P,eside”t Richard M. Nixon, M,. and M,s. joseph H. Blatchiord a“d /“dgeGeorge L. Hart of lhe District Court assemble at [he White House ior B[atchfordsswearing-in as Peace Corps director. Mrs. Blatch ford holds the Bibfe.

Blatchford takes

~:,e:~;,C;::ch;:;: :~:::;>..

s,vorn into office in the White HouseRose Cakden May 5 and left Wash-ington four days later for his firstvisit to Volunteers ti Africa and theMiddle E~st.

For t~vo \veeks he visited PeaceCOWS and host coul>try personnel inKenya; Libyt and Iran. Blatchfordwas accompanied by several peoplefrom Peace Corps Washington and histvife, ,\vho served as a volunteer inACCION, the privntely-spo,lsored vol-untary service progra]n \vhich Blatch.ford founded in 1961.

At the i\vearing-in ceremony, Presi-dent Richard M. Nixon made referenceto B1atcbfor/s interest and experiencein voluritary \vork and said: “He hasthe respol~sibility, despite his ve~young years, to come up with ne\videas, He has the opportuni~ to de.

velop ne~v programs and those pro-grams will receive the very highestpriority \vithin the Administration.”

After takkg the oath of 05ce,Blntchford described three majormoves to make the Peace Corps morerelevant to today’s world:

One is combined service–a periodof voluntary work in the U.S. and aperiod overseas, perhaps longer thanthe present txvo-year Peace COVS tour,~vhich might in tbe f“tire be con-sidered a substitute for mititaryservice.

The second is the reverse PeaceCOTS, bri,lghg foreign nationals tothis country “to tvork alongside ussupplying the necessary teachers andother people \ve need in this countryto fight our oxvn problems of povertyand the problems of the unde~riv-tieged,” Blatchford said. “We aretalking about providing the opportu-

2

of f;ce

nity to serve for those people, A1neri-cans nnd foreign nationals, \vho feelthere are no boundaries to povertyand that we must strike at these prob-lems \vherever they OCCU, here orabroad.”

The third petit Bl#tchford dfi.cussed at the White House was thatof opening Peace Corps to a \viderspectrl,m of American life-minorities,career professionals and blue collar,vorkers, not just yot,ng people imme.diately out of college who no~v formthe bulk of the Peace Co~s. Blatch-ford said he \vill have to study theterm of service, the living allo~vanceand other details to allo\v these newtypes of Volunteers to leave tbeti jobsand take theti famflies with them,

These new dtiections as yell asothers for the Peace COTS are beingstudied by tbe 10 task forces organizedby the new dkector in May.

I

Eyeingchanges

in thePeaceCorps

Next month THE VOLUN-TEER will present excerptsfrom the preliminary repotisof the task forces describedheri. Volunteers, staff, re-turned Volunteers, and otherinterested persons are in-vited to respond now or atany time during the summerto the questions raised bythe task forces, or to anyother matters which they feelare of concern to the PeaceCorps. Opinions and recOm-mendatimss should be sentto Director Joseph H. Blatch-ford, Peace Corps, Washing-ton, D. C. 20525.

Pzcz:: E::ef:;:t:;more than 50 perso,>s—from the PeaceCorps staff and from other professions–to lay the ground~vork for later,agency -\vide brainstorming on “ne\vdirections” for the Peace Corps.

Blatcbford met \~,ith the group forthe first time t,vo days after he \vass,x,orn in as Peace Corps director. Hecharged tbe members to “look at theheart of the Peace Corps idea, at fh~-.volunteer concept, at s~r\,ice, at effec-ti~,eness, and thi,xk about preparationsfor the 1970’s.”

“Co,lsider you,~elves a kind of leg-isk,tive committee,” he told then],“,vhich consists of subcommittees that\vill explore specific topics, call \vit-nesscs to help explore those topics,and \,,hose recomme”datio”s \f,illcome before the ~vhole group.

“JNohody here has an axe to grind,”said Blatchford. “There is no vestedinterest except a dedication to thevolunteer concept.”

The group, \.hich ,VSS split UP in tO10 separate task forces, spexlt t.vo,veeks deliheratillg their assigned sub-ject itreas. They \vere scheduled tomeet together to~vard the end of Mayto sllbmit preliminary proposals andrecomme,>dations. Blatchford planned

to present their recommendations forbroad policy guidelines on some topics to Pr~ident h~ixon by the end ofh4ay. White House comments onthese recommendations \vould help setthe course for more specific discus-sions during the summer, he said.

Also during the summer, Blatcbfor~said, a \vider range of topics \vtil bediscussed. He is hopeful that every-one in the Peace Corps-Volunteersand staff-as \vell as many’ outside of it\vill respond to the questions beingraised no\v and throughout the nextfe\v months, and \vill raise more ques-tions of their o~vn.

The task forces held a series of openmeeti~,gs at Peace Corps beadql,artersill mid-May. O,>e task force, that onthe role of retur>>ed Voh,nteers, calleda ,neeting ~vbich 140 Washington areaRPCVS attended and then scheduledmeetings of the same nature in At-I:tnta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angelesand Ne\\. York.

Follo\ving is a list of the 10 studygroups along \vith some representativequestiom they considered in May:

Attracting new types ofVolunteers

If the Peace Corps is going to fillthe demand for agricultl,ralists, expe.

I

At a reception iollow;ng the swearing-i”, the nfw directortalks with aide Mike Agar (left) and Roberl Steiner, director oi lheNo,tb Afr;ca, Near East, South Asia re6;0n.

3

5e”ato, Charles H. Percy of flli”ois is a guest participant at [he d;,ecto,,s 9first staff meeting aiter the zwearing-i”, Percy said he had high hopes for thePeace Corps; that ![ was a good [ime to, the agency to seek “ew direct;o”s,

rienced teachers, bh]e collar !vorkersa])d certain kinds of medic~l skills,~vb:lt do ,ve have to do differe,, tly?Ho\v C1O\ve get n>ore people (marriedor single) \vith these skills? Do \veneed legislative changes to alter theter,ns of Peace Corps service? Arespeci,d arrangements IIecessary i,, lightof these perso?ls’ responsibilities tothei,- careers a,ld f:,milies? Ho\v doxx,e involve more poor people fromminority gro~tps in the Peace Corps?

Technical assistance andPeace Corps programming

What are the pros and cons of ,mak.ing f~,,,ds available to or through Vol-t,nteer~ for the pl,rchase of “bard-\vare” that might increase overalleffecti,,eness of their programs? Ifgreater numbers of technicians areto be i,~tegrated into Peace Corpsprograms, should they he Volunteersor staff or at some intermediate level?Arethere nexv~ales that the generalistVolunteer xvoldd play il> an increas-ingly technical Peace Corps? For i“-st:lnce, could generalist Volunteers atthe village level be used as for~vard

observer-s to identify ,leeds for tcchlli.cal help, ~vith such IIeeds to be sup-plied through a pool of revol,,il~g tech.nicia,,s xvho are able to moue inq~iickly, help \vith the problem, a,,dthe,, move out? Could such a poolbest be established by creating ill thePeace Corps a clearinghouse \vhich,vot,ld il>clt,de technicians fronl othercourltries as \velI as the U. S., fromother agencies as \vell as the Peacecorps?

Binationalism

Should there be more host countrynationals on Peace Corps staff? Co”Idoverseas staff be completely made upof host “atio,lals? Can \ve have na.tionals on Washington staff? Co~ddwe give a contract to a host countryagency to manage tbe Peace Corpsprogram a“d have otle Peace Corpsstaff man in the coumry as a liaise”?To ,vhat extent should Peace Corpsprogram only ~vithi” host country

agencies Or prOjects? Under \vhatcircumstance should Volunteers beprogrammed to xvork otttside of anybest country framework?

4

Host count~ Peace Corpsand voluntarism

Can the Peace Corps adopt as animportant goal the encouragement ofhost cou,ltry volu,lteer movements?To \vhat exte,>t are the pote,,tial bene.fits from such an activity offset byconstrai,,ts such as: political suspicionsof U.S. i“,,olvement, lack of hostcoull.try resources to support such move.n~ents, the ability of poverty-levelhost ,>atio,>als to afford to be volun-teers? What shotdd be tbe rOIe ofPeace Corps staff in getting s[lchmovements started?

Reverse Peace Corps

Africans, Asiztls and Latin Ameri-cam could help the U.S. in the areaof edl,cational and social problems.Hoxv do \ve bri,>g abol,t the first step?What do \ve do eventually? Whichcountries do ,ve start \vith? Howshould \ve recruit? Why sho[dd the

@

participants be volunteers? Should ,\ve open it to countries that do nothave Peace COTS Volunteers pres-e“tly, such as detreloped nations?

internationalization and

multi-nationalism

\Vbat are the methods for es&b-lisbing mcdti-national or internationalprograms? What are the, adva,ltagesa,,d disadvat)tnges of: direct assign-ment of 170h,nteers to n U.N. agency;of ,~,orki,,g through tbe I,lternatiOnalSecretariat for Vohtnteer Ser\,ice andmoltnting multi-national projects un-der their auspices; of joi[ling \tithother ,lations to form a ne~v inter-national organization?

Combined sewice in U.S.and overseas

Which combinations of overseasa,ld domestic sewice make sense?What are the problems regardi,lg leg-islation, inter-agency conflicts, lengthof service, terms of sewice? Since inmany, situatio,ls it takes a Volunteera year to get started i,> a job, can thislearni,,g process either be shortenedor elit>lin:lted through some combina-tio,l of domestic service follo\ved byoverseas service or vice versa?

National service as analternative to the draft

Should tbe Peace Corps ct>dorselegislation that voli,nteer semice berecog,ltied as an alternative to thedraft? What is best in this area interms of Peace Corps goals? woulasuch legislation help us satisfy theneeas of the ae~,elopi,>g nations?Ho\v$vould sucblegislatio,l affect ourcredibility abroad or problems of Vol-unteer screening and motivation?

Returned Volunteers in the U.S.

How cal> Peace Corps best invol\,eRPCVS and utilize them as a resource?Shot,ld the Peace Corps establisb areprese,ltative Returnea Voll, nteerAdvisory Council? Can committees ofreturtled Volunteers be utilizes forrecrltiting a“d selection? ShOula avisiti,lg committee of RPCVs beestab-lishedto evaluate overseas operatiol>s?Are there any legal bars to activitiesby the Peace Corps to involve RPCVSill U.S. social problems on a cOntinu-i,~g basis?

Involvement of Peace Corps staffin the Washington, D. C.community

If the tMayor \vanted it, tvhat kthe potential for a program, such asa clearinghouse of vohmtq oppor-t“”ities, to assist Peace Corps Staff tOget kvolvea in the Washington com-munity?

2 Blatchford takes

office

The Peace Corps, ‘third directortakes his oath of office in the

White House Rose Garden.

