Custodio came by to visit today (Peace Corps staff). Nanosh and I asked him about his past, in which he has worked for various NGOs and other organizations. I asked him whether he thought NGOs were good or bad. He says he thinks Peace Corps is a good organization because we're down in the trenches doing real development, and there's a lot of organizations that are all about money - money comes in and it just disappears. We see a lot of that here, personally.
And so it begs the question - where's the limit? If we, as volunteers, see that our communities and colleagues are completely dependent upon outside organizations, does that mean we are part of a broken machine or that we are far enough removed to be considered actually innocent of this economic colonialization? I talk to people on a regular basis who tell me that "Eh pa! I just lost my job because the project ended. If the money goes through, I might get picked up again", or conversely, "I can't make it here any more because I found a project to work on." So, instead of starting businesses or developing a domestic economy, the economy of first world giving is kept afloat. Wonderful.
Peace
John
