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¶ In El Salvador, an American fiscal expert made the mistake of wearing white shoes to the office. He was practically ostracized, until a friend tipped him off that white shoes are taboo in the country. Thereupon he bought a pair of brown shoes and "noticed the immediate im provement in reception of myself and my technical advice."
¶ In Laos, men will not wash women's clothes. When her houseboy refused to launder her panties, an American woman slapped his face. "This was the culmination of several instances where the wom an would not consider the customs of the people," wrote her chief. "I returned her to the States. This pleased many people, not because they disliked the woman, but because they wanted the right to have their own way of life recognized." In a similar vein, the corpsmen learned the proper way for a woman to offer cigarettes to a Buddhist priest: put the pack on a rock, since the priests cannot receive anything directly from female hands. ¶ It is not always necessary to observe local customs, but it is always advisable to find a graceful way of refusing. "The people in this area were polygamous. They wanted us to marry a few more wives. We didn't want to insult them, and cast about for an appropriate reason for refusing. We finally explained to them that our religion forbids us to marry more than one wife, and that it would hurt our wives at home to break this rule." For the guidance of Peace Corpsmen, the manual observes wryly: "The American need not take concubines."
The Peace Corpsmen seemed to have taken the manual's lesson to heart. Ar riving in Accra last week, the 50 young teachers found the city in deep mourning over the death of Nana Kwabena Kena II, Ghana's high commissioner to India. Kena's body had arrived just before the Peace Corpsmen landed. The officials who welcomed them were in a somber mood, but the young teachers moved them deeply by singing, in Twi, the anthem Yen Ara Asase Ni (Land of Our Birth). Said U.S. Ambassador Francis Russell: "I know that they will establish deep and lasting friendship while they are here, and that they are establishing a pattern that will do great good in many ways for many people." To this sentiment, most Americans would add a hopeful amen.