Americans to underdeveloped areas to provile American skills and to demonstrate America’s compassion for the less favored peoples af the earth, Micronesta is the only place in the world rez by Americans to which the Pence Corps has been dispatched. “The Corpsmen, then, are part of the government by background and culture, but at the same time they are detached from it and-—in keeping with the present attitude of young Americans toward vested authority—often disenchanted with it. When a Micronesian highschool student wrote, “We find that the United States leads us in the right way,” lus Peace Corps teacher serb- bled on the margin, “fAre you sure?” When another student wrote, “Palau has beautiful things and big trucks and cars,” Ais Peace Corps teacher queried, “Why are trucks and cars beaunfulf” Before the Peace Corps arrived, most Micronesian youngsters attending a Western movie tended to root for the cowboys; Corpsinen have been trying to convince them that their sympathies should more logically belong with the Indians. The majority of the volunteers have had a decidedly beneficial effect on the region. Some of ‘them, perhaps slightly misled by rec ruitin g literature, thought they were going toa trangail, palmy paradise and brought surfboards alang, “They have all had one indisputable edge on the other Americans in the region: itis part of their traming to acquire a working knowledge of the language of the area to which they are assigned, so each of them speaks Palauan, Yapese, or whatever, More of them have been stationed on remote outer ishiuids—where provisions and mail may arrive only every few months—-than any ether Americans have ever been, Wherever the volunteers have stayed, they have hived—far fromidyliically, by Western standards—as the Micranesians live, often sharing native homes and subsisting largely on rice and fish; among many of the Corpsmen it is considered a badge of honor to have intestinal parasites. Several volunteers have married Micronesians and have gone native to an extent undreamed of by much of the local popwation. With the combined advent of the Peace Corps and the Congress of Micronesia, there has come to the Pan wilt oe merical who dics been chere a done time calls “the era of eriueism and challenge.” This may be the greatest recent change in Micronesia. itevervwhere. ralers of the INSGINeE, Ve One finds indications of Phe traditional mative Marshall [shinds, for highborn chiefs called 5013 irot}. The Trust Terntory administration has alwavs courted the good will 03 the soz, wha can be stubborn but can also serve as useful middlemen between the government and the people. The Peace Corpsmen, though, have been openly questioning whether an autocratic leadership system can coexist with democracy, and the effect of their skepticism was evident ina Majuro bar one night recently when a young Marshallese said something that would have been publicly unutterable ive years ago. Hesaid, “The hell with the wor!” Some of the most diligent Peace Corpsmen find their own success unsettling. “The trouble with our being here under an American adninistration is that the more we're accepted the more palatable aff Americans become,” one of them told ine. ‘So the better a volunteer one is the more one does to lay the groundwork for a less ad- mirable American presenee.” The virtual vow of poverty that the volunteers take when they sign up doesn’t bother them much in most countries where the Corps has operated. In Micronesia, though, Corpsmen sometimes find themselves working alongside Americans who are doing the same jobs for comparatively princely pay. Moreover, the “Trust Territory admuinistracon, which ts constantly squeezed for funds, has on a few occasions simply used Peace Carps volunteers co All job apen- Ings that were budgeted ar a high salary, and spent the savings clsewhere. It is a shtuation that puts altruism to 32 severe cost, There have been Peace Corpsmen of all sorts in Micronesia: lawyers, doc- tors, architects, business specialists, hota- nists-—one of the last aaking a survey of medicinal plants, another studying the ecology of mangrove swamps. In the Afarshatls, where many of che women are stout, especially thase who have had seven or eight children, wemen volunteers have conducted reducing classes; the shy natives insise that these be held behind drawn curtains, lest the men scoff at them while they grunt and strains in pursuit of the svelte American dream. In 1969, on the initiative of Peace Corpsmen, the first MicrOlympic Games were held, on Saipan. Tt was an event that did as much to bind the diffuse area together as auything since the inception of the Coneress nf A foe ronenint. “Vhe individual star was a Ponapean distance runner, who won four 2gold medals, includingvy one for the 6.2-mile race, despite casual pauses between laps for puffs en spec- tarors’ clearetres. Elis proud compatriots sent him to a winter martha in