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India dutyALTOX TELEGRAPH Tuesday, Xov. 28, 1872 A-3Proposed sewer charge too low, officials agreePeace Corps man’s main job was cutting red tapeWood River and Rosewood Heights Sanitary District officials agree the proposed 22 cents per 1,000 gallons charge for sewer service? between the two governmental units is too low, and will not cover the present cost of operation.Sanitary district officials Monday night, according to Robert Haines, chairman of t h e board, asked the engineers come up with projected costs of operating a secondary sewer plant, which the City of Wood River has in its plans, so that a more accurate figure can be determined.Haines told the Telegraph he expects the figure to be well above the 25-cent mark.When asked why the figure could be from 27 to 30 cents, Raines said the flow rate jn *lt; dhe Wood River-RosewoodHeights area is lower than in other areas, such as Alton, which ii charging 22 cents per 1,000 gallons for Bethalto to tap into its system.John Van Hook, who recently returned from a trip to India, where he worked for the Peace Corps with Indian subsistence farmers. He lived in a self-made mud hut with a thatched roof. He visited the Telegraph offices recently to tell about his experiences. His job was to help the subsistence farmers increase production. A large part of his work was cutting government red tape in behalf of the farmers.HEARING AIDS* Parts * Supplies * BatteriesKEN HOPKINSMcCLINTOCKOPTICAL SERVICE603 E. Broadway at Henry463-5383By SANFORD SCHMIDT Telegraph Staff WriterJohn Van Hook, a 25-year-old Alton native, spent 16 months in India where he lived in a self-made clay hut with a thatched roof and existed on a diet of mostly vegetables.He lived in a self-contained town of Banglapur which was 23 degrees longitude north of the equator, and was there as a Peace Corps representative, helping local subsistence farmers increase production.Van Hook built the hut himself with the help of three ‘'Untouchables'’, members of the lowest social caste in the Hindu religion.The hut covered a total of only aboul 96 feet and had a thatched roof, which Van Hook said was as good as any roof in the United States.He got meat on an average of about once a month and fish once or twice a month. The rest of the time he lived on potatoes or okra or other vegetables cooked over a clay stove and faced with Indian spices such as curry powder or “ragins,” which aresimilar to hot peppers.The most distinguishing features about Indian spices, he said, are that they’re hot enough to bring tears to your eyes.He slept on a wooden cot set up on the earth floor. The house was small, but it survived a cyclone about a year ago, he said.The village in which he lived was a completely selfsustained community. It had a carpenter, a butcher, and everything else necessary to a community with no help needed from the outside.His day began at about 5:30 a.m. when he got up and cooked his own breakfast, which sometimes consisted of vegetables from his own kitchen garden.His work consisted largely in handling the red tape necessary to get bank loans and government loans for farmers.Another phase of his work was to demonstrate various modern techniques for raising rice. To do this he made a display in front of his hut where he would grow rice, using different processes sothat the villagers could see for themselves the value of various fertilizers.After cooking and eating lunch, Van Hook, as did the Indian villagers, slept during the hot afternoon hours.In the evening, card games with the neighbors were his main recreation. Indian card games are like those in the United States “only they call the cards by different names,” he said.In order to live among the Indians, he said he had to learn their language. While in India he spoke Oriyan which is the language of the state in which Banglapur was located. There are 14 major dialects spoken by India’s 600 million people, and the Peace Corps taught its volunteers how to learn languages for themselves, instead of teaching them the language.Transportation occupied a lot of Van Hook’s time because he had to walk about five miles a day. Housekeeping took about six hours of his day.Other forms of transportation were by bicycle and hitchhiking, even though he learned theirlanguage and lived as they did, the Indians always considered him an outsider, he said.But they were tolerant and considerate people.“India has 600 million people,” he said, “and when you live with 600 million people, you have to be tolerant.”One of the highlights of his week was a trip to the market place which was three miles from his home.“I might spend a half hour haggling over the price of potatoes,” he said. “Haggling over prices is one of the things I miss now that I'm back.”The Indians are also very slow to change, and Van Hook told of his “invention” of the chimney to illustrate the point.He built a clay stove in his kitchen just as the Indians do. But the Indians let the smoke from their stoves diffuse throughout the house. Van Hook built a chimney on his stove. This was new to the Indians, and while they admitted it was an ingenious device, none of them botheredto follow his example.Back from
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Alton Telegraph
Alton, Illinois, US
Tue, Nov 28, 1972
Page 3
Full Page
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Hayner P.
IL, USA 14 Dec 2023
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