coffee.mill

The Other

 

.  Disclaimer: Views presented in this blog are those of Roger German.  They do not represent the views or opinions of the U.S. Peace Corps or the Government of the United States.

                It was in college when I read William Faulkner’s “Go Down Moses” that I first became acquainted with the concept of “The Other.”  I knew, of course, with every fiber of my being what it meant without ever having verbalized the thought.

                It’s those other people, the ones not like us.  Aliens.  A term we use to separate.  On the level of space and time, it would be those who are not earthlings; us against them, “War of the Worlds.”  But then it’s WWII and us against the Germans and the Japanese.  Us against the Latinos coming into the US, or earlier, us against the Italians, or the Irish.  Or Blacks, or Chinese, or Whites, or handicapped.  Or those big city folks from New York City, or from Norfolk, if you live in Pierce, Nebraska.  The others.  Or those not from our extended family.  Or not from our immediate family.  Finally, at the most basic level, all those not self.

                The view of The Other is usually negative, often frightful, and is often the basis of government policies.   It’s tremendously useful for controlling populations and for building vast militaries.  The purpose of military basic training, besides being obviously physical, is to mold the separated selves into a unit that acts as one, responding to orders without thinking, and to strip the humanity from the enemy, so they are cast as The Other and hence, can be killed.  And most governments have pursued this policy for a very long time.

                Governments have always had interest in other countries, and therefore, The Other, but usually with the intent to gain access to the resources,to military posts or to trade routes.  Which is why, when President John Kennedy started Peace Corps in 1961, it was such a radical idea.  The idea of building friendships with The Other.  He did have some history to draw on, from President Dwight Eisenhower’s People to People project in the 50s, but it was still a radical idea. 

                Cynics will sneer that it was still about access and information.  I prefer t o believe not, and I think evidence from the field in general supports the latter.  We are a small group; Kennedy and Shriver had a vision of building to a hundred thousand volunteers a year, and I do wonder how the world would now look if that had become a reality.   We are some two hundred thousand in total who have served on this year of the 50^th anniversary of Peace Corps.  About seven thousand of us in the field this year.

                We go out to The Other in friendship.  And The Other becomes family.  It is true that brother has been killing brother since Abel and Cain.  But creating family tends to bring The Other home.  Makes it harder to vilify and castigate.  Brings The Other into the family when it’s time to circle the wagons.

                I now care about Belize in a way that I could not have imagined 2 short years ago.  I care about the politics, the people, the Barrier Reef, the Maya sites, the Scarlet Macaw.  I am an American, and proud to be an American, but now my heart is connected too, to this country I barely knew existed.  When my son was in junior high school, he did a report on Belize, probably the first time I was really aware of it other than as a small spot of color on the map of Central America.  I was mildly interested, interested in the warm waters, snorkeling, diving on the reef.  But I had no idea of the history, the culture, the people.  And furthermore, I really didn’t care.  I read that Belize City was dangerous, so I knew to avoid that.  I had friends who had floated through some caves and I thought that was cool.  I was 58 when I came to Belize and that was the sum total of what I knew about this country.

                And I know we can’t know all the 192 or so countries in the world, the cultures, the people.

                Peace Corps brings the potential for much change to the countries to which it is invited, for Peace Corps goes only where it is invited.  Volunteers bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to areas that have not had the opportunities of those of us growing up in the US.  So we work on projects in education, health, infrastructure development, business.

                But most importantly to me, we build friendships.  We build those invisible connections that bring The Other into family.  I am so happy that I did not come to Belize as a tourist, nod my head dumbly at the beautiful sunsets, avoid the grit of life, and leave.  I was given the gift of living two years in the culture, trading sweat with Belizeans on crowded buses, sweating through 110 degree days, and nights without air conditioning.   Drinking the local beer right from the freezer, cold cold, and fast, because if you lingered, it was warm.  Laughing.  Worrying through pregnancies that weren’t going right.  Celebrating weddings.  And helping on projects to help ease the small town in which I live into the 21^st century, working with my friend, Mayor Nick, a man I respect and admire.

