Correspondents:

Bolivia:

William Buzenburg

British Honduraa:

Randall Morgan

Chad:

Richard Henkle

Chile:

Richard Feinberg

Colombia:George Gremse

Dahomey:

John McDonald

Ee8tarn Carlbbaen:

Philip Ternahan

James Retter

Ethiopia:James W, Skelton, Jr

Fiji:

Jeff Thigpen

Gambia:

Paul Gordon

Ghana:

Lawrence Grobel

Gulnaa:

Charlea T. Creecy

Guyana:

John Colaman

Honduraa:

Pau I Lux

Iren:

H. David Hoovler

Ivory Coeat:

Greg Stanton

Jemeica:

Andrew Theokaa

Ken ye:

Richard Beatty

Korea:

Aaron Gu~itz

Malawi:

T. D. McCloskey, Jr

John Shannon

Mauritiue:

Joseph B, Sa’nder

Mlcroneeia:Jim Crowder

Morocco:

Kenneth Agata

Roberta Preea

Nepel:

Gordon Murray

Nigeria:

Bob Larson

Paru:

Karl Lorenz

Phlllppinae:Vivian Kagefer

Sanagal:

Imin Arieff

Sw=llend:

Mike Ascoleaa

Thailand:

Mike Schmuecker

Tongs:

Andre NeuUQanda:

Vicky Riback

Uruguafi

William Purdy

Westarrr SemOa:

Dennis Tepler

2

THE PEACE CORPS VOL IX NOS 3-4 MAR-APR 1971

3

6

Cover“Don’t talk about a better world—get outand make it better” is a challenge for allAmericans, The opportunity is now possiblewith the President’s new agency for voluntary

service (see opposite page). The words areBarkley Moore’s, Peace Corps Volunteer inIran, who has proved what one man can doto help his fellow man,

Beginning of a New Era

Volunteer in the Gray Flannel Suit

by Woody CarterVolunteers in a Punjab Family Planning

program learn they must work at a levelhigher than they would like in order to

be effective.

12 The Beautiful American

by Jim HamptonThe accomplishments of one Volunteerwho believes that one individual can make

a difference.

Departments

15 News8 Switchboard9 Survival!2 Media

Photo Credits

Delmar Lipp, National Observer—cover

Shirley Bevington 7Woody Carter 7911Susan Biddle 15

IATIONAL PEACE CORPS WEEK—MAY 30-JUNE 5, 1971

‘M--- H.J.~ 312

-.. .,.,,!. ,b-,. -,d., -m-,. -,---

-.!-- .-.,., —..,-”

beynnPmo new

Officially it’s Action, but it is rapidlybecoming known as the Action Corps.

It’s the new volunteer agency firstproposed by President Nixon in his Uni-versity of Nebraska speech (January 14),and now officially requested of Con-gress in a message Mr. Nixon sent to

the Hill on March 24, It carries forththe President’s belief that the govern-ment must “find effective ways of en-listing the dedication and idealism ofthose young Americans who want toserve their fellow man. ”

)

Action consolidates the Peace Corps,STA and seven other volunteer agen-

cies, centralizing management of 15,000full-time and 10,000 part-time volunteersworking at home and abroad. Its

budget has been set at $176,3 millionwhich equals the combined, budgets ofthe nine present agencies plus an addi-tional $20 million for “innovation pur-poses. ”

The new agency will have the follow-ing program components:

. . . Full-time domestic volunteerswho will work on problem-solving atthe local community level in economicdevelopment, education and man-power, community development, health,social services and housing, includingnew areas such as environment, as longas there is a poverty emphasis.

... . Full-time overseas volunteersin education, agriculture, professionalservices, trade skills, health, communitydevelopment and other areas.

. . . . Part-time volunteers including

IY

businessmen to work with small busi-nesses, senior citizens to work with

children who are institutionalized andon other community problems and stu-

dents to work on other local projectsof their-own selection.

. . . . Clearinghouse for Federal volun-teer programs.

The new agency will be effected inthree phases.

The first is a reorganization whichwill consolidate six agencies: VISTA

and auxiliary and special programs fromOEO; Foster Grandparents and the Re-tired Senior Volunteer Program from

HEW, and the Service Corps of RetiredExecutives and the Active Corps ofExecutives from the Small Business Ad-ministration.

In phase two, when the reorganiza-tion becomes effective, the Presidentwill transfer the Peace Corps and theOffice of Voluntary Action to the newagency (this procedure is necessary be-cause of the way the Peace Corps isset up in the Executive Branch).

The third phase involves legislationrequesting that the Teacher Corps be

transferred to the new agency, that aNational Advisory Board be establishedand that certain VISTA authorities bebroadened.

The reorganization plan takes effectautomatically unless either house ofCongress objects within 60 days (some-time in May). Congressional experts sayhis is unlikely.

As the President announced in Jan-Jary, Peace Corps’ Joe Blatchford willlead the new agency. The proposed or-ganization calls for a deputy director]nd not more than four associate direc-

ors appointed by the President with the]dvice and consent of the Senate.

Although detailed workings of thelew agency are incomplete, Mr. Blatch-ord said “the President wants a newhrust, a new identity, a new program

which Americans can feel is theirs andwhich they can volunteer to serve in. ”

Thus, says Mr. Blatchford, a single entity,Action, will be established. There will be

one application, common recruitmentand selection programs and flexibility totransfer from one program to another.Applicants will have a choice of servingoverseas or at home or both.

What does it mean for Peace Corps?From now until July 1 the Peace Corps

(as well as the other agencies) will con-duct business as usual. Plans have beenoutlined, however, and will be imple-mented to prepare the nine agencies to

begin functioning as one unit on July 1.Within Action, the Peace Corps will

be the International division, but over-

seas the name Peace Corps undoubtedlywill be maintained. Few other changesare anticipated except that joint pro-grams similar to the Peace CorPs/Teacher Corps program (see page 16),combining service overseas and athome are strong possibilities.

And there may be even more new op-

portunities available. Questioned on theadditional $20 million in budget, Mr.Blatchford said it will be used to ex-

plore new programs and new ways toutilize full time volunteers with technicalassistance and as grant money to col-leges and universities who wish to de-velop new volunteer programs.

“For Peace Corps Volunteers,” says

Mr. Blatchford, “this new agency willoffer exciting opportunities for furtherservice at home. ”

3

ettersro The Volunteer:

Just a few thoughts from a Volunteer

vho returned from the Peace Corps in

darch, 1964. I was with the health edu-

;ation project of Bolivia 1. Three years

]fter my return I decided to take a

losition as a resident director in a fresh-

nan dormitory with 370 girls. It has

]roven to be a very challenging andewarding experience, It hasn’t been un-il recently that it occurred to me that:here is a parallel between the twocareers.

During our Peace Corps training wewere instructed to try to motivate and

sducate the Indians to do the followingthings:1, Wear shoes or sandals so they would

not get worms.

?. Cut down on their chewing of cocaleaves because it dulls their initiative.

3. To be sanitary in order to eliminatedisease,

~. To learn better nutrition.5, To respect other people’s property

so that there would be no need ofvicious dogs, adobe walls withbroken glass encrusted on the top,locks on gasoline tanks, etc.

Then I came to a college campus ini very highly civilized country with edu -~ated students who do the following:1, Go barefoot everywhere but to class,2, Smoke pot.3. Throw garbage out the windows which

attracts rats.4, Eat mostly hamburgers, pizzas and

french fries,5. Steal university property and from

each other without any real personalneed.The above practices are widespread

through every college in the countrybut it should be understood that it doesnot apply to all students, but the per-

centage is high enough to present aserious problem. Or, if these practicesare approved by the whole of society,then the training of the health educa-

4

tors in the Peace Corps should bechanged.

My question: “Can we tell otherpeople in other countries, ‘Do what Itell you, not what I do.’ “Ella DoranFletcher HallKent, O.

Editor’s Note: R. Curtis Bristol’s reply

to a letter from Glenn Powers, Jr,, re

early termination (see Volunteer, May-June issue) drew several commentswhich appear in Letters in the January-

February issue. If we haven’t test you,the following is Dr. Bristol’s answer tothose comments.

My purpose was not to defend thePeace Corps as an organization at the

expense of its Volunteers as individuals.I did want to draw attention to an

ageless dilemma, apt today as in theage of Cain: the struggle for a personto realize his private motives is in dy-namic balance, and sometimes at odds,with a group’s collective interests,

When I said that “by considering a

premature termination a failure, the

Peace Corps takes an organizationalview, and makes no judgment (i. e.,

good or bad) about individual successor failure, ” I meant that the Peace Corps

“lives” as an organization, just as theindividual, with its own desires and

hangups. While the Peace Corps is a

place for people to encounter newfriends, travel and experiences, as an

organization, it is primarily obligatedto provide the host countries with seri-ous, committed Volunteers engaged inmeaningful work according to the priori-ties of those who invite US.

Mr. Powers said that “becomingaware of one’s own limits can be use-ful. ” This is true for the Peace Corps,too, The Peace Corps is not perfect.There is no need to make excuses forits mistakes any more than we needmake excuses for the shortcomings ofindividuals. As expressed in the otherletters, 1, too, feel there is need forimproved programming, training, Vol-unteer support, etc. However, theachievement of Peace Corps goals, es-pecially under circumstances of hard-

ship and adversity, ultimately dependsupon individual commitment. This ap-plies equally to staff, and my originalletter should have made that clear,

“TO establish credibility and to be-come a sophisticated organization com-mitted to meaningful binational work

on serious programs in the developingcountries, we must be capable of long-term planning and commitments. ” Here,the “we” was to emphasize the Peace

Corps as an organization, and each ofus as individuals, both staff and Volun-teers. I am very much aware of thereality of why many Volunteers fail, in-cluding those organizational problemsindicated in the letters, I am also aware,

and all too often, that some Volunteers(and staff) fail because of their owndisappointment, their own lack of def-inition and their own ability to es-tablish meaningful work goals. It is in-deed a two-way road, and my purposewas to emphasize just that.

To The Volunteer:To make a contribution to develop-

ment abroad is the most important ofthe tasks for the fulfillment of whichthe Peace Corps was formed. Under Mr.Blatchford, and, of course, with the un-derstood blessing of President Nixon,there has been quite a marked redefini-

tion of the manner in which this taskwill be approached; this redefinitionrepresents a change which I considermost unfortunate.

In the past, the Peace Corps has ap-proached the task of making a con-tribution to the development of hostcountries from two basic and widelydivergent directions: in some areas theysent in people to do a rather specificjob employing a particular skill, whilein others they sent people into a coun-try with the goal of trying to get peopleon the local level to work together tosolve some of the problems confrontingthem, However, as illustrated by theoverall tone and by various specificstatements in Mr. Blatchford’s “MakingIt in the Seventies”, an article aPPear_

ng in Foreign Affairs, and also by

:hanges which have begun to be maden Peace Corps programming, this two-]ronged policy is marked for extinction,

]nd already has begun to be phased)Ut.

