Consumerism vs. Practicality

I took a trip to the U.S. for two weeks around Thanksgiving. It was my first time going back in two years. It worked out perfectly as I got to see lots of friends and family around the holidays and my sister conveniently had her baby early so that I got to meet my first niece! I found that many things had changed and I also saw many things through a new lens after spending so much time being immersed in a very different world. Among other things, I was introduced to a Blue Ray and also learned who Justin Bieber is.

While I was home, I spent a fair amount of time in pawn shops and electronic stores such as Radio Shack and Best Buy because we are setting up some small movie theaters here in Puerto Plata to generate income for Project Esperanza’s programs here. So I took advantage of being in the U.S. by researching AV options. I actually got a great deal on some equipment, came back with it, and we are now just working on some final preparations before opening up our first movie theater.

During this searching and investigating, I felt very aware of the consumerism present in the U.S. and compared it to a more practical knowledge and lifestyle that is present here in the Dominican Republic. I found a portable DVD player at a thrift sale which I thought I could use for the movie theater but it didn’t have its charger. I took it to Best Buy and thought they would have the charger without a doubt. The first guy I talked to examined the DVD player and assured me that they didn’t make such chargers anymore. I got a second opinion who agreed that the necessary charger was out of the norm, but perhaps Radio Shack would have it. I told them both that I was surprised that a large store that specializes in electronics such as Best Buy wouldn’t be able to help in such a situation. In the Dominican Republic, someone would quickly find a phone charger with the same plug head and cut the wires if need be in order to attach the head to the proper source. If they couldn’t do this, people often just stick the bare wires right into the hole and get the job done. I have seen this done on a regular basis by kids as young as twelve years old and no one has gotten electrocuted yet! Were they now trying to tell me that this DVD player was no longer chargeable and I should get a new one? If they were, I wasn’t buying it… literally.

I went to Radio Shack. They did not have the charger but I could go to the DVD player company’s website and likely order it from there. Before heading back to the Dominican Republic, I visited a Radio Shack in another city. They had a selection of cords with different jacks and could connect them to the proper source. This was more practical and what I would expect from an electronics store. However, I left the DVD player at home so we couldn’t find the right fit. I ran out of time and headed back to the Dominican without the charger, sure that we would cut wires but wary of making a mistake and messing it up.

Upon arriving, I presented the DVD player to my husband and explained the dilemma. Within a few minutes we were at the house of one of Project Esperanza’s teachers who quickly lent us an all too practical piece of equipment. It had four jacks on one cord and a source that could be set on 3, 6, 9, or 12 volts. And it worked!

“Where did you get this?” I asked the teacher.

“At a store,” he replied.

“It’s genius!” No one else seemed that excited. A few days later I showed up at Project Esperanza’s boys’ home for Haitian immigrant boys who have come to Puerto Plata in “search of life” and face many difficulties upon arrival. I found the charger in the wet grass in front of the house, source busted, and cord torn. My husband had left it there overnight with one of the boys to allow him to charge his CD player. I immediately began arguing with him.

“It didn’t work!” he defended.

“But it wasn’t yours!” I insisted. “You can’t just break it!”

I knew that things would be worked out with the teacher later, but needed the plug to run the movie theater, so I tried searching around Puerto Plata. The first store I visited did not have it. The second store quickly sold me a source with the same settings, (3, 6, 9, and 12 volts), and six interchangeable jacks! This was just too practical!

I returned to the boys’ home the next day to find the four in one head had been salvaged, connected to the plug of a cell phone charger, and was being put to good use. I was glad to see that and was not a bit surprised.

I recently had a conversation with another La Vida Idealist blogger about raising our respective kids in our respective developing countries and the better educational opportunities that are available in the U.S. However, while our future plans are not set in stone, I conclude that I can bring better formal education to my kids here in the Dominican Republic, but the consumerism and ignorance led by the domination of large corporations in the U.S. seem to pose a serious threat to practical education which, I think, holds just as much value as formal education. So while I am ever so grateful for the opportunities I have received and continue to receive as a U.S. citizen and I tear up at the pledge of allegiance and the singing of the national anthem, at this point, I have little desire to go back to live full time in the U.S. I would rather use my blessed life to bless others where blessings are much scarcer. And I want to encourage others to do the same. Let’s share the wealth! Live in a developing country!

Distributing Laptops to Children in Need? Prioritizing Need on a Global Scale

As Project Esperanza has been attempting to begin a few internet centers here in Puerto Plata in order to generate funds to support our ongoing programs, two people have directed me toward two different organizations that have the mission of supplying a laptop computer to every child in the world. I won’t state the names of these organizations or provide the websites since this post is a critique that does not support this mission.

