India 57 and 58 Trainees Biographical Sketches

Please see the attached scan of the India 57 and 58 Trainees Biographical Sketches.

”And the Wall Came Tumbling Down” by John Chromy, India III

It was in June of 1964 when the “wall came tumbling down” during a sitdown dinner for

6 people. The setting was in a private home in the town of Zaheerabad in Andhra Pradesh State.

Four of us Peace Corps Volunteers had been temporarily assigned to develop and teach a pilot health/nutrition/gardening curriculum to be used in training village school teachers throughout Andhra State (population 36 million). This experimental course was conducted at the Zaheerabad Basic Training Institute, where some 160 future primary school teachers were undergoing training.

Amongst the faculty and students at the BTI there was considerable excitement to have Americans teaching at their school. In the 1960s America was mostly an admired country and there was much curiosity about the American people, their way of life and the work of these four American guest instructors. In fact, one of the faculty members very cautiously and humbly invited us to be guests of he and his wife for dinner at their home on the BTI campus. When we accepted he appeared overjoyed and promised a fine South Indian meal that his wife and daughters would cook especially for us.

When the dinner date came we arrived at the home of Raja and Umala Rao and were welcomed by them and their three daughters with garlands of marigold draped around our necks, water poured to allow us to wash our hands and a place arranged for us to slip off our sandals and to enter their home which clearly had been cleaned and the walls freshly whitewashed for this special occasion.

We entered and took our places, seated cross-legged on the floor on reed mats as was customary in Indian homes. The house’s exterior granite stone walls were obviously quite sturdy. However, the interior partition walls were made of woven bamboo mats plastered over with dried mud and then whitewashed, a common construction technique in the homes of families of modest means.

As I sat down on the floor I noted that the interior wall to my left was slightly bowed out towards where we sat and over the next twenty minutes or so I noted two occasions the bowed wall seemed to sway slightly probably caused by the childrens’ movements in the next room. Being a gracious guest I said nothing to our hosts because I did not want to cause them any embarrassment. BIG MISTAKE!

Very soon thereafter our hostess and her daughters set before us green banana leaves as plate settings and began bringing out the grand feast that they obviously had been cooking for two or three days. First we had rotis (baked flatbreads) which we tore into pieces, dipped into spicy sauces and ate as our first course. This was followed by mounds of white rice placed directly on our banana leaves and covered with a curried eggplant sauce and dabs of yogurt. Just as our hostess finished proudly serving her husband and his guests this wonderful meal, the wall next to me creacked one more time, bulged out a bit more and immediately the whitewashed mud plaster slipped off its bamboo framing and collapsed into our dining area, much to the astonishment of all of us and more importantly to the absolute horror of our hosts.

When the dust settled a bit we looked upon our rice dinners now covered with whitewash dust. One child began to wail in fright and shock, and Raj and Umala began profusely apologizing while offering to gather up our banana leaves and assuring us that there was plenty of food and Umma would still serve us a fine meal.

We four, Linda, Lois, Joyce and I, playing the role of good Peace Corps Volunteers, repeatedly assured Umala and Raja that it was no problem, that everything was fine, there was no need to apologize, we were accustomed to occasional mishaps happening even in America and we should not let this little “dust-up” ruin our fine evening together. In fact, Lois and Joyce, being our nutritionist experts, immediately began delicately scraping the top half inch of food from each banana leaf, thereby removing the whitewash dust and leaving (by Peace Corps standards) a perfectly edible, if slightly gritty, rice and eggplants sauce dish. Lois then joined Umala in scooping additional dollops of sweetened yogurt onto the rice in each setting and the dinner went on to its final consumption.

Umala and Raja continued to be visibly embarrassed and periodically protested that Lois and Joyce’s rescue of the rice dinners was not adequate and repeatedly tried to apologize for their inadequacy as host for their wonderful American guests. Conversation for the rest of the evening was a bit stilted but the four of us kept reassuring our hosts that all was fine, we were well cared for and fed and that we were enjoying the whole “very memorable” evening.

