Index Documents………………………………………………….1 Texas Western College……………………………………15 Arercibo, Puerto Rico……………………………………..19 Arrival in Bogotá, Colombia………………………………22 Medellín, Colombia………………………………………..26 SENA………………………………………………………30 Teaching Manual…………………………………………..48 Sports Teams………………………………………………57 Miscellaneous……………………………………………...67 Vacations…………………………………………………..68 Farwell……………………………………………………..81

Journey Texas Western College in El Paso Texas October 15 to December 21, 1962. Arecibo, Puerto Rico January 2 to 21, 1963. Bogotá, Colombia January 21 to February 1, 1963. Medellín, Colombia assigned to SENA “El Pedregal” February 1, 1963. Trip to Machu Picchu, Peru July 6 to 21, 1963. Trip to Mexico City, Mexico December 23, 1963 to January 6, 1964. Leave for Holden, Massachusetts August 23, 1964. Note: Several of the pages have italicized texts because they are direct quotes from document and photographs sent home during my assignment.

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5 Peace Corps Volunteer Information September 16, 1963

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Cuerpo De Paz Basketball Team. Front row left to right Robert Atkins, James Brown, Unknown, Michael Town & David Bohnke, Rear row John Roberts, Don Curry, Kevin Dixon, William Cromwell & Robert Willey. Location unknown.

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Campus of Texas Western College in El Paso, Texas where our training occurred from October 15 to December 21, 1962.

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“Togo Party” Hilton Hotel (the first Hilton Hotel) in El Paso, Texas.

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Front Row Gale Gibson, James Bloom, Louis Gellermann, Deborah Graff, Priscilla Trainstein, Robert Atkins, William Cromwell & Susan Westlund. Rear Row William Wallace, Nicholas Spanakos, Petros Spanakos & Robert Willey.

Our instructors at Texas Western College.

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Visit to nearby Juarez, Mexico.

My first visit seeing a Correda de Toros in Juarez, Mexico.

19 Training in Arecibo, Puerto January 2 to 21, 1963. This was an option our group chose to participate in (the English Group training with us in El Paso, Texas choose not to participate).

Notice my Peace Corps Volunteer Number #28814.

One of my fellow room mates-Robert Atkins going through the obstacle course. This was tough to do!

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Sugar Plantation in Puerto Rico. Here we looked for Bolarticio or Ameoba living in the waters.

Don Curry, Don Torrence and Tom Hillary on 3 day hike in Puerto Rico. Here we are passing through a small village just when school let out for lunch. Taken January, 1963.

Performance by Harry Belafonte who was an advisor to the Peace Corps. With him were Carol Lawrence & Robert Goulet.

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Our group just after we completed a three day survival hike (it rained most of the time). We were given only one day’s food and the rest were to get from locals or what we could find (when it was over we stopped at a local small grocery store and I ate a whole loaf of bread). Thomas Hillary (kneeling), Bob Willey, Don Curry, Kevin Dixon, Mike Haviland & Don Torrence.

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Our director Eliseo Carrasco is the first person on the left setting in the front row. Taken in Bogotá, Colombia. Taken January 30, 1963 at formal reception held in a private club (membership was $5,000 per year).

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Once we arrived in Bogotá, Colombia both groups had a few days of orientation. My dinner for the first few days was Chateau Briand for $.75. Robert Willey front row second from the right.

Two women cooking supper half way up Mount Montserate (10, 341 ft.) located in the center of Bogotá, Colombia (8,612 ft.).

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The value of Un Peso Oro Colombio was 10 cents in United States currency.

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We arrived in Medellín, Colombia February 1, 1963. Left to right Robert Atkins (Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana), Kevin Dixon la Universidad de Antioquia, Robert Willey el Sena & Rodolph Salinas coordinator. Medellín is called the “City of Eternal Spring” with an elevation over 5,000 ft. in the State of Antioquia (known as the “Texas of Colombia”).

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Vista aérea Estadio y Coliseo locate about a mile from where we lived.

Kevin Dixon & Robert Willey in their new Peace Corps Outfits.

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We saw several Correda de Toros both in Bogotá & Medellín, Colombia including the famous matador “El Viti”.

30 SENA (“El Pedregal” in Medellín, Colombia My assignment was at the SENA School which was a boys trade industrial high school where the students attended classes for 6 months and then 6 months working in their employers (sponsors) factory. They received a salary for their work. Our program enjoyed good success due to the support of the school and enthusiasm of the students; resulting in my having several volunteers (Chris Day, Ben Milici, Rudy Salinas &Chandler Thomson) assigned to teach with me.

Part of the 100’ mural painted on the walls in the entrance.

