oh la dee

Now has officially been the longest time I’ve ever been away from home. Without seeing a familiar face or place. It’s strange because although the homesickness has been finally setting in more, that first fact doesn’t seem real.

Second week of GMC down. What an improvement. Today and yesterday were pretty great. Today I brought Monopoly since one of the best English speaking girls asked for it, and what I saw unfold as about 7 girls played it, perhaps, reflects a little on the culture I have started to assimilate into. So after passing out the money (I decided to play banker instead of being an active player),  (Fatimatoubest english speaking girl) took the property deeds and just randomly passed out an even number to every player. I didn’t know if she was doing this because she was taught to play this way, or perhaps maybe because they wanted to play a speed version, however, once I said, ok, someone roll, she stopped me to clarify that they were going to first trade deeds with eachother. To see what she had in mind by this, I just said, oh yah, ok, like I knew that step of the game and had just forgotten,  Btw, none of the other girls had ever seen or played this game, so she was explaining everything as we went along. So they started to trade to try to get the most cards of the same color (cause, in case I have to remind anyone, you can build houses and hotels on properties of the same color, if you own all of them). One girl wanted a deed from a girl who didn’t want any deeds from her, so the first girl said, ok, fine I’ll give you 51 dollars for it, and she proceeded to buy the trade just like that. Of course the selling girl didn’t realize that that property was worth way more, because she had never seen this game or heard its “rules.” Anyway, they didn’t get too far into the game, but it was so entertaining to watch them interact. I was also able to appreciate the education value of this classic board game just a little bit more.

Ashley came the second half of this morning and gave a great English lesson that also tied it dehydration (from the health lesson they learned yesterday) and decision making. I honestly, like I said above, just love watching these girls talk and argue, and figure out solutions to the problems we give them. There is always the girl who will say what the teacher wants to hear, or what she thinks is the “right” answer, and there always is a girl who will act like she’s too cool and whisper under her breath the truth, that which she would not say in front of the teacher. Anyway, I’ve decided that I will leave all the physics, english, health, business, math and other academic sessions for people I ask to help me with, so that I can focus on leadership courses and life skills. And of course, art.

Today was also really awesome because, thanks to Dave, we had a meeting with many of the local NGOs here in Aleg and were able to make some new contacts. Tomorrow I am going to introduce two women who want the same program (computer education), but don’t know each other. I also spoke to a man who also works with girl’s education, and when I told him my idea for putting together another GMC, except for younger girls (ours right now is for the equivalent of 10th, 11th, and 12th graders), he said, when are you going to do that project?? When you do, come find me! Overall, the meeting was very positive with a very open attitude that everyone has information that the others need, and working together is in our best interest. Anyway, it’s definitely made me more stoked about my future work here. My APCD (program coordinator) comes in one week and I am going to talk to her about the possibility of getting Internet at my GMC, and then working with other mauritanians to facilitate computer internet courses, something that is highly needed here.

My night ended with a delicious dinner cooked by the one and only Fatou, the woman Ashley will live with. She is Senegalese Mauritanian, and is by far one of the biggest sweethearts we have met in Aleg. She also wears jeans on occasion. <3

Algunas Noticias

I had one of my mexican friends come visit for the weekend, hence the title of this post.

So, the GMC is now open. We have now officially had a full weekend of classes. The turn out was a bit lower than I expected or could have hoped for, but with each day, I see what I can improve on, and I’m constantly coming up with ideas. Thanks to everyone for the reassuring comments, I know I am definitely my harshest critic, but aren’t we all? Dave gave an awesome health lesson. Ashley gave a great English class, and Zeinabou seems like a natural at teaching computers.

One of the things I love about this country is that you can go wandering around your city and expect to be welcomed into a random person’s house. I had gotten used to this feeling until I brought it up with my mexican friend and we couldn’t stop laughing at how, that is something definitely unique to this country. There is no way I could walk around my town back in California and wait to be bismillahed by any old person hanging out on their yard. Here, if you have no lunch, you can just walk around right before or during lunch, and it’s 90% likely you will be asked to join. This is just typical Mauritanian hospitality, which is partially related to their Islamic faith (one of the pillars of Islam says Muslims must give alms to those in need), but I also think it has to do with this continent of Africa (hard to explain what I mean by that), however it works out pretty well if you are just a poor volunteer with not a lot of money to spend on food. In fact, yesterday, I saw three people who specifically asked me after I had met them once before, why I had not come back to hang out and spend the day with them since then. Or why I had at least not had tea with them. This happened at two boutiques and with one woman I passed on the street.

Janna, Ashley, Sean, Lily and I have found a man to tutor us in Hassaniya. He’s pretty great because he speaks English and French, and we try to have niqaash siyaasia (political discussions) with him. I feel like I’m finally starting to learn some vocab I can use on more educated people as opposed to the simple repetoire of day to day words. Well, I think I’m off to make some flashcards and after that I’ll probably go visit at least a couple of the maybe 20 people I owe a visit to. Hasta Luego!

Break Aleg, Amanda

of how my GMC opening went, which probably from an outsider’s perspective, went alright, but since this is my blog, and I’m feeling very honest, I’m going to give you the total raw inside scoop of everything I really felt.

