On a visit to one Peace Corps site, another volunteer related an experience that I cannot get out of my mind. A child in her community had a birthday party. The volunteer brought a lovely children's book as a gift, which she proceeded to read to those in attendance as they crowded around her. At the end of the party, the birthday girl's mother tore the pages out of the book and gave one to each child. I was horrified. Why would this mother destroy the gift that her child had been given? How could anybody tear up a brand-new book? To us, it seems crazy. But the other Peace Corps volunteer put it in perspective for me. These people have so very little. Everyone had loved the story and the pictures. The mother wanted each person to take away some little piece of that book to remember the experience. But that is so misguided, I thought. Why not encourage her to share the book by lending it to others or reading it aloud on other occasions in the community? People need to learn respect for books. Again, proper perspective. Parents are mostly illiterate. They cannot help children with homework. The children themselves often stop formal schooling after sixth grade because smaller communities don't have secondary schools, and transportation to neighboring towns is difficult and beyond their means. There are few books in their classrooms, and none in their homes. So, what seems misguided to us is actually a beautiful gesture on the part of this mother. She showed generosity to her community when she chose to give them each a piece of something treasured.
Jackie Wald writes: Here in Panama, my husband and I are completing our Peace Corps training and will soon embark on our two-year service as full-fledged volunteers
Jackie Wald of Dallas: Our Panama
12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, June 26, 2008
Voices
PANAMA – What is a gift? An act of friendship, a show of appreciation, a way to bestow honor. When so many have so little, a small token can convey great meaning.
Here in Panama, my husband and I are completing our Peace Corps training and will soon embark on our two-year service as full-fledged volunteers. Many at home in the U.S. tell us, "Oh, Panama ... I hear the beaches are fabulous, and Panama City is like Miami – so many spas, some great resorts." We are not living that Panama.
Many communities the Peace Corps serves are unbelievably poor. From one end of the isthmus to the other, we have seen families eke out a living with meager resources. They are fishermen or subsistence farmers, growing the food needed for their households. It is common to see a family of eight living in two rooms with a dirt floor, bamboo walls, thatched or zinc roof, four people sharing a bed.
There is no electricity or indoor plumbing in many sites. Shoes are scarce; clothing is passed down and shared. There is simply no money for extras, such as gifts.
On a visit to one Peace Corps site, another volunteer related an experience that I cannot get out of my mind. A child in her community had a birthday party. The volunteer brought a lovely children's book as a gift, which she proceeded to read to those in attendance as they crowded around her. At the end of the party, the birthday girl's mother tore the pages out of the book and gave one to each child. I was horrified. Why would this mother destroy the gift that her child had been given? How could anybody tear up a brand-new book? To us, it seems crazy. But the other Peace Corps volunteer put it in perspective for me.
These people have so very little. Everyone had loved the story and the pictures. The mother wanted each person to take away some little piece of that book to remember the experience. But that is so misguided, I thought.
Why not encourage her to share the book by lending it to others or reading it aloud on other occasions in the community? People need to learn respect for books.
Again, proper perspective. Parents are mostly illiterate. They cannot help children with homework. The children themselves often stop formal schooling after sixth grade because smaller communities don't have secondary schools, and transportation to neighboring towns is difficult and beyond their means. There are few books in their classrooms, and none in their homes.
So, what seems misguided to us is actually a beautiful gesture on the part of this mother. She showed generosity to her community when she chose to give them each a piece of something treasured.
We have stepped away from our comfortable lives in North Dallas, where our own children grew up not wanting for anything, in order to give something back, to experience a more simple life, to get to know a country and its people and to learn what giving really means.
I think I have a lot to learn.
Jackie Wald of Dallas has served as a lecturer in Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at SMU. She and her husband, Michael, have volunteered to serve in the Peace Corps in Panama for 27 months. Her e-mail address is jwald999@yahoo.com.
