINCIPLESOF PRESERVATION.,. Iayghf by vol..,.., GerryMorsholl (W,ightwood, Co!.) 10 alte.live .“&en.. of YO..O and old. S,.” (right) .$ Say,,, Pa., al lER boa,d,ng ,chool in S..!. An..
STANDING BY 1. see that pig is moved in p,oper way is Larry Forr.ster (h.l&.g .ti.k) of Oakfidge, 1. . . . lorry Ia”ght i“ . ..+..! o.d helped to promote coops in forested lake region.
it was a shame to thin thcm and throwall those good plants away. One womanwot]hfn’t let me near her carrots withthe weed-killer. Another set aside theletlctce plants we gave her until themoon was in the “right” stage for plant-ing, Bu1 in the main. they capturedwell [he idea of the experiment, workedvery hard to make it successful, and s. P-
plied information about the land andthe climate which was indispensable to
●the project.
Working wilh them was pleamnl. Ourbest tactic was to get lhe plump,vecor<ts giggling Iikc school girls (which“as “o( difficult to do) before giving themthe news lhey had 10 plant t~eir lettucefarther apart than lhey wanted to.
Tbe men had only S,tnday free forwork in their gardens, so S~,ndays wouldfind t)s handing out plants for transplant-ing when probably lhe men had hopedto rest. One man, after ~d given hima bag of cabbage plants, ql,estioned my
Sabbath activily by asking if T were aChristian. B“t this same man, aftersome rabbits had raided his cabba6epatch, journeyed to Osor”o to buy newplants so that 1 wotddn,t see his gardenI“okin. miserable.
This was tbe kind of co-operation wereceived from the people, Mother Nat,lre,unfortunately, co-operated less. 1. onesection a frost wiped out tbe carrotcrop. We seeded again. The lettuceseedbeds produced much less than weneeded. Uncle Sam saved lhe day wilh$20 to buy leO,,c. plants. In almostevery garden the cutworm arrived andsomelimes destroyed more than half thecabbage before we .otjld get there withODT. Fortt,nately, our cabbage seed-beds produced so well that we replacedevery destroyed plant without extra cost.
These events made for some bad days,bt~t the people placed their trust in usa“d never complained of the difficulties.
O,,r hopes grew with the new plants.
UNDER THE HOOD of vehicle .1 cenlr.f . . . . Ran<aguo i, Tom Po”bck(CM.ago), who taught driving, mothemmlics,geography, .nd Engtish.
Soon in 20 different places in the Ru-panco region there was a field of vege-tables unlike anylbing seen lbere beiorc.The project was already having an CKCC1on the neiBhbors as they asked questionsabot,t the orderly rows of crops.
As everyone grew prouder. I beganto worry. 1 remembered the story of zfarmer in La Uni6n who produced manyvegetables and was unable to sell thembecause of the tight grip which the Iargc.year-round producers near Santiago hadon the markets. We bad 20,000 headsof cabbage, htlndreds of thousands ofcarrots, and 40,000 beads of Ietl..cdeveloping beattti fully in the gro~tnd. 1began to wonder how ht)ngry the peopleof OsOmO were.
Could They Compete?
From the very beginning we h~d ex-plained to our people that (be projectwas an experiment. As far as the disin-fectants, tbe certified seeds, and thefertilizer went, the project had been s..-cessful. Now came the crucial momentin lbe whale experience was il possiblefor the co,ttpezi,,o,s to compete on thelocal markets with the large producersin Santiago? They needed our help .[this more than at any other moment;a“d almost all tbe members of ottr teamrallied to spend some days in Oeccmberhelping them locate lbe markel and devisemarketing procedures.
On the morning of our first try atselling, we packed 1500 heads of Iettllcein tbe Peace Corps leep and anothervehicle, The cc,,,,pc.si!tos bad done thepicking in the early morning dew sothe lettuce would arrive as fresh aspossible i“ Osorno. Several workerswent with .s to help make the s.le.
Two o’clock that afternoon found “sstanding in lhe rain in the farm.rs’market in Osor”o. Ottr spirits were low.Large qt,antities of lettuce had been
YWCA SUMMER CAMP near town of Olm”e sow Vol.”tar CarolUllom (Glend.ro, C-l.) giving less... in swimming and other ,porls.
L_._. .J
delivered to grocery stores at a gmdPrice, and some had been sold at thefarmers, market, b,,t at least half theletlt,ce was ,,nsold. Since “o one shopsin Ihe afternoon. there was nothing todo b“t send the discouraged people backto R.panco. We took some of theIeot,ce to tbe lestlits> home and went10 a res[a”ra”t for a snack.
We had Iearncd a grenl deal that day.Alrhough our lettuce was better andfresher than that shipped down from tbe“or(h, it was still too yot,ng and neededto form a better head. We discoveredth,tt it was easy to undersell the bigprodtlccrs. Their lettuce sold at 100pesos a head on the local market. (1.September, 1962, 100 pesos equal ledabout 9 U.S. cents. ) Because we paidlittle Freight and no intermediaries, com-missions, we co, dd sell :tt 50 pesos ahead and still make a sizable profit.
Before giving (IP and taking the un-sold lettuce to cti.rilablc organimtions,wc “lade o“e fi”nl try at selling il.Earlier in the day 1 bad taken a basketof Ictt.cc and tried to peddle it in ashanty-low.. The reply from insideeach box-like, windowless hot,se had beencordial but discouraging. “Sorry,” thevoices all said, “sinE the same expres-sions. ,There,s no money here?’ Afterhearing this repeatedly, I asked whenthere wotdd be money. “Tonight,’, theysaid, ,Othc boss arrives with his pay..’
Gringo S.0s Lcltucc
Pcrbaps (he boss might want to buy,we thought, so we rctumed to the samelittle settlement that evening. MY com-
panion hawked from the JceP and wardedo~ the children crowding around to seea gri!tgo seOinE lco”ce. 1 took a basketond started peddling through the streets.In five mint,tes 1 was sold 0111. Twobo~,rs later, we had sold all tbe lettuce.