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1) Now there is a basketball court and volleyball court. 2) Here there is being built a soccer field with “sod” for grass. 3) On the ground floor is a basketball 100’ mural painted on the wall depicting the history of the Departmento Antioquia. I’ll have to take a picture and show this great work of art.

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Sena was completed August 28, 1961.

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Dr, Restrepo (principal of SENA) & Robert Willey on a day trip in the countryside.

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Taken in the “Torno Fresa” Taller-which is somewhat like a tool & dye shop.

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Rudy Salinas with students.

Robert Willey teaching physical education classes at SENA. In the bottom right photograph is one of the school teachers who often assisted us during classes and was our assistant basketball coach. We painted the white lines on the basketball court by hand.

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Bob Atkins and I standing next to the Tetherball Court. We now have another court. The building you see contains our gym room for gymnastics and weight lifting. Teatherballs were donated by the Voit Company.

SENA Madison Square Garden-capacity 25 estudiantes (this was an open air gymnasium with metal sheets on two sides to keep out the rain). The equipment bench for weight lifting, weight lifting equipment, weight lifting platform & tumbling mats were made by the school. We constructed most of our sports equipment at the school.

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One of our first projects completed for the gym room.

An overall shot of the Gym Room. When we came here this was a meeting and Recreation Room.

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Some of the students who regularly make use of the weight lifting program.

Leon Londoño working-out on the wights in our gym room. In case you are wondering each of the metal discs is 2 ½ kilos or about 5 lbs. per disc. In all we have 7 complete sets of barbells and dumbbells with graduated weights up to 29 lbs. per disc.

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Chris Day demonstrating a vault in his Gymnastic Class. Near our small gymnasium we had a large bulletin board with many photographs we took of the students during class and their recreation times.

Chris & 4 students. The reason they are laughing is I gave Oscar 15 lbs. to put behind his head for a sit-up and he couldn’t sit-up.

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Joe Milici teaching volleyball during one of the Physical Education Classes.

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Here I am in one of Chris’s many sneaky candid shots. This one taken in our offices. You will notice that the the desk is the usual “NEATNESS”. Behind me is Héctor Pelaéz-one of our better students last semester-he was the sit-ups champion with 248. Top shelf has sports films shown during recreation times.

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Macho men showing off for the camera.

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Our Physical Education Classes were mandatory for students (two classes per week) including oral and practical examinations (with grades) in everything we taught. This also included taking showers.

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The Maestro putting in hooks to hold ¼” steel cable. This is the rope climb and flying rings project. The steel bar in the lower right hand corner is one of our chinning bars. In all this project began about 6 weeks ago and maybe by next month it will be completed. Taken October 16, 1963.

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Text as written by me in May, 1964.

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We had two new Peace Corps Volunteers in Colombia V assigned to us in Spring, 1964. They were to continue with our program once we had retuned home.

48 Training Manual For Teaching Physical Education One of our tasks was to create training manuals. These five photographs show me demonstrating some of the skills in playing basketball.

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50 Since there were few books in Spanish focused on Physical Education we decided to translate resource materials.

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Taken at our recent basketball game against the Collegio of UDA where Kevin works. Each one of the steel doors opens up into one of the classrooms where as I have said earlier are limited to 15 students per class and the courses range from 2 to 3 years in length. That is Rudy with the whistle in his mouth referring the game.

“You will notice that across on the mountains is a new village under construction financed by the Colombian Government. They just filled-in leveled off a hillside and put in houses. I probably should note that there are veryfew trees around”.

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SENA basketball team. We often had practice on Saturday.

In 1963 played baseball for Cocoa Cola.

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In 1964 played baseball for SAM Airline.

The “symbol” for the SAM Airlines-whom I played baseball for.

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Loyd Kepferle & Mike Town with their basketball team in Popayán, Colombia.

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Our Peace Corps Basketball Team in early training. Location unknown.

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Cuerpo de Paz Basketabll Team began training on May 19, 1963 in Popayán, Colombia and continued it in Cali, Colombia. Our schedule was to play 7 games and conduct 4 basketball clinics (several cities) in 11 days.

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Taken May 21, 1963 in Cali, Colombia where we practiced for 2 days before our trip.

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Robert Willey rebounding during our practice in Cali, Colombia.

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Game @ 8:30 pm on May 23, 1963.

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Game @ 8:00pm on May 25, 1963.

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Bob Bergstrom, Jim Brown, Daniel Friedman & Tom Tollman. They lived together in Bucaramanga, Colombia.

Kneeling are Loyd Kepferle & Jerry Spearman. Standing are Norman Olsen, Irving Ostrowsky, Robert Atkins & Ernesto Rivera-Rodriguez. Location Unknown.