Hands down, this was probably one of the scariest things I’ve done in my entire life. #1, I have never opened or been in charge of anything in my entire life, not in the least as big as a center for girl’s education. (that is probably why I kept turning to zeinabou for answers—which probably caught her off guard). #2, let’s keep in mind where I am, what language I don’t really speak, and what culture and religion I don’t really know. The important thing to tell myself is there is a first time for everything, and you learn and get better only the more you do something, and of course the first time is going to be so incredibly nerve racking. But you have to remember, if you don’t let yourself get down, and keep persevering, you will get better. I just have to follow through by putting together some awesome programs to show that the opening doesn’t reflect everything the center has to offer. I am honestly going to try my hardest to create the best center, and I feel like I owe to it to this community, for letting me, a complete stranger, use their facilities, talk to their girls, and cast an influence on girls ed in Aleg and RIM.

Alright, my biggest critique was organization. I definitely could have planned the session better. I should have had more complete clear questions that I practiced with Zeinabou ahead of time. I think I planned to have questions, just never got around to finding them, or found them and then forgot them, or some other stupid reason that is entirely my fault and could have been avoided. Other than that, I wish I would have been there at 4pm sharp, ready to go. How embarrassing was it that the director of the lycee was already there at four. Someone in Peace Corps once told me, no matter how late Mauritanians are, you, you always have to be on time. I think the reason I slipped up on this so badly today was because I was with Zeinabou and I felt like, I should follow her lead. Her lead was the late lead, which I realized was not a good one to follow. It’s so hard when you think because she is Mauritanian she knows best, but I also have to remember I am older than her and also do have my own good insight. So at 5pm, after waiting about 45 minutes for people to arrive, I decided to take charge, and start the opening which was scheduled to start at 4pm. However, I don’t even feel like I did that right, because, then, people showed up even later, which I knew would happen. But, there were even people who showed even after it had ended. Ugh, I just don’t know what to think, was that good or bad, my fault or theirs, because here, my logic, or my sense of what is wrong and right, really has no basis because this isn’t the culture I grew up in, right and wrong here could be wrong and right. And like I said, my counterpart knows more than me, so I followed her lead. Ugh, I definitely feel so frazzled and in a bit of daze.

Overall, I think I covered the important questions and got many relevant answers. For example, math, French, English and science are the hardest subjects. The director of the lycee thought many students do not succeed well in computers and physics because they are taught in French or English mainly. The girls want to work with a journalist in town which is a really cool idea. There was one girl who stood up to speak to give her opinion who I think is probably going to be a great asset to the center because #1 she had lost her voice, and still stood up and spoke #2 she did this in front of all male teachers and the director and all the other girls and #3 what she said had a lot of substance. I also gave a short speech in Hassaniya which surprisingly wasn’t as difficult as I had expected. Zeinabou did great overall, and the whole session would have not even come together had it not been for her. All the teachers who were present stood up and spoke as did the director. Drinks and muffins were a good idea. However, not a single parent showed up, which was a shame since the invitations were for the parents and not even the girls.  Anyway….

I guess what I could have done was asked Joel or Chelsea, the two other second year GEE volunteers in my region for advice. Damn, why am I only thinking about that now. Well, what’s done is done, like I said, now I begin programming, which is really the meat of this operation. Wish me luck. Lots of it.

OBAMA JA

I’ve been hearing that phrase from Mauritanians everywhere I go since two days ago. If you translate it literally, it means Obama and then the past tense of “to come.” But what it really means is he won. I’ve been working in this copyshop since the beginning of this week, since that is where my counterpart has been. We get a pretty educated crowd in there, consisting usually of teachers and lawyers. One lawyer basically told me in depth that the great victory in this whole election, is that it just goes to prove that democracy is alive and true in America. America the place that brags about it’s democracy, finally has a president that the whole world can see and feels was voted to the head of our country through truly democratic means.

Last night some of the volunteers and I were drawn around my laptop and watched Obama’s speech off of youtube (the internet is a wondrous creation). We felt a little like the people he said in his speech were huddled around radios in the far corners of the world.

Today when I walked to the market with Lily and her American friend from NKTT, there were literally kids on rooftops yelling out Obama’s name to us as we walked by. I kid you not. I could not have captured the excitement of people in Mauritania better than with that example.

From our perspective here, as new volunteers, in an African Islamic country, his victory could have not come at a better time.

In less worldly news, the first day at my GMC is tomorrow! I am very very nervous, but also very happy that it seems to have all come together smoothly thus far. No major setbacks. People seem interested. My counterpart is amazing. I even bought a new mulaffa to wear with some very bling earrings. Obviously this prior sentence just goes to show how integrated I have become. We made invitations (for the selected girls and teachers and other important members who can help us in the community) and brochures and will provide refreshments. I will even give a speech in Hassaniya, or at least whatever dialect it comes out to be once the words leave my less than fluent lips.

In a way, I feel kinda proud of myself because, this is the first time I’ve ever really been solely in charge of anything like a whole center. Not even in the states had I tackled a project this big, let along tried to do it in a whole different language and culture. Like I said, my counterpart has been my saving grace when it comes to everything, like knowing the right people to invite and doing all the translations, aside from just being really fun to hang out with. Thanks to everyone who is still onboard and reading these posts. Miss everyone back home so so so much. *muah*

Until next time.