As the repast ended we all somewhat carefully leaned back against the solid outside walls of the dining room, sipped a final cup of tea and casually savored a stomach-settling green leaf containing cardamom, betel nut and lime paste, ending the evening in comfort.

We departed saying repeated good evenings and even more repeatedly, assurances to Umala and Raja that we had very much enjoyed the evening and did not mind at all the minor mishap of the wall tumbling down upon our shared feast. Our hosts walked us back to our quarters still repeating their apologies for the disastrous evening. In good Peace Corps fashion, we had “sucked it up”, consumed the remaining food graciously and did our best to reassure our hosts that further apologies were not needed and that to avoid further embarrassment for them we would never mention the event to any of their colleagues---and we honored that promise!!

For the four of us, like for Joshua at Jericho, the “Wall Came Tumbling Down”---and we had another amazing story for the annals of Peace Corps in India!!!

John Chromy
2021

1976 Correspondence Regarding Peace Corps in India Closure

Click on these links to see correspondence between Thomas Carter and Peace Corps Associate Director John R. Dellenback regarding the closure of the Peace Corps in India program in 1976.

Link 1 Carter Letter (7/19/1976)

Link 2 Dellenback Letter 98/27/1976)

1962 Agreement between the United States Government and the Government of India authorizing the Peace Corps

Click on the link to view the Agreement between the United States Government and the Government of India authorizing the Peace Corps to be operated in India, initiated by US ambassador J. K. Galbraith and addressed to Jawaharlal Nehru, Minister of Fareigh Affairs and returned as agreed upon by Y.D. Gundevla, Commonwealth Secretary in the Ministry of Foreigh Affairs. The GOI's signer was Y.D. Gundevia, a Parsi civil servant who became Foreign Secretary and, among other things, was instrumental in Kashmir policy and negotiations with Pakistan.

 November 13, 1962.

Discussion of the Peace Corps in India Intensive Poultry Production and Beekeeping Programs, by John Chromy (India 3) and Tom Carter (India 13) November 8 – 11, 2021

John Chromy: The "Intensive Poultry Production" program, of which Peace Corps Volunteers played a key role, indeed helped develop a major new industry in India. Tom Carter probably has much more knowledge of this effort than I do---he oversaw poultry PCVs in Mysore, Kerala and several North India states. 

Peace Corps staff took up the IPP poultry idea and shared it with Department of Animal Husbandry officials in several states  who in turn took up the idea. Peace Corps then developed training modules to prepare Volunteers in the technical aspects of poultry production. Jack Slattery was one of the early PCVs pushing egg production (there were also a number of poultry PCVs in India I & II). Jack found he had to also work on marketing of the eggs, shipping them from Gangawati to markets in Bellary using a cooperative that he started in Odderhati village. Marketing the idea of "vegetarian eggs" was crucial and I remember a PCV in Mysore (1968-68), Helen Clarke, who pushed the vegetarian (non-fertilized) eggs idea in Home Economics courses and at community fairs.

Peace Corps was not solely responsible for the growth of IPP industry, but they played a key part in the early days of the movement that was later taken up by organizations such as poultry Growers' Associations in Kerala and Punjab. 

Had the bee program had similar multi-year support from the Peace Corps programming staff it may well have gone on to be a significant food production program. Larry Brown’s early efforts (see story below) were important and amazing. It is sad that Peace Corps did not follow-up. In my forty plus years of development work, both overseas and in the US, I have learned that experiments like Larry Brown’s bee program, in initiating a program, are critical to development---some fail, some are not properly followed up and supported---but  those pilot efforts are nevertheless an important part of the development process. After all, the Ford Foundation funded hybrid rice program in the Philippines failed 7 times before its IR-8 variety finally took off and became a major player in the expansion of rice production in India and elsewhere---same with the Mexico based wheat production, six varieties failed before Sonora 7 finally took off (and all those early failures were managed by Norman Borlaug--a Nobel Prize winner for the development  and spread of IR-8 and Sonora 7). 

