Photograph by Kathy De La Torre

Vic and Barby Ulmer, founders of Our Developing World, admire the craftsmanship in a carved bowl from Kenya.

Saratoga couple brings Third World richness, realities to Silicon Valley

By Kara Chalmers

Young children in Indonesia play with black papier-mâché crabs, which are set on spools of thread, so that when wound up, they scuttle on the floor by themselves, much like the wind-up cars American children enjoy. Nicaraguan children have a similar red rooster of foam and wire with which to play. They are essentially the same toys, but are used by children half a world away from one another.

The crab and the spider are part of an extensive collection of artifacts from all over the world that Vic and Barby Ulmer of Saratoga have assembled over the past 44 years.

The Ulmers are the founders of Our Developing World, a nonprofit organization incorporated 17 years ago. The organization's aim is to bring the richness and the realities of Third World cultures to people in the United States, to foster peace, to end racism and to emphasize that, although every culture has features that make it unique, all have much in common.

The Ulmers have a resource library at their home of materials that teachers may borrow free for a month. Besides toys, there are novels in Asian or African languages, videos, slide presentations, musical instruments, pottery and clothes. Lesson plans, collected or created by the Ulmers, books and posters are up for lease as well. Twenty-five countries in Central America, Africa and Asia are represented in the Ulmer's house in one form or another.

Most teachers use ODW by borrowing a story to tell students and a related artifact for students to examine while listening to the story.

For an American Indian unit for a social studies class, a teacher could have her children sit in a candlelit classroom, on the floor in a circle while a cassette of American Indian music plays in the background. The children could take turns holding a drum, a sacred stone or a grinding stick and bowl. The tangible artifacts allow the children to think about the people who may have once used these items, according to Barby Ulmer.

"When students hold something made somewhere else, it makes the people in that place come alive," she said. "It makes the place more than just mountains and rivers, it becomes a place where people live."

The Ulmers are resources themselves. They can tell the story behind every toy or piece of art, whether it's a Zulu basket made by women in South Africa or molas hand-stitched by young girls in the San Blas islands. And although they have set aside a room of their house as the lending library, the rest of their home reflects their interest in the world and in diverse cultures. In the living room, rain sticks from Mexico and Guatemala, and drums from Namibia fill one corner by the fireplace. Hand-woven Navajo rugs hang on the walls, and pillows appliqued by the Hmong people of Laos are spread on the couch.

Like the rooms of their home, the Ulmers' personal and work lives are completely entwined. "It is very hard to divorce our lives from Our Developing World because we live it and breathe it," Barby said. "We have a lot of friends that we've made because of the work we do with ODW."

Karen Andrus, the Ulmers' daughter, a fourth-grade teacher who has used her parents' resources for her classes said, "It's inspiring to see people doing exactly what they like to do in their lives, as well as opening the world for other people."

Both Ulmers were teachers before they formed ODW. Vic taught high-school English in Sunnyvale, and Barby taught English to adults as a second language. Barby's students gave her some of the gifts that decorate their home.

Their idea for ODW came from a 1970 trip to Guatemala, the first of nine visits. The Ulmers were so impressed by watching the poor, indigenous farmers help one another that they started going back every two years. Each time, the farmers had learned new agricultural methods to conserve and enrich the soil and thus improve the quality of life for themselves and neighbors.

"When we came back here and we talked about this, people didn't have a clue what we were talking about," Barby said. "If they had ever been in Guatemala, or in any poor country, they had stayed in fancy hotels. Even if they met the people of a country, they had no idea how they lived. They had no idea what their struggles were, they had no idea what their successes were."

So the Ulmers started teaching classes at Bay Area community colleges. "We found that people were hungry to learn what the realities were," she said. "And that's what we feel we're a catalyst for."

The Ulmers then began leading small study tours, and believed they were contributing in a way, however small, to improving the world. "In the United States, we don't grow up trying to walk in other people's shoes, trying to see the world from a perspective that's not just ours," Barby said. "And I think we'd have a better world if we could."

The Ulmers also create and facilitate simulations for classes. One, titled, "Starvation or Survival," published by the Center for Teaching International Relations in Denver, shows students what it is like to be a subsistence farmer trying to survive.

In the activity, students represent a village of farmers in Africa, Latin America or Asia. The activity shows the players how local and global factors affect them personally. For example, a throw of the dice determines weather, which in turn determines losses due to malnutrition or disease.

Kristy St. George, a facilitator for Nova, an alternative program for at-risk students in the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District, hired the Ulmers to run the simulation for a social issues class of 18 students.

St. George said that interactive element helped students learn and retain what they learned.

"The students realized that other people are struggling and that made them more grateful for what they have," she said, adding that she plans to ask the Ulmers to come back next semester, or will try running the simulation herself.

The Ulmers still lead their study tours each summer for 10 people beside themselves. This summer, the tour will include helping Hurricane Mitch victims rebuild in Nicaragua for one week and in Honduras for the second week. The third week will be a study tour in Guatemala.

The focus of the tours, as is the focus of any presentations the organization gives to churches or community groups, is on people. "Because we go to see what people are doing for themselves and their neighbors, it's inspirational," Barby said.

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