Notes from a conference

• The point of this five day animation is to amend a health book for adolescents put out by UNICEF and UNFPA called Grandier en Harmonie. The book is targeted to Africa as a whole; our job is to make it Mauritania specific.

I attended day 4 of the 5 day conference yesterday. It was held in Hassaniya and French. Apparently when Ashley and Dave had gone the previous days, the members of the committee were split up into small groups to discuss the context of each chapter. Day 4 found all members of the committee sitting at a conference table with the book projected on the wall via electronic media.

First up we discussed a picture of a pregnant woman that was printed in the chapter En pourtant je pouvais eviter la grossesse (how to avoid unwanted pregnancy). The main issue was whether the image should be published or not, and if so, should it be published in some versions and not others. There are three versions of the text to be distributed: French, Arabic, and Digitally. Some arguments against including the pregnant woman in the book were that figures are not usually portrayed in Islam; the woman had a sad expression on her face, and muslims do not see pregnancy as something sad or negative.

Once we moved on from this debate (which lasted over an hour) we moved onto the page on contraception. The main concern was whether the layout was clear enough to facilitate a lesson? One man  thought that because this chapter was extremely important, there should be a main conclusion at the end of each mini section/activity to make everything extra clear and coherent. Life skills was brought up at this point, as was child spacing. In Mauritania, as I’m sure with many impoverished African countries, child spacing, aka, the amount of time between when a mother is pregnant, and then pregnant again, is a big issue and problem. Often that gap is much too small and many women have, say, 4 or 5 children in a row. Literally one right after the other.

There was another image of a man and a woman that was discusssed in length. The proponents of including the image argued that it would be successful in shocking the readers. However others thought that the image was religiously insensitive and that shocking the readers was inappropriate and unneccessary.

Lately, I’ve  been feeling the most homesick I’ve felt since I’ve been here. It is getting a little cooler though, which feels amazing at night. I can’t even tell you the joys of being able to sleep with a sheet over me again.

School “Officially” Starts

I FOUND A PLACE TO LIVE! IL HUMDULILLAH HATTE!

So I am going to move out tomorrow morning. It will be sooo good to start living with a family again. I swear I can forgo a refrigerator, shower and Internet for some peace of mind and quality integration.

Ok, I just need to write, one thing that is so great about being here is that every day is completely random. Set schedules really don’t even matter. In the least. For example, one day Ashley and I decided we wanted to wander around this far neighborhood in Aleg. On our way there, a family with a lot of commotion going on in their house welcomed us in because they were going to be having a wedding there. Next thing I knew, I was dancing Moor style with 10 new Mauritanian people I had not know the previous hour. I wish I could have seen the people’s faces who walked by the window and looked in on it. And to be honest, that is just a taste of how little I know what the next moment will hold here. Or, take for example that school officially started on Sunday. When I say officially, I mean it was Ashley and one boy wandering the Lycee and wondering where everyone was. The school director even explicitly told her that if she was too tired at all the first weeks, she didn’t have to come in. He was only starting to put class schedules together when she found him on Monday. Thus is life in Mauritania.

Two days, two big Parties.

Alright, let me take a second to break it down.

Il iid il Vetr

So, for those that have been reading this, you know it has been Ramadan. Ramadan is a time for Muslims to reflect on the poverty of others in this world, namely those who don’t have food to eat whenever they please. So Muslims observe this full month by fasting during the daylight hours. What this means, is that for the very first month I was at my new home, people were a lot more tired and grumpy than normal. I couldn’t go and sit and have tea with them and talk about how zeyn(great) Mauritania and Aleg are. Sometimes in odd scenarios, because Mauritanian hospitality will prevail, I would get drinks and cookies to eat by myself, which always felt a little bit awkward . Anyway, Ramadan ended 3 days ago, and because Mauritanians worked so hard to get through this whole past month, they have a celebration for the whole day after it ends. Unlike Ramadan, they eat so extravagantly, wear their best newest clothes. Probably one of my favorite parts, was watching every single kid in Aleg in brightly colored, perfectly unwrinkled clothes. Mauritanian children’s clothes resemble the hue of sand most of the time. Wherever you go, you are Bismillahed(welcomed). You are fed lots of Zrigg(milk, water and sugar), tea, Tagene (meat, potatoes, and onions), dates and butter. Simply all the best. For dinner, the Pulaar Family’s 3 young daughters came all the way to our house to demand our attendance, so Sean, Ashley and I made our way over at about 5:30ish. When we got to their compound, it was kind of deserted, and we were stuck in a room with a TV by ourselves. Mauritanians will do this to their guests as a sign of hospitality. However, I was feeling antsy, and wanted to get out and visit other families, since today was the iid. After I convinced the other two to come, we ventured our way to this women’s house who was good friends with the previous volunteers. We sat and chatted with her for a little. Then Ashley suggested we visit Zeinabou, my counterpart. We arrived uninvited (that really could mean less here) and were greeted with Zeinabou’s smile and food.

