I think as I research more and talk with more missionaries and read books about human rights, I learn more about the kind of humanitarian I want to be... by learning what I DON'T want to be. This year has been really good for me in terms of learning about the issues and my role in the Dominican, and I feel like I am a lot more prepared and have a really good idea of what I am meant to be doing. I have kind of used this blog to help me brainstorm... for some reason I can think better when I write everything down!
Has anyone ever seen the movie Trade? Well, if you haven't; watch it. It's pretty amazing. It is about human sex trafficking from Mexico to the United States. There is one part in the movie where the 2 girls being trafficked are caught by the police trying to cross the border into the States with the men who have captured them. They are brought to a jailed area to be escorted back to Mexico that day. While there, an American highschool Spanish class comes to do community service work and to practice their spanish. They stare through the gate at the Mexicans, as one would look at animals in a zoo. A student approaches the main character and slips her a fashion magazine through the holes in the fence. Good intentioned, yes... but ridiculously naive at the same time.
Why do I share this scene? Because I have been that highschool student before; I think most people are when they go to a new country and feel out of place, not sure exactly what to do and how to act. I was talking to Liz the other day and she called it a "poor parade" and I think that describes it really well. It is really hard NOT to do at first, and I think it takes time to adjust and become comfortable with the place you are working in. I have also heard the other side of the story; how it looks to the people living in those neighbourhoods. One friend told me that when foreigners come in, he can see on their faces that they all think everyone in the village is 'starving of hunger', has no money to their name, has no family, and nothing to live for, and he hates this because he has so much to live for and while he is poor, his life is filled with happiness, and they don't know anything about him. It is so easy to sterotype them and judge them and look down upon them, but it is so WRONG. Sure, some people living in poverty are dealing drugs, and are into prostitution or gangs, but some people in our own backyards are doing that stuff too! It certainly doesn't mean that EVERY person living in poverty is making bad choices and it just isn't fair to stereotype them or fear them because of it without talking to them and getting to know them and knowing what their lives are about. Like Mother Teresa says,
"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." Since I was 17 and started doing humanitarian work, I have worked with probably close to 200 other missionaries; many of these people have judged and stereotyped the people they work with, and I would listen to them talk about it, never quite knowing what to say. I am embarassed to admit that I have done this before myself; thinking one boy I worked with who was out at night was back into prostituting when really that was so far from the truth. Did I talk to him or really know anything about his life and his situation? No, I just assumed from stories I had heard and from stereotypes I had. And it was very wrong. I've seen mothers with darker skin and kids with light skin and just assumed without even knowing them that they are the result of prostitution. I have had Dominican men talk to me and I've been rude to them and brushed them off because I assumed they were "sankeys"; preying on gringas for money or sex. I hate to say that I did this... but at least I can say that I realized my fault and won't do it anymore.
We have a way to find the worst possible situations and apply it to people, and in most cases, it is simply wrong. Is every poor teenage boy in the Dominican selling drugs, using drugs, and sleeping with every girl they see? NO! But so many people think that to be true, without ever having any reasons to back this up other than their poverty. Is every poor Dominican teenaged girl bound to become a prostitute? NO! Should we avoid every poor area because we are scared that it could be dangerous? NO! Can you imagine what the world would have been like if Mother Teresa had never went into the slums of Calcutta because she was scared? Certainly one must exert caution (this is common sense and would apply to anywhere in a country that isn't your own) but to completely avoid the places where poverty is at its worst is not the kind of humanitarian I want to be. I have been warned countless times by people not to go to Haiti because it is too dangerous, but I never felt threatened when I was there and I am looking forward to going back.
I am not any better than the people whom I work with. I am not above them; I am not smarter than them or a better person than them or more valuable in the world than they are. We are all people. They are like my family and I will treat them like so.
