Young Americans at home anywhere
My column today:
The Tar Heels were lighting it up against Gonzaga last Friday night, but our guest was stretched out on the couch asleep before halftime.
That’s a former Peace Corps volunteer for you. They can make themselves at home anywhere, anytime.
We’d just met Justin Wild and Anna Kuhn earlier that evening when they arrived at our house — another way station on their cross-country safari. Anna, motor always running, was still following the action on television, but Justin was plain worn out from a long, busy day.
Our short personal acquaintance didn’t hinder a fond feeling for these engaging young people.
We’d been following their fascinating stories for years and welcomed the chance to serve as their hosts for a night.
They were members of our son, Andrew’s, Peace Corps group sent to the East African country of Tanzania in September 2005 as volunteer teachers. Although they didn’t know each other beforehand and were placed at schools hundreds of miles apart, Justin and Anna fell in love and married at the end of their two-year assignment.
Then they extended their service for a third year, with Justin, previously in the southern highlands, joining Anna in Kigwe, a village near Dodoma in the hot, dusty central plains.
They finished up for good in December, visited Egypt and India and arrived back in the U.S. in February. They’re driving from Florida to California, where Anna’s family lives. Justin had an appointment Friday at Duke, where he’s considering a graduate program if the price is right.
We knew a lot about Anna, thanks to her occasional e-mail messages home, which were widely distributed across a network of friends, family and others with an interest in everything related to Peace Corps in Tanzania.
Anna didn’t have e-mail access, or even electricity, in Kigwe. Her missives required her to travel into Dodoma and find an Internet cafe with a functioning computer keyboard. Often, her narratives lacked a letter or two, but they were always worth the effort to piece together.
She recounted the most amazing adventures — encounters with baboons, hyenas and elephants; long bus journeys that included hours stuck in rainy season mud; deflecting local suitors, despite a bride price of many more cattle than the usual rate; and learning through trials and tribulations how to fit into an entirely different way of life. There’s a terrific book in all that, and Anna says she’s working on it.
The two had the experience of a lifetime. Justin climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Together they peered over the edge of Victoria Falls in Zambia, rafted on the Upper Nile in Uganda and saw the pyramids in Egypt.
Most importantly, they survived — even thrived — in a culture and climate that might drive most Americans home in a month at most.
No electricity means no air-conditioning, refrigeration or appliances. Limited water means no showers and never wasting a drop. Chores that are simple at home, like preparing meals or cleaning, take hours of hard work.
But Tanzanians make the most of very little. They share readily and expect the same of others. They believe in using today what’s needed for today, Anna said. If she had two loaves of bread, someone inevitably would ask, “Why do you need two? Give me one.”
People are so close to one another, they have no conception of privacy — a sometimes-troublesome attitude for newlyweds to deal with.
Nevertheless, Anna and Justin formed strong bonds with villagers and tried to meet whatever needs they could. Anna used her e-mail network to raise money to build a science lab at her school. She worked extra time in a health clinic that was overwhelmed with clients, finding herself frustrated that women with many children refused birth control.
They learned there were things they couldn’t change. Their goal was to help in small ways.
We asked if they’ll return to Tanzania. Both eagerly said yes. I got the feeling their return home was for the purpose of gaining additional education and training, and maybe affiliating with another organization that can accomplish bigger things.
Anna and Justin prove there are young Americans willing to share their talents in underdeveloped countries, but not by dictating American solutions. It’s better to learn how others live, think and speak, and then work with them to discover together how to get things done.
Too many Americans know and care little about the rest of the world. Fortunately, there are those who can make themselves at home, and make a difference, anywhere they go.
You can see Justin's Tanzania blog here.
Thanks for reading. Please call me at 373-7039, email me at dgclark@news-record.com, or post a comment here.
Comments (21)
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Maybe they should try the military and then you could give us a report.
Posted on April 1, 2009 7:13 AM
You gotta love these Peace Corps kids - hope Andrew is also doing well. Anna and Justin stopped by Louisville to stay with Jen for a couple of days on their next leg of the journey. The whole group shares a nice bond of friendship. I hope they continue to stay in touch.
Posted on April 1, 2009 8:23 AM
Doug J., Were you one of those guys who wore one of those tee shirts you used to see at Myrtle (before Iraq) : "Join the Army. Visit exotic places. Meet exotic people...and kill them"?
Posted on April 1, 2009 9:03 AM
Hi, Dana. Great to hear from you. Andrew's doing well in D.C. and often checks in on this blog, so maybe we'll hear from him. Best to Jen.
Doug J., always finding something negative to say. We have outstanding military personnel, but we don't need every young American to join the armed forces. Those who sacrifice and serve in other ways deserve our thanks, too.
