Blowin' In The Wind

Today is election day and Kristy and I are laying low, Peace Corps has an apolitical stance and that is much easier on a day like today inside watching the dvd's that our loved ones have recently mailed to us :) This time gives me the opportunity to think and therefore a desire to vent, if you do not wish to read my rant stop now.

Recently, one of our friends from the Gorgol region of Mauritania COS'd (Close Of Service) and when she returned home her local newspaper wrote and article (this article) about her accomplishments and published it on the interweb. The things that she was able to accomplish were phenomenal, she lived in a small village that had a school where only two of the rooms were usable. She raised money and turned that 2 room school into a 6 room school, and this was merely a highlight of her 2 years of service.

There, of course, was a comments section as there are in many online forms of media, just like there is here. I was appalled to read some of the things that were written there. The comments were written by isolationists who saw that she helped Africans, not Americans, and those were the nice ones. In order to not pick fights on the interweb (because, oh my how I loathe that) I shall address one of the little examined benefits of Americans being in the Peace Corps. Other than the obvious: volunteers habitually volunteer for the rest of their lives regardless of where they live. We are all people and helping people regardless of lines on a map, skin color, and religion is a good thing.

I know that the idea of terrorism is something that makes grandmothers shake in their boots and young adults who know everything roll their eyes. However, if there ever was a place that people could be swayed from a pro America point of view to an Islamic extremist point of view, it is here. On a regular basis I see people with Osama on their t-shirts, no joke. Here, as one of the few faces of America that people will ever see, we are America, unless you would leave that to Jack Bower. In Mauritania, when Kristy plants trees, Matt teaches computer lessons, Alex helps the community build a school, Justin builds a fence to protect crops, and the hundreds of PCV's who have come here, it is America helping, not some bleeding heart liberal. When an extremist asks if a village will support them or a young man will become a soldier for them they will remember that we are not their enemy and that we are people the same as them. I know that there is no way that we can achieve peace and understanding for everyone but PCV's are fighting for America the same as any soldier, with a different strategy.