I have not really talked about Zeinabou at length quite yet, but she is a firecracker. She simultaneously tells me she thinks I’m beautiful and misses me, but also that she wants to kill me in a year. She has 2 houses where she puts her 100 lovers. 50 go into a house for kissing only, and the other 50 go into a house for everything else. I probably have never met anyone else in my life quite like her, and that isn’t just because of the cultural gap. Anyway, she also happens to be an AAmazing cook. We showed up to her house right as the Education Inspector did; we had met a couple of days ago. He is the cousin of her Aunt’s husband. That’s another thing about Zeinabou, everyone who I meet who seems like a good candidate to work with, I can probably just assume is related to her.

So after being at Zeinabou’s for an hour and half, we returned to the Pulaar family. This time we sat outside with the rest of the family, watched soccer on the tv that was dragged outside to face the enclosed patio-ish area. They fed us delicious tagene with delicious bread and sauce. Mmmmm it was good. Then they gave us one of the most unusual drinks that I think I could ever admit to liking. It is bissap (a red drink made from boiling down Hibiscus like flowers) with coughdrops melted in. It tastes like liquid Riccola, and feels soooo good going down. Janna and I actually recreated it last night after we had lost our voices. Why did we lose our voices you might be wondering? Well, let me tell you about day two.

Rabiya’s Urse

Since the 5 of us arrived in Aleg, we have managed to spread out and make friends with people here and there. However, aside from the Pulaar family, and Rabiya, a women who lives with her family under a huge Khayma(Mauritanian tent) kitty corner to Lily and Ashley, no one really comes to the American Houses because #1 we have dogs, and Mauritanians generally do not like dogs, and well, there isn’t really a number two, they just are quite scared of dogs. Rabiya however, has come over numerous times, just to sit, and say hi, and find out how we are doing, and to help us with our Hassaniya . She is a great teacher and friend thus far, and since day two of meeting her, she told us she wanted all of us to go on her honeymoon with her and her husband. I wasn’t there when this statement was made, so I’m not sure how much was lost in the translation, but I can safely say, she very well may have said this.

Anyway, at her wedding yesterday, from the moment we arrived, we were all kept within close proximity of her the whole night. I should probably explain how a Mauritanian wedding works, since I can be fairly sure that none of you know, unless you have been blog stocking. Ok , where to start. Well, they set up a big area for lots of people, family, friends, community members to gather under. First people just sit together and socialize. We were able to meet one of the previous volunteer’s mothers. I felt in a way, this event was one of the first in which we weren’t just newbies in Aleg walking through town. However, it was also a little sad for me because I didn’t have a family, a Mauritanian one to sit with, and identify with, and make me feel like less of an outsider. This really made me miss my CBT site and family A LOT. So, after a little while, a circle was formed and women and men started taking turns dancing in the middle. Mauritanian dancing is not the type of dancing you imagine when you think of African dancing. You can be the best dancer on the dance floor by just flicking yours hands a certain way, and that’s it. It’s really not aerobic or intense at all, which is pretty succinct with the way of life in general here.

So, after sitting around for a bit, we were lead to a room where only women are allowed to see the bride getting here make-up done. No one is allowed to see the bride at all until the next day. This means that at the party she wear a black veil the whole time. Occasionally she’ll pull you under her mulaffa, but that’s it. After being at the bride’s for a while, about 20 cars are gathered for all the guests to be transported to the husband’s house, where the rest of the party will continue on through the night. We were all shoved like sardines into one car. The groom’s house was not far, but we of course had to drive all around through town honking, making this high pitched noise where you move your tongue back and forth really quickly (which is really hard to do), clapping and yelling. It was pretty awesome being in one of the cars, after seeing so many wedding cars drive through M’Balal.

Once we got to the rajel’s(man’s) house, we danced for a couple hours. The Mauritanians loved it, like they always do, and told us we danced great. We ate tagene. We drank some of the best zrigg I’ve had in this country. The walk home across town in the minuit was quite pleasant. We came back the next day to take pictures with her and her friends and to give her gifts. We found out a little too late the only acceptable gift is money.

I’m getting a little bit more and more excited as each day goes by because I’m starting to meet and find a lot of potential work partners and projects. Like today Janna, Ashley and I walked over to one of the Co-Op’s garden with a women named Howa who has a internet cafe here. She said the garden needs a better way to access water since right now their is no robinet near it.  I also started tutoring a girl today who lives nearby.

I squiggled “jazz tycoons swindled her core vibrantly.”

I’m going to try to update more often with more picture posts. In order from top left counterclockwise: 1)Beyti: the kitten Janna adopted when we thought we were going to see a room for me to rent (chambre can sound an awful lot like chat over the phone). Her name means Room in Hassaniya. 2)North Brakna region rules. 3)Which “peanut” doesn’t belong? 4)All those bumps on the wall aren’t really bumps. They are locusts!

This is what a real sandstorm looks like about 2 minutes before it hits you (pretty much the same exact thing you see in those mummy movies).

Bugs Galore, and more

THe amount of insects that have recently shown up, is quite frankly, just completely ridiculous. There are blister beetles, june bugs of every known size, stick bugs, and those are just the ones I’m able to identify. Oh yah, there are also locusts and frogs (1/5 of the plagues that were brought down on Egypt, might I remind you). And when I mean there are a lot of them, I don’t even think exaggerating would do how many there are justice. I can count at least 6 blisters on my body from the beetles (i do use my mosquito night to sleep in, i swear). They all come out at night, and lately the locusts have been hanging around during the day as well. Dry season, I am sooo ready for you.