Posted on April 1, 2009 9:08 AM
Thank you Doug for capturing the love and heart of service our daughter and son (in-law) have. They found it best not to critcize or force a change, but show by example and love the ways to improve a life.... one person at a time. She and Justin also provided sponsors for scholarships for a number of students who would never have had the resources to make it through the upper grades of school. The last 3 1/2 years have not been easy. There is a lot of hard work involved, but the satisfaction is all-encompassing. We are proud of them.
Posted on April 1, 2009 10:33 AM
We really enjoyed their visit. They're great young people. And if they end up at Duke, we'll help keep an eye on them for you.
Posted on April 1, 2009 11:07 AM
Doug, you mean try and find some way to forgive them
Posted on April 1, 2009 11:31 AM
I know some people with Duke connections. Most of them are tolerable.
Posted on April 1, 2009 12:47 PM
It's good that Anna and Justin got to visit and a shame I couldn't make it. I'll tell you one thing, those two had the right idea in staying an extra year.
Posted on April 1, 2009 5:41 PM
That calls for further explanation.
Posted on April 1, 2009 5:44 PM
Just saying I kind of wish I was still over there. It was a good life.
Posted on April 2, 2009 12:33 AM
Andrew having some Joseph Conrad fantasies?
They can be quite seductive to someone living in the largely anonymous, politically correct, emasculated, increasingly Kafkaesque world we live in here.
Posted on April 2, 2009 9:00 AM
Savage, that Conrad comment is not at all funny. There's no fantasy involved as I lived the life for two years, not as a sadistic demigod but as an equal.I was in a close tight-knit community with people who cared about me, I was doing a job I really liked that made a big difference in a few people's lives. I lived in a stunningly beautiful place, and I was by no means rich and I lacked a lot of material things, but I didn't want for anything and you don't miss the things so much when no one else around has them.
Posted on April 2, 2009 10:13 AM
Andrew, I stand corrected and was drawing possibly presumptious conclusions from minimal information, to which your father can attest-I hardly ever do.
Still, one cannot help but wonder that a portion of your enamourment with Tanzania might in some part be predicated on the fact that it is / was a novelty for you and you can leave at your leisure.
Posted on April 2, 2009 2:09 PM
I might retire there. It's affordable.
Posted on April 2, 2009 2:18 PM
Was definitely presumptious.
I'm proud to say I've never once thought that your "wonder" might even be a little bit true, and I think I know Andrew alot better than you. You're way off base, as usual.
Posted on April 2, 2009 2:33 PM
So Kenny, you don't think there's any appeal, even if on a totally subconsious level, of traveling to a foreign country as a teacher or say a doctor (Without Borders)-in an inherently superior, "status-ed" position, as opposed to maybe a more pedestrian taken-for-granted role in one's native country. You think that Andrew really would love being just another Tanzanian villager?
You believe that...We'll, you're young. You keep believing that.
Forget I said anything
Sorry.
Posted on April 2, 2009 2:48 PM
Of course the fact that I could leave when I wanted made a difference, but I considered myself committed for two years. Still enjoyed the life there and after the first perhaps nine months had no desire to leave before my commitment ended. Lots of people there are very happy, even if they wish for a higher standard of living. The people who are suffering from hunger and AIDS are of course suffering, but there are people who are healthy and well fed, and the fact that I was getting a middle class salary (by the standards there) helped me stay in that category. Of course I don't wish for myself the life of the poorest Tanzanian, but nor do I wish myself the life of the poorest American.
I'm not offended by anything but the Conrad thing. Besides, Conrad depicted Africa has hell on earth, so it was kind of the opposite of what I was saying.
Also savage, it was a novelty at first, but by the time I left it definitely wasn't. In fact, the novelty period was the hard part. I'm not in any way trying to glorify the life there, I just meant by my original comment that I was happy there.
Posted on April 2, 2009 3:18 PM
Then I hope you'll visit YM and me in our retirement over there.
Although talking her into it may not be that easy.
Posted on April 2, 2009 3:28 PM
I just don't understand why you have to be so cynical about everything written on this blog. It gets tiring.
Posted on April 2, 2009 3:32 PM
Actually, Kenny, the Conrad thing was mainly in jest. That's the disadvantage of the internet, the words get in the way. In person, Andrew would have been able to tell by inflection that it wasn't meant as any kind of insult.
Lots of things on blogs should not be taken personally or seriously for precisely this reason.
In real face to face life you can tell people to go F*%@ themself and the inflection of the voice means everything. This is impossible on the internet for the most part.
Lots of things on the internet sound cynical but it's usually just "Devils Advocation" for the sake of arguing and sustaining the blog thread.
Posted on April 2, 2009 4:20 PM