2011.05.15: May 15, 2011: Honduras RPCV Nancy Sathre-Vogel writes: I've taken a long time to go nowhere. Thirty seven years and hundreds of thousands of miles, in fact – and I'm right back where I started

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Honduras: Peace Corps Honduras: Peace Corps Honduras: Newest Stories: 2011.05.15: May 15, 2011: Honduras RPCV Nancy Sathre-Vogel writes: I've taken a long time to go nowhere. Thirty seven years and hundreds of thousands of miles, in fact – and I'm right back where I started

By Admin1 (admin) (98.188.147.225) on Thursday, May 26, 2011 - 8:19 am: Edit Post

Honduras RPCV Nancy Sathre-Vogel writes: I've taken a long time to go nowhere. Thirty seven years and hundreds of thousands of miles, in fact – and I'm right back where I started

Honduras RPCV Nancy Sathre-Vogel writes: I've taken a long time to go nowhere. Thirty seven years and hundreds of thousands of miles, in fact – and I'm right back where I started

I was twenty four when I moved to Honduras to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer. For two years I lived with a Honduran family and worked in a Honduran school. It was a marvelous time period in my life. I was young and energetic, and I loved taking part in all things Honduran. I danced at Carnival and helped out at local celebrations. And I started to see that Honduran people weren't so very different from Americans. Maybe they weren't so exotic after all. I turned thirty while cycling Pakistan and India. Now this – this WAS exotic. Everything was different and exciting. They dressed differently, they ate different food, they worshipped a different god. Their written script was different from English, and they wore jewelry in places I'd never dreamed of. It was colorful and outlandish and glamorous and… exotic. Very exotic. Since then I've spent many years gallivanting around the world. I've been to Timbuktu and back. I lived a couple years in Egypt; a bunch of years in Ethiopia. Taiwan… Malaysia… Living in other countries was exciting and interesting. It was different from living in the USA. When I walked out my gate, I saw people with another color of skin wearing beautiful hand-spun and embroidered clothing. I smelled the sour aroma of injera or the spices of wat. I learned to drink coffee at Ethiopian coffee ceremonies, and drank mate in Argentina. It was a wild thirty years. It was a blast and I learned a lot. But the most important thing I learned is that we are more alike than we are different.

Honduras RPCV Nancy Sathre-Vogel writes: I've taken a long time to go nowhere. Thirty seven years and hundreds of thousands of miles, in fact – and I'm right back where I started

Exotic is our own backyard

Sunday, May 15, 2011 -

Family on Bikes by Nancy Sathre-Vogel

BOISE, Id, May 15, 2011 - I've taken a long time to go nowhere. Thirty seven years and hundreds of thousands of miles, in fact – and I'm right back where I started.

Thirty seven years ago, I was a sixteen-year-old who knew nothing. And everything. I lived my life in Boise, Idaho, just like all the other kids in my high school lived theirs and, I thought, just like every other sixteen-year-old in the world lived.

Every morning I took a hot shower, put on clean clothes, and took the school bus to my local high school. While there I learned about "the world" – I only saw pictures of Indonesian tribes and African clans. They all wore fabulous costumes (or no costumes at all) and ate outrageous food, and it was all pretty interesting – as interesting as could be for something that happened a hundred years ago.

Burmese parents have the same hopes and aspirations for their children as American parents - we want them to be healthy and happy

Because, of course, nobody lived that way today. Everybody lived like I did in Boise, Idaho. They were all just like me.

That year my parents took me to Mexico for Christmas vacation and my eyes were opened to a wide, wide world out there. I remember walking the streets of Mexico City in wide-eyed amazement. Life was different than in Boise! People lived differently than I did! I was amazed.

It was there on the streets of Mexico City that I realized people were different than I was. Exotic, to be sure.

One of my most vivid memories of that trip to Mexico was the flame thrower. I watched that flame thrower as he took a big swig of kerosene into his mouth, then blew it out while lighting it on fire. Flames shot out six feet or more! Now this – this was exciting. This was different. It was…exotic.

It was different and unusual and out of the ordinary. It was foreign and alien and mysterious. It was the very definition of exotic.

I was twenty four when I moved to Honduras to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer. For two years I lived with a Honduran family and worked in a Honduran school. It was a marvelous time period in my life. I was young and energetic, and I loved taking part in all things Honduran.

