I do not have a grass thatch roof nor do I go digging for grubs. I do not teach in classrooms with dirt floors. Pencils and paper are not scarce. I do not spend my evenings in darkness or bask by candles or ground fire light. Public transportation in the form of a van which passes my village more than once or twice a day and I can cross the whole country in a matter of hours by vehicle. There are so many stereotypes or things that one might envision experiencing that I have not encountered. It is not to say that are others out there who don't share in these things--they do.
I wake up in a bedroom, much like the one I might have at home. Button-ups, polos, and slacks are my mainstay--like so many office jobs back home. I walk down the street where I live and speak to people in the same language I've grown up with--English. Sure there are variations of it here, but then again I've had issues understanding some English back home as well. Students don't like to study and have their own source of problems--is that so different from the schools back home? Our own educational system has its woes as well. I walk through a food market on a weekly basis, not unlike the farmer's markets back home. Just a stones throw away are grocery stores. Inside these grocery stores, you can find local goods as well as items imported from several places for a price of course. There are hair and fashion salons as well as eateries that vary from fast food to multi-course delights and hand-made treats. Home decoration studios, sporting equipment, office supplies, small electronics, hardware, banks, credit unions, and even classic 'department' stores line the main streets of the capital and are slowly growing outward towards the rural areas.
Many people take great pride in their appearance and the younger members of the community dress themselves in the same fashions I might find the youth back home wearing. The same youth play video games, watch dvds, and chat on the internet like any kid from back home would. Do all them do so? No, but then again not all the youth back home are fortunate (if that word should be described as such) to have those pleasantries. Where back home people gather at enclosed bars with a jukebox or an open beer garden with a live band, people here gather at their favorite watering holes--typically a small rum shop--here spending hours talking to whoever sits next to them while playing cards or domino. Is that so different? Many of them are happy to share their experiences with you, much like a person who has had several drinks while sitting at a bar back home.
Listening closely, you might learn about their world travels--visiting more places than many people I know. They are carpenters, electricians, engineers, nurses, teachers, shop owners, bankers, vendors, political analysts (of a sort), and the unemployed. They are you and me as they perform some of the same jobs and display the same skills I could find in so many people in the workforce back home. The community shows a divisive line between those that participate and support their community through group activity and those who keep themselves sheltered behind windows and stone walls. At times, these groups don't always function or are gripped with indecision and ill-communication among its members, but is this so different from some groups back home in a place where the problems are not any more or less complex or varied? Many of the people who close themselves off from the community are effective and capable people who do not participate for their own reasons--leaving much of the work to rest on the shoulders of a select few. Again, this is seen all to often in many communities back home.
I am a Peace Corps Volunteer placed in a country that might not seem like the same sort of country you'd expect us to serve in. The average person might envision us serving in the same sort of countries you find on a television promotional spot to assist with some sort of poverty alleviation campaign, typically depicting African scenes of malnourished children. In many cases, we do work alongside efforts to stem such things. I however have never come to see such with my own eyes. Peace Corps has had approximately some 195,000 volunteers in approximately 139 countries since its inception. So we have been to many places and done many things. However the Peace Corps of the future is a different nature from whence we came.
Most of us won't be building physical bridges, training on basic nutrition or water sanitation, or even showing how micro-credit systems work. Well perhaps there will always be a need for such things, but we are entering a new era of microchips and a growing sense of environmental consciousness. The demands for previous training (pre-pre-service) of a volunteer is rising. It is no longer enough that we simply know the basics of a topic, as instructed during a few short weeks of service training. The same people we assist are seeking specialists--people who are not only computer experts and business professionals and environmental engineers, but also with the competence to teach and understand what it takes to create sustainability and community mobilization. These practices cannot be instilled with a few short weeks that must also be shared with the plethora of other changes that bombard a volunteer's senses.
Looking around my own host country, I see development in action. Much of it has been in transformation over the decades as it changes shape and context within umbrella networked NGOs and Government ministries. Hands shake and papers are signed. Donations pour in from other countries--the European Union, Taiwan, Japan, Cuba, Venezuela, and the United States (of a fashion) just to name a few. This builds roads, schools, libraries, other infrastructure as well as provide opportunities for locals to learn how to maintain that which they are given. Growing companies are bringing telecommunications up to par with other developed nations with high-speed internet and VOIP phone systems now that most of the island has fiber optic coverage. Cell phones are everywhere and may soon (if not already) become more widely used than land lines. Businesses operate at international levels and tourism development reaches out to remind locals, regionals, and internationals alike about the wonders of the Caribbean shores and forests.
With all this development in action, training on-going, and education (academic and informal) on the rise, one might wonder why the Peace Corps is even here. To be honest, I ask myself that everyday. When I got on a plane to Miami to converge with 38 other eager volunteers, my head wasn't awash with African savanna, Asian linguistics, or Eastern European social constructions. Rather, I knew I was going into a 'partially developed' country who residents spoke English. Actually I didn't know much about my host country at all beyond the scope of tourism advertisments. People see our presence here and compare it to the same adverts. The critics want to know why we are here, as do I.
