Too Many Innocents Abroad?

Recently published in the New York Times Op-Ed was a commentary by the former PC Country Director of Cameroon. I’ve included the text here:

Too Many Innocents Abroad
By ROBERT L. STRAUSS
Published: January 9, 2008
Antananarivo, Madagascar

THE Peace Corps recently began a laudable initiative to increase the number of volunteers who are 50 and older. As the Peace Corps’ country director in Cameroon from 2002 until last February, I observed how many older volunteers brought something to their service that most young volunteers could not: extensive professional and life experience and the ability to mentor younger volunteers.
However, even if the Peace Corps reaches its goal of having 15 percent of its volunteers over 50, the overwhelming majority will remain recently minted college graduates. And too often these young volunteers lack the maturity and professional experience to be effective development workers in the 21st century.

This wasn’t the case in 1961 when the Peace Corps sent its first volunteers overseas. Back then, enthusiastic young Americans offered something that many newly independent nations counted in double and even single digits: college graduates. But today, those same nations have millions of well-educated citizens of their own desperately in need of work. So it’s much less clear what inexperienced Americans have to offer.
The Peace Corps has long shipped out well-meaning young people possessing little more than good intentions and a college diploma. What the agency should begin doing is recruiting only the best of recent graduates — as the top professional schools do — and only those older people whose skills and personal characteristics are a solid fit for the needs of the host country.

The Peace Corps has resisted doing this for fear that it would cause the number of volunteers to plummet. The name of the game has been getting volunteers into the field, qualified or not.

In Cameroon, we had many volunteers sent to serve in the agriculture program whose only experience was puttering around in their mom and dad’s backyard during high school. I wrote to our headquarters in Washington to ask if anyone had considered how an American farmer would feel if a fresh-out-of-college Cameroonian with a liberal arts degree who had occasionally visited Grandma’s cassava plot were sent to Iowa to consult on pig-raising techniques learned in a three-month crash course. I’m pretty sure the American farmer would see it as a publicity stunt and a bunch of hooey, but I never heard back from headquarters.

For the Peace Corps, the number of volunteers has always trumped the quality of their work, perhaps because the agency fears that an objective assessment of its impact would reveal that while volunteers generate good will for the United States, they do little or nothing to actually aid development in poor countries. The agency has no comprehensive system for self-evaluation, but rather relies heavily on personal anecdote to demonstrate its worth.

Every few years, the agency polls its volunteers, but in my experience it does not systematically ask the people it is supposedly helping what they think the volunteers have achieved. This is a clear indication of how the Peace Corps neglects its customers; as long as the volunteers are enjoying themselves, it doesn’t matter whether they improve the quality of life in the host countries. Any well-run organization must know what its customers want and then deliver the goods, but this is something the Peace Corps has never learned.

This lack of organizational introspection allows the agency to continue sending, for example, unqualified volunteers to teach English when nearly every developing country could easily find high-caliber English teachers among its own population. Even after Cameroonian teachers and education officials ranked English instruction as their lowest priority (after help with computer literacy, math and science, for example), headquarters in Washington continued to send trainees with little or no classroom experience to teach English in Cameroonian schools. One volunteer told me that the only possible reason he could think of for having been selected was that he was a native English speaker.

The Peace Corps was born during the glory days of the early Kennedy administration. Since then, its leaders and many of the more than 190,000 volunteers who have served have mythologized the agency into something that can never be questioned or improved. The result is an organization that finds itself less and less able to provide what the people of developing countries need — at a time when the United States has never had a greater need for their good will.

Robert L. Strauss has been a Peace Corps volunteer, recruiter and country director. He now heads a management consulting company.

There has recently been some debate on the merits of his comments regarding PC volunteers. A discussion arose amongst PCVs and their friends and families and I thought I’d jump on the band wagon and add my two cents. Why not, right?

Something that Strauss comments on is about the lack of maturity and experience of recent college graduates. These comments can never be widespread and applied to the general public, but currently in Mali, I would say that he’d hit the nail on the head. With my group of volunteers who entered, the mean age was about 25 or 27, I can’t remember. That means that there were some recent college graduates, but that also means that there were a significant number of older volunteers who had other volunteer or real world experience. I feel like my group had a really good head on its shoulders and that we each brought something to the table. Now, with our new group of volunteers, I don’t know if I feel the same way. Granted, it’s a group of 70 volunteers, and I don’t know them all, but the majority that I have met are right out of college and not to say that they don’t have the skills to apply, but they’re some of the most immature and/or inconsiderate people I’ve met. Honestly, sometimes I wonder what’s going on in the interview process in America. I’m hoping that they’re just new and in a new environment and will grow out of it. Hell, maybe we were like this too, but I don’t think so. There’s still time to see if things will turn around with them, but I do wonder which characteristics are being sought after in regional PC offices in America.

Now, here’s what I don’t agree with Strauss about. This sentence in particular really bothers me: “..that while volunteers generate good will for the United States, they do little or nothing to actually aid development in poor countries.” After being a Country Director for some time, I wonder what he was doing with him time, other than being a patron in a West African country. It’s the CD’s job to help volunteers promote development within a country. Peace Corps isn’t one of these aid agencies where all of the volunteers are leading lush lives and only hanging out with other Americans. For the most part, volunteers live in the country/en brousse, in a mud house with no electricity and/or running water. There are volunteers who are just here for the cross cultural experience, but there are others who truly want to make some sort of lasting impact, whether it be a cereal bank or millet grinder in their village or building a well and having a training on well maintenance or even helping artisans work on their design ideas for their products. We’re all here for a reason, but I can’t say I understand Mr. Strauss’ reason for sticking around Cameroon if he wasn’t 100% devoted to helping his volunteers. I can definitely say that our Country Director is invested in the work that we do and it’s important. If your boss didn’t care whether or not you were living in West Africa, would you stay?

I will agree that Peace Corps should review and evaluate what it’s doing and what tools of monitoring and evaluation it’s using. It’s the same thing with the United Nations Security Council reform, or less sexy, it’s the same thing as businesses reevaluating their prices for goods – something that Malians don’t often do. We all need to reevaluate our lives and work and what’s going on. Every single person, business, agency and organization must do this to improve. For example, we here are required to write quarterly reports and send them to our APCD in Bamako. Each time I send it, my APCD says, “Great work, I’ll get back to you with comments.” I’ve sent four quarterly reports now and I’ve never received feedback. So, in my mind, I’m doing a great job and I’m one of the volunteers actually invested in being here. If the APCDs were actually reading these reports, they would see that some volunteers sit at their site and don’t do a thing. These are the volunteers I don’t quite understand and I don’t get why they’re here, but it’s their life. These are the same people that complain about the heat and the food and using an outhouse and say that they’re suffering. Um, this is voluntary. Go home if you’re not happy.

One thing that some other volunteers and I have talked about are the benefits of being in the Peace Corps. Most of us are doing this for ourselves or to promote our future careers. I don’t know anyone who says, “Alright, I want to rough it for two years, where can I go?” but I’m sure they’re out there. Currently our benefits include a small resettlement allowance when we return home and an opportunity to join in the non-competitive job pool for government jobs. There are some educational opportunities, but the better ones are available if you start your Master’s before Peace Corps. So, what would be better? My friend and teammate suggested making it a little more like the military. Make it a 4 year commitment and give those who make all 4 years educational benefits, just the military does. I can imagine the applicant pool becoming intensely competitive or kind of thin. Not that many people want to commit 2, let alone 4, years of their lives to development work. But on the other hand, there are those who would love it. Why is the American government saying the Peace Corps is an important agency but not doing anything to get the great development workers interested instead of making it a fun club to be a member of? If we’re trying to improve our image abroad, let’s do it right. An increase in the contract of a PCV would also let them complete more in the time span. Currently, two years isn’t really enough to get anything done. Your first year is spent as a 3 year old trying to struggle through the language barrier, and by the time your second year has rolled around, 9 to 12 months is tough to accomplish everything you want. It’s something PC HQ should think about.

