18 Octubre 2011

When signing up for Peace Corps I found myself saying, and I have heard many other Peace Corps volunteers say, “I had no idea what to expect.”

Even after speaking with returned PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers), you still never really can know. Every community and individual is different. Every experience unique.

But, people do say it is hard, unanimously.

I thought that meant the lifestyle: The living uncomfortably, the eating boring foods, the shitting in a hole, the cold bucket baths. But, I have come to surprise myself in that sense. Physical labor and being uncomfortable is indeed something I have gotten used to and learned to balance.

While life isn’t easy, and it takes longer to make anything happen because of the manuality of living, that isn’t what makes this work, “hard”.

I have come to find that the hardest part of my work here is the fight.

I feel like every day I am “fighting” with and for the local community members. That is hard.

Last week I was asking Roxana about her day. “Bad,” she said, “the principal was in a bad mood.” Basically, instead of being consistently firm but supportive, he picks and chooses when to be which. Today, he decided to be angry about cheating, copying, and fraternization. “He declared,” she said, “that if he sees anyone walking in the streets in pairs, they will be kicked out of the high school. If two people are found doing homework together, they will be kicked out of the high school. If two people’s projects are found to be similar or the same, they will be kicked out of the high school.”

The huge host of problems with these statements flies out at you and me. But, the parents nod with Gregorio (aside: the principal, Gregorio, is the same man who sat next to me on a bus one day as I was reading and asked if I liked to read. “Yes, don’t you?” I asked. “No.” “Really? What books have you read?” He shakes his head, “I don’t like to read.” The worst part of this conversation was his macho attitude, ‘I am not a nerd, you nerd’ *scoff* he is a great influence). The parents see him as one of the most educated locals, and he is. They don’t see that he can’t follow through with his threats. They don’t see that if he does it is actually worse off for the youth. They don’t see how unhealthy this is for youth in a communal society that learn from and support one another. Ultimately, they don’t see that his means and methods don’t actually lead to his goals, and neither does he.

He really does want what is best for his students, but he doesn’t know how to get them there, and he isn’t willing to threaten his own comfort (in my opinion). (in my opinion) I feel this is the case for a majority of the parents in the colca community.

It takes a community to raise a child. So, how do you raise an educated one in an uneducated community? That fight, I had no idea, would be ‘my fight’. That is the density to my hard.

So much NGO (Non Governmental Organization) work and the Peace Corps three goals, ultimately lead to this idea of change. That we westerners can provide a human resource to make change in developing communities so that they are happier and healthier. That we westerners will leave our comfy bubble, see another culture and lifestyle, and bring that knowledge back to make western life more fulfilling and healthy.

But, so many question, is change possible?

When asked (according to WNYC’s RadioLab), “Will humans ever stop fighting wars once and for all?” Nine out of ten say, “No”. And Jab Abumrod points out, that this question actually gets at the real curiosity of; “Do we feel we can change who we are?”

In this radio broadcast (10/19/09 titled: New Normal?) they take it out of the theoretical, and explore the scientific. Is it biological? Are there certain characteristics that unavoidably come from our ancestors that will never change?

Robert Supolsky is a Stanford Neuroscientist that studies wild baboons in the Serengeti, Africa. “Baboons literally have been the text book example of a highly aggressive, male dominated, hierarchical society. Because these animals hunt, because they live in these aggressive troops on the savanna … just like we humans used to, and thus we evolved very similarly… they have a constant baseline level of aggression that inevitably spills over into their social lives.” he says. With one particular troop he was studying, due to a series of unfortunate events, all of the dominant males were killed. This, lead to a community run by females, and a societal change. When new males came to enter the troop, they saw aggression was not necessary, and they relearned a lifestyle. Now, the troop is known for its hippy-dippy, tranquil nature, and has been living aggression-less for over 20 years now. Jab Abumrod says it well, “The idea that something that was thought to be so unchangeable, could change, and change quickly, and then stay changed as a result of something so airy and indefinable as culture… … well that causes… …hope.”

Can people just decide to change, or does it take an unavoidable and dramatic event to force us to?

I am not saying that Western culture is better, we all obviously still want change. I am not saying that ancient cultures are better either. I think there is a pendulum that hangs delicately in the middle closer to happiness and a fulfilled life. But what is it that kicks the butt of culture into change?