"I've Come to Live With You"

I’m sure some of you are wondering if we do any work in the Peace Corps, or if it’s just a 2 year intensive language course in a language that no else has ever heard of. Well, the rumors are not true. We do work quite hard here regardless of our skeptics (Robert Strauss and maybe Noah, haha). As I have probably stated before, a lot of our work is what we call cultural exchange. I know, it sounds like some new age 1st step to gaining insight into the mysterious peoples of so and so, or a clever way of making us feel better when the work is not going as planned. But really, this is important. We live here. We eat and cook with our neighbors often eating things we never dreamed would (and eventually liking some of it). We defecate in pits dug in our back yards. We have no electricity, no running water. We try so, so hard to understand the language and cultural taboos. We try to put our selves in the position of the people we are ultimately trying to help. Story break:

A villager falls into a hole he can’t climb out of. Later, a missionary walks by. The villager explains his plight, and the missionary throws down a bible, saying, “See you at church”.
An NGO worker walks by. The villager explains again and the NGO worker (not understanding completely) throws down a wad of money and walks away.
A Peace Corps volunteer walks by and once again the villager explains the predicament and the volunteer runs off. After a while, the volunteer returns with a backpack and jumps into the hole. “Did you bring something to climb out with?” asks the villager. “No” replies the volunteer, “I’ve come to live with you”.
(thanks to Ryan Shaw for the story)

Living with people and sharing in the experiences of everyday life gives us insight into what needs to happen to improve the quality of life. Often it’s as simple as really understanding and listening to what the village wants and then proceeding from there rather than coming in and basically telling people what they want and need, like so many aid groups seem to do. From my experience, this takes time.
I’ve been in this village for five months and I’m still learning and listening. When I first got here, many people would tell me straight up what they needed. I came to find out that these are usually individual needs, not in the best interest of the community as a whole. I see my position as an information gatherer and a liaison to financial or material support if that step needs to be taken. Peace Corps volunteers are great contacts for groups that want to help but don’t have anyone on the ground such as Doctors without Borders and Engineers without Borders. We usually speak the local language and can identify honest, motivated and influential people in the community.
As for me, I am not a trained development worker, and no, I don’t have specialized technical expertise (unless they need an archaeological site recorded or a guitar lesson). However, when I see the impact that “development” work has in some parts of Mali, I question whether that work is in any way better than the work that volunteers are doing. Throwing money at problems is not a solution. Example: Brand new school, a pump and a garden BUT no teachers= no students…basically a expensive structure to provide shade for the donkeys. Sadly, this is not uncommon.
As you can probably tell, I feel the need to justify the Peace Corps and volunteers serving all over the world. This is mainly in response to an article by Robert Strauss, published in the New York Times in January. He states that Peace Corps should stop recruiting inexperienced college graduates, that the majority of Peace Corps volunteers lack the maturity and professionalism required to be effective development workers. There are some volunteers who do not take their service seriously, but the majority is here to work and learn and listen and experience life in a developing country.
So, how do you get an effective development worker these days? Do you pick from the best schools? From George Washington and American University? Maybe, but personally (and I recognize my bias) I would want a Returned Peace Corps volunteer on my staff at UNICEF, CARE or whatever agency it might be. I would want someone who knows the frustrations and “dark sides” of development work, someone who has been on the ground, knows how hard it is to pull their own water, knows the realities of illnesses in villages, knows the value of ‘do it yourself’, and above all knows how to listen. Peace Corps trains and provides the world with some of the most experienced young development workers who understand the reality and possibilities of developing countries and communities.