>

By MICHAEL PAUON

Binationalism:the latest fad?

T ~mber- January issue of T=OL , TEER focused at some ]ength

on tvhat Peace COVS is calling the“bend of binntionalism.” The pro-ponents of this gro\ting idea have,nade their case ,vell. Indeed, thediscussion seems to be not abotlt tbeskengths and weakesses of the ideabut rather abollt ho\v soon the policycan be implemented OT1as wide a scnleas possible. Yet, some of tbe assl,mp-tions uriderlying binationnlism ]leed tobe carefully exami,]ed if the idea reallyk to sbengtben our contribution todevelopment.

One such asstlmption is that hostgovemme,]ts \vant to decide their o\vndevelopmental destinies tvithout out-side interference, Peace Corps, then,cooperates by increasing host collntiyautonomy itl Peace COVS program-ming.

With increasing national a,ld racialpride, and growing xenophobia, PeaceCorps shotdd integrate to avoid futurecotlflicts and accusations of “neo-colonialism,” goes another asstlmption.~m personally not so slire that gro\villgr>ational ar~d racial pride is such agood thing. It’s exactly such pride, inover;tbtl,~ dance, that has been and isthe cause of x lot of \var, hatred andhums” irltolera,~ce. Peace Corpsmight do more for peace h the longrun by trying to stem the tide ofxenophobia, by standing up to it ratherthan feeding it.

The ,vay to combat foreign contiolis not to have national personnel tryto staff every positio]~ and run everyage,lcy :it every level, spreading them.seh,es too thin on too little experience.This will o!lly increase foreign conbolas natiol,al programs fail. Rather,Peace COVS needs to be at the fore-front shoving that intertlationxl aidand personnel can be offered and re-ceived in such a \vay that neithersender nor receiver is considered ti-&insicaRy “better” than the other.

An extet>sion of the first asstlmption

is that host governments have theright to decide \vhat patterns theirdevelopment \viR take because theyknow \vhat they \vat>tand they are theonly ones \vho cnn decide ho\v to ar-rive at their goals. This is ,Io simplestatement. It poses a \vhole series ofquestions concerni,lg \vhat po,versgovernmetlts have, \vho invests po\verin goverllmetlts, and ,vhen does gov-ernment error jtlstify change, reactionor revolution? These ql,estions cannotbe .ns\vered by Peace Corps. Indeed,the point is that these questions hnvenot been settled finally an~vbere inthe \vorld, inchtding the United States.

The Peace Corps, then, cannot es-cape the Ior]g-existing dilemma be-t~vce” the felt needs of the ruralpeasants at,cl the central government’sideas xbol,t the needs of the mralmasses by pl,tting fldl responsibilityfor programming and in-cot]ntry op-erations on the host governments orby hiritlg host nationals as Peace COPSst:iff members.

No inside route

We dol]’t need to pamper develop-ing natior]s into believing that politi-cal autonomy gives them an insiderot,te i,l arls,verillg develop,nent ques-tions and plantling successful pro-grams. Peace Corps has picked up afe>v tricks along tbe \vay, and xve’restiR learning. In my judgment thatgives lIS a prior responsibility to tidi-cate \vhat kinds of programs we think\viR or \vill not xvork.

The extreme of having Peace Corpsdo \vhatever the host govemme,)t de-scribes as their “policy” is just aso]]e-sided ns having Peace COTS pre-sel]t a policy or program a,>d say;“Take-it-or-leave-it.” Why shotdd aVoh,nteer atltomatically push collec-tive fields in ngrictdtire, teach Eng-lish i“ mral schools, or build latrinesin villages because some minist~thinks it’s a good idea? Why shouldn’t\ve ask to be persuaded that the host

2

cottntry kno~vs what it wants and whatit’s doi,] g? After all, the Volunteerhas to convince the vdlagers too.

CLdl it ethnocenbism if you like;the fact is that there are some gov-er,lment policies that Volunteers,,vhether from principle or pragmatism,have “ot and \vill not support, We’vedeveloped some pretty successful tech-niques for stlbtly ignori,~g or $vorkil~garoul]d these distasteful policies andprograms. More direct host govern-mel]t control could seriously hitlderthat useftd flexibility.

A further preca~tion needs to betilkel~ by recognizing the fact thathost governments’ policies have beenkno\vIl to change radically .in n shorttime, especially after changes in lead-ership. If Peace Corps follows toofar the Itie that host governments:d~vays kno,v what is best for theti own,,atior]als, we may find ollrselves insome embarrassing positions \vhere,ve’ve been used by the government“in-group” which is suddenly “ol,t.”

In trttth, given American policiesand politics, it is difficult to imaginePeace COPS ptltting itself ill sltcb.,1 extreme position. Therefore, itmight be more {,seful to examine thepotie-drapeau (color-bearer) of bina-tionalism–tbe host coun~ nationaland hk integration hto Peace COVSstaff.

A major poi,lt made in favor ofhost nationals as Peace Corps staffmembers is the “increased sensitivity”that they ~vould bring to tbe PeaceCorps. Ho!vever, it cannot be as-sumed either that the host !lational\vill be more sensitive than & Ameri-can colleagues or that the Americanstaff \vill become more sensitive be-catlse of the preser]ce of nationals inthe ofi.e

Being born in a given cou]ltrymeans thnt the person in question hasbeen socialized to effectively operatewithti the norms of his society, butit does not mean that he is more “sen-

sitive” in an antiopological or pOliti-cal sense. Indeed, the tiom behtidPeace COTS tiaintig \votid seem tobe (and rigbtiy so) that sensitivity, ktbe U.S. or abroad, is a learned a“d~atied skU and not a S* sensearising o“t of tituition or tbe factof one’s native btib,

Thic k not to sa that there areLno best nationals w o are cul&raUy

and politically sensitive. Ho,vever,such sensitivity ia a resdt of theti ast

%experiences, education a“d indivl ual

apti~des, nOt a product Of nationality.Likewise, it cannot be assued thatthe American staff will grow more se”.sitive through intensive daify contactwith these native-born people. Onthe other hand, it is possible that tbePeace COVS stti \vould become sodependent o“ the perceptions, ide~s,contacts and even relatives of only o“eor t\vo host nationals that they ,vo”ldbe less sensitive to other host na-tionals and government officials,

These problems would be avoided,of course, by finding the “right” na-tional for the job. Deskable character.&tics usually mentioned are: a beliefin and u“dersta”ding of tbe PeaceCorps idea; a person wbo can giveemotion al s“ppoti to Volunteers; adedicated, i“tell ige”t, sensitive personable to discuss and initiate programsand ideas; someone capable of self-criticism, gentle reprimands, mornle-building and extra.hour activities,

It shikes me that such ‘rrigbt”people are rare i“ U.S. society andeven more rare in the developing IIa-tions. It follows then that these rareindividtlals are vitally needed at tbeheart of their owl> government’s ac-tivities. One could even make acase for the pobt that it’s seffisb, andin the long mn contrary to the bestinterests of the developing countiies,for Peace COTS to tvant sllch extra-ordinarily skilled host nationals to co”.centiate on Peace Cops programs.Peace Corps, 1 dare say, wti manage\vitho”t them \vhile completely “a-tional programs well may “et.

We also need to ask if the flexibilityand infomali~ of tbe Peace COVSofice will not create national persOn-nel wbo will later find that they can’t\vork in the tighter bweaucracies ofthek ow counkies. They then jotithe exodus of skilled but fnistratedpersonnel leaving tbe developing mun-tries. Tbe Peace COVS objective isto make a personnel input, not to

s~hOn much-needed national person-nel for Pence COTS needs or add toan already serious brain drab.

pACE

2 Binationalism:

the latest fad?

by M;chae/ Patton

A Volunteer in Upper Volta

asks: IS the Peace Corps, come-

on-strong approach to bi”a-

tionalism ignoring hazards i“-

herent in the concept?

4 Finding direction

in non-directive

training

by Char/es Creesy

The sto~ of how trainees in

one program discovered, almost

day by day, changes in them.

selves necessary to their Peace

Corps work with Ecuadorian

campes;nos.

9 Nigeria

by Steve .C/app

Scenes of the Adamawa High-

lands of northeastern Nigeria,

photographed by a former Ni-

geria Volunteer,

16 Nationalism and

the Peace Corps

by Paul Bell

Does the atmosphere of in-

creased nationalism in some

countries leave the Peace Corps

out in the cold? The Chile di-

rector writes an answer.

Publishedmon,hly by the Office ofvolunteer S“ppo,t, Pea,, Corp,,

Wa,hinEton,D. C. 20525

Pa[ 8,0w., editor; Judy Thele”, a,,oc;,teeditor; T,lsh Worthen, editorisl assistant.

De,iEn by Paul Reed.

Correspondents:BoLIVIA: Kevin Lynch,BMIL: Steve” Totheroh, CaV Duncan.BRITISHHONDUUS:Lo. Hanke. CAM.EROON: F,a.ce$ Carroll. CEYLON: Eliza.beth Howze. CHAD: lay Boekelheide,Tom Ma”.. CHILE: Cha,les Smith jr.COLOMBIA:C. Cowan Gei$le,. COSTARICA: Ro~e, Hamilton, DOMINIUNREPUBLIC: Jonathan lash, Bill White.WSTERN ~RIUBEAN: Mlliam Carter,Thomas APPel. ECUADOR: CharlescreasY. EL 5ALvAD0R: Ke” Ho.,feld,ETHIOPIA: Susan Heck. Fill: David

DOW.QS. GHANA: A. wliiam H“”sicker.GUATfMAM: Marilyn Farley. GUyANA:Paul Mchard. HONDUWS: Mike Mcti”.ney. INDIA: Mch. rd McWlliams, 10”,.than tip,ky, Charles Ryan, IWN: Michaelsarka. lvORY COAST: wlli, m P. carp,..ter. KENYA: jam., K.,h.er. KOR*Mark Brow”. LESOTHO: StePhen Leh.m,.”. MAMY51A: Sharon Clarke. MI.CRONESIA: Fred Kl”~e. MOROCCO:lamb,,, Bokern, Rober(a Prees. NEPAL:Jonathan Fox. NICER: R“$!y lo,genson,SOMALIA: Terw De”tsch. THAIMNo:Bob Ha,,ha,ek, Robert Ca,”ey. TOGO:William Emmet, Do”Elas Sloane. TONCA:Ioetla Bisson, Tom K.rlow. TUR.KEfi S!cphe” Franklin. UPPER VOLTA:Bob Si”gley, VEN~UEM: Edward Thfele.