This experience was the nlost importantlesson of the day. We sold cheaply—three heads for 100 pesos. At this pricewc nol only made a substantial profit fortbe ca,?rpesilto.s, but we also made ve~e-tables available to people for whom theyare too expensive at the usual marke[prices, When the co!!,pesi!tos can prodllcefor [be local markel, lbc poor peoplein town are supplied with food at pricesthey can afford.
titter sales went more smoothly as weput into practice wbut we had learned.Radio and press advertisement helpedcdt,cnle the people of Osorno to ourpresence in the farmers’ market. W.io”nd OI!I lhe arrival tinle of the trainwhich broc,gbt prod~)ce from the north,a“d we limed ot!r own salm accordingly.Every trip m~!nt the discovery of newpossibilities for sales. and !he c“tttpe.si!!osbecame n>ore and .Iorc adept al vakingadvantage of Ihe alre:)dy established otl1-Iets. When wc arrived in Osorno with[he firsl carrots of the season. ourvehicles were swamped with clamoring
housewives. After that, sales ceased tobe a problem, I
By the time half the crop had beensold, the plan was already @ financialsuccess. Among them, the workers hadmade 600,000 pesos. Their originalinvestment had bee” 7500 pedos apiece.When compared with the minim.m dailywage for farm workers of 700 peSOS,tbew profits represented a substantialincrease in their yearly income. Onewoman told me she paid ber yearlytaxes on her small farm from [be saleof her lettuce alone.
Long Market Days
The people had depended on our helpconstantly until our work with ~tbem hadsettled into a routine—a trip to Rupancothe evening before a sale. a nap on thefloor in sleeping bags, a drowsy walk tolhe market at dawn, greeting th,e workersin the morning iog, s~nding a’ long dayselling, taking a midaflemoon meal ina dingy restat] rant where we, reviewedthe day,s sales. making the weary triphome to ot,r village. Sometimes it wasa 17-hotLr day with vev little’ time outfor meals.
1“Tbe question we outsiders began ask-
ing ourselves was whether ou,r projecthad bee” a success in community dcveJ-opment, Had the c.,>tp..i,tos learnedwh~t they collld do 10 help themselves,or were they totally dependent on ourassistance? Their participation in theplan had been constant. Tbe fact thatwe worked side by side made them workharder, Making plans, howeber, wasanother [bing; and when we called ameeling of all the participants in theplan, we knew we were approaching acrucial moment. Wotdd they [take tbeidea as their own, or wo~dd they thankus very much and say it was a shamewe wat,ld”,t be arot!”d the “exi year todo Ibe same thing?
Al an early meeting, after the firstmarket trip, lb. people had given uscause for concern. Natt, rally !sby andnemo.s in the strange surroundings,they responded very little. acceRted theirfirsl dividends ~nd went home.
Later on, 1 returned for anol~er meet-ing with them. Now came the momentof tr.tb. This time, they were well-acq.ainted, and enthusiastic about themoney !bey were making. Besting eachother with anecdotes about tbcir experi-ences wiling, and comparing notes onwhat vegetables the customers Were ask-i“E For in the markets, they m’ade sug-~estio.s to beoer the p!.”, i“ t,he tom.tng YC.C, I had a bard t!me getting aword i“, Ftnally I managed to presenttbc lwo most pressin6 problems of theday. The next marketing had to kwithout our Jeep, and lb. ~arketingafter that had to be carried out tom.plelely by them and their representatives.I was returning to Santiago.
Three days later the c.!,zpcsi)ios
18
rented a truck for 15,000 pesos, tookthe vegetables to Osorno, and cleared150,000 pesos the following day in themarket. What remained l!nso!d, theycarried to a fciend’s box near the 6
market. Two of them stayed over tosell the following day. As they r,,shedabout their business, I began to feel likea“ extra th””, b; a“d when one sc!ior<!picked up a huge bag of cabbage andwalked by mc as I was slmggli”g to lifta smaller sack, I dccidcd J wasn’t neededany more.
Unforo!nately, the hacienda CO-OPfound itseli in a precarious position. Jtaroused widespread enlhLlsiasm .1 firsland more than 250 hacienda workersbollght a total of [000 shares of stockin the enterprise. This amounted toabout $750 before recent inflation. Thenthe co-op ran into trouble in the mazeof Chilean b“rea.cracy.
One ministry delayed four monthsi“ giving approval for the co-opcrafivc,c.,,, p.si,~c,. Owners of the haciendawere unwilling to allow laborers to estab-lish their co-op in competition with tbecompany store. While suffering thesedelays, the c,,,?, pc.,i,to.s’ money lay dor-mant, and lost over 30 per cent of iuvalue by inflation.
Abbough it will be years before wec.” be st,re. 1 lbink some useful com-munity-devciopmenl work was done i.R“panco last year. O,~r melhtis divergedsharply from the customary but re-sembled tho~ which other teams used ●eKeclively in other parts of Chile al tbesame lime. We call it .’result-demon.slratio”,, and it consists not only ofdemonstration of new grn%es or goodseeds bt, t of projects which show thatwith new techniques, a spirit of co-opemtion, and a little extra work, thec.t>tpesi,aos can do things they have neverdreamed of.
WaMng C;tnlpesinos
Otlr adventure has been to accompanya fcw of them in act ~nd all of themin spirit in the initial steps they aretaking toward a better Iifc. 1. this, wehave had tbe privilege to work witheducated Chileans who believe in the%people and ha.. dedicated themselves towaking the c.,rtpesi,,os to their possibili-ties as bt, man beings. Of all my .xperi-e“ces i“ Chile, none have been so inspir-ing as listening to an edtjcated Chileanwbo ,i.demtands the ,tnderprivi leged poorin his own cotjntry.