3 Eyeing changes in

the Peace Corps

Task forces are appointed by

the director to identify new di-

rections for the agency.

6 The care and

feeding of Peace

Corps staff

An articulate gripe, from a staff

member who got fed up.

7 Your actions

speak louder . . .

by Melv;n Schnapper

How are your nonverbal man-

ners? In another culture theybecome quite obvious and im-

portant.

11 Iran

Life today in one of the oldest

countries in the world is pho-

tographed by seven Peace CorpsVolunteers.

26 Looking at

language training:

’68 model

by Deborah Jones

A report on HILT,s first year.

Second of a two-part presenta-tion.

P“bllshed monthly by the Office of

Vol.”tee, Support, ?,,,, corps,

Washi.8ton, D. C. 20525

Pat8rown,editor; I“dy Thele”, associateeditor. Design by Paul Reed.

ON THE COVER: Photo~rapher Den”is8ristin captured (his co”versatio. in acourtyard in 1. . . .

5

The care and feed;ngOf Peace Corps

staff

T;.FT::.:E;.E:. :.;%Is it on the Volunteer or o“ the de.velopmet>t problems of the country in,vbieb he seines?

I believe that a good case ca” bemade for the fact that the PeaceCorps’ prime focus is actl, ally on theneeds a,]d goals of its staff, that theo,dy rationale for the \vay Peace COVSacts is that its goal is the m’qintenanceof and ininistration to the staff, 1have arrived at this cor>clusio,) by be.ir~g a staff me!nber, overseas and inWashington, by listeni,,g to nnd\vatchi”g my colleagues o,> the staff,a“d sometimes e,,e,> by observing myo\vn impldses as i bur%xucrat.

To illllstrate, \vhen 1 first crime incol>tact \vith the Foreign Service, Ifollnd it very frustrating that the is-sues of foreign policy seelned so farfrom the co,lsciousness of tbe officersor fro,n the st,bstatlce of their reportsor discussions. The operation of theForeign Service became scrutable tome xvhe” I began to think about thegoal of the Foreign Sewice not as theColldllct of Americnn foreigl> policybut as the maintenance of the ForeignService.

And so it may be ivith tbe PeaceCorps.

There is ]]o\v a full-time Americanstiffer for every seven 1701unteersservit)g overseas.’ This cour>t inck,desboth U.S. and overseas staff. It doesnot include $Ipproximately 140 hostnationals on staff overseas. ( Consider-ing overseas staff alone, there is ot>estaff member for every 17 Volunteers. )

NO rational j“stificatio!> can bemade for s“cb a de,lse ratio of staffto Volunteers: The il>depejldent.minded young Americans ,vho makeUp the Peace Corps surely do “ot needthis kind of care and fecdillg or

help with decision-milking. Some staffmenlbers have ca,ldidly pointed outthat these great ,]umbers are neededbecause of the ways in \vhich the st.tidoes blisiness \vith itself. Putting itd~erently, one might spectdnte thatthe Ptilce Corps has allowed thesemethods of operation to gro,v up be.cause stro,lg consideration is u“cO”-sciously gil,en to the perl?aps primaryPeace Corps goal of serving the re-quireme,,ts of tbe staff.

A rece,>t example: Although thea\,erage ,It,,nber of Volunteers over.seas in 1970 is estimated to be 1,000less tha!, originally planned, it \vasproposed at o,,e poi,lt thnt staff bered{tced at the rate of only o“e forevery redttction of—hold onto yourpipes-50 Volunteers overseas,

hfost W:tshi,>gtol, bllreaucrnts agreethat nbot,t 25 per cent of their timeis spe,lt prod”cti,.ely nnd the rest is

sl>ent spinnit>g their ~vheels in endless,mealli,,gless conflict \vith other bu-reaucrats. The nalne of the game is“clefetldi,~g ollr prerogatives,” 1,vo”ldlike to outline here some of the ridesby \vbich that game is played, mostof the “rldcs” bei,lg actual quotesfrom Washington staff members in“senior” positions,

Supercreative Thinking—

Think Big(5 points)

. “~m not sure o“e staff man forevery seven VOhl”teers is too mar>y;maybe ~vbat %veneed is one for everythree Volunteers,”

● “My philosophy of the PeaceCorps is that ,vhat’s good for my de-part]nent is good for the Peace COTS?

. “One good staff ma” can con.tiib~,te more to the best coc,”t~ thana \vhole group of Vol””teers.”

6

The Party Line(2 points)

● “There aren’t too many staff-justnot e,>ough good ones.”

● “Better tiai!ling for staff is all,ve need, ”

. “The staff is better tha,l evec it’sharder to get a job here now.”

. “Gimme t~vo more slots and 1can really do the job.”

. “We’re a little Ilnderstaffed, buthk shop–Man~

. “A zood staff man can make aprogram.x

. It \voldd offend the nreroeativesof overseas staff for dec~sion-kakersin Washington]> to ask for Volunteers’Opiniot>s directly; they ca” ask onlyfor the sta~s statemetlt of ,vhat theVolc,”teers thi,,k. (Official policy)

● “VOhlnteers are constantly clus-tered together, griping about everything, not making hnlf the contrihu.tion they should and debating ,vhetherto rptit. The problem is tbe result of

a periOd Of underst~fing” ( ofici~lPeace Corps evaluation)

Things to be Thought

but Not Said(2 demerits for being tempted)

. My departme,lt is overstaffed; Ihad better cut back.

@

. My assistant could do my job; Ithink J.’]] get ollt of bis u.ay.

. Returned Volunteers really cando everything in the Peace Corpsbetter than the older types.

. Why couldn’t host counby na-tioi>als do some of the decision-makingjobs overseas instead of just being theed. or ag. specialists?

. Maybe I should tell them aboutthe three slots Sve got sqlltireledabvay.

● Riddle: Q. Wh:lt>s the differencebet\veell Peace Corps Voll,nteers andPeace Corps staff? A, Volunteers”kno,v the Peace COVS is funny andstaff doesn’t,

Things No One Ever Says(5 demerits for thinking them)

. I don’tcarehow it affects mydepartment; let’s do it the \vay that’sbest for the Peace Corps.

. Maybe the Volunteers are rightand the staff is \wong.

. Maybe reality about the PeaceCorps is not \vhat we thtik it is.

The authw b a setlti ti@ ~mber I

9itt Wmhington who fOr~dy s~edooersem on staff. He wkhed to re.main anonymw.

$ Th~se who are tfirsw “d to & carefulhow they convey that fact i“ Swazi sincethere are several waysof showing ttir$t,

, ., depending on what y.” want.co dti.k.

A dflnk of water

Beer drunk fmm a calabash w

Your actionsspeak 10U~~i . . .

BY MELVIN

Peace Corps staff member is huI~~ riedlycalledtoa towin Ethio-pia to deal with reports “fiat one Of theVolunteers is treating Ethiopians likedogs, What could the Volunteer bedoing:to communicate that? ~~

A Vblll,lteer ii Nigeria has gre$ttrouble getting any disciplfie in hkclass, and it is known that the studentshave rio respect for him because he Hasshown rio s&lf-respect. How bas beshown tbnt?

Neither Volunteer offendeif hjs ha>tswith words. But both of them .w:reuha\vare of \vhat they had compuni:cated through theti nonverbal be,havior.

In the first case, the Volul~teer work-ir>g nt a health center \votild go into+e waiting room and call for tbe nextpitierit. She did this as she tvotild inAmerica–by pointing with he!, fingerto &e next patient and beckoning” himto come: Acceptable in the Stafes; buth Ethiopia her potiting gesture. is f?!children and her beckoning signal isfor dogs. h Ethiopia one poinfs to aperson by extending the arm and handnnd b+kons by holding the hand .out,palm dew, and closing it repeatedly.

In ihe second case, the ,Volunteerinsisted, that students look him iv ,tieeye tO show attentiveness, in a ~?u:~\vhkre pqolonged eye contact IS con-sidered disrespectful.

Whale the most innocent A’herican-Engl&h gestllre may haie “insultirig,ernbamassing or at, least c~tiusingconnotations i?” another cultire, tieconyeise also. i>tme. If a South’ Arner-ican ivere to bang Orihis table and fissat the waiter for semice in a New yOIkrestaurant, he \vodd be fortinate if bewere only &own out. Americansusually feel that Japanese stlldents iithe U.S. are obsequious because theybow all the time. Male African stu-

7

SCHNAPPER

dents in ti,e States will be stared at forholding hands in public.

It seems easier to accept :he aibi-tiarine~s of Iangl]age–that dog is chienin Fre]lcb or aju in Yoruba—tba? thedfierences. in the, emotionally ladenbehavior of nonver+l communication,which ti many ways is illst as arbitiaryas Iinguage. . ,”

We assume that om way of talkingand gestiring is “natuia~ and thatthose \vho do things differently areiomihow, playing with nafire. Thisassdm~tion leads to a blindness aboutinterc~ltiral bekavior. And the indi-vidual is, likely to. remain blind afiduha\vare of \tihat he: is communicatitignonverbally, because the bests willseldom tell. him. that he hzs committeda iocial, blunder: It is .rl!de to tellpeople Jhey ire tide; thus, the hq:ts~e::e the Volunteer, a “foreigner’s”

., “ allowing him to make rnis-;akes of social etiqttette, and he never.kl]otis until too la<e which otles Drovedisastrous. I

An ,additional handicap is that theVoluntee; has not entered the ne\v set-ting as a free agent, able to detect andadopt new ways, of communicatizlg\vithout \vords.. He is a prisoner of hisown culture apd interacts within hiso\vri frame\vork. Yet the fact remainsth~t for rnixirnum understanding theAmerican ttsing, the \vords of aliotherIan@age, nlso must learn to ttse thetools of nonverbal commt,nication oftint Culbre:

Nonverbal communication-teachingit and measyiiig effect:is more diffi-cult thin formal lan~age instrllction.But now that language has achievedits proper recoqition as betig essen-tisl for Volunteer iucceis, the area Ofnonverbal behivior should be intro-duced to, Peace Corps training’ in ?

systematic ~vay, giving the ~aitlees

actllal experiences, a,vareiess, se”si.tivity, Indeed, it is the riie in Voluti-teei linpistic fl~,ency which nowmakes nohve~bal fluency even morecritical. A ltiguisticilly fluent Vol”n-teer may tend to offefid, eveti morethan hose \vho,don’t speak as welI ifhe sho~vs ignorance abb”t interface eti.quette; the national May perceive thisdisp~rity behveen ltiguistic and no”-linguistic performance as i disregardfor the, more subtle aspects of inter.culmral communication. Because non.verbal cues reflect emotional states,both Volunteer and host. national mightnot be able to articulate \vhat’sgoing on.

