"The Problem With Little White Girls (and Boys) Why I Stopped Being A Voluntourist" by Pippa Biddle

So a friend of mine just sent me this post….and it was like WOW.  It really does make me think.  And it's not just about white boys or girls, but people coming from the "developed world" to help the "poor, underdeveloped" people of the world.  I think it's a must read for anyone doing, considering, or invited to Peace Corps.  The paragraph that really hit me was:

"Our mission while at the orphanage was to build a library. Turns out that we, a group of highly educated private boarding school students were so bad at the most basic construction work that each night the men had to take down the structurally unsound bricks we had laid and rebuild the structure so that, when we woke up in the morning, we would be unaware of our failure. It is likely that this was a daily ritual. Us mixing cement and laying bricks for 6+ hours, them undoing our work after the sun set, re-laying the bricks, and then acting as if nothing had happened so that the cycle could continue."

This really hit me because it made me think of all the times I've gone on service projects and built a house or fixed a hospital or build a retaining wall….with no experience!  Yes, we had maybe an hour of training, but is this service really about helping someone else or boosting egos to say "oh, there was that time that I did construction to help these needy people and that makes me good".  This article makes me give what I do a second look…makes me think about what my intentions are in service and how although service is great, service without adequate tools/skills may not be so useful.  Definitely take some time to read this.

Talk to you all next week!!

Cultural Window: Mongolia

Hey Guys!

Not much this week!  Here is a YouTube video giving you a snippet of what life is like in Mongolia (more so on the ger dwelling side of things).  This was made by one of the people in my group!!  Check out her blog here.  Tomorrow I'm going to a Tsagaan Sar celebration and I'm SUPER pumped!  Til next week, баяртай!!

As time goes on..

Hey Guys!

I know…my posts have been late every week.  And to be honest, it's mostly because I literally have nothing to write about!  The biggest thing from the past week is the Peace Corps event I went to.  It was a discussion on the experience of black volunteers in the Peace Corps.  There was a panel followed by a question and answer session.  It was great to hear that volunteers around the world have similar experiences when it comes to race!  Even the volunteers who served in African countries talked about not necessarily racially, but culturally as African-Americans.  It was definitely a great learning experience.  Outside of this event, my week has gone on about the same as the others: pretty uneventfully.  Hopefully I will have more to discuss next week!  By the way,  If anyone has any specific questions regarding my experience, feel free to ask by email or here (I can even make a Q&A post if anyone wants).  Talk to you next week!

The Highlight of my week! (Picture Post)

JANELLE MONAE!!!