ON THE COVER: A dr”mm,, .“ ho,,,.back at , Muslim feast day in Ad,mawaProvl.ce, Niger!..

bother d~cult question is botv thehost co”n~y national can contributeto both tbe Peace COTS and his O,Wcoun~ \vhile observtig stiictfy thetraditional and necessary non-bvolve-ment of Peace Cows in host countrypobtics? he we to ask the cream ofthe national crop to refrain from po.Iitical activities in thek own counkies?

Yet the possibility of a best nationalusing confidential information from aVolunteer i“ the bush for politicalends is too glaring to be i~ored.

At least pafi of the goal of btia-tionalism \vould seem to be forctigthe American stti (or SM we saygiving them greater oppotiunity) to

Conf;”ued o“ page 20

\

~.

- ,,‘. .,.

3

r.>

How do you ~epare Volunteers to&eti the way people regard them-SC108S, to seek out those who are lead-ing change and help them understandtheir potential, to occmiondly insinu-ate change but never to impose it?

One Peace Crops atl~or k that theVoh/ntem prepares himself fm such arole—throtlgb untiruct tired m non-directiue training. Tbk method hmturned oltt both capoble Vohlnteersand confused Volunteers (those whonever fihed any direction out of thenon-dtrective m&hod).

Unstr[tctured training k not netu,and the attitt~des deuel~ed are fre-quentltJ ts@ld tools {n Sonle pati ofmny Volttnteers’ tomk. The relwanceof Charles CreeflJ’s accot,nt of tln-strtdctu red training at Escondido,Calif,, {s its immediate find crittial ap-plication ir~the Volfttlteers’ ?Vogrilm i,tEcltador. What he mnd his grotlplearned in Escondido (described m oldtrtiths rediscmered) was nti merelyof extractlrricular application i“ theirfr,ttlr. toork blit the essence of theirwork in leadership training afliong

campesinos.CreenJ’s dory includes experiences

common to many training program:the struggle fm organization, th~emergence @ trainee cli9tles, tile

agO$lies of s@lf-selGc~iOnand E~alua-tion, end-of-training sh:mps. B1it he

goos on to write @ the parallels be-tttieen the trainees’ nxperilnenttiion,learning and development, and whtiwas to tran~ire among the cnmpe-si”os,

“Older” Volunteers helped “plan”this trai!jing. Fioe ~ them hd beenthrot,gh one kind of ttnstructrtredtr[zizlillg ill P!ietio Rico, later got to-gether in Ecti&or and deoked theleccdership training program for cam-pesinos (Mal WarwicKs atiicle, OctO-her VoLuxTEEn). After a year O1OIIE it,

the field, they developed the leti@r-

ship training concept and, with PeaceCorps staff and oth$r stppoti, under-took a year-long pibt prq’e~. Theyextended for a third year and Tentthnir 30-day home leave at Escondido“training” their replacements, amongthem the atithor.

Finding directionin non-directive

trainingBy CHARLES CREESY

1.~iv.$a~tbe Peace COWS ~r.i,,.n the s rin of last year 21 trainees

ing Center fi Escondido, Calif., toprepare for the compesino leadershiptraking program in Ecuador. Afterthree weeh of eight-hotlr-a-day lan-guage instiction, they xvere sent onan unstructured field tiip to Baja,Calif.; that is, they were dropped atthe Mexican border and told to “godo your thing.” When they rettlrnedto Escondido four days later, five

Peace Corps Volunteers from Ecua-dor were on hand and the sig,lificantpart of the stateside training ‘began.

After t~vo days of small-group evalu-ation of the field tiip experience, theVoh]nteers and Escondido staff pre-sented a seven-page “\vhite paper” tothe trainees. It said, in e5ect, thatthe major share of the responsibilityfor organking the training programa,]d tltilizir>g the available resomcesrested with the trainees. It gave vu-

4

tually no information about the pro-gram ill Ecuador. Instead, it con-tatied statements such as:

“We hope to help you learn hoxv toI&trn throllgh your own experience,.. to prepare for Ectlador, yoLi\vill have to prepare to understandyourself you may find that eachof you will be thinting a great dealabout some very basic concepts: free-dom, honesty and commitment,ve hope that in the followtig months

\

you can eflage the dimensions ofyour freedom. .“

In the paper ofly t}vo major things\vere structured into the program (he.sides five hours a day of languageinstruction): the arrival a month laterof five Ecuadorians—three campesinosand two agency counte~atis-and thescheduling of hour-and-a-half groupdynamics sessions tiee times a ,veek.All ~ttempts by the tiainees to getmore spectic information about tiain-ing atld the program in Ecuador weredeftly evnded, Bewilderment, not un-mked ,,,ith some anxiety, reigned,

It took a week for the trainees to be-gi,] to organtie themselves, hut it \vasa \veek ftdl of inte[lse thought at]d dis-ct,ssion. The need to organize becamefelt one chaotic night \vhen ttiec dif-ferent groups each called for a general

,meeting of all trainees and staff thefollo~ving day–all at dfierent times.The resulting confusion \vas finally re-solved and a common time agreedupon for the meeting, at ~vhich thefirst order of b“si”ess >vas the electionof a chairman to coordinate the callingof future meetings,

\Vith that problem of group orga”i-zatiot] cleared aivay, the tinbees’ ap-petite \vosfor i,lformatio,] about Ecus.dor, One of the Voh]nteers )vas per.suaded to show his slides of campe.sino life in the Ecuadorin” Siema a“d

to lead a group disc”ssio” of thehacietia system as it f“”ctions there,As the discussion pro~essed, thetrai]lees found that rather than beinggive” information, they were beingasked pe~letig questions about \vhatthey had seen in the slides. The train-ees’ feeling that they didn’t ho,vexacfly \vhat it \vas they should bo,vpersisted.

Pe~lexed by the lack of dtiectiongiven by theti staff, the trainees turnedto one bit of strttctl,re offered by the“\vhite paper” a“d Dl”z]ced into thegroup ~y~amics ses~ions-like clro,v”.ing met] s,vimming for n life presewer.Even though the Volunteer discussionleaders abstained from lending, thetraitlees began to perceive from thetiexprience that they could profit moreby focusing on what was happe”i”gamong themselves than by spec”lati”gabottt conditions in Ecuador.

Altho~igh this process of “sensi-tivity tiainit]g” \vas essentially personal;Ind different for each individual, allof the tiainees agreed that it increasedtheir understanding of themselves andthe \vay they related to other people.

,, . . . We hope that in the ,following months you canenlarge the dimensions ofyour freedom . . .“

J,ainees and Escondido s[aff Iighte” their wo,k w;th Ecuado,ia. songs.

T —- –-

“lt was many weeks before

they realized that personalL.<

change . . . is a prior

necessity for social change.” ,

Many of them were able to integrate ‘\

\vhat they learned from this expe-rience into their behavior, and nearlyall of them foul]d that though con-tiual self-evaluation their attitudeschanged i“ si~ificant ways. But it)vas many \veeh before they began torealize that this kind of personalchnnge, or enlargement of freedom,is a prior necessity for social change,

During the \veek after theti ret”r,lfrom ,Uexico there were general meet-tigs of all tiainees and Volunteers al-most every eve”i[]g, Frustrated bythe difficulty tbe group experiel]cedti renching common deckions, andco!] fused by the continuing “i”f”rmn-tion hangt, p,” mnl>y trainees began toexpress thek dissatisfaction \vith thelong hours cons~,med by f~dl groupmeetings,

At tbe same time, a minority cliquehad emerged and was more or lessrut]ning the trai,]il,g program—callir)gall of the meetings, initi:lti”g most “fthe ideas, and do,ninating most of thedisc”ssio”. Event~, ally this group be-came co,]cerned :xbo”t the lack ofparticipation of others and decided topush the issue to a sho,vdow”. Pick-itlg a meeting \vhich had a particu-larly heavy agenda of imparta”t b~,si-ness, these five trait)ees ;igreed IIot totalk for the first half-hour. ‘~he result\vas 30 ,ni””tes of flo””dering during\vhich it seemed tbe group ns a wholecould not reach any decision at all.

Therl the five ope,led “p, each i“tlar,, l~rgi,)g the grot,p to tt,,dertakean eval”atio,l of ,vhat had bee” hap-pening in the program a“d \vhat thereal goals of training ,vere. After someheated debate, the group decided toschedule a series of evening seminars\vitb the Voh,nteers for the p“~ose ofgathering informatio,l about the Ecua-dorian agrnrian reform program, Theminority of five divided themselvesnmot>g the seminars ancl individuallysought to e“co”ragc evaluation, \vithpartial success. Thereafter, theylearned to be more subtle,

This incident ,VXS sig,, ificant in t,vo,vn~. First, the five xvere t~i”g tooh~rd to take a skong lead and de-semed tobe p~,t do,vn by the rest ofthe group. Second, the rest of thetrainees )vere Eotlndering and “ceded

.,J

ithe! help. The mtiority was commflyde~g the ~oup’s needs, but @eyhad not yet lewed how to make thoseneeds felt by all tbe members of the

‘group. Later the parallel beween thisexperience and similar leadersbip-group conflicts in the campo situationwould become apparent.

And as time went on, the tiaineesbegan to realize that the tratiing pro-gram was evolvbg into an exercisein group (i. e., community) Organizx-tion-\vhich is the fundamental pre-requisite for developmerit h the ruralEcuadorian sites where they would beworking, By the end of statesidetraining, many more relevant parallelsbecame apparent behveen tbe prob-lems tbe trail~ees \vere experiencingas a group i,, Escondido and thosefaced by the leader struggling toorganize his community to work forik development: group integration,the decision-making process, defini-tion of priorities, plannit,g of coursesof action, delegation of al]thority,member pmticipation, etc.

