New Blood

The enduring problem

Since the creation of the Peace Corps, the organization has faced the issue of how it could fit the often diverse talents of applicants to the perceived needs of the country in which they would serve. In Morocco, the resolution was neither easy nor successful, and in the first decade of the Peace Corps in Morocco, failure was as common as success. In the Harka article reproduced below, volunteers seem to have found fault with the staff, and its author thinks that greater communication between staff and volunteers might help incorporate knowledge gained first hand to build more successful programs.

When the article appeared, Morocco X volunteers had just entered the country in 1968, and the author commented on their arrival.

He also offered his opinion that the criticisms of volunteers in Nigeria seemed petty. Having travelled through West Africa at the time, I would argue that they were anything but petty. In places where transportation was slow and difficult and accommodation often nonexistent, hostels and Hondas were important to the volunteers. In Morocco, with much more developed transportation and tourism infrastructures, neither hostels nor motorcycles were necessary. The staff saw motor vehicles as a real danger in Morocco and prohibited them, though that never stopped some Moroccan volunteers from owning a Honda or even a big BMW.

NEW BLOOD

In the January Volunteer article “The oasis in the wasteland”, Donovan McClure sees “hardening of the arteries” in the Peace Corps reflected in the burgeoning of staff numbers and functions. The tasks of the staff have expanded beyond the original ones of “logistics, liaison with ministries and professional support.” Now that the Peace Corps has six years of history it has becone fashionable to look back to find out where and why the Corps has gone astray. Even more so because the Peace Corps is under attack in the U. S., Corpsmen probe the short history for causes of failure.A primary scapegoat is the staff.

Examine for a moment the bulk of the Volunteers outcries directed inward to Rabat. The major “issues” over the past six months seem to have been pay inequities, delayed checks, doctor’s absences and reinbursenent difficulties. Those for Nigerian Volunteers as cited in the Dec. ’66 Volunteer article on Vaughn’s trip to Nigeria were pay, hostels and Hondas. Many of us then newly arrived must have remarked their pettiness. You’d hardly have guessed the country was on the thresho=ld if not in the midst of revolution.

Are our issues more lofty? Vaughn and other administrators addressed Nigerian Volunteers on their problems, but his assessment of the gap between staff and Volunteers concluded that programming and placement were far more important matters. The same two are important in Morocco. We could do well to focus and mobilize support on larger issues and offer more solutions than complaints.

McClure reminds us that Volunteers are responsible for shortcomings, as well as staff. It is often difficult to say whether our staff’s defensiveness is a screen for incompetence in the face of difficult problems or a response to threats from Volunteers. In the area of placement, there has been improvenent. Wait for an evaluation of the ag group program’s to see how staff efforts at programming have fared. Especially in fields already tried in Morocco programming is equally the job of Volunteers. Rural PCV’s have much leeway in prograrming; lab techs and teachers have relatively fixed jobs. A simple report by present Volunteers can be worth many times over time spent when it comes to future placement and planning.

A handful of us, anarchical or independent depending on your point of view, have advocated radical elimination of
bureaucratic props such as per diem etc. so as to resemble our VSO counterparts. The staff, however does not recommend its extinction nor do all of us. The present staff has apparently rid itself of much of the past intra-office friction. Also, for better or for worse, it has trimmed its numbers by two…better because one secretary was superfluous, worse perhaps because we are not guaranteed a replacenent for Dr. Bennett once Dr. Shannon departs.

A new staff director will be arriving-(see Garvey biography) an untested quantity. New blood arrived Jan. 17 in the form of 31 men. One of then walked into the Rue Van Vollenhoven office and commented later that he was not impressed with the caliber of Volunteer he saw there. He rationalized that since they were undoubtedly people with problems, they did not represent the best PV’s or they were not in their best mood in the office. A veteran muttered that they were more typical than he thought. Another mused on how many PCV’s and staff were not profitably employed on a given day.

Morocco X is a group of men- of almost men until Morocco seasons them. (Let the untarnished Volunteer Iook at himself in the mirror in a year.) They lack an agricultural background corresponding to their eventual work, but if they are as adaptable as they are intelligent they could well become PC/M’s best asset. Rather than churning further the grimy barrel of complaints it is time to express hope for new trends to the point where we can see the results of our work here and not the ruins of our strife.

Here is a link to the entire issue.