Development doesn’t just happen overnight. Anyone who thinks that needs to take another look at the developing world or take their head out of their ass. I’m not going to lie, there was a point that I thought I could “save the world.” Don’t we all? Growing up in rural, upstate NY and then moving to DC for university, I thought, “Damn, this is just the beginning, now I can do anything I want to and fix anything I put my mind to.” Well, I was right about doing anything I want, but wrong about fixing anything I want. Potable water doesn’t just appear for 1 billion people overnight. Neither does the eradication of malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. You can’t introduce literacy and numeracy to a population of 12 million overnight. Hell, it’s tough for most of us to get Malians to wash their hands with soap before they eat. And that’s a 2 year, uphill battle that we win, but what happens when we leave? Why would they continue to spend the precious few CFA they have on soap when water seemingly has the same effect?

It’s a two way street, development. We’re busting our asses to help the people we live with and around to better themselves and their families. But, if they don’t want the help, you can’t force them. Some agencies try that or promise that if they change the agency will give them money. So, what happens? Villages change for 3 months to get a large sum of money and then immediately return to the ways that they’re used to. Behavioral change is a headache. But, in the end, if you can get even a small population of people to change and start believing in something better, it’ll have been worth it. Maybe I’m still young and naïve, but I truly believe that leaving a lasting impression on even one person will have made my two years in Mali worth it. Luckily, I know there is more than one person who will remember me and my hard work.

Globalization, Outsourcing and Mali

I know, those three words don’t necessarily fit in the same sentence, or do they? You probably don’t know enough about Mali to understand that under normal circumstances, these three ideas are just crazy together. However, I’ve recently come to realize that it’s not that crazy of a notion.

I’ve just read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman which is a ‘brief history of the 21st century.’ It was written in 2005, so I’m a little behind the times, but it’s an amazing book. It talks about how with the spread of globalization that countries are becoming more open and more likely to trade with one another or outsource or offshore and that with the borders being opened, the world it becoming more flat. Now, not only does Friedman have a great writing style that kept me hooked through all 470 pages, he also brings up good points about why India and China are on the rise but African countries are not. India and China have stable economies and they have something to offer – intelligence, services and cheap labor. The same isn’t true all throughout Africa, especially not Mali. I learned the other day from the American Ambassador here that Mali has the 3rd highest energy costs in all of Africa. That’s 3rd out of 54 countries. And after talking to Malians, I learned that energy costs are only going to go up. It’s crazy. How can Mali even think about supporting manufacturing or international exporting and therefore development if the cost of a running some sort of manufacturing plant will be ridiculously expensive? They can’t and that’s not fair. Now, I’m not saying that Mali is by any means to start a project like this, but it’s just an example.

But, I do want to talk about the ‘outsourcing’ that does occur here. Now, I don’t know the official Webster’s definition of outsourcing, and for that matter I don’t even know if it necessarily has to be an international thing, but for the sake of me talking right now, I’m going to use my own definition, and by that I mean through example. Let’s take Farafina Tigne, Peace Corps Baba’s shop, for example. When I first got there and saw all of the amazing jewelry inside, I was like, “Wow, Baba makes all of this?” Over the next several months, we were too busy with Hallmark for me to get a good grasp of the business transactions taking place. But recently I’ve noticed that outsourcing does take place. Recently Baba Fima created a new necklace made with black and clear glass beads and an ebony pendant in the middle. It’s really pretty, but it took him the better part of the day to string one necklace – it did have 6 or 8 strands of beads. So, instead he told me that he’d drop off all of the materials for someone in market in Mopti who would string all of them. Then I got curious and asked the price. I was astonished to find out that he would pay 250 CFA – less than $.50 – to make this necklace. Granted, he’s already paid for all of the materials, but $.50 to make a necklace? What’s better is that his friend could make 50 in one day, giving him a net profit of 12,500 CFA – about $30. For someone to earn $30 here in one day is amazing. It’s not common and when it does happen, they’ve normally worked hard for it. So, this is my idea of Malian outsourcing. Baba Fima knows that it’ll take him 5 times as long to make all of these necklaces and therefore outsources them to someone who can do it better. In the end, he’ll still sell these necklaces for 5.000 or 6.000 CFA and make a good profit, but he’s being a smart businessman. While his 50 necklaces are being strung, he can focus on other work and double his profit. Well, then I started to think about everything in Baba’s shop. We do the finishing touches on a lot of things like adding the ear wires to earrings, or artistically stringing necklaces. But, there’s a lot that we outsource to our partners also – like Peulh earrings, Tuareg metal work, and bogolan. This is a stretch, but we’re a mini Dell of Mali, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Who says Mali isn’t ready for globalization and outsourcing?

