The Joys and Perils of Integration

 So on my quarterly project review form that I have to send in to my Peace Corps bosses every few months, I was asked to answer the question: "How integrated do you feel in your community?" My multiple choice answer options were: "Not Integrated," "Somewhat Integrated," "Integrated," or "Well Integrated." I was then asked to explain my answer, to write about "what I have learned about integrating" and if have any "suggestions for training" new volunteers to better integrate. I decided to copy and paste and share my answers with you.

I feel somewhat integrated into my community. That's not to say that I feel isolated or unhappy; I'm just being very honest about the realities on the ground. The reason for not feeling "Integrated" or "Well Integrated" is that as an outsider, it's very, very difficult to truly integrate. I've even seen Paraguayans who come to rural communities but who grew up in Asuncion who have trouble integrating, even though they are within their own country, their own languages, their own families.

However, I've found that it's actually O.K. to be "somewhat integrated," and that it doesn't have to mean that people don't like you, or don't respect you, or that it affects your work negatively. In fact, people might actually like and respect you MORE for being less integrated. The part that IS integrated just has to be strategically chosen. There are parts of Paraguayan culture and behavior, for example, that I personally do not like and that I do not agree with, and the fact that I have chosen not to integrate in those ways and have in some instances openly resisted certain customs or behaviors (albeit kindly and respectfully) seems to have actually led to MORE, not less, respect and trust in my community. So much in fact, that my community leaders have asked me to teach not just health classes, not even just English classes, but ETHICS classes talking to children about vaues.

So what have I learned about integrating? Not only that it's impossible to make everybody happy, but also undesirable, because when you lose your own integrity as a person it makes it hard for people to respect you and easy for them to take advantage of you. And this is a problem that I have repeatedly seen from fellow volunteers: we arrive so eager to please and so desperate for approval that some of us will do anything, or many things, that go against our customs or values, just to be accepted by our communities.

I've found that if you do the basics: treat everybody with dignity, respect, and compassion, be friendly and talk to people about themselves and yourself (NOT others), and be super guap@* in your work... The details are negotiable and it's OK to be who you are.

I know that I, like many PCTs, came here with a condescendingly idealized notion of the "third-world" rural farmer as a simple, humble people, innocent victims who suffer undeservedly, who can do no wrong and to whom I must bend and bow in order prove that I don't believe myself to be inherently better than they are. Ironically, in this way we dehumanize the gentekuera**, because all humans are imperfect and everybody does bad things. Recognizing that doesn't make me alzadita*** or a poor-integrater.

Choosing to integrate in the ways that seem necessary and with which you feel comfortable, while neglecting to integrate in ways that do not seem necessary or with which you do not feel comfortable, may leave you feeling only "Somewhat Integrated," but it can also leave you feeling good about yourself and about the cultural (not just technical) impact that you are leaving on your community.

My suggestions for training the new PCTs? Help them integrate, help them to decipher the most basic and important to-dos and not-to-dos in rural Paraguay. But also make sure they know that it's OK to be themselves, and that integrating doesn't mean letting people co-opt your personality or take advantage of your desperation to be liked.





*guap@ = guapa or guapo= (adj.) Hardworking, a good worker
**gentekuera = (n.) The peoples, the community, the family
***alzadita = (adj.) From the Spanish alzar ("to lift up") = Believing oneself to be better than another; one who looks down upon the lowly others.