Petites and Varying Philosophies on Peace Corps Service

Thursday, May 16, 2013

            I saw for the first time the other day what I had only seen the product of before.  A dozen little girls came into my yard, singing and chatting, swept up all the leaves, put them in bags, and left.  Usually I had just come home and all the leaves would be gone.  I talked with them a bit while they were there, but it just took a few minutes and they were done.  I don’t think they got paid for it; it looked like they were saving the leaves for something, maybe even stuffing the bags for something, I’m not really sure. 

Either way, you can use ‘petites’, as we call little kids, to do pretty much anything.  When we have parties we can send them off to get cases of beer, cigarettes, ingredients for food that we are missing, to do dishes, or whatever else you need.  When went to the Gorges de Kola last time – basically a deep, narrow, canyon – we had a petit lead us.  When you don’t have any work for them to do anymore, you just give them a few hundred CFA depending on what they did, and they are on their way.  Even when we go to the bar we can send petites off for sachets (little bags) of water or whatever else we want.  It is definitely a great perk of being in Cameroon. 

Over the past few days I have been working on my Volunteer Reporting Framework (VRF, at least I think that’s what VRF stands for), a report every PCV has to turn in three times a year to describe the work we are doing, our integration, problems we are having, etc.  That and discussions with other PCVs in country got me thinking about the different ways that people see what their Peace Corps service should be like. 

There are a lot of different opinions on what your life should be like in the Peace Corps.  Some think that real Peace Corps service means that you have to live in a small village, have dinner most nights with local families, and leave post as little as possible.  I wanted to go into the Peace Corps for 4 main reasons: 1) To help people; 2) To immerse myself in another culture; 3) To learn another language; and 4) To have an adventure.  I feel like I am accomplishing all of these goals living in a way kind of similar to how I lived in America. 

I have changed the way I act a lot – I say hi to almost everyone that pass in the street, I talk to my neighbors and other people a lot more often than I normally would, and I just go on walks around town everyday.  However, I don’t really want to have dinner with random people every night.  I want my house to be my private area; I don’t want to have a bunch of kids or other people in here.  I’ve always valued my personal space, and I don’t think that I need to change everything about myself because I’m living in another country.  I can still integrate and help people and live like myself. 

The biggest thing that I’ve realized is that you can’t come into this with a lot of expectations.  People either expect too much of themselves or expect too much out of what their service should be.  I don’t claim to be an expert on how everyone should approach Peace Corp Service, but I do know what has worked well for me.  I’ve of course had my down times since being here, but overall I’ve been happy.  I think it’s because the expectations I’ve had for myself and for my service have been limited to those four reasons I listed earlier for wanting to be here – those and to just do the best that I can. 

It probably doesn’t help that I’m a cynic, but I know I won’t change the world while I’m here.  I know that Cameroon or even just Guider won’t drastically change because of what I’m doing here.  That doesn’t mean that I won’t make some change, even if it is just in the worldview of some people.  The first goal of Peace Corps is to help the people of interested countries meet their need for trained people.  That is the main work we are doing here, but that is only the first goal. 

Goal 2 is what I do everyday by walking around talking to people and acting how I would at home – to share American culture with your host country.  If I completely changed the way I acted, then I wouldn’t be doing that. 

Goal 3 is this right here; sharing the culture of your host country with people back in America.  Hopefully, every time I post a blog, send an email, write a letter, or have a skype date, I am increasing the knowledge and interest of the people I talk to. 

The problem is, it’s a lot more difficult to accurately measure the progress of goals 2 and 3.