Today was an eventful-ish day, and tomorrow promises the same busyness. I took Liz to the tailor. She is down from Mocta Lijar to get clothes made and, of course see all her favorite Aleg faces. I’m starting to get closer to a lot of Mauritanian women lately, like for example, the tailor. When I went to visit her 2 days ago, I stayed and chatted for a bit. She told me that she used to have a bf of 5 years, but then he left to the US. We stumbled upon the topic of marriage because one of Mauritanian’s favorite question to ask is: hejella wella mithayma? This means, are you married or single? If you answer single, the almost automatic question that follows is, so are you looking for a Mauritanian husband? I usually am able to dodge this question by saying I am here to work, and I have a LOT of work. Anyway, after that, Liz and I got sandwiches at the only restaurant that any volunteer knows of in Aleg. Half a sandwich, which is a decent portion is only 100 ougiya. I discovered this “fast food” joint by talking to some Mauritanian girls who’s mother owns the place. After that, came back to the regional house, ate, played a quick game of Hassaniya memory with Ashley and then headed over to Zeinabou’s house to hang out and chat. She is my counterpart for the GMC. She is great, and has the best, sassiest sense of humor. That’s another thing I’ve noticed about Mauritanian women specifically. They love their sass. The bigger your attitude is, the sooner you’ll be accepted. I hope some of the attitude I’m developing in speaking Hassaniya rubs off and carries over when I am back in the states. I am pretty sure some of the other habits I’ve picked up since I’ve been here will also be brought back(not so much intentionally either), and will just create really awkard situations. For example, clicking at people to agree with them, or snapping at them to get their attention, or grabbing their hand when they said something awesome. I actually can’t wait to see my friends reactions to these new gestures.  After Zeinabou’s house, Sean, Ashley, Dave and I walked to Taiba (where Ava (agfo lives)). It’s the little brousse community out about 2 kms. On the way out of town, Ashley and I stopped to talk to Fatimatou, the vegetable lady who wants me to get her a notebook and teach her english. She is a sweet lady, and explained to me a little about how the market works in Aleg.

Yesterday I met these girls who’s mom is part of a co-operative that runs a boutique just a block from the regional house. Their names were Fatimatou and Mariem. Sidenote: since being in Aleg, I’m pretty sure I’ve met at least 7 Fatimatous and at least 5 Mariems. These girls were sooo fun to hang out with. Remember how I was talking about the attitude up above, yah, well these girls were chalk full of it. ANDDD, the best part was that the older one who is 18, knows English prettty well. She definitely has a lot of common english catch phrases down. I’m excited to hang out with them more. I told them I was looking for a room and they graciously said I could move into their room. Even though I knew it was a joke, it still felt sincere.

Overall, the more women I talk to and the more I explore, I feel like Aleg has very fertile soil for planting almost any developmental ideas I have thus far. I can’t wait for Ramadan to end, and for things to normalize, so I can figure out what my day job really will entail. However, on the same note, I cannot believe Ramadan is almost over. Sometimes I still feel like I just arrived in Aleg. My time here is going to fly by! I just know it.

P.S. Thanks to all my readers who come here to see how I’m doing. There are stats for how many visitors I have, so even if you don’t leave comments, I know how many views I’ve had, so keep it up! I miss everyone and hope all is well in your lives.

PC related Article

Damien (right under Obie-our country director) sent all the PCVs this article. I thought it was worth sharing here:

The Technologies of Peace
N.J. Slabbert is International Editor of Truman Publications, a Brussels-based group focusing on geopolitical, technological and economic analysis. He also writes on urban thought and policy for the Urban Land Institute, a research and publishing group active in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. He is a former Reader’s Digest senior editor and staff writer.

Slavery was once called “the peculiar institution”, but a better candidate for this title may be the Peace Corps. Current geopolitics make this a good time to probe the Corps’ peculiarity, as prelude to a long overdue reconceptualization of what is arguably the most underused federal entity. An imaginatively reinvented Peace Corps could powerfully promote US interests in a period when perceptions of American motives are increasingly relevant to global realignment. It could also capitalize on an unprecedented opportunity to avail US soft power of a resource historically associated with initiatives of war rather than peace: high technology.

This article draws on three significant bodies of government experience: those of former US President Jimmy Carter; of a former Vice Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral (Ret.) William A. Owens; and of Ambassador JR Bullington, Director of the US Peace Corps in Niger since 2000. All three generously discussed their thoughts on the role and future of the Peace Corps with me and thanks are due to all three for their cooperation.

“THE PEACE CORPS IS IN THE FOREFRONT OF OPPORTUNITY.”
In a personal interview filmed at the Carter Center in Atlanta in September I asked the former president how much could be reasonably expected from the Peace Corps by way of altering the world’s perception of the US, especially in Islamic areas. He told me America’s image “certainly can be affected in areas of the world that now look upon the US unfavorably.” Just two days before our interview, Carter said, he had returned from visits to Mali, Nigeria and Ethiopia (90%, 50% and 45%-50% Muslim respectively), and there were some regions of those countries “where the US had a very unfavorable image”. The Peace Corps had volunteers in all three countries, he said, “and I think they could be a good avenue towards putting forward the best possible image of America”. This image would associate the US with justice, peace, humility, service and compassion. “To me those are the characteristics that historically have made our nation a great one. But in recent years we have seen that that list of characteristics, at least among some people, has become very doubtful. I think that the Peace Corps can correct that misconception of the basic motivations of most citizens of my country.”

