One of the objectives of the Peace Corps is to have volunteers integrate into their communities, but I started to question whether the Internet is actually having an adverse effect on my ability to fully integrate within my community.
I arrived in Lesotho in October 2015, and have tried to be flexible, share and learn new skills, but I admit that remaining connected to the Internet has hindered my ability to fully integrate into my rural African community.
Peace Corps staff often warn our host families that Americans like their “alone time” and that this does not mean we are bored or unhappy, it’s simply a cultural difference. But unlike my friend, Ian Mathie, who lived in Africa for thirty years, when snail mail was the main form of communication, most Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) today have laptops.
Ian was fully integrated with the village folk. He spoke various African dialects, lived and ate what everyone else in his village ate, and there am I purchasing data to Google my lesson plans, read the news, and to stay in contact with my three sons, relatives and friends.
The good news is that I am fulfilling the 3rd goal of “The Peace Corps Mission” with my blog, and FaceBook posts which states:
“To help promote a better understanding of other people on the part of Americans.”
WhatsApp seems to be the preferred method of connecting with other PCVs in Lesotho, and several groups have been created to communicate with one another. As a 50+ volunteer, I am not as involved as some of the younger PCVs who communicate daily.
I have added local Basotho to my WhatsApp contacts, and this at least makes me somewhat “integrated.” My counterpart teachers discuss what we’re going to teach on WhatsApp, and how I let the local public taxi driver in my village know that I hope he stops to pick me up.
Being in touch with family, friends and social media, is “safe.” It’s like a security blanket, and I admit that I like that feeling, especially after school, when I can come home and have my coffee and write.
When I lived in the U.S., I was actively involved in promoting my own books, as well as those of others. I also started offering Webinars and videos on book marketing and realized how the Internet allowed me to connect and form relationships with people from all over the world. The Internet was my close friend, and still is; only now, it’s for a different reason.
I admit that my lack of full integration can be attributed to the fact that I am lousy at speaking Sesotho. If I were fluent, I could speak to everyone, and joke with them, but I think that’s highly unlikely during my two years of service.
The good news is Mary, my lovely “host-mother” speaks English, and at least I can say I’ve been accepted within her family. At least that’s a good start; I’m close to my teachers, Mary and her family.
You forget, Sonia, that I grew up in Africa, their cultures are part of my make-up, so it was quite natural for me to settle in to village life as I did because it was ‘normal’ to me. Although you grew up internationally it was in a western cultural context, which was overlaid by years of Orange County life style. So it’s quite understandable for you to feel the need to hang on to the familiar and use your laptop to keep contact.
A lot has changed since I lived alone in the bush and no doubt today I would seem marked differences, what with mobile phones everywhere (they didn’t even exist when I was in the bush), the internet providing instant access to resources unimaginable thirty years ago and so much progress due to the ease of foreign travel and therefore awareness of what and who’s beyond the horizon.
The disadvantage today is that it is less easy for westerners to submerge themselves in an African culture and understand it from the inside. Distractions from one’s own culture keep holding back the necessary commitment, and the people one wants to integrate with are more curious to reach out and know about others and are less inclined to draw you in – except where they can see opportunities for exploiting the interaction to their own benefit. The sad thing is, westerners have taught them greed and a lot of this has been the inadvertent product of well meaning missionaries and over generous tourists shocked by the poverty they discover when the visit and an aid system that is based far more on acquiring political influence than on delivering worthwhile help to people who need it.
You’re doing a grand job, Sonia, and your posts are very revealing as they highlight the disparities between western and Lesotho society. You just carry on doing what you are doing and you’ll leave a worthwhile legacy among the young people you’re working with.
Ian, I did forget that you grew up in Africa. Of course that would make learning the languages so much easier for you, than for me. I just cannot grasp a tonal language, and have no words to associate the Sesotho word to my English, French or Danish.
There is one white Mosotho in my village who was born in Lesotho, and who is of course fluent in Sesotho, and knows the culture. It’s nice to speak about things I don’t understand to him in English.
Sonia Marsh recently posted..Is The Internet Preventing Community Integration?
I have wondered how my experience of years living in other countries would have been different had the technology of today been available then. Part of the challenge was that I had no easy connection to my language, my friends, my family, and what was comfortable and familiar. I’m sure that did allow me a deeper integration into whichever culture I lived in. My desire to nurture those relationships I formed led to many years of writing letters — hundreds of letters. Those letters from my Chinese friends are now in an archive at the Hoover Institution in Stanford University. But you’re no longer living in a world of letters. In some ways, it truly is like you never left home when you go on your computer. You are in several worlds at once, strangely connected.
Very true, Suellen. I also “forget” where I am when I’m writing on my computer. I wake up, and realize I’m in Africa. It’s such a strange feeling.
Sonia Marsh recently posted..Is The Internet Preventing Community Integration?
A better understanding of other people is definitely what you’ve been giving, and that for a long time; to such an extent that it sometimes feels that even I am involved in the PCV mission! Your long-time writing talent has meant that the reporting of facts and events has opened windows into lives that we would normally read about in an anonymous and therefore indifferent way. The dialogue you provoke on important issues leads to increased awareness on our part; that in itself is a great teaching skill!
Thanks, Sonia, for sharing with us.
Wow Carol. That means a lot to me. I suppose the fact that we know each other from our school days in Paris, makes my posts more meaningful to my close friends.
Sonia Marsh recently posted..Is The Internet Preventing Community Integration?