Like any self-righteous, moderately educated Peace Corps Volunteer I like to assume that I’m not “that” American. I’m from America but I thought taking a class in Cultural Anthropology prepared me to exist in an a-cultural way. I don’t eat ranch dressing, I don’t watch The Biggest Loser, and I remember to call soccer “football”.
I’m learning just how American I am though. Some of the situations that make me feel overwhelmingly American are predictable, when I tried to eat pig tail and almost vomited or my amazement that meetings all start between 30 minutes and an hour late and begin with a prayer to Jesus. Many of my attitudes I would never have identified as uniquely American until now though.
In April I was attending “Big Sports Day” by the primary school. A little boy came up to me on the way to school and told me that two little girls had called me a Soo Coo Yah. I didn’t know what that was (a Soo Coo Yah is a devil/vampire/bird type thing) so I ignored it. Later in the day I remembered to ask one of the teachers what that was and if I should address it. She said absolutely and found which girls had said it. The girls were in Grade K and had spent the entire day playing with my hair and telling me they loved me. The teachers called the girls over and I started reprimanding them. I asked why they had said that about me and told them it hurt my feelings, especially after we had spent the day playing together. I realized how American this approach was when the teacher started disciplining them;
Teacher: “What happens when you lie about people?”
Students: “You go to hell”
Teacher: “You know what happens when you go to hell?”
Students: “Jesus hates you and it is so hot and you don’t have any water and you family hates you and you can never see anyone you love ever again”
Teacher: “For true. And if you ever lie about anyone again you’ll go to hell.”
One of my projects at the school is working with a Grade 4 boy who is very behind academically. He is barely able to identify letters and his math skills aren’t much better. His family has a lot of issues (which are all public knowledge) and between the lack of supervision or any kind of support he has become quite troublesome. I’ve spent most of my time just trying to build a rapport with him (he will barely look me in the eye and has a severe speech impediment which makes it hard to communicate) and some days I feel like I’m really making breakthroughs. In our Creole class we learned a lot of the bad words. This little boy has a nickname which all the other kids call him that sounds very similar to the Creole word for genitalia. So for the past 4 weeks I have been yelling at kids left and right for calling him this nickname. Finally I asked another teacher why he is allowed to be called this word in school. She laughed. His nickname is not a bad word- it just sounds similar to one. Hypersensitivity to bullying is definitely a uniquely American attitude.
The primary school has 5 houses dividing the students for sporting activities/competitions. I asked how the students are divided up and until a couple years ago they were divided up by last name. Not as in A-F is yellow, G- L is red- as in Vidals are yellow, Ambos are red, Jno Charles are blue. All 600 + students had one of five last names. This amazes me. Everyone is related. My amazement is incredibly American. Most countries are not made up of hundreds of immigrants arriving through out 400 years settling all over the nation. Salisbury is like most of the world. Very few new people move in. A couple families settle a region and they continue to live there.
I know that there are areas in the U.S. where these examples are the norm and I am not trying to discount those areas but I believe my attitudes to these examples are uniquely American. (How American is this paragraph?)
In case you were wondering the Buffalo Bills have not yet contacted me regarding my application. I will follow up this week about the hold up. I hope they are not suspicious about my address.