Whife some Peace Corps sta5, in a“d hap~ic.Washin~tor, as tvell as overseas. have Kinesics–tnov&ment of the bodv

\vork for Volunteer Trakirig Special.ists, Inc. \vbiih has con @acts for PeaceCorps tiafiing at Baker, La, There 1bVb worked ,Vitb groups bound forSwazifand and Somalia, and. at thePeace Corps’ Virgin Islands Traintig

tCenter 1 have een i consultant totrainee groups eaded for six otherAfrican natidns.

While it woldd be di@cuh to mapout all the ,>onverhal detafls for everylanguage that Peace Corps teaches,one can hope to make Volunteersaware of tbe existence and embtio”alimportance of nonverbal channels, Ihave identified five such channels:Kinesic. vroxetiic. chronemic. oc”lesic

recognti-ed ho,v proficiency in” “on-verhal co,nmunicntion ,bo{dd helperase unnecessary stiain between Vol-unteers add host IIationals, $,thers dis.miss its i!kpbrta”ce, feilirig tb~lt Voh,”.teers ,vill simply “pick it up” or thatit ca” be, dealt ,vith as n list of “do’sand tlon’t’s”, Occasionally a la,>g”agecoordinator or cross-cultttral st”dieicoordinate? recog”kzes its possibilities;but oveiall, ]Ionvertial cotim”nicatiokhas been dealt tiith in ~, very hap.hazard \vdy, That no,lverbal i“terac-tio” is a part of every encol,nter be-tweel, a Voh>”teer a“d a host natidnnlshould be ei,o”gh of a statement aboutits irnportk”ce.

For all the discussion about this areaand its treatment i,) ‘TIze Silent Lmn.gt(aga al>cl The flidden Dimer~sion byEd\vnrd H.11 and for all the scattered;anecdotal “\var stories”, there has notbee” a refined method for bai”i”g orsensitizing Vol”,lteers to “o”verbalbehavior, Because ,10 one knows all ofthe answers :~bout it, practically everyo-ne has hesitated to approach this asa trait]ing activity. In the rest of thisarticle, 1 ,vould like to disc~,ss themethod with tvhich I have xvorked andwhich I feel has implications for bothlanguage and cross-cultt,ral studies, 1

Sw.zi belief war., if youponn,tyourfi”g.r at D1.CC5of bu,, al, y.” may ..,.,move it a~ain.

(head, arms, legs, etc. ), The i“iti~lexample from tl?e health ce,lter i“Ethiopia was h problem caused by akinesic sign being used which bad dif-ferent mea”i”g cross-ctdtirally. A“.other exs,mple; the American gesture ofslitti,]g one’s throat implying.’’~vh ididit” or “I’m i“ trouble”; conveys quitea different rnessnge in Swaziland. Itmeans “1 love you”.

Americans make “o distinctiofi ,be.twee” gesturing for silel>ce to an adultor to a child. An Arnericaxl ,vill putone fi,lger to his lips for both, \vbilean Ethiopia” will ~,se only one fingerto his child and four fingers for anadult. To “se only o“e finger for anadult is disrespectful. 0]1 the otherhar>d, Ethiopians make. “o distinctionin geshri”g to indicate emphatic “ega.tie”, They sba.ke their index fingerfrom side to side to an adult as wellas to a child, \vhereas this gestire iscased only for chihben by Americans,Thus, if the Volunteer is not ~onscio”sof the meaning of such behavior, henot only will offend Ms hosts but hewill be offended by them.

Dra\ving in the cheeks a“d holdingthe arms rigidly by the side of thebody means “thin” in Amharic, Diet-consciol,s Americans feel compli-

A bodkd index fi(Igerindicates a skinnyanimal in Swazi,

me”ted if they are told that they are!M and so may natirally assume thatto tell an Etbiopion friend this is alsocomplitiel>tary, Yet in Ethiopia a“dn ,nbmber of other counwies, this istake” pejoratively as it is thought bet.ter to b~ heavy-set, indicating healthadd stat[as nnd enough i~.edlth to insttrethe two,

Proxemics–the use o{ inte~ersonal

sP~ce. South Americnris, Creeks andother: find comfort in standing, sittingor talking to people al a distance,vhich Americans find intolerably close,We give their unttsdal closeness tbesocial ;Ilterpretation of aggressivenessa,]d i“tim?cy, ca”si”g t,s to have fedl.ings of hostility, di$coti fort or il>timi-dation. If be back a,vay td our greaterdistance of comfort, LVe aro perceivedas being cold, ~,nfriendly and distmst-ful. Sornalis would see us as we seeSouth Americar>s since their interfacedistance is greater still than O“FS.

Chronemics–the timit)g of verbalexchanges during conversation. AsAmcrica,>s? \ve expect our par,tier torespond to our statement immediately,In some other cultures, people timetheir eicha,,ges to leave sile]>ce be.twee” each staterne fit. For A1nerica,lsthis silence is unsettling. To us it maymean thmt the person is shy, i“atte”.tive, bored or nervous; It cal,ses CIStorepeat, paraphrase, talk Iotlder and’“correct” o“r speech to accommodateour partner. In the interctiltixal sit”a.tion, it might be best for the Volunteerto tolerate tbe silence and w,ait for aresponse.

Oculesics–eye: to-eye contact oravoidance. Americans are dependentupOn eye contact as a iig” of listentigbehavior. We do not feel that thereis human contact withottt eye contact.In many co”neies there are elaboratepatterns of eye avoidance \vbich \veregard as inappropriate,

Haptics–the tactile form of tom.mlln]cation. Where, ho,v and howoften people can touch each other

‘9..

“1 can remember my firstfew months in the’ teachers’room when we were in thebeginning stages of form-ing friendships. A Koreanteacher, most usually a wo-man, wcruld come over tome, standing next to thestove (my constant positionfrom November to March):She would say somethingkind and inane about thecold weather, my eating Ko-rean food, etc. And she notonly came over. to me, ornext. to me, but nearly onto~ of me. I instinctivelytook a step back. It wasn’tout of fear (the~re all shorterthan me) . . . or anything likethat! lt was just that close-ness, barely touching, but al:together too close. It seemedslightly ind.eceni somehO~

“As’soon as I “was aware ofmy reaction,” I began to takegreater notice of this ‘thing’.I think the fact that crsm~pgfrom the St~teswhere if any-one bangs Into you on thestreet, you!re immediatelylooting for an apology or afight, made me much moresensitive to it. After a year inKorea, I’m more aware andattuned to this closeness andphysicalness which does cre-ate a sensual atmosphere.It’s just another strand in theKorean social’ fabric. ~hereare no hang-ups about It, nolew~nes~it just is. “And forme too now, it just is . . .!’

–Volunteer Hehm Derr&kWiting in the Korean Volun-teer mqazine, Yobosayo,April, 1969

\vhile converstig are cul~ally de-fined patterns. We need not go be-yond the border: of our oyn counpto see groups (Italians and blackAmericans, for example) which toucheach o*er more often than AnglO-bmericans do. Overseas, Americanso~ten feel cro~vded and pushed aroundby people who hive much higher tol-eration for publj~ physical contact andeven need it as part of tbek commtini-cation process, “A Volunteer may feelembarrassed when a host nationalfriend continues to hold bis hand longafter the form~l greetings are over.

These five ch?pnels of nonverbalcommunication ex?st in every culture.The-patterns aid forms are completelyarbitiary, and it is arWable as to \vhatis universal and what is cultl, rallydefined.

With trainees. mv obiective basbeen to make them ‘~onsc{ous of non-verbal communication, constmct satia-tions which \vill result in emotionalresponses (something impossible fromrending in a book that you may’ expectto be bear-hugged and kissed on bothcheeks ), and encou~age them to con-tinue the practice of Ms behavioruntil it becomes a natira! and acceptedPtrt of their repertoire of &ommunica.tion skills.

Part of the technique has been todivide a group of ~aineei in half,g~ve dtiectio”s to tine half so that

when they are paired up yvith a mem=ber of the other half, tbe nondirectedpartier will have feelings of discom-fort about his partner’s “strange”behavior.

As a sample exercise on proxemicbehavior (use of space), the traineesare divided into hvo groups. In sep-arate locations both are led into dis-cl,ss ions of. topics’ like ‘fwhy they ap-plied for the Peace Corps,” “antici-pated dficulties overseas” and similartopics in }vhich &ainees are ~terested.After awhile, one grotxp is given a setof i“stictjons. They are told that

when they rejoin the “uninformedgroup and are matched with theirpartiers, they are to” establish a dis.tance of comfort and then’ decrease itby one inch. ‘At each signal from thegroup leader, &ey we to come onei~ch closer t? the partier, Theses)gnals may be the group leader’smoving from one spot i“ tHi room toanother, or his stopping the group tofind ?ut what specfics they talkedabout and then asking them to con.ti””e. His questions always \vill beabout the conterit of the co”versatio”,not about ‘the experiment “in process.Eventually, ~vhe” tbe distance hasbeen shortened by sti inches or more,tbe nondirected parbers will experi-ence discomfort and consciotlsly orunconsciously will start moving back.It is easy it this point to explain tothem that their dtiected partners wereimitating the comfortable. positions ofSouth Americans and that if tbe un.directed pafiners ‘were to behave inthe same way yitb a Latin, the Latinwould think them ““frie”dly and cold,Conversely, in Somalia, it \vouId be theAmerican who xvoldd be perceived as~ggressive b“y standing too close forSomali comfort.

The basis format of the above exer-cise has been’ used to serisitize traineesto many other behavior patterns whichrelate to npnvekbal communication.The idea is to start out \vitb an “in.formed partner and a ?conbol” part-ner and ipform the one to alter hisnonverbal bebavior in a graduatedmanner to “make his partne~ react.Both persons will have an emotionalor visceral reaction, after tvhich timethey are ready. to discuss \vhat hap-pened in an intellectual way. Empha-sis is placed on the reciprocal natureof tie discomfoti and corif usion.

These group’ sensitizing techniquesare based on tbe principle that people\vill have an emotional reaction andwill give social meaning to alterationsof ‘standard American patterns of non-

O“t$p,ead hands held UP a“dthrust from side to side indica!es,

“He cannot be tr!st~”

,. :..

../-’.— .>.-1 ,’

, .—~. , .+

9,1.-

,,

Giving to Peers is do”. witfi the right1,

,,,,hand only i. swazi; the left handtouching the wrist indicates deference.