Up to this point the process hadbeen too nbstiact, and a more con-crete problem was needed to providea common focus and draw the grouptogether. It came in the gllise of self-selection, A committee already hadbeen appointed to collaborate all thearguments pro and con, and all thetraitlees had agreed to submit theirideas to it. But there the proposal hadrested for t\vo weeks.

Then came tbe ‘<diagnostic titer-,mediate board—reporting that ‘<morethan a tbir~ of the trainees had“serious problems’’–and the groupwas spurred to action. Significantly,those \vho supported total self-selec-tion most sbongly were those leastconcerr>ed about selection personally,those least in danger of reselection.But they recognized that the “threat”posed by the selection process wasthe most tvidely felt problem of thegro,lp as a whole. Thus it made anatural unifying cause to mobilize thegroup.

It was generally felt that it wouldbe impractical to push for pure self-selectibn, so a co’mpromise- measure\vns decided l,pon. The essential ele-ments of it tvere a merely diagnostic

“Fighting the commonenemy had cemented thegroup as perhaps no other

issue could have at that

stage.”

mid-board with no reselection priorto h-county batitig, improved feed-back from the selection personnel toaid self-selection, and minor modiSca-tions in the selection process, particu-larly the peer-evaluation system. Thetiatiees’ selection commitiee \vas giventhe task of presenting the proposalsand supporting xrguments to the as-sessment and selection officers.

A paper \vm drtited and submittedto the group a fe~v nighs later, Thrtiainees went over the 16.page cbaft,paragraph by paragraph, until they

agreed upOn a final formulation.Then it was submitted to tbe offi-

cers \vho called a meeting ,vitb thegroup the very same day. There ,vasa free-wheeling, two-hour debate, atthe end of \vhich it seemed )~o mean.ingfd compromise had been reached.As it turned out, ho\vever, there were

though o“. bai”ee ,vns ~sq”alifiedno stateside reselections b staff, al-

for psychiatric reasons and three othersselected themselves out of the pro-gram.

But the question of \vbether the

“The training program had

become an exercise in

group (read community)

organization and action

(read development).”

battle for total self-selection was won01 lost did not seem as impotiantas the effect that the batfle itself hadon the trainees. Fighting the “commonenemy” had cemented the group asperhaps no other issue could have atthat stage. Formulating the “intel-lectual arguments for self-selectionturtled the trainees’ attention fromexternnl preoccupations to the internalconcerns that arG tbe heart of the pro- ,gram “ideology.” The conffict \vithselection po~vers raised all the petii-nent questions of authority-figures andrelations to them, tremendously rele-vant to the Ecuadorian campo. It alsoencouraged intensive titiospection byeach individual and provided richmaterial for group d~~mics stidy.

Most important was the fact thatin less than a month titer the “whitepaper”-a remarkably short period oftime, all things considered–the “se-Iwtion paper” marked the sumessfulorganization of the group. All theelements ~vere there for a significantcase stidy, but better than any casestidy that it could have been given,

6

“Some purisb hay argue

that intewentions like

these violate the ncm-

directive philosophy.”

the group had the eqerience whichit had gone tiough itse~. Withoutcompletely realiztig what was hap-pening, the tratiees had defined aproblem, agreed upon a cOmmOncourse of action though a groupprocess, initiated a “project” and exe-cuted it. The tiaining pro~am hadbecome an exercise in group (readcommunity) organization and action(read development).

The kahers, guidtig the process hmuch tbe same way as a “campefi’noleadership tiaining course” in the field,could hardly have hoped for more;except, perhaps, for greater awarenessof \vhat had happened on the part ofthe trainees, and thus there \vas asubsequent push for evaluation.

Regrettably, the trainees were stillbu]lg-up on the selection issue. whenthe Ecuadorian trainers amived. Itwas, in fact, nearly a \veek before thematter was sufficiently resolved so thatthe trainees could shift aivay frominternal concerns and concentrate onaPPrOp,iate external information gath.ering. Thus, they were somewhat slow

to begh that which they had been soanxious to do at the time of the “whitepaper.”

As it \vas. tbe hainine stfi ltseda number of gende nudg~s to encour-age the trainees to make better “se ofthe Ecuadorians’ stay. The most suc-cessful of these \vere the socio-dramas,improvked skits put on by the trainhgstaff to Jlusbate sitintions the tiainees\vould encounter in coun~. The &tof these, for example, porhayed anew Volunteer making his first hipinto the communi~ where he wouldbe working. Tbe campednos, playing their o~vn roles, showed the trati-ees ho~v they might be perceived bytbe members of the community andgraphically depicted the difficulty theVolunteer might face h eqlahing hisreasons for being there. This socio-drama \vas the springbomd for athoughtful and valuable group dk-cussion that lasted late into the night.

A similar nudge was an open evalu-ation session held by the hatiing staff,\vhich all the tiainees were invited toattend. It centered on the problemof integrattig the three groups oftiainers-Escondido staff, Volunteers

and Ecuadorians–and on the progressof the tiatiing program in general,Lending by examplq jt WM perhapsmore effective than any other methodcould have been ti brh~g hometo the tiahees the need for moreevaluation.

While some purists may argue thatinterventions like these violate thenon-dkective philosophy, this kjnd of“manipulation” seems necessary if themethod is to work in a limited timeperiod. Furthermore, techniques suchas a socio-drama or an open evalua-tion session are not k the strict sensedtiective, They merely provide thetiajnees a special kind of experiencefrom which to Ieam. The trainees canheed such suggestions or ignore them,as they see fit,

Aside from a series of evening semj-nars, the group did not ocganize manyactivities with the Ecuadorians durtigtheir three weeks at Escondido. Whatwas learned from them was learnedlargely on an informal and individualbasis. Considerable tiomation wasexchanged through the Ecuadorians.participation in language classes,which frequendy took the form of

“The only way the new

Volunteers would learn

‘what is’ the program was

by participating in the

process of its constant

redefinition.”

These three fcuadorian farmers jo;n the tra;nees at Escondido.

“There are good

reasons for letting a

PerSOndiscover thewhee[for himself, rather than

showing him one already

made:’

role-playing. Toward the end of thestateside training, two conflicthgphenomena occumed, Ftist, there\vas a perceptible “morale problem”among some of thetiainees. Perhaps itwas no more than the common slumpobsemed late in many baining pro-grams; perhaps it wasnatiral fatigueafter so many weeks of intensity; per-haps it was in pati reaction from the

apparent 10SS Of fie selectiOn batfle.In any event, it was disconcerting andit became a matter of group conmrn.Significantly, tbereseem to besimilzsetback during extended projects inthe campo.

Simultaneously, other tiatiees whohad driftd along wjtb the crowd dur-ing the earljer weeb became increas-

~glY,entiu~iastic and became moreprom]nent ]n the group’s activities.Some who had been the most forcefulleaders earlier noxv felt thejr Muenceslipptig, at ties even seined resent-ment and hostility from other trainees,and were glad to let others car~ theball. This, too, seems to have its paral-lel in the campo sitiation.

Nonetheless, as k aImost aIwaysthe case with non-directive traintig

7

programs, a few titinees were dk-satisfied with the program at Escon-dido–those who did not seethe rele-vance of the tiaining experience, whorematied skeptical about the value ofthe method, or who just djd not under-stand what it was all about. The per-centage was low and did not includeany of those who deselected them-selves. Given the option of transfer-ring to other programs, three chosetodo so.

Durinc the final week at Escon-dido, ev~luation came to bethedomi-nant concern. It started quite spon-taneously in the course of a planningsession for a tiainee-initiated socio-drama which turned tito a self-critique of the tiaintig program, Itwas conti,lued h a group discussion ofthe socio-drama with the tiahing st~and lasted untif the wly hours ofthe morning. Then there was a finaltrainee evaluation session a few nightslater, Thethree meetings showed con-siderable seM-awareness ontheptiofthe tiainees as to what they had ex-perienced and what the remainhg un-resolved problems \vere.

In mid-May the tiainees tiaveledto Ecuador for the in-coun~ phaseof the tiaining program and departedfor separate sites inthecampo. Theylived in mral communities for hoand one-half weeb and were visitedoccasionally by Volunteers and cam-pesino leaders tivolved h tbe pro-gram, Tbe experience was totally un-strucmred but most of the tiainees

I

Jfolln themselves better prepwed forit th ,1 they had expected to be. Onlyqne decided to refire to the U.S. dt,r-

$g in-country training.The remailing lG trainees met ol,t-

J’ sideofRiohamba fO, a g,”,,., .O”.ference \vith all the extending Volun-teers, Peace COVS stnff, Ecuadorian

agency cOunter arts an”d sOme Of theIcampesino Ien ers ,nvolved in the

leadership training program. The ffrstorder of business \vas an evalllationof the in-country training experience.One small mark of sttccess was thedifference in quality bet,veen thatevaluation and the o~le the traineesdid of their field experience ill Baja,Calif., ,vay back when it all began.

The msjor pl]rpose of the confer-ence, as it e\.olved, \vas the integrationof the trainees i,~to the larger grol]pof perso]]s involved in the progra]n.This \vas complicated by the insist-ence of the cou,ltry director.o” holdinga formal fil>al selectio,l b~trcl \vhichredttced the grot]p by or~e.

