What is Poverty?

Composting Toilet at the Lodge on the Beach

             What is poverty?  As I got ready to leave for Peace Corps, I also got ready to live in poverty.  I looked at this as the opportunity to see what it is to not have, to struggle and see how life is for so many who go without in the world.  However after Peace Corps and now being in Africa for the first time, I can’t help but think what really is poverty.  Where on the scale of have or have not do you have to fall to be living in poverty?  Is the definition different from country to country, culture to culture, and community to community?

             A St. Lucian once asked me if I realized that the lifestyle I was living was better than most people living in the country, something that yes I had realized.  People in my community didn’t see me as living in poverty; however, I think most people in the States would think I was.  If you have running water and electricity 100% of the time never have to worry about how much food costs, and always have an abundance of if, that obviously isn’t poverty, but how many people really live like that even in the US?  What if you have running water and electricity, but only can afford cheap food? Or ocassionally don’t have running water, but can afford expensive food?

            Do the people living in poverty even see themselves that way or is that just a label someone with more puts on them, and would someone with less see that person living in poverty as someone with money?  I didn’t view myself as living in poverty in peace corps, mostly because I knew I still had so much more than others did, both in my country and in the world, but I’m not sure how my people in the US viewed my situation.  Would I view someone living in the US the way I did in St. Lucia as someone living in poverty, most likely.  The standard of living is so much higher in the US, so I guess this means the definition of poverty is relatively higher than somewhere with a lower standard of living?

            Is poverty partially about priorities?  Would you trade some food and material comfort for a house by the ocean with coconut trees all around you and sand beneath your feet.? What about running water for a slower pace of life, hot water for living in a place you never had to shovel snow, a cleaner environment for a flush toilet?  

Not the Africa Everyone Expects.

Fancy Building in a medium sized city, Takoradi

         As a I flew into the capital of Ghana, Accra, at night, the scene below was not one of a small city without electricity, but a massive sprawl of lights.  I was shocked by how big the city is.  To me Accra feels bigger than Boston or D.C., it may actually be.   On the drive from the airport to our house I saw fancy modern architecture that at first reaction made me think I have never seen a building so nice in the “paradise” I used to call home.  As we drive along the coast to do a site visit the scene reminds me of St. Lucia, the ocean, coconut trees and luscious green.  I even took a few pictures that if they got mixed up with my Lucian photos I would think I took them there.

Sunrise at the beach in South Western Ghana

Pool next to the Ocean Busua Ghana

             I have yet to see a mud hut with a thatched roof in Accra and I would be shocked to find one in the city (I have seen them in more rural areas).  I have however seen a 3-story club with fancy nice décor, went to a lounge with Ghanaian friends that was nicer than any place I frequent in the states. They served mojitos and other fancy mixed drinks and played a combination of old school US hip-hop/r&b, Jamaican music, and the latest from Nigerian and Ghanaian artists.  There are coffee shops, places to get gelato, sushi, Indian food, and even a KFC. 

View from the Lodge near Dixcove Ghana

            There is a lot of wealth and a lot of development.  Of course there is also poverty.  There may be more poverty than in other parts of the world; or maybe less hidden then in other places.   Maybe though its that when we come to Africa we seek out this poverty in a way we never would in the US or Europe.  There we do everything possible to avoid poverty.  When’s the last time you heard someone with a university degree say, you know let’s tour around the inner city, I want to see what life is like there?  It seems however anytime anyone comes to Africa myself included, we don’t feel we are getting “the real” African experience if we don’t see mud huts and poverty.  But the real Africa is the nightclubs and the development, it’s the Africa everyone in the development field hopes will start to happen isn’t it? So why do we try to hide from this part of the experience, why do we feel like we are cheating or aren’t getting the real experience if we have running water and hang out with African friends at fancy clubs?

8 months back and still missing St. Lucia everyday

I've been back in the US for just over 8 months, and every day I think about St. Lucia and miss life there. I never imagined when I applied to Peace Corps about 4 years ago now, that it would be so hard to come back to the US. Never would I have guessed that I would miss the music so much, the language, the food, this sense of belonging even though I stuck out like a sore thumb. They tell you readjustment back to life in the US will be hard, its that land I am from and for over 20 some years of my life was home and the only culture I really knew, so I thought how hard will it be. They didn't tell me it will take over 8 months to feel comfortable back in your "home" culture. They didn't tell me that I may never really fit back in, cause I will always be a little Lucian. Or that my family, friends, and people I meet will expect me to shed that other side of me because its not really normal in this country(USA), but I will fight as hard as I can to keep that "foreign" part of me. I worry that if I loose it, it may take away from that experience that drastically changed my entire being permanently in a way I am so incredibly proud of. How could I try to shed any of that? But mostly nobody prepares you for how much you will miss the people.

I miss my second family, my second home, and the place where no matter what I some how could find peace. The whole family took care of me as one of their own, and in their own way kept me pulled together. Even though I haven't gone more than 3 months at a time without seeing my two best friends due to them visiting the US and me visiting St. Lucia, I miss them like crazy. Its strange how much friends that are like sisters become such a crucial part to keeping you sane, they know how to keep you calm, they get your crazy comments, and understand exactly what you mean even when you make no sense at all. Most of all they enabled me to be a better version of myself. I mean who else will tell me three times to eat after get to distracted and forget to eat. Or tell me that outfit is completely unacceptable and give me replacement clothes that shouldn't fit but some how always magically do, then do my makeup so they barely have time to get ready. Or stay up to 2 am making some concoction cause we never had all the ingredients for our recipes, and then stay up till 5am talking about what really matters in life. Or teach me to dance, grease hair, and how to make the best shrimp meal ever. Only sisters can do that, we may not look as similar to other people as we think we do to each other, but you know me like family and to me your family always will be. Now if only we could live in the same country!!!

I also miss my kids, I wonder everyday how they are doing. I hope that they don't fall back to negative ways, that they keep striving for the future and being everything that I know they are capable of being. Mostly I hope I taught them to believe in themselves enough that even if nobody else believes in them, they will know they can do better. I worry about them like they are my own children, but I can't read them a story after school anymore, I can't tell them that they can do anything, and if they believe that there is no limit to what they can do. Instead I just have to hope that I really did make a difference in my little corner of the world.

I also miss all those people that I saw all the time and became a part of my life. My host family that welcomed me into their home and took care of me from the first day I arrived to the day I left. Knowing they were just across the way made know I was always safe, didn't need to worry, and I had a place to just cool out. My neighbors, some of whom all I ever really said anything to but good afternoon and you safe gave me this sense of belonging and I miss those good afternoons. I miss all the teachers especially those that may never know how much they helped me keep fighting when I wasn't so sure it was worth it. The teachers at both of the schools I worked at, were some of the first people to make me begin to feel at home in St. Lucia, and they continued to give me something to believe in for my over 2 years shared with them. The fellas hanging out on the block usually just made me smile, which sometimes was something I needed.

Sometimes when I'm feeling really nostalgic, I even miss the bucket baths, not enough that I want to take one though. I just hope that I can always keep the Lucian part of me, and no matter how long I'm back know in my heart I'm Ameri-Lucian.