                I come from a military family.  I know without a shadow of a doubt we will need for years and years to come, a strong military.  But I also know, with every fiber of my being, that finding ways to bring The Other into the circle of family is better than excluding them, believing them to be our enemy without knowing them at all.

COS

 Disclaimer: Views presented in this blog are those of Roger German.  They do not represent the views or opinions of the U.S. Peace Corps or the Government of the United States.

            This week is our Close Of Service (COS) Conference, though my service runs until October 22, two years and three months from when our group first came into Belize.  Three months of training, two years of service.  27 months.  Because Peace Corps is a government bureaucracy like the military, there are forms to fill out, reviews to complete, planning for life outside of Peace Corps sessions, reentry and readjustment sessions, administrative tasks, medical tasks…standard operating procedures. 

            It hasn’t caught me unawares, this winding down process, as I am old enough now to have a sense of how time passes in a breath and a blink, yet it is not without a sense of awe that I experience that process.

            I have become very comfortable here in Belize, and in my Peace Corps role.  It is possible to request an extension, to remain in-country for an additional 6 months to a year, and I considered this possibility, and am fairly certain I could have remained.  But I chose not to, as I think the reasons for going outweigh the reasons for staying.  Most of the work I started here will go on quite nicely without me.  When we are given our assignments, we are given our “counterpart,” or our “partner,” as the term has been changed in the short time we have been here.  Mine is the Mayor of Benque Viejo, Nicholas Ruiz.

            He and I have become good friends and we have shared many battles as we drew swords to cut through impenetrable thickets of red tape planted by the World Bank as they dangle dwindling amounts of money in what began as a BZ $30 million loan to the Government of Belize.  The loan is still $30 million; what comes down to the municipalities is about 2/3 of that; but that is another blog.  We ran a successful campaign to be named the Cleanest Community in Belize.  We have started park renovations, and should begin construction on an Adult Day Care facility yet this summer.  Other things too, but that’s not really what I’m thinking about now as I prepare for COS.

            I’m thinking of how Nick asked if I would consider staying, even though he knew I had made a decision to leave.  How that question came not just from the teamwork we had built, but from the friendship we have developed.  How we will miss the discussions we had in the many late night drives from one meeting or seminar to another.  We are not to become involved in politics as Peace Corps Volunteers, but in my position, I was neck deep in what remains after the politics.  And Nick, as Mayor of the second smallest town in Belize, was daily caught between a rock and a hard place, trying to chart a course between the politics of the day and the reality of the needs of Benque Viejo.

            I’m also thinking about “El Chiclero,” the small newspaper I started in Benque.  When I came to town, I became frustrated because I seldom found out about anything going on until the day of, or many times, the day after.  That, despite the fact that I am daily in the Town Hall where I have an office, and which should be a pretty good placed to find out what’s happening.  So I thought a monthly “newsletter” would be a good idea.  Well, it got out of hand, morphed into a newspaper, and does a pretty good job of tracking the goings on of the town.  But one of the things Peace Corps training instills in us is the reality that whatever you do needs to come from your community.  That way, the community will be better positioned to take ownership.  I really did want the paper to continue on after I left, my journalism background feeling the need for a community of this size to have some objective reporting.  And one of the reasons I was thinking of staying was to ensure El Chiclero would survive.  But that was my own ego getting in the way, and I had to come to that epiphany before I could mentally move on.  I didn’t come to Belize to become editor/publisher of a newspaper, though the thought did cross my mind as COS approaches.

            It is a tremendous opportunity to work at something very close to my heart, an opportunity that President Kennedy saw as a way to bridge the differences between the United States and the world at large, find those human similarities that transcend borders.

            The approaching COS brought this to mind, but I’m not winding down here yet.  I have almost three months more of getting up to enjoy each and every day, before I begin the next chapter, and from here that chapter looks great.  But that’s another blog.

editorial

    This column does not reflect or represent the views of the U.S. Government or of the Peace Corps, and are solely the views of the writer, Peace Corps Volunteer Roger German.