Responses from returned and return-ng Peace Corps Volunteers indicatehat most PCV’S feel that, though theirwo years as a Volunteer have been~ery beneficial to them, they have been]f small benefit to the host country.4s a result, Mr. Blatchford and PeaceCorps/Washington have resolved that,,n order that the countries in whichPeace Corps is present may truly benefit,

the Peace Corps must confine itself toone approach—that of giving technicalassistance. As envisioned by Mr. Blatch-ford in “Making It in the Seventies”,

not only will the Peace Corps Volun-teer come down with a definite andparticular skill, but he will arrive to filla specific slot in which to use this

k

ill. Under such a policy, there willno Peace Corps program as such,

since, as Mr. Blatchford says, the Vol-unteer will work for a local ministryor agency and will regard the PeaceCorps mainly as a paymaster. In effect,the Peace Corps will be a personnelagency for technicians, acting as inter-mediary between agencies and organiza-tions wanting a person to fill a specificjob and an American wanting to fill thejob.

t do not take issue with the desireof Peace Corps administration to altera situation in which the majority ofVolunteers feel their contribution negli-

gible to the main purpose for whichthe Peace Corps exists, nor do I dis-agree that the past two-pronged ap-proach would have much more forceand effect if it were changed to apolicy based on one philosophy. Thepoint at which I consider a very def-inite and unfortunate mistake to have

been made is in the choice of technicalassistance as the manner in which thePeace Corps will from now on try tocontribute to development abroad.

)I strongly disagree with Mr. Blatch-

ord’s view of the Peace Corps as exist-

ng “to fitl the trained-manpower needs

)f countries”. Filling these needs and

raining people of the country itself toill them ‘is certainly an integral part ofhe development of a cOuntrY. I feel,lowever, that the existing agenciesvhich were formed for this purpose]re a sufficiently large channel through~hich to funnel technical assistance.

In a multi-faceted effort to aid de-velopment abroad, the Peace Corps hashe opportunity to play a very relevantlnd important role by taking as its pur-]ose the development of the self-help

;oncept among the people on the localevel. As described by a recent articlen the “Volunteer”, both the Pearson

Commission Report and the, PetersonTask Force Report, the two recent stud-ies on the problem of how to improveprograms of aid to world development,

stressed that effective self-help meas-ures are essential to any developmentplan. Aside from the Peace Corps, thereare practically no organizations whichwork in community development, whosemembers live in a community on a verybasic level, trying to stimulate commu-nity spirit among the local people andtrying to stimulate the people into di-recting this spirit toward efforts to solve

some of their own problems. I agreewith Peace Corps/Washington that

more host country nationals should bebrought into the Peace Corps planningand administration in the various coun-tries, Also I think that, whenever pos-sible, Volunteers should work as closelyas possible with local agencies; how-ever, this should be incidental to thegoal of community involvement in com-munity problems.

While Peace Corps efforts in this area

could certainly be improved, I feel thatcommunity development is a vital andseldom-approached aspect of the de-velopment of a country; it is most un-fortunate that Peace Corps work in com-munity development is being aborted3y the concept which seems to be pre-vailing in Peace Corps/Washington that

he only high-priority avenues throughNhich to aid in the development of a

uountry are those of a technical nature

designated by government agencies ofthe country.Jo Carole Da wkinsUbata (Bahia) Brazil

To The Volunteer:This verse was written immediately

after receiving a cassette tape from my

daughter in the Fiji Islands. True, it isan emotional response but, as such, itmay represent the sentiment of otherparents.

Peace Corps Volunteers may find it

corny, but it is honest. There is noharm in knowing how parents feel.Mrs. Harold AnsinChestnut Hill, Mass.Editor’s Note: We agree. Here is Mrs.Ansin’s verse to a daughter in the PeaceCorps.

Goodbye for now. (Make me strong)You are in search of personal ful-

fillmentA luxury in this exploding world—And you are against extravagance.You choose the simple lifeUnlimited freedom, few demands.Given these, you assume an awesome

responsibilityFor doing something with the self-

discovered you.Has the search brought light?Donlt stay away forever,Let ,me be here to open the door

when you knock.

TO THE VOLUNTEER:With reference to the sinking of the

ferry boat, Christina, between the WestIndian islands of St, Kitts and Nevis(September-October issue, page 22),the statement that “All Volunteershelped in the relief work” is not true.However, in addition to those men-

tioned in the article, two who rendered

yeoman assistance during the three

days of recove~ were Robert Roman

and Judy’ Taylor. The latter, a nurse,

was commended in a broadcast over

the nationat radio for her help.

James RetterSt. Kitts

5

by Woody Carter

“The alarm clock warns him it is 7:45,Monday morning again. He pushes thecovers aside slowly; the knowledge thathe’ll meet the boss at nine to wrangleabout his proposal sits in his stomach

like an undigested mango,

“As he puts on his shirt and tie hescowls at the unshined shoes that alwaysmake the clerks snicker. Visions of a dayat the office flicker in his mind like anoverlong home movie. From the bath-room, the toilet gurgles and he mutters

about the landlord, who won’t get itfixed.

“AS his wite calls him to breakfast hehears another day’s Tribune ricochet off

his front door. A thought bounces in his

mind: ‘Maybe he’ll go for it and we can

get somewhere.’ “

A typical beginning of a new weekfor the man in the gray flannel suit. Ex-cept here the man is a Volunteer inIndia; the boss, a Family Planning Of-ficer in one of Punjab State’s 11 dis-tricts; the proposal, one the Volunteerand his wife motivated their co-workersto make regarding evaluation and guid-ance of field workers, and the toilet,one of twelve flush systems in a townof 35,000.

Certainly not a typical description ofa Volunteer’s job situation or living con-ditions as imagined in recruitment com-mercials or, as experienced by mostVolunteers, It was typical, however, for

the six married couples and six singlenurses of India 63 who served in middlemanagement positions in the Punjab’sfamily planning bureaucracy and charteda new course in Peace Corps involve-ment in national family planning pro-grams. The group’s experience is es-pecially relevant to Volunteers and staff

6

wondering if there is room in Peace

Corps’ future for either A.B. generalistsor nurses—assuming future Volunteerswill serve more and more in specialized

areas of development on higher bu-reaucratic and managerial levels. Theexperience of India 63 indicates that

such roles can be filled, but often atthe cost of Volunteer happiness, andthe kind of cultural involvement tradi-tionally central to the Peace corps idea,

The Punjab Program

The married couples in India 63, in-cluding one wife who is a nurse, workedas “special administrative assistants” todistrict officers, each responsible formass information, extension educationand contraceptive-distribution in sterili-zation programs for a population of overa million, mostly rural, Punjabis. Underthe District family planning bfficer’s par-tial control are some 500 health depart-ment staff members. They do full orpart-time family planning at a handfulof urban hospitals and clinics, a dozenor more rural health centers and dis-pensaries, and over 60 village sub-centers,

Heavy central government funding of

an extension education and contracep-tive distribution-sterilization programwas started in 1965, after India’s leaders

saw agricultural and industrial progressslipping because of massive populationgrowth. This growth resulted primarilyby a lowering death rate after modernmedicines became readily availablethroughout India, Now it means that

each year a population equivalent tothat of Punjab (12 million) adds to thedrain on the nation’s strained resources,

Since 1965 the central governmenthas spent over $1 million on what

has become the world’s biggest andmost ambitious government-run popu-lation control program, The birth rate,however, has stayed the same or risenin all but one of India’s 17 states in

the four years. The once popular loophas faded after poor screening tech-

niques led to an inflated complicationrate, Emphasis on sterilizations has paid

off in recent years; but permanent meth-ods appeal mainly to those who havealready had many children. A recentTimes of /ndia editorial said the pro-gram will not ‘{ ‘cover’ all the five to

six million couples who are expected toattain the age of fertility each year fromnow on. ” It is a young program with

problems at every level. Both adminis-trators and field workers are new tofamily planning and some don’t fully

understand reproduction and contracep-tion, to say nothing of extension edu-cation techniques. The service staff ha

#

not yet adopted attitudes and hab”that assure prompt, unembarrassi

quality service, while the supervisorystaff lacks the skills to effectively changeold attitudes and habits,

According to a lengthy “letter of in-tent” written by Peace Corps and thePunjab Health Department after the lat-

ter’s request for Volunteers, the Volun-teer couples were to help Punjab’s fam-ity planning effort by assisting the dis-trict officer in three broad ar5as: plannedpromotion of systematic extension edu-cation methods among the workers, ad-ministrative streamlining and decisionimplementation, and demographic/eval-uation studies to foster efficient use of

staff resources.The nurses, as the Family Planning

Officer’s “special assistants”, were togive formal training programs for thedistrict’s female staff in anatomy andphysiology, contraceptive methods, fam-ily planning as part of maternal andchild health care, and the importance offollow-up, The “letter of intent” makesit clear that the nurses were to rescuethe state’s deflated loop program byteaching proper screening, pelvic exa

@and insertion techniques, This, in fac ,was the priority need that led the gov-

ernment to ask for Volunteers in thefirst place.

Urgent Problem

India 63 reached Punjab in November1968. Both nurses and couples, recog-

nizing the urgency of India’s populat-ion problem and seeing many areaswhere they could work to improve theprogram, were highly motivated. But af-ter one year in the field neither feltthey had lived up to the job titles ordescriptions.

In spite of this, both staff and Volun-teers feel a significant impact on thestate’s family planning program has beenmade, Three couples and a nurse haveextended for an extra year, Peace Corpshas been requested to provide moreVolunteers for those districts withoutthem, and training is set for this summer.

Unraveling the paradox of a groupunsettled, yet feeling successful, means

@

folding a series of redefinitions whichcouples and the nurses—and gov-

ernment officials—have made of theVolunteer’s most suitable role in a bu-reaucracy and of the kind of impacthe can hope to make in two years in agray flannel suit,

For the couples, this started with therealization that the job was not familyplanning at all. Instead of working incrowded villages with our colorfulvisual aids, showing farmers how to have

small, happy, healthy families, we weresitting in crowded offices with our co-workers, wondering how to show themthey could help solve the program’sbig, serious, crippling problems. Ourwork is training, motivation and organi-zation, not birth control. Untrained incommunity development, our task isreally to develop the community (bu-reaucracy) that surrounds us.

In this community we balance nearthe middle of four levels, Above arethe policy makers—highly qualified and

motivated state officials and, in eachdistrict, variously qualified administra-tive officers who are senior doctors, At

a

e next Ieve[ are the district massmmunication and extension education

field supervisors and a male and fe-male field worker. They are our co-

m~<~,--~:.?* Francine Hickerson (right), confers with- +f ~,,. .-~ co- worker, Mrs. S. Grewal, a member of the. . . ..

facu/ty at (he State Fami/y P/armingi’ “i “

A

Training and Research Center. /t was Fran-cine who turned India 63 fowards success,She, her husband, George, and theirco- workers introduced the group to be-haviora/ objectives and the ;dea of training

k, <M teams,

Volunteer Don Bevington and a co-workerchat with children in the Amritsar district.Don and his wife, Shirley, have extended fora third ~ear.

The Volunueer in the Gray FlanneO $ulfl

workers. One level below are health

center supervisors and supervisory fieldstaff. Below them, forming the massivebase of the pyramid, are the fieldworkers.

Disappointing Results

India 63 was placed in the fulcrumposition between state, district and vil-lage because previous Volunteers placed

in family planning on the village levelcomplained of boredom and frustration.Two groups, India 39 and 51, had

served on the village health center levelin other states with disappointing re-sults. The first saw their health centerco-workers terminated in a bureaucraticshake-up after a year in-country. Theywere left with no options for produc-tive work in the confines of the bottomtwo bureaucratic levels. India 51, in one

of the less developed states, lacked thegovernment’s full support for projectsuntil late in the program when some ofthe Volunteers moved up to the districtlevel. Both groups advised that Volun-teers could not do worthwhile motiva-tional work on the village level andshould be placed in middle managementjobs where job opportunities and co-workers wouldn’t be at a premium.

