The Challenges of Representing America

Being in Peace Corps always raises interesting questions. Often, the questions are silly, such as "How does one balance the desire to not offend with the lack of desire to eat bright orange cheese" or "Is it inappropriate if a parrot is cat-calling me as I am bathing?" (context on these stories later). Other times they are more profound like "What do I actually think God is like?" or "Is development at the local level meaningful and impactful without macrolevel change and given the vast inequality that exists at the global level?"


A lot of times though, I get called on to provide the answers. Inevitably, often with strangers who don't know me very well, but sometimes also with family, political questions about the US come to the fore. Basically, we've been instructed to just avoid these conversations, but that's easier said than done. And under certain circumstances, I think it's more constructive to engage with people. For instance, there was this one time that a TV station published a report saying that Barak Obama was going to implant chips in everyone if he got elected. That was an easy one to repute. Other times, being able to engage is a critical part of gaining confianza, roughly translated as trust. It is difficult to gain confianza with Nicaraguans who are very conscious of their history without at least tacitly acknowledging that the US role in their county has often been extremely negative for the majority of its inhabitants (that's putting it pretty diplomatically). Finding some sort of balance is essential.

It's difficult to feel that you are being called to defend US policy when you vehemently disagree with it. I am most frequently asked to comment on US-Cuba policy and US immigration policy. I don't want to defend the Cuban embargo. I don't want to defend deportations that separate families. I hate that the word "illegal alien" is applied to millions of people in my country, as if they weren't human beings. I try to state my opinion neutrally and back away, but it's challenging not to be able to engage as I might at home.

Luckily, I have 2 years to get better at handling this sort of thing.