PC Policy Gets in the Way; Sorry Rasta.

(Journal Entry from Saturday October 18th, 2008)

I spoke with a Rasta today. I was at a birthday party with my host mom and he was sitting by himself. He was one of the birthday woman’s 10 children. I told him that I wanted to learn more about Rastafarianism from a real Rasta rather than just go on what I have read on the internet or through word of mouth. He said there are many different movements but the main thing with all of them is that they don’t judge people based on color or way of life, that we are all part of the human race. I asked him why Rastas are vegetarians and he said that it is because we are all animals and we should respect life. I didn’t quite understand why he thinks eating fish is okay though. He was not too eager to talk about his religion to be honest with you. He told me that it would be best for him if I just asked specific questions rather than just ask him to tell me a bit about his religion. It was an odd conversation.

Talking with him got me thinking about some of the youth development goals of St. Lucia and how some of PC’s policies and procedures make it difficult to satisfy some of the goals of St. Lucia’s youth development efforts. In some of our youth development training sessions we discussed the importance of trying to reach both the attached youth (those that are reachable through various schools and organizations) and the unattached youth (those more difficult to reach because they are not attached through schools, work, or organizations). FYI: Youth is defined as anyone between the ages of 7 and 35. Now, it occurred to me that a large majority of the unattached youth are Rastafarians. This is because many Rastas are against working for ‘the system’. They make their own way and live off the land. Many of them live in poverty and with this comes the pitfalls of poverty; lack of education, and resources, increased drug addiction and crime, and deterioration in health. Of course we would want to reach the unattached youth.

However, there are many obstacles to reaching the unattached youth. The inherent ones, to mention a few are, their lack of interest, lack of availability, lack of visibility, and the ‘systems’ lack of connection with the unattached youth. As if these things aren’t enough, PC policy adds another barrier. Any PC volunteer that ‘appears to be associated’ with anyone who does drugs, including marijuana, will be sent on the next plane home. This policy in and of itself seems to be a good policy and the reasons for it are obvious, however, the policy, unfortunately and unintentionally creates a potential barrier for PC volunteers who want to help St. Lucia to reach the unattached youth. Working with the unattached youth may mean making connections and building relationships with some people that are more likely than the attached youth to be involved in drug activity, in most cases the activity is only smoking of marijuana. This would risk damaging the PCVs image in the community by being associated with Rastas and risk being sent home. Does this mean I should not be part of the initiative to reach the unattached youth? Regretfully it is decidedly so.