OCTOBER, 1964 I IVOL. 2, NO. 12 I I

Washington, O.C.

Shriver

20525I I

NamesNew DirectorsFor 3 Divisions

Several key Peace Corps staff appoint-ments have been a“”ounced recently byDirector Sargent Shriver.

New Director of the Division of Vol-.ntecr Support is Roger S. Kuhn, for-merly Deputy Director of the AfricaRe~ional Office,

Kt,hn succeeds Padraic Kennedy, whoserved as Director of the division sinceits inception i. J,,”., 1962, Kennedy,31, is now with tbe Democratic Na-tional Committee.

Kuhn, 39, came to the Peace Corpsin April, 1961, and as Associate General

o

Counsel was responsible for the draftingof the Peace Corps Act, passed by Con-gress Sept. 22, 1961. 1. July, 1962, hewas appointed Deputy Director of theDivision of Private Organizations (nowDivision of Private and InternationalOrganizations). He held that POS1 untilJuly, 1963, when he went to the AfricaRegional Office as Deputy Director.

A 1948 gradu.tc of Harvard College‘(B.A. i“ history). Kuhn atlended Col.m-bia University School of Law a“d wasnvanted a bachelor of laws degree in1951. He served as law clerk for aU.S. Court of Appeals judge in theDistrict of Columbia, from 1951 to 1952,the” as a lawyer with the Mutual Se-curity Agency i“ Wasbi”gto”, from 1952to 1954, From 1954 to 1961 be wasassociated with the New York law firmof S1roock & Strwck & Lava.. He ismarried and has two chi[dre”.

To head the Division of Selection,Shrivcc has chose” Abraham Carp, apsychologist and personnel s~cialist whohelped choose the firsl U“iled Statesastronauts.

Carp st!cceeds Edwin R, Henw, whohas returned to his former post asmanager of the Social Scic.m RmearchDjvision of lhe Standard Oil Companyof New Jersey.

Since 1957, Carp has been technicaldirector of the Wrso”nel-re% arch lab.oratory of the aerospace medical division

* ‘at Lackland Air Force Base, San A“.- ton,o, Tex. From 195 I to 1957 he was

chief of the selection a“d classification(Continued on poge 2)

Jumping in MbeyaVolunteer Frances tinzurk (Fallbrook, Cal.) holds the line at the four.footmark as she teaches high. jumping techniques to physical-education studentsat Mets Upper Primary School in Mbeya, Tanganyika, near the NorthernRhodesia frontier, She is a June, 1962, graduate of San Diego State Col Iege.

Kennedy Letters Wanted For LibraryVol”nteeB who received Ictters from .

host-country friends on the occasion ofPresident Kennedy’s death are beingasked to share such communications wilhcompilers in Washington, so that copiesmay eventually be placed in lhe JohnFitzgerald Kennedy Library i“ Cam-bridge, Mas.

The Peace Corps’ Division of SpecialProjects is ~atherin~ material for inclu-sion in the library’s collection of lettersfrom over the world concerning thedeath of the Pr~idtnt.

Volunteers are asked to submit origi-nal letters, which will be returned aft.rduplication. or copies of orininals. De.lails should be included shout writers ofthe letters, such .s age, vocation, n“dother circ.msta”ces. Also desired areletters by Vol.nleers, describing reaction

in (heir areas to the news of Nov. 22,1963.

Volunteers are asked 10 S“PPIY someinformation about themselves—kind ofossig”ment, Ie”gtb of time o“ job, cur-rent overseas addre~, and U.S. addressif termination is “ear. Material shouldb. marked C<For Kennedy Library,, andaddressed to David Gelma”, Director,Dib,ision of Special Projects. PeaceCorps, Washington, D. C. 20525.

Bonn Volunteers Go AbroadThe Gcrma. Volunteer Service sent

its first vol.” teecs abroad lasl month,as 14 members arrived in Kabul, Af.gh:!.ista”, to work in Iecb”ical schoolsthere. Eighteen more are scheduled togo to Kabul in January.

New Division

e*.,:‘&”A

Kuhn: Volunteer Support

Directors and to-School

(Con fin!ied from page 1)

branch of the Air Force personnel andtraining research center in San Antonio.Earlier, he served as chief clinical psy-chologist at the Battle Creek, Mich.,Veterans Administration Hospital, asassistant professor of psychology at theUniversity of Wisconsin, and as aviationpsychologist with the U.S. Navy.

He was born in Boston and receiveda B.A. degree in 1939 from the Uni-versity of Massachusetts, an M.A, in194 I from the University of Oregon,and a Ph.D. in 1948 from StanfordUniversity. He is married and has twochildren. His wife, Francs MerchantCarp, has been chairman of tbe de-partment of psychology and professor ofpsychology at Trinity University in SanA“to”io.

Dr. James E. Banla bas been namedDirector of the Medical Program Divi-sion, succeeding Dr. lowph A. GaJ.Iagher, who is now deputy chief ofthe Division of Hospital and MedicalFacilities, Bureau of State Services, U.S.Public Health %rvice, in Silver Spring,Md.

Dr. Banta, 37, a commissioned officerin the U.S. P.hlic Health Serviw, cameto the Peace Corps in December, 1963,and has served as Deputy Director oflhc division since that time. He waspreviously at the University of Missouri,where he was director of the ecologyfield-training slation and assistant pro.fessor of preventive medicine o“ themedical.school faculty.

Hc has sewed abroad in Japan andOtinawa, lhe Far East, and (he MiddleEast, from 1954-55 as a Marine CorPmedical officer, and from 1955-57 asan offiwr wilh a NavaJ medical-researchunit in Cairo. He received hk medicaldegree from Marquette University in1950, and was an intern at lhe Hospitalof the God Samarian in hs Angel=.In 1952 he attended the U.S. NavalMdimf Schml i“ Bethmda, Md., a“d in1954 received an M.A. in public healthfrom Johns Hopkins University in Balli.more. He is married.

Carp: Selection Banta: Medical

Man Behind SchoolNow Peace, Corps Staff Member

Bradley: Schools

Program

Gene Bradley, the man who contrib-uted the idea for the Peace CorpsSchool-lo-School Program, has becomea member of the Peaw Corps staff,Director Sargent Shriver ~nnoun=drecently.

Bradley, who bas bee. editor of tieGeneral Electric For,,,n and ~dvisor forGE’s International Public AKairs Pro-gram, h~s taken leave of absence fromhis firm in Schc”ectady, N. Y., to becomeSpecial Assistant to the D~rector incharge of the School-to. School Program.

School-to-School, an international self-help program which hopes to build 3000schools i“ the coming three years, 0pcrates by having a U.S. schoQl or civtcorganimtion sponsor the budding of aschool in O“C of the developing nations.The U.S. contributor raises 1$1000 tobuy construction materials, a~d, citizensof the recipient counlries, wock!ng withPeaa Corps Volunteers, prform theconstruction themselves. I

The idea stemmed from Bradley’s ex-perience as president of a Schenectadyschool,s Parent-Teacher Assn. 1During abusiness meeting with government ofi-ciats overseas, he commented that thePTA had raised $750 the previous year,and asked the officials what they couldhave done with such a sum. ‘

“Build a school; was the ,respnse,a“d thus germinated the School. to-Schoolplan. The Rosendale Elementa;~ Schoolin Schenectady began a pilot pro]cct withthe small Colombian community of CasaBlanca, working through Pea~e CorpsVolunteers there. A three-room school-house was completed last Junei the firstschool in the area to accommodate stu.dents through the fourth grade.

More than 600 U.S. commun~ ties haveindicated interest i. the propam, andsome 50 have already appropria~d funds.

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Bradley, 43, is a native of Omaha,Neb. He received a bachelor of business-administratio. degree in 1943 from theUniversity of Nebraska. In 1953 hejoined G.E. to direct advefiising andsales for the company’s jet-engine de-partment in Cincinnati, and later initiatedthe G.E. Defense Q,,a,terly, predecessor ●of the G.E. Forttt?t, an international -public-affairs periodical which analyzesproblems of national defense and free-world prOg,eSS.

Before coming to G. E., Bradley waswi[h the advertising fir” of Batten,Barton, D.rsti”e, and Osborn in SanFrancisco. He =wed as an Air Formpublic-relations officer during the Ko-rean War, and is c“rre”tly a raervelieutenant-colonel. He is married, andhas two children.

Other Staff ChangesTwo other slaff changes have taken

place recently:. Rafael Sancho. Bo”et, formerly

Peace Corps Representative in Chile,now is sewing as U.S. deputy chief ofprotocol i“ charge of state visits andceremonial events. Before going to Chile,Sancho-Bonel served as director of PeaceCorps programs in Puerto Rico, hisnative land.

. Paul Daly, for 21A yean SpecialAssistant for agricull.re al Peace Corpsheadquarters, has been appointed As-sociate Peace Corps Representative inThailand. He is a graduale of the Uni-versity of Florida. His s~cialties areanimal hushandw and nutrition, and hehas sewed in the Pacific islands and in ●the Far East as a government livestockadviser. Daly, 39, is married and has fourchildren.

~Volunteer Forester in NepalKilled in Fall From Trail

A Volunteer forester in Nepal waskilled Sept. 4 in a fall from a moun-tain trail.

He was Bruce Elwin McKeen, 23,from Anderson, Cal., who had beenserving abroad since June.

The accident occurred as McKecn andhis roommate, Volunteer Andy Geair(Tea”eck. N.J.), were hiking from Dharanto Dhankuta in southeastern Nepal.Caught at nightfall without lights, theywere proceeding to a small village tosleep. hlcKeen stepped off the narrow(rail and fell 30 feet to a dry riverbd.Medical officers attribt, ted his death tosktdl iract.rc.

8oth hlcKcen and Geair had beenassigned to the city of Biral.agar, a jute,s{,gar, and cotton-milling commu. ilynear the India frontier, 35 miles southof Dh:tnkuta. They had been scheduledto help the Nepal Dept. of Forestrystart a new nursery in Biratnagar, butseasonal rains caused postponement ofthe work, and lhe two Volunteers werepreparing to lransfer to Kathmandu forrcnssignment as fOreslry s.rvcyors.

McKeen was born in San Luis Obispo,Cal , and lived most of his life in the

*.’, mo~tntntns of northern California, whereh!s f.ther, Harry C. McKee., is a slateforest ranger. He grad.atcd from Para-dise (Cal.) High School in 1959, andattended Chico State Colleee from 1960to 1963, where his maj~r field wasforest ry.

Before joining the Peace Corps hcworked seasonally as a fire-truck driverfor [h. California Division of Forestry.While in high school he maintained hisown stand of timber as a 4-H project,and =rved ;,s prcsidenl of his local 4-Hclub, At Chico Stale he was a memberof the track team; he was also skfiledat h~tnting, riding, camping, and skiing.

Bruce McKeen

He listed watercolor painting and flY-tying as avocations.

In addition to his parents, he is sur-vived by two brothers and a sister, allliving in Anderwn.

His family has established tbe BruceE. McKeen Memorial Fund, for educa-tion loans to needy and worlhy students.Contributions may be made in care of[he Bank of America, Village Pla=Branch, Redding, Cal.

McKeen is the ninth Volunteer to diein service. Four have been killed inairplane crashes. two in the Philippinesand lwo in Colombia; two in vehiclecollisions, in Colombia and Brazil; andonc has died from illness and one frommedicinal overdose, in the Philippines.

Kenya VolunteersWill Take PartIn RCA, Education

Tbe Easl African nation of Kenya willreceive its first Peace Corps Volltntecrsat lhe end of this year.

More lhan 75 Volunteers are pro-grammed to uake part in rural com-munity-action and education programs.A group of abo,lt 30 will arrive in Kenyain December to assist rural-co-operativeorganizations, land resettlement, andcommunity development. An additional45 Volunteers are schedu!ed to go abroadin January, 10 work in secondary educa-Iion as teachers of hislory, geography,English. math. and science.

Kenya, which gained full indepe.de~ce1.s1 December, recencly started . six-yeareconomic-development plan. Resetde-ment programs call for one miflion acresof land 10 be given to some 85,000families.

