Paciencia y Flexibildad

As a Peace Corps volunteer, I am expected to practice patience and flexibility, and I think these two traits are always necessary in every avenue of life, but especially when living and working abroad. I pride myself on being both patient and flexible; however, these past few weeks at my new site have been especially trying, and some days I just want to SCREAM.

Everyday is a constant battle where I am forced to prove myself, or mainly my identity as an American, but a South Asian American, to a multitude of Guatemaltecos, primarily to my new host family, which is also very difficult for me, because with my previous host family, there was this instant fit; like I just belonged there. They didn’t ask me borderline racist questions. They were my people. Not really the case here…It is very tiring having to defend my identity to my new host family everyday. As a minority, I knew beforehand that my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer would differ from the average Caucasian American Peace Corps Volunteer. I am not saying that they do not have there share of challenges here, I am just saying our problems or challenges are very different. I am not Caucasian. I am not blonde. I am not white. I am South Asian American.

To many guatemaltecos, especially those in the campo who have never left Quiché, this is absolutely baffling. “Aren’t Americans white? There is no way you could be American. You probably immigrated to the USA but were born elsewhere, right?” These questions are asked with absolute certainty that I must be mistaken. I try to be patient, and actually, I believe I have been patient, but when every day my host mom introduces me to different people as “Osama Bin Laden’s daughter,” and says that I am from Afghanistan, some days I just want to shout, “you make NO sense and that is not funny…where did you even come up with that crap!!!!” (Of course I would never do that…not only for the Peace Corps core expectations, but because for those of you who know me, you know I am a mediator, a pacifist, and well, let’s be honest, pretty darn passive…)

However, I do remember the Peace Corps tenets of flexibility and patience and try to use these moments to educate my host family, as they have no concept of geography or other cultures, or diversity in general, and the Peace Corps is all about cultural exchange. I made the mistake of sharing with my family that I am half Indian and half Pakistani (should have just stuck with Indian….though then that would be like lying about half of my identity). They equated Pakistan with Afghanistan with Saudi Arabia (don’t ask.), and thus (obviously), I became Bin Laden’s daughter. After the first time this happened, I patiently explained the MANY things wrong with this, and I turned to the world map to help me, as well as to history, etc.,; you know, all for the cultural exchange, the opportunity to teach Guatemaltecos that North Americans come in all shapes, sizes, colors, etc.,

But now it has been TWO WEEKS almost every night at dinner or sometime in the afternoon when this comes up, and I have tried to educate them (Lord knows I have tried), since I know this all stems from IGNORANCE, but as I said before, it is extremely challenging, especially when I am at a baptism with tons of extended family members who I have never met before and my host family introduces me to the crowded room quite loudly as “Osama Bin Laden’s Daughter”…Oh, not awkward at all; great way to make new friends. Thank you very much host family number two. However, I will keep on being me, and hopefully they will see that their “jokes” are not funny, but offensive, and they will realize the numerous things wrong with stereotyping people, and then I will have prevailed with at least part of the Peace Corps’ Mission, which entails helping host country nationals attain a better understanding of who Americans are…