Accomplishing Goals

I’m a very goal-oriented person.  I love goals.  Having them, accomplishing them, scoring them…okay that last one pretty much never happens for me*, but you get the point.  I love having goals.

So it’s extremely helpful that Peace Corps has outlined these three lovely goals for volunteers to try to accomplish.  These goals are as follows:

1.    Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.

2.    Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

3.    Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of

Americans.

Goal one is pretty self explanatory, and goal three is kind of what I’m trying to do with this whole blogging business, but today I’m going to share a little bit about what goal two is like for most volunteers. 

American culture, like any other culture, is incredibly complex and, at times, almost impossible to describe.  It’s difficult to explain a culture that is so often inaccurately portrayed in popular television shows, movies and other pop culture (although it’s hard to deny that my life could not be summed up with a few episodes of 30 Rock and a sampling of Taylor Swift songs).    

Just to give you an idea of what some Cambodians think about America, here are a few choice quotes by some of the people in my town**.

“People in America are fat because they all have washing machines”

“In America, everyone has enough money and time to go on vacation whenever they want.”

“There are no homeless people in America.”

Market Man: “Do all people in America have light skin?”

Me: “No, we have people in America from all over the world.  Dark skin and light skin.”

Market Man:  “What state do all the people with dark skin live in?”

Me: “All of them…?” 

“America has 56 states, and I hear that they want to have at least 60 in the future”

So in summation, a lot of Cambodians belive America is made up of mostly fat, rich, and racist imperialists.   And yes, there is often some truth in stereotypes and misinformation.  It’s true that America isn’t exactly known for being the healthiest country (my own saga with McDonalds is a fine display of that fact).  And yes, our GDP and standard of living is drastically different than that of Cambodia.  We certainly have a history of racism and putting our long arms in to several pots, but that is not all there is to America.  I certainly consider part of my job here to show that America is an incredibly diverse country.  Yes, there are really rich people in America, but there are also people who live on the streets and battle with mental illness, just like in Cambodia.  There are people who are incredibly healthy (without eating immense amounts of rice, I might add).  There are people who are incredibly good and incredibly generous, living right alongside the genuinely terrible people who exist.  Just like in Cambodia.

It’s not my goal to disillusion Cambodians about life in America.  I will never deny that in comparison to many Cambodians (and Americans, for that matter), I have lived an extremely comfortable life due to the hard work and love of my parents.  But it is my goal to show them that life isn’t perfect.  It’s not perfect in America and it’s not perfect in Cambodia.  But it’s our responsibility to take those imperfections and try to make something better, one step at a time. 

*Fun fact: when I played soccer in elementary school, I can guarantee that I possessed more pairs of broken glasses than actual scored goals. 

**Fair warning that most of these quotes are probably mistranslated…but I’m still writing them down.