    I'm not sure I've ever mentioned it in this column, but I've been writing a monthly newspaper in Benque... started off as more or less a town newsletter, then morphed into what I would consider a newspaper.  Anyhow, I've never written and editorial for the paper...just didn't think it was my place, that I didn't have the time in grade.  But this issue, the 15th, I wrote one, and thought I'd include it here.  If you're interested in the newspaper, El Chiclero, you can see back issues at www.belizenews.com.  Back at least to January of this year.  Anyhow, here 'tis: 

    As editor of El Chiclero, I have worked hard to maintain high journalistic standards while publishing this newspaper.  Though I work in the office of the Town Council, I have never been pressured to toe any particular party line, nor would I entertain the thought.  Since October of last year, when I first started selling advertising, the paper has been self-supporting, owing allegiance only to the promise of accurate, objective reporting.

    Much of the content of this newspaper has to do with Town business, because my work as a Peace Corps Volunteer with the Mayor and Town Board puts me in contact with that business.  But I do actively search out other news important to Benque Viejo Del Carmen, although since it is not my primary project here in Benque, I am not able to pursue many of the stories that pique my interest.

    For much the same reason, I have not chosen to write editorials, as it is not my opinion that matters here, but my work.  But as I come into the home stretch of my service, with only 4 months remaining, I do have a few observations I would like to share.  And for those of you unfamiliar with journalism, permit me a minor digression here to explain the difference between news and opinion.  Though it is hard to imagine, there are many who confuse the two, not only here but in the U.S. and elsewhere.

    News allows you, as the reader, to gather unbiased information, digest it, and form your own opinion on matters that you might otherwise not be informed on.  Opinion pieces, on the other hand, are written to persuade or influence you, the reader.  Much of what fills the pages of newspapers and the airwaves that passes for news is, in fact, opinion.  There is nothing wrong with opinion as long as it is not passed off as news.

    So this is an editorial, it is not news, and with that, I welcome you into the tangled depths of a Midwestern gringo mind.

    I was walking to the office this morning as two men were working on a pile of sand just off Humble Street where I live.  I would estimate the pile at about cubic 4 yards, about 8 tons of sand, give or take.  They were shoveling it into a wheel barrow, and wheeling it across the road, across a 2 x 8 spanning a ditch, to another pile nearer where, I would assume, they will be pouring footings, laying block and pouring a floor for an addition.

    I walked by, we exchanged pleasant greetings and I went on my way, but I went on my way thinking.  I had recently had a conversation with a Belizean friend who told me flat out “Belizeans are lazy.”  I understood this to be his opinion, but it troubled me, because it has not been my experience here in Belize.   Those two men moving 8 tons of sand are not lazy; I have wheeled sand and concrete and it is not work for lazy people.

    I have watched Belizeans pour a second story concrete floor, bucket by bucket, scaling hand-made bush post ladders with the 50 or 60-pound buckets on their shoulders.  I have gone into the bush to the family farm to chop weeds or gather corn.  I have gone into the bush to chop palms for Palm Sunday, and marveled at the loads the young men could carry through the rough, slippery terrain.  I have burned the midnight oil with your Mayor working on presentations for the World Bank loan process or planning for the Clean Belize campaign.  I have traveled with your amazing back-country guides into rivers and caves, dependent entirely on their expertise and skill.

    Belizeans are not lazy people.  In Benque Viejo Del Carmen, the Town Council has issued 276 Trade Licenses.  That means 276 independent business people setting up shop to try and make a living in this town of 8,000 or so (6,000 if you believe the census, which census few Belizeans believe).  Given half a chance and some training, I believe Belizeans work as hard as any people I have worked with.

    And I think that is beginning to be felt in this country where for 150 years under British rule it made little sense to try to get ahead, because there was little chance to get ahead unless you knew the right people, had the right connections, got the debilitating handouts.  Of course, vestiges of that system remain.  That system is a cancer in most organized societies, including the U.S., and equally hard to root out.

    I have of course run into lazy Belizeans, as I have run into lazy Americans.  But to say that Belizeans are lazy as a people, as a country, has not been my experience here.