The couples in India 63, sitting onthe fulcrum with both ends of the bu-

reaucracy watching, found themselvesnaked. Unable to become true adminis-trative assistants because training left

gaping blank spots in our knowledgeabout our future job and because, as

one Volunteer put it, “we didn’t havethat sophisticated level of ability in ad-ministration, ” we had to grab aroundfor something to structure into our un-structured jobs. For the most part, theVolunteers grabbed onto training fieldworkers—the group that, as bottom menon the bureaucratic totem pole, could

put up the least resistance to our efforts,A case study of one couple’s redefini-

tion of role that came with failure, is amodel for the whole group’s experience.After a month at their site, the husband(strong-willed and action-oriented) andthe wife (motivated and sensitive to in-terpersonal pastels) found themselvestotally integrated into the district’s bu-

8

reaucracy. They also found themselvestotally superfluous to it.

“1 sometimes feel that on occasions,although I know what’s happening, Idon’t think I can have any impact onthings that are going on, ” is the wayone Volunteer described this commonmalady. India’s age-old capacity forabsorbing outsiders into its massive cul-ture was threatening to soak up our

program without a trace, As the Volun-teer couple said, “By the middle ofDecember, we thought we were feelingthe pulse beat of the program and wehad a great desire to start something.Our first idea centered around the ‘BigKey’ theory which depends on the as-sumption that there is just one part of awhole that is at variance with the whole,causing the whole to malfunction. Nat-urally, we felt we had the key, ”

Key Is Training

The key was training. While somegroup members organized district-widetraining programs for numerous levelsand categories of staff, this couple andothers chose to concentrate in onehealth center to upgrade the quality ofwork through intensive effort. Trainingemphasized systematic work using visualaids, an understanding of the way peo-ple learn and adopt innovations andincreased attention to the villagers’health needs and feelings. Taught inclassrooms, the workers were en-couraged to give villagers food forthought through group meetings ratherthan through the common, but less ef-fective technique of home visits.

The trainings were generally PeaceCorps initiated, Peace Corps organized,

Peace Corps taught, Peace Corps fol-lowed-up and Peace Corps evaluated.Not surprisingly, the workers viewedthem as Peace Corps projects and theinformation went in one ear and outthe pencil. The Volunteer couple found

their “help” was actually ego shatteringfor the workers, who looked upon theever vigilant Americans as taskmasterand taskmistress. “After a month, ” theylater said, “the workers had started tolose the enthusiasm they had in thebeginning, sliding into . . . apathy. The

most disheartening fact that came outduring the month before a United Na-tiOnS evaluation team arrived Was the

wide gap of credibility between thatwhich was said and what was actually

done. ”

PCV’s Role

It was a group of frustrated and angryVolunteers who gathered for a govern-ment-sponsored conference after fivemonths of similar experiences in thefield. Crying for more authority, we

cited glaring flaws in the program forwhich we all had “keys.” The state’sofficials patiently listened to our com-

plaints and patiently said “no.”Tapishwar Kumar, the Peace Corps

associate director, and actually our guru,agreed and explained what we shouldhave known all along: “If Volunteersare given authority, then after they leave

who will have the authority? You.

?

should be advisors. ” Highly competestate officials observing that Volunteweren’t as competent as they had e -

petted worked with us to correct ourmistakes. A state official visited the citedcouple’s training programs and others,and suggested co-work with district co-workers, The Volunteers realized thatthey had neither the authority nor thelanguage ability to directly motivatefield workers or really modify theirhabits. The one couple whose earlywork bore significant fruit was the one

committed to working through thequalified and motivated co-workers they

found in their district,This lesson was not lost on a close-

knit and peacefully competitive group.“we have come to the conclusion that

,.. the most important factor will beto have a staff run program in which

we only participate and help guide. ”It took a year of wasted effort for thecouples to learn this central rule ofcommunity development.

The nurses in India 63 faced the same

problem of lack of authority, but, werehandicapped because they had no real

co-worker in the districts, Trained t .-teach family planning facts, most &them did so. This proved inadequatewhen the nurses realized that the work-

ers primarily lacked not knowledge, buta system of attitudes and motivation touse their knowledge when left on theirown,

One district’s two nurses visited avillage subcenter and found the auxiliarynurse-midwife parting with condoms

only three at a time—hardly a week’ssupply for strong, virile Punjabi villagersin this televisionless land. When ques-tioned, the girl answered that her supplywas low and “If I use up all my sup-plies of conventional contraceptives,then what would I do?” After temporarilychanging habits or attitudes, the nursesfind that levels just above and just be-

low the trained worker do not supportthe change, and so erase it. “Often

after we spend grueling hours instruct-ing the field staff in sterile techniqueand donning of sterile gloves, they wit-ness the doctor following wrong tech-niques, ” one nurse said.

*

nging Attitudes

he nurses had to redefine their goalfrom that of training—which Indians cando and are doing competently—to thefar more challenging and difficult jobof changing the attitudes and increas-ing the motivation ‘of the health work-

ers. Because this requires knowledge ofthe culture and skill in interpersonalrelations which a foreigner can rarelyprovide on his own, the nurses askedthe state government to fill the vacantposts of district nursing supervisors. Byworking with and through this official,the girls felt they could effectively setaseptic standards for the whole districtand be sure that when they left thestandards would be enforced, as wellas encourage a lasting professionalismand pride among para-medical workers.Until such persons were appointed, thenurses in some districts asked to as-

sume this role. They, too, found that themiddle management position and a co-worker with authority suits their rede-

fined aims best; the measure of theirdiscontent was their inability to achieve

@

t is position.nce the couples and nurses rede-

ed roles, what functions were per-formed at the fulcrum? The group’s ex-

perience suggests that satisfaction andsuccess come in building on and work-ing within state-supported systems, forwhich the district Volunteers serve asresource people and advisors to the

staff.The ramifications of this for family

planning Volunteers working in coun-tries with governments hostile or neu-tral to family planning are troublesome:our experience indicates that when Vol-unteers try to invent and introduce in-stitutions in a small area on their ownit fails, And when it doesn’t fail, theimpact is localized and nothing comesof it. But when the Volunteer takes astate official’s ideas, gives them bonesand flesh, and state support and au-

thority backs up the result, results result!India 63 was lucky that two of its

Volunteers were invited to join the staffof the state’s Family Planning Trainingand Research Center. There, with in-spiration from a state official, they gavebones and flesh to the District Trainingteam. The teams consist of three of theVolunteers’ co-workers who get a shorttraining in how to teach through be-

havioral objectives (a la TESL). Then,armed with training packets TrainingCenter staff have developed, they mustorganize and carry out a year’s programof health center-by-health center train-ings.

Team Approach Works

After a number of state level trainingsthat left co-workers as unmotivated asever, Volunteers found that the perform-ance-oriented “team” approach to moti-vation had gotten everybody v’urking.Team spirit had given the co-workersnew morale and self-confidence; theywere more open to suggestions. Follow-UP in the field was part of the trainingand some Volunteers who found it diffi-cult to drag their co-workers to subcen -ters found themselves being dragged.State officials observed the trainings and,instead of humiliating the work as issometimes traditionally done in super-vision, gave encouragement and guid-ance to the training teams. One Volun-teer discussed how this had changedhis situation: “At six months we were

Shirley Bevington and her co-worker, Mrs.Sood, visit a village subcenter to followup the training program.

running around wondering ‘am I doinganything?’ and looking for jobs to keep

us busy. Six months ago we wereteaching the whole course in English.Nobody from the staff was involved. I

was pessimistic about effecting anychange. ” But now, “everyone’s endedup doing training programs. Because it’sneeded and it’s a tangible thing thatthe state has said is wanted and willgive support for. ” His wife adds, “Peo-ple have respect when we work withthe district officers, because we’re work-ing in the Indian system, not on PeaceCorps projects. It’s a district project.”

After a year in the field, India 63 waswhere it should have been when itcame. But there was no feeling that as-sisting in training programs is the bestuse of Volunteer talents, “1 still feel ifthe only thing we’re doing is training,we should go home, ” one group mem-

ber said. “But I don’t want to go homeso I do training programs. ” Primpingco-workers to do training is not a fullyear of work; its value was in showingthat Volunteers share skills and effort.As Tapishwar Kumar says, “You’re muchmore realistic now than when you first

9

The Volunteer in the Gray FOanneO SuEt

came. Youlve accepted things the waythey are and you’re ready to work withinthe system. You’ve accepted the realitiesof the system. The desire to succeedled to this change—and of course, that’syour American background. It’s in-grained in the American to succeed,He’s impelled to do it. It’s part of your

character. ”

Bright Future

But unlike the experience of the othertwo family planning groups that servedin India, with a year to go we stillhad a bright future of potential successahead of, rather than behind us.That future primarily featured a moveupward in the bureaucratic structure,closer to the job described by the

“special administrative assistant”. itmeant abandoning the direct develop-ment of co-workers and concentratingon structuring systems through whichthe whole bureaucracy community, fromtop to bottom, could work to evaluateand solve its problems, For some Volun-teers. it meant making visual aids andvisual aid kits for statewide use. Others

developed proformas to be used byworkers to evaluate their problems andplan extension education programs, ordid evaluation studies to illuminateproblems that demand solution systems

There was more ‘emphasis on making agradient of needs, proposing self-help(community development) ways ofmeeting them, and streamlining adminis-tration, As one Volunteer said, “oncethe administrative system is working ac-cording to good principles it will bemore responsive to lower level changeswhich will improve efficiency, ” A majorsystem planned was a statewide “test-ting day” to evaluate skills on a largescale, and a phased statewide programfor the adoption by workers of a realextension education approach to moti-vation, based on involvement of infor-mal village leaders, was implemented.The nurses worked individually on de-veloping standing orders for treatmentsand dosages of medicines at subcenters,standardization of aseptic techniquesand instruction in family planning atnurse training centers.

The biggest problem yet to be at-tacked is the fact that the family plan-ning program needs Volunteers at all.Volunteers are useful only as long as

the functions they perform have notbeen institutionalized into the system—and yet these are functions needed per-manently if there is to be an effectivefamily planning program. A group ofliterate, motivated, competent workersis needed for district level positionswhere training, innovation and programimplementation can most fruitfully bedone. The need is for a system to providetrained and dynamic Indian consultantsand workers in the family planning pro-

gram who can provide the analysis andsystems building that we have just start-ed—people who can help set the long-term goals of the program systematicallyand help solve methods to attack andsolve future problems,

Discussions Needed

This application of the systems ap-proach is something that the Volunteersin India 63, after more than a year inthe field, were only beginning to thinkabout. In spite of high mobility and acapacity to work together on state proj-ects, India 63 Volunteers never got to-

gether to discuss systematically andspecify the priority of changes to bemade, nor to fix the client group that

would have proved the most suitablefor change—to say nothing of involvingco-workers in such discussion,

Partly to blame is a Peace Corpswhich does not feel at home in theairtight “change agent” box and doesnot train its Volunteers to analyze sys-tems. As Tapishwar said, “Yours was a

great Peace Corps training, but still itwas an amateur attempt. It wasn’t ahigh-grade, professional-slick thing, Itwas the best training program I’ve seen

in two years in Peace Corps; but thenPeace Corps itself is kind of an amateur-ish thing. ” Peace Corps, caught between

the shuffle of Volunteerism and the run-ning dash needed for national develop-ment, can’t help but stumble, With-out the systems analysis approach whichwe learned by trial and error in India,it is doubtful that generalists have much

to offer in middle management posi-tions, Training can never give us all thefacts, so we need the analysis skills.

If future Volunteers are going towork in gray flannel suits, then PeaceCorps must do some redefining ofits own. Training will have to discoverVolunteer resources early and teachthe group how to tap them. Guru

Tapishwar says, “This program is a nat-ural for A.B, generalists, Volunteers bringtheir special skills into the short trainingand the training makes the skills moresophisticated. In an ag training programa whole new set of skills have to belearned, and the Volunteers’ own skillsmight not be tapped. ” But India 63 satnaked on the fulcrum for months beforethe one group member who had thetraining skills, as a result of collegecourse work, could spread her knowl-edge around.

