Yes, But What Are You Doing?”

I have received just such a question from many people at home, and indeed many Gambians here, and upon my answer have received sighs of disappointment, so I thought I’d expound for a little while on what I’m doing, and what I plan on doing.
First of all, I think now would be a good time to discuss the three goals of Peace Corps, and how they relate to what I’m doing. The first goal is to help interested countries in meeting their needs for trained men and women. This is indeed where we would discuss capacity-building for sustainable development, etc.
The second goal is to promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people being served. I’m here, being friendly, talking about my family at home, doing weird Toubab things like putting on sunscreen, offering my point of view during discussions, etc. My hope is that maybe I can make Americans look better as a group, right?
The third goal is to promote a better understanding of other people on the part of all Americans. I’m here, conveying my experiences to all of you, loving readers. I write letters home. I blog. I take pictures. My Peace Corps service will most likely be something I talk about for the rest of my life, think of how many Americans I can educate, even in small bits just by having come?
These three goals have remained simple and unchanged since Peace Corps’ inception in 1961. So yes, while my first goal at heart is to promote community-based, grass-roots, sustainable development, all in all, that’s also the hardest goal, the most complicated, and the one that is slowest in coming. But the other two goals are all about cultural exchange, and to say that I fulfill two out of three goals, pretty much every day, well two out of three ain’t bad.
So what am I doing? I’ve been at my permanent site a week (as of the writing of this entry, who knows when I’ll get to post it). I’ve been greeting the neighbors, taking walks around the neighborhood to get people used to seeing me. I’ve visited a local school in hopes of meeting the headmaster, he never came, but I did chat with teachers for awhile. I’ve carried water on my head. I’ve written letters. I’ve read a book on community needs assessment. I’ve been slowly slowly making my house into a home. I’ve read Great Expectations. I’ve cooked with my host mom. I’ve drunk endless cups of attaya (gunpowder green tea with sugar) while sitting under mango trees. I’ve meditated many hours on my strengths and shortcomings as a human being, and anticipate many hours of the same over the next two years.
One thing I’ve been especially proud of is my compost heap, and soon-to-be garden plot. I figure during all the hurry-up-and-wait of my other work, when all else fails, I’ll be happy to work in my garden. My plan is, even for my own sanity, to nurse a bunch of tree saplings, and plant them around when they get strong, or send them up-country to have other PCVs plant. That way, even if my other projects go all to hell, I can at least say that a few more trees are growing because of me, and that’s fine. No, this is not a sustainable project, I recognize that. Its just for my own sanity.
Really, it is really hard to go from a forty hours per week job with lots of structure, to one with significantly less. And the definition of “work” has certainly changed. But, greeting people is hard. Sitting through conversations in another language is exhausting, even if it was only an hour long. However, the more I work at these things now, the more effective a volunteer I will be. Also, the more time I spend making myself at home and being comfortable here and being comfortable with myself, the more effective a volunteer I will be. If I run around willy-nilly, shovel in hand, speaking with the conversational dexterity of a four-year-old, I will burn out quickly and be ineffective.
So no, I have not saved the world all in one week. I have not built any hospitals or bridges, or dug any wells (by the way, that’s what all the well-meaning foreigners like to do--dig wells. Gambia has plenty of wells, and I wish people would quit throwing money around, it does more harm than good). I haven’t saved any babies.

But I’ve shaken many hands, and said many times over “how is your family?” I’m laying the foundations for a good service, even if it doesn’t fit into what people in the US call work or productivity. Chill out Americans. That’s what I’ve been doing.