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Ron Tschetter (India 66-68) is New Peace Corps Director
On September 26 returned Peace Corps volunteer Ronald A. Tschetter
was sworn in as the 17th director of the Peace Corps. Director
Tschetter, who was nominated by the president on July 25th,
was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 13th.
Both Ron and his wife Nancy served as Peace Corps volunteers in India.
Excerpt from "Nominee recalls his days in Corps"
By JAN FALSTAD
Of The Gazette Staff
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"I am a passionate supporter of the Peace Corps," Tschetter said. "It was life-changing. It is sometimes difficult to express the live experiences you have in a two-year total immersion like that, but it's real."
After a farm life herding cattle and harvesting grains near Huron, S.D., Tschetter graduated from Bethel College in St. Paul, Minn., with degrees in psychology and social science education.
Then he set off to see the world. He and his buddies spent six months rolling and thumbing through Europe, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. One month after coming home, he met Nancy on a blind date, and they married. "One day we saw this Peace Corps ad and I said to Nancy, 'We're going to do this work stuff the rest of our lives. Let's go out and see if we can do some good,' " Tschetter said.
The couple requested assignments to the most exotic countries they could imagine: Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. Instead, they were assigned to teach family-planning techniques in India. In 1966, their plane landed at dusk in New Delhi. "I was looking at all the smoke coming out of those brown huts and I thought, 'Two years, huh?' " he said. "Then you get off and the sights and sounds and smells overwhelm you." Over the past 38 years, they have made five trips back to India to visit their friends.
"We lucked out. India was more different than any of them," he said. "Wow, what a country."
Contact Jan Falstad at jfalstad@billingsgazette.com or at 657-1306.
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In Memoriam
The information below about India PCVs who have passed away is what I have received from
others and from my own recollections. Jack Slattery President, FOI
India 38:
Pete Skinner - Pete was a PCV in Raichur District, Karnataka State in a
district-wide village-level agriculture program. Upon returning to the States,
he entered politics and was a member of the Florida State Senate.
Paul Weinstein - Paul was also a PCV in Raichur District in the same program.
I remember visiting Paul's village and having a delicious Indian meal with Paul
and his host family, sitting on the floor of the kitchen. The visit was memorable
both for the food and the fact that Paul's host farmer slapped Paul's left hand as
it reached for food. Paul and his host family had an excellent relationship.the
slap was not hard, just a reminder of Indian rituals around food.
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Successful India 41 Reunion
We had a very successful India 41 reunion on October 6-7. Twenty-three India 41 members and many
spouses came to Columbia, Maryland from as far as Maui, Hawaii and La Paz, Bolivia. We were
able to locate another ten volunteers who were not able to make the reunion but are staying in
touch for our next event which is a group trip back to India (Maharashtra) in early 2008.
Reunion pictures are on the India 41 web site
(which we are maintaining and updating on a regular fashion).
The Friends of India web site has been quite helpful in our efforts.
Many thanks,
Gerry Gears (India 4: 1966-69)
Columbia, Maryland
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More Reading on India
Ruth Kister Berry, I-33 recommends this book on India: India: From Midnight to the
Millennium by Shashsi Tharoor. According to Ruth, this book lays out the complex chronology of India's
evolvement into an independent country, from 1947 to the present, emphasizing the pluralism we all
experienced while there. The author, Shashsi Tharoor was recently considered as a successor to UN
secretary-general, testimony to his worldview and respect.
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