I see so many things, yet have a hard time explaining them as a purpose or driving force. It isn't to say that there isn't poverty, or educational work and HIV/AIDS awareness to do--there is plenty of it for years to come. Yet nearly every aspect of our duties or assignment areas has a local component to cover it. Our current volunteer work places us into community sites to engage at the grass-roots level. It is hard to find a niche in which to fit since nearly every volunteer would agree that the most constructive assistance would be to work through government ministry or national-level NGO. This country has a very top-down system based upon its history and direction of leadership. While the debate could be held on the values of this type of system, we are only interested in how the volunteer could best provide their services. Of course it may change in time, but we are here today. Without the iconic disparity and obvious-to-the-eye problems to tackle, we find meeting the needs of the communities does not often match the skills of the volunteer, many of us may find it hard to become attached to our work. Temptation is all around--from the nearby beach or nature trail to aimlessly wandering the nearby capital or even hide inside with the comfort of books or the high-speed internet for those willing to pay for it.
All of us are here for community development in some form or another. I get up everyday with something to do in mind. Whether it gets done at all or even started is sometimes at the mercy of those in the community I work with. Frustration runs rampant and trying to avoid becoming jaded is sometimes a greater challenge than preparing for the activities themselves. Sometimes I sit down at the end of the day, simply exhausted not from hours of intensive work but from a lack of interaction or at least what I would say would be positive interaction.
I look at so many other outside agencies that pour in volunteers, financial support, and other resources. When I see this I wonder, what is the point? Does Peace Corps have the better solution--trying to empower people to utilize what resources they have and create a positive change for the future--while these outside agencies may in fact be creating a dependency on foreign aid and stifling the growth potential of the locals? Or is it in reverse? Does the support from the foreign agency beyond the supply of volunteer aid actually give the locals a base from which to build and grow--while Peace Corps offers a less perhaps substantial approach in the current scene as its volunteers scratch and scramble to try and find every cent needed to push even the smallest of community activities. I am not a policy analyst, not yet anyway, but I am sure both posses their merits and flaws. The only immediate detriment comes into play when locals expect Peace Corps volunteers to provide similar support--financially and otherwise--as their fellow foreign development groups have provided and those resources are, in most cases, simply not there.
Even without the resource and policy strategies, does this mean that I am failing as a volunteer? That is hard to say. I have had this discussion with various staff on several times. To this end I must compare two assessments--Peace Corps' mission and my own satisfaction. According to the
Peace Corps websiteThe Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:
- Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
- Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
- Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
Looking at each goal individually:
- The first goal is easily obtained under a short scope of detail. My host nation is eager for any sort of support, thus an interested country. In terms of meeting their need for trained men and women--as long as we can perform in some sort of operational success to train even a few from an entire mass, there will be support to say it was successful. Whether it was or not, based upon quantity or quality metrics, remain outside the stated context of these goals; note it also says 'helping' and not fulfillment or similar wording of the same. I am also reminded of the other systems in place on island that are operated by host nationals that perform these same duties.
- The second goal seeks to promote a better understanding of American culture. In this regard, I find that I don't have to work as much as perhaps volunteers in other parts of the world. American culture has been pouring into this country in the form of produced goods and many businesses and organizations have been adopting practices of their American counterparts. Popular music from back home finds its way onto the radios and mp3 players of the young and old alike. I have been able to contribute in my own little way to show some differences of my culture. Yet in every way that I am different as an American, I am also different among other Americans such that other Peace Corps volunteers here are sharing characteristics of our combined culture that differ from each other's individual culture.
- The third goal seeks to embed a sense of learning and experience of our host national culture upon ourselves to widen our perceptions and foster a sharing of learned culture when we return home. In this regard, I have been taking part in many things here from the life of agriculture to the death and accompanied funerals. I will continue to seek how the people live their lives on a daily basis and carry that imprint with me as yet another filter of understanding. I cannot speak the same for other volunteers, but I would assume the others may experience it on some level that increases with the rate of involvement within the community. Peace Corps calls it integration.
It is said that a person is the harshest critic of him/herself. Perhaps this is true when attempting to determine if one has been successful as a volunteer. Most people--of which I am categorized--tend to objectify and measure our success based upon tangible results. However development work, as we are constantly reminded, is a process and one that does not usually offer immediate dividends on our inputs. As worked up about the process, or seemingly lack thereof, I must resign myself to wonder if 2, 5, or 10 years from now that the work I am contributing will have some bearing or influence upon the activity of that time. It must truly be difficult to gauge for effective development planning when the results are a long-term investment rather than a quick-return.
Sure, I meet with people in various capacities and organziations. I work with adults and children alike on activities from reading to computers to organizational capacity building. I strive everyday to do something for positive change and hope that it sticks--to become part of the new bedrock for tomorrow. Can I do more? Perhaps and I will probably try to add a bit more here and there. I've told many people that I will gladly work myself till I have nothing left to give on several projects in the hopes that something will stick and carry itself out to become sustainable. I would much rather do that than invest all my effort into 1 or 2 things and carry the risk of them still falling through.
As a volunteer, I'd say my hardest job is to think of this process and the mysterious cloud of possibilities that is the future here. It might be easier if after 40 years of Peace Corps commitment on island, there was some sort of visible sustained evidence of previous volunteer work to motivate and inspire current volunteers. Yet, the sheer lack of those things I believe is causing an reciprocal effect and becoming a discouraging factor. I don't know which end is more responsible--the post-service efforts themselves for not becoming sustainable or perhaps Peace Corps' lack of provided documentation to incoming volunteers to at least highlight what was done and tried on this small island nation over the years. For although the times and culture are shifting, as are the agencies involved--the adage of 'those who don't learn their history are doomed to repeat it' remains true. 40 years of development work should be long enough to see those returns, yet the process that we are so often reminded of still remains a mystery.
To that end...I will continue my work to contribute what I can for now.
Stay safe and happy
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn
