May 2, 2010
This past week, we had a 2-day Peace Corps training in Baku. It was nice seeing all my PCV friends again; Vivian, Carol, Catherine and many mores. We exchanged news, gossips, traveling plans and the “Shit” stories. Among all the elderly PCVs’ “Shit” stories, the most impressive one has to be the one told by Catherine Brookskenyon.
Back when we had our orientation in Philadelphia, Catherine was my roommate. This time, we arranged to be roommate again so we could spend the night catching up. Catherine has lost some weight but she looks great. She continues to impress me as a super PCV. Her living condition has to be the worst among all of us. In her village, she has no site mate and no one speaks a word of English. Her Azeri was not so good either. Her apartment has no running water and no heat, but she overcomes all those hurdles and has been doing wonderful works for the local youngsters.
One of her most inspiring stories is about the toilet her host family recently built for her. Before she showed us the picture of her new toilet, everyone was assuming it must be the western sitting type of toilet with new shinning tiles, mirror and washing sink but when she cheerfully showed us the picture of her new toilet, I was sick to my stomach.
Catherine’s new toilet is nothing but a hole on the ground. Her toilet seat is just two pieces of wood placing on top of some bricks right above the hole for her to sit on. Her host family has a squat toilet but due to her knees problem, Catherine is unable to squat. Instead of complaining, she continued to use the squat toilet by standing up. When she had diarrhea (which for he
r is often), Catherine just carried extra water with her to clean up. Finally her host mother realized Catherine’s problem, so the family built her this temporarily outdoor “Shit hole”. When summer comes, this primitive toilet will have to be removed to somewhere else or be improved for sanitary reason. After Catherine finished her story, she looked at me and smiled. Still feeling so proud, “They built this for me, Chi! I love my new toilet”. I wanted to cry…
The story may sound so unpleasant to some people, but it is the story that will stay with me forever. This story should be an inspiration for all the existing and future PCVs, especially for those who quitted or those who are considering quitting. Compare to Catherine’s problems, their reasons to quit, for me are so insignificant. Catherine never lost sight of why she signs up for the Peace Corps. Her physical limitations, her current living conditions, her language problem, her health issues, and her family back home are problems that are common to all of us, but Catherine never used any one of those excuses to exit Peace Corps. Quitting for her is a betrayal of her commitment to Peace Corps, to President Obama, and to the people of United States of America. Peace Corps and the US should be proud to have her as an "ambassador" to Azerbaijan.
I am grateful to meet Catherine, to get to know her, to have her as my roommate since day 1 and certainly I am very proud to have her as my life time friend.
This past week, we had a 2-day Peace Corps training in Baku. It was nice seeing all my PCV friends again; Vivian, Carol, Catherine and many mores. We exchanged news, gossips, traveling plans and the “Shit” stories. Among all the elderly PCVs’ “Shit” stories, the most impressive one has to be the one told by Catherine Brookskenyon.
Back when we had our orientation in Philadelphia, Catherine was my roommate. This time, we arranged to be roommate again so we could spend the night catching up. Catherine has lost some weight but she looks great. She continues to impress me as a super PCV. Her living condition has to be the worst among all of us. In her village, she has no site mate and no one speaks a word of English. Her Azeri was not so good either. Her apartment has no running water and no heat, but she overcomes all those hurdles and has been doing wonderful works for the local youngsters.
One of her most inspiring stories is about the toilet her host family recently built for her. Before she showed us the picture of her new toilet, everyone was assuming it must be the western sitting type of toilet with new shinning tiles, mirror and washing sink but when she cheerfully showed us the picture of her new toilet, I was sick to my stomach.
Catherine’s new toilet is nothing but a hole on the ground. Her toilet seat is just two pieces of wood placing on top of some bricks right above the hole for her to sit on. Her host family has a squat toilet but due to her knees problem, Catherine is unable to squat. Instead of complaining, she continued to use the squat toilet by standing up. When she had diarrhea (which for he
r is often), Catherine just carried extra water with her to clean up. Finally her host mother realized Catherine’s problem, so the family built her this temporarily outdoor “Shit hole”. When summer comes, this primitive toilet will have to be removed to somewhere else or be improved for sanitary reason. After Catherine finished her story, she looked at me and smiled. Still feeling so proud, “They built this for me, Chi! I love my new toilet”. I wanted to cry…The story may sound so unpleasant to some people, but it is the story that will stay with me forever. This story should be an inspiration for all the existing and future PCVs, especially for those who quitted or those who are considering quitting. Compare to Catherine’s problems, their reasons to quit, for me are so insignificant. Catherine never lost sight of why she signs up for the Peace Corps. Her physical limitations, her current living conditions, her language problem, her health issues, and her family back home are problems that are common to all of us, but Catherine never used any one of those excuses to exit Peace Corps. Quitting for her is a betrayal of her commitment to Peace Corps, to President Obama, and to the people of United States of America. Peace Corps and the US should be proud to have her as an "ambassador" to Azerbaijan.
I am grateful to meet Catherine, to get to know her, to have her as my roommate since day 1 and certainly I am very proud to have her as my life time friend.
2 comments:
Catherine's courage, determination, and commitment are indeed an inspiration.
So I am assuming that squat toilets are the most popular in Azerbaijan?
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