Women of Lahijan pose around Grant's washday wonder, which he fashioned froman oil drum. He eiiminated design snags by sacrificing his own laundry, and now theimproved machine, which cost about $15, does a passable job of cleaning clothes.

Lahijan Cols a Grant's

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hot, humid day. We paid for our hasteand narrow-mindedness.

When we finally reached Makhlavan,we were tired, dirty, and anything butcalm and contemplative. When we foundthe official, he told us he couldn't let thefarmers cut their trees until he hadwritten permission in his hand. We wereat the height of frustration—nothing hadgone ri g ht all day. Since we didn't wantto encourage law-breaking, we decided tolet the matter drop and worry about itthe next day when Enshallah (God will-ing) we would have the permission slip.

About then. 4000 years of civilizationand its myriad charms started takingover. The village councilman orderedus tea and completely changed the sub-ject by asking about our health andthanking us for our efforts to help thevillagers. When we had finished tea andwere walking away, we heard severalmore friendly greetings. Halfway up theroad we met an Iranian soldier, whosejob it was to see that no one cut down atree without permission. He invited us tohis little hut while we waited for a truckto take us across the river. He flaggeddown a friend of his and helped us intogood hanging-on spots on the charcoaltruck.

Enthusiasm Outweighs Frustration

We met John coming back from Resht.and went into the tea house to discussthe events of the day. Inside, we didn'thave much of a chance to talk as agroup of old men greeted us enthusi-astically and be g an telling us how happythey were that we were here, and howpeace was very good and war very bad,and how good Americans were. Thisflattery and concern made us feel de-cidedly better. Following our good-byes.we began the trip back to Emmen.

As we bicycled back. I realized anewthat it is the people that make being aVolunteer such a rewarding experience,despite the many everyday frustrations.And who knows—maybe someday abridge will be built in Makhlavan.

Jim Anderson (Se-attle) received aB.A. in Englishand economicsfrom the Univer-sity of Washingtonin 1963. Beforejoining the PeaceCorps he traveledwidely in NorthAfrica and Europe,and in the U.S.

worked at various times as a warehouse-man, a carpenter, a seafood-canneryworker, and as a tallyman and cookaboard a tally scow in Alaskan clamwaters.

How to make a workable villagewashin g machine from an old oil drumwas the problem posed for Volunteer JimGrant (Zionsville. Pa.) in Lahijan, 23miles east of Resht.

His answer—still bein g amended—may not give qualms to the Bendix ,' andWhirlpool people, or win any washday-white contests, but it offers practical andeconomical mechanization for an age-old labor.

At the request of a home-economicsagent in Lahijan, Grant was presentedthe problem of constructin g a washerthat could be built locally and used inlocal home-demonstration education.

Obtaining a standard 55-gallon oildrum. Grant set out to devise a simplehand-powered system that would keepclothes from being mangled by a wringeror beaten by paddles and still be nottoo laborious for the operator.

To use the principle of circulatingwater by air pressure. Grant made acylinder eight inches in diameter with abaffle-plate welded onto one end. Engi-neering the piston-pressure mechanismpresented some tricky technical difficul-ties. A connecting rod coupled the pistonto a handle.

With the help of a local metalsmith.a working model was made. The tub wasfilled, the piston inserted into the cylinder,and the lid closed.

Testin g began and the hand-pumpmodel promptly inhaled and digested

Grant's own laundry—socks, underwear.towels came out one solid, shredded mass.

Back at the drawing board, Grant de-cided that the piston needed a valve.similar to the ones on bicycle pumps.Holes were drilled in the piston top anda rubber disc installed. Pumping be-came easier and results were fairly good.

Grant's tub washer had to survive a30-day trial and durability test, so themachine was sent out into a village fordemonstrations.

Washer water was heated by buildinga coal fire or placing a kerosene burnerunder the machine. Hot-water washingwith sudsy detergents produced clothesthat were much cleaner than thosewashed in river or well water. The home-demonstration department was pleased,but some unsolved difficulties remained.Grant continued to experiment.

Wheels were put on the sturdy legsso that the machine could be more easilyhandled when full of water. The bottomdrain was improved so the tub could bebetter cleaned. Other minor internalchanges made the action more efficientand wash time was cut to just 20 minutes.

After closely watching the machineand its results durin g the trial period.Grant corrected a few more minor faultsand is now able to make a satisfactorywashing machine for about 200 tornans($15) giving the Iranian village house-wife a new outlook towards washday.

10

Inventor Grant's diagrams show cutaway view of tank and plan of lid.

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" LON& n

A Vacation School in Meshed

Nancy Nelson and Tom Ricks pass out song sheets to students and fellow teachersduring summer program; a favorite was "Micnael" ("Row Your Boat Ashore").

By Tom Ricks

Fall has come to Iran, but for the twoVolunteers stationed in Meshed, the sunwill be just as hot as summer for severalmore months, and the Elburz Mountainsranging far off in the north just as barrenand craggy. Street criers and fruit ped-dlers, colored fountains at night andcool morning breezes, a moustached traf-fic policeman in a blue uniform wavingat an errant bicyclist, and the mournfulmuezzin calling all Iran to prayer areand will be the same as they have beensince we arrived in this holy city somefive months ago. But something hashappened to us. or better yet, within us—our purpose or motivation towards ourwork has changed.

Volunteer Nancy J. Nelson (Appleton,Wisc.) and I came to Iran last Aprilas English teachers involved in a newPeace Corps program given the unwieldyname of 'TEFL.' With summer gone andsome experience gained in TeachingEnglish as a Foreign Language. I havebegun to understand this new program'sworth both for me and for the IranianEnglish teacher. Its value was broughthome to me during the three summermonths, when all Volunteers in TEFLwere involved in a new experiment-usine the high schools during the summermonths as vacation camp school.

The day before I was to begin teach-ing, I went to the education office tocomplete my plans for classes with thefirst-cycle high school students. When I

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left the office some 15 minutes later theprogram had taken a new look, for nowNancy and I were going to teach boys forthree days and then girls for three daysover a period of two sessions, not ex-actly as previously planned. The new'schedule was confusing. Our exact post-ing was still not definite—maybe we'd bein a grade school. It wasn't until then

that I began to decide a "yes" can mean"maybe" or even "no" and that too manyplans might be disastrous. The next dayalmost proved the point.

Arriving at the boys' high school, I sawthat I did have some help after all—twoIranian teachers were already lining upthe 32 boys for the registration process.Later, on reaching Nancy's school afterfinishing my enrollment, I was dumb-founded to see only three small but eagergirls and Nancy in the classroom. Wequickly enrolled the three girls andwalked over to the school building thedepartment had suggested we use per-manently. Opening the door of the handi-craft room, I saw that it had taken on anew domestic atmosphere. It seems thatthe janitor had invited his friends andtheir families in for a two-week vaca-tion. It was definitely time for teat

I postponed seeing the departmentofficials that day and spent the afternoonpreparing for the evening English con-versation classes I had devised for adultsand teachers.

As the sun began to set, I set out againto the boys' high school. When I ap-proached the school's gates, I saw noone, not even the friendly gardener. Itried to open the door. I was locked outand not a single adult student had cometo class.

Obviously it was a bad beginning—the frustrations and miscalculations wewere told about in training. However,classes did get underway and after thetwo four-week sessions I realized thatfrustrations were only a part of theresults of my work.

In the following weeks, day after day,I carried, lifted, balanced, and hauled29 kilos of flour, 16 kilos of salt and