The country is also building a freepublic. education system. At present, onlyhalf of Ke”ya,s children are able toattend elementary schools. AI the sec-ondary level, there are facilities andinstructors for only a small portion ofpupils completing elementary grades.

The group of rural community-actionVolunteers-to-be is “OW “ndergoi”g trai.-i“z at the University of Wisconsin, Theyare scheduled 10 depnrt Dec. 29 forNairobi,

Trainees for lb. secondary-teachingpositions are taking part i“ a programal Teacher’s .College of Columbia Uni-versity in New York. They are set to EOabroad Jan. 1.

Peace CorW Representative i“ Kenyais Thomas H. E. Q.imby, who recentlycompleted two years as Representativein Liberia.

3

PC Teachers MeetRuss Counterparts

Fifty Peace Corps Vol””teer teacherswho arrived in Ghana last month mettheir Russian counterparts at a wel-coming reception given by (he Ghanaiangovernment.

Newspapers in Accra gave wide cover-age to Ihe reception, which was attendedby the American and Soviet Union am-bassadors to Ghana. Host was KwekuBoateng, Ghanaian Minister of Educa-tion.

The “ew Peace Corps Vol””teers, wholanded in Accra Sept. 12 after trainingat the University of California in Berke-ley, joined 125 others already at wOrkin Ghana, i“ secondary ed~tca(ion and asgeologists. The “ew arrivals arc lhefifth group of Vol”nleers [o go toGhana; the first arrived in At~g.st, 1961(and Wc,e the first Vol””teers to goabroad), A total of 255 Volunteers hasserved i“ Ghana, incl”di”g (he fifthgroup.

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Pulaski and Cruz

Volunteer Brings PupilTo U.S. For Summer

A Volunteer lcacber who served i“the Dominican Republic returned home[his summer with a living reminder ofthe host country: one of his pupils.

Stephen Pulaski fWorcester, M-s.)scr.ed as an English teacher in the com-munity of La Vega, 65 miles northwestof Santo Domingo in the center of theco.”try. He lived there with the familyof EL,gene An[onio Cr”z, 18, who wasan A-nl”s n.nil i“ o“e of P“lask?sclasses:

When P“laski,s service in the count~came [o a“ end, he invited Eugene An-lonio to spend a summer with him athis home i“ Worcester, They came byjet in July, touring New York City andthe World>s Fair e“ route. In Worcester,they appeared before civic groups andwere interviewed by a local radio slation.

From Philippines to District of Columbia,

Former Volunteer DirectsA former Volunteer couple who

worked i“ a small community on theisland of Mindanao in the Philippinesare now attempting to help anotherunderdeveloped area, some 20 city blocksfrom the White Ho”se in Washing-ton, D. C.

Last month, Lila and Dirk Ballendorf,kth 25, moved to the Adams-Morgancommunity of Washington, into an oldhome that five years ago became Holly-day House, a neighborhood center. Mrs.Ballendorf, chose” over a number ofapplicants mainly kcau= of hcr servicewith the Peace Corps, is the first f,dl-lime director of the center.

Hollyday Ho”se is named in tributeto a former head (1953-54) of lhc Fed.ernl Housing Administration, Guy T. O.Hollyday. Some 700 persons in 108communities contributed money to pur-cha= and rehabilitate the old home andmake it a neighborhood center. It isgoverned by an interracial, nonprofitcorporation, with a 2 I-member board ofdirectors. two-thirds of whom live i“the neighborhood.

1. the past, Holly day Ho”se, eslab.Iished with lhe aims of Iesseni”g racialtension and bettering living conditionsin the arc., has ust,ally been operatedby older directors dealing mostly withthe interests of yo””g people,

Mrs. Ballendorf plans to conlin”e thececreatio.nl a“d sl”dy -aid programs ofHolly day House that focus on youngp, Op!., b“l she alSO wants to do more[o assisl adults. O“ the schedule willbe child.care clinics, classes i“ sewingand cooking, and advice on familybudgeting. O[hcr programs already “n-derway will conti””e: athletics, sco”ti”g,s[udy hall, and tutoring sessions.

Nee& For Expanded ho~am

We have several “rge”t needs forour expanded program, ” Mrs. Ballen.dorf said, ‘<We need young men i“ter-csted in working once a week with oneof o“r clubs, We have Se”eral grO.pSwho need to have yo””g. energetic leader-ship in helping to develop positive meansfor ~lf-expression a“d growth. A“d weneed older people i“tecested in super-vising evening study halls and i“ givinglibrary direction.$,

A large room in the basement ofHollyday House is being converted bythe Balle”dorfs and neighborhood boysinto a library. In another rmm dow”-s(airs is a workshop, with tools that areIoa”ed to make minor repairs on housesi“ {b. “eigbbrhood.

Otttside, a patio will be cleaned ofdebris a“d made into an area where

Community Centere

cookouts and meetings can be held.On the first flwr, a large living roomis o“ffi[ led with comfortabl~ furniture,and is adjoined by a dining room andkitchenette. An upright piano standsready for musical activities. Upstairs, theBallcndorfs have their tivin,g quarters.The house is too small for Iarsc groups,and hfrs. Ballendorf is talking with ad-ministrators of the nearby Morgan andAdams elementary schools i“ hops ofusing school space now v~cant afterschool hours, in the afternoons, eve-“in@, a“d on weekends.

Plans are also being mad+ for a t“-torial program pat[erned after othersin Washington, in which persons frommany callings have given se$eral hoursof their time each week to help childrenfrom disadva”laged areas. i

O1her needs of the center includesecretarial assistance and simple dona-tions of money, to help build, a fine-artsf.”d so youngsters may attend culturalf“nctio”s, to purchase craft 1and othersupplies, (o maintain the hou=, and tohelp paY the director’s small ~lary.

While bis wife spends her d~ys withthe people of the Adams-Morgan tom.munity, Dirk Ballcndorf teaches historyclasses at nearby Cardom High School,several blocks to tbe east. He is amember of an experimental projectsponsored by Washington Action forYouth and financed by the President’sCommittee on Juvenile Delinquency.

Program For Ex-Volunteers

Last year, afler [he Ballendor?s re-lurned from their teaching assignmentsin the Philippines, he and eigh[ otherformer Volunteers entered a program atCardozo designed 10 make urban-schoolleachers of returned Volunteers who hadta”~ht overseas, by tetting them havecomplete responsibility for two classeseach day while at the same time takingseminars in urban teaching al lhe schoola“d workin~ for master.of. teaching-artsdegrees at Howard University. The Pro-

gram has also worked at devising newc.rricul,,m materials for students who

Oirkl Heidi, and Lila Ballendorf

come from crowded, disadvantaged ur-

9

ban setlings. This year, 15 new “interns:all former Volunteers, have joined tbeCardozo project.

Mrs. Ballendorf, the former Lila Gard-ner, was born in Paragould, Ark., andmaiored in historv and English at North-,,western University, recelv, ng a B.A. in1961. Her hl,sband, from Philadelphia,received a B.A. in history tbe same yearfrom Wmt Chesler (Pa.) State College.The two met dt)ring Peace Corps train-ing in August, 1961. at PennsylvaniaState University, and were married asear later in Manila. Their daughter,Heidi, was born 18 months ago in thePhilippines,

Former Vo[t~.teers who, plan to be inthe Washington area and who might liketo o~er assistance to the Hollyday Houseproject may write to Mrs. Ballendorf atthe center, 2316- 17th St,, N, W., W%h-i“gto”, D. C.

Liberian Information Service display map shows the spread of the rural news-paper system; woman points to community just below Monrovia, capital of Liberia.

Liberian Rural NewspapersSpread Information By Mimeo

A unique system of rural newspapershas been developed in Liberia through

●ihe co-owrat ion of Peace Corps Volun-teers, (he Liberian Information Wrvi$e,

- and the U.S. A6ency for InternationalDevelopment.

Members of the Liberian InformationService working with AID initiated thefirst Ltberian rural newspaper at abranch office of the information servicei“ Gbnrnga, 135 miles northeast ofMonrovia.

The Ltherians felt a need for a“ in.expensive news medium that couldreach rural areas, wi[h Imal, “atio”al,and inter”ationnl news. There had bee”attempti to pt,blish small papers byONSC1printing; but these had .0 provedtoo exwnsive a“d lhe efforts had failed.

Tbe Gb”,,z~. Gh.le Ne,”., (Ebelemeans talkl,xg drttn, ) “as firsl publishedApril 29. 1963. It has inspired the de-velopment of several similar mimeo-g~aphed publications elsewhere i“ Li.beri.. Statis publishing !hese papershad no equipment; they bad to borrowtypewriters and mimeographs belongingto schools or missions, some of them asfar away as 40 miles.

Volunteers became involved shofilyafter the first issue of The Gb.,,zgoGhel. N.,.., Vol. nteem were encour.aged to work with the Ltberians i“ theirlocalities.

Ken Schilli”g (Allentown, Pa.), whotaught i“ Cape Palmas, .1 the south.

●easier” tip of Libecia, helped X1 “p TheC.Pe Polm.s Ne,.s. Leo” Wei”tra”b( Brooklyn) traveled 30 miles to get lhefiml issues of The Koh,zple (in north.eastern Liberia, near the IVOW Coasl

frontier) Di,vp”lcb typed and mimeo-graphed. 1. Webbo, near Cape Palmas,John and Marjorie Bachert (Sun CIIY,Ariz, ) helped in the growth of TheWebb. Wo,fd, Volunteers have helpedLiberian editors and publishers in theestablishment of 16 of the 30 papersthat have sprung UP.

As (he papers grew and local enthu-siasm increased, almost all of lhe papersbecame self. supporting. Ke” Schillingencouraged advertising by local mer-chants with st,ch success that The CapeP.l,?tos NeI.s was able to buy its owntypewriters and mimeograph machines.

Many of the Volunteers who partici-pated had had journalism experience inthe United Slales. The Volunteem wholacked previous experience but wantedto help wilb the project in other waysused a technical instruction sheet fromthe Liberia. Information %rvice. Vol-unteers found they had myriad skills toshare with proposed papers, They workedi“ various production jobs—from edi-torial consultant to tyvwri[ing teacher.

A large part of the inilial Volunteerenthusiasm arose from (he obvious teach-ing possibilities the papem presented.(All hut about 40 of the 365 Volunteersi“ Liberia are elementary and secondaryteachers. ) The regular flow of readingmaterial. containing articles of immediatei“teres( to the local people, has been a“at”rat teaching aid,

The rsponse of lhe communities totheir own newspa~rs has been over-whelming. 1“ the year since the firsteditions of Tbe Gborng. Ghele News,papers have begun in every coun[y inLiberia.

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The papers put 1%.1 news in lhe mostprominent position in order 10 attractreaders and increase local concern forcommt,nity action. They have also beena t,nifying factor in local areas.

The i“clusio” of national a“d inter-national news has hel~d people seebeyond their immediate environments.The flow of news from outside eachpaper’s dislrict has come about by inter-paper exchanges and by transcribingradio broadcasts.

Practical problems have been tackledby the papers. One paper devoted aseries 10 new methods of planting rice.Others have stendily supplied health andeducation information.

hferchants i. the towns have beeninvolved i. (he development of thepapers through their advertising. Poli-ticians have been given an oppofll, nityto .s. the papers as forl,ms of opinionnnd debate. And charily campaigns havebee” pt,blicized by the papers.

Recently, UNF2C0 made a sludy ofthe Liberian project. A booktet to beptlblished soon will present a case his-tory of the experiment, advise othercountries how to i“itiale similar projects,and Sive a simple text of inslr”ctio”sfor the editor/publisher, repofler, a“dprinter.

in its i“trd”ction the UNESCO book-let says, “Any system which pro-motes the cslablishmenl and growth ofrural newspapers, makes an importantcontribution to the swed of nationaldevelopment. For this reason tbe projectin Liberia hns attracted wide atlen-tion. The fact that 30 mimeo papers grewup within a year—some of them spo”-laneously—is an indication of the “tedand a measure of the success of themethod.,,

Vol.”teers who w.”1 f“flher informa-tion may write to (be CommunicationsResources Staff, Agency for J“ter”atio”alDevelopment, Washington, D. C.