9

P’

An Amharic symhl denotingrevenge or a seriousor ioki. g i“ten donto beat .,,.,s wife,

,,The extcnd~ index hngerheld by the other hand “>,,”sone is skinny i“ Amhari.. Mosloften it is “ot . complin,ent,

Locked index fingers p.lltiapart sig. ifies the hatrdof violent enemies in Amh.ric

har,d in a c.ppi”g motto”i.d~cates, ,,Come here,,.

verbal bebavior. When someone blinks involve movies, videotapes and pboto-often, he is newous. If be avoids ot,r graphs of interface action a“d reaction.

eYes. he’s insecure, unt~~hvortby. If Tbe host nationals ivith whom 1he doesn’t nod his head k agreement have worked at Baker, La., a“d tbeor shake it in disagreement, be’s not Vtigin Islands kve found this inier-pay”mg attention, A“d generally our estillg. Once tbe atmosphere of mu.~terpretation is correct–if the other wal e~loration has been estah fished,person is an American. best natio”nh delight in this” arka for

In addition to grot,p exercises \vith it gives them a chance to explo~e theira seti-awareness emphasis, there are own cultial patterns and those of therole-plnying techniq~,es in \vhicb “o”. trainees. It also goes a long wayverbal patterl>s of the target language/ toward clearing up misconceptions theculture group are emphasized. Trati. host co~,”~ national got while dealingees watch a“d i,lterpret,, qfter which with Americans and with the potentialthere is a dialoWe xvith the host na. ,nisconceptions of tbe Volunteer, :tiorial role-player. I“ this \vay tbe To ~etermine the beigbtened aware.trainees discover \vhere cues were mis. ]Iess of Ilonverbal bebavior of Vol””.read and what @e consequet>ces might teers who \vere “sensitized ns tiain.he for them. ees, questionnaires are being prep?red

These potential areas of discomfoti for groups h Ethiopia, S,vazifa”djfor’ b;th the America” and host “a- Nige[, Chad a“d Somalia. Alreadytional are further explored after tbe ~ese groi,ps have give” the nonverbaltrainee al>d host “atio”til have e“. pres~ntatio”s a high rati,>g on pro.gaged in a role-playing exercise with gram eval”atio” forms. ,the host IIational critiqt,ing the tiai”. Ultimately, I wa,lt to inchade theseee’s behavior, These are ‘not. do”k to techniques ‘in a ba?dbook offerit>g aimitate behavior, bt,t to explore emo- varie$ of formats, emphases a,ld ‘timetional reactions. The focus ii o“ ,be. allocations a!>d showing bow they canhavior of a certnin ctdtu;e i“d does be adapted for the different needs ofnot attempt to compensate for tbe dif - training programs. The’ group .eier.feretlces behveen individuals in that cises, role-playing and a“~io.v~s”alculture. aids ~vill focus tbe trainee’s efforts on

The disc”ssio”s ,vbich foll”w the ~ll~wering the q“e~tion: “HOW do Iexe{cises in part are a!l a:ternpt to co?dt,ct myself when talking ,witb amerge the traditionally separate tom. host national i“ his Iangt,age?ponents of laqgu?ge and cultural stid. Of course, there is no guarantee thaties as “s”ally presented i,, trni”i”g heigbte”ed awareness wifl charige Vol.programs. Another purpose is to give unteer behavior, Indeed, the<e may Betrainees a foundation of awareness a“d situations where be should not alterskill ~vhich will, allow them d“ri”g ~? behavior, depending on tbe status,Peace Corps service to continue b“ifd. personalities a“d vahaes i“ the socialing t,p their perso,lal inventory of lan- &o’”text. But the approach seeks towage bebavior:. Tratiing for’ non- make VOIt,n teers aware of an area ofverbal commc,”icatio” sewes as an in te~erso”al” activity which for tooexcelle,>t oriet>tation for an immersion long has been left to chance or to thelanguage program. A heightened a$stimption that a Volunteefi will beawareness of nonverbal behavior ~vill sensitive to it. because he i: st,r.make the trai,leez’ less tem’pted t? rounded by it. 4break 6ut of the tnrget lang,,age a“ddiminish theti overall frustfatio”. It Melvin Schnapper, a rtiurned Vol-

is “ot giving them a ne,v” tool for corn. unteer from Nigerti, received h~ m.

munication, b“t making use of o“e ter’s degree in lingu&ics from N&h:

\vboso potential has bee” domant. &@tiern University in 1968. SirIce

And finally,. the tieatimt of “o”. then, he hm +urmed hti. in fere+ i“

verbal communication introdllces some nontierbal commu”hution with Volt’n.

activities qnd discllssions which are teer Training “Specidtis, inc., at ~he

both interesting and f“” while en. Leland Peace C~s Training Center

gaging Vohlriteers and language i“- in Baker, La. Pad oj th~ atikle ti

stiuctors i“ looking at bo,v they per- etirded from a more &entive paper

ceive each other, Very often tiainees he h witing jm the Center for Ap-

need a formal excuse to start asking pli~d Lingutiics in Wmhington, D, C.

real questions of tbe host nationals. Schna~per b interetied i? ~aaring

This format gives them and host “a. from other p~,..n. who have idem

tionals a ‘sitiation where tbe poten. about’ thti fiefd m a training cbm.

tially explosive topic can be discussed pm~~t, He can bE reached throughdispassionately: Corollmy activities the training center m Baker.

10

,,. ; .

,RAN i,one -. , “’i’.,::i;’. ‘?;: ~ .;:;.:,,of the oldest countries In the world>(~s histo~

going back 2,500 years to the days of the gre6!”~~rsian’ Empire.’ -<,,,, , ;Persepolis, founded around 500 B.C., and known to Iranians today ;~:~ .<”as Takhte Jamshid, was the capital of that empire. It flourished

,. .,.,

until the Creeks, under Alexander the Great, destroyed“\”’::

it in 331 B.C. Tehran has been Iran’s capital since 17B8. This

.“”k’

;~{,’

stone cawing was photographed by Neil Hart at Persepol is. ., . .

..,..

Mosque5 in Isfahanrank among the worldsfinest examples of Islamic

architecture — 5,,., E.an,

~

In Iran the movies are always crowded — steve Eva”,

,kI

Storks i“northwestern Iran— DennisY, [es

An Islamic religious pageant during the holy month of Moharram — Den”;s 8,;$k;”

15

Washing clothes isa daily ritual— Denni, B,i,kin

4

Rush hour o? Reza Shah Avenue, Tehran. Iranian Peykan car is the Prize

of the national Iotte’w advertised on th”e light poles — Ne;l Ha,t

Laborers ~ix m“d to complete a wall — Steve Evans

17

Camel makes a“unprintable quote— Dennis Yates

The wa”deting Dawish, a qUaSi-

religious ftg. re, performs ,’magic’acts and collects in the “tin cuP”on his arm — Dennis B,iskin

,.

1

1 .-. L1. =,,

.

E ...

Much of the worltis caviar comes Irom the catch of Iranianfishermen. Here nets are worked on the Caspian Sea — M;ke S.,kt

19

I

:.,.,>..-- --,=- -*:-..X.

An Iranian bannah (mason)

cleans bricks to be added tothis wall — pa., E.,,kj

.

,.

.,..

?1

M“d.ho”$e town in a valley of western Iran —Ne~l M.,t

21

Kurdish girl tideswith the family possessions

atop a camel — Denn;s Yates

I

One of four bridges, i .q \ ..yfamous for its symmetrical arches,

-~ ~ ..mm

_la;

eve, the Zaindeh Riverin Isfahan — SI,V, F,eeman ,. .

L

pizza crust.like doughwill be slapped onto the hotinside walls of the woman’s

. .. +

Youths from the local ,$House of Strength,, demonstrateancient Iranian exercises -’ De””is 8,;sk;n

23

T“rkoman tribesmaqfi5hes near the Sovietborder - M;ke5a,ka

Kurdish woman in western Irans

hauls water in her clay

jug — st,., F,eeman

.

.,,, * .1

Volunteer Wke Sarka, editor of the Iran Peace Corpsmagazine, Sholuq Nameh, and correspondent to THE VOLUNTEER,organized this photo essay on ,,th& land where we work andpeople we work with,,. He is beginning his third year as an

agricultural advisor in the village of Jiban.

Other Volunteers whose work is represented in the essay:

Dennis Br;;kiri, a TEFL teacher in Arak; Paul Enseki, an architectin Shiraz; Steve Evans, a landscape architect in Shiraz; SteveFreeman, a city planner in Shiraz; Neil Han, an architect andcity planner in Hamadan, and Dennis Yates, a Volunteer and laterassociate director of the Peace Corps in Iran,

25

This repoit on high in-

tensity l~nguage training

comprised a chapter in Deb-

orah Jones’ comprehensive

evaluation of last summer’s

training pr6grims. Tct writeher evaluation, “The Mak-

ing Of. a Volunteer,” Miss

Jones combined the views

of team; of evaluators andother Peace Corps staff mem-bers who visited 55 of last

summer’s 105 training prO-grarns. This is the second in

a two-pati presentation of

excerpts from her report.

TFZr~2~e0fri!;i~:~ ;t~biggest i,lt, ovation in last sllmmer’sprogram–raised as many qt~estions asit ans,vered, as irlnovatiorls :dmost :d-,,.ays do. Only o“e program did notuse HILT or immersion. (HILTstands foi “high i,>tensity la,lgtztlgetraining” and gives trainees eight hoursof it>strl,ctio,> a day, Immersion pro-grams had the sa,ne eight bo~lrs offormal study, but also ~,secl tbe targetl;l,lg,,,:,ge at id] til,les outside of class, )

The ,vay lIILT ,WIZspru,,g o,) t~ti”-u)g sites certainly did not e,lha,>ce itsacceptance; many la,lgtl.~ge coordina-tors, in particular, \vere angry becallsethey \\,ere r>ot co!lstdted abollt theshift, Other staff simply did ,~ot u,lder.stand it, or t,nderstood only that ittook atte,ltio” a,vay froln their o,vncomponents.

The evah,ntior>s sllggest. that HILT.vas t~”eve”ly implemer> ted, althoughthis ,findi,lg is pirtly a guess becausenlost e,.aluators made their visits d\~r-ir,g 110,,-HILT phases of training andso dicl not get a first-hand look ntHILT. However, they did look atForeign Service Institute (FSI) scoresat>d talk to staff and trainees, On thatbasis it is possible to co,~chlde that alarge BI{,mher of programs did an ex-celle,lt job, and that others appliedHILT half-heartedly at best. One pro.gram added the estilnated ti,ne trair>-ees spent conve~sing ,vith host nation.als to its co~,nt of HILT hours. A~,isiting ling,~ist remarked of anotherthat \vhile the HILT program cov-ered eight hours of each day, it didnot contain eight hours xvortb ofcoxltent.

In its purely lingtlistic aspects,

PART TWO

Look;ng at languagetra;n;fig: ’68 model

By DEBORAH JONES

HILT e“cou”tered several difficulties.Ot>e bvas that it requires dfierellt ma-terials from more corive”tio,lal meth.ods. Because the p>ce is so rapid,materials >nllst he more varied andmore exciting than traditional FSIlnalterials are, h10 special materials,vcre prep%red for last summer’s H1~rexperinlent, at>d so ir> 10 cases thelanguage coordinators felt they hadto supplemet>t or iexvrite the FS1 mn-terials as \vell as ha,ldle their regularduties.

