Peace
Corps
Volunteers bring
'energy' to others
The first day on the job is almost always tough —
especially when an “employer" doesn't know what to do
with a new worker.
Ann Trutner's first day as an agricultural extensionist
for the Peace Corps was no exception. Her "employers" —
15 Liberian men — had never worked with a woman before,
let alone an American woman.
"They didn't know what to do with me," Trutner says.
"They didn't know they should tell me to do things. They
kept telling me to sit down and rest and not get dirty."
Women weren't supposed to do agricultural work, the
men thought, so they sent Trutner to the kitchen for
women's work.' But Trutner wasn't one to give in easily.
She trudged her way back through the bush to find the
men, who still tried to make her sit down so she wouldn't
work.
That scenario went on for several days.
Then the Peace Corps advised Trutner that she should
begin showing the local farmers improved methods of
planting casaba, a potato-like tuber. So she left the village
to learn everything she could about one of the region's ma
jor crops. Her return to the village was a triumphant one.
"When I returned, I had a role, a title — casaba
specialist — and therefore the men felt I had a place there,
and it was easier for them because they could identify me
with an activity."
Trutner's initial work experience was only one of many
adjustments she and all Peace Corps volunteers must make
when they work in a foreign land with "strange" customs.
And this "culture shock" is probably what makes being a
Peace Corps volunteer so difficult, she says.
"The pace is different, the sounds are different, the
speech is different, the whole climate is different, your time
schedules are different. I think that's what people have the
hardest time with," Trutner says.
Marsha Swartz' experience as a volunteer in Uganda
was similar to Trutner's in that she, too, had some difficulty
adjusting to her new life.
"The first six months are the most difficult because
you're making so many adjustments. And you learn in (the
Peace Corp's six-month) training that this will be a difficult
time. You are adjusting to a new job, a new place, a new
r\ style of living. A lot of changes are coming about all at
^ once," says Swartz, who now works on campus as a Peace
Corps coordinator at the Career Planning and Placement
Service.
While in Uganda during 1967-68, Swartz, who
volunteered with her husband, helped get the village's first
secondary school off the ground.
When they arrived at the small school, there was no
blackboard. So she found a can of black paint and made
one. But that may have been one of the easier adjustments
to make.
Swartz remembers organizing her first meeting in her
new community. She told the villagers to come at 7 p.m.
They arrived promptly at 9 p.m., and Swartz soon
discovered they were consistently one or two hours "late"
— by American standards.
"It was a matter of me adjusting my (internal) clock, and
once I did that, everything worked fine," Swartz says.
Then about six months after their arrival in Uganda,
Swartz and her husband's wrist watches stopped ticking. It
was then they realized "the whole idea of rushing to meet
deadlines or hustling off to be somewhere on time just
didn't matter so much anymore. We could slow down and
enjoy the sunset, which always went down at 7 p.m. and
came up at 7 a.m., and that was our 'clock.' So we just woke
Photo by Brian Erb
Marsha Swartz, who taught in a secondary school in Uganda while with the Peace Corps, calls the experience
"the best" of her life.
up and guess within an hour or two what time it was, and
we realized. Hey, that's what everybody was doing.’ "
Swartz and 1 rutner are two of about 100,000 Americans
who have served as Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, Asia,
Latin America and the Pacific since 1961. Nearly 1,100 of
those volunteers are University graduates, and the Eugene
community has about 200 former volunteers. Trutner, a
Peace Corps recruiter and Seattle resident, was on campus
last week interviewing potential volunteers.
There are probably about as many reasons for joining
the Peace Corps as there are volunteers, according to
Swartz and Trutner. Yet both women emphasized they did
not have grand illusions of changing the world.
Both did want to see the world, though, but not from a
tourist's point of view. "I didn't want to be a tourist,"
Trutner says. "I really rebelled against that. I wanted to live
in a community with people."
Like Trutner, Swartz was anxious to glimpse more of
the world than her tiny Idaho community afforded her. She
and her husband were just graduating from the University
of Idaho in Moscow and weren't sure what they wanted to
do with their lives. So when the Peace Corps offered the
Swartz' a job, they took it.