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Trombone reveille by Ann Boughner (Algonac, Mich.), aMichigan State graduate, calls campers from their beds.

At Camp KennedyBr~co, on the northern coast of Jamaica about 30 milesfrom Montego Bay, was the site of Camp Kennedy, oper.at+d by Volunteers for Jamaican children. The camp wasestablished for two purpose~it provided a creative rec.re?tlon program for children during the summer vacation,an? it also sewed as a Leadership-tmining project forJamaicans who wil I later operate such camps themselves.Fi~e Jamaicans took pafi as co””selors and 75 ~hi[dr~nattended as campers, Twelve Volunteers who organizedthd camp acted as instructors and did most of the work●in ~etting up the area—they cleared the beach, built a -kitkhen, dug !atrines, made tents from tarpaulins, in.sta!led plumb!ng facilities, A shoe ‘ompany gave scraplea~her for craft classes; two electrical firms gave gaso.Ii?? generators, while another gave wire a“d bulbs an011 ~ompany supplied fuel. A barber donated clippers forcamper haircuts, and a manufacturer gave soap, a tooth-brush, and toothpaste for each camper. Food was con-tri~uted by local people, with the Jamaica Ba”a”a 80ardoffering 30 stems a week to supply a staple food—boiledgrehn” bananas. The camp was organized into wo two.we~k sessions; 52 boys attended the first, and 25 girlsthel second, Most of the children came from rural vii.lag~s where Volunteers are assigned; for many from in-lan~, areas, it was the timt time they had seen the ocean—s~lmming was one of the most popular activities,Much of the program was typical Iy America ”Grafts,nathre study, stunt nights, hikes, games, and sports.

Bi II Madden (Stockton, Cal.) swings mal let ~“ tent frame,assisted by Ray Lyons (La Mesa, Cal.) and Paul Shwatiz. I

Volunteer Barbara Kings.Iey (Salem, Mass.], a grad.uate of Simmons College,Boston, kneels before agroup of campers to dis.cuss the day’s activities,during the camp,s Secondtwo.week session for girls.

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Health check was given each camper by Dr. Anthony Saidy, Peace Corps physician

Bob Starr (Paragould, Ark.) and trainees thread pipe for camp plumbing lines.

To avoid land crabs, which could climbalmost anything, Paul Shwatiz (Glover$.vi IIe, N.Y.) took refuge in the back ofa camp truck to get uninterrupted sleep.

Ann Boughner, Judy Thatcher [Palmer,Mass.) and Fred Snodgrass (N. Smith.field, R. I.) watch “Olympic Day” sports.

I

THAILANDGentle Kingdom in the Eye of a Storm

John C. McCarthy has been Peace CorpsRepresentative in Thailand since De-cember, 1963, when he took a leave ofabsence from his position in the Po-mona, Cal. law firm of Young, Zetter.burg, & McCarthy. During World War IIhe sewed as an officer on a destroyer inthe Pacific. He graduated in 1947 fromthe University of Southern Californiawith a degree in commerce, then spenta year studying abroad at the Universityof Geneva and the Institute du Pantheonin Paris. Returning to California, hestudied law at UCLA, earning a bachelorof laws degree in 1952, He is marriedand has three children.

By John C. hfcCatihy

By oneself is evil done;By oneself one s“fferxBy oneself evil is lefl t,.do.qBy oneself one is purified.

—Dhamapada

The depth of B“ddhisl influence inthe Thai people cannot be exaggerated.Requiring no belief in the supernatural,il is a reasonable religion; Buddha isneither god “or prophet. but a great a“dgood teacher. He proclaimed lhal re-incarnation indeed occurs a“d [hat eachman is SOICIYresponsible for his OW”desliny (Karma) in this and f“lure lives.Poverty, illness. and unhappiness arethus punishment for pasl misdeeds, yel

man may by right conduct break awavfrom these “evi[~ and, by complete d~-tachmcnt from worldly d~sires, mayeven ntlain Nirvana. But the path 10enlighlenme”t is viewed aS a lonelyand individual one and a ma” may nolgenerally look to others for assistance.

Fcw people praclicc [heir religionmore actively (ha” [he Thais; To the-m,Ihe surest personal merit is, gained bybuilding a temple, a“d every village,however small, has at least o“, majestic!,,<,! toweci”g above the simple woti orthatched houses. Bangkok ~alone hasmore than 300.

Most me”, incl.ding Thai $ings, servesome period i“ the priesthood, KingRama IV, whose life furnished the basisfor A,t,!’, .,,d fh. Ki”E of S~.m, was aB~,ddhist priest for 27 years before as-cending the throne.

Has a nation of such p~ople longmaintained its identity i“ a world ofaggre55i\,e sOcicties? Only for a thousandyears. A“d if Thaila”ds h~story pro.vides any guide for the f“t”re, the gentle,s,tbtle, a“d easy-going Thais s~ould stayintact for a long time.

For Thailand is accustomed to bei”~in tbe eyc of the slorm, whe~e it .Eai”finds ilself tday. The people of South..8s1 Asia migrated from China in S“C.cessive waves, beginning about! 100 A.D.The Sha” tribe settled in the forests oft,pper Burma. The Lao next f$llowed tothe mo””tains a“d jttngles of present-dayLaos. Tbe third wave slipped betwce”the other two to find the grea: river of

Thailand Peace Corps Representative John C, McCarthy talks with Budd~ist p,i~~toutside a wat (temple) during a recent trip to visit upcountv Volunteers.

Thailand, (he Chao Phraya, and fO1lOwedit to [he fertile plain a“d down to th

9sea. These are the ances[ors of the pres.enl Thais, Eve” today [hey ca” ~easurethe good fortune of their choice whiletheir Shari kinsmen fight with the Bc8r.mese, and lhc Laolians wirh each other,in a“ ef30r1 to preserve [heir identity,

The Thais have Io”g displayed ashrewd ability to act in their own bestinterests in (he face of ~liticnl real fries.It is said that Kt,b! ai Khan, grandson ofGenghis Khan who fo,,nded the Mongoldynasty that ruled China from 1260 to1358, sent commissaries [o the kingdomsof Southeast Asia to demand lribtde,Tbe Shari a“d Lao refuwd and werepromptly invaded by hordes from thenorth, The Khmers (Cambodians) wereeven more impolitic, beheading the ernis.sary. They, too, were overrtln. TheTbais, however, obligingly sent back to!he Great-Khan vast q.anlilies of tbtirfinest porcelain, a“d escaped his wrath,while their neighbors were ravaged. 1“fact. the gifts s~”rred o lively trade wilhChina, and today rare and pricelessPieces of Thai porcelain slill can befound in Cbincsc homes,

During the several hundred yearswbe” wars were fought o“ elephants,Siam, as it was called until 1939 (andagain from 1945-49), suffered severaldefeats by Burmn. Its capitals weresacked and occupied twice for short ●periods but each time the Tbais man- . .aged to rally around a new leader a“dregain [heir freedom.

Contacts wilh E.rope began i“ thesixtce”tb century a“d co.tin,)ed cor.dially for about a hundred years. TheThais welcomed commerce with PorI.-guest. Dutch, English, a“d Frenchtraders. B“l when missio”arics arrived,the altitude of the Thnis toward {heEuropeans stitfencd. Patience with Wcst-

Klongs (canals) sewe as roads in many partsof Thailand, with everything moving by boat.

Abo~lt tbe ColllltryThailand is a Buddhist kingdomwith an area about the 5i2e OfFrance and a pOpUlatiOn of 30million people. It borders Burma,Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia. Ithas “o large cities other thanBangkok, which has two MilliOnpeople. Most of the Thai peoPlemake their living frOm agricul.t“,e, Major commodities are rice,tin, teak, and rubber. Thailandcurrency is one of the world’smost stable. Except for Muslimi“fl”ence in the South, most Ofthe population is Buddhist. TheThai language, whose written formis based on Sanskrit, is spokenthroughout the countw. OtherIa”guages spoken are Malay inthe south, Laotian in the north-east, Cambodian in the south-east, and hill. ttibe dialects in thenorth and west, Chinese comprise10 per cent of the population, andlive largely in Bangkok where theyare prominent in the country’seconomic life. Thailand was ruledunder an absolute monarchy until1932, when a coup transferredpower to the militaw while re.taining the throne as an impor-tant symbol of national unity andcentral authority. Following thedeath last December of FieldMarshal Sarit Thanarat, his dep-uty, Field Marshal Thanom Kitti-kachorn, became Prime Minister.American.born King PhumiphonAduldet succeeded to the thronein 1946 after the death of KingMahidol, and formally took officeMay 5, 1950, as King Rama IX.

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Songkhla Miles

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jtanding with a Thai teacher at the back of their shared class is Georgeann Svehla %.A[Cleveland, 0.); she has a B.A. in social studies from Miami University (Oxford, 0.).

ern efforts to change them finally wascxha”sted, so they beheaded the Fcenchadvisor to their king, eliminated tradeWncessions with foreigners, a“d with.drew from furlher cultural a“d tom.mercial contact wilh Eurow t,ntil the“inetee”lh century.

The B.rmcse belligerently resistedthe might of Britain,s colonial drive inAsia, but wece absorbed into the Em-pire, The Tbais, on xeing the removalof the Burmese threat to Siam, quicklyrcli”q. ished their oriental disdain forWestern barbarism, as they viewed ourways, and came 10 terms with their “ewand powerful neighbor. Mea”while,their Lao friends to the east were faringno belter than the Burmese. Francegrabbed Laos as well as Vietnam a“dCambdia. 1“ the m.th, Britain tookMalaya and [he Dulch occupied lndo-nesia,

Siam was now surrounded by vorn.cious powers. Which would snap hcrup? None. Whether this was beca~,seOf (he typically astute a“d flexible Th.iapprOach to foreigners or because of theneed of the colonial pwers for a buflerstate, (he foct rcmnins that Thailand wasthe only nation i“ Asia to escape col-onization. Again it had enjoyed thecalm while the storm raged about her,

Immediately after Pearl Harbor theJapanese overran Southeast Asia. By nomeans welcoming them wi!h open arms,the Thais endured Japanese occupationwith predictable tolerance. When theAllies forced (he surrender of Japan,the Thstis welcomed the victors and were,in I“r., accepted into the fold, They hademerned .nsca[hed and ““tarnished fromthe greatesl conflict in his[ory.

Today (he complexities of the coldwar have not obscured the vision ofThai leadership. They have committedThailand ““cq”ivocally to the West,notwiths(a”ding the awesome presenceand power of Red China. They aremembers of SEATO, the Colombo Plan,and the United Nations. 1“ the light ofthe Thais, remarkable success in main.taining their freedom. an objective ob.:.,”,, would have to concede co”fide”~eIn their shility to do it again.

4 strong Malay influence exis~s in southern Thailand, and people wear bright batikprints; Linda Byam (Whitehall, Mich,), a teacher in Takbai, made these sketches.

IOf course, the next chapter is still

hei”g writle” and the storm, may Yetengulf Thailand. But the characteris-tics a“d c“lt”re which have served theThais so well for hundreds I of yearsshou!d continue 10 do so i“ lhe “n.cert.,. years ahead,

I“1o this traditional society,l enter thePeace Corps. Since Januaw 1962, 408Volunteers have worked i“ Th?ila”d, in-cl.ding a Ero”p of 60 secondary-schoolteachers who arrived i“ late Scplembcr.Of the 234 Volunteers serving, as ofSept. 15, 163 were teachi.~ Englishin secondary schools, teacher trainingcolleges, a“d universities, I

Other A=ig”menti

The others were assigned as !~boratorytech. icia”s in provincial hospttals, agri.cultural, vocalio”al, a“d physic,~l ed.ca-Iion teachers; r.rat communttyaclionworkers; and malaria-eradication work.en. They are nssigned to all 171 prov.ices, msny i“ isolated locations. Fourare assigned to hill Iriks i“ the norlh.