If one were to prioritize the needs of every child in the world, a laptop is not on the top ten list to say the least. One theory of developmental psychology that I think makes sense is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Actually, this is more than just a theory as there is hard evidence to back up this theory, or at least the basic concept of the theory. Abraham Maslow presented that one cannot function on higher levels until more basic needs are met. He demonstrates the order or hierarchy of needs human beings have in the shape of a pyramid with the bottom layer being the most primary needs. If these most basic needs are not met then one cannot function. The category of needs go in this order: physiological (eat, drink, sleep), safety (of self, of resources, of family), love/belonging (friendship, family, sexual intimacy), esteem (confidence, achievement, respect), and self-actualization (creativity, problem solving, morality). I think it is safe to say that a laptop does not fall in these first three categories. I also think it is safe to say that a laptop does not truly meet a need but should be considered a want. It could perhaps be used as a tool to help some of these higher needs to be met but only in certain situations with well prepared recipients.

If an item such as a laptop is supplied to someone in need, they will likely use it as a resource to get basic needs met by selling it. A laptop can be an educational tool but it is a responsibility many adults wouldn’t know how to use, let alone children. I believe that the most necessary resource in any effort is the human resources to execute the effort. It is not necessarily a lack of money or lack of food or lack of any such tangible resources that cause such a large percentage of the world to live in poverty and to lack education. The problem lies in a lack of capable and loving individuals willing to patiently and persistently work with others toward a genuine solution.

The idea of supplying every child with a laptop is terribly impractical and completely oversimplifies the situation. An organization such as Recycles.org that collects unwanted computer equipment and distributes them to non-profits and charities may be quite productive. However, an organization whose mission is to distribute a laptop to every child in the world may need to rethink some things. After living and working in a developing country for a total of three and a half of the past five years, I have put forth lots of effort only to reach a benchmark that appears pitiful compared to those set by developed countries. However, I think the improvements we have made is impressive when the starting point is considered. The most impressive success to be celebrated in this line of work is perhaps building a trustworthy and competent team. Nonetheless, even a trustworthy team needs oversight and protection from temptation. For example, when food is distributed by the Dominican government, there is not a Santa Claus figure that delivers food to each house. No one waits outside of houses for people to come home and receive their package. Living arrangements are normally tight and people don’t normally have mailboxes or even secure porches to leave items on. When the government does distribute food out of the back of a truck every so often, some people walk away with a few bags and others with nothing. Those driving the trucks distributing the bags of food likely go home with several.

Let’s imagine that enough laptops were collected to supply every child in the world. To successfully distribute the laptops where there is no reliable postal service and a large percentage of houses without addresses, one would have to go through some sort of community organization or school that accounts for every child. Many children are undocumented and therefore not even accounted for by the government. Project Esperanza works together with schools and grassroots community organizations, giving financial, material, and administrative aid so that, among other things, every child in the communities we work in is accounted for. From what we have seen and experienced here in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic there is an abundance of work to be done before even responsibly distributing one pencil to every child in this area becomes a securely executable task, let alone a laptop. The Dominican Republic is just one of many developing countries so I can imagine this situation is similar around the globe.

Project Esperanza’s method of “saving the world” is the opposite of these organizations who seek to supply every child with a laptop computer. We focus on a small geographic area with the intention of digging deep – creating genuine and lasting change in one community. Through digging deep and through seeking genuine and lasting change, we discover and create methods and systems to deal with situations that come up. These methods and systems can be shared with others and perhaps replicated in different geographic areas. We also believe that the change created in one community will serve as a catalyst for change in neighboring communities. Attempting to supply every child in the world with a laptop computer is an effort that does not dig deep and does not, I don’t believe, create genuine and lasting change. If partnered with the right situations and the right organizations on the ground this effort could be quite a blessing. However, I believe that more than there is a need for laptops, there is a need for more genuine organizations on the ground!

Term "Hit and Run" Explained

In my last blog post I used the term “hit and run” referring to short term volunteer groups or even tourists who visit the Dominican Republic, have a good time whether spending time at the beach or engaging in activities with locals, taking pictures, then return home and continue with their normal lives. Their experience in the Dominican Republic remains a memory but other than the experience, memories, and pictures, no real and lasting connection exists between the individual or group and the community that was visited. This is the situation that I referred to as a “hit and run” but after receiving some feedback, I realize that this comment needs further explanation.

Here the economy is very slow and there is little opportunity for work. It is not entirely accurate to assume that locals are lazy and don’t want to work or lack business ideas that could be implemented to create work and profit. It is more accurate to understand that the economy is depleted. There is a lack of start up resources and there is a lack of consumers with resources to which goods and services can be marketed and sold. There is also, in many cases, a lack of local leadership and training but this is not hard to find a solution to with thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of people available tolearn when a proper teacher or teaching team is present.

Whether or not members of communities here have cognitively recognized that these are the missing factors that cause the economy to remain slow, they do realize that visitors from the developed world possess resources that are lacking here and this causes their presence to be exciting and bring hope. However, as in any situation where one is excited and hopes are high, there is the risk of being let down. It is important, therefore, for foreign visitors to fully realize the effect of their visit and to be wise and sensitive accordingly. It is my point of view that if someone or a group cannot engage in such a relationship with the developing world with great sensitivity, conscienciousness, and committment than it is best not to engage at all. Any other such engagement ends up in some sort of exploitation. The Dominican Republic is full of the negative effects of such exploitation.

After locals have had a few encounters with “hit and runs” – foreigners who cheerfully visit but do nothing to create change in the community long term and begin to serve as a reminder of what locals do not have rather than bring hope for a brighter future, some locals take on a mindset that they should learn to get what they can out of visitors while they’re here. The most honest way to do this is to market products or services that foreign visitors seem to like and jack up the prices. Such products include alcohol, cigars, jewelry, and artwork. Such services include hair braiding, massages, and tourist excursions where visitors are led further into local communities on horseback, horsedrawn carriages, four-wheelers, go karts, or monster trucks, and sometimes to experience natural attractions such as waterfalls. I am not suggesting that all such activity causes negative effects but some have seemed to in the past when executed without careful consideration and sensitivity.

First, it is important to realize that those conducting such business with foreign visitors are indeed reaping a profit but this profit often benefits them personally rather than benefiting the local communities, schools, members of society in most need, etc. During the 2008/2009 school year I was responsible for two students in a small elementary school located in a rural area about twenty minutes outside of the city of Puerto Plata. This school had an established relationship with a monster truck tourist excursion business. Things seemed to pick up throughout the year, but by the end of the year, according to reports from the students I was responsible for, about four trucks full of about 20 foreign visitors each visited the school almost daily. Dominican public school days last about four hours and quite honestly, they do not provide very high quality education. Private schools do a much better job but still do not cmpare to the education I received from U.S. public schools. The students reported that visitors from the monster trucks interacted with them during recess. Often times they would have their pictures taken, would receive small gifts, or would come home with e-mail addresses. They once reported that one visitor threw coins up in the air and a group of kids mobbed to fight over the coins. They said that after recess their teacher always called them back into the classroom to begin class. Sometimes visitors came to stick their heads in the doorway and take pictures of the class.

Apparently community members began flocking around the school while visitors came in order to beg. The school’s director ordered these community members to leave. I became increasingly frustrated with this situation and believed that the school had compromised its purpose and the education of the students in order to entertain tourists. Also, the students I was responsible for are smillar to family members for me so imagining how many random people had taken their pictures was... and still is.. unsettling. I spoke to a teacher about this once, just stating that I heard about the visitors. He was filling in some paperwork as I spoke and without looking up, proudly replied that yes, this school receives visitors from the U.S., Canada, France, etc. With the schools Project Esperanza runs things are done much differently as far as visitors are concerned and I wanted to share my thoughts but felt sheepish to do so. I didn’t share my concerns with the teachers at this time The school year ended and the two boys did not attend the following year. This is an example of how such tourist excurions can be disruptive and exploitive from a local point of view.

Other ways locals have learned to benefit from the presence of foreign visitors is through dishonest business transactions or blatantly stealing as well as prostitution. Prostitution is present in various forms here in the Dominican Republic. To give a few examples, there are prostitutes who sell themselves on street corners at night and there are wives and mothers who “go out with the girls” every now and then but end up making money from a gringo somehow during their night out. There are homosexual men that move here or visit here occasionally who seek out relationships with boys on the streets. Shoe shine boys have reported such men becoming shoe shining clients but then the man eventually invites the boy to his house where he attempts to engage in a sexual relationship in exchange for food, clothes, money, etc. It has been my experience with the police here that they are not very motivated to bring about justice by the mere presence of injustices but are motivated by money. I have never attempted to persecute one of these men for this reason but plan to do more research here in the future should the situation arise again.

