User:Elizabeth H. White

Memoir Teaser  Chapter - Competition ~ Climbing

Mountaineering was a part of my life for more than 50 years. Running for at least 35. I started running in 1969 to get in shape for climbing Huascaran in the Andes.

After a couple of years I discovered the Rocky Mountain Road Runners in Denver. Every month the club organized a race with an elaborate handicapping system to guarantee that everyone had a chance of winning. These were usually held in parks that were appropriate for the non-running children to play. Gene and I began the habit of running every day, usually early in the morning when the children were still sleeping. We continued this habit for 30 years no matter where we were. We did not run in the morning on the days we were skiing, climbing a mountain, or going on a long bike ride.

I discovered that I could be a pretty competitive runner especially at longer distance and on trails.



When we moved to California in 1973, running was really becoming popular. One of the first hilly races in Oakland’s Miller park, I finished  among the first few women. A woman congratulated me and invited me to join her team, West Valley Track Club. She was Dr. Joan Ullyot, well known promoter of women’s running, and author of “Women Running”. She was putting together a team of women over 35 to compete in the “Master’s” division. I was honored to be invited and participated in many races wearing the WVTC shirt.

Over the years I participated in countless 10 kilometer races, thirty three marathons, eight 50 kilometer (32 mile) races and one fifty miler. The latter was a race from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz, along the beautiful California Coast Highway. It was an informal race without organized aid stations along the course, just a timer at the start and finish. Our first son, Eric Kenyon White and a girlfriend drove our big station wagon along the course, stopping every few miles to offer water, fruit, aspirin, fudge I had specially made with strong coffee, and fresh socks. Towards the end, I was 20 minutes ahead of Gene, my husband!

In most races I finished first or second place in my age category. I enjoyed the competition, the comradery and the discipline. Running often seemed meditative. In Dr. Peter Glasser’s book “Positive Addiction” I am cited as an example.

(The bunion on my left foot is cited in podiatrist Steve Sobotnik’s book, “The Running Foot Doctor” )

In 1978 when I returned from our two years in Indonesia, I had just turned 40. I entered a 10 mile hilly race in Anguin. I crossed the finish line as first in my new age category. A woman finished right behind me, saying “I didn’t know you were over 40, or I would have tried to pass you.”  She became a friend, but continued to be a competitor with me as we entered each succeeding age category. When I was running the San Francisco Marathon, at about mile 20, I passed two men. As I pulled ahead, I heard one say “Why did you let her pass us?”  I thought, no one “let” me pass them; I was just a faster runner.

Since I love hills and trails the Dipsea race was always a favorite. In 1979 I finished in 12th place overall and received the 13th place shirt and then the next year 12th. I treasure those shirts. In 1983 the DIPSEA was scheduled for my 45th birthday. By then there were qualifications for entering the race, but I knew the organizers and got special permission for my whole family to enter the race. We all finished in respectable times and had a big birthday picnic at the finish at Stinson beach.

When I lived and traveled in Asia, I looked up the schedule of the local running club wherever I was. So I ran with the “Hash House Harriers” in Fiji, The Solomon Islands, Malaysia, and Indonesia.  In Pakistan, I won the women’s division of the first and only Islamabad Triathlon in 1991. I raced the Tahoe Lake relay on a women's over 40 team, over 50, and over 60. We won!

Memoir Chapter - MY CAREER:  BACK IN BERKELEY - AFTER INDONESIA

In September 1978, we moved back into our house in Berkeley. It seemed quite grand and spacious after the little house in Ujung Pandang, South Sulawesi, Eastern Indonesia.

My husband, Gene F. White, went back to the San Francisco office of International Engineering.

He was quickly put to work writing proposals for more water resource jobs in Asia. After a few months he went to Thailand, Malaysia and Nepal to discuss proposals with the local governments and the funding agencies.