Training Needs

Future trainings should includnumber of role playing situations eing and after which the trainees as in-dividuals and as a group can practiceanalyzing the situation and proposingappropriate long-term solutions—interms of a realistic appraisal of humanand financial resources, More of thematurity and growth that consumed along year of India 63’s time must be

compressed into a short training. A startwould be the adoption and use of be-

havioral objectives in Peace Corpstraining. If this is done, perhaps thedrop-out rate of motivated, but frus-trated Volunteers—our group lost fiveof the original 23—will drop below thedrop-out rate of AWOL gray flannelexecutives,

While India 63 was taught about the

steps a villager goes through beforeadopting family planning, it was only inthe last few months of service thatmembers began to apply these to theinnovations they bring to the communityof bureaucrats and field workers, Thereis no evidence that Peace Corps hastried to apply these same principlesadoption of innovations among Vol

bteers, Most of what we have learnsimilarly applies on more than one level.

10

Co-workers need constant refresher

training; yet our own organization as-sumes, arrogantly, that three months ofintensive training of the average Ameri-can college graduate is enough for twoyears of working in India. For the Volun-teer in middle management, it isn’t.Some evaluation system of Volunteer

skills and needs should be developedfor in-country use, and ad hoc trainingprograms set up to remedy Volunteers’

self-expressed needs.We see that co-workers and field

workers sometimes need support and

challenge from a reference group out-side the sometimes stagnant waters ofthe health center; yet our own organiza-tion has in the words of a recent country

director “waged an unholy war on‘Peace Corps’ Conferences” withoutworking to discover the kind of ex-changes between Volunteers that couldincrease their effectiveness. Nor does

*

e organization locate opinion leadersong Volunteers and use them tomulate, legitimize and spread innova-

tions,

Support Necessary

We see that often co-workers stuckin the bureaucracy have the skills to doa good job but, due to lack of supportfrom above or below, are unmotivated.Yet our own organization “has assumedthat Volunteers are highly motivatedand will work. And if you’re not, youshould go home. ” A staff with middle

management Volunteers will have tochange this outlook and be flexibleenough to gather the resources andgive the support that can motivate in-dividual Volunteers.

Why? Because Volunteers in middlemanagement are going to suffer fromthe same paralyses that sometimes im-motivate the man in the gray flannel

suit. Busy, integrated into the systemand active, he is not happy. For theVolunteers in India 63, this was be-cause a middle management positionmeant a distance from the village life and

@

ulture that has always seemed centralthe Peace Corps experience. As one

urse expressed it: “Frustrations arisefrom the lack of fulfillment, which many

Tapishwar Kumar is associate director of theNorthern Region.

of us didn’t expect in such a challenging,Florence Nightingale-type job that wethought this would be, ” To the Volunteerliving in a nicer house than he couldafford in America, fed by a servant, work-ing and living among middle class bu-reaucrats and civil servants, sitting at a

desk in a country with millions out ofwork—the fact that he is situated in aposition where he “can do the mostgood” in a program of crucial nationaland humanitarian importance is some-times still not enough. The petty quarrels,red tape and negativism endemic to

office life in any country can give jaun-diced-eye-view of a culture, And the psy-chological rewards are few. The job isfounded on skill in interpersonal relationsand role playing—not necessarily on loveand peace, You’ve been reading of thematuring of a group into crispy, potatochip change agents, not the growth oflove between some Americans and someIndians or India. Is that what we want?We wonder if perhaps when the potatochip goes stale, it will turn out that “all

there is, is love” and visions of systemsand innovations are just so many sugar-plums in the head,

Question Remains

So the final redefinition for the whitecollar Volunteer is of the roots of PeaceCorps itself. Can Volunteer service befruitful and useful and not happy? Issuch service worth it? “1 feel you couldreally be doing a job for Peace Corpsand not be happy, ” a girl in the groupsaid. “Everything is such a hassle here.You can’t be happy. Interested, chal-lenged, but I don’t know if it makes youhappy. I don’t come home at night andwork on family planning. It’s not a totalinvolvement for me, which I really needin a job situation here. I have no totalcommit merit.” Her husband adds:“That’s why I would like to be in a vii- ‘Iage. ”

In spite of frustration, most of thegroup feel that the population problemis of such urgency that impact—nothappiness—should be the personal cri-terion of service. The couple quoted

above extended for a year. They wantto do their job. More Volunteers willcome to replace us we hope, since theday when the Volunteer-like impact canbe institutionalized in this crucial pro-gram seems distant. A Population Coun-cil evaluator who visited India in 1968found the country a harsh testingground for Volunteers in family plan-ning. But a modest achievement hasbeen reached. Now the Peace Corpsneeds to ask if that modest achievementand the success it promises is worth thepartial sacrifice of other goals at thecore of the organization—a Volunteer’sintensely human relationship with theroot people and culture of anothercivilization.

Woody Carter and his wife, Lynn, wereVolunteers in a Puniab family planninggroup from October ’68 until Septem-ber ’70. Currently Woody is attending

graduate school at the University of

Chicago; Lynn is at home caring fortheir new son.

11

A Peace Corps VolunteerWho Couldn’t Come home

By Jim HamptonWashington, D. C,

When you meet Barkley Moore, you

don’t realize instantly that he is trulyThe Beautiful American. It takes a min-ute or two.

Barkley has just come home after serv-

ing abroad longer than any other volun-teer in Peace Corps history. His intendedtwo-year stay in Gonbad-e Kavus, a

small city 50 miles from Russia in north-ern Iran, stretched out to six years andfour months.

His length of service is perhaps least

of the important things that make himunique among Peace Corpsmen, how-ever. For this law-school dropout fromthe hills of Kentucky, who was 23 whenhe got to Iran, was able to move peopleto accomplish what they said was im-possible. In the process, he changedfrom a quaint curiosity to a brother in

the Iranians’ eyes. They showed their

respect by addressing him as AgoyMister—or Mister Mister, since agoy isthe Iranian equivalent of the respectfultitle.

“Barkley is really a legend in Iran, not

only with the Peace Corps but amongthe Iranians in that part of the coun-

try,l’ says John Newton, who was Bark-Iey’s first supervisor there and nowworks on the Iranian desk.

“A sort of magic goes on betweenhim and other people, ” Mr. Newton

adds. “AS long as someone has two legsand a mouth and ears and walks up-right, Barkley is going to be able tocommunicate with him no matter whatlanguage he speaks. He’s the only per-son I’ve ever met who’s got an over-whelming physical presence, who makes

you want to say, ‘I’ll follow you any-where,’ 1’

Barkley Moore is responsible for start-ing one good-sized library and 31

smaller ones. He inspired villagers whohad no school to build one themselves,bringing education to them for the first

12

time, He started a kindergarten that hasgrown into eight schools, enrolling 1,000

students. His drive led to a sports clubthat regularly wins the provincial gym-nastics championship and has producedIran’s second- and third-ranking gym-nasts.

Teaching—Not His Job

Besides all this, which was his job, hetaught 50 hours a week for four years,which wasn’t his job. Beginning classesat 6 a.m. and ending them at 10 p.m.,he taught English to perhaps 2,000 chil-

dren, youths, and adults. For six yearshe worked 18 to 20 hours a day, sevendays a week.

He was more than just a teacher tohis students. Once he heard that a boywas about to leave school. BarHeywalked to the boy’s village—12 hours

each way—and persuaded him to stay.In all, he talked 43 different youths outof quitting, or else got them to return.Forty-two have stuck by him, and sevenare now at the heads of their classes,

There’s still more, Time and again he

found in some remote village or in Gon-bad, which has the only high schools inthe Turkoman region, a boy who was or-phaned or too poor to consider school.He gathered 14 of them in, rented ahouse for himself and them, and be-came their substitute father.

He spent all of his $150 monthlyPeace Corps salary on “hisl’ boys, buy-

ing them food and clothing, He is stilltheir sole support. He borrowed $400from his hometown bank the other dayand sent it to Iran, and he is determinedto see the boys through school. Be-

sides his 14 “sons,” he is also payingthe tuition for 8 other youths who workand whom he persuaded to begin nightschool.

An Investment in People

“It’s an investment in people, ” Bark-Iey says simply. “It will produce a lotmore than some stocks and bonds onWall Street, If I quit these boys now,they would be unable to continue in

school. ”

“When you meet a guy like Barkley, ”says John Newton, “it makes you realize

that there really is a Supreme Being, aforce for good in the world. There’s

got to be something that could create aperson like him. You can’t believe innothing when you’re around Barkley, ”

With his closely cropped hair hugginghis head, and with 208 pounds packedinto a five-foot-nine frame, Barkley is

built like a fire plug. His mountaintwang is still so pronounced that hemakes Gomer Pyle sound like an Ox-ford don. When he speaks, he gestureslike an Italian driver in an eight-waytraffic jam, He talks so fast that hesounds like a 33 1-3 played at 45. Adevout Baptist, he neither smokes nordrinks,

Now 29, Barkley was born and rearedin eastern Kentucky, but his parents and

*

sister now live in Lexington. He wayear away from his University oftucky law degree when he quit to jothe Peace Corps in 1964. In 1966,when his tour ended, he became thefirst volunteer ever asked to stay on for

another full tour in Iran. He stayed,started to come home in 1968,

and stayed again when the Iraniansbegged him not to leave, He finallycame home, he says, because he felt heowed it to his parents—and because heeasily could have stayed in Iran forever,

Starting a Library

The 20,000 (now 40,000) people ofGonbad had no library when Barkleyarrived. He started one, risking demean-ing himself by collecting (they consid-ered it begging) money door-to-door.Now the library has a comfortable newbuilding, 7,000 books, a paid staff, anactive community-education program,and 400 chairs that are frequently all inuse at once.

Gonbad is the largest city in Iran’sTurkoman region, It is 50 miles southof the Russian Turkmen Republic, 75miles east of the Caspian Sea, and 2

mmiles northeast of Tehran, the capi

it is Iran’s bread basket now, but thenomadic, rug-weaving Turkoman people

have begun settling down only in thiscentury.

Near Gonbad are dozens of villages

that have changed little since the daysof Christ. Many have no roads, no elec-tricity, and no schools, What educationtheir children get is given by the localmu//ah, the Islamic minister, who teachesthem to read the Koran.

Barkley started small libraries in 30villages that did have schools, taught byIran’s Literacy Corps, He went to Do-zane, a village accessible only by footor on horseback, and preached his do-it-yourself gospel, urging villagers to

build their own school, They had none,

and no visible prospects of getting one.The dirt-poor villagers raised their

money—it was only $250, since theywere to do the work—but the Ameri-can matching-funds program was sud-

%

enly canceled. Barkley finally got theney elsewhere, and the Dozane

chool was built. Every brick of it hadto be carried in by horseback. Todaythere are two Literacy Corps teachers inDozane, teaching 128 youngsters whowould have ,had no school except fordust aziz, “our dear friend. ”

A Kindergarten From Scratch

Gonbad had never had a kindergar-

ten, so Barkley started one. It had tobe private because no public funds wereavailable. “We began without a penny, ”he recalls, “not even enough to paythe printer for the very glowing pro-

spectus which we wrote and dis-tributed. ” He set the fee at 50 toman

(about $7) a month, which he was toldwas too much: Twice as many childrenwere enrolled as he expected.

This experimental kindergarten’s tui-tion money paid for supplies and equip-ment to begin a permanent operation.Tot-size play equipment couldn’t befound, so a local ironworker built it.