Ill the process of irltegration, the“e,v Voh, nteers found themselves in-volved in the larger grollp’s effort toplan for the immedintc fl,tllre, \vhichalso entailed \vorking ol,t a viablegrollp decision-,naking process. Oneproblem for sotne of the ,le\v VOhlI1-teers was making clear in their o\vnminds “,vhat is” the program. Sinceit is not a strl,cture, it could only beideiltificd by a group of people Tvhowork together (althotlgh it is notnl\vays clear \\,hoor ho\v n]nny peopleare in that group), bya set of more orless commonly held ideas ;Ibotlt rl,r:dcdt,cxtion a,ld commtlnity devclol>-ment (i.ch, ding each !nember’s free-dom to hold his O,VI>di~,erge”tvic,.s),nnd bya nllmherof activities i,! tvhichthe “group” and the “ideology” con-verge. Th{ls the only \vay the ne,v\701tl”teer$ ,V”llICI ICc3r1) “,vhat is” theprogra],~ ,X,S by pnrticipnting itl theprocess of its constailt re-defil> ition.

The finnl con fere,,ce ktsk \\,as tochoose sites for the [lCXVVou,lteers.Stucliesof an)]mbero fpotential areasfor \vork \vere prese,lted .Ild clisctlsseclat length. Sitcselection raised many ofthe most fltndamenkd questions abotltthe general shategy and goals of theprogram, The immedinte prioritieswere defined, and \vith these as gen-

‘,people just don’t seem

to turn on to other

people’s ideas the way

they do to their own.”

eral guidelines, the ne~v Volunteersdecided on the areas where theywnnted to \vork.

With that, tbe conference \vas over.And, in a technical sense, so \vas theformal trxitling of the ne,v Volu,lteers.Yet, it \vas just the beginning; for if tbetrai,~ing program \vas at all successfulin its primary goal of helping thetrainees learn ho\v to Iearrl throughtheir o~vn experier]ce, the real processof education started \t,he,l they arrivedat their sites in the Eclladoriancampo.

Milch of the process of lenr]]ingfrom one’s o,vn experience is inevitablythe re-leaming of xvhat otber peoplehave already learned before, Thtts, ato,~e ]?oi,?t cluri,lg the co~lrse of thetrxi]]i,~g program at Esco,ldido, a staffmember \Nxs heard to ml, tter some-thing nbollt “it,t,enting the \vheelt,”ice.” Yet thctr;t,,sferahility ofsolneki,lds of kno~~.ledge has seriolts limita-tions.

There :,re a ,ll,rnher of good reasonsfor letting a person-in this CRSC n

“At Escondido, the

trainee was allowed to

discover the wheel for

himself—for probably

the umpteen millionth

time in history .,’

group of persor>s–discover the ,vheclfor himself, rather than sho~vi,~g himor?e :dreacly mlde a,lcl giving him de-tailed illstrt]ctions about its co],strt,c-tiotl. OIICC yot~ hax,e seen a \vhecl itsutility is pretty obviot,s, bt, t ilnagi,lctrying to cxplai,l otle to somebody ~vhohnd ,>e\,cr seel~ OX)C. And \\,hecls aresimple co[npared to gro~lp processesor methncls of edt,c:,tiol~. F,]rthcrmore,sho\v a \vbeel to x ma,, Lvho h:is neverseerl orle, a,ld he \von’t bc [nllch inter-ested []nless hc sees a,) itnmediate IISCfor the thi]lg. B,]t if yet, Iet, him dis-cover it for himself, he’ll probably goarot, nd looking for applications.

Like \vhcels, so it is for ideas.People jl,st don’t seem to tc,rn on

to other people’s idw.ls the way theydo to theti O!VII. ‘~he principle hasbeet, kno\vt, at Iwlst since the timeof Socrates, bc,t ho,v many tenchersactt, ally practice it? Ho\v ma~iy stu-detlts (or forthat matter, Peacc Corpstiai,lces) get ttirned 0,1 to ideas? AtEscondido, thetrainee,v:ls nllo\vedtodiscover the \vheel for himself–forprohablythe umpteen millionth timein history, A1~d it \vas understood

8

“just like the

trainees, the campesinos

cannot be lectured into

understanding themselves.”

better having been learned from biso- experience, at least better than ifit bad been lectured to him. Moreover,most of the trainees became deeplycommitted to it because they hadtivested something of themselves intoits discovery.

There has been a lengthy debate,vithin Peace Corps ranks, much of itcarried in the pages of this magazine,abot]t the relative merits of this kil,d oftraitling. Theobvious advantage citedfor it is that it does give the Volunteergood preparation for an “unsbuctired,”“,,orl-directefl job, as Inost n,rnl com-mu,~ity development \vork is. The mostfreqtlenltly cited disad~.atltage is that itoftcr) fails to provide the Volunteer,vith ,lecessary skills and technicalho\vlcdge to meet specific dema])dsill the field.

Itlthisreglrd, itis often overlookedthat non-directive trai,ling, properlyguided, call provide the most vital“lead skill” of all–an understandiz]gof thelearrling process people ,ntlst gothrottgh hcforc they can \vork togetherto chat>ge the conditions of their life.s,, really pnrts of the \vorld, the VolutI-teer has to kBlo\v l]o\vto help tbepeople of :, com,,],ar]ity become orga-nized before there can be any hope formea,~i,lgfttl developme]lt. Without thatcritical l,llclerstatlding, !lo amount oftechnical skill \vill beef ml,cb help.

Just like trai,lces, the people \vith,vholn the Vohlnteer \vorks cannot belectl] red into Ilr>dersta,lding themselvesor changitlg their attitides. 1,> orderto ).~,>derstat,dne\,, ideas so that change\vill becolnc possible, they ba,,e to bescnsiti\.ely gi, ided-l]on-d irectively- inthe process of disco\,cring these thingsthemselves. 1.IOXVdo yo~t best preparet,exv Vohltlteers for this role?

‘ChCLrles CrGes!I, a lrainee in th~process dcscrihed, is a Vohlnteer inthe Ecttdorian cnmpesino leadershiptiaining program. Aft@r toorking at

hk ottiIt site, he tom named Vohtnteercoordi?? ator of the program. in uddi-ttin to scrtiitlg [S corrospondant forTIP: VOLUXTEER, he is editor of the

in-coltntry Volunteer ptddication, ElEcuador. B~ore Ioining the Peace

Corps he edited his tlnioersity paper,The Daify Princetonian, and worked m

@ iotlrnal~t in ~t~rope.

i-..

NIGERIA BY SteVe CIaPP

9

A yo”nggirl;nthe Mandara H; f/s

Adamawa Highland5 stretch southward from LakeT%ad i“ Africa, forming a bo””dary between what isnow Nigerians Northeast State and the Cameroon Republic.lntheearly 19th Century, Muslim horsemen swept across

the plains below, driving small pagan tribes into the hills,where they remain today. The following photographs by

Steve Clapp, a former Volunteer in Yola, Nigeria, depictthe varied cultures of the Adamawa region.

I o

(.

‘i.‘v . ..

L

A F“lan; horsemansalutes the Em;rofAdamawa Prov;ncedur;nga Muslim feast day

AclincomDound;n the Mandara H;ll$ I

Mother andchild;n the M~nda,a Hills

12

Ca,.j”g of a N“pe horseman—.__. —..

L

A came fdr;.er with cakesof salt from Lake Chad

A rooftop ador.ment madeof the;awbones of cattlei“ the C“d”f Pa5s

13

Ch;ldre. gather aboc,t ama,i”,ba player in Yola

A papaya tree

14

A sacrif;c;al bull~ee[s o“t of h;s housei“ the G“d.f Pass

L“na, landscape of.olcanIc stocksat Rhums;ki, Came~OOn Reo.blic

By PAUL BELL

Nationalismand the

Peace Corps

T2::&2:?Er::d2:Acarving out pro foul]d transformationsin the Iivi]]g habits of hums” groups.The tendency of these forces is, first,to rouse the conviction that todayLntin America no Iorlger has to accept~t,lderdevelopment, economic and cul-tural dependence, poverty and in-justice.

Secot,d, a“d acting as a means tomake the first co”victio” a renlity,there is evident today a“ emphat(ciutlprecedet] ted affirmation of the “a-tio”al vnl”es of Latin America,] so.cicty. There is the determination todefe]ld these values from disintegra-tion a“d exploitation i“ contact ,vithother “:itio”alities, and to p“t themat the service of the~vell-being of thepeople a”dof their search foride”tityas a ,Iatio”.

Fro]n n sociological point of vie,v,Colombian author Oda”do Fals-Borda~~,rites thnt most Latin American “a.tio”s are i,> the midst of a dynamicevolution hy ,vhich each of them as a“atio]] is beginl]i”g to discover itselfar,d sees, sed”ctively\vitbi” reach, thepossibility ofattaini,,g its destii]ya”dof creati,,g more ab””da]lt co,lditionsof life for matly. The exaltatio]l ofr,atior]al vah!es and its use to ftlse tbeaspiratiol]s a“d necessities of tbe na.tion and its people is the practicalexpressio[l of this dynamism.

It is useful toan:dyze from a,,otherperspective the nature of the forcesactive i“ this pictllre of events that

Snow-capped volcano in V;cenle Perez ResalesNat;o”al Pa,ki” Chile,siake,eg;o”. Peace Co,psVoI””(ee,Gary Wette,bergwo,kson (hemasle, pIa”{o, the pa,ks development.

Vol””tee, )ames R“sseil Worde” works ;“scli-helpho”si”g i,l Coqu;mbo. Worden, wholi.edi” Mexico {or20yea,s, isa skilled builder,

16

some have called “the evolution of asense of nationality.” Never beforehas history let Latin America feeliself the master of its o!m destiny.Latin Americans are ~ginning tosense that they can retmd or hastentheir evolution; reject traditionalbounds and accept ne\v ties in theuplnce; create cities and move capitals;tame the inlmense, sleeping i,]teriora“d o~n it up to the outside \vodd“ia fantastic roads; regimet>t ne~v andvigorous political forces and give netvdirectives to education-all this by aso~.ereign fiat of the national \vill.

There isnn added dimension, ho\v.ever. Nationalism, when exch,sivista“d ,,eorsighted, tends to reduce itselfto a mystifying glorification of thenatiol~al interest. It tends to regard\vith suspicion and dishust any at-tempt o]> the p~rt of internationalinterests to participate in nationalventures.