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Location unknown. Vacation Trips Rudy Salinas and I took 2 vacation trips. The first was July 6 to 21, 1963 to Machu Picchu, Peru. “Did you get here by parachute?” As we entered Tulcon, Ecuador (see map on page 74) at the border crossing an official asked us “Are you Americans”? We responded “Yes, stated where we were born and the purpose of our trip” and he did not request to see any identification documents. So we then continued on our journey south eagerly looking forward to our arrival in Quito and then on to Machu Picchu, Peru. That evening we bought tickets on a ferry bound for Quaquil, Ecuador whereupon we planned to travel by land to Macará, Ecudaor located at the Peruvian border. In Macará we showed our passport to the head government official. He asked in a stern voice “Your passports are not stamped. How did you enter Ecuador by parachute? You must have these stamped to prove legal entry to this country”. He then took our passports and told us to return in the morning to settle the matter. We then realized our omission.

69 Since Rudy and I had limited Ecuadorian money with us we slept in an inexpensive hotel (the beds were equipped with mosquito netting, the floors slanted and unsteady). The next day we returned to see the same head government official. We then decided we must return to Quaquil to have our passports properly stamped. We found the authorities (assisted with a bribe) to verify our legal entry to their country and went back to Macará to gain entry to Peru. There we met the same border crossing official who now stamped our passports and granted us permission to leave Ecuador. The entry into Peru was via a short walking distance (probably ¼ mile) and we were questioned numerous times by army officials (assisted with a bribe when we thought it would expedite our passage). Hidden Treasures During part of our return journey thru Ecuador we boarded a crowded bus with passengers luggage stored on the roof. By now we had learned that it was wise to sit on extensive bus rides near the driver (when appropriate we provided him with local currency to offer local officials; thus ensuring our passage thru many “check points”). Sometimes at these “check points” soldiers would ask us to get off the bus and they would search everyone’s belongings. After we successfully passed thru the last “check point” a woman passenger sitting behind us gleefully lifted up her long skirt and showed everyone how she had been clever enough to hide several contraband liquor bottles tucked in pockets under her skirt. She expressed her happiness and shared her success in having deceived the military. Memorable Flight to Quito, Ecuador Another eventful experience during our return journey thru Ecuador was aboard a small plane that looked like it could carry parachute troopers (I was most sick requiring frequent vomiting and bowel movements called “Montezuma’s Revenge”). It was equipped with seats on each side. The pilot and crew were happily drinking liquor during our short 20 minute flight to Quito. When we arrived we learned the country had been over thrown during our visit to Peru and was now under a new Military Junta. Looking out the plane window we witnessed a formal greeting of the new Military Regime; complete with soldiers in dress uniform and World War I looking tanks on the runway. Needless to say we were more relaxed once we left Ecuador.

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Machu Picchu., Peru. Taken July 12, 1963.

Here I am overlooking Machu Picchu, Peru on our recent vacation. The height here is 7,800 ft. with a 2,500 ft. drop directly below me.

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Arrow shows where we hiked to. There were steel hand grips along the trail as well as a small tunnel to crawl thru.

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Closer photograph of the many terraces where crops were grown. Machu Picchu, Peru was built in the 1400’s and some think it was the main capital of the Inca Empire that stretched to Mexico. Discovered July 24, 1911 by American Historian Hiram Bingham. It is located in the middle of a tropical mountain forest 50 miles North West of Cusco, Peru (located at an elevation of 11, 200 ft. and once the historic capitol of the Inca Empire). You can sleep at the top in a small hotel for 200 soles a night in 1963.

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77 Our second vacation trip December 23, 1963 to January 6, 1964.

Rudy Salinas and I traveled from Panama to Mexico City, Mexico in December, 1963.

Place Unknown.

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We visited the basilica built centuries ago. Mexico City is on an old lake bed so the city is gradually sinking. Notice the crack in the wall. Upon our arrival we met Rudy’s parents who had traveled from their home in Los Angeles, California to see something they had always wanted to visit.

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December, 30, 1963

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Some of the many murals painted in buildings at the University City of the National University of Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico. The mural on the right is by David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Climbing Pyramids de Deteothuacák 20 miles Mexico City, Mexico. From City, Mexico.

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Kevin Dixon (Norwood, Massachusetts), Robert Atkins (Memphis, Tennessee), Robert Willey (Holden, Massachusetts), Rudy Salinas (Los Angeles, California & Lance Lewis (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). On the back of photograph is written “To Pablo Robert Willey Ex partner Sena, Cuzco, Mexico” signed The Wet Back (Rudy Salinas). Taken at our “farewell dinner” August, 1964 in Bogotá, Colombia.

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Our director Eliseo Carrasco and his wife are in the back row 2nd & 3rd from the right.