Once the kindergarten got rolling, Bark-Iey quietly dropped out. This was his

a

ethod with all his projects, he says.e saw himself as just a catalyst to

start an experiment. To keep it going,he says, the Iranians had to realize that

Once the kindergarten got rolling, Barkley quietly dropped out

it was their laboratory, not his.And what a laboratory that kinder-

garten became. Because the Gonbadianssaw how well do-it-yourself educationcould work, they set out to build badlyneeded educational facilities on theirown. Now there is another kindergarten,

and a Volkswagen bus to transportchildren to the two. The people havealso built four private elementaryschools and two private high schools,accommodating altogether 1,000 stu-dents in classes of 20 to 30 each, one-third the size of the public schools’classes.

The private schools’ tuition is about

$100 a year, Barkley notes, “so thericher students benefit the most, directly.But the fact that they are in privateschools means there is room in thepublic schools for 1,000 more studentswho otherwise couldn’t go. The Iraniangovernment benefits because there aremany new buildings, fully equipped, andthis large number of students being

taken care of—and all done with localfunds rather than government funds.”

Barkley discusses a pointwith the village mullahin an Iranian classroom.

13

The Beau!ifu[ American

Another Success

Another of Barkley’s successes is theGonbad sports club. It began with anidea and little equipment: one bar belland three dumbbells for body-building,

plus a decrepit wrestling mat. Therewas a building available, the formerheadquarters of the Communist Party,which Iran’s present government drove

out. But there were no showers, noother equipment, no money, no instruc-

tor, not even a toilet.There was only a group of young

people, mostly students and workerswithout money, who wanted a gym-nastics program. Nobody had paid any

attention to their requests, Barkley did.Barkley got $1,000 from CARE to buy

equipment, promising to get the build-ing fixed up by Gonbadians, He en-listed the Gonbad health officer’s sup-

port, but the city sports chief balked.“He very logically pointed out that the

equipment was going to be of littlevalue as we had no one here whoknew anything about gymnastics,

“But I retorted that if we had such aperson, what could he do without thenecessary equipment? Then I clinchedthe argument by announcing that Godwas going to send us the instructor.I’m not averse to bringing in reinforce-ments in case of need. The sports chiefwas a little dubious about the Al-mighty’s personal interest in our Gon-bad gymnastic project, but he didn’twant to take on both God and me. Sohe said okay. ”

Finally the work was finished, andBarkley went to see the new showers.They were in—but they were open tothe sky, No roof, the sports chief said;metal is too expensive. Barkley con-vinced him that the wind howling infrom the Russian steppes would freezeeverybody.

The sports chief agreed to the roof,but not to hot water. A heater cost

$100, he reasoned, so the athleteswould have to be Spartan and take

cold baths, Barkley resumed the argu-ment, won again,

And the instructor that Barkley prom-

ised? He arrived in the person of a new

teacher who just happened to be an ex-pert gymnast.

Gonbad’s sports club now has a fuli-time, paid director, a gymnastics andweight-lifting program, basketball, Ping-pong, a new judo class, and even chesstables. Starting with nothing, Gonbad’s

gymnasts have won the provincialchampionships the last three years. Lastyear one of Barkley’s proteges placedsecond and another third in the Iraniannational gymnastics championships.

A Way To Start

He arrived in Gonbad with “a perfectphobia” about teaching, but the firstrequest he had was to teach English.Looking for an entry, he accepted—al-

though he spoke only 40 words of Farsi,the Iranian language. Standing beforea school room full of curious, silentGonbadians, Barkley ,started teachingEnglish by the look-say method,

He would point to the door and say“door,” The class would repeat it, Thenhe’d say “win-dew,” breaking wordsinto syllables. The class repeated it.Within a few minutes, he recalls, theclass had begun a rhythmic, joyouschant that grew in crescendo as hepointed to various objects.

“Finally we were going full blast andI pointed to the ceiling and said ‘ceil-ing,’ and they yelled out ‘ceiling, ceil-ing,’ The next thing I knew everyonehad disappeared in a cloud of dust,and there was the mullah sitting in theback with plaster all around him.” Thechanting had caused the already crackedceiling to let go,

“When the ceiling fell, that really set

people to buzzing, ” Barkley chortles. “1heard later that somebody said theydidn’t know whether I was a goodteacher or not, but that I sure waspowerful.”

Two years ago, when he started tocome home, Barkley went to Tehran,signed his termination papers, and re-

ceived the termination, pay that PeaceCorpsmen get to help to readjust tonormal life. But when he went back toGonbad to say good-by, he just couldn’t

leave. So he notified Tehran, stayed on,

and spent the money on his students,Now, the Peace Corps bureaucracy is

small, but it is a bureaucracy. At lengthsome bureaucrat discovered the mistake

and made waves. “They said you justcouldn’t give somebody a terminationcheck who hadn’t terminated, ” Bark-Iey grins. “But I’d already spent themoney to support these 14 kids, feedingand clothing and housing them. Theysaid, ‘You’ve got to send the moneyback,’ I said, ‘1 can’t.’ There were allkinds of letters and cables and’’—herehe shrugs—’’well, it’s all settled now.I’m terminated. ”

New Assignment

This week Barkley begins a new Peace

Corps assignment, recruiting volunteerson the West Coast, He has definite ideasabout what he will say to those he triesto recruit.

He remembers the 1970 Iranian ea

#quake, which was centered near Gobad in a village where hundreds werekilled. Barkley went to help, and stayedfour days doing what he could. Whenhe started back to Gonbad, a villageelder, majestic in full beard and Turko-man dress, cried as he thanked Barkleyfor coming. “But I didn’t do anything, ”Barkley protested. “1 know you couldn’tdo anything; none of us could,” theelder nodded. “But what matters to usis that you cared enough to come. ”

“This is the thing that distinguishes

our program from our military aid orour other aid programs, ” says Barkley.“Where people have failed, they reallydidn’t care enough. There comes atime when it’s no longer enough totalk or philosophize, when you justhave to get out there and do it. Don’ttalk about principles—get out and livethem. Don’t talk about a better world—get out and make it better,

Give of Yourself

“If the people of the world couldsee us as Americans, rather than peoplecoming with our arms loaded down witmoney. . It’s easy to give mon swhen you’ve got plenty. It’s easy togive arms when your factories are turn-

14

ing them out. But to give part of yourself, that’s what counts, I went to Gonbad to do whatever I could, whilewas alert and vigorous enough to “dosomething. I didn’t give them the left-overs. ”

Three months before Barkley left,Gonbad’s City Council secretly votedhim an, honorary citizen. The mayorpresented the certificate in a full-dressceremony coinciding with the anniver-sary of Mohammed’s becoming aprophet. A local artisan worked monthson the frame for the document, creatinghundreds of mosiac miniatures, eachsurrounded by strips of ivory.

The night before Barkley left Gon-bad, the townspeople held a farewellparty for him, packing the town hall700 strong. In six years and four monthshe had bought nothing as a memento;

II his money he spent on his students.

s

‘s last act was to give them what littleothing he owned. He was content

to come home with nothing but hismemories.

The Iranians wouldn’t have that. Un-known to him, several women had beenweaving especially for him for months,making the Turkoman rugs that areamong the most beautiful Persian rugs.While Barkley stood in complete as-tonishment, they presented gifts pieceby piece — saddlebags, carpetbags,prayer rugs, big rugs, 32 pieces in all.Many have his name woven into them,blended into the design. One womanwove in, “We never forget Barkley.”

After he left, the Iranian Council ofMinisters voted him a medal, the De-velopment and Progress Decoration,Second Class, “in recognition of the

I worthy services of Mr. Barkley Mooretowards the cause of economic develop-ment and the execution of the country’sdevelopment program.” He is the only

Peace Corpsman so honored.

This article appeared in the February 1,1971 issue of the Nafiona/ Observer,

@

ational weekly newspaper publishedDow Jones & Company, Inc. and is

reprinted here by permission. The au-thor is managing editor.

Above: In Washington, old friends say hello. Senator Humphrey andJoe Blatchford greet former director, Jack Vaughn.

Celebrations Mark PeaceCorps’ Tenth Anniversary

Volunteers and staff in Tongs were,as far as we know, the first to celebratethe Peace Corps’ tenth anniversary.

On March 1, which came earlier onthe South Pacific island “where timebegins” than it did in other parts ofthe Peace Corps world, 300 peopleattended a late afternoon cocktail partyin the Peace Corps office in Nuku’alofa.

Among the many notable guests whojoined in marking the event were theKingdom of Tongs’s Crown Prince Tu-pouto’a and the Prime Minister His RoyalHighness, Prince Tu’ipelehake, andTom Muir, regional field officer for Fiji,Tongs and West Somoa for New Zea-land’s VSA (Voluntary Service Abroad).

Many hours later, the Peace Corpsstaff in Washington, undaunted by con-tinuing budget cuts, threw a smashingparty in true Peace Corps style. It wasa “do-it-yourself” affair with members

of the entire agency contributing ideas,time, effort and yes, money. The resultwas six floors of parties, each with itsown decor, music and food.

Officially, it began on the fifth floorwhere Director Blatchford and staff andNeil Armstrong and members of the Na-tional Advisory Council greeted one andall.

From there, guests were given a partyguide and were on their own, The“really great:’ parties were in the re-gions which created a bit of Africa,

Latin America, NANESA and EAP withindigenous food, drink and music.

Mingling in the crowded rooms andcorridors were people new and old toPeace Corps—Secretary of State Wil-liam P. Rogers, Secretary of Manage-ment and Budget George P. Schultz,Mrs. Sargent Schriver (representing herhusband who was unable to attend),Mrs. Ethel Kennedy, Senator Edward M.Kennedy, former Director Jach Vaughn,

15

Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, SenatorGale W. McGee, as well as a greatmany former staffers and Volunteers.

Environmental Programs Increase

An increasing number of Volunteerswith environmental skills are being re-quested by developing countries. Vol-unteers have been, and are working inforest and watershed conservation,fisheries development, environmentalhealth, wildlife management, and na-

tional parks development, but with thegrowing magnitude of these problemsmore emphasis is being placed in these

program areas.In recent months Peace Corps has

taken several steps to respond moreeffectively: established a division of En-vironmental Programs under direction ofBob Poole (former country director inKenya); joined forces with the scientific

and conservation organizations alreadyat work in the developing world, andset up a joint program with the Smith-sonian Institute to place Volunteers inenvironmental programs overseas.

Under the Smithsonian/Peace Corpsprogram, the Smithsonian will recruitfrom graduate schools applicants withthe requisite technical skills for pro-grams it is undertaking in developing

countries, and it will establish a con-tinuing recruiting program to providegraduate level Volunteers for projectsdeveloped directly by the Peace Corps.

As an aid to both environmental ap-plicants and country directors, BobPoole periodically compiles a list ofavailable, unassigned applicants withenvironmental skills. The list is distrib-uted to country directors, who in turn,advise host countries agencies of theskills available, Because of the special-ties involved, these placements, on thewhole, will be made on an individualbasis.

A unique facet of the program is thatVolunteers may be assigned to coun-tries which currently have no PeaceCorps program, An example is Mada-gascar which has requested a parksplanner to delineate areas suitable for

16

At Tongs’s anniversary party were, Ieit 10 right: Elmer Skold, countrydirector, the Prime Minister oi Tongs and Tom Muir, VSA, New Zealand.

national parks and nature reserves.For environment specialists, the new

Peace Corps program opens a fascinat-ing number of opportunities. For ex-ample, marine biologists are needed tostudy the “Crown of Thorns” starfish inWestern Samoa and to assess the bait-fish availability for a proposed tuna in-

dustry. Ghana wants ecologists to studytheir dwindling elephant herds—data isneeded to reconcile the conflicting de-mands of agriculture, the timber indus-try and protection of the elephants.Costa Rica plans four new nationalparks, and has requested 40 Volunteersto work in their development.