Another probletn, “alludccl to blitne,,er fullv discussed i,) the e\,ahta-tions, is skAfStIg. HILT theory ,nai,l-tai”s that x 50 per cent “overage”should be hirecl for the high inte,~sityperiod; other\vise the burden 011 thetistnlctors is ovqnvhelmil~g. Evidentlystaffs fo]lo\ved this gltide]i,,e only im.perfectly, a si~ation \vhich led tocomments that they \\,ere asked to do,nore than ally other staff members,

sl~ecifically, mOre than tile retur[l~d\701unteers. .:

A third problem is that the HILTmethod \vas de?igned primarily for be-gi,~,lers. Most programs did not kno\vho,v to adjt,st the ,nethod to the neeasof those trainees \vith prior experience,vith the Ianeuiee lusllallv French.Ild Spanish ),- u ‘

Fc,v staffs doubtea that HILT \\,aseffective in iaising PSI scores. Oneproject airector said: “HILT is likecastor od—harcler tha,l hell to take,‘but it \vorks.” His opinion %..s e.hoestboughout the summer programs.

Perhaps as a natial result of theheavy emphasis on scores, maybe onlycoincidentally, a number of staff mem-bers \vere beginnit,g to express doubtabout the extent to which FSI scores

26

reflect ability, to commt,”icate, I“ the\vords of o“e “roiect director:. “Whatis esse,, tial is- n;t ,aII adequate ,FSIscore or fluency, but proficiency incommur~ication, What matters ii notho,v fluia or grammatically correct isone’s speech, bllt rather olle’i abilityto delivet a message or a concept\vblch ,vill be understood.” His pointii ,t,ell trike”,

Since FS1 materi?ls are ta~lo~kd to,,e~as of, foreign semice officers nndnot to those of Volu,>teers, it is rea-sonable to \vonder’ whether tile PSItest Ilecessarily yiehfs relevant., infOr-tiation nbout a Volunteer’s ability tocommunicate;

Some program{ tried to deil \vith“cotnmuhicating” as ,someiltirig thatcan’t be completely learned throughIingllage stidy. The t>+o Ethiopianprogrnms at the Virgin Islqnds Train-ing Center ran special “self-assess-me,,t/communications” ..grou~s thatc?”ientrntecl heavily. on ~eveloping+e tratie<s interpersonal communica-tions skills. The Pent co;ops groupinhoaucea an entire segrnen,t on thetlse of the verbal imagery by \vhichPeruvian cantpesinos communicate.

HILT’s effect or) the rest of thehai,>ing program \vas even less clear-ctlt thatl its linguistic recora. Ol>edanger, not ahvays successfullyavoided, wai that the ?mphasis onlanguage would, overshadow the restof training. HILT, for hhe thing, re-qt,ires a distinction-free. site. That,neans it m{lst be isolated, ana isola-tion is hardly concfucive to the action ,<

dand involvement to \vfiich the Peace {Corps should be exposing trainees. \.uMany progrnms solved the problem bysplitting the sites, as \VaS aisc”ssea

earlier, but others co”ti””ed, afterHILT \vas over, to tiah i“ isolation,

The number of hours and amo””tof attention devoted to the variousparts of a program also may conveya message. At one site, so stiiki”gwas the contrast behvee” tbe well.organized, streamlined HILT tom.pone,>t a“d the rest of training thattbe trainees readily co”cl”ded thatlanguage was what training was allabout; at another, co”cem about FSIscores overshadowed concern aboutfinal boards.

That HILT affects morale is cer.tain; bo,v it aEects it is ambiguotls,The step-dosvn from HILT i“ severalcases callsed a serious drop in traineemorale; i,> others, the HILT phase ,vascredited \vith developing nn impettlsand enthusiasm that kept the rest ofthe program moving, It is r>ot at allevident what circumstances are re.

spOnsible fOr these reactiOns.Some possible reaso,ls for a post.

HILT letdow,ll are: HILT creates sucha strong se”sc of the importance oflanguage achievement that the cut.back in hours and consequent slo,vi”gdown of progress at the end of HILTmay cacnse trainees to become p~nickyabout e“er reaching an acceptablelevel of Etaency. HILT learni[>g isspecific, detailed and mechanical; it iseasy to see progress beit>g made; “o,>eof the other components of trai”i”goffers such instant gratification, andso tbe e“d of HILT can be the be.gin,,ing of the hard p~rt of training.The quick switch from the regi,nenta-tion of HILT to a training atmos.phere in which tbe sta~s expectationsof a trainee and a trainee’s apprecia.tion of bis own respol,sibility are lessclear may \vell leave him disoriented.

There are fe~ver plairsible explana.tions for HILT’s positive eEects onmorale. Perhaps the d~c”lty of HILTand satisfaction at having met it suc-cessfcdly were responsible, perhaps theenthusiasm of tbe langttage staE stimt,.Iated excitement about tbe host co””.try, perhaps the connection behveenlanguage ability and successful Volun.

teer sen,ice \vas vi\,idly presented,An analysis of HIL~s effect o“

morale inevitably brings l,p the prob.lem of ik position \vitbti the program.Presumably, by starting ,vith HILT,trainees achie,,ed e“o”gh Rue”cy thatlnng”age could then be built effec.ti~.ely tito the rest of the progrnm.An added bontrs, as several progrnmsdiscovered, is that the other com-ponent staffs have all that time toplan–if they are there. That may beatl excellent \vay arott”d tbe generallack of preparation time,

Several staffs complained, ho,ve,,er,tb~t starti,>g off ,vith HILT merelypostpones the time ,vhel> the trair,eemust come to ~ips tvith himself, theprogrnm, a“d the Peace Corps :Ir>dmake his decisior>s. If a trait>ee is to.Issess himself, he needs ,informnti””from the begint>i”g \,,ith ,vhich to doit. StnEs of programs that started ,“ith.I ,veek or t,vo of cross-c~,lt,, ral sh,diesor technical trai,>it,g instead of \vithHILT ,,,ere plensed \vitb tbe res~dts,Triinces got vol”able exposure to theirjobs and to the Peace C“rps as soot,as they arrived at the site. O],e la”.gtlage coordinator said he liked itbetter, too–the first \veeks ,,,ithot,tHILT &qvc him 3°cI bis staff time toshake do\\,n.

Altb””gh “o o),e triecl it, some skdfscame to feel that HIL1 mizbt most:tppropriate]y co,ne at the enc~of hai”-ing. They re:tso”ed that j<,st beforedeparttlre overseas a trai,lee’s rnoti\,a-tion to learn the language is at itshighest and HILT tvotlld be imme-diately follo,.ed by field experience,Also, irl multi-la,lg~lage progrn,ns, do-i,~g HILT at the end \,,o”ld ease theproblem of Ia,>g”age shifts that soplague their staEs.

The integration of cross-ctdtural or

technical material iti~to last st]mmer’sHILT programs ,vas generally h~p.hazard and poor. For o,>e thing, eve”though language coordinators re\vrotethe FSI materials to make them morenpplic,ablc to overseas ser,, ice, there is

little evidence tb~t they co”st,ltedtheir fello\v coordinators to find out

lra;nees participate ;“ a ,,high intensi~ Spanish CI=S atthe Peace Co,ps Training Ce”te, i“ Escondido, Cal;f,

E&!

,vhat they ,,,o”ld have liked to seeinchtded.

Three TEFL programs tried to i“-tegrate TEFL it>to lallgt,age s~dy,but \vere not partic~darly sltccessful,T\!,o of them, i,> al> interesting andappare,ltly prod~,cti,,e experi”,e,,t, aI.lo\ved the trainees to clevelop the les-sotl plans for their l:>!>gt~age classes.In a,>otber, bo,,,e,,er, i,ltegratiol,amot,,lted to little ,Ilore tha!, n prese,,.tation of the school system i,, the hostlal>g”:lgc.

,\Io o,,e qt, ite ktilo$~.sho\\,to attempt

this so-cnlled illtegrntior>. NO rnateriills

exist, x!lcI except in ta,~ktst]al cases thelaxlgllage irlstr”ctors do ,,ot h:lve theexperietlce \\.ith TEFL tech)>iqlaes tom;tke a tx~20-\vay exchn[lge possible.The techt>iqt,e co~dcl be fr{, itftd, Lotit SIIOLSICIbe stll>ject to llltlch moreco,ltrol led exl>eri,]lel>t:>tiot>.

I,>tegrxtio,>, ,t,he,, it .t,as tried, llsll-ally coalsistecl of i,ltroclllci,~g IIl:tteri:dfror>] the other co,npo,>e!lts i,>to k>B]-gt,:lge, ,lot the other \\,ayarotilld. Thzlt,nakes se,lse. It is ill>possible to pal--ticilxlte cffecti~,cly it> ;1 foreig,,-lall-g{lage cliscl,ssioll \\,ithx score less thn,>2+, atld the x,ast lllnjority of PfiIceCorps trainees do not e\,et> ha\,e th,ltut>til close to the ellcl of trxitlillg, if atnil. B~,t as the experi!l>e,,ts of the Perilco-op grot,p described belo,,, sI1o,,,Gc1,i,ltegrntillg t,laterial froln other cOtn-por>ellts i,lto Iallgllage is possible ;Illdfl-ltitf{d. tilorc ofte,l tha,l ,,ot, ho\\.ever, it co~lld ,,ot be d“,>c last s(~,>]l13e,-becal,se the necessary ,,lateri:lls didllOt exist.

In o“e Sllpposedly i,ltegratedF,-ct>ch lallgi,age progra,ll, trni,lees\\.cre spollting sopholnoric dialo~ttesabet, t pro,l>el,:,dcs i,, the Bois deBoulog!le \vith \vhich most Pnrisi;l,,s,,,ot,ld be hnrd p~,t to icle,, tify. l,,others, langt>age coordit>ntors ]llade anattetnpt to ix>trodtlce ,le\t, mlterial,a),cl in t,,,o, redly ma,,aged to de,,elopit>tegr:tted langt, age nlaterials. Thebest exlmple is probably the Per{,co-op group iII \vbich e[l oljgh p repara-tion,>tithe ~s.os allotted for the projectdirector at]d tech,>icnl staff to teachtbc lallgtlage skiff abollt the proble,nsof co-ops ir> Pert, a,ld to help themdevelop langl, age materials b=tri,~g 0]1Peace Corps’ in\,ol\,ement in the co-op progran~, Topics i!lclt,decl classstitct~,re, agricldtl,re, the positio!l ofco-ops in the cot!ntry, ecunol>ly a,>dsome history as it related to the prob-le,ns of co-ops at,d to the people \vith,,,hom the trai”ccs ,vo~,ld be deali,>g.That program should be a model for

futclre Iall@age trailli,>g.Though the same general criticisms

apply to immersion as to HILT, theeffects of immersion seem p~rtly tohave depended on the Iangc,age. Thedata is only irldicative here, but itappears that French or Spnnish im-

mersiOn programs ,,)ay ~dvelSeIyaffect tiainee morale. Because theseare the t\\,o languages hainees nre]Ilost likely to bavo stlld ied beforeer>tering the Peace Corps, any groupof bainees \\,illsho\v a ral~ge of fluencyi,> them. When langt, age ability be-comes crttcial for rnakizlg friends, fork“o,,,i,>g ,{>hat is goil>g 011, for doingdt!ily jobs like \v:tshi,lg clothes ororderit>g food a!lcl ,vher?, in addition,language pi-ogress is the only basis ofcomp~rison \vith his fello\vs a trait>eepossesses, the less flue,lt trainees getdiscouraged easily. They m;ly feel ct,toff or inadequate, a,ld they have no,vay of co”m,,.icati,lg their tt.orries toothers. Whe,>, o,, the other hatld,everyorle starts at zero, ilnmersio,l canbe exhikaratit>g. Nox,e of thetn hase\,er had to converse in ~~hai or Hat!saor Ttlrkish before, arid nll experie,lcethe satne dific~dties.