I danced at Carnival and helped out at local celebrations.

And I started to see that Honduran people weren't so very different from Americans. Maybe they weren't so exotic after all.

I turned thirty while cycling Pakistan and India. Now this – this WAS exotic. Everything was different and exciting. They dressed differently, they ate different food, they worshipped a different god. Their written script was different from English, and they wore jewelry in places I'd never dreamed of.

It was colorful and outlandish and glamorous and… exotic. Very exotic.

Since then I've spent many years gallivanting around the world. I've been to Timbuktu and back. I lived a couple years in Egypt; a bunch of years in Ethiopia. Taiwan… Malaysia… Living in other countries was exciting and interesting. It was different from living in the USA.

When I walked out my gate, I saw people with another color of skin wearing beautiful hand-spun and embroidered clothing. I smelled the sour aroma of injera or the spices of wat. I learned to drink coffee at Ethiopian coffee ceremonies, and drank mate in Argentina.

It was a wild thirty years. It was a blast and I learned a lot.

But the most important thing I learned is that we are more alike than we are different.

It was when I was trekking high up in the Himalayas that I realized that, although our houses may look different from one another, we make them the way we do simply because of the local materials available to us. Whereas, here in the USA, we build our houses with wood, in the Himalayas, houses are built with stones. High up above the tree line, the only thing they have available is an endless supply of rocks – so they use them to build their houses.

In Ethiopia, they use mud for the walls and thatch for the roofs – because that's what they have.

I also realized we all eat what we eat because that's what's grown around us. Our traditional foods are based on what grows locally. Where bananas grow freely you'll find banana everything – fried banana, banana soup, banana fritters. In Patagonia, known for its massive sheep ranches, you'll find lamb meat everywhere you look.

In Ethiopia, teff is the primary grain grown, so that's what they use to make their bread. In Idaho, we eat potatoes.

You see – all around the world we carve out our life based upon what's around us. If we live in the tropics we don't bother sealing our houses – we want the cool breeze to pass through. If we live where winter comes, our houses need to protect us from the cold. One isn't better or worse, just different. And yet, the same.

Every parent in the world only wants the best for her child. We all want our children to have more than we have – and I'm not referring to "stuff" here. We want our children to be healthy and happy. We want them to be successful – although we may have different definitions of what success is.

Every single human being on our planet has only three basic needs – food, water, and a place to sleep. We all understand that – regardless of what kind of wrapper we come in. It doesn't matter what language we speak or what god we worship. The currency we spend is irrelevant, as is how much of that currency we have to spend. Skin color, style of clothing, how big of a house we live in. None of that really matters – because we are all the same.

After years of globetrotting, I've come to the realization that people everywhere are the same – just like I thought when I was sixteen. I've come back to where I used to be. I've come home.

And you know what? Boise IS exotic! Boise is just as exotic as Addis Ababa, Ethiopia or Alexandria, Egypt. It's no better or worse than Kaohsiung, Taiwan or La Paz, Bolivia. Every single one of us in Boise is doing the same thing as those living in Tegucigalpa, Honduras or Timbuku – we're just living. We're eating, We're drinking. We're sleeping. Just like people everywhere.

We, here in Boise Idaho, are just as exotic as them. Not better. Not worse. Just different. And yet the same.

Nancy Sathre-Vogel is a long-time teacher who recently cycled from Alaska to Argentina with her husband and twin sons. She documented their journey for Guinness World Records at www.familyonbikes.org and also writes for Examiner.com about roadschooling, international travel and bike touring throughout the world. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook




Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: May, 2011; Peace Corps Honduras; Directory of Honduras RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Honduras RPCVs; Speaking Out





When this story was posted in May 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:




Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers RSS Feed

 Site Index Search PCOL with Google Contact PCOL Recent Posts Bulletin Board Open Discussion RPCV Directory Register

Congress Holds Hearings on Sexual Assault Date: May 15 2011 No: 1518 Congress Holds Hearings on Sexual Assault
Congress held hearings on the sexual assault of Peace Corps volunteers. Read the testimony of returned and current Peace Corps volunteers on how the problem is still ongoing, and not limited to any particular country or region. Director Williams says that "it has become apparent to me that the Peace Corps has not always been sufficiently responsive or sensitive to victims of crime and their families. I sincerely regret that." Read what the Peace Corps is doing to address the issue.

