<Begin Segment 20>

MN: Now once you returned to Washington, you were, I guess, you had a desk assignment for about a year?

IH: Yeah, uh-huh.

MN: And then were you able to pick where you wanted to go next?

IH: I was able to make preferences, but didn't mean anything. I'm sure they considered it, but they had other needs. So I was assigned to another country, in this case to Nicaragua.

MN: And did you go though the same intensive training?

IH: Yeah, Spanish, mostly in Washington, D.C.

MN: What happened to your family? Did they go with you to Nicaragua?

IH: No, they didn't. Because the schooling wasn't good there, we chose to let Ruth and the kids stay in our home in Maryland, in Rockville, Maryland, and schools there were much better, much better. That isn't to say that schools in Bangkok weren't, 'cause when they went from Bangkok to Maryland, they were reviewing some of the same things that they learned in Bangkok. So they were ahead. That's how good the school was in Bangkok.

MN: Now when you were in Vietnam, you were focused on food production. In Nicaragua, what was your project?

IH: Well, I had two or three. One was Rural Electrification, where the point was to get electricity out to the countryside, to the small villages. And I worked with the National Rural Electrification Cooperative Administration on that. And then I had a small irrigation project, irrigation with small pumps and systems, 'cause irrigation was a problem, get water to crops. And, let's see... I think that was about all.

MN: And Nicaragua is another unstable... has an unstable government.

IH: Politically unstable.

MN: Was your life ever, did you ever feel that you were threatened out there?

IH: No, never. Although we didn't agree with the government, at that time it was a guy named (Anastacio) Somosa, he was one of the worst, corrupt, didn't care anything about his people. But anyway, no, we got real well with all the Nicaraguans, and there was no political repercussions from what we were doing, no.

MN: And how long were you in Nicaragua?

IH: Just two years.

MN And then you were sent, called back to D.C.

IH: Yeah.

MN: And then you were sent to the Africa Bureau.

IH: Africa Bureau, right.

MN: And so which country did they send you to next?

IH: To Zaire, which, now it's changed its name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was formerly the Belgian Congo, another very large country.

MN: So now when you were going through six months of intensive training, which language did you have to learn?

IH: French.

MN: So what happened to your wife and children when you went to Zaire?

IH: Well, by that time, the kids were in college, so they stayed back and went to college, lived in our house in Los Angeles, in Torrance. But they were cared for and they took care of themselves and they went to school. But they got to go to, come to Zaire during the summertime. It was provided for them.

MN: Now what projects did you manage in Zaire?

IH: Well, I had one that was having to do with manioc production. Manioc being, some people call it cassava, it's a root tuber, and it's the main staple, food in Zaire. They needed to improve it because production was way down, and they had a number of problems, productions problems having to do with pest and insects. So really what I did was I was a manager of a project called PRONAM, that's Project National Manioc. And we, as you do in many of these projects, you hire a consulting form. So we had a large International Institute, Tropical Agriculture team, they provided the technology. And so what you do as the manager is just making, evaluating their work and taking care of some of their logistical problems and visiting their, seeing how they're doing, very good. 'Cause they were making good progress.

MN: So that was one of your project, and then what is another -- you had fish culture, too, right?

IH: Yeah. I worked, I was assigned to work with the Peace Corps volunteers. There were about forty of 'em throughout the whole country assigned to fish culture, which is production of small tilapia fish in villages. Fish being a source of protein, 'cause that's, they're very protein deficient in the countryside. So I would, there again I managed the project, and so I learned a lot about what's going on, I had to visit the volunteers at the various sites and see how they're doing, and they made a lot of progress. Quite simple just to dig a fish pond, provide the fingerlings, grow the fingerlings and the feed for the fish, tilapia will eat just about anything. And so, and then when the fish mature, you just sweep the pond, drain it, and harvest the fish. And they usually dry 'em or sell 'em. But there was economic activity in the village. They provided nutrition.

MN: Now how about illnesses? Did you contract any illnesses in Zaire?

IH: No, I didn't. I avoided malaria, although, like I say, the Peace Corps volunteers, just about all of them got malaria because they were living in the villages and things. Very susceptible. No, but I did get cases of indigestion because all these, you're living off the local economy and the food isn't that great.

MN: How long were you stationed in Zaire?

IH: I was there for four years.

MN: And then you returned to Washington, D.C. again. And then once you returned, what did you do in D.C.?

IH: I went back to the Africa Bureau and I worked 'til the end of my work with the... I retired in 1988.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.