[Not my friend]
This would be a typical, if not minor list of complaints for a Peace Corps Volunteer. I didn't have hot water or access to a refrigerator in Palau. My friend in South Africa is the target of racial attacks, both verbal and physical. I experienced a similar physical attack during my service. And all of that came with no paycheck. Hardship was an expectation of Peace Corps.
So why am I suddenly so entitled? Why do I, touter of the "Use Less Stuff" mantra (credit: Wren), feel like I deserve better than my 10+-year-old tatami? Why do I let these cats and dogs get to me?
I think it's because this is not an expectation I had of Japan. I didn't have many outward expectations, but I think 'first-world' would've been one of them and within that, channels for dealing with public nuisance problems would exist. I also think that my annoyances are really valid. As I type now (at 9:40pm), the dog is frantically barking just 100 feet away.
I spend a lot of time thinking about this. I am hyper-conscious of my paycheck. I don't want to let it dilute the 'below the poverty line' skills (and attitude) I've learned over the last six years. Relatively speaking, my pay increase puts me amongst the wealthy, but my hardships haven't been inversely reduced. Why am I correlating them?
3 comments:
From what I`ve read, if you take out the dogs and cats in your life, you have a happy Dave. But it seems like you are mixing in your paycheck to your problem with your neighbors, and they should be completely separate things. Just because you make a little bit of money now doesn`t mean you shouldn`t be annoyed. If I was homeless, a barking dog would bother me. If I had a mansion in Beverly Hills, a barking dog would bother me.
That being said, have you tried bringing the problem up? I wonder if you started expressing your annoyance, something would be done about it. Try talking to your supervisor or something.
Good points, Cliff. I went to the BoE supervisor last week about moving into teachers' housing - and I've been complaining to them for months so the BoE knows why. He seemed pretty open to it and I'm waiting for a reply this week.
My backup plans, should the move not happen, include bringing the problem up to the village office, then maybe the police officer.
I wake up wanting to take matters into my own hands, but I think it would be good to pursue all other [diplomatic] options first.
If you move to teachers' housing, will there be barking dogs nearby? In my teachers' housing I get plenty of creepy crawlies. Right now there is a large cobweb connecting 2 of my dining room chairs. I'm working up my courage to get rid of it. I've had my car webbed to a tree, and I had to climb in the passenger side. My ceiling was leaking all over the floor for the first 4 months I lived in the apartment. I had bowls and newspaper everywhere.
When I lived in the DC area, the kitchen was so cold in the winter (even with the heat on) that I cooked wearing my winter coat.
I think you can find something wrong with every place you live. What you are willing to put up with depends on your expected standard of living. In Palau, you didn't expect it to be like the Hilton. So you didn't complain. In Japan, you expect a much higher standard of living. And your living situation is not meeting your expectations.
You can change your expectations. You can try to talk to your supervisor. Or you can start leaving death threats for your neighbor's dog.
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