Peace Corps: The Next Fifty Years Date: March 8 2011 No: 1513 Peace Corps: The Next Fifty Years
As we move into the Peace Corps' second fifty years, what single improvement would most benefit the mission of the Peace Corps? Read our op-ed about the creation of a private charitable non-profit corporation, independent of the US government, whose focus would be to provide support and funding for third goal activities. Returned Volunteers need President Obama to support the enabling legislation, already written and vetted, to create the Peace Corps Foundation. RPCVs will do the rest.

March 1, 2011: The First PCVs Date: February 27 2011 No: 1495 March 1, 2011: The First PCVs
Bob Klein writes: First PCVs Arrive in Ghana 22 Feb
Hugh Pickens says PC to Win Nobel Peace Prize 22 Feb
Patricia McKissick sees history unfolding in Cairo 12 Feb
Bruce Rosen Leads Lawsuit Against Iran 10 Feb
Claudia Jayne teaches Sewing in Fiji 9 Feb
Michael Snarskis Discovered Ancient Civilizations 4 Feb
John Freivalds writes: Egypt compared to Iran in 1970's 2 Feb
Ted Poe to investigate PCV Sexual Assault Victims 31 Jan
Peter DiCampo takes Flashlight Portraits of Ghana 25 Jan
Lyn Wright Fogle says Learning new Language Transforms Us 25 Jan
Shanti A. Parikh Examines Structures of Gender Inequality 21 Jan
Ann Sheehan writes: Hearing Sarge sent me to Africa 20 Jan
Laurence Leamer writes: I remember Sarge as he was 19 Jan
Jim Fedako writes: What stands in way of rebuilding Haiti? 17 Jan
Peace Corps Evacuates PCVs from Niger 17 Jan
Sean Smith quits Hollywood for Peace Corps 17 Jan
Peace Corps Malaysia Prgoram to be Re-instated 15 Jan
Brian Buckley co-owns Innisfree Poetry Bookstore 13 Jan
Rob Prince writes: Tunisia explodes 13 Jan
Pancho Lane writes about Colombia 1 12 Jan
Erik Thompson brings Micronesians to Minnesota 24 Nov
Alan Guskin helped lay foundation for Peace Corps 4 Nov

How Volunteers Remember Sarge Date: January 18 2011 No: 1487 How Volunteers Remember Sarge
As the Peace Corps' Founding Director Sargent Shriver laid the foundations for the most lasting accomplishment of the Kennedy presidency. Shriver spoke to returned volunteers at the Peace Vigil at Lincoln Memorial in September, 2001 for the Peace Corps 40th. "The challenge I believe is simple - simple to express but difficult to fulfill. That challenge is expressed in these words: PCV's - stay as you are. Be servants of peace. Work at home as you have worked abroad. Humbly, persistently, intelligently. Weep with those who are sorrowful, Care for those who are sick. Serve your wives, serve your husbands, serve your families, serve your neighbors, serve your cities, serve the poor, join others who also serve," said Shriver. "Serve, Serve, Serve. That's the answer, that's the objective, that's the challenge."

PCV Murder Investigated Date: January 18 2011 No: 1477 PCV Murder Investigated
ABC News has investigated the murder of Benin PCV Kate Puzey. Read our original coverage of the crime, comments on Peace Corps actions, the email Puzey sent her country director about sexual incidents with Puzey's students and with another PCV, the backstory on how RPCVs helped the Puzey family, and Peace Corps' official statement. PCOL Editorial: One major shortcoming that the Puzey murder highlights is that Peace Corps does not have a good procedure in place for death notifications.

Join Us Mr. President! Date: June 26 2009 No: 1380 Join Us Mr. President!
"We will double the size of the Peace Corps by its 50th anniversary in 2011. And we'll reach out to other nations to engage their young people in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity," said Barack Obama during his campaign. Returned Volunteers rally and and march to the White House to support a bold new Peace Corps for a new age. Latest: Senator Dodd introduces Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2009 .



Read the stories and leave your comments.








Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: Washington Times

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Honduras; Speaking Out

PCOL47121
11


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: