ALVIN
No Greater Service
Alvin Hower served in the Peace Corps for 5 1/2 years. His memoir, No Greater Service, is an extremely stirring, personal, vivid, and action-packed account of a Peace Corps Volunteer’s remarkable life in the underserved areas of southern Philippines. An avid photographer, he produced over 5,000 images of everyday people and the awe-inspiring beauty of a nation of 7,641 islands.
In his memoir, No Greater Service, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) and first time author Alvin Hower talks about the sheer joy of living and working with the indigenous people and soaking in their rich cultural heritage and visual arts.
After his Social Worker stint, Hower extended for another year and moved to the hinterlands of Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, to work at a Catholic Mission called Santa Cruz. The Mission served the indigenous people of South Cotabato province, particularly the Tboli whose sad plight was featured in the August 1971 issue of National Geographic Magazine.
Hower's book showcases the arts and crafts of the Tboli people – brass making and t’nalak weaving. In the early 1970s, T’nalak weaving was becoming a dying art. Hower could only remember five weavers within the service area of Santa Cruz Mission. He later collaborated with the Mission in their efforts of preserving the arts and crafts of the Tboli by documenting in slides the tie-dye process, which took three months to complete.