Perhaps our advent”ce serves not onlyourselves and the .I,!i]p.si,x”s b“l ourcoltntry as well. 1 believe tbnt it doesa“d said so in a farewell to lhe group.1 told the”, il was cxperie”ces such asours that proved the Alliance for Progre%to be a sound ideal—thal although weare very difierent, wc CO,, work to~etherfor the economic development of Chileand the preservation of Ii&rly in LalinAmerica,
~ More Job Opporfun;f;es {or Refurn;ng Vo/unfeersw Here is a parlial list of addilio”al ap-
portttnities aw,ilable for ret”r”i”g Vol-(Inters, The Division of Voltt”teer Sup-port will wriodically issue to Volt, ”tcersrelt, rnin~ i“ 1964 bt,llet ins containingcotl>plete lists of career opportt, nities,
Tbe Peaw Corps Vob,nteer CareerIn form:ltion Service is now under tbedirection of Robert Gdverl Jr., formerlymmnager of tbe Stc,de”t and AlumniPlacement Center of the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley. He has doneplacement work at Ha”over (Ind. ) Col-lege :tnd at the Univccsity of Illinois. Heholds :,. Ed, D. i.’ st~,dent personnel ad-n,inistration from Colt~mbia.
VolLI”teers should direct all i.q”iries;ihoi!t cureer opport,, nities to the PeaceCorps VOh!ntcer Career InformationService, Room 404. 700 Jackson PI.,Washington, D,C. 20006.
Education
Stanford Univemity, Center for Com-parative Ed~tcation, has established tworese,lrch assist;t”tships for gradt~atc studyin devclopmcnlal ed~,catio” for returningI>cace Corps Vol”nleers, The assistant-ships provide ;, sti~nd of $3000 each,A~nlica”ls most have a m:tsler,s dezcec:irid st,perior employment records in t~eir
9’native Ia”d a“d i“ o foreign c“ltt)re. Tbeprogram, leading to z, Ph. D., requires twoYCalS Of advsbnced st,~dy i“ mci;il wi.cnces, Inng. oge a“d professional ed”ca-tion, t,”d a third year of research i“hllman-resollrce development, lls,lallyoverseas. Writ. Fa~d Hann>t, Director,Comparative Education Center, StanfordUniversity, Box 2329, Stanford, Cal.
Hnrvati University, Gmd”ate Schoolof Ed.c.!t ion, bas set aside three tuitionscholi, rships of $1760 each for rett, rningpe,.e COcps vol””teers for lb. academ-ic year 1964-65. Applicants who= fi-na.ci:d need exceeds tbc tuition scholar.ship will be considered for additionalscholarship and N a t i o n a I DefenseEducation Act aid.
The Master of Arts in Teaching Pro-firrlm is offered for those interested i“teaching in secondary schools. Othergrad.r$tc programs. leading to either“I:!stcr,s or doctor’s degree. arc offeredin g.idanm, elementary edt!cation, hu-,na” development, administration, his-tory, philosophy of edi,crttion, re%archi. instruction, and educ:, tional measure-ment :>.d statistics, The deadline for ap-plications is Mnr. 1, 1964, but interestedVolu”leers sbo”id apply well in advancebeta,)= of the difictdties in obtainingIK,nscrip[s, letters of reference, .1., Write10 Director of Admissions and Financial
,,Aid Grad~tate School of EdLtcation, Har-vard Un,vers,ty, 118 Longfellow Hall,13 AppIa” Way, Cambridge, Mass.02138.
Teaching
Bureau of Indtan Affaim, U,S Dept.of the Interior, seeks returning PeaceCorps Vohtnteers to teach in elementaryand secondary schools in Alaska. Be-ta.% of limited q~,arters and isolationat the WSIS, most of these posilions arefilled by married couples with majorsin edtlcation. When both husband andwife are employed, tbe combined mi”i-mt, m encra”w salary ranges from $ I I,-412 to $ [ 5,26a a year, depending uponthe applicants, quaiificalio”s. Entrancesalaries for individual teachers rangefrom $5706 to $a343. Ro~tnd-t rip trans.portation is paid from place of residencein the conline”tal United States to postof dt,ly in Alaska, provided the teacherremains for two years. Write ro fJ”reaIIof India” Affairs, Box 1751, Juneau,Alaska.
Columbfa Teacbem College is seek-ing returning Volctnteers to teach inKenya. Openings are available for eightexperienced primar~ school E“glisb-la”-guagc teachers for assign”>e”t to teacher-training colleges. Q“alificatio”s i“cl,~dea college degree or a junior-college cer-tificate plus teacher training, and at leastfour years of primary teaching experi-ence. Opporlt, nilies are also available inteacher lraini”g at the secondary Icvel.Positions include an education teacher-trainer, and a social studies teacher.trainer. A master,s degree and teaching
Test Dates Set(Co,, (;,z<,.d /ro,?, page IJ
c:kn be s.t CIP in most paru of the world.Becat~se of difficulties often e“co.nleredin finding satisfaclocy facilities, and de-lays which somelimes occur in the mnils,candidates may have to travel consider-able distances and even wait at the centerbeyond the scheduled testing date. Re-quests for testi”B at a foreign centershould k received by the appropriateagency al Icast two n,onths before thetest date.
Coming test dates are:Admission Test for Gmdwatc Study in
B.sin-_Feb. 1, Apr. 4, a“d July 11,1964,
Grad.utc Records Eramiwdtion_Jnn.la, Mar. 7, Apr. 25, a“d ]“]y 11, 1964.
tiaw School Admision Test—Feb. 8,Apr. 18. and Aug. 1, 1964.
Atedical College Admission Test—May 2, and OCL. 17, [964.
Vo[.”leers considering .nderzcadt! atestl,dy LlpOn their return to the UnitedStates may have to lake the CollegeBoard tess. Tbew exami”atio.s also areadministered by Educational TestingService. College Bw.,rd test dates areDec. 7. 1963; J.”. 11, hlar. 7, May 2,and July 8, 1964.
19
experience arc required, Write HowardFunk, Tr.chers for East Africa, Twich-ers College, Columbia University, NewYork 37, N.Y,
Government
Job Oppoti.nities i“ Ncigbborboods,a special youth project being sponsoredjointly by the city of New York a“d theU.S. Dept. of Labor, seeks rett,rningVol””teers for a variety of positions.The JOIN program will serv. some 20,-000 unemployed school dropouts betweenthe a~es of 16.21, providing guidance:,”d vocation:sl co~,nsclli.g. tcsling, re.medial work, vocational a“d o“.the.jobtraining, and job.placement scrviccs. Theprogram will be administered throughseveral neighborhood centers thro”gho”tthe city. Positions are available for voca-tional co,, nsellors, vo~!tion:d psycholo-gists, job development and training co-ordinators, testing specialists, secrcta~ ia!and clerical personnel. Wrilc to HarryKranz, CIO Jt~li.s Edelstei”, City Hall,New York 7, N.Y.