As in other counlries each Iprogramhas ils OW” objectives. The Emglishlanguage is Thailand’s doorway to thef“l.re, 1. Asia as i“ the reit of theworld English is the primary mediumof international communication. i ,A Thaimust have E.81ish to attend a u“~versity,study *broad, a“d advance in govern.ment and smiery. Books on, mathe.malics, science, a“d other technical s.b-jecls, eve. a“thorilative works o“ Thaihistory are available O“IY in [English.Having had little CO”lXC(wilb the West,there is a shortage of qualified Tbais 10teach English, although it bas bee”adopted as the official second l~ng.a~e,

The American Field Service t.bis yearis pla””i”g to send more t$an 100yo.”g Thai boys and girls to America”homes while they attend a year, of highschool. Most of them are from theprovinces and will ret.m there to relatetheir impressions a“d experiences inAmerica. Without the efforls Iof lb.vol””tee~ i. e“couragi.g, tutoring, and

10

assisting these yo””g Thais, there prob.ably would have been “o provincial AFSprogram in Thailand. One Vol””[eer,i. addition to teaching English a“dcoaching a championship basketball team,was responsible for s“ccessf”lly guidingseven Thais to such scholamhips.

Vol.”teers working i“ the malaria-eradication program see a lot more ofTbaila”d than do olher Vol”ntctrs. Andil is mostly o“ foot, through rice paddiesand focests, to check spraying, !wk forfever patients, take blood samples, a“dadminister mass drug treatment. Malaria ●is a major disease in Thailand, as i! isi. many countries, and this program isa worldwide first for the Peace Corps.We hear[ily commend il to others.

Apparently the Volunteers find theThais congenial. So far seven havemarried Thais, others have extendedtheir lours, and some have remainedhere to work or study o. their own.Volunteers seem to be well likedlhrougho”[ the co.”try.

But many Volunteers wonder whetherIhey are making any impact. The Thaishave a rich a“d unique c“llure. They arereasonably well-fed and ~e”e~dly betterOR than other Asians. Land has bee”available to all who have wanted it,provided they c.ltiva(ed it themselves.This is in stark co”tr.st with most ~o”n.tries 10 which the Peace Corps has beeninvited, where Ia”d slill is tbe preserve

of creal landowners, Thai farmers. se-

● -”‘“”””cure on their own land. ~,ilh ab~,ndantfish !. the water and rice in tbe Fas tbe Th~i saying goes, [isk Iilde more

field:

of life than this and the freedom to live;tnd worship as [hey ple:hse. Land reformis not needed here.

Tbe rural comml,nity -actiOn VOIYn-Iecrs,” in particular, have often Fot!nd itdiffic(dt to interest Thai villagers in com-m~tnity cflorts or even i“ self.heip pro-posals. The catalytic approach—helpingthe Thais to help themselves—seems 10be a notable failure, and in ilself cannOtbe a Peace Corps objective simply be-c.!use most Thai villagers are perfectlycon!ent wilh tbi.gs as they are.

There are, however, ominous eco.nomic symptoms. 1. a country heavilydependent t!pon one-crop (rice) agricul-tt, re, there h?s bee” no significant im-provement in prodt!ction during the 1.s130 years. In [be same time lM Pop! Ila-tion bas more than doubled. from I~million to 30 million. Meanwhile, theexporl market has become more com-petitive ;\nd less sect,re for Thai farmers.

Alternate crops and better farmingmethods must be introduced morequickly and on a much larger scale.Despite the importance of agriculture,the Peace Corps bas only a small rolei“ it.

A.thoriQ Unquestioned

Another Thai characteristic wbicbmust be experienced to be fully tlnder-stood is a tendency to :iccep! authoritywithoc)t much q“es[ ion, possibly theresult of cent.ries of usually benevolentb.t “o”cubeless absolute monarchy.Buddhism perhaps encourages this extra-ordinary respect for a!lthority by holdingthat you should accept your lot in lifeas tbe just reward for your conduct.Similarly, if you are powerful and ofhigh rank, many Buddhists believe il isbecause You are virt<,ous and thus de-serve respect.

If tbe Volunteer looks for familiarsymptoms of change i. his village withwhich be ca” identify, be probably willlook in vain. Where he expects to sensepassion for tbe equality of man, he maywell find acceptance of their inequality.If he expects to see expressions of theinalienable right of man to participatein self-government a“d to be free fromlb. arbitrary exercises of power, be mayinstead see benign acceptance of author-ity at every level, Contrary to mostco.”tries. change i“ Thailand comesfrom the top.

Thai Icadcrship, however, has throughthe years recognized the inevitability ofchange and has sought to accommodateit in its own way and at its own pace.The challenge to the Peace Cows in tiishappy kingdom is to do the job well andto share the Tha~s concept of change,whatever form and pace it assumes.

The Perils of PopularityMark Hawthorne(New York City)grew up in SilverSpring, Md. Heattended the Uni-versity of Con.necticut, earning aB.A. in English in1958. As an AirForce information

officer he spent a year in Morocco, andsewed as editor of his squadron news.paper and as editor of the USAF. AirDefense News Service. He worked ayear as reporter for the ProvidenceJournal. Bulletin, and before joining thePeace Corps was copyboy and nevisclerk for The New York Times. His wife,Lee, teaches English at San DusitTeacher Training College in Bangkok.

By Nlsrk Hawthorne

There are two major hardships formany Volunteers in Thailand: lack ofhardships, and popularity.

Vol”n!eers can endure the absenceof hardships. As training improves. mOreVol.”teers realize thal in some casesconditions in [heir assignments will notbe like those in the U.S.—lbey will bebetter.

B“l nothing t,psets a Volunteer quileso much as praise, It is a blow 10 thosearrivin8 in Thailand 10 find lha[ [heyare even more popular here than lbeywere in the U. S.. where the only personswbo criticize tbe Peace Corps seriouslyare parents a“d the editors of smallM id.wester. weeklies.

Volunteers sometimes seem like beat]-tirul movie stars who protest that they

11

can act 100, but whom no one hears.The hard tr~llh is that [he Thais like

PC,CC Corps Volunteers. The PeaceCorps arrived i. January, 1962, and itspopularity has risen steadily.

Almost everywhere in the countwpeople perk LIP nben they learn they:tre talking to a Volunteer. They tellof tbe other Volunteers they know. In:, co,,nlry of 30 million, every One seemseilher to have been taught by a Volun-teer or worked with one, or have arelative who did.

0.. hears stories from Volunteersevery day. of “rh:iis going out of theirw.sy to help then>, to give Ihem presents,10 make them comfortable. It is a rareVol””teer who .:,. boast that be hrlspaid for bis sbz!re of :, me:d or snackafter eating with Tbais.

\Vome” Volunteers say they are cOn-sta”dy told how beautiful they are, butfew complain about this. Similarly,men Vol. ”teers often hcz)r how stronsand handsome they are. A Volunteerneed only say two words in Thai to betold be speaks i[ st,perbly.

vol~t”teers are asked .1 every stepwhere they are going, and where theyhave been. When a Volunleer makesa mistake in recounting his recent activ-ities his listener often corrects him. forhe has other sources.

Forewarned d.ri.z training shout crit-icism they may e.counler overseas, Vol-unteers often find it is (hey who have10 remind Thais of flaws “in Americaand the West.

The Peace Corps worries that Volun-teers will live bet~er than their counter-parts, 1. Thsila”d their counterparts

I

(Co,rli,t,,ed f,o,t,page 11)

w,ocry beai,tse lhe Vol~tntcer is”.! livingbeocr s[ill,

Schools often vie with each other tohave :, Vol~t.teer assigned to them, Oio.side school, or their job. Volunteers arebarraged wilh requests to teach privately.

.,Were in the Peace Corps’, is a se”.tence that brings discounts and Eoodtables in reslaura”ts all over Tbaila”d.

Vol(,nteers are also treated with se-ma”[ic gra”de. r. Thais ,ISC polite wordsgenerously in speaking with Vol””teers,[,nd refer 10 Vol(, ”leer teachers as aja,,(professor) no malter what their ac-crtdil:ltion. A doctor in one Volt,”.leer,~ (own even “ses Thai poli[~ wOrdS

when he spcnks English wilh her.The governme”[, too, is apparently e“-

[h,,sias tic aboto the Peace Corps. Re-q,,esls fOr new Voltlnteers have steadilymOL!llled. Al the end of Septemberthere were about 300 Vol””teers i“ Thai-land. and tbe government says it coulduse two or three times that ““mber, ifil could gel them. There has also beenincrr. sing govcr”me”t st, pport for Vol.tl”leer-iniliattd projecls and programs.

B.t all this popularity often distressesVolt, ”tcers. For one [hi”n. Voh,. ueersrealize lha( popularity is”,t e“o. gh. Aschool !hat str~,ggles to get a Volt, nteern“d displays him prominently J( cere.monies may insist that he teach everyclass i“ the school for a“ hour a week.(Vol””teers COIIthis ,Gwhistle.stopping. <,)

Nor is [here necessarily a correlationbetween the popularity of a Volunleer:,nd receptivity to s“ggestio”s be makes,

IAnother ~roblem is a more subtle

one. Said ~“e Volt, ”leer, “l was inmy town for six months a~d thouabtevery thi.z was wonderful. Evevo.ewas so friendly, so polite. “l,Ab,out theseventh month 1 begs” to real, ze thatI did”’[ really know anything about thetown, or the people, I had a feeling[hat they had bee” fe”di”g me off wi[hpraise, keeping me at am,s distance. Ihaven,t entirely lost lhis feeli”~ yet.,,

As in America, many Volunteers feeltheir popularity is based “01 so muchon them as i“divid”als, but o; a conceptof them as, in one Vol””teeks phrase,.Sbriver.like gods:

One reason (he Thais, appr~cialio” ofVoh)”teers is so generous is lbat i[comes on top of a strong <especl theThais already have for Westerners, Thai-land, .Io”e among So.tbeast Asian na.lions, was never a colony oflthe West,and has “o”e of the resentments itsneighbors do,

Additional Iv. the Thais have hs~d!hro~,ghottt l~eir history a willingness 10Iear” from other cultures—whether l“.~j;rne~nese, Khmer, Mo”! Laotian,

Malay, Europe.”, or “OW,American.

Popularity will continue (L perplexthe Vol”n[ecrs i“ Thailand. The O(herday a Volu”tecr in Bangkok Iwas bar-gaining enthusiastically for mimeographsupplies. When the woman discoveredhe was a Vol.”teer she said, I“No, no,.you’re a Peace Corps. You don’t haveto pay for this.,, The Vol. ”teer decli”td,complaining (bat ,<Bargai”ing is difict,ltenough without complications like this,,,

Dolina Millar (Claremont, N,H,), a community.deve]opme”t ~Orkert hOpe~ )0 initiateproject to Install wel I pumps, to replace hand.lowe red bucket svstem shown here.

ATaste ●Of Rambutan

Lee Makelateaches English ina secondaV schoolin Suratthani,southern Thai land.He is from Lib-efiwilfe, Ill., andgraduated fromCarroll College(Waukesha, Ws.)in 1963, with a B.A.in Latin and his.tow.

By Lee Makela

Nfid-term exami”a! ions were i“ prog-ress when I arrived at my assig””,e,]t.As a result 1 sat o“ tbe sidelines, ignoredfor two days. On [he lhird day I askedfor a job—any job.

They led me to a classroom. “AIkts[ something to do: I thot,ghl. Therewere no si~”s of an examination, a“d Irealimd it m“sl be a study hall. I waschagrined at the l~ck of confidencethis implied, but I was determined toshow 1 could masler 8“Y situation, ●The 35 girls in the ckiss were in smallgrot, ps ,Lro-.”d piles of ramb. tan frttit,chattering as they removed the red,spiny covers. I was nnnoyed. This wasa st~,dy halt, b~,l “o one was studying.After considering this contradiction, [ de-cided to accept the situation :!nd settleddown, I was co”tenl 10 be employed.

Then a small gicl crept up and knelt.1 the side of my desk. Sbc placed onthe desk before me a dish of bea,,tif”llyarranged ram btoan halves, each care.fully peeled a“d perfectly placed o“ theplate. This small gesture overwbclmedme. How “ice of them to think of the“.w teacher, [o share some of theirfruit with him.

