-By Gary Phillips-
A few years back, I saw a movie called, “The Gods Must be Crazy.” A Coke bottle dropping from an airplane onto an African Bushman community wreaked havoc with their culture.
So what do you think can happen when a swarm of North Americans swoop down on a small village in the Andes to create new lives for themselves? Granted, Cotacachi is more modern and advanced than the Bushmen village, yet there are 43 indigenous communities in the canton of Cotacachi, many of which are quite remote and behind the times in terms of the subtleties of Western civilization.
Likewise the community of Cotacachi itself is a unique little village with a strong culture of its own. So the idea of cultural integration and adaptation becomes an important topic for people considering a move to this beautiful community.
When Linda and I arrived here three years ago, there were only a handful of gringos living in Cotacachi full time, plus some who came part of the year. Today, Jack Moss told me that the mailing list for Cotacachi expat residents is between 75 and 85 addresses. Many of those addresses are for two people.
What happens in a traditional culture like this when a proportionally large group of people with different ideas and customs move in? Actually, it is quite easy to see—one need only look to Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica to see the recurring trend.
We visited Boquete, Panama in 2002. This tiny village, smaller than Cotacachi at the time, had only one bank and tons of natural beauty. Foreigners swarmed in, developments were thrown up, land and house prices sky-rocketed. I was told recently that there are now seven banks, most catering to the expanding expat community.
The local population of Boquete has been all but consumed by expats. Prices have risen so high and so fast that now the expats are leaving for cheaper accommodations. We have heard that in many places in Costa Rica, the locals have an extreme dislike for the expats.
A key area for potential problems is expats overpaying for goods, services and property. It may seem like such a small thing: “They’re so poor. We are rich. I just want to help,” goes the often-heard refrain.
Then out comes the five dollar bill for a tip for a two dollar cab ride. The cleaning lady who is used to getting $1 per hour suddenly receives double or triple the wage, because the gringita “just wants to help.”
A property that normally would sell for $2 per square meter suddenly has an offer for $5 per square meter, “because it’s so cheap compared to prices back home.”
I recall the story from a visitor who gave a local indigenous woman selling strawberries on the street $10 for a pound of $1 strawberries, “because she looked like she could use it.”
Many North Americans are kind and generous. We are known world-wide for our charitable contributions.
What we often don’t realize is the downside, which is our attachment to feeling good when we give. The downside is paying attention to only that good feeling we get from our giving and not to the consequences of our good deeds. If we aren’t paying attention to both sides of the equation, we aren’t acting from a place of balance.
What kind of Coke bottles are we dropping from the sky? And what are the consequences?
First, the locals begin to see us as walking targets for over-pricing. Restaurants who have many expat visitors suddenly raise their prices by 40%: the $6 chateaubriand that we wrote about two years ago now costs $9.50.
The cleaning lady who is getting $2.50 per hour with a $5 tip or more tells her peers what the crazy gringo lady is paying. Others want more money, too, not only from their gringo customers, but from their Ecuadorian customers as well.
The gringo lady finds that every time she walks down the street, someone is hitting her up for money. Why not? She’s rich! Look at what she’s paying her cleaning lady!
Then the resentment starts because local families have a harder time hiring a good cleaning lady. Now she only wants to work for the gringos at higher wages.
The Ecuadorian land purchaser finds he can’t afford the land anymore because the prices are going up. Who’s to blame? Those damned gringos!
The school you so generously gave school supplies to is happy, but their neighbor schools are jealous. Don’t be surprised next year when you receive a dozen politely worded written invitations delivered to your door from a dozen school teachers requesting assistance saying, “Why not, you gave to the other school?”
Is there a solution? Of course. The solution is to take the time to learn the culture and try to fit in.
If the culture says you bargain when shopping, or when buying land, don’t give in to your shyness or lack of local experience. Jump in and try your hand. It’s a cultural game. If you don’t play it, you are looked upon as a mark, and not a very smart one at that. And it reflects on every gringo visitor or resident.
Don’t succumb to the North American tendency to think that we are the “do-gooders of the world” and it’s our personal responsibility to save every poor person we see.
If you really want to help, find appropriate ways to give within the established system. As the Bible says, give in such a way that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
Here in Cotacachi, UNORCAC, the local indigenous organization, has been effectively funneling charitable funds into the communities for years. They know where best to channel the contributions and how best to do that.
One of the ways we like best is to donate to UNORCAC’s high school scholarship fund. Two hundred dollars annually will fund a student for a full year of high school.
Today, only 30% of 6th graders go to high school, because they don’t have the $300 dollars it takes to attend each year. Your $200 will be matched by the parents’ $100, and the student is on his way.
If you want to donate, write to us. We will make sure your donation gets to the right place.
But there are many other ways to contribute. Do you know a way to get used computers down here? If you do, arrange it and give them to UNORCAC. They will see that they get to where they are needed without disrupting the cultural context.
Want to teach English to students? This is one of the greatest hungers for students and their parents. They know that if they can speak English, their opportunities increase dramatically. Talk to UNORCAC. They will make the arrangements.
Interested in history? The local museum could really use some expert advice on how to conduct fund raisers. They want to have musical programs and invite locals to participate as a way to raise badly-needed money for repairs. But they don’t really know how to do it. Jump in! Right now, their only source of funding is admissions to the museum.
One expat here, Debbie, has a group of young children who gather with her weekly in a field near her condo. They sit on the grass, laugh, play and have an impromptu English class. Both students and teacher get an equal reward. And the cultural relationship grows.
Throwing money at a perceived problem has never been a solution and never will be. We can create Cotacachi into the kind of community that we all want to live in–a community where the cultures live in harmony–where those with resources share them in such a way that those without resources can benefit without negative cultural effects being felt too strongly.
It takes trial and error, careful observation and some letting go of our ideas of what needs to be done. An open mind will lead to a more graceful integration into the local culture. Sharing is good, but ego gratification by handing out dollars doesn’t work at all.
And that’s today’s View from the Roof.
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