Changing Views

It’s amazing how one picture can change it’s appearance every time you look at it. You can change the angle at which you are looking at the picture, or you can stay in the same spot for enough time, and sure enough it will begin to look a little different.

When I first arrived to my site in Bani, I saw the best in my site and in the people with whom I would be working. I saw harmony in an impoverished neighborhood, I saw friendships, and I felt at peace. Things have changed since my first glance of Bani. That’s not to say that I am unhappy or that the people are any less wonderful; only that the inevitable has happened. I have moved beyond that first, optimistic glance of a picture and begun to uncover some hidden details.

Poverty is hard to define in words because to speak of it does not adequately accompany the feelings that persist in an impoverished environment. Poverty is much more than the lack of food, water, and education. Poverty lingers everywhere here, because it appeared the same day that this neighborhood was constructed. Poverty begins in the mind and is manifested in every possible way. It is observed in communication, relationships, opportunities, and security.

We, as human beings, always seem to need an answer for everything. Maybe that is why, when we don’t understand someone, it’s easiest to ignore them, make fun of them, or just pretend like they don’t exist. Yet living with people of poverty forces you to confront any discomfort that comes with the issue. The problem with poverty is that it’s easy to observe but impossible to justify or eradicate. A lot of people say that as a Peace Corps volunteer you will be living in poverty for two years: that is not true. We may witness poverty at a personal level, but we will never be living in poverty. Our college education alone has eradicated that possibility, let alone having the privilege of living in a separate country from our own.

As you can tell, I have been thinking about poverty a lot lately. Once my honeymoon period in Bani wore off, I started getting frustrated by the lack of ambition in people, among other things. And then I realized that my frustration comes from discomfort in knowing I will never be faced with the same issues as the members of my community. When I leave in two years my community will stay. They have been born into poverty, and for most of them, that’s where they will stay.

This all may sound depressing, but despite my realization that I am not going to change the live path of everyone in my community, I still believe that a little goes a long way here. There is still a lot that I can offer.

Last weekend I went to a regional Escojo Mi Vida conference in Jarabacoa and was completely inspired by what I saw. I was surrounded by 25 adolescents that were excited by talking about HIV, safe sex, and teen pregnancy. This may sound funny, but after seeing countless girls with pregnant bellies, I felt like I had walked into paradise when every adolescent in the room could tell me why it’s best to wait until you are older to have children. These teenagers were so well-spoken and had such an innocent enthusiasm that I could not help but be inspired by the power of our work as Peace Corps volunteers. Peace Corps hasn’t adopted anything ground breaking; education and a little emotional support just go a really long way.

And so everything continues. I continue to build relationships, marvel at new experiences, and attempt to figure out how these two years should be spent. I will end with a list of unexpected experiences that, for one reason or another, became memorable:

Watched someone shave a goat’s stomach and feed the shavings to her cat
Looked at goat legs that were recently cut off the dead goat
Found a dead spider in my bed, AND it didn’t terrify me
Was offered to keep a neighbor’s child (happened twice, different families)
Put a baby to sleep J
Danced and (separately) sang “Let it be” to a group of people