“We are visitors on this planet. We are here for ninety or one hundred years at the very most. During that period, we must try to do something good, something useful, with our lives. If you contribute to other people's happiness, you will find the true goal, the true meaning of life.” - Dalai Lama
Life is short, so with my “nothing
left to lose” attitude I packed my bags and moved to the other side
of the world. The Indonesian island of Java, to be exact. This blog
is not meant to be a piece of creative genius or excellent
literature. It is too document my adventure and share my experience
with friends, family and anyone else who cares to read it. With my
personal disclaimer out of the way, the Peace Corps would like me to
add, “The contents of this Web site are mine personally and do not
reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.”
Now, about me doing “something good,
something useful” during my visit on planet earth... When I first
applied to the Peace Corps, I was hoping to work in a medical or
public health capacity, knowing that other than the pre-med courses I
took, I had little experience in the area. The NYU Peace Corps
recruiter, a friendly laid back grad student, took one look at my
resume and told me I would be perfect for the education division and
that if accepted, I would probably be teaching English.
I am a huge advocate when it comes to
the development of education, but the last thing I thought I wanted
to do was teach English as a foreign language. My interpretation of
the Peace Corps mission was to assist in the development of countries
by providing the manpower necessary to train local people so they can
one day contribute to the development of their country for
themselves. A “development by the people, for the people” type of
mentality. When I got my invitation to join the Peace Corps, I had
trouble finding the correlation between this mentality and my
assignment to teaching English, which felt neocolonialist and
unsustainable.
I found that there were a few problems
with the way I was thinking about the assignment and the Peace Corps
mission. First of all, I was forgetting about parts of the Peace
Corps mission which focused on cross-cultural exchange, which would
take place simply by being in country, interacting with Indonesian
nationals and sharing my experience with those back in the states.
Secondly, the Indonesian government asked for Peace Corps volunteers
to aid in the development of the English Language program. My
assignment, instead of ignoring the local culture, will help students
share their culture and succeed in an ever globalizing world. Lastly,
it was naive of me to think that the only beneficiaries would be the
relatively few number of students I would teach in my two years. Not
only will the students benefit, but teacher would gain new teaching
methods and the community will take part in the cross-cultural
exchange. The list goes on.
It has been about two months since I've
arrived in Indonesia and I am happy to say I can't imagine being
anywhere else in the world right now. Something feels right when I
think about the fact that I will be living here for the next two
years. Everyday as I walk through the village, over looking the rice
patties surrounded by mountains all I can think is how fortunate I am
to be in this country. Like Alysia Harris says, “What is not
beautiful about today?”
Training will be coming to a close in
one week, after which we will swear in as volunteers and leave Batu
for our permanent sites in East Java, West Java or Madura. I am
Bojonegoro bound. My new home will be located in the northwestern
corner of East Java and I could not be more excited to get there and
start experiencing real Peace Corps life.
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Step one in contributing to other
people's happiness is putting yourself in a position to do so.
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