Remembering a difficult time in Africa

Something has occurred today that reminded me of two related incidents that happened while I was living in Zimbabwe.

The first incident happened in April of 2000. I was in my second year of being a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). I was thinking of doing a third year (two years are usual) and so my Peace Corps supervisor set me up with a program whose work it was to get computers and Internet access to the rural areas. I met almost the whole group, with teachers from all over the country, at a conference in Bulawayo, the second largest city. In a meeting, somebody said something about one of the teachers behaving white because they did something smart (with money as I recall). Even though this could be construed as a complement, it felt very wrong. I recall being very sensitive, rightly or wrongly, about race issues when I was in Zimbabwe, and it is easy to trace that back to the USA where we have so many issues with race. (There is a short article on white guilt on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_guilt, and there is more, a lot more!, on the web for the curious.)

Needless to say, I handled the situation really wrongly. There in front of the whole group I said something loud that expressed my disbelief. I might have said 'What!' but it is hard to be certain as I always say this now. It works well with school children. It does not work as well with adults which makes me thing I did use it. Everyone was shocked and surprised at my anger. These people knew each other to some degree but not me. I tried to explain, but I think my initial reaction diluted people's understanding.

The second sitution occurred six months later when I was working with the group full time. The supervisor's brother was giving me and another PCV a ride home in his small truck that had a second row of seats, what we call a 'king-cab.' As I was the first to get out, I asked the people in the back if they wanted to move up with my friend. They said no, and I told the people in the front that, adding to my friend, that the reason was that "They think you stink." She laughed at this and I went inside happy.

The next day the supervisor told me his brother had said I had offended him. I asked why. The supervisor told me that the whites in Rhodesia, what Zimbabwe was called under colonial rule, had often complained that the blacks stunk and would use this prejoritively against them. I told the supervisor that I had had no idea that this was the case and asked him to apologize to his brother for me.

My supervisor was very polite and explained the situation clearly. This gave me a chance to reflect and apologize. I really had meant no harm and was able to express this. however, my comment six months earlier, my 'what!', gave no chance for anybody to reflect or explain. Instead it put everybody on the defensive and created a negative atmosphere.

Living in a foreign country can be a demanding experience. Even though I live in my home country, I work with foreign nationals and this lesson still applies to me and my life.

Early Thanksgiving

Turkey Day came early this year!

Yesteday I travelled out to Long Island by train to Professor Gail O'Connel's house. Her and her husband, Matt, live southeast of Great Neck near the school that Matt works at. They have a nice big house with a nice big yard. Unfortunately it was too chilly for the Taiwanese students to go outside and play baci. Instead, after we arrived, we sat near the fire. I taught a some students how to play backgammon and other students how to play hearts. This was fun.

Matt took me quickly over to his school. The school building looks like an old mansion. A lot of wood there! There was wood panelling up to my shoulder in the halls. Above that there are woodcuttings that all the seventh graders make. We saw some wood carvings that dated back to 1931.

I got to help with the cooking and setting up. After a traditional dinner, we had pumpkin pie that Gail made. Not everybody liked it, but that is pumpkin pie for you. Matt described it as an aquired taste and I would agree with that.

I felt bad, but at 8:00 I had to leave. This was before the cleanup. We left a lot of the O'Connels to do. However, I had to get home--I got home at 10p--so I could get up this morning and go to work at the charter school.

I was stuffed but happy!

Feeling unsociable lately

Even before I went out Friday night and got hit by the Mac truck called Sierra Pale Ale and swore to never drink again (again), I have decided that going out is something that I can forgo more often this fall. This would have been easier to do if I had a weekend job, but, as the job at Staten Island CUNY fell through, no such luck there. I did manage to spend a lot of time this weekend watching Six Feet Under. As a matter of fact, I finished the second season. Because I got the discs from the library, I didn't spend any money watching them. I took a nice walk on Friday (another fine day, another 'last nice day' of the fall?) through the park which somehow took me to a bar later in the evening. One good thing is that I didn't spend money on dinner. One bad thing is that I didn't spend money on dinner. Sometime after midnight I tried to buy something to eat; too little, to late.

I feel like I am rambling here.

new surfing addiction

The other night I was up way late (ok, it was only after twelve but I was still sick) because I found out YouTube has videos of songs I haven't heard in a long time. I was momentarily stuck in the 80's as I poked around looking for old songs. Bad, bad, bad. I was listening to Kate Bush, Intaferon, OMD, and Gary Numan. It was great, although I felt a little compulsive about it. I had five or six tabs open on my web browser (IE7 finally has tabs!) and was going back and forth. I was also using Google to try and come up with the correct names of songs and bands so I wasn't wasting my time futilely searching for the wrong things (I missed spelled Intaferon repeatedly!). One of my favorite techniques is to put in the lyrics in Google and see if the band and song pops up. Actually, I programmed/labeled songs in my iPod once that way because I had used a copied disc once and iTunes wouldn't/couldn't look up the songs.

I've also discovered that the radio stations on iTunes are quite good. This saves me at work where all the music on the computer I use is HipHop. There is only one album that I know I like on the computer: The Miseducation of Lauren Hill. I started to use the radio stations because I woke up at 5am this morning and knew I wasn't going back to sleep (I didn't have to get up until 6:30). I ended up poking around on the computer and found the stations were decent. Now, however, I need to go take a nap before I work tonight.

I'm very full

I'm very full. Maybe that is not the best way to start this blog, but now you won't have to read to the end if you don't want to because that is how it ends.

I dug out my winter coat tonight to go out. Found a Valentine sucker in the pocket. Wonder how long that has been there? Well, it was a mild winter so it may have been from near Valentine's Day. Today was the first day for that winter coat--fortunately Tuesday, Halloween night, was pleasant for the parade which I recommended for most of my students. Maybe I'll read about what they did on their blogs.

I met my friend Courtney on the UWS for dinner. She lives in DC now (actually just Virginia) and surprised me to say she was coming up. I was planning on just couch surfing tonight (and watching Six Feet Under) as I am still feeling a little under the weather, but she was a good enough reason to get dressed. Coming out of the subway at the Natural History Museum I was surprised by fireworks--probably for the marathon tomorrow. We had a nice Indian dinner and then we went to Cafe Lalo. Haven't been there for a while. It was fun. We both had coffee (black, no sugar, mais oui!) and something chocolate (my midnight chocolate was better than her peanut butter mousse!). We saw Michael Moore (the filmmaker) who lives on Broadway at 84th.

After, I walked to the subway. I caught the uptown D (no C service right now) at 81st, the Natural History Museum stop. This was the first time that I actually looked at every animal that is in the tiles on the uptown level. I haven't been to the museum since I first arrived in NYC, four years ago!