Memories and Meaning: A 50th Anniversary Report Peace Corps Nepal Group 17 December 2018 i Foreword In his November 2, 1960 speech at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, then- Senator John F. Kennedy proposed "a peace corps of talented men and women" who would dedicate themselves to the progress and peace of developing countries. This report explores the experiences and impacts of the 17th such group to be sent to the fifth poorest country in the world: Nepal. The year was 1968, a time of political and social turmoil in the United States; it was a time for taking sides in the struggle for or against peace, justice, and equality. Each of the 32 lives reported here was transformed dramatically, unpredictably, and irreversibly with respect to those moral choices and guiding human values, impacting their career paths, life partners, and enduring personal relations, inside Nepal and out. Taken together, these writers attest to an amazing diversity of backgrounds at the time of entrance into the Peace Corps. They were intellectuals; farmers; foresters; recent graduates in economics, business, political science, linguistics, math, history, psychology and philosophy; and teachers of English and agricultural science. But thanks to intensive training in pre- mechanized agriculture, four South Asian languages and Hindu culture in both Cactus Corners, California and Parwanipur, Nepal, they were transformed into a dedicated team of volunteers ─ open, willing to learn, courageous, sincere, energetic, and peace-loving ─ in a word, fundamentally good people equipped as well as at all possible for the challenges ahead. Those challenges saw a total of 76 of us scattered far and wide into single postings across the taraai and middle hills of a 9-million-person country (see map, page 7). Our experiences were thus extremely varied and highly individual. The nearest volunteer typically lived several hours’ walk away. So it is not surprising that no two stories in this volume are remotely alike. Although we spent at least two years in the same country, we barely knew in any depth more than three or four other volunteers. Even during training we were divided into groups by caste (one cabin was Brahmin, one Chhetri, etc.) in Cactus Corners, and by regional language and future geographical placement at Parwanipur. ii That imposed isolation highlights perhaps the single most important objective of bringing our stories together in this volume: it is time to learn who we were, and even more importantly who we have become. So, members of our group, please treasure these stories as tangential complements to your own experience; glean and reflect upon the lessons and insights from your fellow volunteers; and incorporate these friends and their stories into your remaining years. Doing so is all the more urgent now that Stan Gerity, Bernie Gewirtz, Roger Leo, Ben Rogers, Roger Rutledge, and John Tegenfeldt from our own group─as well as our older-brother models, Jeff Malick and Sandy Hoodenpyle─have already left us. We can all be proud of what the members of Nepal 17 have accomplished, both individually and together. It is time that our story be told. And thus we invite others to partake in, and perhaps learn from, our experiences. Peter Calkins, Compiler and Editor-in-Chief Gary Ender, Technical Editor iii iv The poor don’t know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity. -- Jean-Paul Sartre, “The Words” v Table of Contents Foreword .............................................................................................................................................. ii 1.Ross Anthony ............................................................................................................................... 13 2. Ray Arndt ..................................................................................................................................... 21 3. Bob Bertera ................................................................................................................................. 23 5. Peter Calkins ............................................................................................................................... 35 6. Kent Crawford ............................................................................................................................ 41 7. Gil Donahue ................................................................................................................................ 45 8. Gary Ender .................................................................................................................................. 51 9. Stan Gerity .................................................................................................................................. 63 10. Bernie Gewirtz ......................................................................................................................... 65 11. Richard Godfrey ...................................................................................................................... 67 12. Stan Gray .................................................................................................................................. 71 13. Dan Karr .................................................................................................................................... 75 14. Bob Lake .................................................................................................................................... 87 15. Roger Leo ................................................................................................................................... 95 16. Chuck Ludlam ......................................................................................................................... 99 17. Paul Madnick .......................................................................................................................... 113 18. Sue Malick ............................................................................................................................... 119 19. Jim McMahan ......................................................................................................................... 121 20. Regina Mellon ......................................................................................................................... 127 21. Dexter Newton ....................................................................................................................... 131 22. Merv Olson .............................................................................................................................. 137 vi 23. Mike Rechlin ............................................................................................................................ 141 24. Ron Rude ................................................................................................................................. 145 25. Roger Rutledge ....................................................................................................................... 165 26. True Ryndes ............................................................................................................................ 169 27. John Scholz ............................................................................................................................. 193 28. John Tegenfeldt ..................................................................................................................... 199 29. Buck Trawicky ....................................................................................................................... 205 30. Bill Wallin ................................................................................................................................ 223 31. Chris Walsh............................................................................................................................. 233 32. David Weisbrod ...................................................................................................................... 235 Glossary of Nepali Terms ........................................................................................................... 239 Index of terms and topics .......................................................................................................... 244 vii Note to the Reader This book may be read in two cross-cutting ways. First, one may read “vertically” by alphabetical order of volunteer last name (as in the table of contents on the preceding pages). But secondly, one may explore the contents of this volume “horizontally” by geographical ordering of the 21 Nepalese districts where 57 Nepal 17 volunteers were stationed, going from Banke in the West to Ilam in the East (map 1, following page), a distance on then-existing roads of no less than 707.3 miles!1 This latter ordering (Table 1) will help the reader relate the stories of volunteers within the same or neighboring districts sharing the same physical climate, social conditions, agricultural challenges, and enduring friendships; or of all those stationed in the hills vs. all those in the taraai, or plains, region. For convenience, volunteers in the same district are further ordered alphabetically by last name. 1 While it is true that Nepal covers only an average East to West of 550 miles as the crow flies; it is filled with mountains, rivers, and seasonal roadways that mean that linking the district centers of Table 1 through the Google-map “on foot” mode leads