Carter noted that he may be the only person in the world whose mother and grandson had both served in the Corps: “The Peace Corps means an awful lot to me personally.” He is in favor of expanding the Corps because he and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter “go to some countries that are desperately in need, and the leaders of those countries appeal to me as a former president.” He would like to see “a greater allocation of funds for the Peace Corps” because in national security terms — “that is, reducing the animosity of poverty-stricken people around the world toward America” — the Corps is “in the forefront of that opportunity”.

Carter’s perspective on the Corps is arguably unique because of the extent to which the agency’s work complements that of the Atlanta-based Carter Center, a non-profit founded in 1982 by the former president and his wife. In partnership with Emory University the center promotes human rights and projects that combat poverty, disease and “unnecessary human suffering” around the world. One of the ways he would like to see the Corps expanded is via increased cooperation with the center. “We really would like to have fifty Peace Corps volunteers here to help us with programs. The Carter Center has active programs in sixty-five nations on earth. Thirty-five of them are in Africa. They are the poorest, most forgotten, destitute people in the world. And we work side by side with Peace Corps volunteers. Sometimes they are our direct representative in some of the most remote areas … and we depend on them to represent the Carter Center.”

Carter sees several ways to beef up the Corps, starting with a greater effort to recruit senior citizens. “I have, maybe, a biased point of view because my mother didn’t go into the Peace Corps until she was about 70 years old and it transformed her life. And there are many people who have retired from very successful careers who I think could be specifically recruited to the Peace Corps.” He’d also like to see the Corps given greater freedom to aid countries whose leaders don’t happen to be popular with the White House. It “troubles” him, he explains, that “sometimes there are nations whose leaders might be alienated from the White House or from Washington who are deprived of the services of the Peace Corps.” Carter would like to see a policy of greater inclusiveness whereby the Corps does not have to “judge a country by whether we like their leaders, who quite often are subject to change”, but “only on how much their people need Peace Corps services.”

On the subject of the position that the Peace Corps occupies in America’s top-of-the-mind awareness, I asked Carter whether it would be helpful to appoint a high-profile director. “Well, I think so,” he replied, qualifying this by pointing to the example of UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), which has a long record of appointing movie stars and other celebrities as public spokespeople and ambassadors. “The Director may be a tough, hard-nosed , very competent, proven manager of large and complex organizations and big budgets,” Carter commented, “and quite often the recipient countries have no idea who the Director is, but, but we could adopt the policy of UNICEF to have a representative, for public relations, for raising funds, for raising awareness, someone who’s well-known, maybe a famous sports figure or famous actor or actress or famous musician. I think that’s something that could be done.” He added: “If that request was made to someone who is famous I think they would respond favorably.”

I asked Carter if he believed the Peace Corps could be improved by being made more technologically sophisticated. His reply: “I think the utilization of modern technology, particularly in the communication field, is something that ought to be introduced into the Peace Corps very aggressively. My grandson, who returned recently from the Peace Corps after two and a half years, took with him his computer and he had to ride about 20 miles before he could find a place that had electric power and a telephone circuit into which he could connect.” With modern generators, solar cells, small, very efficient computers and satellite networks, Carter said, “I don’t see why, within the bounds of reason, every single Peace Corps person … shouldn’t have instantaneous communication with the outside world. I think that would enhance not only their own spirit and self-respect and security, but it would also let them have a more effective way to deal with the people around them, if the Peace Corps volunteer, instead of being isolated for three or four weeks or months at a time, had a daily awareness of world events, and what could be happening that reflected the particular nation in which they serve, or the US.” He added: “I think that technology is available and with a minimum contribution to each Peace Corps volunteer those standardized mechanisms could be utilized.”

Carter’s comments, especially the idea of transforming the Peace Corps through technology, converge interestingly with Owens’ interpretation of the Revolution in Military Affairs: the former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs advises intensive conversion of the military into an information technology apparatus integrated into the world’s most advanced telecommunications society, which he has urged the US rapidly to become. Without these changes, Owens has argued, the US cannot sustain competitive edge in national security, intelligence or economic performance in the next twenty years. He supports the re-envisioning of the Peace Corps in five linked areas: (1) reinventing America’s international profile via a new use of soft power; (2) moving from a war-defined, non-technological, reactive theory of peace to a proactive theory of peace as a normal component of technologically advanced democracy; (3) reappraising the Corps as a national strategic asset whose value remains largely untapped; (4) the Corps as a model for the technological reinvention of government agencies for the 21st century; and (5) redefining civil society as information technology society.

REINVENTING THE US’S INTERNATIONAL PROFILE.
In re-evaluating the role of the Peace Corps along the lines explored in my discussion with President Carter, two facts must be confronted: (a) America’s global image is in crisis; and (b) receding US prestige involves cultural as much as military factors. A 2004 report of the Pew Global Attitudes Project (chair: former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright) found anti-Americanism “deeper and broader” than in any modern period, with negative perceptions widespread in European and Muslim nations. Publics in surveyed countries expressed considerable skepticism of US motives. Majorities in France, Germany, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco and Turkey believed the war on terror reflected US desires to control Mideast oil and the world.

