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A Coworker Tried to Guilt me Into Giving her Presents
It almost worked
Before you move to a third-world country, you inevitably run into people who’ve done it before you and every single one of them has advice.
“I made the mistake of giving another teacher in my first school a pair of scissors,” one of my fellow Peace Corps ladies told me shortly after we arrived in Madagascar. “Suddenly everyone wanted everything. I had to close my door and hide in my classroom while the teachers all came and knocked, wanting one more thing. I felt like the worst person in the world.”
It’s true, people in poor countries tend to ask the resident foreigners for anything they might get from them. It’s a common reaction to someone arriving with nice clothes, living in a house by themselves, and who appears to be in possession of all the things you, a local, can never find or afford.
Foreigners have so much. Surely they can spare one or two things?
I lived in a small house on my school’s campus that separated me from the town. My home was essentially a glorified hallway, an extra few feet added onto the end of the school. You entered the sitting room, where I hung a hammock and kept a few locally made chairs for visitors. The next section was my bed and shelves for clothes, then the kitchen and a screened-off space…
