Highlights of the 50 th Anniversary of our entering Peace Corps Training, Puerto Rico, January 2013, INDIA III

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Jerome Sharp
5 years ago
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(Top left to right and down: John Briscoe, Harry Andrews, Joe Bette, Jay Buffenmyer, Kate Williams, Carolyn Buffenmyer, Donna Anderson, Bob Geissel, Mary Andrews, Connie Hankins, Jack Slattery,

1 (Top left to right and down: John Briscoe, Harry Andrews, Joe Bette, Jay Buffenmyer, Kate Williams, Carolyn Buffenmyer, Donna Anderson, Bob Geissel, Mary Andrews, Connie Hankins, Jack Slattery, John Chromy, William Hankins, Cynthia Slattery, Nora Chromy (Missing: Linda Bette)) Highlights of the 50 th Anniversary of our entering Peace Corps Training, Puerto Rico, January 2013, INDIA III

We are home again. Arrived at 11pm in Detroit on Thurs night (Jan 31) and had to drive home through blowing snow and white-out conditions...ah yes, this is Michigan.

So you can imagine how exciting our week in Puerto Rico was! The trip was just fantastic...good friends, good food, and good beaches; lots of stories and laughter and sunshine everyday!

Jay and Carolyn Buffenmyer were just down the beach at a gated community. Donna and Geissel stayed with Joe and Linda at their beautiful mountain cottage overlooking the Atlantic and the Caribbean.

But Joe was prepared with directions and schedules. He even scouted the various venues ahead of time to predict the traffic conditions!

2 We are home again. Arrived at 11pm in Detroit on Thurs night (Jan 31) and had to drive home through blowing snow and white-out conditions...ah yes, this is Michigan. Donna had a similar experience in Minneapolis: arrived home at 11:15pm in minus 6 degrees, with wind chill of 35 below. By morning, coldest temps of this season were registered! So you can imagine how exciting our week in Puerto Rico was! The trip was just fantastic...good friends, good food, and good beaches; lots of stories and laughter and sunshine everyday! We had eleven of us India III volunteers and 16 all together with spouses, living in four different housing situations. Harry and Mary shared with Connie and Hank and Briscoe and Kate. Jay and Carolyn Buffenmyer were just down the beach at a gated community. Donna and Geissel stayed with Joe and Linda at their beautiful mountain cottage overlooking the Atlantic and the Caribbean. John and Nora Chromy have their own place in a highrise in San Juan and Jack and Cynthia Slattery stayed in their same building. So we had some logistics to work-through whenever we traveled together. But Joe was prepared with directions and schedules. He even scouted the various venues ahead of time to predict the traffic conditions! We prepared curry dinners on two nights and enjoyed local seafood at restaurants and beach huts. The pina colata (with 151proof) rum was something else! We were all impressed with Puerto Rico. Most of us don't think of PR as a vacation destination...but it is really very pretty, with wonderfully friendly people and reasonable prices. Our two bedroom apt 1/2 block from the beach costs $280 per week (then divided by 3)!!! We spent the full moon night at a beach party with about 30 oldsters (Norte Americanos). It gave us insight into the retiree community at Luquillo...very active and unpretentious. Many apt/condo were shuttered...probably owned by Puerto Ricans who wouldn't think of going to the beach until the summer! One of the highlights of the week was a return to the Rio Abajo Forest and the site of Camp Radley (destroyed by a hurricane) and Camp Crozier (where the pool and drownproofing took place). We stopped at Crozier, now a Forest Service and Rural Cooperatives Training site. The director, Salvador, showed us his pictures of Crozier in our day and walked us down to the pool which is still there (although covered in green algae ). He noted that many other RPCVs

who trained there have returned for visits.

We took a launch across the lake to one of these restaurants for lunch (although our table was served at 4pm). We enjoyed local preparations and drinks! The tostones were great (fried plantain).

There were great waterfalls, gigantic trees and vines and wonderful sounds (both birds and frogs). At the Reception Center we viewed a short film of the founding and development of the Park.

Later the US administration reforested degraded farmlands, built access roads and developed the visitor s center and attractions.

Whenever possible we just vegged-out at the local beaches, but a special day-long excursion on Tuesday took us across a 45 min. ferry ride to Culebra Island.