\Ve sho~dd not fail to sympathize\vith the desire for protection of therlationnl resol]rces from foreign ex-ploitation and mensllres to sllpport thede\,elopment of national interests. Indomestic life, this effoti is seen in thennxiety for a more just participationi“ the frt, its of the earth, for oneconomic ns \vell as political demOc-racy, We ca]lnot but stitnulntc thenntional policy that repltdiates theconditio,~ing of Latin American na-

tional life by outside presst]res for-eig,, to her sovereignty.

Here the Peace Corps has a u,lique

oppor~nity since~ve are not ~stm-menk of United States foreign ~licy,tve are not bund to support U.S.interats abroad, b“t rather ~ve arebound by the mandate to representthe ideological selflessness of ouro\wnation and people, In other \vords,the Peace COTS represenb tbe ideathat the interesw of the United Statesare best seined .vhen the social andeco,~omic ,leeds of our host nationsare met.

Pract;cal interpretations

In practical OperatiOnaI terms, I,vould like to attempt to interpretwhat this increasing nationalismmeans:

. First of nil, it means the PeaceCorps cannot continue to program ttni-Iaterally. >Ve can no longer designprogram gOals, Peace CO~s VOlunteerjob descriptions, recmiting ortrniningprograms to coincide ~vith PeaceCorps limitations.

Peace Corps limitations sholdd beconsidered ~vhen determining ~vhetheror not to dismurage or encourage an

agency’s Ieql]est but shOuld never bettsed as a mold into \vhich to forcePeace Corps programs ~fter they havebeet> accepted,

There cdtl be no Peace Corps pro-

gram goals aplrt from the goals and

=piratiOns Of the hOst cOuntry. Inevery case, ours should be an effort tocoi~tribltte to the achievement of thoseprograms or plans set forth by tbe

\ !c

national government and its fiscal, ias,vell as semi-fiscal and private age”clqs.

I would readily admit thnt in m&countries Peace Cows Volunteers are!antago,]istic to~vard ~overnment agen- ~ties; they qlzictiy adopt this positionafter a brief contact \vith the masses L.,vith ,vbom they identify. In a recenttermit]ation conference in a SouthAmerican country, Volunteers ex-

i

pressed emphatically the feeling thatthe host cotlntry agency \vas muchmore interested in “pacifying” the peo-ple than itl \vorkit]g for developme,xtand change.

I happen to kno~<. that pqrticulwagency ss,ell enough to believe thatthe Volunteers’ ass~tmptions are nottrtte, bitt also well enough to under-stated ho,v they could dra\v such con-clusio,ls. This particular example isused simply to tlnderscore that ,ve,nt]st exercise care in choosing tbea,gencles \vith \vhich ,ve agree to as.sign> Volunteers, and from the timea program is begun ~vith nn agency,Tve have to mair>tnin the kind ofcom,~]t]i>icotio,] necessary to eliminateIl”fot,nded criticisms.

\ve are being cldturally and eco-nomically imperialistic, ho,vever, if,ve think \ve can ha,,e O“T o,vn pro.grams, apart from host agencies andtheir deficie,lcies. I might add herethat I think \x,e are beil~g pxesumpt\l-otls if \ve think otlr goal shocdd be“i,lstittttio,l building. ” 1 have seena fe~v examples ill \vhich the PeaceCorps bfis p~rticip~ted i]> helping to

VOfunteer Dutv C,eeni5sta[ionedin San

2sti~ngthen a ne~v agency. In no case,hotvever, could,vesaytbat &ePeaceC&s can presume to take credit for

j--building” an institution for a host.Jcounp,”

-/I recognize the problems Volunteers

encounter \vhen too closelv tied to ana~ency, and 1 wfll refer‘to some ofthose later, He~elet mesayonlytbatin countries of increastig nationalism,we \viU not be—and should not beallowed to program independently.If the Peace COWS is so limited thatit cannot adapt to some of the fmstia-tions that come \vith close agencyties, and if we cannot comm””icateourresemations, along witbsOmesug-gestions for overcombg the problem,then perhaps \ve had better not pro-,&am with that agency.

Stro”gnationalistic feelings in Chile,for example, dictate that requesb forPence Corps assistance are made onlyti areas in which Chife is unable toprovide skilled personnel (e.g. cityplanners, trout cultirists) or in areasin which, due to economic, educationalor training problems, the counby isnot yet able to provide s“”fficient num-bersofskifled personnel (e.g. ftires~technicians, self-help holtsing instic-tors).

No,. ~m sure some of you arethinking that this approach \villquicklylead us to lose our idealism, and tobecome a junior technical assistanceAID program. My response is simplyhat: I do ~lot see that idealism andtechnical assistance are incompatible,and no country \vith a.strong national-istic bent, is going to invite forei~vol””teers to meddle in social develop.

ment. First wemustreco~tie that theheads of agencies are not hviting usunless they have some respect andadmiration for American ideals as \veUas technology; and second, the headof an agency has to protect tise~from his Mwist critics, If he invitesAmerican Volunteers to provide tech.

nicalmstiance in a national proflare,he has some defense agatist the chargeof invittig American Volunteers to

spread American imperi~lkm. Theagency dXectOr, the M=x:stsi aS weuas the Peace, COWS ,vill all readilyrecognize that young American Vol-unteer technicians are going to projecta lot more than simple nnd namowtechnical assistance,. b“t the agencydirector is protected if he has a, pro.

g~am. agr,eement \vhich calls for tech.“,cal assistance. The Peace Corps isprotected if it f”lfills its agreement toprovide the technicians that ,vere re-quested, and the Marxists can’t saymuch because the country also hassimilar technical assistance agreementswith the Soviet Union, Poland, Czech-oslovakia and East Germany.

Stills we can provide

Some changes are obviously goingto be necessa~ if \ve a~e to providethe skills that ae requested. But be-fore 1 go on, I wa,lt to explati thatthese skiUs are not all going to be ofsuch a high level as to be beyond ourability to provide. Two examples wiUilh]strate: In Chile we have two pro-grams \vbich utilize people with noprevious skill: re-forestation and self-

help housing. In botb programs, thejob is simple enough forusto be ableto tiain the Volunteer adequately in athree-montb period. And incidentally,community development methodsgiven in tiaining make it possible forthe Volunteer to petiom a communitydevelopment as weU as a techicalrole.

Bljt changes will be necessa~ tiboth recruiting and training if we areto be able to fulfill the requests formore highly skilled Volunteers.

In recmiting 1 \vould suggest thatmore special or specific recmiting isnecessary, Inthepast, tikhas,vorkedfor non-competitive programs, fftbeLatin America Region and tbe Officeof Planning and Program Revie,v andResearch can detemine priorities forskill areas, a method like direct mail-ings to specialized schools followedup by personal visits should yieldadequate annual increases i“ specificskill areas, I would cite the examplesof forestry, fisheries, city planning, andMasters in Business Ad,minktration.Trai”i”g budgets will also have to bemore ffexihle. Some skills may require14 ,veeks of training, while a fewmay eve” req~,ire 20, 1“ the overallpicture, however, the lower costs ofin-country training should balance outtbe increased costs of longer or morecostly U.S. training. More flexibilitywill be needed in allowhg for thetraining of small groups of 5 to 15,

I“ countiies of increasing national.ism, the. Pence COTS has to providewhat the agericy reqllests. We ca”no longer design a program for saleto the agency. Tbk is a reversal of

Beth 5pea, ma” withneighboring newneighborhood ofSanliago whe,e Be[hand he, husband,&hley, live andwork ;n housingproject.

18

the process. Unessential Peace Co~srole \tith the agency k to 6nd outwhat clewly defined jobs or “trtiable”skills are needed, and either deliverthe goods or rejwt the progm.

. Increasing nationalism means, sec.ondly, that the Peace COPS cannotcontinue to dminkter undaterally.

It is a common practice for PeaceCOVS Volunteers to be consideredfirst as Peace COTS Volunteers andsecond as iunctionaties of a national

fa ency or institution. In atmospheres0 Lncreaslng nationalism, it is a pro-tection to the agency dkector to haveVolunteers subject to the same work-

~g hours and internal co”trola~ tieother personnel,

This means, then, that job super-vision, vacation requests, per diem,job-related supplies, etc. should betbe responsibility of the host agency.It means also that in the more ad-vanced countiies technical supportshould be given by the agency.Tbe employment of host counhy na-tionals as Program Technical Repre-sentatives is a move in the right di-rection, but it does not completelysolve tbe problem h an extremely na-tionalistic nation, because host COU”.try nationals thus employed by thePeace COrps are still Peace CO~s em-ployees, and there is a danger of crest.ing administrative channels outsidethe framework of the host agency.

As 1 mentioned earlier, there arereal problems involved h working soclosely \vith an agency. Peace CorpsVoltlnteers generally have had noprevious experience \vith company orbureaucratic discipline, and it is not

easy for them to adapt to some of the.>

agencies adminktiative procedures.Twottigs wetiportmtbere: one

is that both the Volunteers and the

agency have tO be develOped, edu-cated and disciplined to work witheach other. From the time the tiatieesare invited, it has to be made clearthat there \vti be close ties to tbe

agency In ~aining, he ~ainees haveto start getting used to the idea of\vorhng \vithin the shuctie of aninstitution, ‘At the same time, the

agency has to Ieam that v~l~nteersarenotexactiy the same as employees.It takes the and patience for anagency to learn how to best utflizeVolunteers. The more an agency ktivolved in tiabing and selection, thequicker they learn to live \vith ourpeculiarities.

New role for staff

But the Peace COWS stiff also hasto adapt to a different role. The re-gional rep h no longer Master of hisKingdom. He becomes a coordinator,rather than a director, and he mustbe able to inte~ret the agency tothe Volunteer and likewise, the Volun-teer to the Iocnl agency supewisor.He can nolongei unilaterally.tiansferVolunteers, unilaterally send a Volun.teer off to a Peace COWS conference;01 unilaterally temhate a Volunteer.