1 smiled my thanks and sqciinted atthe Thai “riti”g on [be card stuck intotbe middle of lhe plale. It probably saidsimply ‘To o“r teacher,>: but I co”ld”,,tread a“y of it. I popped o“e piece oframb”ta” into my month with a show ofextreme pleasure a“d beamed on thewhole class. This gesture brought achorus of giggles from everyone.

However, what 1 had interpreted as age,l.re of the entire class soon provedto be only o“, i“divid”al,s idea. as afew mi””tes later a“otber dish of ram.but.. appeared o. my desk. This wasimmediately followed by another a“danother, all as bea”tif.lly arranged asthe first. No do.ht deligblcd by myacceptance of the first girl,s offering,more st”de”ts wanted to show lbeirrespect. What had I starled by acceptin~

e:.[h’,! first small gift? I tried to keep LIP

with the flow of dishes, sampling eachso as not 10 show favoritism or ht,rta“yo”e,s Feelings, b“t I was losingground.

With [he desk rapidly filling underthis avalz,nche of Fresh Fruit, f trieddespc~ttely to lhink of a diplomatic \vayto shctt off the flow. As I considered oneidea after nnotber, I nibbled fu’riOuslY althe ntmbutans accltmulating rapidly be-fore me. This, too. seemed to am,,se lh~CIZ,SS. They were gig!ling co fislan[ly“Ow.

A“<( slill the girls came forward—short and fat, vlain and nretty, tall andthin, and all iri their white blouses andblt,e jt~mpcrs—bearing fresh rambutansFor the [cacher. 1 felt disnster was ~tponnit. 1 was going to he a failure in myvery first ossig””le”[. The fruit kept pil-ing i,p—:! f~tneral pyre of vdmb. tan.

J,)st [hen [h. headmistress. probablyatt~icted by the slttdents’ giggles, ap-peared. From the doorway, sbe saw my:!!ten, pts 1. field the growing array offr~,it; sbe strode into the room. smilingiainily, Leaning over the desk, she said“You are presently eating the girls’ finalexamination in PrOpcr Preparation ofFruits and Vegetables. Please leavesome for [he wamine r.”

● On the Riding

Of BusesIn Thailand

Barbara Hoff beck of Big Stone City,S. D., teaches English in a secondaryschool at Samutprakan, south of Bangkok. She holds a B.S. in home econom.ics and journalism, granted in May, 1961,by South Dakota College of Agricultureand Mechanical Arts. Before joining thePeace Corps she was a reporter for theSioux Falls (SD.) Argu>Leader, and,before that. wire editor for the Rhine-Iander (Wisl Daily” News.

By Barbara Ho ffbeck

Women who have been to Thailandprobably never forget the beauty of Thai-Ian{s temples; men, the beauty of Thaiwomen, Vob]nteers will probably neverforge! lb. bus rides.

For one-half baht (about 2Sb 6 ) youcan ride for more than an hour throughfJa. gkok’s h.sy, colorful. congestedstreets.

Two major tasks confront the Bangkokbus rider: getlin~ on and getting off.Although there are probably a hundreddifferenl bus rOLlteS with scores of buseson each one, the buses are always packed.You Ir.rn to climb on even if thereseems 10 be no space.

Rural Thai bus stops along a road to pick up passengers, cargo, and livestock.

The ride to the next S1OP calls forco,, rage, as YOU Feel you will lose yourfoothold and fidl off. But after the nextstop others climb aboard and Y6Uco, ddn’1 fall out if you wanted to. Onceon, you’re Ittcky to find something tobold on 10; bt!l sometimes there’s evenan u“expectcd luxury—a seat.

I think our physical training b~ck inthe U.S. lacked something, for it hastaken me months to get the knack ofhanging on with one hand. h01?in6 mYpackages with (be other, givtng mymoney to the ticket boy, and keepingmyself from bt, roping fellow p~ssengers.

If YOU do get [o sit, YOU soon learnnol to watch the driver, for Bangkokbus and taxi drivers are extremely opti-mistic and competitive. This often re-st, its in two buses racins side by sidedown a busy road scattering bicycles,carts, taxis, and people.

Buses are also exciting outside Bang-kok. My favorite ride is from the citywhere I live, Sam”tpraka”, 15 milesinto Bangkok. Along the way the buspasses farmers in the rice fields, boysherding waler bt,ff ale, and women doinglbeir washtng i. the klor,ss (~.an.ls).Inside the bus. people are warch,ng me.for its u“”s.al for a foreigner to ride[hat route.

Sometimes tbe things inside lb. busprove as interesting as lhe scenery. Intbe morning the aisles are filled withflowers. fruits, a“d vegetables beinztaken to the market. Once there was ama” with bis fighting cock perched onhis arm. Another time. there was some-thing wrapped in banana leaves that Ididn’t Ekognize for some time. It provedto be a pig’s head, which a short timebefore had bee” on a pig.

Another Volunteer tells me that Ican’t call myself a veteran bus rider until,like him. I ride a route that bas atemple on a sharp curve. In the middleof tbe curve lhe driver always takes bothhands off the wheel and dws a respect-ful Thai bow.

13

For 3 Months,

Sombat Becomes

A Buddhist Priest

Ted Goldenberg is from San Bernardino,Cal., and graduated from Texas A&MCollege in 1959 with a B.A. in math. Heteaches English in a secondary schoolin the Sawankalok district of’ Sukhothaiprovince, in northern Thailand. ”

By Ted Goldenbe%

Al the beginning of Thailand’s rainyseason this past July, Sombat, a teacherat my school. became a priest in theBuddhist temple i. our lown for threemonths of stt, dy, meditation, and prayer.

This is a familiar event i“ Thailand,for mosl Thai mcn enter the priesthoodfor at leasl a short time during their life

The ceremonies marking [he ordina-tion of a priest last three days, and areone of the most important occasions ina Thafls life. Like much of ThaiB.ddbism, they are a mixture ot solem.nity and joy, ritual and exuberance,formality and fun.

Along with Sombat’s family andother friends, 1 was invited to partici-pate in [be ceremonies.

Preparations begs” weeks ahead oftime, Tbe family m.dc inlrica[e decora-:io”s out of flowers, and prepared Foodfor the h“”dred or so g.esls expected.A large porch was added to the houseto give everyone room to sit, eat, andsleep.

The first evening of the ceremonieswas a social occasion for (he men. Butit was work for many of lb. women andgirls, who were fi”isbi.g their flowerarrangements. They spent hours slring-i“g fragrant purple, pink, and white

petals 10 hong o“ gifts for the priestsat the temple.

The me” pl~yed cards, drank meko”grhai whiskey), and talked, PopularThai and American records were playedat nearly full volume on a phono~aph.

Early the next morning, Sombat>s hairand eyehrou,s were shaved, as is thecustom of fill Thai priests each month.Then he was given a ritual bath (every-one poured a Iitllc water over him), andhe was dressed i“ white robes. He worethese for the rest of the moc”ing a“dafter”oo”,

The guests were served more food anddrink, but Somhal ate i“ another room,attended by a few friends a“d rel~ti,.es,for he was now i“ a state of grace.

After the “00” meal, two SFO”PS ofmusicians cntertai.ed the gues[s. Onewas our boys’ high-school band, theolher a traditional Thai folk band, com-posed of workers, pedicab drivers, andfarmers. The folk band was especiallyexciting and its enthusiastic memberspounded out a steady rhythm on a vnri.ety of drums and other percussion i“.str. me”ts, accompanied by a small windinstrument that sounded like a shrilloboe.

Occasionally o“e of these playerspaused [o perform portions of a Thaiclassical dance, standing or sitting, “singhis arms, hands, and legs LO exect, tethe stylized mob,ements. Four or fiveOf the older women, some o,,er 60,danced too, wearing traditional costumesand make-(, p, They were all grace ft,l.

The” e,,eryo”e assembled o,,tside, o“the road. Sombat was mounted o“ asmall hors., and all the guests, bothbands, a“d several jeeps crammed with

women and gifts begs” a UO;SY,joyous,two-hour procession through the marketand town to the temple, It was hot, butthe two bands played continuously, a“dthe old women danced throughout the,.march,

Sombat had confessed to m.e rhat thiswould be his first ride o“ a horse, andit was “ot an easy one. He had to main.lain a contemplative position the wholetime, sitting erect, hands together as i“prayer, eyes cast downward.

The horse became imitated after awhile a“d kicked al marche~s, a“d atthe men tcyi”g to hold a large .mbrcllaover Somb8t, to shield him ; from thesun.

By the time we reached the temple,(he horse was almost “nm$nageablc.Sombat was lifted off, and placed onthe shoulders of a ht, sky man. Then hewas carried ceremoniously aid noisilyaround (he main temple b“ildi”g, fol-lowed by everyone who was”~ sta”di”gin the shade. as 1 was.

Ordination Cere”onyl

Now came the ordination ceremony.The !emple’s 23 priests s,ere sea[ed wilhIheir Icgs he”eath them a“d their prayerscreens before them, on a large, lowwood.” platform inside the temple, Tbeabbo[, 86, presided. his voi~ hoamea“d cracktd: se,,eral times he ,correctedand helped the younger priests[ chantingthe ceremony.

B,,ddhisl chanls are in Ptdi, a“ an.cient Iang”age, and their rhythm andchanges of pitch are hypnotic a“d fas-cinating, D“ri”g the ceremanyl the newmonk mk,st make se,,eral responses. somelong. Sombat had sl”died fo~ severalmonths. Now, in his new, vivid-orange

Volunteers Iive in Thai-style houses, raised above the ground on sti Its, ~ope” forventilation, Volunteer Ted Goldenburg (San Bernardino, Cal,) stands on his porch.

Priest’s robes, he respndcd care fldlyand. appare”lly, perfectly.

This ceremony lasted a. hour, a“d by athe end of it 1 was numb from silting o“(he floor in a poli[e position, feet underme to onc side.

On Sombat’s way o“t of the lemple,the people lined the path and p“[ joss-sticks (incense) in his cloth bag. 1 wentwith him a“d wme other teachers [osee the coom thal was to be his duringthis stay in the temple. Surprisingly. itwas large, It had a few pieces of ft~rni-t.re itnd was upstairs in a large woodenb“ildi”g that also houses tbe templesoffices and library.

The fcs[ivities were nol yet finished.however. During his fimt night as apriest, Sonlbal wot,ld stay al his fare.ily’s house, so 1 returned there.

That e,fening there was another finemeal (which Somhat, “OW a priest, cotlld“ot share), a“d afterwards a concerl bya classical Thai orchestra.

The next morning the priests camefrom the temple. They were servedbreakfast and were given food for theironly other meal of the day, laken atnmn. When they returned to the lemple,Sombnt went wirh them.

As a priest he will sludy the Dharma,or Buddhisl, dm[rine; the life of Buddha;the discipline of Buddhism; and the com-position of the words of tbe B,,ddha.

He will have only nine possession% ●his four robes, alms-bowl, razor, needle,umbrella, and water strainer. BY lhtis

reno~>ncing the world and following thePalh, Sombat hopes to approach ant~nderstanding of suflering and detachhimself from desire. He will follow theTen Precepts of B~,ddha, and be gov-erned by the 227 rules of the Buddhistmonastic order.

A Volunteer’s Life

In the Village

Of the Lion Forest

Don Sjostrom has been teaching Eng-lish in a secondaw school in Yasothon,a village in notiheastern Thailand,since last October. He is from Seattle,and graduated from the University ofWashington last year with a B.A. inphilosophy.

By Don Sjostiom

About 600 years ago two Buddhislmonks named Jentanavin and Jinda setoff from Vte”tia”e, Laos, for India.They were making the long trip [o geta bone of the holy Buddtist priest, PbraAnon, who had recenlly died near Agra.

They obtained the bone, but whenthey ret.rued to Laos they were denied

school’s eight-man crew. It was a brightdav with scores of boats representing all

A simple cotton gin is discussed with a villager by Steve Whitmer (Overland Park,Kan.). He works in rural communit~action at Sakonnakhon, northeastern Thailand.

entrance by [he newly-installed Princeof Vientiane. Weaw and discouraged,!hey followed the Chi River sot!th until!hey reached a smell village namedBansingla (village of the lion forest).There they decided to settle, To housethe relic they bt, ilt :, slender pagoda,finely carved from white stone, nearly ahundred feet high.

