The Challenge of Age

It’s something many of us have to deal with here in Georgia. One thing I am constantly trying to fight back against is the perception that I am too young or I am not able to do anything. Many of the younger volunteers feel the same way. I was talking to my host mother today and she was telling me that I had to eat and then go to bed because I didn’t sleep until 5am last night. All I could do was laugh, because nobody has told me to “Go to bed” in ten years. She asked why I was laughing and I told her because I’m not a ten-year old and nobody has told me to go to bed. She said that here the older people can tell children when to go to bed. At this point I was a little offended and told her I wasn’t a child. So, she pulled out the age thing. But, I told her, “I’m not a child”.

So, we had a discussion about when a person goes from “boy” to “man”. Basically a man has to have a wife and child. I told her that in my opinion someone should be a man BEFORE getting married and having kids. That was the end of the conversation—it wasn’t the end of my thoughts about it. I have so many problems getting people to listen to me or take me seriously and it’s ALL because of my age. A TLG volunteer in a village near to me told me that when people in his village talk about me they always mention how young I am. Worse than being 25 is that I look like I’m 20 (if that). It’s not my education, my experiences, or what I’ve already accomplished that defines who I am; it’s my age.

When I came to Keda I was told that I would be allowed to do teacher trainings. I started working at the school and tried introducing new methodologies to my counterparts and students. I won’t go into details into this aspect, but basically I never felt like I had the respect of teachers or students. I’ve always felt like I was a good teacher, but I’ve been having problems getting people to respect me and know that I can get things done. Nobody will make a move to get teacher trainings going. I think I know why. People don’t trust the ideas of a “boy”, no matter how much education or knowledge he has. 

Nobody said Peace Corps was easy.