2006.07.27: July 27, 2006: Headlines: COS - Nepal: Read the Hook: With his degree unfinished, Cliff Maxwell packed up and flew to Nepal, where he planned to earn his last two credits through an independent study project to be completed in conjunction with his science education position in the Peace Corps
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2006.07.27: July 27, 2006: Headlines: COS - Nepal: Read the Hook: With his degree unfinished, Cliff Maxwell packed up and flew to Nepal, where he planned to earn his last two credits through an independent study project to be completed in conjunction with his science education position in the Peace Corps
With his degree unfinished, Cliff Maxwell packed up and flew to Nepal, where he planned to earn his last two credits through an independent study project to be completed in conjunction with his science education position in the Peace Corps
"Nothing had been established out there, so the Peace Corps drove me out in a Jeep through northern India for six days. Then when the road ran out, it took 11 days to walk to my post," he says. "We were posted no closer than a day's walk from the nearest neighbor. When we got our checks, once every three months, it would take a week to walk to the bank and cash it."
With his degree unfinished, Cliff Maxwell packed up and flew to Nepal, where he planned to earn his last two credits through an independent study project to be completed in conjunction with his science education position in the Peace Corps
COVER- Peace U.: UVA Corps vets tell tales
Published July 27, 2006 in issue 0530 of the HooK.
By Vijth Assar & Rosalind Warfield-Brown vijith@readthehook.com; copy@readthehook.com
[Excerpt]
Cliff Maxwell
1978-1981
Far Far Western Development Region, Nepal
<<<"Being isolated in Nepal, your psyche changes for the better. Self reliance is the biggest thing; everything else can be built on that.>>>
In the late '70s, Cliff Maxwell was worried that his chemistry degree was about to doom him to an oily post-collegiate experience. "The only jobs available in chemistry were with the oil companies," he laughs, "and I certainly didn't want to work for them."
A phone call from the Peace Corps informed him that he'd been accepted for a slot that had opened up at the last minute-- if he could be ready to go in two weeks.
With his degree unfinished, Maxwell packed up and flew to Nepal, where he planned to earn his last two credits through an independent study project to be completed in conjunction with his science education position in the Peace Corps.
Oops.
"When I went to Nepal, I realized that there wasn't any science education there," he says. "We were it."
That had more than a little bit to do with his placement. Peace Corps volunteers are often considered adventurous by their boring and domestic friends, but even among other volunteers, Cliff Maxwell may have seemed like a bit of a daredevil-- he specifically asked to be posted in the most mind-bogglingly remote regions of western Nepal.
"Nothing had been established out there, so the Peace Corps drove me out in a Jeep through northern India for six days. Then when the road ran out, it took 11 days to walk to my post," he says. "We were posted no closer than a day's walk from the nearest neighbor. When we got our checks, once every three months, it would take a week to walk to the bank and cash it."
Nevertheless, 400 Nepali children converged on the modest school every day for instruction. Maxwell taught six classes a day in a variety of subjects, some of which were more contextually appropriate than others.
"Teaching Ohm's Law of Electricity to a village that had no electricity, or using soapstone for chalk on mud spread on the wall for a blackboard was a challenge," he says
Something about the quaint charm of the village resonated with him, and when his service ended, he spent six months trekking through Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia before returning stateside.
"Ronald Reagan had been elected in 1980, and the Iran Hostage thing happened in 1979, so my perception was of the country becoming so much more conservative," he says. "The images of people picketing with signs saying 'Iranian Students Go Home' were just so narrow minded. I wrote to my family and said that I didn't want to live here anymore; I only came back in 1981 to explain to them why."
During that time, however, he realized that he also wasn't ready for the emotional stress of being a perpetual outsider. "I've been in reverse culture shock ever since. There was no place for me to go back to and fit in," he says. "I decided to stay here, where I could at least talk to people about what I was feeling."
And it must have buoyed his spirits somewhat to finally get his degree. "Evidently someone forged my signature in 1979, and I had a diploma waiting for me for a year and a half," Maxwell laughs. "They did end up waiving those credits."
When this story was posted in August 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Read the Hook
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