Peace Corps/Teacher CorpsBegin Joint Program

The Peace Corps and the TeacherCorps have initiated a joint plan forteacher training.

Under the plan, a young person will

spend one year in Teacher Corps athome and two years in the Peace Corpsin a country overseas. The combinedservice will lead to a master’s degreefor participants. Most will specialize inmath and science,

The Teacher Corps will train partici-pants with a year’s internship in anAmerican school system, Interns servein teams under experienced teachersin poverty area schools. This experience

plus graduate courses leads to teachercertification at the end of the year.Participants will then enter training fora Peace Corps assignment and durin

4their two years, will assist host countriesin planning and implementing innova-tive education programs. This completesrequirements for their master’s degree,

The first group will begin theirTeacher Corps service this summer and

will be ready for Peace Corps assign-ment in the fall of 1972.

New NANESA Director Named

Boston Regional Director John Pince-tich is the new regional director of theNANESA Region. A former Peace Corpsdirector in three countries—Nigeria,Micronesia and Malaysia, Pincetich es-tablished impressive records in each.

He takes over from Bill Dyal, who leftPeace Corps after four and a half years

to become the first director of the new-y-founded Inter-American Social De-~elopment Institute created by Congress

some months ago. The new agencycould be a forerunner of the new ap-proaches in foreign assistance suggest-ed by the Peterson Commission (July-August, pages 5-8). It will be a publicsector corporation operating in the pri-vate sector of Latin America in pursuit

of social, civic and economic develop- [

ment.

Volunteer Deaths

The number of Peace Corps Volunteerdeaths rose sharply over the past year.Since last April, 15 Volunteers havedied, bringing the number of Volunteerdeaths since 1961 to 75,

Tragedy touched all ages—young AB

generalists and older “new direction”Volunteers. Africa was the hardest hitwith eight of the 15 deaths.

Although some Volunteers died from

illnesses, the largest number resultedfrom traffic accidents, particularlycycling mishaps. As a result, Wash-ington has urged Volunteers and field

staff to review and enforce accident-

%

evention measures. Volunteers aretioned to:

●

●

●

●

●

●

always wear a helmet when cyclingnever go swimming alonemake sure gas water heaters andkerosene heaters are properlyventilatedtake prescribed medicationdrive at a safe speeddo not drive when overtired orsleepy.

The following are the 15 Volunteerswho died in service to the world’sdeveloping people:

David McCarthy of Washington, D.C.,died of cancer April 6, 1970, in Hono-lulu. A graduate of Columbia University,David had been an ag Volunteer in theMarshall Islands.

Judith Bosch of Holland, Mich,, diedApril 29, 1970, in Iran where she and herhusband Marc were both Volunteers,Judy, a Volunteer secretary, was a grad-uate of Grand Valley State College.

Marie Clutterbuck and Gail Gross,both Volunteers in Huaraz, Peru, werekilled in the earthquake May 31, 1970.Marie was from Campbellsport, Wise,,and was a graduate of Illinois State Uni-versity, Gail, from Freemansburg, Pa.,was a graduate of Moravian College.Both girls, who were in teacher trainingprograms, were buried in Peru.

Daniel Jandorf of Rochester, N.Y.,

died June 7, 1970, as a result of amotorcycle accident, He and his wife,

Robin, were both Volunteer teachers inMalaysia, Dan was a graduate of theState University of New York at Buffalo.

Susan Rodgers of Palo Alto, Calif.,died from asphyxiation on June 28,1970, the result of a hot water heatermalfunction. Susan, a Volunteer teacherin Kenya, was the wife of VolunteerLenny Rodgers.

Paul Overholtzer of Rancho Cordova,Calif., died October 21, 1970, in Mau-ritius. A 68-year-old retired orchardist,Paul has been in his assignment as anagriculture extension Volunteer only afew months.

David Bogenschneider of BeaverDam, Wise., died about November 18,1970, while swimming alone, He was onvacation from his assignment as an agVolunteer in Kenya, David was a gradu-ate of Platteville State University.

Joseph Nonnemaker, a retired den-tist’ from Washington, D.C,, died of aheart attack on Yap island while prepar-ing to be Santa Claus for a ChristmasEve party at his site. He was a specialplacement dentist in Micronesia.

Ronald Kuhn of Syracuse, N.Y.,drowned January 9, 1971, while swim-ming alone in a river near his site, AVolunteer in Sierra Leone, Ronald wasdoing curriculum development work forthe Ministry of Education, He was agraduate of LeMoyne College,

Linda Manke of St. Paul, Minn,, diedJanuary 29, 1971, when her motorcyclewas struck by a local bus. Linda, a reg-istered nurse, was a nursing instructorVolunteer in Kenya,

Kalman Hahn, of Portland, Ore., diedas a result of a motorcycle-auto accidenton February 21, 1971, A graduate ofClaremont Men’s College, Kalman wasa math teacher in Ghana,

Terry Lawyer of Bliss, Id,, died in amotorcycle accident February 19, 1971,in Togo. A graduate of the University ofWashington, he has just begun his third

year as a rural development Volunteer,Philip Holland of Arvada, Colo. died

of meningitis February 27, 1971, An agextension Volunteer in India, he was agraduate of the University of Alaska.

Agatha Thornton of Norman, Okla.,died of malaria March 27, 1971. Mrs.Thornton had taught school for 31 yearsbefore she joined the Peace Corps, Shewas assigned as a science teacher inLiberia.

17

SwitchboardFree swimming suits are available forthe asking for Volunteers (and staffmembers) who are working in physi-

cal education or swimming programs

overseas.According to Glenn Randall, di-

rector, Peace Corps/Sports Corps, the

offer stems from a “People-to-People”

Sports Program coordinated by Swim-ming Wor/d magazine. Quantity or-

ders will be honored. Send your re-quest stating number, size, color,male or female to:Swimming World12618 Killion StreetNorth Hollywood, Calif. 91607

Genoa Godbey of the Personnel Sec-tion, tells us that some 40 Volunteersand Returned Volunteers who areDefense Education Act participants,

are failing to renew their requestfor deferment of repayment of stu-

dent loans.Those of you who completed OE-

Form 1120, “Request for deferment ofrepayment because of Armed Forces,student, Peace Corps, or VISTA sta-tus, ” at the training site when you en-tered Peace Corps, must renew thisrequest annually. You will save your-self money problems, if you followthis procedure:

1. Obtain the OE-Form 1120 fromyour country director. Complete theform and return it to the director. Hewill certify it and forward it to thelending institution. You should submitthis request at least a month priorto the renewal date.

2. Notify the lending institution im-mediately when you terminate yourVolunteer service. Your Description ofService is proof of your terminationdate.

Active Volunteers—lf you have re-ceived a renewal form from a lendinginstitution, complete and forward itto your country director for certifica-tion. He will send it to the lendinginstitution.

Inactive Volunteers—Your Descri p-tion of Service is proof of your termi-nation date. If the lending institutionwill not accept this, you should com-

In

plete OE-Form 1120 and forward itto Volunteer Records, Division ofPersonnel, Washington, D.C., for certi-fication and forwarding to the lend-ing institution.

Heading Home? Contact the Office

of Returned Volunteers for help indeveloping jobs and career oppor-tunities. An ORV Career DevelopmentOfficer can offer useful guidance re-garding present conditions and trendsin specific fields, This offer extendsto overseas (and Washington) staffas well, since occasionally ORV learnsof positions which require extensiveexperience and/or professional qual-ifications.

From Cameroon, Volunteer Jim Fesko

reports a friend seriously hurt in an

auto accident needed blood. Jim, sur-prised that most of the people who

came to donate, and Volunteers hequeried later, did not know their bloodtype asks “why can’t (in the caseof Volunteers) blood types be listedon the last page of the WHO cardwhen trainees get their prophylactic

shots?”We asked Dr. Roger W. Clapp,

PC/medical director, who tells us that

Volunteers may ask country directorsfor their blood type and record it intheir yellow book. He points out,however, that it is a rare doctor whowill accept even a documented bloodtype without checking it first.This takes one or two minutes and

can be done in the field. Dr. Clappadds that in a number of Peace Corpscountries, Volunteers have bandedtogether to form mobile blood banks.But, he notes, a large percentage ofVolunteers, as is true of any group,do not follow through and con-tribute blood.

While a Volunteer in Malaysia, ArthurEith worked with swine and poultry

nutrition and management and setup a feed mill. Noting there was littleinformation in this area, he developed

an animal feedstuffs handbook whichhe presented to the Malaysian Gov-

ernment when he terminated. The

Iandbook contains feed compositiontables, recommended poultry, swine

and cattle rations, destruction ratesof fat soluble vitamins in mixed feedand fat breakdown rates, Arthur of-[ers to share his knowledge and will

be happy to correspond with anyone~orking in these areas. You can getn touch with him by writing:

Arthur Eith925 W. Madison StreetPlatteville, Wis.

tirs, Susan R. Hammerman, programspecialist with Rehabilitation /nter-nationa/, tells us that many Volunteers

active in programs for the physicallyand mentally handicapped have beenin touch with her organization for

help in finding technical materials

and sources of assistance. In manyinstances, she says, the organizationhas been able to suggest people andorganizations conducting similar proj-ects in neighboring cities and coun-tries who could be of direct help.Mrs. Hammerman, a Returned Volun-

—

teer, adds that her group will be happyto assist Volunteers in any way itcan. Write:Rehabilitation InternationalInternational Society for

Rehabilitation of the Disabled

219 East 44th StreetNew York, N. Y. 10017

No sooner was George Gremse, Co-lombia, added to the Volunteer staffof correspondents, than his first con-tribution arrived in the mail, It is alist of reference items—catalogs, pub-

lications, information which are free

unless otherwise indicated. George’s

list:

-ATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH BRIEFS.

Land Tenure Center, University of

Wisconsin, 310 King Hall, Madison,

Wis. 53706. Briefs cover socio-eco-

nomic research progress and findings

in Latin America and deal mainly withagriculture and marketing. Although dthey sound imposing, they are clearand easy to understand.

GUIDE TO CORRESPONDENCESTUDY, University of California,

Extension Service, 2223 Fulton St.,Berkeley, Calif. 94702. Booklet listscolleges and universities which offercourses by mail. Most are on aninternational basis.

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO (customhints for returning U.S. residents);SO YOU WANT TO IMPORT A PET;AUTOMOBILES IMPORTED INTO THEUSA, AND RATES OF DUTY FORPOPULAR TOURIST ITEMS. Office ofInformation & Publications, Bureauof Customs, Department of the Treas-ury, Washington, D.C. 20226. Gen-eral information leaflets.

CATALOG OF FAO PUBLICATIONS.Distribution and Sales Section, Foodand Agriculture Organization (FAO),Via delle Terme do Caracalla, 00100Rome, Italy. Catalog is available inEnglish, French or Spanish as are the

)

ublications (latter are for sale).NASCO CATALOG. NASCO indus-

tries, Inc., Fort Atkinson, Wis. 53538.One of the largest and best knownagricultural dealers will send a copyof each of its catalogs free to Vol-unteers. Farm and Ranch containsendless items for general agriculturaluse, and Agricultural Science hasfilms, models and many teaching aids.Both are worth having just to getideas.

