Forty-five trainees, having weathered training and selection, were installed as Volunteers on September 13 and left for Chile by ship on September 22. Although frequent stops at ports interrupted the intensive language training we hoped to have enroute, the great advantage of our twenty-day voyage from New York to Valparaiso was that we had a chance to break into the completely different South American culture gradually. We stopped at Colon in Panama; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Chimbote Callao and Lima in Peru; and Arica, Anto-fagasta and Chanaral in Chile. After leaving each port, we had a general session at which all Volunteers discussed the cultural similarities and differences between that port and the United States and noted the progression toward the culture in which we were to live for many months.
Martin T. Ronan writes: The Peace Corps begins in Chile - From The Volunteer Newsletter March 1962
CHILE
by Martin T. Ronan
The raw material for the Chile project gathered at the University of Notre Dame on July 20, 19<Sl, ready and willing to devote two years of their lives to the service of their country and to Chile.
The eight-week training period at Notre Dame was a good one. It followed the training program outlined by the Peace Corps in Washington and proved to be demanding and worthwhile for each of us.
Forty-five trainees, having weathered training and selection, were installed as Volunteers on September 13 and left for Chile by ship on September 22. Although frequent stops at ports interrupted the intensive language training we hoped to have enroute, the great advantage of our twenty-day voyage from New York to Valparaiso was that we had a chance to break into the completely different South American culture gradually. We stopped at Colon in Panama; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Chimbote Callao and Lima in Peru; and Arica, Anto-fagasta and Chanaral in Chile. After leaving each port, we had a general session at which all Volunteers discussed the cultural similarities and differences between that port and the United States and noted the progression toward the culture in which we were to live for many months.
We arrived at Valparaiso on October 11 and went directly to a training school of the Institute of Rural Education, the Chilean organization through which we are working.
A brief digression to explain the structure of the Instituto de Educaciou Rural (IER) seems worthwhile here. The IER was founded six years ago as an independent organization supported by the state and private donors. Its purpose is to raise the educational level and the standard of living of the people in rural Chile, especially the farmers. The departments which the IER has set up to accomplish this purpose are basically four: Centrales, Desarrollo de la Comunidad (Community Development), Radio Escuela, and Publicaciones. The fundamentals of home economics, home industry, agriculture and animal husbandry are taught to young men and women from the rural areas in the six Centrales de Capacitacion (training schools) for women and the five for men. Some of these students are selected for a further course to prepare them to work as delegados of the Institute in community development in the field or zona. A wider distribution of information to the rural people is accomplished through the 15-minute taped lessons prepared by the Institute and transmitted daily over commercial radio stations and through the pamphlets and monthly magazine of the IER.
We continued our training for another four weeks at the Central at Lo Vasquez, about 25 miles from Valparaiso. It did not take us long to discover that it is practically impossible to stick to a schedule in Chile. Our program of training was built around the talks of guest lecturers from Chilean institutions on all phases of IER work. Although lecturers often arrived at the wrong time or on the wrong day and confusion frequently resulted, we left Lo Vasquez for a month of temporary work better able to handle the spoken Spanish language, more informed about the work of the IER, and more aware of Chilean culture.
The work period lasted from November 20 to December 23. The 45 Volunteers scattered from Santiago to Ancud on the island of Chiloe (a distance of about 700 miles) and worked at a variety of jobs ranging from art work in the publication office in Santiago to
Frank O'Hearn and Glen Trebour roast a pig for the supper at which Volunteers in Chile celebrated New Year's Eve, the birthday of one Volunteer, and the engagement of two others. ^~~
marketing lettuce near the southern Indian village of Chol-Chol. The majority worked as instructors in the Centrales or co-workers in the zona with the delegados-
When we all gathered back in Lo Vasquez on December 23 to spend the Christmas holidays together and to squeeze in some more training, there were many humorous stories related along with expected expressions of satisfaction from some and dissatisfaction from others. One of our nurses had dived through the window of a blazing bus; another volunteer had eaten live chicken soup (a chicken jumped into his soup while he was eating lunch in one of the homes in a zona to the south).
The Christmas holidays were great fun for all of us. Some of the Volunteers planned a Christmas party complete with manger, Christmas tree, Santa Claus, eggnog, cookies and presents. On New Year's Eve we slaughtered and roasted a whole pig, had home made doughnuts, punch, noisemakers, party hats, fireworks-the works. Actually, we had a triple celebration that day. We celebrated the birthday of one Volunteer and the engagement of Volunteers Ramona Carol Marotz to Fred G. Morgner.
In between Christmas and New Year's and from New Year's to January 1 2 we were busy writing reports on our month's work and undergoing additional training.
On January 14 we went to the annual one-week encampment of all IER personnel at El Quisco on the ocean. There was a full schedule planned for everyone-a few lectures, athletic competition, swimming and sunbathing, bonfires, etc. It was a little too much like a Boy Scout camp, but it did allow an opportunity for the workers of the IER to get to know us better and vice versa.
The camp closed on January 21 and some of the Volunteers went to their new and permanent assignments. The others went to one of three brush-up courses for professors, male zona workers, and female zona workers.
All in all, the work of the Peace Corps in Chile has just barely gotten off the ground. The conflict with the time of our arrival and the yearly schedule of the Institute de Educacion Rural has forced us to jump around from place to place and not really be settled in one job for any significant length of time. Now, however, the ground work has been laid and all volunteers will be in full action by the end of February. We are ready and we have high hopes that the work done during the remainder of our stay here should be of great value to Chile and a credit to the United States.
