yeah? well, your mom's 'backwards'!
Time To Say Goodbye
Originally uploaded by bovinacowboy our dog bobo had a tumor removed this morning. he seems to be doing okay, but we won't hear for another week or two what kind of tumor it was... :-/
i picked bobo up in the late afternoon with my auntie and the vet, who seemed quite friendly/nice if a bit 'country,' asked me what i am doing in austin and where i went to college and stuff; sooo i did mention peace corps even though i didn't particularly want to, as that seems generally to lead to more questions/remarks and basically would usher in a conversation for which i didn't have time at that moment (meanwhile, i noticed that the veterinarian was going to be around for another couple hours and had no other patients besides bobo!).
it's not that i don't like talking to people about my peace corps host country or my assignment and experiences, however, it can be challenging when i have no idea what preconceived notions & general beliefs someone has about the peace corps, the american gov't, the caribbean region, travel & foreign countries, etc...
and anyway, it feels odd to just say 'yes' in response to a question from a perfect stranger such as 'did you like it?' about my TWO YEARS in the peace corps. (let alone to share that one of my most interesting and impacting relationships with a host country national involved a young man who spent the past year in prison...)
sooooo i told mr. vet where i'd been and besides the obligatory / straightforward 'what language do they speak there?' question, i got 'so it must be pretty backwards there. i mean, if the peace corps is there... were you a teacher or...?'
apart from giving him approx. the same quick description of my assignment that i got during pre-service training, i said that while there's no hiding that dominica's a developing country, i certainly wouldn't phrase it like that, saying in summary that it's 'backwards'! what the hell does that even mean?
the USA is 'backwards' in some ways, imho; and it's beautiful in d/ca; especially compared to texass (no offense, and i do <3 austin in a lot of ways).
i also thought to myself that just b/c it was a foreign culture to me (and i could & do criticize aspects of it, for SURE) doesn't mean i didn't learn from it and value experiences i had there, people i got to know, etc. etc. i mean, duh.
i don't know anyone who entered the peace corps thinking their goal was to bring civilization to savages...
maybe i'm overreacting. haha, that'd be a first. ;-)
bottom line is, i'm never sure exactly what images people conjure when they hear the words 'peace corps' but in any case, this person annoyed me ever so slightly (but memorably). and the encounter only helps to encourage me to consciously incorporate RPCV educational/informational & voluntary/community service activities into the rest of my life.
as it is, i already seem to be drawn to as well as attractive to 'liberal,' open-minded people; this is not a new post-PC development and yes, living in a community & society the size of a fishbowl as i did during PC doesn't appeal to me as a long-term prospect.
i suppose i kind of enjoy being somewhat controversial and sticking up for other places i've lived while inhabiting a different place (e.g. wearing UCD & UT attire around UCLA and, more significantly, as reflected in conversations i've had with germans, americans, dominicans/west indians, texans, californians, etc. about the so-called 'OTHER.'
no single place, society or culture seems perfect or beyond the need for improvement to me. and it bugs me when people naively act as if the place they've lived and from which they may have seldom ventured is hands-down superior to or better than other places/peoples! it seems like a dangerous assumption and one that can have both personal and political ramifications.
i know that this mindset is sometimes fed by a lack of opportunity, socioeconomic status, parents' values / one's upbringing so i don't mean to sound harsh, but still.
i'm not sayin' that this fellow was ignorant in general or that i expect random people to know all about the lesser antilles; i did not know much about the eastern caribbean before i got my PC assignment either; and my knowledge of history and geography in general is surely full of holes. but his attitude irked as well as inspired me.
and any one regular person, such as i, can only have extensive conversations with or influence on so many people. i mean, we choose our friends as well as our battles, right?
there are definitely times when i opt to just hold my tongue or go w/the flow, for better or for worse.