The Presidc”t,s Con,mittcc on J“ve.oil. Dcfi”q”e”cy seeks rett, r”i”g Vol.”.teers to work i“ prevention and controlof juvenile delinquency lhrougho”t tbecountry. Positions are available for so-cial-science researchers at :dl levels ofskill; pre-school, elementary- a“d secon-dary-school teachers; “eighborhood-de-vclopment workers; social workers atall levels of skill; n“d yoLlth-employnlentspecialists. Opportt, nilies are available i“Los Angeles, S.. Francisco, St. Lo”is,Houston, Chicago, hfi””eapolis, Cleve-I:tnd, Detroit, Syracuse, New York, Bos-ton, Washington, Philadel phia:,, Charles.ton, W.Va.; E.8e”e, Ore.; and New Ha-ven, COnn. Salaries are commensurate“ilh professional skills. Write SanfordKravir~, Prcsidcnt,s Committee on J.ve.nile Delinquency, Room 4440, Dept. ofHealth, Ed”c:ttion, and Welfare, Wash.ington, D,C.
Other Opportunities
Lincoln Nafional Life I“s.m.ce Co.,Fort Wayne, lnd,, seek :, returning PeaceCorps Voltnntcer to work with its LaIi”herican acco..b, The job will requirevisits 10 Latin Americ:l five or six limesa year. Applicants mltS1 be college grad-uates and mt,st be :lble 10 read, wri[e,and speak Spanish flt,ently. Write AndrewhlncDonald, Lincoln Nalio”ul Life 1“-s,,ra”ce Co., Forl Wayne, l“d.
Walbucc Chicks Inc. is seeking rct”rn-ing Peace Corps VOluntccrs 10 work asfitrm m:,”agers i“ pot)llry-breedin@ slockf:,rms in Argc”li”a, Brazil. a“d Colom-bia. Qualifications include a poultrybackg~o,,nd, bl,siness ability ;I”d Iang.agcPrOfictcn.y in SPanish or Portt!aucse.Write Jun. ONagblen, Wallace ChicksJnc., Box 11236, St, Petersbt,rg 33, Fla.
.J-
-- ...-...-—...T.~
Climatic contrmts create varihd lotsfor Volunteers assig~ed to
Vol. n!eer Wk. O<D... ell is from fim Th.,pe,Pa. He ❑tlended cost St,oud,b”rs (P.,) StateCollege, where he mciored in F,ench andmathemo+i.,.
BY Mike WDOD”CI1
Morocco is a complex of ~Ontradic.tio”s, we Vol””teers WCC. often toldduring training. 1“ no way is this state-ment more aptly demonstrated (ha. in[he weather and climate here. Theextre,ne north and west, fronting o“ theMedilerranea” a“d the Atlantic Ocean,.,. ~~mpo~ed mos([y of beach .rea~ with
a PICasant, breezy climate. The RifMot, ”tai”s, a little i.land in the north((he former zone of Spanish i“fl”ence),a“d !he Middle Atlas, the High Atlas,and the Anti-Atlas mountain chains,which r.” from northeast to southwest,
p, Ovidc a pleasant, alpine climate, tom.plete with areas of perc”” ial snow. O“:,”d around the Plain of Ra&it, theclimate is warm a“d humid. The Plainof Marrakech, on the other h.”d, is insummer very hol—h,tt also “e,~ dry a“dthere fort not completely ,,”bearable. Theextre”le i“ heat—lempcralt,res up to] 30- F.—is to be found i“ the ,O”thernprovinces, which have a Saharan climaticinfluence. The only respite in thesePr0vinCe5 is in the coastal city of Agadir,the noted rcsorl where a disastro~,s earlh.quake in 1960 killed 12,000 persons.
The variety of climale is a clue to thedisparity of Vol.”teers% working sit,,.aliens i“ Morocco, Generalizationsabout jobs in this pcoject are thereforenext 10 impossible,
The S4 Volunteers i“ the project ares~,rveyors, irrigatom, or English teach-ers. We trained at California State Po[y-tech”ic Institute al Sa” Luis Obispo. andnfter flying to Raba[, the capital, foreight days of in.co. ntry training, we
split “p for the first time Ori Feb. 20,1963, The suweyors attended &pecializedtrxi”ing at [be Royal Fores<ry Schoolin Salk, “ear Rabat; the imiga[ors wentto Marrakech for 10 days bcfo~e fanningout to [hree soi)thern province’% Agadir,Ouarzazate, and Ksar-es-Sot, k~ and theEnglish teachers took “p theii posts atIYCJ.S or coll~ges (bo[h art I kinds ofsecondary school ) throughout ‘the coun.try.
We surveyors spent two we~ks at theforestry school. We were d~stined towork under the Ministry of A~cult. re,sAdministration of Water and Fore~t~,so we studied the life of [h~ forester,reforestation, tbe conditions of Moroccanforests, and erosion control a~ well n%topography and road .o”str~!cttan. Wetook tours of nearby stands of ~cork oak(the cork industry is important toMorocco) , and for three days A, touredthe Nfiddle Atlas Mo.ntai”s tb acquiref~,rther insight into the forests and livingconditions in a“d around the?
Break-l. Period IOn Mar, 7 we split “p. Th~ Waters
a“d Forests Admi. istratio” ditides theco. ”try into ~ven circ”,zs.ip)io,*s, orregions, m we 14 surveyors wer~ assignedtwo to a ce~ion for a break-i” heriod.