3 who trained there have returned for visits. We drove down to the reservoir created by the Dos Bocas Dam (of repelling fame), which is now a recreational area with three restaurants served by pontoon boats. We took a launch across the lake to one of these restaurants for lunch (although our table was served at 4pm). We enjoyed local preparations and drinks! The tostones were great (fried plantain). The next day, Sunday, we packed picnic lunches and drove to the nearby El Yunque Rain Forest, the only National Park with a rain forest ecology. There were great waterfalls, gigantic trees and vines and wonderful sounds (both birds and frogs). At the Reception Center we viewed a short film of the founding and development of the Park. Actually, it was the Spanish administration in the late 1800 s that set the land aside for a forest reserve. Later the US administration reforested degraded farmlands, built access roads and developed the visitor s center and attractions. It was truly an amazing landscape encompassing the high peaks of El Yunque with views all the way to the beaches. Whenever possible we just vegged-out at the local beaches, but a special day-long excursion on Tuesday took us across a 45 min. ferry ride to Culebra Island. On the east side of the island one can see neighboring St. Thomas of the Virgin Islands. On the northwest shore, Flamingo Beach captured our fancy. Someone said that it is one of the top ten beaches in the world! It was lovely pure white sand, a long sloping surf line for swimming, snorkeling off to the side and an old Navy tank covered in techicolor graffiti. We sampled the grilled grouper at the beach kiosk just delicious! Some of us got more sun than we should have, but even Donna got some color (in spite of her continuous coverage of sunscreen). On two different nights we prepared some serious Indian food. Everyone pitched in with the preparations yellow dal, rajma, chicken curry, mixed veg curry and nan, with curds and pickles. Jack added to the feast with a wonderful frothy chai! We also celebrated two birthdays (Jay Buffenmyer s 75 th and Cynthia Slattery s 70 th ) and the 48 th wedding anniversary for Connie and Hank (Jan 26). What

better way to share such celebrations than with good friends and in beautiful relaxing settings!

those who have left our ranks; and in the feelings of being part of a very special family (India III).

embrace to spouses and children. We talked briefly of what to do to encourage continuing sharing.

4 better way to share such celebrations than with good friends and in beautiful relaxing settings! But the very best part of this week was in the sharing of stores of our exploits and faux paus in India; of our many adventures in traveling home and establishing careers; of the shared memories of those who have left our ranks; and in the feelings of being part of a very special family (India III). As we said our sad farewells we all realized how lucky we have been in our lives to have shared such unique adventures, to have maintained our close friendships and to have extended our welcoming embrace to spouses and children. We talked briefly of what to do to encourage continuing sharing. Both Connie and Donna (and Sally Willson) have the full set of letters that were written to family while in India. These need to be consolidated and presented as a memoir of their work in the Peace Corps. Mary has a video produced by the Peace Corps to orient PCVs to the third goal of the Peace Corps educating Americans about the world. Many of us have boxes of pictures and slides that need to be screened and digitized (Yes, Jack only pick out the ones that are in-focus and have not been covered in mold)! Our Bios that we started in 2011 can be expanded and rewritten. They (18) are currently posted on the new Friends of India website: Maureen Nichols (Chromy s daughter) is our webmaster and can post documents to the India III section of the site mnichols@austin.rr.com and Mary Andrews agreed to help organize communications and pictures for the site mandrews@msu.edu Harry noted that he has established an Andrews Family website within MyFamily.Com. This is a free and secure website sponsored by Ancestry.com. It is preprogrammed to easily accept pictures, comments, recipes, documents, etc. Harry will set up an India III family section to which all of us can communicate without others viewing our comments. This is a way to share concerns about the health or welfare of ourselves and others within our group. We will need everyone s address to start the invite process.so if you or your spouse has a new account, let us know. We are still trying to locate John Reid, John Stein, Bob Spencer, Dick Pine, and Sammy Mitchell. So if you have any information about their where-abouts, let us know. (Also Donna found-out that Georgia Ziffzer passedaway about four years ago! ) In the meantime, we hope that we all can keep in-touch and continue to visit with each other whenever possible. Harry and Mary are organizing a trip back to India for October Join us!

Memories of our Peace Corps Training Days India III

Memories of our Peace Corps Training Days India III John Chromy writes: First 30 days of PCV, January-February 1963 Nearly 50 years ago--in late January of 1963, I flew from Minneapolis to New York City