you how excited I am to be here tonight
and I want to thank the students who
invited me to come when I was preparing
to graduate from college I wasn’t quite
sure what I was going to do with my life
but at the point that I was graduating i
knew that i wanted to embark on
something that would help me to continue
my education and at the same time enable
me to find way to be of service what i
decided to do is I decided to apply the
Peace Corps Peace Corps is American
agency which sends young men and women
with skills to countries who request
those skills what I did is I can i
interviewed with them they talking about
what my experiences have been and they
decided to offer me a position as a math
education volunteer this was something I
was really excited to do what I had to
do was wait to find out where it is that
they would invite me to perform my
service after a few months I received a
fat envelope in the mail and in the
temple open for me that I was being
invited to serve in the country of
Guinea and at the time that i received
the letter I have to admit I didn’t know
we’re getting was located and the first
thing I did was pulled out an analyst
before the internet and I took a look to
find out where Guinea as you can see it
on the map over there they are pointing
to it it’s on the west coast of Africa
to former French colonies for the
language of the people they are
expression and so I was thrilled studied
the very little room in French in
college I really wanted the opportunity
to learn to speak another language and I
wanted to visit and live within a
culture that was completely different
than our American culture so my journey
began the July after I graduated six
weeks after I graduated I was on a plane
to overseas and I first went to country
of Senegal which borders getting to the
north and I spent two months
Aaron trick me and my training was
threefold the first part was language
immersion so I mentioned I’d only had a
little bit of French in colleges so I
spent six hours a day with seven Billy’s
instructor and his fellow Peace Corps
volunteers to learn French and that’s
what I could interact with individuals
on the day-to-day basis as well as be
able to teach a class of math the second
aspect of my training was vocational
training so I had not done my
undergraduate degree in education I was
a liberal arts major and so I had to
have a crash course what it would be to
teach in a school in Guinea I went into
a public school and they followed the
French system of education there and
then the third element of training was
acculturation so they had to prepare me
for what life is won’t be liking me
because it was nothing like anything to
experience here in the United States and
that in some ways was the most important
part of the training that I had upon the
completion of my training I was sworn in
to volunteer and I wanted to include the
oath that I took his volunteer at the
time it was very very meaningful to me
let me read it to you I married do
solemnly swear that I will support and
defend the Constitution of the United
States against all enemies foreign and
domestic that I will bear true faith and
allegiance to the same that I take this
obligation freely without any mental
reservation or purpose of evasion and
that I will well and faithfully
discharge the duties of the office on
which I am about to enter this was a
weighty howth to take and to be honest I
think wasn’t aware when I was looking at
the Peace Corps that I would be taking
this out and on the day that we were
sworn in it was the ambassador beginning
who had us swear in and he told us in
that
that we would be ambassadors that his
job was made much easier by the fact
that we as Americans were having
villages into small towns of any places
where he could not reach and that we
would all be expected to act as
representatives of our country while we
were engaging in our service so off I
went this is a picture of me on the road
near in my village and as you can see
I’m wearing traditional gay and we’re at
that time one of the pieces of our
training energy culture a shin is really
really important one of the aspects of
going to getting was understanding that
gimme was a country that we’re
eighty-five percent of the population
was Muslim and so that required that the
clothing that i wore reflected the
values of the people where I lived and
so one of those values is the fact that
as a woman would be considered unseemly
for a modest if I were to show for
example my leg up my knee so all of the
clothing that i wore always make sure
that i dressed in long skirts like you
see what i was wearing in the picture at
the same time there was no concern of
that arm showing so for example i am
frequently wear tank talk to kind of
like I’m doing right now and it didn’t
need to cover my hair as well the
requirements for women were actually
very similar to the apartments for men
men also never wore shorts and in fact
was considered unseemly for an adult
male or female wear shorts men and women
wear pants were there for skirts and as
Americans a little bit difficult because
it was hot and they were days where I
wanted to wear shorts but I felt that if
i didn’t i would be perceived by those
around me is not thank someone who was
dignified a worthy respect and so it was
important to me that I understood the
viewpoint of the people with whom I was
living so that if they were going to
hear me and understand who I was at the
same time I needed to respect their
their culture as well oftentimes I tell
people about my Peace Corps experience
they want to know what it was like and
where I lived and the hut that you see
here is naturally not
