The Last Word
Peligian, Susan L.
THE LAST WORD Susan L. Peligian Volunteer for Privilege was two years old when President Kennedy's novel idea became a reality in 1961. I grew up watching Peace Corps I commercials, dreaming of...
...I was to help improve the teachers' classroom performance and, ultimately, train a teacher-supervisor from the local Primary Education Inspectorate to continue the program without further Peace Corps assistance...
...Often, I felt as if the villagers regarded me as a walking dollar bill...
...On one hand, they seemed impoverished and in need of the money the Peace Corps paid them for their services...
...The challenge of living without electricity and running water, of abandoning the luxurious lifestyle of the West, appealed to me...
...The name "Peace Corps" has even become an adjective in the Krio language to describe clothes that are muddy, sweaty, and torn...
...She is now teaching and farming in northwest Connecticut...
...The color of my skin and my association with the Peace Corps suggested to them that I had money...
...I had been warned that it would be difficult to initiate interest and support for the workshops...
...It was a depressing and discouraging situation...
...choice of lifestyle in the village made 50 leones a month more than sufficient...
...I was ready for that...
...But if our hygienic habits provoked ridicule, our incomes secured an elite position...
...My assigned residence, for example, was owned by one of the highest government officials in the country: It was a fully furnished seven-room house with indoor plumbing and toilet, ornate windows with screens, a generator for electricity, floor tiles, oriental rugs, and wood paneling...
...These children posed my first dilemma...
...My placement had not been made on the basis of a routine application from the village and education authorities...
...No one from the Peace Corps or the Inspectorate ever attended any of my workshops...
...Peace Corps volunteers, according to the prevalent stereotype, do not wash their clothes or bodies...
...Helping People Help Themselves...
...The Peace Corps had assured me that such consent was a prerequisite...
...My Susan L. Peligian served in the Peace Corps from 1981 to 1983...
...I never reconciled the practices of the Peace Corps with my ideas about volunteerism...
...But I was not prepared for the discovery that my presence in the village had less to do with an objective appraisal of the needs and wishes of the residents than with politics...
...I did not become a volunteer to be considered rich—yet that is exactly what the Peace Corps and the Sierra Leoneans expected me to be...
...This was a far cry from the living conditions promised by the Peace Corps...
...It was true...
...During the six-week training period, each new volunteer was assigned a personal servant—a child from the village who would carry water, sweep floors, wash clothes, fetch beer, or do anything else we wanted...
...on the other, I felt guilty having someone do chores for me that I was able to do myself...
...I looked forward to providing personal assistance to needy and willing people while sharing and learning from their daily lives in a peaceful, productive manner...
...KATHLEEN VOLF> Because of gross mismanagement and lack of moral and financial support from the Inspectorate and Peace Corps offices, the project proved unfeasible...
...The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love" was, in my case, a job made tougher by politics and by policies unbecoming an organization founded to advance humanitarian ideals...
...I grew up watching Peace Corps I commercials, dreaming of the day I could volunteer...
...But shortly after I arrived in Sierra Leone, a former British colony on the West African Coast, I discovered that my interpretation of volunteerism was not shared by all...
...Over the years, the villagers have come to perceive that volunteers—like the British colonists of an earlier time—live a Big Man's life in a poor man's world...
...I eventually found housing more suitable to my basic needs and expectations...
...Within a few days, I was carrying my water and washing my clothes, despite "my girl's" objections...
...Your house will be very modest," we were told, "with cement floors, cement plastered walls, zinc pan roof but without electricity, running water or inside toilet...
...it had been a response to a government official's request—without the consent of the village people...
...At first the villagers were apprehensive, but as time passed, I began to sense their respect...
...With these ideas in mind and heart, I enlisted in the Peace Corps in August 1981...
...I do not know how many Sierra Leones there are among the nations served by the Peace Corps, but I suspect my experience was not an isolated case...
...By the time I left the country, I was receiving a living allowance of 280 leones a month, compared to the average monthly salary of 80 leones earned by the local teachers with whom I worked...
...Mi y project was organizing a math workshop center for teachers from ten area elementary schools...
Vol. 48 • October 1984 • No. 10
