It was a nice visit this
week, because several other volunteers were also in town and we were able to
spend time together. On Saturday morning
at our favorite cheap breakfast place it felt like we were being continuously
accosted. First there was an elderly
women begging for money from all of the people eating in the restaurant. We shook our heads no and kept up our
conversation in English. She lingered
for quite a while and made her way back to us saying a phrase that every
volunteer I know hates, ‘no seas malita,’ or ‘don’t be bad’ (*in the dictionary
to call someone ‘mal’ that way it translates to ‘evil’- so maybe possibly it
means ‘don’t be evil’).
I hate when people say
this phrase to me and it is always when they want me to do something that I
don’t want to do. When that lady came
back for the final word to us ‘no sean malitas,’ I guess I overreacted a
little, because I told her it wasn’t necessary to call us ‘malas’ and that we in
fact were not ‘malas.’ I probably should
have just let her have that last word.
The next person to accost
us was a man who apparently had a sign reading that he was deaf, but I did not
notice his sign at the time. He approached us and put small cards on the table
in front of each of us. 2 of the other
volunteers warned me not to look too much or touch the card, because if I did
this man would expect me to pay for the card.
Inside the cards there might be jokes or puzzles, but if you look at
them you have to pay the man. So we all
avoided looking at the cards in case he would mistake it for interest in buying
them. The man waited for a few minutes
and then made his way around picking up all the cards off the tables before he
walked out. Only he forgot one of the
cards on our table, so I shouted after him to let him know he forgot his
card.
Those other people at the
restaurant probably thought I was such a jerk; first telling that lady off and
then yelling at a deaf man. When the
third and final person came around to beg from us I just shook my head no and
tried not to think about how I told that poor old lady off before. It felt like I had been pretty harsh.
This week a lot of drama
unfolded with my sexual education class in a small town 2 hours walking
distance from Tacabamba. When I first
went to this town to ask for permission from the APAFA (parent association) of
the high school, they were very suspicious that I worked for the mines. We spent about 30 minutes talking about what
Peace Corps is, who pays me, why am I in Peru anyway, and why do I want to
teach their kids. At the end of the
grilling they decided that they would give me permission to teach their kids on
Monday afternoons.
A couple weeks ago when
another obligation came up on Mondays I thought nothing of asking the kids from
my class in El Naranjo to just meet on Tuesdays instead. My logic was; in a community with no
electricity and no running water what other activities/obligations where these
kids going to have. As it turned out
when the parents realized that I had changed the day of the week of my class
without asking their permission they were very offended.
I received a phone call
from the director of the high school informing me that the APAFA was unhappy
with me and wanted a copy of my contract with the Municipality. I don’t have a contract with the Municipality
I work for the U.S. government, but either way that didn’t sound so good for my
classes continuing. My friend Ellie
helped me brainstorm how I could find a solution that would make everyone
happy-I don’t know what I would do without other volunteer’s help in these
situations. So I typed up a schedule for
the rest of my classes and dropped them off at the director’s house so that he
could pass them out to the kids and they in turn could show their parents.
I only received one more
angry phone call from a parent, but I was able to explain that it was a
misunderstanding and that it was not my intention to offend anyone. I think that everything is all cleared up, but
I guess I won’t know for sure until next week.
It is frustrating when people are so uncommunicative with me, but expect
me to be super communicative with them.
The situation is not ideal.
Normally a Peace Corps volunteer works in the community where they live,
the people know and trust them, and they are able to receive community support
for whatever activities they are doing.
In El Naranjo the people may or may not still think I am a spy for the
American mining companies and I do not know anyone (except for the 22 teens in
my classes and the male nurse who is never available to work with me).
It is not fair for me to
march into this town and expect for them to just get on board with some
stranger teaching their kids. It is not
reasonable for me to expect that the people from El Naranjo are going to
understand how I have structured my classes or why I want to work with their
kids in the first place. I had
imagined after living here as long as I have that I would be fluent in the
Peruvian world view, but sadly I still am not.
A lot of the time I can anticipate how people will react, but I don’t
understand their logic still. It is
funny how deep our American way of thinking is engrained.
We are taught from a
young age in the U.S. that if you work hard you can achieve anything, we should
strive to leave our country better for the next generation, and we are
personally responsible for our success or failures. Here in Peru; I imagine from generations of
struggling to survive in extreme poverty, the ideas above are unknown. When Diamond and I worked on developing a
latrines project for 3 months only to have the Municipality tell us they would
not be funding the project (after they strung us along, everyone month they
would tell us come back next month we’ll let you know about the budget) the
reaction of the families in our project was: ‘the Muni misled us again,’ and
‘remember how last time they said they would do a project and they never
did.’ They weren’t even all that surprised
and they certainly did not appear to be as angry or frustrated as I was-or at
least they did not express it in a way I would recognize as anger. It seemed more like complacence.
Things are fine the way
they are, why should we change? This is
how things have always been and it was good enough before so why not now? When promises of change are made they often
are not kept by the people that make them.
One really important thing I have figured out is that I cannot want it
more than the people I want it for- or rather people have to want to change or
else I am just smacking my head against the wall and feeling like a failure.
Whew, that got kinda
serious, huh?
Thanks for reading and
chau for now,
kb
The amount of stress I take on from people not being accountable/consistent here in the U.S. is extremely frustrating at times -- I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for you in Peru.
ReplyDeleteIt's true: the people in need of your help have to want it and be willing to work for it. Yes, they are disadvantaged, but I think their mindset and "complacency" like you said is a big reason why they need orgs like the Peace Corps to come in and do projects in the first place.