that i lived in my dwelling was a little
bit different than i’m talking envious
is the volunteers who got to live in
such a dwelling Guinea is hot it’s only
400 miles within the equator they’re two
seasons it’s hard work basically it’s a
dry season in the wet season and it’s
always hot the mud hut that you see here
with the bathroom is actually a really
little dwelling place so if you think
about in your own home if you go down
into the basement where it’s partially
underground just kind of like being
within my walls and so one of the things
that I really have to appreciate when I
lived there was how they use their
environment to make themselves more
comfortable and the fact that what we
might see as a modern convenience might
be better to live in a house with the
air conditioning for example they found
ways to be cool and to live and
uncomfortable um clearly live in a house
like this indication there was no
running water with what’s no electricity
and this is something that I understood
that I was going to experience when I
went there and it wasn’t particularly
fearful of it but again at the same time
people often wonder hmm have you lived
without running water that means no
plumbing have you live without
electricity comes in lights and while
the next slide sort of speaks for itself
right you learn very quickly to adapt to
the circumstances that you’re in and
oftentimes what do you think is going to
be the scariest and most uncomfortable
situations you discover I can adapt in
fact there’s nothing really that
difficult to adapt to one of the things
that impressed me about the medium
people must have heard they worked and
as a woman in Kenya became very
intrigued with the roles of women in the
country where I was and and women and
guinea are some of the hardest working
people I’ve seen anywhere because they
lack basic in public infrastructure like
we have like running water electricity
the burden of household duties do follow
the women and fetching water for example
daily is a chore fetching firewood in
order to cook for the family is
important and one of the two
culties that I had is of course I didn’t
have running water in my house side and
there was a pump about 50 meters from my
house that I would have to walk to to
get water and i mentioned before about
dress and having appropriate dress so
there were also appropriate behaviors
for how he was supposed to act as not
only a a teacher a new teacher was
considered a valued member of the
Society of the community but calories
must act as an adult women and adult
women do not pump water pumping water is
this child’s work and when I mean
child’s reckoning work of six and
seven-year-olds so when I go to the pump
to get water because in my mind that was
my responsibility to provide himself
with that service I would find 67 year
old girls there and they didn’t want me
to pump water they would commit
themselves and they would take these
huge 5-gallon technology ups and they
would lift it and put it on their head
so they would want to walk at home and I
was constantly having a struggle within
myself to my lao children to do this do
I do with myself sometimes I did it
myself some time to let the children do
it it as a Peace Corps volunteer as
someone who’s living a different culture
finding a way to respect their values
with the same time respect my own values
what was important to me was always a
daily struggle in this picture I wonder
right beaute right I certainly a very
fair-skinned American and wherever I
went in Africa I should have and your
special name for white foreigner in the
local language language isuzu and it was
ok so anywhere i went for hordes of
children always felt like the report to
them dozens of children were always
playing a minute did we see because
obviously Tyson doubt they would holler
boat a boat a boat a boat tank boats &
boating what they were doing they were
waiting you say manja wha and when I did
that they get excited we run around me
come up and we want to shake my hand
every time I left my home every single
time I left my home people would holler
boat a boat a boat day additionally was
kind of cool i felt served like
rock-star I thought everybody loves the
American this is really great but after
months and months and months of
constantly being called pho Tay there
was a certain breeding that occurred and
again it was a cultural dissonance that
was happening for then there was no
disrespect and calling me photek they
were simply say you’re a foreigner right
and I was a foreigner but I’m coming
from the US in the u.s. we all know that
is completely inappropriate to call out
and hollering somebody based on their
race or ethnicity it was really
difficult and so I would have to talk
myself down to say
trying to be rude you’re not saying
anything bad about me because I’m
fair-skinned and at the same time you
was difficult it was really difficult
experience it was a great opportunity
for me to experience what it’s like to
be different show it picture here of the
market because when I would go to the
market that’s where the sellers of
various goods would often say he boat a
they wanted me to come over and
purchases from them and part of again
the culture can you can go to purchase
something there are no price tags okay
you never know how much something costs
so when you go to the market it’s all
about bargaining determining what the
cost might be whenever I as the photo is
a whiteboard herbs walking into market
market any price it was stated for me
was always four to five times higher
than what the other people’s prices with
me and that was okay I had more money
and so that was sort of expected but I