The other problenl it>>tnersion raised\XIS assessme,~t. If a program reliedo,> a convelltion:d assessmetlt rxlodel,the probleln \\,nsnot so seriolas; the:>ssessrner>t offices merely becamehavens of English. IIut 11o,v is a self-assess mellt ,nodel emphasizing co~!n-selillg, i,>formal cOn\,ersatiOn, field as.sessme,>t officer ( FAO ) involvcnne,~t,a,ld so or) t“ \\,ork if the FAO ca,~.notsp~~k the Iangtlage at all a“d thetrainee is not flltent erlot,gh to disc~tss,vhat he is feeling? FAOS i,, sc,,eralprograms took language \vith the trai,l.ees a,>cl s~lpplcmented their participa-tiotl \t.ith English holars it, their ofices.The approach xvas prod,, ctive–it es.tablished rapport with the FAOS, iigot the FAOS it>volvecl, it gave theFAOS valt~ablc insight into the stresses,vith \vhich the trair~ees \\,ere fnced—b~tt it did not fully elimil~ate the prob-lem. A satisfactory solution 1,.s yet tobc \vorked o~tt, a,ld any staff plarlningan immersion program should de\,oteconsiderable time to coordi)~ating lan-gtlagc \vith assessment.

And so it is still too early to callHILT a st]ccess, It is fairly clear thatit raises FSI scores, bllt FS1 scores maynot al,vays be relevant. It is not clearhow it affects the rest of training. Tbechief reason Peace COVS cloes notkl~o\v tbesc things is that HILT \vasendorsed so fast nnd imposed on the

sumn>er traixling progrnms so single-mit)dedly that there has not yet beena chance for the testir>g and evahlatiol>a rle\v method sho~dd u,>dergo. It,vo”ld ha,,e been nlmost itnpossiblefor Peace Corps Washi]lgton to moni-tor the progress of HILT in any case,since language staffs are not e~,ell re-q~tired to il,form the Division ofLa,>gttage Training abo{,t \%*hattheyare doing. The hi\, ision call fitld ol]to!dy by visititlg the site or ,vfiiti,>g forthe final trait]ing report.

This sum,ncr Peace Corps shotddset lq) a series of experime,~ts \vithHILT, placi,lg it ill differel>t parts ofthe progran~ or exch, ding it alto-gether; usitlg stztldard FSI n>aterialsor Innterials developed partic~darly fora given program; usirlg differel)t staffratios and rotatio,> syste,ns; including,i,> some cases, trxinitlg in ,lo]>~,erbnlco,l~nlt,rlicntior>. Only the,, \vill thequality of its performance be clear.

Editor’s note: The Peace Corps Di-tiision of Lang tt[!ge TrairI ing rapwtsthat flILT will begi!% its second st!n~-n]er with so,rle flaxibilily in the nufn-ber of lIOIL.S of intirtiction [[rid the

distributio,l of those bolLrs throtlgboltt

i!ldioidual programs.

While the concantrution of itLtirttc-tiott li?fte was the f[tctor fnofi oftel~stressed dtirillg lati year’s HILT, thek~ngttage divisio?z feck that olhcr fuc-tor.~ s[tch (1s trairlces’ nzotiualion andgook and teaching methods areec{tt ally i?nportuj]t. TIIe divisionstress~s the need for “cornprchelzsioein~+rllctional program” tuhere tr[lineeskrtotu what they are expected to learltand tohen, g@ared to the rl~eds andabiliti~s of euch trainee [Lnd the needsof each progrun~. Once these goalsare set., hotu the troinee leart]s cotddt(lke ??lany for!lls.

Looking toloard fitch a corrl~@llen-sitie progr<tn], th@ Divisio!] of La71-gt,[jge Tr[lining is uorking cttrrentlyto orgafl izc a,l i!lf orm(2ti011 sr *em to

igather dat<L on Iat,gttage tea. tng andle[Lrlli!lg: tr<Li”ee scores, hoto the char-

acteristics of training [Lffeti languagelearnirlg, hotti the Vohtnteer btiildson his langttage skills once in cottrttry,etc. The diukion ako hopes to tighteltthe FSI. rating system by developingits otti!] small grotlp of testers. Theyttiotdd work as a ttnit, tesling andhelping collect data. lmprooed lan-gttage materials, more extendedteac~r trailli!lg and a‘ workshop forlangliage coordin[ltors are also pla!lnedfor the futt,re.

28

LettedOn photo essays

To THE VOLWNTEEB:

I \vish to ,nake both a brief com-mendation> and a more seriotis criti-cism of the recel>t photo series bySte\,e Ckq>p (Jlarch VoLuNmEn).

In commendation, 1 am pleased tosee at le:ist something from Africaappearing occasionally in THE VOLUX-TEER. I kno\\,, yot~ don’t print mOrebecattse YO(, dol~’t get milch materialfrom here ,Maybe this \\,fil prOmpt\r”Iu,)teer~ a,ICI staff to send more

m;tterial which sho,vs the l>e:lce Corpsi,, Africa like it really is.

1,, criticism, the selectio,l of pic-ttlres is not o,lly ~lr>represe,ltative, bt,tquite n,isleadi,lg. TO begi,l \\fith,,vhfle it is geologically correct tospeak of a contigtlol,s highln~ld stretch.ing froln L.Ike Chad in Bornu throl,

4Adama\va to the Sot,ther,l Cnme,ooras a land feature, this does IIot b~-come promillet>t u,ltil Bama nndG,voza, :dmost 200 miles frotn LnkeChad. If these photographs are ofthe Matld:]ra Hills, you are incorrectin labeling the series as the Adxma\vaarea si,]ce the photos are from Bomtlatld Sardauna :Ir=>s.

Your picture orl plge 12 is of xShl,,va Arab \t,o],>an and her child,.vho is se,,eral htltldred ,nilcs frolnhome if she \vas photographed ill theAdama\va area---

That is a very i,,teresting photo of

a l~apaya tree, klIO~vn in }Vest Africaas n pa\vpa\v, but it illustrates noth-ing about Adama\va.

Ho,v do yotl jl!xtapose dubio,lslyNupe carvi,lgs” and Yorl,ba bronzes,vith Bor,lu, Silrdaut, a, and Adamawahill people? They are a thousnndII>iles a,, d a cultural \vOrld aplrt.There is a rich crafts tradition in this.Irea, i,~chlding excellent brassff,ork.

The people of the hfandara high-la,,ds ,vere ,Iot driven to the hills by,M{,slim horsemen of the 19th cen-bry; they \vere driven there by in-

d

cessnnt intertribal fighting, or m@’precisely, inter-clan fighting and Slav<raiding, ma!ly clans eventually becom.ing distinct “tribes.” An interesting

Bthe Volunteer

book for those \t.ho \,.isb more on thesubject is D@sc8nt from the Hills byStanhope-\Vbite, The main effect ofthe Mt,slim inflltence \vas to freezethe evolution, ,Iot to cause it. Fl,rther,Islam \vas tvell established in Bomu

Prior to tbe Fula,li jihads of the eadY19th cellt~,ry.

That aside, my main objection tothe photo series is the rotnanticizedNational Ceogrclph {c vie\vs of cou!l-tries presented so regularly by THEVo=uwr~En. These sce,les al-e there;they are fascinatil>g p~rts of this com-plex cou!ltry. Ho\\.e\>er,\\,eare dan-gerotlsly dehlcling oursel~,es if \veassl,nlc or presel~t tl?is as the VoluI~-teer’s tvorld. \iTe set false i,nages be-fore otlrselves at>cl foster dissatisfac-tion and feelitlgs of incolnpleteness,vhe,~ ,ve vie,v countries ill terms ofthe splendor of Id-el-Kabir festivals,or th; picturesquet>ess of a lnountainvillage, or the exotica of a traditio,lalmarket. These are but x small p~rtof the life of a typical Volunteer.These pictures are ;I<out as typical ofa Volur>teer’s \vOrld as h{r. Clapp’sschool \vns of their’s.

One of the most commorl reactionsof Volllnteers is tbe rapacious gatb-eri)lg of artifacts a,ld incessant pictire-taki,lg, \\,hicb enables them to car~back a piece of the “c”ltire” to pro~.ethat theY really had the experie,lcethey came for. Another reaction> is thatof near olttrage and assltmptio,l offraud \vhen they find the pre-sewiceliterature a“d ro,na”tic expectatio,ltranslated into ftdl days of teaching\vith fc,v msterinls, hot s{],] o“ a bar-ren dirt road, picturesqt,e laborers \vbo,Ieithcr kt,o,v ,>OKcare abet, t comm~l-nity service, piles of papers \vhicbmt,st be properly processed to get themoney or materials to do the project\vhich the photographer call then re-cord as the miracle of communitydevelopme,,t, a,ld so o“. 1 have seenVolunteers feeling guilty \vhile doingat> excellent job of teaching, rejecting

, postings because the “ctdtt,re” Lvas

p. more interesti,>g i“ another area, de-

fensive about preferring comfortablehousing, disappointed to find col-leagl,es \veari”g white shirts and gen-

erally unable to come properly togrips ,vith their role some\\,here be-t~veen the traditio,]al and the modem,set>sitive to the renlitics a,~d needsof both. 1 have also seen Volunteerscleny the relevance or possibility ofk“ox,,i,lg the life of the vdlage.

If \ve are ever to get any ,vork done,,,,e must shed ot,rselves of tbe idea ofthe Peace Corps Volut]teer as an ama-teltr al,thrOpOlOgist/social scietltist i,l-cidentally \\,orking at a job atld con-sciously promote the idea of a se,ious,vorker doing his joh ,vith as muchconcern as possible for the complexi-ties and cot>flicts of the social contextill ~.hich he works. It is not so mucha questiorl of judging the vnlues as itis determi,~ing the priorities and thereasons \vhy \ve take as a gi\,e,l factthe necessity to kllo~v the ct]lttlral andsocial cotltext withit> tvbicb ,ve \vork.

