la, from now on, only....sitara. but i think republican's background info about pc is more accurate. it was started during jfk's presidency and was a collaborative effort between he and sargent shriver. karmapa, i can appreciate what you have written. and you are right, that the ideal is to have "home-grown" teachers and that some development organizations can increase a country's sense of dependency. but when the government is too busy stuffing its own pockets and sending its own children abroad for education, the majority of its country's people suffer. and as people teach what they are taught, how can nepal raise effective "home-grown" teachers without breaking the cycle of some apathetic, lazy teacher standing in front of the classroom, reading directly from the book and not challenging the students to think or question anything?! and pc does have a "phase-out" philosophy. they clearly state that their goal is to work themselves out of a job. and there have been a number of countries in which they have been able to do this. india being one of them, as pc used to work there too in the 60s and 70s. but with a government as corrupt as nepal's, the majority of the country is still far behind in basic needs such as water, health and medical facilities, and education. one last thing i would like to point out is pc is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like jesuit volunteers or missionaries. i find some of those people to be incredibly scary and i wouldn't hesitate to say hardcore missionaries, whose main goal is conversion of the local people, are commiting cultural genocide. since i lived in palpa, i had contact with some missionaries at tansen's hospital and most of those interactions were very positive and most of those people were human beings first, doctors second, and christians third. but there are some people who are so blinded by their own faith that all they care about is "spreading the gospel." just imagine if someone like dubya was ever a pc volunteer.... luckily, he doesn't have a big enough heart to ever do that.