Two recent books bring these attitudes into focus. In Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust Between America and the World, Kishore Mahbubani, Singapore’s former ambassador to the United Nations, sees ebbing US prestige as not merely due to Bush Administration policies but as a “tectonic shift” in world opinion. Even when US commerce and culture are embraced, Mahbubani notes, their perceived one-sidedness causes suspicion and resentment. America’s soft power is seen as extended hard power, an “increasingly frayed velvet glove that covers a mailed fist.” The US needs to invite participation in its culture instead of heavy-handedly imposing it.

In Weapons of Mass Distraction: Soft Power and American Empire, Canadian journalist Matthew Fraser describes how movies, television, pop music and the fast food industry make US culture ubiquitous. But while these industries are economically potent, they fail to transmit the most culturally valuable contents of US society. More overtly, they reveal America’s talent for shooting itself in the foot vis a vis global public relations. Hollywood blockbusters and fast food franchising machineries are genuine accomplishments, but it is unrealistic to expect them to represent high philosophical values. Foreigners seeking national values in these artifacts can be forgiven for perceiving the US as materialistic and shallow. With astonishing irony, the society preeminent in modern advertising has abysmally failed to market its greatest cultural goods.

The US’s core national values differ markedly from those which its detractors identify with it. Its positive values include reverence for human rights, liberty, opportunity conferred without prejudice, moral responsibility, the free play and optimal development of intelligence, individual dignity, the desire to learn from all traditions and incorporate their wisdom into the complex multicultural fabric that is America. The values, in short, of the Peace Corps since its inception in 1961. Yet in Niger, which is unlikely to be unique in this regard, many Europeans see the Corps as an intelligence organization. French and German volunteers do not associate with Peace Corps volunteers, even in the same small, remote town, according to the Peace Corps Country Director for Niger, Jim Bullington. At a 2004 reception the anti-Americanism of DED (a German volunteer organization) personnel was palpable, says Bullington, who has served as a former US ambassador, a career US State Department diplomat for 27 years, Director of the Center for Global Business at Old Dominion University and Senior Fellow at the US Armed Forces Staff College. “In decades of diplomatic work with Europeans in Asia and Africa, I had never felt such hostility,” he recalls. Clearly, US soft power, though immense, projects an inadequate message; this message handicaps even the Peace Corps, arguably the purest institutional expression of American idealism. To project its values more effectively may be impossible without reconceptualizing and strengthening the Corps.

PEACE AS WAR-DEFINED AND NON-TECHNOLOGICAL …OR AS A NORMAL COMPONENT OF TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED DEMOCRACY?
According to novelist-essayist Gore Vidal, he suggested the idea of the Peace Corps to John F. Kennedy during the latter’s presidential candidacy. Whether or not any such communication triggered the Corps’ origin, Vidal’s account usefully indicates two sensibilities on which the agency was founded. This history, and the paradigms that underlie it, must be taken into account in any attempt to appraise or re-imagine the Corps. Kennedy embodied American imperial presence, Caesar as global benefactor. Vidal represented an ambivalent intelligentsia captivated by the political establishment’s mystique, yet suspicious of it, and deeply respectful of the idea that writers should serve a counterculture. The Peace Corps thus reflected a 1960s climate of conflict: geopolitically, the Cold War, and culturally, the anguished national divisions ranging from civil rights and race to Vietnam and sexual customs, awkwardly intruding social idealism into a government enmeshed in Vietnam. Congressman James A. Leach (R-Iowa) has observed: “President Nixon was clearly embarrassed by inheritance of this Kennedy/Shriver treasure and frankly apprehensive that America’s best youth would come home committed to a non-realpolitik internationalism that might not suit his party’s banner. But

he didn’t have the political capital to bury the institution, so he chose to hide it, by reducing its size and institutionally downgrading its status and putting it under a newly created umbrella agency called ACTION.” (It was President Carter who declared the Corps a fully autonomous agency in a 1979 executive order.)

This conflictual origin underlying the Peace Corps’ peculiarity within government is not unique. It continues a tradition of pacifist enterprises defined by war. For centuries peace initiatives expressed deliberative aftermaths of war, climates of fear or moral concern preceding possible war, or dissent during war. Peace has been seen as the absence of violence or as the mitigation of legitimate or illegitimate force. So pervasive is this paradigm that we call police officers, who labor amid actual and / or potential violence, peace officers. Peace initiatives are encumbered with the political baggage and vocabulary of violence. This often conspicuously impedes stated objectives, as with the League of Nations. A feature of this custom of talking peace in the language of war has been the conceptualization of peace pursuits as non-technological. Military pursuits, it is assumed, demand budgets for sophisticated technologies; peace pursuits, if supported by well-equipped militaries, require only the non-technological arts of power brokers –the world of Machiavelli’s 16-century treatise The Prince.

