Thursday, August 6, 2009

boo serious

Okay, here's my issue. I'm trying to write interesting things, but the problem is that things that may seem remarkable back at home are usually completely unremarkable here. And I feel as though if I write about them I'm being culturally insensitive and making a show out of Burkina. Like, it would seem like I was being all shocked and amazed at a perfectly normal way of life for the people here. I know that that's not necessarily the case, but I think there's a line there that I'm trying to figure out. So if I'm not writing about the fact that, oh, there are no flush toilets, or... I don't even know now. The fact that there are roosters in my yard that crow most of the night? The fact that there are donkey carts competing with overloaded trucks competing with me on my bike on the main road? The complete lack of cheese in this country? The children (and occasionally adults) that are constantly yelling "Nassara" (foreigner) at me?
We all talk about these things here sometimes, just because we've been thrown into this new environment all together, but as time goes on we've started talking about them differently. Like, how clean are the latrines at this restaurant? Or, what do you do if you have bats living in yours? Or, so will I be able to hire a donkey cart to move my furniture to my house next month?
I know that one of the goals (maybe the main goal) of the Peace Corps is cultural exchange. And I don't want to be too hesitant about sharing my perspective of this culture, coming from an American background. But if I'm not telling all of the colorful details of my life here, it's because I want to understand it better before spouting off some random judgments about the country, especially when there's so much misinformation about Africa in general already.
Not that I'm trying to be all deep on this random blog that basically just exists so I can stay in contact with people at home. But I feel a little better about having this disclaimer about what I write.

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