was not expected to pay that price to
four or five times more what they had I
was expected to borrow her harder and I
was expected to engage in a conversation
so here in the United States would like
to run to the store we run and we run
out we’re hoping that the lines you
really quit but no one’s going to hold
us up you’re expected to have a
conversation the conversation never
begins with how much does that cost the
conversation always begins with hi how
are you doing how’s your mom how’s your
dad how’s your spouse are your kids what
are you doing tonight what’d you do
yesterday things are good yeah so what
do you think about that uh it’s a cloth
over there unless you think it is oh you
think your mom would like it you think
your dad would like my sister so it’s
always a conversation like a 20-minute
conversation
this was like agonized again it’s
American the last thing you want to do
really that’s I wanted to do was barter
I just want to know how much does it
cost let me pay to get out of here I
learned that was rude and I had to talk
we had to talk and that was part of
making connection and really became a
lot of fun I have to admit there was one
time when I was in the capital conakry
and I was bartered bartering against her
some cloth at one point it was a long
exchange the very end of it when I
finally got the deal that I wanted the
gentleman symphony man you’re hard at
that point was the best best compliment
I got the entire time I was there
because it meant that I can learn head
bargain so one of the things about
living abroad it comes a point when you
are not shocked by anything anymore so
all the things that seems really
different to you while you were there
suddenly aren’t that different anymore
this is a picture of a taxi brousse when
you are traveling and getting you always
have to travel by taxi there are no
individual cars which controls don’t own
cars you travel together so you go to
the taxi station and there’s no
particular taxi leaving at eleven
o’clock so if you show up at whatever
time you have to wait to the taxis full
before it takes off which could be all
day could be until the next day you
never know how long we’re gonna be
waiting for the next fri to get yourself
to the town and what you’ll notice of
course are all the things that are piled
on top I was completely normal the first
time I saw it I thought you how can that
be safe and gentlemen hanging off the
back that’s nothing half the time I hear
things like goats and chickens hanging
off the fact that they strapped on and
again all I kept resent boys oh my
goodness is the people at PETA ever saw
this they’ve never allowed right but
they getting us wait
you’re done when I finished my
assignment I came home and really
excited to come back to the United
States I can actually came to New York
City after I between West Africa and I’m
not a native New Yorker but I am at
least coaster when I came back to New
York I was really excited to be
anonymous I was excited to be able to
walk down the street for nobody to care
who I was or what I was doing I didn’t
have to represent the United States you
behave in any particular way like I said
I was completely anonymous but at the
same time there were certain things that
I came back that I realized things that
I thought that I would enjoy and I
didn’t enjoy quite so much anymore so
for example supermarket took me a solid
year before I was comfortable going to
regular grocery store because there was
too much to choose from I didn’t know
where to start and I was completely
overwhelmed and the markets in Gainey
you had no choices it was always like
three or four things whatever happened
to be in the harvest that’s what you ate
that’s what you bought coming back to us
I didn’t know what to do with the
supermarket’s the other thing is when I
was in getting there’s a lot of talk
about how wealthy Americans were and as
a recent college graduates saddled with
college loans when I was making a
hundred eighty dollars a month as a
Peace Corps volunteer I didn’t feel like
I had a lot of money and so this
conception that I was somehow well thing
to me seem laughable when I came back to
the United States and just driving from
the airport on the highway sink all the
incredibly shiny cars as compared to
what i have seen in getting my first
thought was my god right were wealthy i
had no idea until I gone somewhere else
and came back himself from very very
when I suffered while I was there that
perspective is something that shifts
based on where you are if you have our
head experience and going to the beach
and you put your towel you put your
umbrella on the stand and wait out into
the water and you’re swimming you’re
enjoying yourself and so what you stop
and you look back to Serie beach
umbrella and tower and it’s not there
right we realize that its way down the
other side of the beach that you’ve been
sweat slowly aside by by the current to
another portion of the beach that’s what
happens when you travel somewhere else
and live among the people we live among
the culture you begin to realize that
your perspective is completely shifted
and what you were expecting to see you
you’re no longer going to see I know
that there are a lot of seniors who are
in the audience tonight and you’re going
to be graduating soon and heading off to
college and as you go to college we have
the opportunity to be in a completely
different environment for your
perspective and your assumptions not
like we’re going to challenge it’s a
fabulous dirty you don’t need to go to
West Africa for guinea to have a
perspective reshaped you simply put
yourself into positions that make you
uncomfortable it will happen thank you [Applause]