A little bit of a housing identity crisis going on currently. Was glad to have my concerns validated by the new country director this weekend. Don't know what'll happen with all of this, but it's probably up to me to make the first move...and I'm not sure what I want that move to be.
I like where I live...I love Sister Elisabeth, I love my cuisinaire girls...but it's not a good place to be, up on a castle on a hill, not integrated into any community, not a part of any neighborhood or village or anything, seperated in Westerner visitor housing. I've worked and worked to make it my home as much as possible over the past seven months, I've been putting continuous effort into building connections in Lioudougou, in my town, around my school...and a lot of the time, I'm quite happy and comfortable. ...but when I look into my heart and I ask myself honestly, I just don't think that it was a good decision to put me at this boarding school. It wasn't a good idea to put any of us at boarding schools, gating us into our work environments where there is a questionable amount of work for us to do in the first place. I don't want to stir a pot that doesn't need to be stirred. I don't want to fix something that isn't broken. That isn't what the Peace Corps is for.
It was just really nice to have my (very real and important) concerns validated, concerns about where we live and what sort of use we are for our high-functioning, priviliged private schools where the girls have tons and tons of work to do and days that are highly structured. I'm finding a niche, I'm helping the cuisinaire girls, those who have fallen through the cracks a little bit...but a big huge part of the experience here isn't happening for me. And I'm glad Shannon finds this important too...and I hope I can talk to her more about it.
I really like being a Peace Corps volunteer, I really like the people at my school, I really like living in where I live...but some things are just not adding up. And I have to advocate for myself. Here and everywhere.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment