It's Just Tough..

I’m a volunteer. I make the equivalent of around eight U.S. dollars a day. I’ve chosen to live and volunteer in a developing country for two years, making basically no money, and by American standards living poor.

Naturally, I am perceived as very wealthy because I’m “white” or Arab (depending on whom you ask). On a daily basis I am followed down the street, asked for money, asked for gifts, asked to be brought to France, Spain, America, or whatever country the particular person thinks I’m from; and on a daily basis I am aggravated by being asked for money and perceived as rich. I generally respond with the fact that I don’t have money or gifts because I’m just a volunteer, and I can’t bring them home with me because Senegal is my home and I live here just like them. What I’m wondering is, how do I explain the concept of being a volunteer to people, some of whom have “good” jobs, that I make much more money than them on my measly volunteer living allowance?

“Kid, I’m American, and I could be making big bucks (relatively speaking) if I were in the States but I’m here ‘volunteering’ and making more then your father does to support your whole family of 15 people. I’m broke, sorry.”- That just doesn’t cut it.

Being here, living with more money than most people here but much less than people in the States, it’s hard to find my place. People here, and I’m sure throughout the world, will try to rip you off if they know you are a foreigner, which means almost always for me since I’m fair skinned--aka not Senegalese.

After being ripped off a number of times (something that made me feel quite crappy), I became very good at the art of bargaining. Now, when I’m at the feggjaay (read: tables with heaps of clothes you and people from Europe have donated to goodwill and are sent here and re-sold), I’ll scoff at the three dollars the toothless, totally filthy, hungry looking feggjaay salesman is trying to charge me for your old college t-shirt because I know that’s the “toubob price” and I should only be paying a $1.50. I have the three bucks and could pay the jacked up price, he could probably use the extra cash, but then he’ll probably also continue trying to rip people off because they aren’t from around here which in the long run will be doing everyone else a disservice. So I bargain him down, pay my $1.50, go home, and lounge around in your old college t-shirt feeling guilty that I talked a poor salesman from a developing country down from a price I could have paid because I didn’t want to be ripped off.

My options are feeling crappy that I was taken advantage of and ripped off (this generally occurs just when I’m starting to feel happiest/most accepted in the community) or feeling guilty because I talked someone down to a Senegalese price when I could have paid the “toubob price” (although they probably wouldn’t have any respect for me) and everyone could definitely use the extra money around here.

And I thought snakes and spiders would be the toughest part about living here….