Lately, I’ve been hearing some volunteers asking the questions, “Why are we even in St. Lucia?” and “Do they really need us here?” I must admit, the thought has crossed my mind a time or two - as I walk through the new mall in Castries; sip on an Iced Chai Latte at Rituals, the coffee shop that's imitated Starbucks; visit new places like Meaga J, a bulk retail store designed like Casco; and catch glimpses of the flat screen TVs that are on display in Courts retail windows, it is easy to think that St. Lucia is well on its way to becoming an industrialized nation. It is true, the commercial development here is advanced. It is also true that the sight of strip malls and classy resorts can create an illusion of sustainable wealth and capital. But I urge you not to be fooled by St. Lucias access to industrial world technologies and merchandise. After all, the majority of the development here is outsourced and comes from without.
Anyway, we are not here to help St. Lucians acquire material things. I feel that our place here is in creating the kind of social change and capital that allows St. Lucian youth to thrive, communities to take an active role in addressing community needs, local businesses to succeed in a country influenced by and competing with global corporations, the disenfranchised to have a voice, and the island to become more self sustaining through the development of technologies from within!
I think most PCVs join the Peace Corps expecting to be sent to a destitute place that is experiencing extreme, unmistakable poverty. We don’t expect to have access to cable television and the internet, and we definitely don’t expect to see laptops and flat screens in the market. However, tell me, how many houses have you gone in that have A/C, flat screen TVs, or running water everyday. Very few, you will tell me.
That’s beside the point. Ask, how many children are taught by teachers that lead a student centered classroom? How many kids pass their classes above the 50% mark? How many children are going to school without text books, and how many hang out on the school yard after school because they don’t have supportive families to go home to?
How many parents and teachers beat their children and students because they simply don't know of any alternative methods? How many children have parents show up to their football games? How many parents know how to communicate with their kids about specific health topic like HIV/AIDS and safe sex?
How many people have unfaithful spouses? How many are carrying on in sexual relationships without getting their STIs treated or ever getting tested for HIV/AIDS? How many homes have alcoholic family members? How many households have absentee fathers? How many of the disabled have access to resources, and how many are ever treated fairly? How many people are eating healthy? How many children are drinking alcohol and having sex before the age of 10? How many teenagers are having babies, and how many women get harassed on a daily basis?
The answers to these questions are remarkable and appalling, to say the least. This list may be exhaustive, but sadly I could go on.
This is why we are in St. Lucia!
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RIGHT ON!!!!
Many of us here have been asking ourselves the same things. Even if we don't as much of the 'commercialized retail development' here as you do in St Lucia...we are far from the stereotypical envisioned Peace Corps world most people think about back home.
So much lies beneath the surface, I remind myself of that everyday I wonder what I'm doing here... I just hope that some of the work I/we do will stick. I'm not sure what it is like for some of you...but it's hard to tell what the PC has been up to/see results from 40 years of service on these islands. Even now, I hear about so many good things we do, but not things that are directly sustainable. Not to say they are not sustainable--just the interpretation I've come across so far...
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