Soon thereafter, Henr~ Rollins
(Qllincy, Fla. ) and I fot,nd ourselves e“route to two Berber villages nam~d Trisaland Abachkw. We were part ok a trainwhich i“cl.ded a Waters a“d~ Forestsengineer, district chiefs, tech”ic~a”s, andtwo coid$, local officials. Th$ trip i“took eight hours, partly by Jeep but
mostly by mule. Tbe jo. r”ey !betweenvillages took “s I,P to aho”t 8~00 feet
and into snow drifts. At e.c~ vil[acewe were treated to a magnifi-yt eight-
20 ~
MORcourse cliff., a festive meal. Evenings wespent walchi”g singers a“d da”mrs whilewe drank mint tea, the “aliona[ beverage.The whole 150-mile trip was new andfascinating—more so when you considerthat “eilher of .s had ever beforemounted :, mule,
Stateside training programs tend tocreate a grot,p spirit which exclitdes o“t- ●siders, eve” [be regular st.denls at the
training instilt,tion. The Volunteer isrudely awakened o“, day, after fourmonths of close contact wi[h Peace Corpsfriends, 10 find himself alone—really
alOne—:!nd grasping for some innerForlitude to help him through the :td-Iustment period.
Since early April, my working st.[ionhas bee. al Ain.El-H jar, 24 miles north
of tbe city of Essaouira (formerlyMoEador) a“d seven miles fro.> tbeocean. I lay claim—unproved but ““-challenged—to being the most isolaledVolunteer in Morocco. 1 am 7? milesfrom [be nearest Volun[eer (a teache[)a“d 108 nliles from my nearest st,rveyorcolleague.
tin-El -Hjar is neither villt,ge “orhamlet b“t a stone forestry bo”se% builtin 1929, It is a double dwelling. on. sidefor me a“d one side for Ahmed Azzi,zi,23, my Moroccnn co-worker. Azztlzi(fashion here dictates that he be calledby bis family name) is a district st]bchitfi“ the Waters and ForesG Administralio”,
hfy work here began with me o“ thelearning end, Since 1 had had :, f:tirlysound backgrot,.d in bo[h mathematicsand French, i was able to acquire quicklythe E“ropca” methods of surveying anddrafting. (My job requires a good knowl.edge of French, both in a co”versado”alsense for social w.tacts s!”d i“ r, tech.nical sense for the work, 1 am st.dyingMoroccan Arabic, htlt progress is slow, )
Aiter spending two months in the fieldand in my own office, 1 began to teachthe lr,tde ((he primary reason for o“rbeing here) to the Morocca” forestrystaff, The Iong-range plan seems i“ gen-Cral to consist of m~)ch the sime thing:my aclin@ as s,,rveying :,nd draftinginstrt, ctor to sm:dl CI>,SXS of men in the
@
forestry service,
\Vorking )Vitb Compdss
The st,rvcying here consists for the!,>ost part of working with a t,r,rtssolcIore.vli*r. (forester’s compass), a Euro.pean instrt)ment eq[!ipped [o tell slope,disti, rice, and deviation frot>l m:,gnedcnorth in grades. (The English systemhus 36o degrees in a circle while themelric systcm 11:,s400 grades. ) The in-fortn;,tion, &,thcred in t) field no[ebookand Ira.sc ribed on :! m:!p or :1 plmn,then describes a forestry perimeter forthe p(,rpose of findi.fl (he area. its scaledsize in rc!:]tion to adjacent terrain, andx general ictca of the topogfitphy.
The only problem of nny significancethat I fi,cc is in teaching: :tt times eithermy or my students’ French hre.cks down.On occasions like these. A~lbic wouldb. no help at all since it lacks technicalterms and mt,st itself resort to Frenchwhc,l st,ch terms :Irc rcq{, ired.
1 find the job both stin~ldating andrewarding. The achievements :~r. visibleand are akin to those of ttny instructorwho starts from scr.itch and is :tble tocor,l,,lt,.i~lle :1 body of i. form:, tion.There is no real rotltine. since I movefrom plncc to place a“d my tcacbingsites and my st,,dc.ts tire constantlych:!nging, This way the challenge keepsrencwi,lg itself.
● “I OCCL,PY fol,r rooms at Ain.El-Hiar.
The hot,sc is well bitilt :,nd, tho~,gh
,./
-,,’
_..]
sparsely fl,rnisbed, very comfortable. Myconscience troubles me because I don’tlive in the proverbi:d Peace Corps grassbut.
To tbe range of ctdinary delicacies(“cat medt to sheep intestines to fishbeads,>) mentioned in the Ti,!8c articleon Sargent Shriver and tbe Pea- Corps,1 feel lhat I can ao two better withdelights 1 h:lve =Oen: bone mnrrow andsheep eyes. I also have tasted st,chtantalizing specialties as fresh honey andbutter nbixed, bre.ld dipwd in argan oil(derived fronl the arganier tree. Pecldia,to the country), :!nd r.j.vltitt, a stew thatcomes in any number of v:,rielies: beef,chicken, mt!tto., lamb, rab~t, jack
OFF 10 WORK i, Volunteer wk. O, Donncll(for left), who W,II.S below of his Kfe assurveying in,l,.clor for Morocco. governmen!foresters, 72 miles f,om closest Volunteer,
,PETIIE RIVIERE, is no obsto<le to Vol.. !...Severly Bowie (Cumberlond, Md,) os she .s!bls
YO..g .h. rg. ..ross ~1.e.M d.d. e ~.mm.,yo.th comp .! If,... i. Wddle Ail. s mo..tai .,.
PIPING PROJEC1 i, . . ..s.,. by VolunteerMohammed Kohn (left .,.1.,, bonds on MPS)ofOgden, Utah, o, wo,ker, prep.,. pipes wti<hwi!l “.,., 6eld, and help pre.enl erosi.”.
rabbit (decidedly different flavor fron>ordinary rabbit), It, rtle dove, pigeon,pbe:,snnt, t,trkcy, duck, can>cl, nnd goat.
