Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Poor


When we went through Peace Corps training we were told that we would be helping the poor and under-served. This made sense. It is why we joined. But during that same training we were also told what that meant. It meant that we would living and helping people in places where entire families make less than $2 a day. I can remember the first time I heard this as I thought no one could live off that amount of money. Well, people do all around the world. In fact, the majority of people in this world live on very very little money, but there is a disconnect in a couple different ways that make these numbers skewed.

I would have to say that for the last 6 months I have thought of my community and all of those around it as being poor. When I saw kids washing clothes in the river, dogs barely able to stand they are so mal nourished, and people eating nothing but mashed bananas for dinner it was easy for me to decide that these people needed my help. I've written about it many times in the past, I've talked to other volunteers about it, and I've heard the words “we are poor” out of their mouths on a regular basis. So here is the shocker, they are not poor. Not only are they not poor, there is a very good chance that if there were to be a global disaster that took the world economy with it, these people would be sitting back wondering what the big deal was. On the flip side of that, the rich would most likely be thinking that same thing. What is more, these people do not actually think they are poor either. And they shouldn't. Let me explain.

The Gnobe people along with the other indigenous people in this area were not always sedentary as they are now. They traveled and used what they needed from the forest and land and moved on, letting the things that they used grow back. Soon came the point where the either the government or the enticement of jobs kept people in one spot which leads to what we have today. This new world of staying in one spot not only started creating problems with sanitation and clean water, it started changing the communities by way of influence. If you talk to an elder in my community they will tell you that their elders lasted much much longer than current people did and they will tell you why. Food and drink. When a group of people spends thousands of years eating nothing but fresh meat and pure organic roots, fruits, and vegetables and is not exposed to toxins, they tend to live long lives. Especially when there are no roads and “hiking” every day is part of getting from one place to the next. The “modern” food here has transformed a once independent group of people to a dependent on doctors and mounds of bad food.

Coming back to food and the meaning of being poor. I would like to ask how much food you grow and if there were ever a disaster, would you survive on what you grow. For me the answer is no. I'm growing one native root in my yard and that would last me about a day of food. These people would last for as long they needed. A common thought is that the poor rely on the rich for help. Well, handouts are plentiful around here and telling these people they are poor while handing it to them with a smile is common. The more handouts, the more they rely on it. The more they are told they are poor, the more they believe it. You can mark my words, if the global food production stopped today, it would be the rich and middle class most hurt. Not these people. Now this is not the same all around the world and there are very poor people with no chance to grow their own food, but for my case I believe that the word poor just does not fit.

When it comes to cultural differences, it is just that. You can walk into a community as I have and others before me, and see the trash on the ground, kids with no shoes, and people using only candles for light and think wow these people need a lot of help. I now know that this is wrong. These are not “poor” things, they are cultural things. I've seen people with three pairs of shoes at home walking around barefoot, the trash is a by product of the western world that these are not accustomed to dealing with yet as everything used to be organic, and candles provide just enough light to not attract too many bugs but still light a house. Now I'm sure if these people had the money a new pair of shoes and a solar panel would be nice, but that is like me saying that I have an old computer and I'm poor because I don't buy a new one.

Not only do these people get offended by the word “poor” when it is in reference to them, they can give you examples of other natives that really are poor because they sold the land they had to subsist for a payday, and are now working for others to pay to rent a place and buy enough food. I now realize, that in my particular case, the people here were not looking for a volunteer to come in and save them from the perils of starvation and famine, they just wanted someone to help them with their business so they could help themselves pay for the doctors and medicine they now need...