The Hardest Job You’ll Ever Love

We thought it was because we had to poop in holes, live without electricity, and eat mush. We struggled, we survived, and now we’re loving it. Then we thought it was because we had to adapt to a new a culture, a new language, to live in a place where we are different and misunderstood. We struggled, we survived, and now we’re loving it.

But yesterday, my role as a Peace Corps Volunteer took on a whole new meaning and I am really beginning to understand what this is really all about. It is not the hardest job you’ll ever love because of those things I had mentioned, though they were and still are significant adjustment challenges. The job is hard because to do it right, you need to understand that it’s not about building that water well. It’s not about charity, or even development. It’s about empowerment, its about capacity, independence, it’s about promoting social justice through encouraging those oppressed by society to find their own sustainable solutions within their own limited resources. It’s not easy. I could easily announce right now that I wanted to build a well, you could send me the money, and I could hire some people to come in to do it. But then what? The villagers did not decide that this was the best solution to their problem, they have no idea how to fix the well, maintain it, or build new ones in the future. They have no idea how to use their own resources, which despite small, can go along way if people have the skills and intrinsic motivation to put them into good use. This country is ashamedly dependent on foreign aid. And that will never change unless the change comes outside the grasp of this charity bubble. If there’s one community that can do these things, its Dombila.

So Peace Corps has money for projects, you have money and supplies you are anxious to give. And I will do my best to make use of all of these resources. But the resources found within Dombila are so much more valuable. There is fertile soil for growing nutritious food. There are motivated children who can education their peers. There are people with skills, ideas, and capabilities that have not reached their full potential. My job then, is to unearth these resources. I take that back. My job is to provide them with the spark to unearth these resources themselves. It is only then that development can be sustainable, that anything I give to the community will renew itself and keep on giving after I leave. Medical Anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer, one of my idols, argues that charity tends to “regard those need charity as intrinsically inferior…and ignore or hide the causes of excess suffering among the poor.” Development, he says, is at risk of making the “rich become steadily richer, and the poor become steadily poorer.” The only way out is to shake the system, to find movers and shakers in the lowliest of people.

This, my friends, is what I hope to do here, in the hardest job I’ll ever love. Of course, there will be projects that will need a jump start with some supplies or funds. But when these ideas begin to develop within my community, I hope it is the formation of a sustainable water sanitation committee, or functional baby growth monitoring program that my villagers seek before the prospect of monetary donations.

Irene is not quite there yet, and now there seems to be a misunderstanding between us beyond language. Tubaniso has enlightened her to the many things that can be done in Dombila, but unfortunately, she does not have faith in Dombila’s people to do these things. It seems like she even does not have much faith in the Peace Corps volunteer as someone that can be effectively innovative. My biggest accomplishment in her eyes, is introducing her to some heath and water sanitation experts and Peace Corps, who she wants to harness and bring to our village so they can build It up for us. No Aminata. We can’t do this on our own. The people won’t work, and we will never find the money.

In a way, it’s scary how much money is donated to Africa each year, and how few people are working closely enough with the communities to understand the most effective and sustainable way these contributions can be used. I’m scared myself to be in a position where I am entrusted with these opportunities. I know you want to help. So here’s how:
-Follow my projects. There will be time when we’ll need funds, but only when the community agrees to put in their own effort and resources to make a project successful. This may take a while. But the more you understand what I’m doing, the more your contribution will mean.
- Participate in cultural-exchange. Send American get-well cards or new-baby cards and I’ll give them to our bed ridden patients or new mothers at the health center. Draw or develop a picture, attach it with a letter and I’ll find you a pen-pal. Pray for the enthusiasm of my villagers, and for my own patience with the slow pace at which it is bound to develop by.
-Volunteer. There are plenty of people just waiting for you to inspire them- all around them. Or you can join the Peace Corps :). It’s the hardest job you’ll ever love.