just a thought.

A lot of people have told me that by being here, I’m going to change so many lives. After spending some time here, I don’t think that’s the point at all. If anything, my life is going to be the one that changes dramatically. People here are resourceful in ways that I never imagined, and I have so much that I can learn from them. I’m a college student, I have very little of value to teach someone else. Also, I think that’s the problem with Western development. We come to the developing world with grandiose notions of exactly what this place or that place needs, without ever consulting the people that live there, or understanding what it is exactly that they feel they need.

Here’s an example, one that I learned yesterday. The clinic that I work at receives medicine and medical supplies from various organizations. However, the foot the bill for most of the everyday medicine that they use. Save the Children wanted to donate medicine, and Ray of Hope was pleased, however, when the medicine actually came they found out that most of it is bizarre medicine that is rarely used. While Save the Children did a good thing, Ray of Hope still has to pay for almost everything that it uses on a daily basis.

Then there’s the American equipment that’s brought over by American donors, that sits unused because they can’t find the right power converter, or because part of it breaks and they can’t find an equivalent replacement part in Kenya.

There are so many examples that I’ve seen first hand of good intention gone awry, it really makes me think about my own desire to do development work. I’m not exactly sure that that’s what I want anymore, but the question now is, what do I want?

I’m not saying that all foreign aid should stop. It’s just that “development” work has acted as a crutch for so long that in some ways it’s inhibited the people who receive it. It’s still needed to a large extent, but it would be so much better for countries receiving it to be part of how it is used. And it’s sad to see Americans and others from the Global North take jobs away from Kenyans while working in the development field.

As much as this semester leaves me with more questions than answers, maybe it’s good that I still have three semesters left. I should look in to becoming an anthro major. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel then like I had to doubt the benefit of everything that I do in the rest of my life. And I wouldn’t necessarily be taking jobs away from Kenyans either.