To Understand

So here's an honest assessment. I get a living allowance of $185 dollars every month from Peace Corps to live here. I use that to travel, for rent, to buy food and clothes, to buy cooking materials and household goods, etc. And at the end of every month the stipend is always running pretty low even though I live alone and my responsibility is just for me. 

In Malawi, what I make is an average, common salary for hard working teachers, clinicians, forestry officers, etc and sometimes much more than those engaged in only subsistance farming. But these people many times do not live alone. They have spouses and children to care for and extended family to help. They have expenses such as high school which is not free but instead another fee. My stipend is far more than many here make and yet my neighbors and friends are always very generous. Many times much more so than I.

 

The privileges I've always had are becoming stark and I'm reminded to be thankful. I've seen the sacrifice that so many make on behalf of their friends and family to keep everyone moving. It's humbling to my own priorities. May I manage and appreciate the earnings I get and never be consumed by wanting more. For all the days I complain about my little Peace Corps stipend, may I remember I'm still living a good life going to bed with a full stomach and ability to travel. I wish I could say this was true for everyone. This is the Peace Corps experience. To try and truly understand. 

^^Photo: This is one of my best neighborhood friends in the village. She comes to my house every day. Peaking out from behind her father is my landlord's son. Also very dear to me.