So, \vith apologies to AII, Clapp forusing his excellent pictures as an ex-cuse for taking the rostrum, 1 \vouldlike to ll~ake a plea for telli,lg it likeit is, evet> though other thi,~gs arc.

FnANCIS J. METHODAssociate Peace Corps Director,

Norther,l StatesKadulla, Nigeria

Jfr. Clapp req~o !Ids:

Mr. Method raises a nta,mber ofseriotts criticisms of my photo essayill the h4arch VOLUh,TEER. Let medeal \,,ith these one at a time.

● Misrepresel>tntion: The \VestemNigeria,> art ,“orks–Benin bronzes( n“d they are Berlit], not Yoruba aspreviol,sly identified) and a Yorubacawing of a hlupe bOrseman-\vere in;advertetltly itlcluded it> the essay asa result of a misunderstanding be-t$veen THE \70LWNTEER editors andmyself. I xvas not trying to p?lm themoff as art indigenous to the Adamawaarea, although tbe reader woldd un-derstandably have thought so, Simi-larly, the Kanuri mother and child( ]]ot Sh\,\v. Arab) \vere located “inthe hIandara Hills” through editorialerror.

● Inaccll racy: Adama\x,a Province\\,ashistorically larger than its presentboundaries. Territory ruled by the

29

Fulani emir Adalna and his successorsinchlded most of ~vhat is no\v Sar-daltna Province as \vell as parts ofAdama,va Province in the Cameroons.(cf. Kirk-Greene Adatnawa Put andPresent). It \vas my understandi]lg thatthe tribes o,> the hills had been driventbcre during Adama’s raids in theearly 19th centt!ry, but Mr. Metho&sacco{]nt may be the correct one. Cer-tnkly the \varfare bet\veen N4tlslimplainsme,l and pagan hill tribes is\vell established.

. National Geographic romanti-cis]n: Gllilty. The pictttres \vere in-tended as an essay ot> traditional Af-rica, not as ax> anthropological treatiseor a picture of the Voltl,~teer’s \vorld.Oddly enot!gh, \vheII 1 \\,asin Yoln in1963 a“cl 1964, I heard many of thesame vie\\,sthat k4r. h{ethod expressesi,l his letter. At tbnt time it \vas con-sidered terribly gu,>g-ho to visit theI]t,sh. You o,dy left your duty stationto \\,ork 011 a project or to visit otherVohlnteers i,] other cities. Fello\vV“htllteers i,>formed yo(~ that you hadbee,] conned into coming to Africato do a job, and all the rest \vas publicrelatio]>s. Some of us refused to be-lieve it. The smart ones lcnri~edHalisfi (1 confess I didtl’t ). The restof 1,s, rolnantics perhaps, decidecl tolearn something about ourselves andOLIr stude,,ts by visiti,>g the traditionalcllltlires. Sure, \ve \vere tourists, al-thot]gh 1 ca,> claim to have spent amonth teacbi!>g primary school in oneof the villages photographed. Oursttldents called us Pence Corps spies.But if \ve hacln’t looked arot!nd us, if,,,e had bee” co,ltent to snap self-col]gratkdatory pictures of o~tr schoolsa,)cl our sttlde”ts, ho\v \vould ,ve h.?vediffered from the colo,lials and mis-sionaries \\,ho came before “s? Atleast ,ve came prepared to learn as,vell as to teach, 1 wotdd like to thinkthat otlr ch]lnsy efforts to appreciatethe traditional cultures pointed tomore proclt~ctive e50rts by later vol-unteers, Apparently they did not.But I’m not ashamed of my pict{,resor the memories associated \vith them,

STEW CLDP\Vashington, D. C,

Learn by doing

To T= VOLWNEEE:

After reading the letters in theFebmay issue, I couldn’t help b“tponder over the reasons that h4argoConk at]d her h~lsband had joinedPeace Corps in the first place–perhaps

because the ]najority of my group (Ma-laysia 1X) entered not to find a job fort~vo years (that could have been donehere k the good ole U.S.A.), but tOteach and by doing so, learn ourselves.

1 \vas faced \vitl> the problem of aBritish medical officer ,vho coldd nothave cared less if there \t,as a PeaceCorps Vohtnteer \vorking under himand \vho literally despked tbe mid-\vi\.es\vbom 1 \vas to work \vitb. Foralmost six months 1 made my o~vll\vork—visittig kumpongs, getting tohow the people of my to\m a,~d tbe

1outl ing district and hying to \vi,~thecon dence of the trail>ed mid\vives,vho at this point were very dissatisfieda“d discouraged ,vith their assign-me,lts. -

Through patie!>ce and perseverance\\,e\\.orked together and \\,her, n net\,medical o~cer \vas assigtled to ol,rdistrict, \ve lnannged to %pet> se\,eral“e,v Mater,, al-Child-Health clinics,vacci,lated over 100 school childrenagair~st polio,, overcame some fearsabout the evils of European medicineand hospitals and most important—,VO” the confidence of mnny mothers.

To me, this “jo& \vhich PeaceCorps folt,lcl for me \vas far ]nore re-tvardi,lg tba” any I h:id previouslyheld or hope to hold ill the futllre.

Perhaps Mr. a,ld Mrs. Conk andseveral other Volu,>teers shotdd ex-amine their original motives for join-ing Peace Corps and the Peace Corps’tdtimate ideals and purposes.

BARDAnAHOFF>lAN CntiBBFormer Volutlteer

Relax and be

To TIIE VOLWXTEER:

Yes, 1 fir~d myself in a comfortablehouse, better th:tn a t\vo-room apart-ment in hlexv York. Yes, I aln at aboarding school relatively “sealed offfrom the commllnity. Yes, my st~t-de”ts are “eager to ,nclnorize” andtry to reject inforlnation ,vhich isn’ton the syllabus. Yes, indeed, theyscorn certait> habits of trnditiollal vil-lagers surroutldit>g the school. ( Ot>the campus it is hard to get them tospeak English, but you wotl’t fi,ld oneof them speaking the local langl, ageonce they’re off it. ) And, yes, some-times 1 feel like a British co,~tractteacher with a lollsier contract.

For a \vhile I felt guilty that I \vasnot living ill a mud hut, or learningthe lan~age fluently, or e]noting \vithvillagers, I \vas begi,lning to share thevie~v of many non-teaching Volutlteers

that somehow the only people of thiscountiy \vere the poor, alliterate vil-lagers and that you just \veren’t doinganything valuable if you \veren’t deal-

~g \vi~ them. The s~dents Or civilservants aren’t people, or certainly nottbe ones \ve “role played tvith htratiing! Oh, ho~v I \vished I couldtravel arot!nd the cout,tryside bymotorcycle visiting all the villages,dispe,lsaries and fnrms \vhere the realpeople of the third ,vodd coldd befOuZ1a.

No\v I like it here I strive tolive in the present, to avoid thinkingbo\v tbi,]gs sho~dd be. There are toomany thi,]gs to dig in the \vorId, And,1 sllppose, as I jaunt around schooland skip ir>to the classrooin, 1 am giv-ing people 3 strange ,,ew experience:Seci[>g a \vhite man \vho actl, ally en-joys himself. In rejecting goals andprec~pitati,lg chatlge 1 nm, ,IOrhaPS,com,ng closer to the third \vorld vil-lager than n,lyo,le i,> a mud hut.

But 1 haven’t chnnged my positio~>.1 am still a lofty \\,hite ma”, 1 do IIotlive ill a mltd hut. I have even West-erl~ized ( Easterl~ized?) myself furtherby purchasing a record playe~ andsome rlebv rock records. I even (horrorof horrors) try to turn some of mystude,lts on to thetn! And I have cometo the co,lclusior] that the best wayany Voht”teer can t,nderstand or ap-preciate his position is to read Henry,Miller,

As Miller po,lders, \vhile uri,latingin Paris: “SO Robin30,1 Crusoe “otonly fot,”d a \vay of getti,lg along, b“teve” established for himself a relativehappiness! Bravo! One ma” \vl,o wassatisfied ,vith a rclatioe happiness, SoA,>glo-Saxon, so pre-Christia”Y 1 add:Don’t do or undertiand; j~,st TC1OX,.“<1 be.

PETER H. DA\qsKaro,lga, Malawi

Lessons of history

To THE \70LUXTEER:

Fortunately, our predecessors chosenot to follo\v the course of Mr. Creesy’strait>it>g program (,Varch VOLUNTEER)and shoived us a wheel already made\vith detailed i,lstructions about itsconstrltction. Thus freed from theburden of discovering the \vheel forhimse~, for the l]mpteen millionthtime in history, man bas si,]ce tiventedthe oxcart, the m~l, the clock, tbeelevator, the automobile, the airplane,not to mention the press that prints

30

THE VOLUNTEER.Indeed, had our historical prede-

cessors taken \vhat Mr. Creesy ndvo-cates seriol, sly, \ve \vould not evenha\,e the paper upon \vhicb you, I andhlr, Creesy tvrite. Although doubt-less the Escotldido tiaining program\vas valuable, isn’t it possible thatthere are so,ne principles of historythat could also apply to Peace Corps?

BILL hlILLERY80~,”de, Cameroon

placement technique

To THE VOLWTEER:

1 am an RPCV from Uruguay pres-ently involved i,> a Wai[>itlg programat the Peace Corps Traitlirlg Ce,lter i,>Escondido? Calif. 1,, my \vork 1 ha\,ebeen able to see ma~>y of the badpoi,~ts as \vell as the ,Ilerits of tbePeace Corps, fIo\vever, one of thethirlgs t.hich distlirbs me much morethat> others abol,t the Peace Corps isthe ,vay ir> \vhich Vohtnteers are pro-grammed, the ,vay in \vhicb sites aresecll red. Irl the case of rn.tny coLln-tries there are too tnany Voltanteers;the hainees do not kno\v mtlch abotit,vhat they are goirlg to C1O,nor tvherethey are goir>g before they actuallyget there, arid the host co,,ntiy peopleare tlot made to feel responsible forthe Volu,lteer.

Uruguay has tried and had sliccess,vith a techtlique ,vhicb I think de-serves mel>tion here, Jn Urt,gll:ty noreqtlest is made for a Vohnnteer llntilsome town or institl,tion h:ls actllallyreqllested that a Volunteer come. TbePeace Corps office then goes out tomake sure that the to,vn or institl,tionis sincere ill its desire for a Voll]nteer.A tilpe recordit>g is made in whichthe people or institution reqllestingthe Volu,>teer state \vhat their deskestare, what the job \vill be, and \vhatthey recogrlize as their responsibilityto the Volu,lteer to be. Only at thispoint does Peace Corps Washingtonbegit> looking for a potential Volun-teer for this site or program. Whenthat Volut,teer is fOund and goes totiai,]irlg, be receives the t:lpe atld thusbecomes a,vare of ( 1 ) ,vherc be isgoit~g, (2) \vhat is to be expected ofhi,n, and (3) \vhat he can expect fromthe sltpporting institution. After train.ing is over, the tape is filed a,vay inthe Peace COTS Urugt]ay office.

