My assimilation into the Nicaraguan culture is moving slowly but surely and I am starting to make friends of all different ages. Although, I have found it difficult to find anyone who is my age, (female or male in their 20s) who is not married or does not have kids. This is one of the realities of living in Nicaragua, where many people get married or have babies during their adolescent years and end up having very large families. It´s sad to see that many of these large families in reality cannot afford or financially support all of the people of their nuclear family, but this is one of the reasons Peace Corps and I am here to reduce adolescent pregnancy through health education and promotion and through training native Nicaraguan health promoters.
In other words, I don´t have a whole lot of news to talk about, so I decided to share a little of my culture shock here in Nicaragua. Everyone in Nicaragua who is Nicaraguan calls me “Chino”. In Spanish, Chino is used to refer to someone who is of Chinese descent. If they don´t call me Chino they call me Taiwan, because there are people fulfilling their foreign service duty here in San Isidro, from Taiwan and their organization is called Mission Taiwan. In other words the world view of almost every Nicaraguan seems to be a bit skewed and very narrow. That is not to say that these Nicaraguans’ who call me “Chino” or “Taiwan” are doing so out of hate, they are doing so because in their worldview everyone who appears to be Asian must be Chinese, or at the very least be able to speak one of the following languages: Chinese or Japanese. That reminds me of another experience I have had. A few times I have been walking down the dirt street and hear a person or two trying to greet me in what appears to sound like an imitation of Chinese or Japanese. This does offend me, but usually I just ignore it.
What I have not been ignoring are the opportunities I have been having with Nicaraguan´s who are truly interested and curious in what my ethnic background is and where I come from. In this respect, Nicaraguan´s have been very open and conducive to learning and listening to my unique story of being born in South Korea, becoming an orphan, being adopted, and moving to the United States where I have lived my last 20 years and 4 months. This part of the cultural exchange is exactly one of the goals of Peace Corps to introduce U.S. culture (in this situation the diversity of the U.S. as a “melting pot”) to a developing country and for the volunteer to reciprocate a cultural change of the developing country´s culture when they return to the U.S.
In closing, for Nicaraguans´ it is very hard to conceptualize who Nicholas Kyuyeob Halbert is. When I tell them I am from the United States, they will repeat the question, (asking where am I from) in disbelief that a person with my appearance could be North American. Then they will assume that I speak Chinese or Japanese. But this is one of the realities of living in such a large and diverse world and this is one of the reasons that Peace Corps exists, to be used as a vehicle or means to build world solidarity and strive for world Peace.
Mi hermano chino: (coreano)
ReplyDeleteYou made me laugh about what you wrote.. I dont think you should be offend it if someone speaks something in japanese or chinese, and in efect I think is something cultural in some latinamerican countries, in mexico if you look asian, wherever is your background they will call you chinese even if you are from different country, doesn't matter and dont even try to change that, is just a cultural thing.. I dont approve it, but even though some sciencie or biologic books from elementary school, they tell you: there are five major human races: caucasian, african, chinese, polinesian, and native american I dont kow if that happens in nicaragua, I dont approve it but it happens..... and everytime if someone calls you like that, you should answer really polite and positive..: "I'm not chinese, I'm korean... without getting mad, because people can't understand if you get offende it because if you look asian you are chinese...... you should look this like an oportunity to change people's ideas, and to let them know that there are more countries than china or japan ( taiwan is china. U.N. info)
Te quiero y te extraño
mi hermano coreano!!...ajajajajajaj
te mando un abrazo!!!
Glad to hear you are adjusting to your community and having to deal with some challenges. Mick(18yr.)& Phill(16yr.)when they were doing their exchanges in Denmark and Germany had to deal with the same kind of remarks. We dealt with alot of this attitude when we were teaching in the states and overseas. So you meet the challenge by educating. Phill even experienced this in the military.
ReplyDeleteWe were challenged last week having the 6 grandkids stay with us during VBS. I helped in the kitchen, crafts and classroom while they were in class. We had all 6 for 2 nights at Phill's when he and Denise went out of town.
Andrew & Emily will be going to our church camp in northern AZ for 6 days. Andrew had his first experience there for 3 days working to clean up the camp. First time on a trip away from family on his own. They will travel with us to San Diego to see Bob and some of their friends in early July. Their school starts July 20th.
The weather is getting hotter, so soon we will be having the monsoon rains.
Take care and keep us updated. We like to read about your experiences.
Nick,
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed reading your blogs and admire you for what you are doing down in nicaragua. I'm sure it is awfully frustrating at times but in the long run it will be a very rewarding experience. I have a hard time with the fact that the nicaraguans don't understand your heritage and your citizenship. I guess we just don't think about it here in the U.S.
My brother was in the Peace Corps in the late 60s - early 70s. He was located on an island off of Korea. He had a rough time at first but once he got acquainted with some of the Koreans it got better.
I was talking with a friend of mine today whose son is interested in going to Colorado College next year. I was wondering if you could email him and tell him a little bit about Colorado College and your experiences. His name is Evan Cole and his email address is thegramaster@comcast.net. He is a really nice young man. Here is my email address in case you have a question: mollys@thelawlorgroup.com.
I will continue to look for your updates and hope that you are having a great experience.
Molly Schomburg