TRANSPORTING LIVESTOCK OVER-SEAS BY AIR. U.S. Department ofAgriculture, Agricultural ResearchService, Hyattsville, Md. 20782. in-formation on regulations and proce-dures for shipping livestock by jetcargo. Some data and suggestionscould be adapted by Volunteers forin-country transport of livestock.

NUTRITION NOTES. United FreshFruit and Vegetable Association, 77714th St., N.W. Washington, DC.20005. Available only to those withprofessional interest in nutrition, in-cluding science, home economics andhealth teachers. Technical notes from

rcientific literature written in a non-technical style.

Also available on request:COMMUN/QUE—newsletter published

by Regional Council for InternationalEducation, 1101 Bruce Hall, Universityof Pittsburgti, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213,Editor: David Hoopes. Council is aclearinghouse for information aboutintercultural communications programs,research and writing. Purpose of thisactivity and the newsletter is to stimu-late interest in and knowledge ofintercultural communications programs.

by Margot HigginsGuest Editor

I read with interest the article onnutrition in the recent Vo/urrteer, andagree that hitherto not enough hasbeen done by the Peace Corps toinform Volunteers on this vital subject.The information given in the HealthHandbook is good as far as it goes,and Peace Corps doctors certainly tryto persuade Volunteers of the necessityof hygiene in food handling. But thiswon’t get a good, well-balanced mealon the table.

Your effort to fill this informationgap is, therefore, commendable, butwhat you actually said is misguided,misleading and will probably do moreharm than good. It is based on themyth, accepted by a large section ofthe American public, that the American

dietary pattern, with its high consump-tion of meat and milk or milk products,is essential to health. This is false andhas been abandoned by most nutrition-ists.

Nutritionists also admit now thatthe daily protein requirements (whetherfrom animal or vegetable sources) asgiven by the Research Council of theNational Academy of Sciences for“healthy U.S. citizens” are probablyoverstated, We now recognize that amixed diet containing little or no meator milk can be equally efficient in

maintaining health, growth and energy.

Such a diet also avoids the danger ofexcessive consumption of saturated fats,one of the health hazards in our currentway of living.

The “desirable” diet you suggest—specifying 8 to 12 ounces of meat and2 cups of milk per day—has threemajor drawbacks:

●

●

●

Medically, it is unnecessary andmay even be undesirable;Practically, it is unattainable inmost Peace Corps situations. Fewvillages can provide this sort ofdiet. And you don’t need it. Sodon’t worry!Culturally, it is isolationist, No de-veloping country has a feeding

pattern like this. Even in countrieswhere protein intake is adequate,or nearly so, people derive 80per cent or more of their proteinfrom vegetable sources. If Volun-teers insist on trying to maintaina dietary pattern totally differentfrom that of their host countrythey will impair their communica-tion with its people.

Dietary Training Needed

In training, prospective Volunteersare taught to be aware of and sensitiveto social, cultural, economic andpolitical features of the host country’slife style. One is warned against trans-gression in such matters as religiousobservances, relationships between thesexes, attitudes toward authority andso on. Why is one not also taught,in depth, about adjusting to the dietarypattern of the host country? Thatpattern may need to be adapted andimproved to a certain extent: an Amer-ican is usually taller and heavier thanhis host country counterpart and mayneed a greater intake of some foods.He may not have the capacity to con-

sume large quantities of cereal foodsat one sitting, as is done in the FarEast, But he should be able to satisfythe demands of health and hungerby eating local foods and followinglocal cooking methods, without re-course to PX’S, imports or other luxuriesnot available to his counterparts.

19

Admittedly, villagers or urban slumdwellers often have a deplorable diet,

but this is due primarily to poverty;the “rich peasant” eats well. I’ve hadmeals in villages in Turkey, Indonesia,Colombia, Afghanistan and manyother countries which were nutritionallysound and well-balanced (as well asdelicious), although my hosts or theircooks knew nothing of the science ofnutrition. They did know what foodswere available locally, however, and

they know how to cook them. This is

what Volunteers should be encouragedto learn, They can be taught duringtraining (not by doctors or U.S. di-

etitians, but by cooks who know thelocal cuisine) or via a basic cookbook

specially written for each country andpreferably double check”ed by a quali-fied nutrition advisor. I wrote one forTurkey. It was quite a demandingjob, but people tell me it works forthem.

Sources of Protein

It would take too much space tolist all the alternative forms of proteinwhich can be used to compensatefor a shortage of meat and milk in atypical diet and to give instructionsfor preparing them. But here are somesuggestions.

Dried legumes are the most importantand most widely available. In mostcountries, at least five or six varieties

can be found in the bazaar. The IndianCouncil on Medical Research lists 22in its tables. Among these are beans,peas and lentils, which come in allshapes, colors and sizes. In the FarEast and Southeast Asia, one also finds

various preparations made from cul-tured or fermented soy beans, whichresemble curd or cheese in texture;

these are a good source of high-gradeprotein, Legumes have several advan-

tages: they are cheap, comparativelyeasy to prepare, and they combinewell with other foods and seasonings.

Although the average protein con-tent of cooked legumes is one-thirdor less that of cooked meat, the ratiobetween calories and protein is com-

parable. One hundred grams of cooked

20

meat will provide you with 25 to 30

grams of protein. But it will also contain300-400 calories. One hundred gramsof cooked legumes will provide ap-proximately 8 grams of protein, but

only 100 to 125 calories. Many peoplethink that dried beans are “nothing

but starch” and will make them fat.Not true.

Another source of high-grade pro-

tein is nuts and seeds. Cashews, pinenuts, peanuts, walnuts, pistachios, ses-ame seeds, sunflower seeds and egusiare roughly 15 to 20 per cent protein(much higher if they are defatted).

It is the custom in several countriesto add nuts to a rice pilaff (pine nutsin Turkey, pistachios and almonds inAfghanistan, cashews in India). Thereare also side dishes and condimentswhich are made with crushed orpounded nuts. An Indonesian specialtyis a mixed vegetable salad coveredwith a highly seasoned peanut mixture.In Turkey, they mash walnuts withgarlic and breadcrumbs and serve themas a side dish or a sauce. These arethe sort of nutritional folk wisdomwhich is frequently found even in quiteprimitive and uneducated communi-ties. They show such resourcefulness,quite aside from being good and goodfor you, that we are missing a trickif we don’t add them to our ownculinary repertory.

Investigate and sample the forms inwhich milk is locally available, evenif you can’t get safe fresh milk. Mostcountries produce some form of cheese,and if you don’t like it as is, you canmelt it, fry it, add it to other foodsor mash it up with condiments andseasonings and make it palatable,

Make-it-Yourself Yogurt

The same goes for yogurt and curds.Yogurt is just about the safest way toconsume local fresh milk, since itspreparation requires a preliminaryscalding, the equivalent of pasteuri-zation.

You can make your own, it’s not

difficult, I have been told that youca~ provide yourself with a “starter”(the yogurt bacillus) if yogurt is not

available. You soak pieces of cheese-cloth in yogurt, then dry them in the

sun. These can be packed up and car-ried around for an almost indefinite

period. The bacillus becomes liveagain when the cheesecloth strips aresoaked in scalded milk. Apparently

Turkish countrywomen carry theseyogurt cloths with them when they

migrate to another region, not trustingthe quality of the starter which will beavailable there. I have not tested the

method, and would be glad to knowif anybody has firsthand informationabout it.

You may also find unfamiliar forms

of meat, fish and eggs. Try to ridyourself of hangups about them. Goatmeat can be excellent if carefullycooked; so can horse meat. Dog meatis listed on university cafeteria menusfrom Korea. If it’s accepted by Korean 4

students, why not by us? Eel and snakemeat can be good, and an even more

nutritious form of food (because thebones are edible and rich in calcium)is provided by the small whole saltedand dried fish which are a widely-

known food in parts of Africa, inKorea and in the South Pacific. Indo-nesian markets have dozens of dif-ferent kinds of them, and they are astaple side dish in parts of India.

Eggs need not necessarily be hen’seggs. Many other kinds are edible,including those of wild fowl. If youfind them too strong or gamey in flavor(even duck’s eggs have a strongerflavor than chicken’s), then hard boilthem, cut them up and use them ina spicy sauce or gravy. It is not es-sential for eggs to be eaten whenfresh. They should be fresh whencooked, but after that they can be

pickled, smoked or cured in various

ways to preserve them.

Keeping Eggs

Shelled hard boiled eggs can bekept successfully for many weeks byputting them in a glass or potterycrock and pouring boiling hot vinegarover them, with or without spicessuch as peppercorns, bay leaf, mustardseed, etc. These used to be a standardfeature on the counter of old fashionedBritish pubs. They do not need refrigera-tion, provided they are submerged inthe vinegar. A fertile egg has a slightlystronger flavor than a sterile one, justas whole, fresh cow’s milk has astronger flavor than pasteurized, ho-mogenized bottled milk. It just takesa little while to get used to it. It maytake longer, however, to accommodateto the texture and flavor of a wholefertilized chick eaten raw from the shell

hwhich is a delicacy in parts of Southeast

Bsia.Do not underestimate the protein

content of basic cereal staples. Corn,rice, barley, oats, millet and wheat inits various forms (flour, bulgur, pasta,

couscous, semolina, etc.) all containprotein. Uncooked, the content variesfrom about 7 per cent to about 15 percent; after cooking there will be morevariation, according to how much wa-ter they absorb in the cooking process.Cassava (yucca, tapioca, manioc) isconsiderably lower in protein value, as

is sage; so are yams, plantains andbananas, all basic staples in somecountries. Each of them does, however,contain some protein, even if in

inadequate balance.Don’t get into a panic about “nothing

but starch, ” There are several reassuringpoints to remember:●

●

)

Many adults, especially in the FarEast and Southeast Asia, live on adiet which is 70 to 80 per cent rice,without developing deficiency

diseases.A high protein intake is considerablyless important after growth is com-

●

●

●

pleted, and Volunteers are, by defini-tion, adulls. Protein requirements arehigh, of course, during pregnancyand lactation; so if you cannot besure of an adequatediet in your site,wait till you go home to get pregnant.

Remember that although your dietmay appear to be higher in caloriesbecause of greater carbohydrateintake, this is usually compensated by

a reduction in fat intake, especiallyin the “invisible” fats contained inthe meat, eggs, milk, cheese, icecream, etc. of a typical Americandiet.If you have reason to believe thatyour diet really is higher in caloriesthan you are accustomed to at home,take into consideration that you areprobably using more calories, bygreater physical exertion, by walk-ing because there is no subway, bysweeping or scrubbing floors becauseyou have no labor-saving devices.In most developing countries caloricdeficiency is a greater hazard thanprotein deficiency (this has beenstated officially by one of India’sgreatest nutritionists). If your caloricintake is inadequate, your proteinintake will be depleted even furtherto compensate for it,You don’t have to accept as a lawof nature that “Peace Corps menget thin, Peace Corps women getfat, ” which one could call the Jack

Sprat syndrome. The men get thinmostly because they are uninformed,helpless or uninterested about foodand nutrition; the women get fat,in many cases, because they workoff their job frustrations by cook-ing gooey cakes and desserts andthen being their own best customers.Both need better information.

Do the best you can to get yourselfa healthy, diversified diet. Learn thelocal foods and recipes, and then relax.Being angry or guilty or bored or hurriedwith food is one way to make sure itwon’t do you as much good as it should.And if there are things you don’t enjoy,or if you feel sudden cravings for steaksand french fries, or if you have indiges-tion or the trots from time to time, itisn’t the end of the world.

Keep things in perspective, and re-member that if you do manage tomaintain a sensible diet, one of thefringe benefits may well be a morecheerful disposition, One of the symp-toms of malnutrition which doctorsmost frequently note among childrenis peevishness, irritability, “crying with-out tears. ” Who needs it? If any readersare interested in specific informationor recipes, please write and I’ll domy best to supply them. I would also

be most grateful for any cookbookscompiled by Volunteers about regionalcooking to round out my collection.

