Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-MR-2002-001-008
Ruth Ann Van Hala (then Stanonik) served as a Peace Corps volunteer in India from 1965 to 1968 on a poultry project. She trained at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, with the India 16 group, and learned Hindi and how to care for chickens. Due to political instability in India at the time the group was due to depart, they were temporarily sent to a kibbutz in Israel instead. Van Hala was then stationed in Satara in Maharashtra state in central India, where she worked with a poultry project sponsored by the Indian government with funding from USAID. The project was intended to encourage people to raise chickens and to introduce eggs into their diets, which was challenging due to cultural norms. At the end of her first year, Ruth married fellow volunteer Marcus Van Hala and moved to Udaipur. Note: Interview ends abruptly. Interviewed and recorded by Robert Klein, November 17, 2001. 1 tape (web streaming files combined into 1 file).