“Many of the diplomatic techniques on which we rely are archaic,” Kennedy’s US Ambassador to India J.K.Galbraith wrote in his 1969 essay “The American Ambassador”. After 35 years this remains so, engendering budgets that favor soldiers over diplomats. The identification of peace pursuits with ancient, non-technological skills is reinforced by anti-technological philosophies

associating advanced technology with war and such undesirable effects as environmental despoliation. This bias underpins the concept of the military-industrial complex and the undervaluation of links between peaceful

socio-economic structures and technological development (see economic historian John U. Nef’s 1950 study “War and Human Progress”).

In a high-technology world, then, the Peace Corps operates anomalously in a climate in which peace is seen in terms of war and of a history of ideas

associating advanced technology with war. However, far from advanced technology being a military preserve, Admiral Owens, the former Vice

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, believes the US military is dangerously underserved in advanced technologies (which for practical purposes means

information technologies). And not only the military but government generally. This view is given added credence by the fact that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has arisen expressly because of intelligence-processing agency failures, due partly to internal politics but significantly to inadequate technology. Clearly, high technology is not just the business of war. It is very much the business of peace: of building information-processing structures for a peaceful, secure, efficient, competitive America able to maintain global leadership, effectively export a peace that is not only an absence of war but a positive global model of economic growth, and share information infrastructure and knowledge with other nations. In this context a rebudgeted Peace Corps with state-of-the-art technologies is a peace-exporting instrument of incalculably great advantage to US interests.

A NATIONAL STRATEGIC ASSET WHOSE VALUE REMAINS LARGELY UNTAPPED.
In discussion for this article Owens told me: “Technology means the end of the era of the lonely Peace Corps worker cut off from his support base. A Peace Corps volunteer can now be set down in a desert or on a remote plain

without any modern amenity, and have with him or her a compact computer or array of computers, powered by solar cells, making available to local

residents a library of hundreds of volumes under Corps supervision. Via satellite, Corps officers and their beneficiaries can connect virtually

constantly with Washington and a Corps telecommunity worldwide.” Unknowingly echoing President Carter’s words, he added: “The technology is available now.” For Peace Corps personnel used to missions in areas without electricity, let alone resources even distantly approaching those Owens describes, technological empowerment offers an extraordinarily exciting prospect, as is the Peace Corps expansion scenario that this implies. But does the political will exist to mobilize a Corps using the most sophisticated technology available to share America’s skills, values and knowledge with other nations via electronic access to US libraries, teachers and knowledge pools, and staffing consistent with international peace promotion? This question exposes how we define the pursuit of peace.

If we see the pursuit of peace as primarily a function of military and consular actions, it would not be inappropriate to see the Corps as at best a benign but essentially peripheral function whose federal purpose is analogous to that of a marginal public relations outpost of a large corporation. This role matches the Corps’ current resources: a fiscus of $319.5 million, 7700 volunteers. The hope is for 11 250 personnel by 2008 “at a rate consistent with funding levels and infrastructure support”, Peace Corps Director Gaddi H.Vasquez has stated. But President Bush’s 2001 inaugural support of Peace Corps growth has not translated into appropriations. A telling example is a 2004 Peace Corps request for USAID funds for use in poverty-stricken Niger. This request was to assign Corps volunteers to help fledgling democratically elected local governments in Niger to engage their unaccustomed economic and social development responsibilities.

The new mayors and council members have no experience at all in local government. Many are illiterate. They very much want Peace Corps help,

reports Director Bullington. Such a project offers the US an opportunity to implement a conspicuous, innovative expression of American idealism and commitment to promote democracy, accomplishments which have special geopolitical importance in an Islamic country (which Niger is). But the request was declined. The annual amount that could not be found for it: about $200,000. It is thought-provoking to consider this alongside the 2005 profiles of the Department of Defense (2.3 million military personnel; almost 700,000 civilian personnel; discretionary budget authority of $401.7 billion) and State Department (30 266 personnel; discretionary budget authority of $10.3 billion).

In 1996, Peace Corps Director Loret Miller Ruppe reported: “This agency’s budget has less in purchasing power than when Sargent (Shriver) left it in the ’60s. In 1981 it was listed in the 150 Account under ‘miscellaneous’ … Its budget was less than the military marching band.” For an agency exporting peace, signaling the US’s highest values to the world, and disseminating US

democracy, literacy, health practices and other desired national characteristics, these circumstances are egregious. Much consular,

ambassadorial and attaché work is not proactive peace promotion in the same sense that Peace Corps work is. It is, indeed, unfair to expect conventional diplomats to provide the services that idealistically motivated Corps volunteers are uniquely positioned to supply. Budgets should reflect this fact, and the growing significance to US interests of the Corps’ mission.

Director Ruppe said in 1996: “The Peace Corps is needed now more than ever. It is our nation’s greatest peace-building machine.” She asked: “Is peace simply the absence of war? Or is it the absence of the conditions that bring on war, the conditions of hunger, disease, poverty, illiteracy and despair?” It would be unrealistic to expect the Corps to solve such problems. But it is surely among the most effective tools available to export the values, motivations and knowledge without which they cannot be solved. The power of example and passionately impelled personal instruction by idealistic young

civilians can scarcely be equaled as a global communication medium for the US. These are the assets the Corps offers America in its urgent quest for foreign remediation. They are potent for any policy that is seriously predicated on President Bush’s second inaugural address. “There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom, ” the President said, adding: “The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom

I would love to hear any thoughts, agreements, disagreements, questions anyone back at home might have on these issues.