The Peace Corps is one of many organizations that
sends volunteers into Third World nations in the hopes of
ultimately bettering those nations' standards of living.
But unlike most of these philanthropic groups, the
Peace Corps does not supply its volunteers with modern
machinery — or much machinery at all, for that matter.
They do not have sophisticated tools, chemicals or money
to give their hosts. They do not even have cars, which
means they walk a lot — about 10 miles a day for Trutner.
The villagers expected Trutner, who spent much of her
day demonstrating new farming techniques, to have expen
sive American goods. What she had was a hoe and simple
planting materials.
The people, however, were conditioned to getting
something for nothing by other organizations — and usual
ly ending up with nothing.
"There are so many agencies that come in and promise
to bring about self-sufficiency in agriculture. They bring all
these tools, supplies and assistances and then never come
back. It happened several times while I was there. 'Oh,
we're going to bring you rototillers and tractors,' " Trutner
says, mimicking those organizations. "Then everyone has a
meeting. They cook food and celebrate. And nothing
happens."
So because of the villagers unsuccessful experiences
with other foreign organizations, they didn't take Trutner
seriously at first. Yet they still expected a "magical truck to
come in with all these supplies.”
"People would always come to me and say 'Give me fer
tilizers, give me rototillers, give me tractors.' And I would
say 'I don't have that. I don't work with any of that.' My pro
gram didn't need any of that. I was very self-sufficient,” she
says.
The Peace Corps deliberately doesn't supply its
volunteers with expensive equipment, both women say. In
fact, "That was one of the prime objectives — not to walk in
and supply things that would not last after we were gone,”
Swartz says.
Instead, the volunteers act as catalysts for bringing
about life-enhancing projects, which communities can con
tinue even after the volunteers have left.
Through Trutner's efforts, 60 farmers learned superior
planting methods for tubers and other crops, which in
creased the tuber crop's yield during a year which saw
traditionally planted crops washed away by rain. Trutner
also intiated the building of the village's first food market.
The roof was just being put up when she left Liberia.
Swartz and her husband's efforts put the 3-year-old
secondary school in their village on firm ground. And for
the first time, the local women were able to attend high
school without traveling to the other side of Uganda. The
husband-wife team also organized a community project
that turned a swamp into a soccer field.
"I hope the people we worked with in the schools
realize they themselves can do this, that they have the
energy to put into it," Swartz says.
Trutner says she now understands, at least a bit more,
why her Liberian friends were living in poverty and doing
little about it. "These people have lived with (poverty) for
30, 40, 50 years. I can see why they get tired, I can see why
they aren't as active or are not as protesting because
they've done it 20 times before and failed. I think the fresh
energy we bring into the village is real positive," Trutner
says.
When Swartz first returned to the United States, she
remembers walking into a grocery store and staring, as
though for the first time, at all the different foods to select
from on the shelves. Until Americans see it for themselves,
most cannot comprehend a lifestyle centered from dawn
till dusk on finding enough food to eat, she says.
But Swartz says she remembers the joys, as well as the
struggles, of her second home.
"I have images in my mind of Uganda that I will never
forget and I want to go back," she says. "It turned out to be
the best experience of our lives."
By loan Herman
...MUST BE SOLD NOW!
JEANERY DOWNTOWN STORE QUITS BUSINESS!
All remaining Levi's" ENTIRE stock of
Saddleman denim boot LAWMAN jeans (reg. up
jeans (reg. $21.99) to $34)
s12.88!
#15397
THOUSANDS OF JEANS
SACRIFICE
DISCOUNTED UP TO
77 WEST BROADWAY
EUGENE
■El
ALL LIQUIDATION PRICES VALID
AT EUGENE DOWNTOWN STORE ONLY
■L All -idles tin il
All Ileitis Mitt|WI td^stooi on hnnil
MON SAT 9:30 6; SUN 12 5
BUT HAVE NO
Donate Plasma • Profitable • Safe • Easy
1071 Olive • 484-2241
This ad worth $4 on your 2nd donation