Although the amount of preparatory\vork necessary h country before theVoh,,,tcer is e,.e,> reql,ested wouldgreatly reduce the number of Volun-

teers in any given country, I thinkthat the effectiveness of the individualVolunteer ~votdd it]crease proportion-ately. From the begin,,ing he wouldMotv ,vhat \vas expected of him,where he \\.asgoing, a“d what to ex-pect. There \vould be fe~ver cases ofVolunteers withot~t jobs, of Vol””-teers disappointed because they didn’texpect what they “got,” etc. S,lch amethod of programming would givethe Peace Corps the quality and effec-tiveness it needs, instead of the quan-tity and “dead \vood ,vhich it al-ready has.

GEORGE WILCOXEsco,ldido, Calif.

Malawi ag program

To THE VOLUNTEER:

1 just xvant to ‘~ditto” the letterxvrittet> by LeRoy Mabery (April VOL.UNTEER). A very similar situationocctlrred here i“ M:da\vi with the first

agri~ultu,al group. There’s o,>e differ.ence; Washi,lgton staff had visitedMala\vi at,d talked \vith Volunteershere arid then went back to Washing-ton, to ,write erroneous reports andcatlcel the next program o“ the basisof misinforrndtion,

The problems i“ our program wereworked o~,t by staff a,ld Volunteershere, :,nd we honestly thought wehad st,bmitted a good progra,m. l,,rejecting the project, Was hi,>gto,l gavereasons which made us think thateither they had the \vrong project infront of them or they were so intenton not approving this project that anyreasons for ref~,sal ,vo”ld suffice,

Agrictdt”re is about the only thingMalawi h~s for IIatural resources. Itis an area \vhere, the governme,lt isplacing great emphasis. For PeaceCorps not to be j“volved i“ agricul-ture ,,ot only makes no sense to ushere, b“t also makes 1,s wonder \vhat\ve sho,dd involve ot,rselves i“ thatwo,dd meet the approval of Washing-ton. a“d at the same time aid in thedevelopment of tbe cou~~tiy. I alsorepeat: Upon what bmes are program

decisions de?

Might I be so bold as to suggestthat in the case of Malawi, it might bepolitical prejc~dice?

JOHN FLEMINGBlantyre, Malawi

Tm VOLm=ER welcomes letterson all subjects of intereti to the PeaceCrops. Letters are ~Lbie~ to conden-sation.

MemorandumTo : The field DATE: June, 1969

FROM : The editors

SUBJE~ Moving on

Passing UP a job on his father,s ranch, ignoring the t~rge to writetangos in Agentina and leaving his rose bushes behind, Jack Vat!gbngoes to Colombia this month as U.S. ambassador. The appointment byPresident Nixon marks the former Peace Corps director’s second am-bassadorial assignment, having served as the U.S. e,~voy to Panama in1964-65. And it’s a return to a country he has visited many times, mosflyto talk ,vith Peace Corps Volunteers. Vaughn will be back and forthbetween Washington and Bogoti before ,he settles it, the A,ldean capitalat the end of June. 1“ mid-June hi ,vill acco,np~,ly Colombian PresidentCarlos Lleras Restrepo on a state visit to Washi,,gton, Mea,lwhile, he isprepari,>g for his tour, fi,ldi,,g the at,nosphere at the State Departnle,lt“very heady” and visiting literally dtize”s of organizations a“d institutionsin and arotlnd governtnent, “But the Peace Corps isn’t on my briefi,lglist,” he says,

Mark Brown, our correspondent in Korea, reports that a Vol.~lnteer there has won first place i,> the Korean La,lguage OratoricalContest for Foreigt~ Natio,lals, William B. McCloy, after delivering aspeech on the ~lse of Hangld, the Korea,, alphabet, tvas preserlted \vitha citation and the silver trophy provided by President Chl,ng Hee Park.T\vo other Voh,nteers, G?rry Katsel and Timothy OBrie”, \vere amongthe ttvelve \vho received a\vards. Contestants from six different cot]ntriesparticipated, In the accompanying photo, McCloy receives his a}vardfrom, Kim Bong-gi, the presidel,t a“d publisher of Tb Korea Fzeraldwhich sponsored the co,~test,

❑ on

Billed as “sole power, ,, the Africa Trek for Developlnent in MXY

attracted hetxvee,l 20 a,~d 30 Peace COVS hikers. About a doze” of themwalked the 24 miles aro~lnd Washingto,l, D. C.’s Rock Creek Park andthus helped raise money for Operation Crossroads Africa, the AmericanFreedom from Hunger Fo”ndatio” a“d a Washi”gto” day-care center.Upwards of 200 staff members pledged ,no”ey to the hikers based onmiles finished. Some ,valked for $1 or less a mile, b“t C, Pape Lucas,Peace Corps’ Africa director, had acct,mulated pledges ,vhich made him,vorth $39 a mile; he finished the course and tht~s netted neady $1000for the catlse.

31

Peace Corps outmoded?

To THE VOLUNTEEn:

A good while ago, I looked at thePeace COWS and saicl to myself: Scre\vit! It’s not even \vorth ~vorrying about.But last November, dl]e to a SelectiveSewick sitiation beyond my control,I became invol\,ed h n Peace Corpstr$i,ling program as a qllasi-staff mem-ber. After that experience, 1 still don’tthink the Peace Corvs is \vortb \vorry.it, g about.

Recently, \vbile leafing through theMarch Voiu~%ER (the tvay 1 leafthrough a %7utional Geographic maga-zine–glancing at the pictl,res), Chris-ti,~e Iacobso,>’s letter I>lo,.ed me toput ~y distaste into \\,ords.

The Botswa”;t training session Imentioned was a. f:lilc,re simply be-Entise tbe staff segre~ited themselves,never really viewing the trainees aseq~,xl human beings. 1[] fact, thechasm \vas so tvide that xvben tbestaff de-selected three trait,ees at theend of the prograln, the traineesstaged a sit-in strike refusing to go toBots\vana unless their fello\v trainees,vere re-instated. They held tbe strikebecatlse they believed the staff \vasincapable of ktlo\vir~g \vbo should orsboldd not be selected sil>ce tbe staffdid not krlow the traitlees. PeaceCorps Washingtotl respo,lded by send-ing one of its bureaucrats to tbe txain-ing site. After an it~vesti&~tiol>, heconcl,rred ~\,itb the trairlees that thestaff was incapable of judging themerits of the trainees. Ho\vever, itwas not for trainees to decide wboshol,ld be selected. They, the trainees,ml,st have “faith an?l ~rllst” that thedirector kno\vs best. Ft,rtber, besnid it gave bim faith ill, the youth ofAmerica that they staged such a shikeand they ti tl,rn sholdcl ha\,e faith intbe Peace Corps becalsse of the ivayPeace Corps responded. He hoped

the Peace COVS >vould never repres$such expressions of Voh>nteer spkit.Whether or not the Peace Corpsshol,ld emphasize technical skills orpersonal communication \vas anotherproblem he hoped \votdd never beresolved, Sltch titellectl,al co,lflicbas these are \vhat makes the Pea~eCorps \,,hat it is. Correct! It isn’tmtlch.

1 omit tbe administrator’s name onlybecause, 1 do,>’t remember it.

Beit~g a “draft dodger,” 1 also IIO-ticed in the same issue of THE VOL.“XTEE” “A look at PCVS ~,.ho face thedraft.” The article presents a de-tached vie\v of ho\v tbe draft affectsi,~dividual Peace Corps Volunteers.The article stntes that Voh,nteers mny“avoid induction through circllm-stances \vhich could ra,,ge from fail-ing tbe military pbysir.d to enteringa“ edtlcntiinal or other\vise de ferablecategory.” 1 sltbmit there are uthermethods being employed.

1 bri,~g up these situations to blttt-ress my point. The Peace Corps is ,?,s,nall, inlsigllificant arm of the U.S.gover,lmel>t, n,, outmoded appendage\vhose slight movemel>ts are controlledby the prevailing philosophy of thecurretlt U.S. government, Tbe I>eaceCorps progrnm in Bots\van;t is n “nice”facet of a U.S. foreign policy thatrei,l forces ap~rtheid through Americanbusit]ess it>vestmellt, gold pltrchases,satellite tiacking statio)~s, etc. Acrossthe U,lited States a,>d tbroughollt tbe,vorhl, youth are refusing t? let olclerpeople tl~ake decisio,ls for them. Yetthe Peace Corps tells its Vohlnteersto have faith at>d trust in the ndmin-istratio,l to make the decisions fortheln. Activist youth are confrontingthe draft atld resisting it, It is easyto ur>derstand hex!, a bureaucracy thatvie\vs these people as “draft dodgers”fails to attiact them.

When Kennedy \vas President, the

“Peace” Corps \vas alive, qowing be-cause be \vns alive and ~ow,hg. WithJohnson, it became static; conflicts be-came dilemmas. Al,d with Nixon, itwill become outmoded, regressive,and, hopefully, die.

KEVXN~NECfa~vfordville, Ca.

Building ‘self-hood’

To THE VOLUNTEER:

In referetlce to “Cold Peace Corpshash by Miss Jacobson (Mzrcb VoL-UXTEER) :

I disagree \vith he! \ehen she saysthat no one kt>o\~,sivhat Peace Corpsis all zbolit, Peace COVS is an in.di,,idua~s organization. Miss Jacob-son, like many others, \vho mk thisquestion, >tppctlrs to think a suitableor satisf[lctory :lnswer can be given toher. It is for e:,ch Volhnteer to \vorkot,t his or her “o\vt,,b~g.”

Peace Coq>s expk<ience helps es-tablish 7self-hoo& ivhicb enables aniiidividtlal to fu,>ction in the \vodd,,.ith co,>fidellce a,ld direction. Bt,tin a larger se,lse, tbe ability to relatethis feeling of identification to others,,,110 have not shared this experiencecantlot be overemphasized.

1 shall ,>ot bc so ,]aive as to offercomrner,ts on I1OLVPeace Corps basaffected the flo\v of history. T\vo yearsis not enoi,gh titne ho do a good jobin the Peace Corps and three years istoo long to receib,e a \701unteer’s al-lo,.ante. bliss Jacobson is not the onlyone T\,lIo entered Peace Corps \vithhigh, brigbt ideas. Many Voll,nteersenter Pe:ice Corps looking for or ex.petting too milch tdo fast.

VERNONL. WASFIINCTONLeribe, Lesotho

THE VOLUXTEER hm received manymore respoi~ses to Chrtiine Iacob-son’s letter. They ioill appear nextmonth,

CHANGE OF ADDRESSPEACE CORPS

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OFFICIAL BUSINESS

Street or P.O. Box

GY, State, ZIP Code

Effective date

Mailing label at right must be sentwith all requests for changes ofaddress.

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