Margot Higgins joined the PeaceCorps at age 57 after her youngestson graduated from Harvard. She servedin Turkey from 1965 until 1967, firstas a TEFL teacher, later in a nutrition-food service assignment. She is cur-rently nutrition advisor to the ProgramDepartment of CARE. Volunteers wish-ing to correspond with her on mattersof food and nutrition may write:Margot HigginsCARE, Inc.660 First AvenueNew York, N.Y. 10016

21

med00Communicating with Wllagers:Using the Tools

By Sanford Danziger, M.D.

The previous article (September-Octoberissue) described an inexpensive, porta-

ble, battery-powered slide and filmstripprojector which has proven useful in

Peace Corps’ work. Power sources andways to draw or otherwise produce

strips were suggested. Since it is tooearly for the majority of Volunteers tohave access to such a projector, the

simple details of actual filmstrip produc-tions will be covered later. This article

discusses. the advantages and specificuses of such a medium of communica-tion.

Experience in the field and at thePeace Corps Escondido Development

and Training Center has shown thatthere are important uses for the film-strip in virtually every type of develop-ment program in which Volunteers arenow involved. The advantages are al-most without limit. Here are some:“Attractive to Audience: Pictures pro-jected in a darkened place irresistiblyattract and hold an audience. A pro-jected image is large and bright. Andwhen the pictures are of local people,the audience immediately identifies withthe actions and the message.

The only other audio-visual aid with

similar impact is the motion picture, andVolunteers know the incredible prob-ems its use involves: dependence on?xternal power sources, breakdowns,ack of spare parts, scarcity of relevantfilms and expensive projectors.‘/expensive: A filmstrip and slide pro-ector system costs little to operate. Thenitial purchase cost is low and you canOroduce your own hand-drawn film-strips for less than five cents apiece.You can photograph and arrange yourown slide sequences for a moderatesum (which will vary from country to:ountry).

There are also a large number of‘regular” filmstrips available throughout:he world, priced from one to two dol-

tars apiece, At Escondido, we reviewedmany of these and have listed thoserelevant and useful in a 22-page zeroxed

catalog. Copies are available free bywriting me at the address below.

The catalog’s one weakness is thatmost of the filmstrips are from LatinAmerica. We lack information on ma-terials available in other regions. Weplan to revise the catalog in a fewmonths, If you have information aboutfilmstrip titles or distributors in Africa,NANESA or EAP, we would like to in-clude it.*Flexibility: Unlike movies, filmstrips can

be stopped on any frame. This allowstime for full discussion of each pictureand permits an audience to absorb its

details.Filmstrips, of course, can also be run

backwards to reemphasize a point ormake a comparison. Frames unsuitablefor a particular audience can simply beskipped.*Portabi/ify: The Crusader projector with

batteries weighs only a few pounds.Filmstrips are light and can be mailed ata small cost. Their compactness makesit possible for an extension worker tocarry several in his shirt pocket as hetravels from village to village.*Simplicity: Little or no instruction isnecessary to use the battery projector.It has few parts; little can go wrong.Maintenance is no problem.“Adaptability: One filmstrip or slide set;an be adapted to serve many different~udiences simply by altering the ac-companying script. For example, one;trip might emphasize the “why” of a]iven health procedure, while another;tresses its “how”, depending on the)articular motivations and interests offour audience.

Pictures in a filmstrip which do not]PPIY to certain groups can be blocked)ut with ink, magic marker, paint or]Y your hand held over the projectorens. Using such techniques, strips in-ended for other countries often can beadapted for your own use.

Another good way to “tailor” a stripo individual sites is to show a few

locally made slides—perhaps your own—on the same topic, before and afterthe filmstrip.

“Sound strips” offer an outstandingopportunity to present an idea or tella story with more dramatic effect. Your

script can be read into a tape recorderby a host country national, or betteryet, put into the form of a dialogue be-tween two or more local people, Localmusic and even simple sound effects can

be added, along with a sound cue tosignal the proper time to advance thefilmstrip:

Such “sound strips” never lose theirrecorded freshness and spontaneity, andare especially useful to Volunteers re-cently arrived in-country and weak inlanguage ability. Casette tape recorders

are sold in the United States for under$30..How To Use a filmstrip System.

There are many ways to use a batter dpowered filmstrip system in Peace Corpsprograms. Here are some that have beentried by staff members and Volunteers:● Hea/th Programs. to focus a villager’s

awareness on the problem, generateinterest and motivation at family orcommunity levels; to show specificmeasures which can be taken; to illus-

trate various services offered by thehost country agency; to present pic-tures of local people who have suc-cessfully utilized the agency’s serviceand materials.Agriculture Programs: to show the“before” and “after” of agriculturalmethods, or the “right” and “wrong”of certain techniques; to publicizegroups (co-ops for example) to at-tract more members; to give recogni-tion to innovators of new practicesor projects; to spread awareness ofinnovations.The ideal extension method is, of

.uurse, to bring all nearby farmers tosee the fields of a small farmer who hasOeen successfully using a new method.Since this is seldom possible, the ne

~oest thing is to show photographslides of the farmer standing among his

larger plants. Better yet, record him ontape describing his use of—and evenproblems with—new methods.o

B

Community Involvement Programs: toattract people to meetings; to pre-sent problems at hand; to stimulatediscussion and participation; to show

local resources; to illustrate howother villages or regions have at-tempted solutions.Education Programs: The uses of the

slide/filmstrip projector in formal edu-cation programs are too numerous tolist. It should be mentioned, however,that drawing on plastic sheeting al-lows the projector to act as a small“overhead” projector. It is also pos-sible to quickly “projection trace”large maps, charts, etc., onto the

The Peace Cor,ps recommended Crusaderprojector, with plastic carrying case andexamp/es of compatible materia/s.

A standard filmstrip is inserted into theproiector. In the foreground, a photographicslide and a five-frame, hand-made plasticfi/mstrip demonstrates severs/ do-it-yourse/ftechniques suitable for Volunteers.

The first frame of the strip consists of astandard photographic slide—minuscardboard mounting—taped directly toplastic backing. The second and third framesfrom /eft), have been hand drawn direct/y

ithe p/astic with a magic marker. The

urth and fifth frames consist of pictures“lifted” by scotch tape from newspapersand magazines.

●

blackboard or paper. The projectorand battery are also useful in demon-strating and teaching optics, elec-tricity and light.All Programs: Volunteers have said

that an-excellent way of introducingthemselves to their towns is to showslides of their families, home townand neighborhood. Others have notedthat the projector enhances their

Filmstrips can be made by tracing drawings/ike these onto strips of p/astic, Use /ndiaink and a “dip” pen.

credibility in the host country agency,and that they were gratified to beable to introduce this tool—especially

since it is inexpensive enough for theagency to purchase for its own per-sonnel.The message of a filmstrip can l~e

made more effective if it is disseminatedthrough several media, Once your scriptis ready, it is not difficult to preparesome of the following aids:● Posters to announce the showing● A written introduction to the strip. Tape recorded script● Questions to stimulate discussion after

the showing● An illustrated take-home (mimeo-

graphed) pamphlet.

The idea, of course, is to present the

same pictures and the same message inas many media as possible. Illustrationsfor posters and pamphlets are easily“projection traced” from your filmstrip

or slides as discussed below.Posters, in particular, are quickly pro-

duced by projecting a slide (photo-graphed or hand-drawn) on a large piece

of paper. By tracing around the pro-

A Volunteer demonstrates how the proiectorcan be used to prepare posters fromfi/mstrip drawings,

23

jetted image, an “instant” poster is pro-duced. A filmstrip can be made into an“instant flipchart” in the same way (see

photo).As illustrated in the last column, one

can make hand-drawn strips with pen

and India ink on any clear plastic ma-terial, To facilitate drawing, a “tracingbooklet” can be produced by thecountry Peace Corps office or the hostagency office. The World Neighbors, aprivate international development or-ganization, has already produced one,containing pictures of relevance to agri-culture, health and family planning. Thebooklet is available at no charge fromWorld Neighbors (see address below).

Another way to obtain hand-drawnfilmstrips is to enlist the help of a local

artist in your town. They are often gladto help and intrigued to see their workshown through this new medium.

Entertainment should not and cannotbe separated from education, and thefilmstrip projector is an ideal way to

combine the two. Here are some of theways it can be used.●

●

●

●

�

Illustrating legends narrated by thelocal story tellersProjecting drawings made by school

children for their own, as well astheir parents’ entertainmentProviding accompanying pictures forlocal music groups, especially during

festivalsProviding the light source for a

shadow play or shadow puppet playby shining projector on a sheet fromthe rear

● Projecting live moving insects; it’s de-lightfully ~cary to see them projectedlarge on the wall

Volunteers undoubtedly have their

own thoughts on specific uses for sucha projector system. We would like tohave your suggestions. We will answerquestions regarding anything in thisseries of articles.

Sandy Danziger served as Communi-cations Coordinator of the Peace CorpsTraining and Development Center atEscondido, until that operation was

closed earlier this year. In comingmonths, he will be working with WorldNeighbors, helping perject a number ofthe techniques jor audio-visual com-munication in rural villages.

He is anxious to correspond with Vol-unteers and will answer queries fromthe field. /j you have questions or ideas,write:

Sandy Danziger, M.D.c/o World Neighbors5116 N. Portland AvenueOklahoma City, Okla. 73112

There are three battery-operated pro-jectors currently on the market whichare suitable for Volunteer use.

Here they are:*Crusader projector: single units cost

$15 each. If ordered in bulk, as manyPeace Corps and host-country agencieshave done, the price drops. 24 or 48units cost $10 each. 72 or 96 units cost

$8.50 each. Except for single units theymust be ordered in multiples of 24.

~@~~*@@Please print all information in capitalletters on the Iinea and inside the

,. boxes provided. Place only one letter or

digit in a box. Leave a blank box

Change of Addressbetweenwords. Abbreviate aa necessery

Effactive date

MR. MRS. MISS MR. & MRS. (circle one)

Name

Institution (if applicable)

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLsteelAddress LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLCity or Town LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLState LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLZ;p LLLLLPlease send with mailing label at right.

Since we first listed this in the Mediacolumn (September-October, page 27),

we have learned that A.I. D. has ruledno material si’milar to the Crusader pro-

jector is available in the United States.In a special circular, the Agency hassaid its overseas workers may order di-rectly from Hong Kong. Cash or checks(made out to ESB, Incorporated) should

be sent to R.A. dos Remedies, ExportManager, Ray-O-Vat International Cor-poration, 604 Chartered Bank Building,Hong Kong, B.C.C.

*Mighty-Mite filmstrip proiector: costis approximately $30. Mitchell Art Pro-

ductions, 4435 West 58th Place, Los An-geles, Calif. 90043.

*Give-a-Show proiector: cost is ap-

proximately $2. This is primarily a toyprojector. Kenner Products Company,

912 Sycamore Street, Cincinnati, O.45202.

James T. Shaver, a former Volunteerin Kingsville, Md., however, suggests acordless projector manufactured byChespa Sales. The Chespa device runson three “D” size batteries and witake either 35mm. slides (2” x 2“) 4film strips.

The cost in the Unitedpostpaid (batteries notfurther information write:

Chespa SalesPO. BOX 117-TBarrington, N.J. 83007

States is $8.95included). For

PEACE CORPSWashington. D.C. 20525Official hus~ness

POSTAGE AND FEES PAID

PEACE CORPS