1 see t,vo possible approaches inbflateral administration on tbe na.tiol]al level. One is tbe establishmentof a National Adviso~ Councd made

UP of key peOple frOm bOth the public

Land private sector. The other is +ewhich we have in Chife. We haveagreements for each of our prograh,The ageement clealy states the re.

ispOnsibiliw Of bOth the peace COWSand the host country agency, and

specifies fiat tbe Volunteers are func- L

tionaries of the agency. Tbe agree-ment also sets up a council or cOm- {.

mittee to deal with the problems thatare peculiar to the Peace Corps’ typeof Volunteer cooperation.

. Finally, and perhaps the Mostimportant of all in countries of in.creasing nationalism, the Peace COTSshould encourage the establishmentand skengthening of National Volun-tary Sewice Programs, loobngtoxvardthe day of a phase out of importedVolunteers.

Here xve can serve a needed rolein the exchange of information andideas, in cooperating \vitb existingshort-tern or university summer pro-grams, andin encouragtig closer con-tact with the International SecretariatfOr Voluntary Sewice.

We must be careful to avoid thetendency to want to impose our ownideas or methods, for these NationalVolunta~ Sewice Programs will andshould insist on making their owmistakes. But \ve should not for amoment close any doorsof communi-cation or cooperation,

Patd Bell h beginning h~ secondtourm Peace Crops directm in Chile.He wm previously head of th~ CentralAmertia/ Wed Indies area of the LatinAmerica Regional ~ce at PeaceCorps head9uaders.

Fisher;es Vo[””tee, Oave Roadmandoes research o“ oysters whichhe a“d Chilean co-workers dredge upirom wate,s “ear the ;dand ofAncud, off Chile,s southern coast.

Phillip McCormick, an architecture graduate, providestechnical s”ppo,t to Chilean homebuilders throughthe na!io”al self-help hous;ng age.~ which employs him.

19

>Cq”!;””ed f,om Pa8e3

hive direct contact \vith local resi-d“ts Bt,t are v. lot avoiding the

J .real problem by making it too easy forthe Atner,can stfi? Perhaps the ob-ject shotdd ,lot be to brir~g the na-tional into the safe, cozy, familiarat,nosphere of the Pence Corps office,bitt rather to have the American staffget-the-hell o“t of the office to meet,,:ttior>nls or, their o,vn ground \\.hereit’s likely to cour>t :L lot more. Thed:,nger might \vell be that havir>g a,Iatior]nl on the staff \vill gi\,e tbeAmerican personnel an excl,se ?lottogo out to meet n%lddeal \vitb go\,ern-rnent offici.nl.s and other citizens.

1 st!spect that in mat>y cases a PeaceCorps Rep can get more accllrate in-fOrlnntiOt> from gO\,ern,nent officials,,,itb ,vhom he bl]ilds ;I speci~l rela-tio,lship of persot]al trust mId con fi-de]lce tha,> he can from x host “a-tionnl st:df ]Ilember ,vho has a vestedi,lterest i,] Peace Corps aIICl his PeaceCorps job, or o,]e ,vho lnay lose im-porta,,t contacts as he moves deeper

ir~t(, Peace Corps circles a“d fartherfro,n the heart of the go,,ernment,

1,> the q~~cstions raised nbo!,e, rny[,bject has t,ot bee,, to pr”pose th:tt,latio,]mls be exclilded fro]n PeaceCorps staff positions. Rnther, I hnvehoped to it>trod~,ce a TIote of catltio,>ir,to disc~,ssi[,”s abo~tt binatio,lalism..rbe last se,,cral iss~,es of TI.IE VoLuN-TEE,! n,,d SO,ne gc,,er%] Peace Cov~Isset, ttleht, tt have arotlsed i,, me thefc:lr thnt the creative idea of bit>a-tio,lxlism is beco,ning a slo~?n a*3dis beit,g presented as a panacea forall Peace Coqls ills.

As a goocl a,ld t,sef{d idea, il,tcgra-ti”l> of host tjatio,lals can be in-coq]ortited into i,ldi~,id”al programs,vhere sttch participation is plz,,”ed,t,eedcd, j,,a”ted a“d meat>ingf”l. Thed:!llger is that it ,,,ill bec”me a c:itIsec:irriccl forth by its o,vn force a,>d mo.mentim, arallyi”gc~, ag~,ideline forevah!atio”, a finger to he poi,lted aI,da ,vay to ~nin bro,,,!lie poi,lts ,,,ithhost go,,err>,net>ts at>cl \Vasbingtonproponents,

Before xve ,n,>tlnt the Ivhite steed off{dl integration–the daring chargerof ~ng-ho binationalism–\ve mayneed to ride a donkey cart for a \vhileto get a better vie,v of the surrot]ndi,lgcol,ntryside and to better avoid someof those hig holes i,] the road.

Michuel P<Itton is a rttral co*nmtl-tlity deoelopmetl.t Volltnteer in Fadahl”Go[Lrv]la, Upper Volta,

A look atPCVS who

face the draft

Si,lce 1961, \vheti Co>lgress author-ized the Peace Corps, service as nVolut>teer has not exempted a personfrom fl,tltre Inilitary obligations. Uponrc-cxx,nination in 1986-1967, the Na-tional Advisory Comlnission OILSelec-tive Service like\vise cor,cluded that:“no f:kir LVay exists, at least at present,to eqttxte non-milit:lry \vith ]Ililitaryservice?

Thl!s, the oIIly rensol>able expecta-tion has been th~t a Volunteer \!rouldbe deferred during his period of PeaceCorps service. Indeed, local hoards,vere told by h7ati0nnl Selective Serv-ice Director Gcn. Le\\,is Hershey ill1961 that Voh]tlteers are eligible for11-A occ!,p.btiorlal defertllel>ts i,, the,Iatio,,al i,lterest.

R,,t so,l~e\vhere :dot>g the Iitle cer-tair~ local boards begat] to hold octt011 T1-A class ificatio,,s for Pc.tce Corpsser\,icc. \Vhile still kdfectin>gless thanol>e pet- ce,lt of all mde trainees andvoh,”tcers, draft reasons ha,,e causedrte.trly 100 yot,t)g ,Ilert to leave PeaceCorps early.

Peace COVS keeps no figures onh“,,, ,llany of those individuals ac-tt,ally \.ind 111]excbangi,~g their Vol.Lttlteer skitus for that of a solclier.Once a perso,l has exhousted all ap-peals, Pe,lce Corps idloxvs him totermit~xte ar~d returrl honle. Fromthere he may either end IIp in an!\r,,]ed Forces Llniform or may avoidir~d~,ction throllgh circttmstances Ivhichcould nxnge from failing the militayphysical to cnteritlg an educationalor Othcr\vise cleferable category.

The case of practically every Peace

20

COVS participant who loses appealsat the local and state levels has thepotential to go all the \vay to thePresidential Appeal Board (PAB);thus, the ]lu[nber of cases reachingthnt “col)rt of last resort” al]d the ratioof \yil]s to losses at that level are usefulbarometers of nation\vide changes i]>the clr~ft climate.

From the once cnviahle record ofeight \vins to one loss :#t PAB in 1966,Peace COTS trainees and Volunteers,Iose-di,,ed in 1967, losing more drdtmlses than they ,VOI), and Icveled offlast year to a o,le-to-o,le record.

Year PA8 CaseTotals PAB Ratio—

Wns Losses Wns to Losses

1966 39 5 8 11967 53 76 1 1.41968 73 ,73 1 1

x =

Of the 154 it]dividuals classified1-A by PAB, 94 \votlnd up terminatingtheir Peace COTS semice for draftreaso,,s. (Prior to 1966, there \vere nos~,ch termi,,ations. ) Of the remailing60 i,ldi,,idtlals, some failed the ArmedPorces physical exam, some later re-cei\,ed a R-A classification from tbeuIoc:d hoards, some passed age 26 dur-ing the :]ppeal period, and some hadtheir induction orders postponed untilthe end of their Volunteer sewice.

‘rhe reasons for the dramatic shiftill the PAB ,vin/loss ratio from 1966to 1967 or 1968 are not altogetherclear.

Of those three yexs, the nationaldraft quota \vas highest h 1966:

Year National Quota

=6 367,1801967 218,7001968 299,240

Quite a fe\v of the losses sustainedin 1967 could have involved casesorigi]lattig in 1966 during the highdraft call. Cases cnn be dra~m outinterminably. A Lesotho Volunteer,vI1o ,vas appealing n I-A classificationfro,n his local board \vhen he e,]teredbaini,lg in September, 1967, is anexample. He lost his stnte appexl inApril, 1968, and the Preside,ltal appeal in October, 1968. In h~ovemberhe terminated his Peace Corps serviceearly and as of FebmaW of this year,vas continuing his fight against i“-dt,ction.

Sil,ce hlte 1907, the Peace Corps,,vhich previot, sly acted ondy as anad,, iser to trainees a,ld Volu,lteers, has;lcti,,ely st,pported req~lests for defer.me,,ts, If a state appeal bonrd, de,]iesa request for deferlnent, Director JackVat,gh]l ,vrites person;dly to Ce,l,Hershey clescribi”g the individ,]a~s\<.ork, requesting that the nppeal beco,lsidered by PAB and urging thatPAB grar~t the deferment.

Since the spring of 1968, PeaceCorps has tighte,led l,p its “draft-bolflpolicy a,]d thereby is se],di”g fe!ver“sure losers” overseas. Generally, the“draft-hold npplies to participa,~ts,,,110 ,vill approximate or pass nge 26by completion of service, They arenot allo,ved to proceed o,,erse.ls aftercotnpletiol] of stateside training “n.less and until they obtai,, the 11-Aocclq]atiotlal deferment or other sntis-facto~ resolution. T& “hold existsbeca~,se Peace Corps has discoveredthat it is very unlikely that at, i“divid.ltal it] that age group \vhose casebas reached the state appeal hoard orPAB level \vill be successf{d in hisappeal.

1968 PABActual Total Ratio—

Wns Losses W.s to Losses

Approachor pass 26by com- 4 48 1 12pletion .fsewice.

Under 25yrs.t10months by 69 25 2.8 1completionof semice.