Our children went back into Berkeley Unified School District schools. Gregory Herrick White went into King Middle School, and Eric Kenyon White entered Berkeley High School, in a class of 700 after middle school in Indonesia on the dining room table with his siblings. Laura Eadie White was supposed to go into third grade at Thousand Oaks Elementary, but entry testing indicated she needed to repeat second grade. She had not really achieved the skill levels required because of my unfamiliarity of early elementary education and an underlying perceptual problem. When she was born, I noticed immediately that her eyes were not focussed together. One eye veered to the side. I had taken her to an opthamologist when she was a few months old and was told that she had a lazy eye. With patching the stronger eye, special glasses, and tutoring she was able to overcome this disadvantage.

I returned to teaching Women in the World and the History of India at San Francisco State. I enjoyed teaching but was frustrated that I could not get a full time teaching position. Each semester I had to re-apply for the courses that I was qualified to teach. Another frustration was the pay. Adjunct or temporary professors are paid much less than regular employees. I got about $1000 per course while friends who taught at the University of California got over $20,000 a year for teaching only three or four courses. One semester I also taught a course on Middle East History for Chapman College, on the Alameda Naval Base. One student asked if we would spend most of the time on the Israel/Palestine conflict. I replied that we might not even get to the 20th century. My interests were more in the ancient empires, the Persians, and the Turks.

To supplement the teaching, I marketed myself as a consultant on development and women’s roles in South and Southeast Asia. One fascinating assignment was a three day workshop for USAID in Washington. The goal was defining terms and indicators for measuring the impact on women of development projects of all kinds. The Percy amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1973 had first stated the need to assure the United States took into account the impact of its aid on women. Then in May 1979 the State Department issued a statement that a “Key objective of US foreign policy is the advancement worldwide of the status and condition of women.”  Federal agencies were struggling to meet that goal, so a group of scholars and activists like myself were gathered at an estate in Maryland for several days of lively discussion. Most of the criteria we outlined were adopted but not always utilized by administrators who approved projects.

I searched in the San Francisco phone book for organizations with “Asia” in their names and mailed numerous copies of my resume. Somewhat to my surprise I received an answer from The Asia Foundation in August of 1979. The Bangladesh office of the foundation had requested a consultant to advise Women for Women Bangladesh, a group of highly qualified women scholars, to expand their research and increase its impact on Bangladesh society. They had considered some of the “big names” in women’s studies such as Ester Boserup, Hanna Papanek, or Nadia Youssef, but I was more available and had the appropriate geographical focus. After a very pleasant interview at the Foundation office in San Francisco I was offered a contract for a two week consultancy in Bangladesh. Six years before, Gene had gone to Bangladesh for two months while I stayed in Berkeley with the children; this was a reversal of roles. He continued to work and my contract was much shorter than his. I arranged numerous after school activities for the children before I left in October.

It was exciting to go to Bangladesh as an expert consultant. The director of The Asia Foundation office in Dhaka met me at the airport and took me to the Ford Foundation guest house where I would stay. A rambling old house in a leafy residential neighborhood, it was a much better choice than a modern cement hotel. The area was safe for my early morning runs (modestly dressed, of course) when I saw many Bangladeshis and a few foreigners out for morning walks. The other guests were interesting, too. Most impressive among them was Merle Goldberg, founder of the National Women’s Health Coalition. She was receiving a medal from the president in recognition of her assistance to the thousands of Bangladeshi women and girls who had been raped during the war for independence from Pakistan. She had organized trainings for health workers to provide safe abortions and social workers to help women and girls be reintegrated in their communities.

After a day recuperating from jet lag, I began my meetings with Women for Women. They were an interesting and enthusiastic group. Already they had published some articles and a book on women and education, funded by The Asia Foundation. Though they were highly educated and professional, the constraints of a traditional Muslim society prevented them conducting field work in rural areas or far from their homes. They interviewed participants in rural development projects and urban areas or relied upon the field work results of foreign scholars or official reports and statistics. They felt that I was very brave to have visited villages in Pakistan to collect data for my dissertation. To assure sustainability of the organization, I helped them develop a plan to do commissioned research and consultancies for Foundations and Corporations that needed assessments of the impact their projects on women. I knew that all projects funded by USAID required an impact on women review, similar to an environmental review. We had some lively discussions of topics they could consider for subsequent research and publication. They took me to visit some community development projects and vocational training centers for women. It was at Women for Women that I met Rounaq Jehan, a truly inspiring scholar and international activist.

