Memories of India 42

India 42 served Jan 1967 to Jan 1969 in two areas of Karnataka.  There were about 24 volunteers.  My half served in Shimoga Dist and I think the other half was located (i believe) in the Belgam area.  We have had 4 full on reunions; the last was Oct 2016 in Vegas with about 60% or so turnout.  We were fortunate to have Jack Slattery at our last reunion and one previous reunion.  - Steve Watkins, December 2017

Half of 42 were in the northern part of the state, Raichur District. Half of us were further south, Chitradurga District and Shimoga District. That was pretty much in the middle of the state. Several of us were in villages in the vicinity of Davanagere. The city was the seat of Davanagere Taluka, but now it is a District itself, split off from Chitradurga. Our number was in the mid-twenties. We may have started with around forty-something in Lexington, Kentucky, in November, 1966, and got to the second half of our training in Gangavathi with around the high twenties just after Christmas.  I think we may have had around 24 when we arrived in our villages in February. There was some attrition just after training and during the first few months of our assignments. Two guys got ill and left. A few others left very late in our terms. One of us, Gershon Gurin Polish just arrived in Tamil Nadu a few weeks ago to teach English in a small village 5 or 6 hours from Chennai (That's by bus, not limo or private jet.) He will be there for a few months, and this is his third or fourth stint of doing that. India 38 technically was the first half of the group that 42 was part of, but we didn't even know that until George Gabois mentioned it during our reunion in Lexington in 2007. We started out encouraging  and instructing in the growing of hybrid corn and sorghum and using the irrigation water from two relatively new dams.  Some of us branched into other stuff, like well-drilling . - Joe Spear December 2017

India 42 with staff when in traning in Gangawati GSTC in Jan 1967.