In February, they returned to India for the first time since 1972. About half of the married couples who were in the program joined them. The poverty is less noticeable now than it was then. But they couldn't tell if it had improved or had just been forced into less visible places. One thing is certain: Overcrowding has worsened. It was good to see old friends from the Peace Corp. And good to see a few Indian friends who were still in Khandbara. As for evidence of a lasting impact from their time in the country, Lee said it's impossible to say. "I suppose you could fantasize something you said or did made a difference," he said. "But it might have happened anyway." Regardless, the Schrievers were forever changed. In a land of great poverty, they discovered the sort of wealth that can't be measured in dollars, Susan said. "It caused us to conclude that a happy, successful life isn't about accumulating things, it is about creating meaningful and positive relationships with people."
RPCVs Lee and Susan Schriever revisit Khandbara, a small city in central India, where they served as volunteers
Family revisits site of Peace Corps stay
By JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star |
Posted: Sunday, April 18, 2010 11:45 pm |
buy this photo The Schrievers stand in front of their former dwelling in February during a 40-year Peace Corps reunion.
The stocky Nebraskan with the white hair and white beard walks past a house he hasn't seen in nearly four decades.
He's in Khandbara, a small city in central India. He and his wife lived there for two years in the early 1970s, when his hair and mustache were brown.
He crosses an open door, where an Indian man sits inside. Recognition erupts on the man's face, and he bolts out of his chair.
"Lee," he shouts. "Lee!"
Lee Schriever embraces his friend.
Unexpected reunions are best.
* * *
He didn't run. He didn't dodge. He would have gone.
But, truthfully, he didn't want to fight in Vietnam.
So when he realized his draft number would soon come up, the young architect appeared before his draft board in Nuckolls County.
He told them he and his wife would serve in the Peace Corps - a two-for-one deal. So they deferred him, as long as they kept their word.
Lee and Susan met while students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She grew up on a farm near Bennet, he grew up on a farm near Superior.
Susan had spent six months in Uruguay on a foreign exchange, so the Peace Corps appealed to her. The brainchild of the late President John Kennedy sent Americans into the world to share their knowledge, education and training.
With her degree in home economics and nutrition, Susan felt she had something to offer. But she hoped to offer it anywhere but India.
During the exchange program, she remembered the others who came back from India. They looked thin and sickly.
So when their assignment arrived, of course it said India.
Peace Corps leaders were less interested in their professions than their pasts. For India, they needed people with farming backgrounds.
* * *
When they arrived in Khandbara, their apartment was still occupied. So they lived in the mayor's office for a few months, pushing aside their bed and clearing out when he needed to conduct business.
Eventually they got an apartment at the end of a row of small dwellings. It had space for a garden, which they used as a demonstration plot.
Their residence had no air conditioning, no refrigerator and electricity only for a few hours each night. They boiled their drinking water on a gas stove.
Lee quickly learned to keep a club in every room so he could bludgeon rats.
The young Nebraskans attracted a lot of attention. They had to adjust to curious Indians walking uninvited into their apartment, snooping in their shopping bags, staring.
They also had to learn the local dialects. Although English was widely spoken in the cities, there were only three English speakers in their new home of 3,000 people.
"Communication was more difficult than the physical challenges," he said.
During the days, Lee rode a bicycle into the surrounding countryside to meet farmers. They were Adivasi, an umbrella term for the indigenous tribal people. They, like many indigenous around the world, suffered oppression and discrimination.
The families he sought were poor, subsistence farmers, hardly a generation removed from hunting and gathering. He tried to develop friendships and earn trust. And when he did, he showed how to grow more wheat and rice on their tiny plots of land.
The work was satisfying, but life was hard.
They got sick frequently, usually from the water. Temperatures routinely soared above 100 degrees, and sometimes, while he was working, Lee drank unboiled water.
Once he woke with a dreadful pain in his midsection. It took him hours to get to the hospital in a larger city. The doctor took out his appendix.
But his appendix wasn't the problem. He had a kidney stone.
Susan and Lee relied on each other to get through the tough stretches.
"One of us could always talk the other out of quitting," he said. "We both never reached the depths of despair at the same time."
The Peace Corps paid them $65 per month each. They spent his pay on food and expenses and saved hers for travel.
They saw the beauty of India. And they saw poverty and suffering they could not have imagined in Nebraska.
* * *
After their return, Lee taught architecture and worked for a firm in Omaha before striking out on his own. Susan worked as a nutritionist.
Their two years in India affected their lives in so many ways.
Lee now focuses his practice on sustainable buildings and solar energy. Susan helps place foreign exchange students.
The overcrowding convinced them to have only one child. Seeing the extended families living under one roof in India made them choose to live with their families back in Nebraska.
Susan didn't want to go to India, but she's always been happy they did.
She wishes everyone had the opportunity to live in a different country for at least three months. They might learn other ways of life are not better or worse, just different, like she did.
"If more people had that understanding I think there would be greater potential for world peace," she said.
In February, they returned to India for the first time since 1972. About half of the married couples who were in the program joined them.
The poverty is less noticeable now than it was then. But they couldn't tell if it had improved or had just been forced into less visible places. One thing is certain: Overcrowding has worsened.
It was good to see old friends from the Peace Corp. And good to see a few Indian friends who were still in Khandbara.
As for evidence of a lasting impact from their time in the country, Lee said it's impossible to say.
"I suppose you could fantasize something you said or did made a difference," he said. "But it might have happened anyway."
Regardless, the Schrievers were forever changed. In a land of great poverty, they discovered the sort of wealth that can't be measured in dollars, Susan said.
"It caused us to conclude that a happy, successful life isn't about accumulating things, it is about creating meaningful and positive relationships with people."
Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.
