GENTRY — With souvenirs from his time of service and stories of traveling up rivers to visit tribes which not long before had been head hunters, Glenn Smith of Gentry told students at Faith Christian School Wednesday about the Peace Corps and his service in the organization.
The Peace Corps, Smith said, will be 50 years old next year. Smith heard about the opportunity to serve in the Peace Corps a few years after its creation by executive order of President John F. Kennedy in 1961. The organization’s purpose was to promote world peace and friendship with the United States, Smith said, He joined in 1965 and served in Borneo until 1967.
After three months of trainingin Hawaii, including acclimation to a diet of fish and rice, Smith headed to Borneo to a people whose culture and language were entirely new to him. With no roads to the villages, Smith headed up river in a longboat and spent his first three months learning the language of the people by pointing to things and writing down the words the people used to describe them. He lived with the Iban people, staying in their long houses at the different villages.
Smith showed students blowguns and poisonous darts which the native peoples used to hunt and, in some cases, carry on warfare. The darts were dipped in poison made from roots which affected the nervous system and could kill a person in 30 seconds, Smith said. The blowguns, which were approximately four feetlong, also had spear blades attached to the end in case a spear was needed.
“The people could hit birds in the treetops with the darts, 30 yards up,” Smith said. He also demonstrated how the spear could be used to kill a charging pig.
Smith said a common question he was asked when he arrived at a village was how many people he had brought with him. When Smith told the people he came alone, they said to him, “You’re brave.”
It was only 20 years earlier that the people still practiced head hunting, Smith said. Human skulls could still be seen in the villages, and the people would show the possessions they had taken from the people killed.
Ceremonial dances would often mimic a battle with an enemy warrior, using different weapons and finally killing and cutting off the head of the imaginary foe, Smith said.
Smith also showed students his woven bed mat on which he slept every night during his time in Borneo. He said his baths were taken in the river. To brush his teeth, he carrieda quart of fresh water on his journeys.
The natives peoples, Smith said, ate rice, rubber tree leaves, wild pigs and fish. He taught them to plant gardens and grow vegetables and fruits like cucumbers, green beans and tomatoes, and he introduced them to 4-H.
“My job was to teach basic agriculture and sanitation,” Smith said, explaining that good sanitation was not practiced and all water had to be boiled before drinking it.
“When they’d give me a cup of water, it would be boiling so I’d know it was safe,” Smith said.
“The people were very receptive to me being there,” Smith said. “Ninety percent of the people hadn’t seen a white person before.”
Smith showed students photographs, hats and other tools and instruments heacquired while in Borneo. One item of special interest was a guitar-like instrument which was cut out as one piece from half a tree.
“They wouldn’t makeone until they needed two,” Smith said, “because they didn’t want to waste half of the tree.”
Much has changed in Borneo since Smith spent time there in the 1960s. Now the villages have roads, electricity, TVs and even Internet, Smith said. They park their cars outside their long houses. The population in the once-remote areas has increased manifold as well, he said, adding that he didn’t know if he would recognize the area because of all the changes.
Serving in the Peace Corps not only gave Smith an opportunity to help and befriend a foreign people, it was a learning experience which taught him to greatly appreciate all we have here in the United States.
Sharing his experiences provided a learning opportunity for students at Faith Christian School as well - an experience which just may prompt them to one day consider service in the Peace Corps.
News, Pages 1 on 02/10/2010