Finding My Global Footprint

This post is part of Blogging Abroad's 2017 New Years Blog Challenge, week one: Global Citizenship

Being a Global Citizen

The term “Global Citizen” has never really been something that I’ve given much thought to before joining the Peace Corps. As someone who has not only wanted to work in Global Health for quite some time, but currently is, I always imagined I’d just be one among the cadre of “International Health Workers” out there. Now that I’ve been 6 months in country, 3 months at my permanent site, I can say that this attitude has changed dramatically. Straight from Michelle C., the director of the Blogging Abroad challenge: “A Global Citizen is defined as ‘a way of living that recognizes our world is an increasingly complex web of connections and interdependencies. One in which our choices and actions may have repercussions for people and communities locally, nationally or internationally.’” Simply put, what we do can affect much more than the people in our direct line of sight. Knowing that now, I’m not sure that I could have ever ended up as anything but a Global Citizen.

For those of you reading this that know me, this statement probably isn’t a surprise. For those who are just meeting me now, welcome! The first thing I’ll tell you about me is that I’ve always wanted to join the Peace Corps, since I was very little. I’m only 27 years old at this point, but I’ve wanted to be a PCV for at least 20 years, so global work isn’t something that I’ve ever really taken lightly. I’ve always wanted to work abroad, volunteer, and travel, so me becoming a Global Citizen was all but inevitable. It took me about 27 ½ years to officially get there, but here I stand nonetheless. Well, sit I suppose, since I’m sitting at a desk in an internet café writing this! I also have a background in Public Health, having taken a number of Global Health courses while completing my Master’s in Public Health. Finally, I was a Master’s International student in coming here, which is a program that Peace Corps ran that recently ended that allowed graduate students to pair their degrees with Peace Corps service. All in all, there was virtually no way my life ran in a direction that didn’t lead to me recognizing my role as a Global Citizen.

How I Became a Global Citizen – My Global Footprint

The most interesting thing for me about being a Global Citizen is that while we’re all representing that title based on the same general principles, how that plays out is unique in every situation. Think about your Global Footprint for a minute. Where have you been? What cultures and peoples have you interacted with? Where did you stay while you were there, and with who? Was it a hostel, a hotel, camping, something else? Who did you tell about the trip, and what did you say? I could go on with questions like that, but I think that’s probably enough to illustrate my point. No one person’s story is ever the same as another’s, just like our Global Citizenship will never be the same as another’s. I love that idea, because it means that as Global Citizens, we’re always learning more, adapting, changing and evolving, and sharing those experiences with others helps shape their own definition as well. That being said, I’d love to tell you a little bit about my Footprint.

My last day of not being a Global Citizen,
the day before I came to Belize

I arrived in Belize to start my first day as a Peace Corps Trainee on June 22, 2016, what I would later reflect on as my first day of truly being a Global Citizen. I was exceptionally green when it comes to international travel before this, having been to Mexico for a week the year prior, and The Bahamas for a week when I was in the 6^th grade. I don’t count either of those times because I had no idea what was going in the world when I was 12, and I was playing the wedding tourist at a beautiful resort in Puerto Vallarta for the other. What I did there in Mexico had no real impact on anyone beyond the money I was spending, which admittedly is something, but it didn’t involve forming real relationships with anyone. What I do here in Belize is all about impact. What can I do with my two short years here? I frequently ask myself this in my daily life here to gauge the impact that I’m having. What am I doing and is it having an impact? What can I be doing that I’m not currently doing? Is there something I’m doing that I should stop? At the end of the day though, simply being here has some sort of impact. Right now, I’m living in a rural village in Southern Belize in the Stann Creek district. Due to Peace Corps’ social media policies, I’m not allowed to disclose the exact location of my site, so if you’ve searched through my earlier blog posts you’ll see that I refer to my village under the pseudonym “CK.” This stands for chaab’il k’aleb’aal, or beautiful village in Q’eqchi, the Mayan language that I’ve been learning to communicate here.

My host family's farm outside of CK

My job is all about improving community health, specifically to reduce maternal and child mortality rates, and reduce the risk and prevalence of non-communicable diseases in my village. What this translates to is teaching health education in the schools and working on community health projects in the village with my community health worker. We can also do what Peace Corps calls ‘secondary projects’, which is essentially any project we undertake that doesn’t fall under the umbrella of community health. I can’t pretend I’ve done much in my time here, but I can tell you at least a handful of things I’ve done or been a part of that contribute to my identity as a Global Citizen. I’ve learned Q’eqchi, a local Mayan language (as well as some Mopan Maya and Kriol) and been able to communicate effectively with the people that live here. I’ve been able to go to the market and purchase groceries entirely using Q’eqchi, almost always with people not from my village. I’ve taught health education classes in the primary school, and done health education talks and visits in the community. I’ve spent money at the local stores, worked with the people here, and spent a lot of time just talking with people and playing with the kids.

The interesting thing about working in this setting is the potential for the work I do to spider out to others. For example, while I teach health education in the primary school here, some of the teachers (including the principal) are not from my village, but commute here every morning for school. If what I teach has an impact on any of them, the message could reach back to their villages, families and friends. And frankly, that’s true of anything we do as Global Citizens. Anytime you venture out into the world and step into a new cultural environment, whatever you do or say has the potential to directly or indirectly impact the people around you, as well as whoever those people come into contact with. The best part about that, though, is the same is true of knowledge transfer from them to you and the people you come into contact with. That sort of cultural and informational exchange is always present for a Global Citizen, and it’s truly staggering to think of the implications of that.

Bringing It Home

I know it’s shaped my life here and beyond in ways I can only begin to express just 6 months in, but now that I’ve recognized my role as a Global Citizen, I can’t ever go back, and I wouldn’t want to. Now everywhere I go, I realize that I represent not only myself, but my people, my culture, and my country. They impress that upon us in Peace Corps training, but it really applies to anyone living, working, traveling, or interacting in the global sphere. Recognizing that, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world not being a Global Citizen, because even though there are many people that don’t travel outside of their home countries, they still represent their countries and cultures to anyone they happen to speak to not from their home country. I guess the distinction for me is in accepting that your life, your actions, and you’re words can affect those around you in ways you may not be able to anticipate. Anyone can be a Global Citizen, and I hope that someday we all will be. At the end of the day, we’re all living on this planet together, even if our lives don’t touch everyone’s around us. Things like climate change and globalization affect us all, and with the advent of the social media age, we’re all more connected than ever. The potential for us all to have even the smallest impact on a global scale is higher now than it’s ever been, and simply recognizing itself could affect the world around us as we continue to move closer and closer together.

This prompt has made me reflect quite a bit on my own story, and I’d love to hear more about all of yours. If you’re interested in sharing it, please reach out to me via the comments section or e-mail at kirk.bryan.pcbz@gmail.com and let me know - What’s your Global Footprint?

The road out of CK, probably my favorite picture here

Best,

Bryan