I will ask Tom Carter to share more information on the poultry industry in India.

All good cheer – John Chromy 11/8/2021

Tom Carter: As an India-13 (Kerala), I entered the scene after much had already been started. I believe John's supposition that Peace Corps staff saw the potential in poultry and pushed it with Department of Animal Husbandry and other state officials probably was the reason why there were several poultry groups in the mid- to late-1960s.  Jack Slattery, who John mentions, went from being a volunteer to staff in Bangalore and would have had a major role in promoting poultry programs in what was then Mysore and Kerala.  I'm not sure whether Jack and/or Joyce Russell were responsible for poultry programs - one or two - in Andhra Pradesh.  I am guessing that Ernie Peterson, as an Associate Director in the Northern Region, was initially responsible to poultry programs in what was then Punjab - and subsequently was Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.  Gary Brenneman, as an Associate Director in Jaipur, would have probably be responsible for the later poultry programs in that state. India, today, is the world's second or third (US and Indonesia) largest producer of eggs.  Per capita access is about 85.  India today, with 1.2+ billion people is a bit larger than it was when Peace Corps was involved. But at that time, I believe per capita egg consumption was just under 8 per capita per annum.  

A major initial problem with egg production in India was the limited genetic capacity of desi fowl.  Their annual production was probably more or less the same as per capita access.  I know that in 1965 in Kerala, we found birds with crossed beaks, bald necks and other curiosities.  They didn't produce much, but during rice harvests they consumed a great deal.

The first US poultry breeder to operate in India was Arbor Acres (http://eu.aviagen.com/brands/arbor-acres/).  In Kerala, we had a wonderful Director of Animal Husbandry, MN Menon, and officer in charge of the Central Hatchery (PK Nambiar).  They supported an effort to import pure White Leghorn day-old chicks from Forsgate Farms in New Jersey along with White Plymouth Rock and White Cornish broiler breeding chicks.  The White Leghorns were the foundation stock for a breeding program developed with support from a Cornell University poultry geneticist, Prof. Dean R. Marble.  The Department and the Hatchery were committed to the program and the Kerala Chix topped random sample tests for a period of time.

The Mysore Department subsequently took up the same program, using foundation stock from Kerala, producing MyChix which also performed well in random sample tests.

While Peace Corps was involved, the real credit goes to Dr. Menon and Dr. Nambiar and their colleagues.

On the production side, the Peace Corps contribution was in both introducing modern production methods (e.g. John Wahl, a volunteer in Mysore, introduced cages) as well as supporting the early efforts of some individuals who subsequently became pioneers in large scale egg and poultry meat production.  Today there are farms that compete in size and productivity with those in the U.S.  While the Volunteers may have helped with some of the initial hurdles, the real credit goes to the Indian producers who saw and seized the opportunity.

In Maharashtra which is now probably the leading state for eggs, there was a volunteer and subsequently a staff member, Ivan Brotzman, who did play a major role in introducing potential producers to modern, large scale production., 

Turning to honey.  For whatever it may be worth, the honey production in India when we were volunteers was about 20,000 tons; today it is almost 70,000 tons.  A significant part of the increase results from a substantial increase in productivity - better bees.  And, unrelated but of interest, to India 42 RPCVs, Norris Childs and Gary Hinegardner, both raise bees.

A story:  when I was a volunteer I was with Dr. MN Menon one day and he said, "Tom, you seem to be a bit discouraged.  You know, here in Kerala if we toss a seed on the ground, it sprouts immediately.  But in the desert of Rajasthan, a seed may take as many as seven years to germinate because it won't do so unless there is sufficient moisture in the soil.  The important thing is not how long it takes to germinate, but to keep planting seeds."

Best,

Tom Carter (11/20/2021)