The Second Goal

Even though I am no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer, I sometimes feel I am still working towards achieving the second goal of Peace Corps service, “Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.”  Sometimes this happens without really intending to do so and other times it is an overt attempt to transfer skills and build capacity with my research colleagues.  Regardless, it usually turns out quite different than I expected.  For example, this past weekend Odette has been staying with me in my house.  I met Odette when I lived in Bafut as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  We both attended the Bafut Presbyterian Church and she would come once a week to wash my floors in my house.  When I visited Bafut for Youth Day, she asked if she could come to Kumbo during school holidays.  I said yes, but didn’t think it would actually happen.  Nevertheless, she called two weeks ago and said she was coming this week and how could I say no to such an excited voice on the phone?  She met me in Bamenda on Thursday accompanied me back to Kumbo.  When we got to my house Thursday night I asked, “What do you want to do tomorrow?”  “I will clean your dresses and dry clean your floor” was her reply.  When I heard this, I had two simultaneous thoughts.  First, only an African child would say that on vacation they want to wash clothes by hand and second, I get a break from having to wash my clothes by hand!  But I also wanted her to have fun while she was here and promised her that we would have a slumber party in the evening.  This was my attempt at sharing American culture.  I had a great plan of moving the mattresses from the beds and putting them in the loft and staying up late telling stories and sleeping in and eating pancakes the following morning.  After all, isn’t that what an American slumber party entails?  But this is what actually happened—it took some persuading that sleeping on mattresses on the floor would be fun, she went to bed before me at 9 pm, and after she woke at 6 am she immediately started sweeping my floor.  Well, I thought it was fun, and not because I didn’t have to sweep my floor that morning. 

Unfortunately, I cannot say that my attempts to transfer of knowledge and skills turn out any better.  Last week I was working with some colleagues of Dr. Okwen’s and Nancy’s because they wanted to learn about qualitative research methodologies.  I wasn’t exactly prepared to go over the mechanics of the process as I thought the trip to Bamenda would be about coding our data, not giving a crash course in health behavior change theories.  After the few hours of working with them on Tuesday and Wednesday, I’m not sure they really understood what I was saying.  Upon further reflection I was reminded of my bad habit of assuming because I understand how something works, everyone else does too and make too many leaps and assumptions in my teaching.  Instead, I think I should take a cue from the following picture:

This paper was posted on the stall of a flushing toilet in a training center.  I think many Cameroonians from rural areas come to the training center and may never have used a flushing toilet.  At first I found it humorous, but later realized it actually is a very good teaching tool because it provides step by step instructions and doesn't assume the reader has any previous knowledge or experience with using a flushing toilet. 

Maybe whenever I find myself working on the second goal my mantra should be, “Look to the toilet!” 

Men and women confronting change are never fully prepared for the demands of the moment, but they are strengthened to meet uncertainty if they can claim a history of improvisation and a history of reflection.

Mary Catherine Bateson, Peripheral Visions