Today, Bansingta is the town ofY;tsolhon. :!nd the lemple is called Wathl;ihatad, I live abot!t 200 yards fromthe temple.

Yasothon, althot,gh older than Ban6-kok itself, remains a small tow. typic:)loi nlany in a country where 85 per centof the people live in comml!nities thissize or smaller. One c:bn walk from onecnd to the olher in [5 minutes. It isaccessible O“IY by dirt roads [bat be-come very difficuh to traverse duringthe rains, bto ils main streets are paved.Tbcrc arc two con>fortablc bolels. twot,ncomfort:!blc Theaters, a“d a large cen-1,.1 mark,!.

Lcnving the main street one enters amaze of rmtds a“d ptths winding amol>gthatched hot]scs on stilts, and banana,p~paya. and coco.tll trees. PLgs wallOwco.lentedly t,nder the hoLlscs, 11 is quieta“d smelly und my favorite part oftown.

The people i“ the northeastern part ofThailand are more Laotian lha” Thai,No o“. exemplifies Ibis better than myneighbor Meh The” (nzelt means mother

i. Thai). She is a tall, handsome~.oman, though a bit scarred and redaround the mouth from years of chew-ing betel ..1. Her appearance is strik-ing when she pt,ts on her heavy goldnecklace, rings, and bracelets. Like mostvillage Thais she has little use for banks.and the orm(ments represenl her family’slife saving.

A ‘SBowowcd” Net

kfeb Tbon can’t rend or write andrztre!y speaks Thai, so I bad an oppor-tunity to learn Laotian (the local dia-lect ) from tbe very beginning. OIIrrelationship was strengtbe”ed only a fewweeks after I arrived when 1 lent her myspare mosq,ti[o net. I had obviot] slymisi”terpretcd her use of .Cborrow” forthe nex[ day she was proudly displayingmy net, “OW made info a bra.

A month or so later she complainedof her blood 1.rning white and I gaveher a ba”df.1 of vi!nmi” pills. We’vebee” inseparable ever since.

bleb Thon,s :,cceptnnce of me into herIilde world h~s not bten an exceptionhere i“ Yasotbo”. Tbe ease with which[he Thais brought me, (heir first a“donly Volunteer, into Iheir communilyhas bee. the most pleasant experienceof my stay.

I had been in Yasot bon only Four dayswh.” [he an”u;sl boat-raci”c feslival washeld. 1 was asked to be a member of our

15

tb~ nearby villages as well as teams fromtown. The boats were low, shallow,cawed-out teak logs, incredibly heav,which we paddled with short, slenderpoles.

We took to the river early and paddledconfidently around challenging otherteams to short sprint races. After anhour of these warm-up races we wereall feeling rather limp; reluctantly, weanswered the call to the starting line.The” ot,r team decided (hat 1 should besteenma”, 1 settled in the stern with. . eight-foot board to paddle and steerwith, This made us a little stern-heavy,but in a momcnl we were off. With asbo.t we dug our paddles deep andst, rged forward. As the boat gained mo-menotm the bow began to lift andthe waler flew by. We were leading.Chanting hoarsely. we dl,g deeper withour paddles. The bow lifted higher. thestern settled deeper, and then we sank indisgrace not 50 yards from tbe starlingline.

Life in Yasothon has long since ceasedto be exciting or adventurous. but it’sa good life crowded with a lot of goodpeople,

Enough of the sludents are interestedin English [o make the teaching inter-esting for me. We have an enthusiasticEnglish club and p“t ot,t a newspapertha[ reaches a doze. schools in fourtowns.

The secondary school where I teachis a large, unattractive building. II ismade of wood, and, like most Thai b.ild-i“gs. is “painted. We have 310 stu-dents and 1I leache~. The classroomsare dreary bu[ there is no lack of schootspirit among the sludents.

I spend most of my weekends in theviilages, occasionally tcacbing in lhelocal primary school or working withthe Imal teachers on teaching methods.Often. however. I go just to chat withthe Parents of Ibe students, and I havespent many pleasant afternoons relaxingon a bmboo mat drinking cool, young-cocon. t milk. fresh from the tree,

Life here has not, of come, beenwithout frustration. My attempt at or-ganizing a 4-H Club during the summervacation ended in failure. A“d therehave bee. co~tntless lesser diffict,ltieswith #be teachin~ or [he food or tbeIangt, age.

Nor has my s[ay i“ Yasothon beenwithout sorrow. Not long ago, my beststudent died suddenly of spinal menin-gitis.

Bt,t give” :, peaceful afternoon in aq~,iel yilla6e, a house full of childrenprep~rl.g fOOd f.r Su.day lunch. or aneven, ng .Io”e with #he s“”set on thebank of the nearby River Chi, then 10mo”tbs yet to spend in Yasotho” seemtoo few.

At Hospital,Relatives Help

Regina Williams,from St. Paul,Minn., graduatedin 1957 with a B.S.in medical tech.nology from theUniversity of Min-nesota. She hasbeen a laboratorytechnician at theRoi.et ProvincialHospital for thepast 18 months,

By Region WiOiams

Much of the activity of the hospitalwhere [ am a laboratory tecbnicia” goeson not inside the hospital but i“ a clusterof huls behind it. Here live lie patients,relatives,

1 call {hem ‘Sn”rses> aides,’1 for theytend to many of the patie”k. “eed~.They are a feature of most hospitals innortheaster” Thailand, particularly d“r.ing the d~ seuoo, when there is little10 do at homt.

They are quite helpful. hey feed,bathe, and comfort the patients, washlheir clolbes, and visit with [hem,(Visili.g hours are nol usually limitedi. Thai Hospitals.)

I enjoy watching lbe womeh i“ [heir

P1,-,I,(,,Es (sarongs) preparing their char-

Hitchhiking during annual Surin elephant round up are Dave Updegmff (Ft. Lauder-dale, Fla.), Bob King (Gulderland Center, NY,), and Carl Zinkel (Spokane~ Wash.).

16

CO,I fires to boil rice, and the men i“their P,t-ko.,tt<,s (loin cloths) carrying e“at.rfrom the hospital well, the tinshanging from a shoulder pole.

Going to and from tbe lab [ pass therelatives sioi”g in the corridors andwards, or t)nder the shade trees, chewingbetel nul, eating sticky rice, and lalking.

In lime, as the hospital becomes moreconscious of the dnngers of conlami.a-[ion, [he ‘.”umes’ aides” will probablydisappear, ceplaced by more hygienic,but less-interested atlenda.ts.

Aside from this, working in a hospilallab i. Tbaila”d is o“twdrdly quite sinlilarto working i“ a small lab in the UnitedStates. The hours and most of lhe labtests ace lhe same. Eve” (he atmosphereis tbe sme~octors cal!i”g for results or

for blood tra”sf”sio”s, a“d aides rt]nni.gi“ with forgotten request slips,

But here [he similarity ends, Thereal challenge is the unexpected. Willthe electricity work lday? Will the walerrun? Has the order for chemicals weplaced three mo”lhs ago arrived yel?We generally spend the morning hourscoping with these small crises, collect.ing blood samples, and setting up fil.[rates a“d dilutions for chemical analyses.

Few Changes Made

Although the workload of the labhas increased, few chances have bee” ●made. and these are often contradictory.On some days we go backwards. Onothers w,e bold our own.

Our lab is small and meagerlyequipped. Most hematology and uri-nalysis work is done by two lab assist-ants, We bavc no other lab techniciansas such.

New habits, such as using sterile tech-“iq,)es a“d clean, dry glassware, aredifficult to instill. Gradually the staffis learning 10 check resul[s wiib hctorsor previotss tests, correlate them wilbthe doctor’s diagnoses, and refer totexlbooks when i“ do”bl,

Other problems are solved morereadily. To enable us to collect bloodsamples from several wards al one timewe made a Iarne hematology tray, Wenow clean plugged pipettes instead ofthrowing them away. We do .rine.sugartests i. balches of 10 to 15 instead ofindividually, as before,

In chemistry, we post a list in eachward with lb. amount and lyp. of blood“eedcd for each lest, requiring that alls~cime”s be i“ the lab by 10:30 a.m.My Thai colleague and I have revisedsome procedures, revived others, andestablished some new ones. For lbesimpler jobs, we plan to recruit andteach high.whool graduates.

There is still much to be done in ●chemistry and bacteriology, b.1 we hope .that wi[h lbe owning of a new laband with new equipment we can accom-plish more.

Volunteers ErnieKuhn (Newark, O.),left, and Lou Setti(Watertown, Mass.)pose with youngf~ends; silver neck.rings are worn assigns of wealth. Kuhn,a community-development worker, is as-signed to Miao people,who inhabit northernparts of Vietnam,Laos, and Thailand,comine orieinallvfrom ~outh~ester~China. Setti is ateacher in Phitsanu-Iok, in the north,

‘The Students Began to Cry’Readers of THE VOLUNTEER often

Iear” of S,,cce,se, of Pea., corpsvol-,,.!eem, bt, t seldom read about situa-tions that hake had n>ixed or unhappyrestdts. The following anecdotes ofcross.c(,llt)r,il con f(lsion and misu”der-st:inding are l:ike” fro,,, a recent ques-tionn:~ire completed by Thailand Vol.,,”teers.

Volunteer At My students had notdo”. their homework :!nd i“ class wereI.ZY and inattentive. 1 was f,,rio”s a“dI w,lked o(, [ of class, Then 1 was em-tikrv.ssed beca”w the sl.dents began tocry.

\701.nteer B: A big celebration wasplanned :,1 a nearby temple a“d theI>rin,e Minister was 10 attend, W. allwailed in the hot st)” for three hoursa“d [be. were [old (hat he WAS“ot com-in6. A Prince came i. his Place and Iwas so angry after waiting for so lon~that I reft,scd 10 “,.i (bow) when allthe others did. One of my fellow teach-ers asked why I had”,l. I replied thathe W.S her prince and not mine, Irealized that 1 had bee” impolite anddecided to be more careful with mycxpla” ations in the future.

ro>

\rolunteer C: My class was partic,darlyunr, dy, 1 lost my temper, grabbed oneof [he boys [tnd gave him so”)e fir”mwhacks, 1 then took him to b. p“”.ished by lhe headmaster. [ lost rapportwith the class.

?’ol.nteer D: Some teachers and 1were p“(ti”g “p room dividers so that[ would have my OW” room. 1 wanlcd toknow the size of the room b“t no o“.would tell me and because of language

problems I cou[d not express myselfclearly. I took one teacher :Isidc z$ndrisked hi., wha[ Ihe size of lhe roomwas to be. 1 enlre;>led hi”> 10 [.11 !hetrt,th for a change i“s!ead of jL,st beingpolilely vng.e. He intcrprct~d Ibis 10mea” that I wa$ ‘<hot-head.& and hos-tile towards bim a“d be N,ould “ot speakto me for some time zf!erwards. Sincethen the problem has resolved itselflhrough an increase in understanding.

Volunteer E: At a large party I wasasked [o sing o“ :, pk,tfornl into a micro-pbo”e. [ rcf.seci. hl y princip’jl :tndother teachers were embarrassed.

Vol.”teer F: I spent n 101 of limeioking wilh studc”ts a“d did “01 insistthat Ihey stand when I entered [he class.room, :t”d so forth. I :tcted like a“American, not like a Thai teacher. 1reduced !he diNerc”l ial bclwee. tc.!cher;!nd student. Tbe rcs”lt is !hul “,y rela.Iionsbip with the st”de”ts is wondcrf t,!.MY relationship wilh tbe teachers leavesmuch to be desired. I threale” theira.!hority and lbe system. 1 proh!blycould have built much the s,me relation.ships wilb the stltdents and still n>adeIbem toe the line more. Next year Iintend 10 try.

Their Best Starfish ITravis Montgomew, from Poplar Bluff,Me., is an English teacher at VajiravudhCollege in Bangkok. He graduated fromSoutheast Missouri College in 1957 withmajors in English and histow, and hastaught English and social studies at anAmerican private school in S50 Paulo,Brazil.