I am not relating this next situation to or labeling this prostitution but it is common for foreigners who visit here often to have a local boyfriend or girlfriend who they take care of financially in some way as long as the relationship lasts. These people may not feel as though they fit into a “hit and run” category because they do leave with a connection here and are helping someone out financially in some way. However, I have seen this situation largely taken advantage of as well. For example, I recently learned of a woman who lives in a community we work in who had a gringo boyfriend buy a nice, new vehicle for her. The word is that when her boyfriend visits, she says that her husband is her brother so that he thinks she is single. The husband is, of course, well aware and in on the business. I have seen this happen on various occasions. Perhaps the foreign boyfriend does not expect his Dominican girlfriend to be 100% loyal but I just use this example to point out the fact that funds being channeled into the country in this way does not necessarily create positive change in society. If anything, it sets an example for another exploitive practice. These flings are, of course, very different than more serious relationships and marriages between foreigners and locals.

In conclusion, as members of the expat community, it is important to be intentional about your presence here and to realize the effects that your presence has on the local community. The local community is honestly fragile in many ways, has been taken advantage of, been toyed with, and has taken advantage and done its toying in return. Or perhaps the abuses were simultaneous, I am not sure. Regardless, those of us from the developed world must admit that we, in general, have access to more resources which gives us more power which leaves us with more responsibility. So instead of asking those with less power to resist the temptations our presence poses them, we should act first in changing our practices. The more powerful party should set the stage. The local community needs sensitive and considerate interactions with the foreign community in order to become more stable and for such abuses to end. Let’s be aware of whether we are supporting a negative system or a positive system in the way we spend our time in the Dominican Republic or any other developing country.

Responsible Long-Term Foreign Presence from the Developed World in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic, located on a Caribbean island just a short plane trip away from the United States and Canada, has a large foreign presence from the developed world. To give an example, for a short period of time I taught math in a bilingual (English and Spanish) private school (pre-K through 12) in the area called OyM Hostos School. This school is American run and staffed by many Dominican teachers but also many foreign teachers, mainly from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Germany. The student population is similar with many Dominican students, students of foreign origin whose families now live in the Dominican Republic, or students with one Dominican and one foreign parent. In addition to the foreign nationalities represented among the teaching staff, I taught students who are Russian, Korean, and Spanish. The majority of students with one or both parents as foreigners are German. I can’t speak for the entire country but there is a large German population in Puerto Plata. Furthermore, I have met Austrians, Serbians, Italians, Australians, French, Switz, Argentines, Peruvians, Perto Ricans, Brazilians, and South Africans who live here as well. Our organization, Project Esperanza, works with the large Haitian population but Haitians and foreigners from other Hispanic countries are in a different category than the North American and European foreigners from more developed nations I am referring to here.

Many members of the foreign population live in secluded areas with a high percentage of foreigners as residents. There are some, such as myself, who live more intermingled with the local population, usually married to or in a relationship with a local. My husband is a foreigner as well. He immigrated from Haiti. Haitians typicaly inhabit the areas of Puerto Plata found to be the least desirable and work jobs that are also viewed as least desirable.

All members of the foreign community in a developing country such as the Dominican Republic and more specifically those from the developed world should bevery aware and intentional about the effect of their presece. We should not further a segregation betewen class, race, and nationality, but should use our priviledge of living and receiving education in a developed country to infuse such positive practices we possess into the developing country. A great way I have seen this done here in Puerto Plata is through OyM Hostos School. In this school the foreign presence sets a standard for organization, puntuality, and higher achievement altogether. Dominican teachers and students are a part of an institution that functions much more effectively than many other institutions in their society. They will likely adapt to certain positive practices and carry them, at least in part, to other instititutions in which they have a presence.

It is important to note that it is not simply the North American and Eurpopean presence that makes OyM Hostos School an empowering institution in the community, but it is their presence along with the way the school is run with teamwork and equality. I am aware of a similar bilingual private school in a nearby community that does things differently and has a different effect .Foreign teachers are paid a starting salary that is significantly higher than Dominican teachers. A school run with such underlying principles does not empower Dominican students and teachers but more so flaunts foreigner priviledges, declaring that the key to sucess is to be or become North American or European rather than the key to success being the succesful practices that led the developed world to be able to provide its citizens with certain priviledges.

Those of us who understand that it was not us personally that successfuly developed these countries but we simply benefit priviledges created by those before us will seek to use our priviledges to empower developing communities to do the same rather than to flaunt our priviledges in the developing community’s face as something we choose to remain difficult for them to obtain...something they have to compromise their culture and often personal and family life to obtain. Those of us who understand this and believe this should work toward creating more community empowering institutions and activities with patience, teamwork, and hope.