“Peace Corps People Like to Walk”

Today I started to feel a little stir crazy. I’ve been working in the STEWARD office the last few days but my Peace Corps roots remind me that life inside walled in compounds, with AC blasting, is a far cry from the reality of life in Sierra Leone. So this morning I decided to go to the market with Sarah, the STEWARD housekeeper/cook. After some back and forth, she agreed that we could walk there, but not back. For the record Sarah normally walks, she just wasn’t sure I could handle the journey both ways. So we arranged for a car to come and meet us after we finished shopping, then we walked along the side of the road. I was eager to see Freetown up close and personal, if only one way, so I didn’t push the issue. As we walked, nearly everybody we passed hung out their windows to smile, wave at me, or shout a greeting. Most people shouted something like, “Hello Peace Corps!” After the fifth or sixth person yelled this, Sarah informed me, “everybody thinks you are Peace Corps because only Peace Corps people like to walk here.” (I think that about sums up how Peace Corps differs from other development organizations.) When I informed her that I was, in fact, a former Peace Corps volunteer it only added to her amusement. “So that is why you refused the car!”

In actuality I didn’t want to take the car because I didn’t want to be a huge burden. Plus my American self doesn’t like to accept help, as I’ve been properly cultured to be self-sufficient and independent. But my West African travels have taught me that my American independence can be puzzling – and that I just look odd when I struggle at something silently and alone without letting somebody help. (An important distinction may be that Americans think in terms of “asking” for help, not in terms of “letting” others help.) Anyhow, Sarah took it as a compliment that I asked to tag along, and seemed to think it was a riot that I wanted to walk. 

That said…roads in Freetown are terrifying. They are steep, they are cobbled and uneven, strewn with debris, the curbs have all broken away, and traffic is heavy. While jumping out of the way of a UN pathfinder I stepped in something foul. So. I will not be venturing down these roads by foot again anytime soon, and I gladly hopped in the car for the ride back. I have Peace Corps roots, and I won't forget them. I'll keep getting out and seeing things. But I'm not going to be the Pentheus standing in something gross on the side of the road, enviously watching all the Dionysians zip by in their air conditioned SUVs.