A rant about do-gooder, self-righteous hippies…

Ok, so it’s great if one gives up the comfortable life of the West in order to devote oneself fully to the plight of those less fortunate. I really admire that commitment. However, what I can’t stand is the self-importance that can accompany such a choice. Yesterday I met the head honcho of all of the Latin American projects for GVI. Born and reared in Britain, this guy decided to give it all up to move to Guatemala to start volunteer projects in Latin America. And after five years of managing these projects he is SO full of himself and absolutely condescending.

Last night we had what was supposed to be a feedback session with him so that he could hear about the issues with the project from those who are in the schools everyday. Rather than be open to hearing about the struggles of the volunteers, he became defensive, accusing those who spoke up (myself included) of wanting to push western values on the communities and not being flexible enough to embrace the differences. “This is South America,” was his response to so many of our issues. And then, the final insult for me came when I chose to speak up about some of the respect issues in my specific school, and this asshole accused me of creating the problem with the kids by being too strict. After having known me for not even a full day, and never seeing me in the classroom, he made this accusation in front of the whole group. Needless-to-say I was pretty upset – actually pretty devastated by the comment, as I’ve spent so much time and energy working to be successful in my classroom and he seemingly dismissed that entirely. I walked out of the meeting (in tears, I should admit), and this guy didn’t even apologize. The next day he acted as though it had never happened.

Thank goodness this do-gooder, self-righteous hippy made his way back to Guatemala on Saturday to pass the time until his next visit in six months. Now I can go back to the work I do everyday without his ego getting in my way.