1 have “>ade many a.qtt;iint:,nces :,nd
sever:d close friends. The people here
zre the w~rmest I bavc ever nlet, accc PL-ing ,,,e—a stranger and a foreigner—intotheir homes. Though they know little or
nothing ;iboul lhe I’eace Corps atld itsideals, they do know th,it I t,m A.,eric.in
.,, ~~.,—,<.... .... . .,, ..... ,,. ,,,/
.< -.. . . . ,~..: . . .... ,,
ond that I have come here to live andto work. Their view makes mc feel agrell rcsponsihility :lbollt my personalcondt~ct. I am as much of America as
most of these peoplt will ever see, Thtts
the opinion they form of Americansmust, 1 feel. narrow down to a general-
ized opinion of tne.
Since 1 am an instr,,ctor. 1 divide mytime between teaching tech. icat skill andachieving personal contact; that is, Itry to accomplish both ends a! once.Allhough the work and the Pea- Corpslife have not radically changed my per.sonal philosophy, the experience of liv-ing rdonc in ;1 foreign co~lntry certainlyhas, 1 h:,.. learned not to be in a madr~tsh to get things done and not to be-come frustrated over an initial lack ofcommt~nication, On the positive side,1 have come to realize what an cnligbten-ing cxeprience life can be, eve. in thestrangest of settinf is. if one jt)st slopsoccasion:dly to appreciate it; wh:,t awe:dth of st,,dy in ht, man nattlre is tobe found in this. a complex Arnb society;10 what degree one tom- to know one-scif (restdti aside) when one lives ina situation which demands priodicisolation.
The other Peace Corps surveyors inMorocco have run the gamut of projects:fro.> s~trveying foreslry perimeters anddrafting plans to tracing roads and layingo,tt terr:lces 10 prevent erosion; fromplan!ing tres and ct,tting them for mar-ket to ti,king photographs for the oficialfiles.
hlost s~,rveyors reside. when notcamped in Icnts in the field, in stonehouses somewhat like mine. Their loca-
PEACE CORPS GOAL w., scored by Vol...leer ‘,AV Kahn [at left) during soccermo+chinAgadir; Kohn, born i. Pakislan, impresses M... . . . . . fri.nds with fluenq in classicol Arohc.
tions vary from the n>ot,ntnino~ts northand center to the Rabat plain and thecoastal regions. With the eicep[ ion ofDave Humphreys (Sacramento. Cal.)rtnd Arthur Catlett ( Burlintiton, N.C. )in Oujda and Hal Hill (Dt!blin. G.. ) andDon S1ewart (Thief River Falls. Min.. )in Beni-Mellal, the sLlrveYOrswork alone.
Vol””teer Curt Co.,stock (MidllndPark. NY. ) reported in a note to H,rrka,the Peace Corps/ hforocco newsletter,that he finds ‘,:, deeper Purpose” in hiswork when ,*I shake hands with a pickand shovel. ”
Check Ddn)s Built
Besides carrying out the technicalaspects of his work. he has’ inspired theme” of his cIx.,,I;c, (project) to buildcheck dams to prevent erosion. In hisoff hours, Curt taught English to a classfor teachers from the local school. SF..ing as coiflet)r (barber) from time totime and helping to bake’ bread inearthen ovens have provided, him withmeaningful experiences, Cllrt says. Heconcltldes lhat “one must separate one-self completely from material influenwsin order to better appreciate +s job andless fortunate friends.”
At Te1L16n, up near the Mediterranean,Denny Mullen (Piedmont. Cal,.) has hadthe good fortllne to further h,s skills byworkin~ with an administr:ttive drafts-man. Denny spe:tks mainly Spanish(Tetu6n used to ~ in tbe Spanish zoneof Morocco) and relates th~t he hastaken quickly to local ways, eye. takingpart in the evening poseo, or promenade,on lhe main street.
Throughout oltr training at Cal PoIY,we were told that tbe irrigators wo,ddface the hardest problems once overseas.This proved [o be trt!er than anyone hadimagined. Once having finished in.muntryorientation. these irigators became partof a hloroccan effort to raix ?he stand-ard of r,,ral living through reclamationof arid wasteland hy irrigati09—a PrO-gram called “Pronlotion Nation:d” un-der I’Office Nalional des Irrigations. TheVo[. ”leers soon discovered that theirduties were less defined lhan those of thes,!rveyors and the teachers. ‘ro a zreatextent, the irrigators have hap to relyon their own initiative to find work.Even the assisl:,nce of the Peace Corpsofice in Rabat has not solved lheir prob-lems. The Volunteers, skills are needed;
hilt they have bad to seek ways to applythem in digging wells, laying pipelines,and helping ..1 on irrigation projccb
already t]nder way.
Tie-ups i“ regional projects soon led
the irirg;)tors to combine their .Korts.Wi[h this idea in n,i”d, Volunteer John13row” (Cycle, NC.) left his station inRich to join Clement hletzger (bipsic,0.) and Rich:ird Harris (Novelty, O.)in the larger lown of Ksar-esiSouk, tothe south.
In Zagorn, hlartin Jones ( Ilhaca, NY.)
22
and Lee M. Murry (Kelso, Wash.)found a variety of projects, mainly con-cerl>ed with locating and transportingwater, an ehtsive and precious com,nodit
@in the Sahara. To dig the wells to SLIPPIYit and ctdverts to move it, they will haveto draw plans. make a list of ma[erials.make a field sltrvey, and stjpervise thejob. The onset of st!mmer, howe.cr.forced McMurry ;,nd Jones to ,lligrate‘north.” to O.arzazate.
Also in Ihe deep south, at Sko~,ra,were Voh!nteers Jerry M acy (Columbi:tChY, Ind. ) and Doyle C.tterlon (Rivier~t,Tex. ). They. too. moved to Ouarzmatebecause he:d made lbeir jobs impossible.They had alrtildy impres%d their c[fid(the administrator in charge of a district)by building several pipelines, one ofthem nearly a mile long. They made thes,trveys and then supervi%d the job.
