Volunteer Tourism

At Cornell, I took part in a service-learning course that culminated in a three week malaria intervention project in Ghana. It was my first time in sub-Saharan Africa, and the experience solidified my desire to work extensively in the region.

Before leaving, a professor, who would two years later become my thesis advisor, put the trip into context for me: “Listen, there’s no denying that no matter what you give or do for these people, you’re getting much more out of this experience”.

Service trips have become very popular in the United States. Whether building houses in the Mississippi Delta or stocking libraries in Nicaragua, energetic, inexperienced, idealistic young people are hoping to “save the world” and “make a difference”, all while soaking in sun and posing for a Facebook picture. The programs usually require more funding than the communities they visit will ever see.

Pre-Wedding Grub with two Local Leaders in my community

Full disclosure: I was (and in many ways, still am) one of those people.

Nonetheless, Peace Corps Volunteers love to hate these types of ‘volunteers’. We meet them in the fancy western bars in big cities, and after a two hour visit to the local school and health center, they claim to understand the problems faced by rural African families. After these volunteers make their flashy appearances, it’s pretty hard for PCVs to explain to our community why we don’t have suitcases of donated clothes and soccer balls, we do not eat at fancy hotels, but we are here to stay.

If you are considering this type of tourist volunteer work, I say by all means go for it. Just be realistic.

In September a group of twenty or so masters students from an American university came to my site for an afternoon visit. Before the group arrived, rumors spread around the hospital that abazungus from the Clinton Foundation and UN were coming to build a new maternity ward, pediatric ward, school, and cyber café.

The day was amusing. In many ways, I felt more comfortable with my Rwandan friends, who I’ve lived with the last nine months, than the Americans, who I share a language and culture with.

The group spent two weeks in Rwanda: meeting with the Minister of Health, talking to genocide survivors, touring a refugee camp near the DRC border, and coming all the way to my hospital to experience ‘village life’ and engage with ‘stakeholders’.

Before leaving, the group held a meeting in Kigali to share their experiences with everyone they had visited. The group said they wanted to help Rwanda. They gave everyone bookmarks.

I have no doubt the students had the best of intentions, and I found most of them to be very pleasant. But the patronizing attitude I observed from some (perhaps subconscious, perhaps intentional) was embarrassing. In conversations with the top two health workers of the district, the group kept referring to “the literature” they had read, and their unique solution which involved mobile health technology. The ideas and discussions presented by Rwandans themselves seemed barely heard. The group had come with a planned vision (researched and developed in a comfortable, American, university library), and no amount of experience or insight from Rwandans with years of work experience and a lifetime of understanding could stop them. We’re Americans, we know all!

My Rwandan neighbors were very excited about the big group of abazungus who came to visit. It was the largest number of Westerners most of them had ever seen. The Americans seemed grateful for the opportunity to experience something so different. Since the visit, a few hospital staff members have started intense English classes with me. I’ve exchanged emails with one of the professors from the group who said some of the students were now considering Peace Corps.

A short service trip can do a lot of great things for all parties involved. But it will not save starving children from malnutrition or provide steady jobs for the local population. I encourage anyone to join or support short service trips, so long as the people involved take some time to reflect about what they can do, and more importantly, what they cannot. This is true for anyone interested in community development, long or short term, in sub-Saharan African or in the Mississippi Delta.

Lake Kivu from Kibuye, Rwanda

Millions of people across the world (hundreds of thousands of them born, raised, and educated in sub-Saharan Africa) are working hard, every day, on improving education, healthcare, and economic conditions of the poor. It’s great if you want to join them, but you won’t be the first, or the last, and you certainly won’t solve anything by yourself.