By Tmvis Montgomew

Whal I like most about Thailand arethe people, and (be children in particular.11 is too bad that they have to growup into men and women, bt,t 1 forgivethem’. The reason 1 like the children isbecause they’re so cleverly innocent. andns good example as any 1 know are thefive Thai boys I encountered at !hebeach oulside Satahieb.

The leader of the group was a lean,i.ocy skinned twelve-year-old with large,almond eyes which revealed a“ ancestry“ot entirely Thai. He had the relaxed,“nsel f-conscious bearing of a naturalIcader, Then there was a plump ladwith merry eyes who was so anxiousI unders~ and what he was =ying that heexaggerated his gestures [o every state.ment, There were two noisy little tacalo”gs who ran ab?ad, and after [heyhad lost their feelings of shyness, theypointed OU1 bndmarks of i“tcrest along[he bemcb. Tbe group’s taloke yai (prac-tical joker), a dark-skinned hey, ranalong beside me anxious to test myknowledge of Thai.

When 1 first met them, they weregrouped together under a Pahom tret,sorting their starfish, which they hadgathered .Io”g the beach. The ,best oneswere to be sold to the Io,artg (Coreigner)who sometimes visited the beach. 1 askedthe lallest boy, whose name ~as Chai,how he mnnaged to catch the starfish.

Easy!’, he exclaimed. “Walk alongthe beach and when YOLIsee ab imPrintof a star, dig into the sand. But, yo”musl have sharp eyes.”

‘.Sbacp eyes!,, the chubby ~oy said,building piles of sand wilh bis armsand hands.

“Like this; the practical j~ker said,throwing himself on the sandy soil andgesticulating wildly with bisl\cht,bbyhands.

Chai took my hand and led me outinto tbe sandy waste. The said dunesrose and once wc had mount~d these,we could see tbe beach, the sea a“d !hesmall islands i. Satahieb Bay.

‘.It’s the most beautiful beach: thechubby boy shouted, spreading (his armsas far as they would go. C<Abeautiful“bite beach,,,

From atop the sand dunes, I could seewhere a river ran into the sea’ and, oneither side, stretches of shimmeringwhite beach along which worne” andchildren walked, searching for clams,shells, and starfish.

‘,Bea.tifulT questioned the ~all boy..BeautifulF I replied, while the lag-

alongs ran whooping up and d~wn and

Each year, new teachers at His Majesty’s school, Vajiravudh College, are pre-sented to the King; Travis MontgomeV, standing with gifts at left, was included.

the clown stood silent. Chai stood re-laxed :,”d confident, needing no as.surance of my appreciation. *

After we had spent a joyous aflernoongatberi”g shells, looking for more slar-fish, a“d swimming, 1 realiud it wasgetting late. The sea was almost mo.tionless, a blue carpet thnl stretched tothe edge of a cloud. filled sky.

Lade” wilh many [i”y shells, [ bidmY yOu.S friends goodbye, as 1 slowlymo””ted one of lhe large s~nd dunes.

“Beautiful!” the chubby boy cried.Suddenly, (he tall tiy and the two

tapalo”gs ra” to their pile of starfishand grabbed the three largest, mostbea.!iful ones i“ the huge pile, a“dadded them [o the number 1 alceadycarried, They were, lhey said, their beststarfish.

‘Get the Hell

Out of There,

Gracefully’

Thailind Volunteers have collectedthe following anecdotes, some of whichwill probably so””d familiar to Vol”n.teers everywhere:

‘<We are co”cer”ed about you hcauseof tbe hostilities in Vietnam. We haveread everything we can and talked itO“er. We feel (hat yOU should get thebell 0“1 of there as fast as you can

—From a parent’s Iefler

Oan

One of my real pleasures mmes atnight, evew night. The girls’ domitowk just 500 yards from my flat, Theychant tbtir Buddhist prayers nightly and[be mciodic [o”es seem to envelop me,[f ~ve had a difficult day, tbe soundsarc soothin~ beyond words, If tbe daybas bee” a good one, the sounds remindme of tbe beauty in Thailand.

—Toby Talbot (bs Angeles, Cal.)

OuoOnc day as 1 sat eating in a strange

town a little boy passed by. When hesaw me, he stopped and stoti in frontof the shop shouting, “What? Okay.What? Okay? Then be merrily bounmddew” the street sbo.ting. ‘<What?Okay .“

—Fred Ellis (Annapolk, Md.)

❑ 00At prewnt ~m living in a former

classroom on the scco”d floor of myschool. When 1 want to take a batb(i. Thailand this is two or three timesa day), 1 must walk downslaim and

bebind the school. The morning bathis the most fun. No matter how earlyI get up, some students always cometo school before me. Even if I get upat 5 am, to take my shower some jokerarrives at 455. On these occasions 1 amdressed appropriately in a Thai sarongand sandals, with a towel around myneck. Carrying soap and a metal bowlto po,,r water over me. 1 enter the bath-room and secure the door behind me.There are generally giggles and whispersat this stage. When I’ve finished, teethchattering, I step ottt of the bathroom.Every morning a crowd of smiling Iiltlegirls greets m. with ‘,Good morning,teacher.”

—Marilyn fiblay (Kennewick, Wash,)

❑ 00

From “A Piece oi flte Corps; writtenand performed hy Thailand Group 7 atthe co”cl”sion of their training in Hilo,Hawaii:

Lader: OK, Try this one. You comehome late at ni~ht. Yo” find a tiger re.Iaing on your sleeping mat, What doyou do?

Trainee 1: Explain to the tiger thati“ Buddhism, if he does good, he,ll getgood.

Trni”ee 2: Consult the Peace CorpsHandbook.

Trai”ce 3: Start a zoo.Trainee 4; Try to .ndersta”d the ele-

ments in his cult.re that made the tigerdo this,

❑ nn

Yo” know how tired you 8e1 of hear-ing children shout .’Farang! farang!”(foreigner) whenever you go by. T wason my way to school one day and thesetwo little boys in their clean schoolclothes saw me. They begs” jumpingUP and down yelling ‘&Farang! farang!”and fell into the klong (canal).

—Debbie French (Farmin@on, Corm.)

000

We were mamied in the nai amphft<s(district official) office. Whc” the cere.mony was over 1 asked how much itwas. He said 60 satangs (3c). I gavehim a baht (St) and he went into theback and opened a big safe and gave me40 sat:angs change,

—L- Form- (Easto”. Md,)

Fred Ellis Debbie French

(Con fi”tted o,t next poge)

Teachers’ room in a Thailand school is set aside for planning lessons and pre-paring materials. Oonna Reilly (Spokane, Wash.) sits at her desk in the second row.

Aspects of Westernization

r],Clark Neher’ (Los.,,

\

Angeles) is an in-structor of politicalscience at Chula-

,S*K. Iongkorn Univer-‘, , sity in Bangkok.

He holds bache-“,, z

& ~;;;!”q~

in 1960 and 1961 from Stanford Uni-versity; from 1958 to 1959 he studiedat the University of tienna. His wife,Arlene, teaches at Prasafnmitr Col Iegeof Education in Bangkok.

By Clwk Neher

Bangkok, “ot Io”g ago, was a city ofbusy canals a“d magnificent temples.Today, the temples remain, but most ofthe canals have given way to wide con-crete streets.

There are o[her changes in BangkokBars and nigh! cl.bs abotl.d (Las Vegas,the Amcricano) blaring forth rock androll. Thai girls wilh bouffant hairstyleswear Westec” dresses instead of thetraditional saronfilike skirt, and oc-casionally one even sees couples holdinghands as they walk down the street—formerly a strict taboo.

All this distresses many Thais andmany Westerners, who see unfortunateaspects of Wes[ernimtion intruding onwhat has bee” a polite, modes{, andrespectful culture.

Ch”lalongkor. University, where Iam a“ i“str”ctor, is i“ the htart ofBangkok. Many of lhe students arefrom remote villages, and are enco”nter-i“g Wesler. infl.c”ces and the changesgoing on in the city for the first time.

19

Some Thais are concerned that the st.-dents will reject the besl of their Thaitraditions.

But Chtda!ongkorn, Thailand’s oldestand most f~mous university, is rich inThai tradition. It was founded by thegreat King Cht,lalongkorn ( 1868.1910).11s buildings zre in !he classic Thai style:bright orange. and green. tile roofs coverhigh-ceilinged airy classrooms.

Tbe “nivecsity’s 6000 students dressin white blouses and shirts, and darkskirts or tro,,sers. When they pass ateacher in the hall they step aside andbow deeply. hands before their faces, inThailand’s traditional sign of respect.Often there seems to be a wall betweenthe students a“d teachers.

1“ my dcpnrtment, political science,students attend 16 hotjrs a week of lec-tttre classes. They have little oppor.t.nity to assimilate and discc,ss theteitcher’s Iecttlre. They “ecd only mem-orize [h. lectttre notes and at exam [imerelate them back, with little criticalIhi”ki”g. There is almost no conceptof the research-in-depth that exists inAmerican ~tniversities. Part of the reasonfor [his is :1 lack of library n>atcrials.[ fear that many of these universitystudents will graduate into in fl”enlialgovernment and business positions wi[h-out ever having hnd their ideas fullycri[icizcd or challenged.

hly classes are in c“rre”t affairs a“dinternational relations. Both courses re-quire discussion, i“terpretstio”, and dif-ferences of opi”io. if they are to bemeani”gf”l, To elicit opinions o“ co”-Iroversial subjects was al first almostan impossible lask because the st”dc”tssimply would “ot express an opinionwhich might be differenl from mine.

press their ideas with him ~ince he is

ta”eht outside the established hierarchy,(Cot! fin!,ed front p.ge 19)

Since childhood they have been _(hat ‘,lencher”s opi”io” is right;, Almost all tbe Thailand :Volunteers

A further problem was that the st.. 1 have talked with feel this need for a

dents were concerned they would lose more informal relationship between st..face if their opinions were challenged or dent and teacher, 1 hlieve such a changeif their peers judged them to be “overly is “ecwsary for effective teaching a“d

a~~ressive or disrespectfu l.” Iearni”g. (--Gradually [be students learned that 1

truly wanted their OW” original opi”.ions a“d ide., s a“d SOO” disc”ssio” be.came more lively. I was thrilled thefirst lime a stt]de”l raised his hand whileI was lecturing, and said: ‘,Mr. Clark,1 would like (o disagree with yo~,r lastidea.” Perhaps the Volunteer has an ad-vantage over his Thai colleagues, in thatthe students witl be more likely to ex.

Efieck of Change

If we develop this new ope~ relation-ship. there are questions to be consid-ered, In a co””try where ~he socialorder is based o“ the respect for author.ity. what will be the result of changingvalues? Will the students now, have lessrespecl for their teachers? will theyknow how to control and cope with

Dear , IFor Thailand Volunteers behind in their correspo”de”ce (and what Vol.

untecr isn’t?) the Jou,nal of CommuniV Development, edited by VolunteerTommie Grifi” (%arde), offered this form to be filled in and mailed:

Dear

Well, here I am inI, and I’m

really quite I have been I

and , and sometimes I ‘ve even

The weather here has been For en~er-

tainment I’ve been and 1.

You know how it is.

The food has been very I find

that if I add a to it now and then, the

results are My house is mad~ of

and it’s very I wi~h I—— .

had a to make things more cotiortable.

I have ideas about future activi-

ties. For instance I think that would

be an excellent idea, don’t you?

The people here are They seem

to all the time. I find them very

In fact, sometimes I think t:hey

What do you think?

Well, that’s about for now. T{ell

everyone for me. I

their “ew relationship? W,II the a“thor-ily a“d image of the Thai teachers be~,nderc”t?

@—

Perhaps in trying to e“co”rage ourstudents to lhink for themselves thisway we are simply another disruptiveelement intruding, another ““forl””ateasptct of Wesler”izalion, But somehowil seems worthwhile when %,c see o“rstudenb develop a little more confidencei“ (hi”king for themselves.

‘I Always Had

A Lot of Visitors’(Cottt;nt,ed from previous POX.)