Jn Gotdmima are Charlie Tesar (FortWorth, Tex. ) and Stanley S:!rriner(Thomsonville, Con..). Tex in,,estigatedthe possibilities of a Wti,ther station btltfound it unnecessarybecause in Goulmima‘fit’s always hot and dry, wilb freqtlentdt!st storms?’ Undaunted. Tex, wilhStash helping out. (ried m:!king greenhis patch of Sahara by planting cottonin North Texas fashion. This experin,ent,too, failed and for the sam. reason ashis first one: no water. Things may yetblossom in Goulmima, however. as Clen?hfclzger has now moved there wilh a
pair Of rfib~ts.9JJeginning in hlide[t, movi.s 10 Jtzr.
and finally settling [ill summer in Ks.!r-es~o.k, Tim Smucker (Lake Forest,III. ) and Bill Can~pbcll (St. Johns.Micb. ) ran into wheel-spinning :!ndIittlc else. Whb their arrival in e:tch lo-cation, available work s=med to slackoff. With the advent of summer heat,though, Sm,zcker and Campbell joinedRich Harris and Job. Brown in going tothe province of Marrakech with tbc hopeof finding work there.
‘Comrt,uting+st7 VOluntcers
fn Agadir province arc to b. iot,ndthe ,’cOmmltting*st” Volunteers, BobDomka (An:cheim, Cal. ) :!nd BruceBilye. (Wolf Point, Mont.). In movingfcom Taro”dant to Tiz.it to Gotdimimcto I“ezgane i“ search of work, Domkaand Bilyeu h~ve esctblished partialhomes i“ each plaw. Dan Ellison (Mon-rovia, Cal, ), more of a homebody, b:!sused TaroL, da”t as his base. The threeare w“rki”g :,s a 100% team in m:, ppingriver beds and calculating waler flows,Their work is designed to preve,ll thedisasrro~,s flooding that has occurred i“tbe so.tb in recent years. Specifically,this means profiling the rivers, stttdyinghigh. waler V.,bles, and using 11,. twocom~. tations to determine the l“cationsof dams,
K~,rt Sh;>fer (Ch:!lsu,ortb, Ill.) andJohn Schaeffncr ( Bonncrs Ferry, ld:t. ) ●began work and have stayed in Erfotnd.
LABORING ON CANAL to i,rig.te farmlandsunto., shovelers Clem Me+zge, (Leip,ic, 0.)
The program [here is a“ economic re-gional-development project, and they are:~ssisting in studies of available reso,]rccs.
The story of the Volunteer teachersis m:sinly :! geographical tt,lc: they arespoiled from Ot!jda [. Casahla”ca, andfrom Tangier to Awddir, Like the irri-Ealors, the teachers had job problems.They were patient but Wrst)asive inbuilding Llp to ftdl teaching scbed,desof 20 or S0 hours a week, From a job
*., bt,~ndpoint, the teachers were fort~,”atcth.,t lhey did not :,ct,tally have to find
Jheir jobs,
Generally, the teachers were fa~dwilh :, shorta~e of class materials. Forhis conver~d[ionnl English class at a IYC6Cin FLs, Dave Harris (Colorado Spri”@,Col. ) hiid to adapt tbe IIIWS of the astron-omer Kepler dealing wilh planetary mo-tion.
1. Tangier, A“” Lynn (New YorkCity ) do,] btless had lhe most variety inber schcd, de. She ta”sht p.rl. time i“three Iycdcs and condttcted classes forthe police :!.d for airport personnel, Theadwlnlages of Iivi”g in Tangier i“cl”de .view of Sp,,i” on clear days, A“” s.tiys.Spin is 20 or so miles awny, across theStrait of Gibralt:tr.
Ottr mu. in Kho”ribg:t, D:ivid Espey( El”,ira, N.Y. j, is the Vol~tnteer respo”-siblc for editing a“d ,1,imcogr:, phi”g then,ontbly newsleller, H.,k<,. Were i[ “otfor this eflorl, we VohIntcerS wot,]d beleft wilb only Administrative CircularLetters :,s a so(trce of information. Fur-thcrn>ore, this :%rliclc has i? l:,rge partbeen gle:lned from H’trk,,, and 1 herelicknow ledge my th:!nks. Oave is aidedi“ his work by M:t. reen McMan”s (Gib-son Island. hq<l.), wbo teaches in Rabat:!.d is o“. of o!, r forenlost Ar.Ibic sl.-dents.
St,,”mer pi:,ns ,,aried widely among
● : .,tbe teachers so”Ie t,{ttght English; someprep.I red Engb,h mnlert.ds for the B.-re;ttt of Touris”>; some Worked i. a cbil.
near ~msgit are (foreground, tight hoi,) Vol.and Stanley S“rriner (Thompson,llle, Con.,).
dren’s hospital; some worked for theYouth a“d Sports Orga”izalion; mmeworked i“ :, st~mmer camp some workedwi[h a United Nations comm.nity-devel-opmenl project; a“d one tencber revisedhis Iyc{@,$ English program.
Peace Corps[ Morocco 1 is, at thevery least, typic;~l of projects every-where i“ that i[ has st!ffered its share ofwork shortage, partial S(,CCCSS,entangle-ment in red tape, and so on. But thesene~ative factors h:lve been in the minor-ity—a minority interwoven wilh s(,ccessi“ personal contact at the grass-rootslevel; with the satisf:)ctio”s of havingtr:,nsmitted technical knowledge to Mo-roccans wbo will do tbe job when tbePea- Corps is no longer here; and witi
tbc fir., rcalizntion that we :!re here asPart Of a growing comlntz”ity of good.will ambassadors 10 the world,s develop-ing cottntries.
Kennett Love. a former New YorkTi,,?es correspondent now working as ;,Pence Corps project etidt~ ator, likenedthe project here to a rocket ship. Heeqc,ated the slow start of the work hereto the mon>ents following the trigger.i“g of a Ia””chi”g, noting tbal n dispro-portion:,te amount of ft!el is expendedto overcome inerli:l in lift-or. Once inmotion, tho~,~h, the rocket moves moreeasily, permilli”g a more eficic”t ttw offuel-r, as i“ our case here, h,sma”eKOrl.