(Peace COVS does not intewene onbebalf of a Volunteer who wishes toextend & sewice or re-enroll if he\vill approach or pass age 26 by thetime he completes that extension orre.enrol!mel]t, )

Daniel Buck, the Peace Corps’ se.lective sewice liaison, h?s said thatmost draft terminations have beenthose Volunteers \vho \vere denied de-ferment by the local boards eitherbefore or during training they prob-ably \vere not covered by the “draft-holfl policy (i.e., less than 24 yearsold or a member of all in+ountrytraining programs); and very likely,they were from the small “t,mber ofstates \vbich have de\.elopecl a non.deferral attitude to\vard Peace Corpsservice. Al]d it is tlot ttnhearcl of todayfor a Voblrlteer de ferrecl for bis firstyear of service to be denied defertnentfor his seco,)d year.

A further consideration is the actionof Cen. Hershey early ir> 1968 \vhe”be suspended the lists of essential:ictivities t,ld critical occt,~ttio”s pre-viol] sly t]sed to guide local boards.‘~he lists ne\,er ,vere binding, al,dHershey made it clear that local boardsrel,]nined free to grant occt,patiot,aldeferments in the national interest.Altbot!gb Peace Corps service \vas,Iever listed as a“ essential activity orcritical occupatio,l, it \vas a!ld is r>or.rnal for participants to receive the 11-Aoccupatio,>al deferment, \Vbilc Her-shey had publicly stated in 1961 thathe belie,,ed Peace Corps service to bei,~ the r~ation;d interest, the s~,spet,sio”of the lists perhaps led local boardsto beco,nc more stringe,lt in grat)ti,lgocclip.ltional deferments i,] general,

Also, \!,hile no. statistical evidenceexists i,] relation to retumcd VOhtn-teers a]ld the draft, o]]e staff memberobserved thnt \,ery fe\v former VOIIIII.ters ever enlist in the armed forces,ma,ly get teaching jobs a,)d arethereby deferred a“d so,ne apply forcorlscientious objector classificatior]s.This may i“fhte”ce some local boardsto feel that if they let someone joir]the Peace Corps, they \vill never haven future chance to draft him.

E\.en ill the face of cbn”gi”g atti-tt,des to\vard tbe Peace Corps on thep~rt of some draft boards and thepoor PAB \vi,,/loss record of 1967 or1968 \vhen compnred to 1966, tbe percer, t of all male patiicipants \vho ter-minate for draft reasons is not high(.04% in 1966, .5% in 1967, .6% in1968)

21

LOf course, the rltinning ar~men~ k

that the i“dtlctio” of even o“e Vol “.teer is a ,vaste of money a“d L7incongmo”s action, since tbe Volun-teer, like tbe soldier, has bis o~vn wayof ,vorking for pence, and both atgol.ernment expense. ‘L

Some Vohlnteers, Brazil groups forexample, have demanded in their ter- \minatio,l cor,fere”ces that Peace COTSIVashington take a more active standon the issue of i“chlctions from Over-seas and press for legislative g“ara”tceof deferments during o\,erseas service.

They have emphasized that this is,]ot a matter of draft-dodging, b“targ\!e logically that if the U.S. govern.ment in\,ests so m~,ch money in theirselection, trairli,lg and support thatthey should be xllo,ved to carry o,,ttheir jobs to colnpletio,> and file” facethe draft. ‘rhcy consider the VohIr>-teers’ a,ld the Pence Corps’ commit-me”ts as contracts jvitb tbe host cot,,,.tries a,ld argue that an ind~,ction fromoverseas is :L bre.lch of contract bythe U.S.

Additionally, they note that thethreat of il>terr”ptio!> and possibleterlni,lation of that contract makeslong-range goals and efficie,lt \vorkplans seem a \\,astcof time. The reso-Illtio,l of a draft problem call distract~ \701”nteer fOr six mot,tbs or IOnger,

and tbe anxiety cat]ses him to be lesseffective, o,le Brazil g,-o~q>said.

Apparently the process is “ot onlyrough or>the VoIunteer i,~qt,estio” btltdemoralizing for his fello,v Vol”,)teers.Some strongly recommend tbnt no Vol-t,nteer ( tlgo factor not considered) besel,t overseas ~lntil his draft problemis completely settled, for to do other-\vise is a grave i“jt~stice to the Volun-teer and tbe best country nationals.

Some of those ,vho advise V:l”gbno!> the draft see this’ns t!nrealistic si,lceit \s,o{dd delay h“r, dreds. of Vohtnteerseach year \\,hile kno\vit>g the greatInajority of them \vould eve,, t”allyreceive defeme”ts, They state that aprocedttre \vhereby Volullteers tricHeir)to overseas assignments as they re-ceive deferments \voldd create muchgreater i“efficie”cies and adtnit>iska-ti\,e burderls on host government age”.ties t,nd their programs than the dis-lwptio” \\,hich is procluced under thepresent system.

Revision in tbe draft seems i“-cvitable, considering the stirrings ofPresident Ntion, his Secreta~ of De.fense and n ““mber of Co,>gressme”.But, its effects \vill “ot likely be feltby the Peace COTS untfl the 1970s.

)\

Peace department

d,i-ea revived.

~ Congress has bee” ~ing to p“tPeace In the President’s Cabinet for

/yews. Skce 1935 alone, Ie@latiOn toestablish a Deptiment of Peace hasbeen promoted more than 50 timeson Capitol Hill; Congressional benr-ings \vere held htice-in 1945 and1947, The most recent attempt, abill first submitted in both the Houseand the Senate last fall, hns beengetting a lot of pllblicity–at least, it\vas, until President Nixon soft-pedaled the idea at a recent pressconference.

The newest bill, introdlxced in theSennte by Senator Vance Hartke (D.-I,]d. ) and the House by Rep. SeymourHal pert] (R.-NY.), \vould incorporatetbe Peace Corps, tbe Agency for ln-tern:itional Development, the ArmsControl and Disarmament Agency, theInternational Agricultural Devel-opment Sewice and the Export.lmpo,tBank tito one department, beaded bya Secretary of Peace.

The purpose of the Deplrtmet~t ofPeace, according to the bill, would beto “promote the cause and xdvance-me,lt of peace both in this Nation a“dthrotlghout the world.” The legisla-tion calls for the establishment of anInternational Peace hlstitute, a Peaceby lnves~ent Co~oration, and aJoint Committee or, Peace staffed byCongressmen. In addition, the pro-posal o“tli”es broad advisory n“d co-ordinati,lg responsibilities for tbe Sec-retary of Peace such ns: “advise thePresident \vith respect to the progressof peace” nl~d “provide informationto assist in the establishment of thoseinstitlltio”s ~vbich may ftlrther amongthe people atl ttnderstat> ding of thetrue meaning of peace.”

The c“rre”t bid for a Dep~rtmentof Peace has brougbt Ilods of approvaland offers to co-sponsor from a num-ber of key Congressmen, and sltpportfrom some famotts constitl,ents asweU. Among those recently i“ Wash-ington to sho,v their approval ofthe hill were actor Paul Nexvman,actresses Joanne Woodward and Bar-bara Rt,sb, \vriter Rod Sealing andformer Miss America Bess bfeyerson.

Supporters linked the idea \vith theFounding Fathers by quoting Dr.Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Decla-ration of Independence \vho \wote anessay in the 179&s entitled “A Plan

of a Peace 05ce for the UnitedStates,” Rush advocated “an 05ce forpromoting and preservtig peWetualpeace in ollr coun~.”

More recently, President Ntion sa\vthe peace office idea differently, Whenasked for & vie\vs at a White Housepress conference, he said:

“I cot>sider the Department of Stateto be a Depament of Peace. I con.sider the Depatiment of Defense to bea Department of Peace, and I can as-sure you that at the White Houselevel, in the National Secqrity Coun-cil, that is \vhere \ve coordinate all ofour efforts to%vard peace.

“I think putting one departmentover here as a department of peace,vould tend to indicate that tbe otherdepartments \vere engaged i“ otheractivities that \vere not interested inpeace,” he concluded.

U.N. to study

volunteer corps

The U]lited Nations General As-sembly recently passed a resoh]tion tostudy the feasibility of crenting nn in-ternational volunteer co~s.

The study, proposed to tbe As-sembly by Iran and co-sponsored byPakistan .,lc1 Greece, \vas adopted bya unanimous vote of 109-0-0 on De-cember 20. It xvas supported in par-ticular by the United States, tbeU. S. S. R., a,ld Somalia.

In a subsequent action, members ofthe International Secretariat for Vol-unteer Service ( lSVS), an Orgnniza-tio,l \vhicb seeks to promote voluntaryprograms ,vorld-,vide a“d includesrepresentatives of the mnjor voll]n-teer-sending countries, met in Genevain late Jantlay to discuss the possibil-ity” of assisting in the U.N. stidy.Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn\vas cha irma~l of the four-memberU.S. delegation,

The U.N.’S Economic and SocialCotlncil ( ECOSOC) is scheduled tobegin tbe sttldy of the internationalvolunteer corps idea–an analysis \vbichmay take more tba” a year—~vbcn tbecout>cil meets in>Jldy.

In his proposal to the Assembly,Mr. Vakil, the Iranian delegate to theUN., suggested that ECOSOC ti-vestigate the types of jobs ~vhich in-ter!lational volunteers might perform;the qualifications these jobs would re-

22

qutie; ways of recmitig, tiahbg andselecttig volunteers; the financhg Ofprograms; and other related potits ofmanagement, organization a“d imple-mentation, He noted that: “A waymust be found to harness the idealismand capacities of youth in a \vorld-ivide cooperative endeavor, free ofpolitical, racial, national atld religiousconstraints, to alleviate human igno-rance a“d distress.”