I always had a lot of visitors at myhouse i“ So”gkhla, 1 had a Ribbon liedin front, n trash pit in back, and a“aquarium inside.

—Jnck Reynolb (Downey, Cnl.)

❑ 00

Occasionally in a Thai barber shopthe barber stops in tbe middle of ahaircut a“d combs his OW” hsir.

—Jim C“sick (East Orange, N.J.)

❑ 00

Once t said 10 a student, HOW doYO” do?’” He said, ,’1 can do:

—Howard Lesnick (Providence, R. I.)

❑ on

1 went o“ a IIzi”w (walk) wilh someteachers. They bought an ice.creamslick for me. Sinw Thais do”>t eatwhile walking they p“t it in a bag forme. We walked are. ”d for awhile look-ing for a bench. Have you eaten a 15.minute-old ice-cream slick i“ the hotseason?

—Oonna Reilly (Spokane, Wash.)

Jim Cusick

Marilyn 2iblay

Donna Reilly

Howard Lesnick

20

Letter-writing style was lesson in Eng-1ish classes taught by Volunteer JackReynolds (Downey, Cal.), who is nowstudying at East. West Center, Hawaii.

Abnam (bath) time at Bangkok welfarehome, Jennifer Froistad [Gncinnatilworked there during summec sheteaches at college in Chonburi province.

o ‘The Most Powerful

Idea in Recent Times’

Excerpts from renlarks oj Thanat

Khoman, Foreign Minister oj Tha;-land, in response to an address given

by Sargent Shriver at ChuiafongkornUniversity, JO.. 28, 1964:

“II is indeed striking that this im-

portant idea—the most powerful ideain recenl rimes: of a Peace Corps, ofyouth nlingiing, living, working with

you fh-shoufd come frotn the mighti-est nation on earth, the Unifed Stales.

Many of tis who did riot know abouf(he Un;fed Stales thought of this greatnotion ay a wealthy nation, a powerful

nation, endowed with great materialstrenglh and many powerful weapom.

B,(! t?lany of us know that in theUnited States idea and ideals are alsopoweriul. And I think this is the se-

cre! of your greatness, of your might,,vhich is not imposing or crushing

people but is the thought of future

,. .’..goodwdl and understanding. I hopethis idea wdl thrive and ihat all ofyou, my friends, will coniinue withyour success.”

Thai doctor inspects child at roadside clinic, as other patients wait; picturewas taken by Volunteer Kirmach Natani (Oakland, Cal.) during SUrVeYing tri P.

Career Opportunities Listed’For Returning Volunteers ~

,. .... . . ,.-—.

?

&

T.

“~~ ,,

i;l:, ~,’

J.], 17, M&<al Collme Tet : Oct. 17 and

Mary Lou Callahan, a Voluntee~ from Vermilion, 0,, learns laborato~ techniquesfrom a Guinean doctor at Dabola, Guinea, Ieprosarium where she worked as a ●summer project. During the sc~ool year she teaches English at Col Iege Dabola,The town is 195 miles no flheast from Conak~ in the center of the count~,

Government

Teaching

Began With Carnegie Grant

Career Information ServiceNow Part of Peace Corps

Howard Tol ley, from Montclair, NJ., wasone of 20 COIIege students chosen towork as summer interns with the PeaceCorps this past summer, most as junioradministrators. He was assigned tothe office of the Career InformationSemite, a branch of the Division of Vol-unteer Support. A senior student atMiddlebury (Vt.) College, Tolley is major-ing in political science. In 1963 he wentto Sierra Leone with Crossroads Africaon a school-construction oroiect. Afterhe receives his degree next “spring, hehopes to join the Peace Corps,

By Howard Tolley

To assist re(.rning Volunteers withthe formidable task of taking full ad.vantage of their new-found skills andoverseas experiences, !he Peace Corpshas ass.mcd sponsorship of the PeaceCorps Volunteer Career InformationService.

1“ its first year of. operation, be~in”i”gin A“n.st, 1963. CIS was financed bya gca”-l from the Carnegie Corporationand was staffed and operated by (heAmerica” Co””cil on Education.

Volu”tcers, c“rre”t a“d former, mayprofit from a variety of services initiatedby CIS. The dislribt,tio. of monthlyCareer Opportunities Bulletins is onlyone channel of i“formatio” open toVolunteers. Sixty-five overseas cacecr

Other

23

libraries each provide 50 books andpamphlets with background informationon educational and employment oppor-tunities,

Specially prepared reporls on govern-ment service, teaching, higher education,a“d opportunities in business and in-dustry supplement the 120 pamphleisand brochures sent out in response toqueries recei\,ed from individual Volun-teers. In addition, two full-time careercounselors offer guidance and career sug-gestions to returned Volunteers seekinghelp with career plans. More than 20Per cent of returned Volunteers have al-ready visited the CIS office in person.

Under the direction of Robert CalvertJr., former manager of the student andalumni placement center at the Uni-versity of California i“ Berkeley, CISis actively in contact with both privateand government agenci=, promotingadditional opportunities for Volunteers.More than 2000 employers have beenrkached and 100 of the larger graduateschools have been asked to create spe-cial Peace Corps fellowships or scholar-ships. At prcse”t, approximately 50colleges, universities, and national asso-ciations have set aside 250 scholarships,fellowships, and assistantships for re-lurning Volunteers.

A Ietler prepared by CIS and dis!rih-

(Co”li,t,ted on “exr page)

mdic.1. ind”striol vmc=sw, tro.aoorti,ion,!emnaut)cs, and milimry]. The stertitng 8.Iovis S5000. Net-am oua]ifications include eithere B.A. d,grm in the e,>,)m,,ri ate K,storical or,cien,!fic .,.. 0,, . mlnim”m of thre ,,.,8exmerienc. wi,h the ..,. .“d handh”g ofcol]ectio”s relatd b a .artic.l.r subject mmt.ter or spec{sKz.tion. R&”m6s or Fam 678should be .,”, ,. the Pemo..el Domrtment,Smithso” i.” ]nqtittutio”, w.shi”gton, D. C,20560.

P,.. Community S,,,! .-, 1.,., St. Helena1,1.”d, Fmxmo.., S.C. ie . comm””ity andCO”feren.e center ,,,”; . . [.,.,,.. !.1 ,,.., ),.lb u.dmaaor, Pan. Schwl, fo””ded in 1862.w., “.. of tho c.r]!~t echo.], for Negroca.Two QU.”!”KS curre”tlv exist with P.”” Com-m“.lty Sew!c~, f.. omg,.amdircctor a“d forfield .,orke~ 8“ community development. The.roxram dlr-tor. a “ewly<reatod .a,itia”,would co+rdi””te the work of comm”. ity d-..elor]me”t and serve as admi”ietr. tive .seist.ant to the d,rector. Au.licnnm for th!smition aho”ld have experience i“ .dm!nls.tmtive work .nd writins. In addltio~ a.m.fund-rmisi.n experience would be .nrtlcularlvv.]u.bl.. The “r:m.r, r~.on,fi~,l;tim of thefield woke, will be to n.,iat loenl D-vI. indevelo. ins their Ieademhl. note”tia) throughwork o“ such comm””liy .mj+@ @ he~ltha“d eanimtion, “oter re.latcat! o”, eo”, ”mereduc,tlon, and imomvem,nt of the eco”om{cutatue of r“rnl familim. Frozr.m director,.I.!Y would be S1000 : field wo!ker!~e”n C<”,=, ,* S:e:.1.s $umishd h“use.Be8,, fort, midway btw~n Charlmtin andSavannah, Bes”foti {S a rs.idly develoofngc.””;v i“ wfich ,“,s1 ““dercm,ln,me”t IsDort!allY offset by three Inr.c mililum installa-tions a“d semo. nl em.lo?me”t !. the tmckf.rm .“d smfmd i“dust,iw. Addr~s inQulrl-m Courtney Slce] off, Dlr&tir, Penn timm”..itr Semic~, 1..;, Fmgmom, S.C.

CIS Must Expand

As Corps Grows

“ted by the American Book PublishersCouncil 10 all i(s members has ac-aunted for a numkr of opportunities.Articles appearing in a number of edu-cational and popular magazines sirestbe capabilities returning Volunteers mayhave to otTer.

1“ co.operation with the NationalAssn. of Independent Schools, CIS pre-pared four rosters containing briefrisumks of mme 115 Volunteers in-terested in private-school teaching posi.lions; some 100 private schools requestedcopies of the lists. One Volunteer re-ceived seven job offers,

Responding to President Joh”so”,s per.so”al concern that Federal agencies makefull “se of the talents of returning Vol-unteers, two rosters were prepared andcirculated, Iisling 175 Volunteers inter-ested in government service. During theyear, 519 Vol””teers took the jointForeign Service and U,S.I,A, exam of-feced ovemeas.

However effective the first year>s ef-forts may have bee”, both i“ providinginformation a“d ccea[ing opportunities,Calvcrt indicates that CIS must expandits program to meet lhe “teds of thegrowing number of returning Vol””teers.

The “umber of opporl””ilies must beco”sta”tly increased as the Peace Corpscontinues to expand. D.ring [he pastyear, lhe career bulletins presented ap-proximately 500 Opport””ities. 1“ viewof [hc 3500 Volunteers scheduled toreturn next year and the 5000 to 7000who may return annually i“ the yearsahead, additional ownings are needed.Vol.”teers must & constantly alendto the need for advance planning. Asmany gradtzate schools set applicationdeadlines in December or January, Vol-unteers desiring to continue their ed”-calion must begin plan”i”g .( least ninemo”lhs i. advance, A comparable needfor earlier preparation faces those in-terested in private i“d.stry, since manyfirms hire in advo”ce for better positions.

By the same token, Volt~”tcers mustbe forewarned Ibat while m.”y em-Ployers react favorably to Peace Corpsexwrience, Volunteer applicants mustslill meet job specifications a“d back-grot,nd requirements.

In Gore, a tow” at 6580 feet in southwestern Ethiopia, Volunteer Floyd Davis (right),from South Nomalk, Con”., and Ash Hartwell, from Honolulu, walk down a rockystreet. Both went abroad in September, 1963, and are working as teachers in thecommunity. Hatiwell went to Dafimouth, Davis to Virginia Union University,

Reader Corrects Stow Medical Division Seeks

On Overseas Train/ng Health Work Information e

To THE VOLUNTEER:

IOn page 3 of your A“g”st issue yo”

have an article headed, C<Trai”ipg Sched-uled At Overseas College For FirstTime?

The first group of 31 Vol”n~eers sentto Nigeria in %ptember, 1961, wereIrai”ed for three months at the Uni-versity College. Ibada”, following eightweeks of training at Harvard. In viewo“f the excellent record of thjs groupdtzring those early days of the PeaceCorps, f lbo.gbt your fine p“blicatio”would like to acknowled~e tbe fnct thatthey were the first Vol”.tcers tO receivethe major part of their trai”i”g i“ theircountry of assignment.

IWILLIAM E. H[N~

Deputy Director/Mariagement

Peace Corps/Philippines

Manila, Philippines

Tbe Medical Program Division of thePeace Corps isseeki”g information aboutVol”nleer expcrie”~ i“ health ed”ca-tion and heallh action. Reports fromVol.”teers are being compiled by theDivision, a“d will be made available toall Volunteers,

Needed is information about Vol””-teer activity i“ the fields of sa”itatio.,nutrition, and mothem,, child, and schoolhealth. Volunteers s“bmit(i”g materialare asked to include the following: nameof school or community, and locationin country; some details of (he ac[ivity,including why work was ““dertaken, andunder whose a“spice$ identifi~tion ofParliciPanls. including Voh]nteers andlocal people list of materials used:names of resource people or orga”im-tionq and other pertinent wmme”ts suchas res”lt+gmd, bad, or indifferent,

ReFrts may be sent to the PeaceCorps in care of the Division of Vol-unteer SuDvOrt.

_______________________________________________________ .CHANGE OF ADDRESS POSTAGE AND FEES PAID

PEACE CORPS’WASHINGTON, D.C.

Name20525

b OFFICIAL BUSINESS

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