The Grand Heist
Being exposed to theft is almost a guarantee in Peace Corps. It occurs in towns, guest houses, and even in volunteer's homes. Volunteers experience a spectrum of losses. From the guy who comes home to find the solar panel from his roof is gone to the kid who's laptop gets stolen from his room through a window. There's even a kid in my class who recently shared that he has a little girl who stalks his house and steals whatever she can whenever she can, and he is powerless to stop her. Even with her parents and school officials involved, she keeps taking things.
These incidences leave most volunteers feeling violated. It frays our trust with our communities and generally becomes a low point in our service. I have been fairly lucky in my service. Sure I have had small things disappear here and there, books “lost”, and a kid who loved taking my flash drives, but it was never anything expensive.
Everything I brought to country I didn't count on it returning (see Rules of Peace Corps). When my student roommate, Dayana, asked for a radio to listen to music, I just gave her my old iPhone 4 (it has no SIM slot so it doesn't work here). When I gave it to her, I knew it would be a potential target; that she may lose and or break it. When she came back from Winter break, I was excited to see that it was not cracked. She even had pictures of her family and music which she played as she went about her day. She used it more in the past 2 months than I had used it in the past 2 years.
And then the inevitable happened. My neighbor stopped by the morning after I got back from a week long trip to Dar. She told me that her daughter (who's friends with Dayana) went to retrieve some clothes from Dayana's room and decided to borrow the iPhone. She took it to the school farm to listen to music. At the farm she was showing it off to everyone and put it in her backpack when doing farm work to keep it safe. When checking her bag later, she discovered that the iPhone was gone.
People can believe what they want to believe, but I believe that story is a load of garbage. The bottom line is my neighbor's kid was a thief the minute she left my house with the phone. I felt so sad for Dayana and kept thinking about the personal things she had on the iPhone. It wasn't mine anymore so I didn't feel as though I had lost anything but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth.
This neighbor is drowning in familial responsibilities. Throughout my service I have been close with her, helping out when I could. They are the classic textbook case of keeping up with the Joneses, where they have some uncontrollable desire to show off the idea of wealth. They have a car but they eat dinner in the dark, with only the lights from their cell phones to illuminate their unusable tv and stereo set. They have all the nice things ,but are the unhappiest people. They're the house that all the neighbors can often hear kids being “disciplined” and loud yelling. I once asked the woman about the noise after a particularly loud incident and she made up a story about her infant having hot water poured on him, even though he showed no signs of that happening.
So I felt bad for her. She has all these responsibilities and is essentially on her own because her husband is the dumbass (a pastor aka a man of God) who makes these financial decisions for the family. So as her friend I gave her the things I could part with and even lent her some money ($50, the amount I was willing to lose). I think over a period of half a year, her family destroyed 4 different solar powered lights. And so I learned that you can't just give people nice things for free and expect them to take care of it. Economic incentive is the most powerful behavior change tool and if people don't work for something, they don't pay for it, they don't appreciate it. They lived without it before, so they can live without it again. When people buy things, it creates a sense of ownership like no other. It also doesn't help that people don't emphasize saving money. When they have it they spend it, when they don't they don't. So now I'm here, waiting to be reimbursed for a phone from someone who has numerous debts already. I came here to help the school and students, not my neighbor and her husband’s financial decisions. It's unfortunate when money ruins relationships, but in the end maybe it's for the best in this situation.
With less than 6 months left in my service, I find myself questioning my views on international development. Sure, one person can't change a village, specially an outsider. The change must come from within, and grow naturally. Change is impossible though when people don't have skills, knowledge, or capital. Behavior change is the key to so many problems here and yet it is the hardest thing to implement. Real sustainable change rarely seems to come from giving people things. In all honesty, I am just tired and looking forward to returning home and starting my life. I came, I saw, I lived, and I'm just about done.