In i fama wa?

Yeah, so hi, it’s been awhile. I’ve been the opposite of busy and enthusiastic about life so that’s why there haven’t been any updates or news. What’s going on here? A whole lot of nothing, which sucks. I went down to Bamako for the new stage’s In-Service Training, which could have been really beneficial for them if it had been in the least bit organized. You know, it’s like each time there’s a training a group of volunteers tries to tell the bureau that last year’s training was malorganizé, and yet no one listens. And by that I mean the people who need to listen don’t. It’s annoying and discouraging. So, I’m done trying to reorganize Bamako and help out.

What else? I’m beginning to feel like a “normal” volunteer and I don’t like it. “Normal” can’t be bad, right? But in this context it is. With Hallmark I was running at 100 MPH and I was always busy and always stressed and didn’t have two minutes for myself. Oddly enough, that’s what I’m used to. Remember GW, anyone? So, now that the Hallmark project is over, I’m bored out of my mind. Yes, there are other things I can be doing with my time and I am, but it’s not the same. I’ve been working with the dairy co-op and we wrote up a project proposal to request money to do some cow insemination – yeah, I never thought “Sara Rosen” and “cow insemination” would come up in the same conversation either – but now that the proposal is submitted, we just have to wait. There’s nothing to do until we get the money. So, where does that leave me?

It means that now I should have time for all of those “activist” things that I really want to do that will really make me a better person and make me feel like my time here is worthwhile. Well, guess what? The boat’s already left on a lot of those. The problem, which will sound crazy, is that I only officially have eight months left until my two years are over. Eight months here is not a lot of time, considering the vacation I will take along with the fact that hot season – ie, no work season – is rapidly approaching. I wanted to be so forward thinking and have an environmental education camp for some high school students to educate them regarding the environmental degradation of Mali and alternative energy and cooking sources. Well, not to sound too defeatist, but even if I do that, I can’t imagine it making a difference. There were some organizations I wanted to start getting to know to pursue 3rd year options with, but I just don’t have the umph to go out there and do it. Isn’t that sad? The real thing behind my lack of enthusiasm to ‘get out there and go get ‘em’ is that Malians are driving me crazy right now. I’m having a real issue with Malian male perceived superiority and sexism. I mean, that only gets tiring after about 30 seconds.

So, in order to avoid all of this, what have I been doing? I go to PC Baba’s to hang out and see people everyday, but my time spent there has gotten shorter and shorter. I go and chat and eat lunch and watch CNN – if I’m lucky – and then I come back home to read, nap and just get away from Malians. I know it sounds really bad but there comes a time when everyone needs to just have personal time. My problem is that I’m not balancing personal time with Malian time, which needs to change.

So, what are my plans? Well, this weekend I’m heading down to Segou for the Festival sur le Niger which is a Malian music festival. There are some good people going, and Salif Keita is the headline – maybe we’ll hug and dance on stage again! – so that should be good. There are cultural things too and artisans which means I’ll of course come home with some beautiful artisanal goodies. After that there is another Dogon Festival in Douentza so I might head up there and visit my old host family and see how things are going. I’ve also promised my friends up in Gao that I’ll come up and visit. It’s just that the perspective of sitting on a bus to go to a really hot desert city isn’t too appealing. But, I’m going to have to do it sometime, so why not when cold season is still around. So, February has a little travel going on in it. Work wise, who knows. My main plans of cotton amelioration and working on that might not come to fruition which will piss me off. But I live in the north, not in the south, and there’s almost no cotton production up here. So, I need to get serious about this and see what I can realistically do. Also, there’s a woman who lives in Mopti who makes pottery and I’m interested in learning a little about that, and helping her with her business if I can, so I’m going to start that. In addition, my tailor is the one of the best in Mali but one of the least organized and he’s requested my help for better organization which I will definitely help him with. I’m hoping something cool comes my way or that I get magically inspired to do something awesome.

I’m afraid of being bored for the next eight months. Help!