I“ his s“ppotig statement, Sovietdelegate Kasatkin said: “The mobili-zation of a body of trained volunteersfor development xvotdd do much torelie,,e the developing countries’ acutea]>d continuing shortage of kainedpersonnel: But he urged that thecout,cil I>ot overlook information fromdeveloping countries \vhicb had ex-nelled volu,ltarv eroltvs. such as tbekexce Corps. ‘ - ‘

At the Tanuarv ISVS meetine.Peace Corp~ Dir~ctor Va~,ghn pr~~posed that the ISVS consider an ex-perimental pilot project comprisingvolunteers from several countries \vork-ing together as a multi-national team.Vallghn said that it was important tosee if such a program offered any“promisi,>g nltem atives” to bilateralprograms, and that sllch a multi-national experiment might asskt theU.N, in j~,dging the feasibility of in-ternational voluntary efforts. Hestressed that bilateral programs shouldnot be abandoned.

The ISVS also dkcussed a plan topoll its 51 member countries o“ thesubject of an international volunteercorps, \vith special regard for thevie,vs of co”,,tries presently receivingvolunteers, Both the multi-nationalproject and tbe polling plan }vill befurther discussed at a meeting of theISVS this month.

Some questions about the intema-tionnl volunteer covs idea outitiedby ISVS inchlde:

● How can the United Nations re-cruit, select, train and support volun-teers both from developed and de-veloping nations? Can they do itduectly or \vould executing mnbac-tors be preferable?

. Could the U.N. volunteer organi-zation itlchtde domestic voh!nteers?

. HOYV could U.N. volunteers fitinto the existing administrative sys.tenl of the U. N,? Which adjustments~,.oldd be necessary? What \vould bethe status of the volunteers a“d thenew organization?

. How \vould these U.N. volun-teers be financed?

r

CORRECTION

Overdue credit goes to Nepal as-sociate Peace COTS director PhfllipArnold, the photo~apher of the pie.tures of Nepal \v&ch appeared onpages 4-7 of the November ksue.

Lettersto The

VolunteerCulver City will wait

To THE VOLU~TEEn:

Rick Dassance, in his letter concern.irlg “problems in Culver City (myllometo\vn)” (Dec./Jan. VOLUN=ER),falls victim to the temptation of elab-orating in print those “focus of com-mitment” doubts common to all Vol”n.teers. These dottbts are as natiralas they are \videspread and perhapsfor this reaso,l shotdd never, neverbe ,vritte,l, sitlce no matter how elo-que,,t or inspiring the thought in-tended, the tvords in prir]t becomelittle more than a \vhining lament,unoriginal and llninteresting.

The soothing of Mr. Dassance’scrkis through tbe words of n new coun-t~ director (an nlmost too obviousfather fig,!re) is also more lt,dicro”stha,] moving, especially \vben the com-forting tvords are simply a repetition ofthe fundnme]~tal truth “pen whichPeace COTS exist:; that is, all “atio”s“are equally importnnt and worthy ofconcern at]d commitment. .“

I find myself fewently hoping thatbis “tioubled thoughts” have retimedinstead of being perma”entiy quietedhy a fe\v facile \vords, Ca],adian poetLeonard Cohen wote, “Let merefl]se to be comforted,” arguing that“it is the tension” \vhich causes o“e toexcel, to reach, to refuse false orincomplete sohltions.

Maybe Dassance shotdd be in CulverCity, but be k in Peace COVS. Thereis a joh for him in Ethiopia x“d CulverCity. Given the current tension in theUnited States, one can solely assumethere will sM1 be a job in Culver Citywhen he leaves Ethiopia, Perhaps

MemorandumTO : The field DATE: Mach, 1969

FROM : The editors

S~JEW Peace to you

Adding up: The Peace Corps has been mentioned recently in severalreorganization plans proposed “by government officials, Department ofPeace Iegislatio” submitted by Senator Vance Hartke ( D.-1nd. ), (see

OppOsite page) calls fOr the peace COIPS and fOur Other gOvernrnentagencies to be combined at Cabinet level. Rep. Claude Pepper (D.-Fla. )bas proposed a Department of Youth Affairs \vhich ~vould include thePeace COWS, VISTA and the Teacher COWS, Newsweek magazine re-ports that Administration task forces are considering this latter combina-tion, tbo”gh not necessarily at Cabinet level, in order to coordinate voh,n.teer groups and other Federal programs dealing ivitb young Americans.And the U,]ited Nations Ce~,eral Assembly has voted to study the feasi-bility of statii”g an internatior,al voh,nte.r corps (see opposite p~ge).

❑ 00

A request to editors of in.co”ntV publications: Both THE VOLUNTEERand the Staff Trai,,ing Center library it, Peace COVS headquarters ,vo”ldlike to receive copiez of yot,r publications on a direct and regular basis,They are invaluable for background information, reprints and sto~ ideas.Please send o,,e or more copies of each issue to T= VOLUNTEER and tothe libra~ at Peace Corps, Washington, D. C., 20525,

❑ 00

Ethiopia Volunteer Charles Sutton is back in the U.S. for a month,but he’s not o], home leave. Sutton is touring tbe cou,lhy with the BlueNile Croup, Ethiopia’s leading traditional music group, ,vith which heis a featured masc”ko player. S“tto”, ,vho played the guitar pro fessior, allybefore going to Ethiopia, learned to play the traditional menko–. kindof fiddle made of goatskin stietched over a wooden frame–while servingas .3” English i“stmctor at Haile Selassie I University. He became soaccomplished that he \vas invited to play \vith the orchestra, and herecently extended bis service for a third year to sewe is the group’s full-time busi,less mat]ager, The group’s tour of u,, iversities a“d music halls

includes a“ appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

23

doubting whether he should have everleft wfll make him feel more compelledto.~attempt it.

JA~I.S C~AC=RTraiguen, Chile

No takers for tea~?’

To Tm VoLwmER :

I have been following the “semantdialogue” in the letters cohtrnn \vithavid interest. From the outiet, I mustsay that I ,vas terribly impressed withthe anti-sewant argument, so I im-mediately took an inventory of myo\vn situation here, and decided thatit would be wise to begti doing morethings on my own in order to attaina more complete oneness with myvillage.

1 laid down my issue of THE VOL-UNTEER and immediately rushed tothe nearest store to buy ‘a bucket, sothat 1 too ~voldd be able to draw \yaterfrom the ,vell xi all the other villagersdo. The next morning 1 \voke up atdawn and proudly marched to the\vell ,vith my ne,v bucket, 1 slowlyc,nravelled the rope and started to tossthe bucket into the \vell, \vhen thevill:{gers cried ot,t i“ outiaged anger,i“ utter ft,ry, for me to go, Since thiswas made clear in no uncertain terns,and having been taken completely bysl]rprise, \vhat alternative had I butto meekly walk away like a batterwho strikes ol,t for the last out in theninth b.ning of the seventh game ofthe World Series.

Not allowing this setback to cloud

my goal Of achieving unity ~vith thevillage, I next bought a kerose]~e stoveso that I could cook tea in tbe roo-mingand give it to my friends \vhoWOUIC1drop in. Learning by experiencethat the villagers are unl]sually shy,I decided that I \vould simply make

tea for as many people as there hap-pened to br k the room and wouldsimply give it to each of them withoutthe embamassing series of questionsand answers. So, titer matig fourcups of tea and handing one to eachof the three friends in the room, I satdo\m confidently to drink my own teabut noticed that none of the others\vere eve” touchtig theti cups, Onceagain my attempts at achieving acloser rapport \vith my villagers wereflaunted,

The fack of to”chabilitv and ““-touchability have since be~ome clearto me, Would it perhaps not be morejudicious, i“ fact, would it “ot be theultimate in sensitivity for me to hiresome touchable person to bring my\vater nnd make the tea? If the PeaceCorps is ever to develop boyo,ld itsinfant stage, it sholdd remlize that thefacts of village life make, such discus-sions as virtues and drawback ofsewants mere ~ipples in a patheticvacuum,

DAVD A. WEISBRODDeur%vana, Nepal

Cold Peace Corps hash

To THE VOLUNTEER:

As an irre~lar reader of THE VOL-UNTZER over the p~st fou years, theimpression gro,vs that in spite of allthe words, no one knows what thePeace Corps is about, much less whatimpnct the experience has on a Voh,n-teer, the people he touches and theflo,v of histo~, Yet, the reformerspress on, and, like John Osborn–(Dec./Jan. VOLUNmEn), seine LIS afare of sensitive, concerned cold hash.

Given our America]> constmch, Isuppose this contintting obsession withne~v formldas to insure the Success(not Faih]re) of the Peace Corps– i.e.

tidividud Volunteers-should not dfi-may me. But, semantic morass that itis, I am sorry to see each issue of ourmagazine fall into the hap, Like theAmerican &earn of happtiess, thehanian concern with being comfoti-able, one wonders how can we knowwhen we ~e? And there is nlways thenagging suspicion that, in turning ourattention to solving the puzde, we misssomething far more irnpotiant goingon outside.

I don’t mean to single out Mr.Osbom; he wites engagingly and hasobviol, sly given n great deal ofthought to his subject. But for somereason bis remarks sotlnd like most ofwhat appears in THE VOLWnER-remote from my daily co”cer”s a“d thereality I kno,v in tiak, remote fromthe reality friends wbo sewed else-where knew before me, It’s probablyjust cldture shock, but 1 can’t helpthinking that the Peace Corps liesgasping betlcath a sea of irrelevantwords, a victim of verbal over-~1;that the meaning of the people wework \vith, teach, live tvith and leomfrom–the? fmstiations, disappoint-ments, laughter, tears, and ours–goesllnspoken save for occasional outbursts“TO THE VOL~~ER,”

Perhaps it’s just my ematic readinghabits, hut 1 wonder if other Volunteersfeel this irrelevancy, if there is someway we can speak to each other thatwoldd be helpful in clarifying our obvnexperiences and perhaps assist thosewho wish to make the Peace Corps]nore effective,

C>mxsnNE JACOBSON

Arak, Iran

Editm’s note: THE VOLUNTEER en-courages comments w Mtis lwobson’sletter, along with contrihtions whichcorrespond with tbe concerns she atiic-ulately desmibes.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS POSTAGE AND FEES PAID

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