While I was in Dhaka, I contacted one of Gene’s colleagues whom I had met in the 1960’s in Pakistan. He and his wife invited me for dinner. His wife and the other American guests spoke disparagingly about the food, the climate and Bangladeshi people, even when their servants were in the room. None of them had tried to learn the language in Bangladesh or in Pakistan, but their servants spoke English. Having spent my day on an interesting field trip with sophisticated Bangladeshi women who had PhDs from Harvard and Oxford, I was uncomfortable with the evening company of complaining Americans. I was glad to retreat to the Ford Foundation Guest house where my fellow guests were more culturally sensitive and intellectually interesting.

At the end of my brief consultancy, Women for Women members had developed greater confidence to investigate controversial topics, such as abortion and child labor. They had a plan to market their expertise to the contractors and foreign aid agencies who needed it. The organization is well-respected and has continued to thrive. I learned from this experience was that people can gain confidence just from having their work recognized as worthy of the attention of a foreign consultant, even if the impact is otherwise fairly subtle.

Back in Berkeley I wrote a report on my work and submitted it to The Asia Foundation. A few weeks later, Mr. Andrews from The Asia Foundation called to tell me that my report was much appreciated in San Francisco and Bangladesh. I was asked to come in for an interview, and I did. Before the end of the year, I was hired to be the Advisor for Women and Development and Islam. It was a challenging prospect. The Foundation, established in 1954, as the Committee for Free Asia, had offices in 15 Asian countries. Its programs focussed on the development of just and democratic societies. The foundation provided funds for local non governmental organizations, training for diplomats, administrators and legal professionals, and arranged conferences and experts responding to the needs in the different countries. Foundation leaders had to be very diplomatic and subtle in their support of human rights and democracy since many of the Asian countries had autocratic governments. Just when I was hired, for the first time a woman, Edith Coliver, was named director of a country program, the Phillipines. She was effective in keeping in the good graces of the Marcos government while providing support to private and community organizations that would eventually contribute to its overthrow. I admired Edith tremendously.

In December 1979 I started commuting to San Francisco, initially only 3 days a week, but increasing to full time in a month. Gene and I were still running for an hour before breakfast, then quickly fixing breakfast for the children and dressing for work. His day started at 8 so he took the 7:20 “G” bus while I could delay until the 7:40 bus for an 8:30 work start. It was a hectic schedule. I had an office and an assistant! My responsibilities included reviewing project proposals, evaluating reports, and responding to requests  from field offices for assistance and expertise.

Meanwhile, Gene’s company won the bid to implement the work that Gene had proposed to the Government of Nepal. It was a project to bring irrigation to a dry valley near the town of Pokhara. It involved a tunnel through hills and various other constructions. Gene was responsible for the implementation, so he had several month long trips to Nepal. At the end of one of his trips in 1979, he convinced a couple of American friends to join him for an ambitious trek over a high pass, the Tesi Lapchka, and a climb of Island Peak, (20,000+) near Everest.

They had such a good time on this trip that Armando Menocal https://rockandice.com/features/the-saver-armando-menocal/, one of the friends, suggested applying for a permit for a higher peak, Makalu II also known as Kangjungtse. 3000 or so feet higher that Huascaran, our highest summit in South America, it seemed an appropriate “next step”. They applied for a permit to the government of Nepal for 1980, May. So when I accepted The Asia Foundation offer of employment I said at the start that I had a commitment for the month of May, when I would take leave without pay.

So having opted out of the Annapurna Women’s Expedition, I was heading for a somewhat lower, safer Himalayan peak with my husband, his brother, friends Armando and Mike. Mike was 20 years younger than me and an extraordinary technical climber. We hoped his skills would help us overcome the one difficult section of our planned route. Makalu is another chapter.

Thanks!

Elizabeth Herrick White