This is where we are now: clear ofthe gro~,nd and o“ lhe wiy to a smooth,efficient, a“d productive journey. ‘rbis isnot unwarranted optimism. This is fir”Iconviction based on solid prcparalio”,on an inlimale knowledge of the pemo”sin service here, o“d on the very roisood;l,e of tie Peace corps
Sho,tly .fl. r arriving in O.ids, vol. n.I.,, +eache, N.nq G.lrin (Ch.,l .,.low., M.,,.] sought ..? e hommo.”(Me, . . . . . bolh).,,Surround.d by o!her women ond bychildren [,he wrote 1, one begin, in thecold room. move, to the hot room to,c,.b o“e,elf wl!h . stone, a ,ho,t rln,eagain in the cold chamber, ,mping inthe ho+ room, a ,;”,,, and out to .“as,embly room, I felt bet!., than I everhave. I plon to go b.ck again tomorrow.II,, II,. be,t ploce to meet Mo,ocanWm..?
—M. OD,
UUOED UPSTREAM on five, Mols”y. I. Wddle Atla, range is Vo[untee, Kenneth Delhmon (TheDalles, 0,s.), ostrida m.le c.rving baskets of fi.gerfing trout for deposit in upper reoches of river,
A Volunteer Finds WorkEdward E.de of Carnegie, P.., groduoledfrom high school and attended St. FrancisColloSe and D“q.es”e UniversiV. When heioinod th,e Pence Corps, he w., wo,king O,0 clerk 1. on Insurance office. The Ande.nMs,io., which he mentions i“ Ks or+icle, i, ocomm”ni,ydevelo pmenl org. nizotion worh.gwith the Andeon Intion, of several counlrie!.II ;S “o”r.ligio.s and is supported by UnitedNull.”, .0..,;.s,
IIY Edward Ende
1 arrived in Ecuador on Aug. 8, 1962,eager to begin my work wilh the AndeanMission as a Commllnhydevetopmentworker, Altho,]gh I wondered from thebeginning why 1 had been selected forthis project ([ had no particular manualskill; I knew little ahoul farming andless abottl carpentry and pl””,bi.8), Iwas assured [hat [here was .a place forcveryo” e.”
Once in the country, 1 discovered thatif this were true, some Volu”tecrs wouldhave to find their place themselves. Who
was to blame? The organization, for nothaving tbe job for me? Me, for not hav-ing !he skills needed For the job? TheI>eace Corps, for selecting me? Aclually,the question was not: “Who i? to bl.me~but ralber: “What am 1 to do for 20months?’ 1 can recall lhe hl ission direc-tor’s words. “Ed, we don’1 know whatwe are goi.E 10 do with ye”” and myreply, .sl will go anywhere and do any-thing, if 1 can do ii:’ I was senl toAmbalo to build a road. I have neverbuilt a road in my life.
Unlike some other Volunteers whohave built roads withotll experience, 1never get a chance 10 try. For one rea-son or another, tbc road-building projeclnever materialized. But 1 did continueworking for the Mission, in Ambalo, vi>iting communities and helping where pos-sible, Afler two months, 1 bati to decideon a pattern for my remai”i,”g monthsin Ecuador. Was I to continue with theAl issio”, doing little or nothing; or was
REPLYING TO COMPLIMENIS &rected ,. h., ., the dedc., ion of the pubfic Iib,.,y at Ogbo.mosho, Nige, ia, is volunteer Dorolhy Hassfeld. To slort the hbrary, she .nhst.d ?.pporl ofYo..sstown, 0. (near her home town of Po!ond), a“d several ~mmu.ity orga”iz.tio.s .nifed 1. the
prOie.8. Some 31A ,0. s of books were all.c,ed; I;brori. ns we.ded 0.? os worn or .s?le$s obo.+half those, and two .I”bs put up o ?.,.1 of $1500 for shipping expenses. After m year ofcotaloq. i.~ books a“d f,ttin~ ..1 . build”g, the 3000..ol.me kbrory opened. Chief N. D.Oyerin de, O. B.E., the 01.. She”” of Ogbomosho, thanked Dorothy and Yaung,lowm,
I to vcntt!rc out on my own Itnd try[o do something?
The former course would have hec”the easier. I cotdd have remained wi~
othe Llissio”, even to this day, and nothave beard a word of complaint* xceplfrom n,y conscience. But 1 chose Ibelatter course. 1 realized that 1 might rl,ninto insurmountable obstacles, but Ihave always fell that the two years i,,the Peace Corps would only bc as aoodor as bad as wc made them. With thisin mind, I looked for a job 1 could do.
tiving in Ambato, a city of 50,000,I noticed that lbere was nothing for thechildren to do after school and onSaturday. Then 1 got an idea, 1 knewsomething abot]t the Boys’ Ch,bs ofAmerica, their work and ideals. We havea boys’ ch,b in my home town, and myfather has always devoted time to it, 1knew lhat i“ the U.S. these clubs, forrelatively little money. cotdd provide ft, nand companionship for many boys. 1wondered if 1 co, dd start one in Ambato.1 wrote to the national office of BCAand asked for information (they gladlysbnrcd :dl wi[h me). 1 then wcnl 10 (hcPence Corps Represenlalive and askedfor pern,ission 10 work, alone, on Ibisproject.
The idea of a Volunteer working alonewas at lhe time novel dew” bece, Forone thing, it threw out the window theconcept of the Voblnteer serving wilha host-country co-worker. I am sllre that
,,c*
[be, Peace Corps had resemalio”s abo~,tmy reqllest, b.[ anyway [ reccivcd thepermission.
Wilh this permission, J felt i! my dutyto pro.c, for the sake of other VolLIn-teers that some (not all) Volc,nteers insome sit,, ations could be Iri, steal to worko“ their own and, on top of i[, workeffectively.
To n,nkc .“ already long story short,A“>bato, wilh the help of Lhe Roys,Ch,bs of America and the local towns-people, has a snlall boys, club, the firsti“ Ecuador. It took a lot of work, b~!tthe res~!ll is rewarding.
ff this story sounds egotistical, forgiveme. 1 can only tell you my strong CO”.victio” lhil every Peace Corps Voh, nteercan indeed have a job to do. He shouldnot be put OK by (he “eccssity of havingto go o,, t and find it,
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