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The ‘god’ Syndrome

I do not understand the developing world well enough to know if the phenomena mentioned above applies in other countries but it certainly applies within the Gambia. Volunteers who arrive in the country come with a huge range of skills and abilities that back home are taken for granted yet here especially up country become medals of honour. A female volunteer who can rewire a plug is held in awe while anyone who can repair computers or use Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint properly is similarly deified. Consequently volunteers who at home are just one of the crowd find themselves elevated into positions of esteem and there becomes an assumption that this toubab can do anything. We have heard of volunteers cleaning and then sewing up gaping wounds using nothing other than standard sewing cotton. What were the options? When you are several hours from the nearest medical centre that might or might not have a trained nurse on duty perhaps there are few. Other volunteers dispense medication from their first aid kits knowing that not doing so might condemn somebody to having a severe head ache for hours. There is a strange alluring power in this ability to enrich and support the lives of others using nothing other than information gleaned from things like television and programmes like casualty. We watch and forget we are learning we gain confidence and believe we can do anything because if ‘that man’ on television can deliver a baby well so can I. Gambian children do not yet have those opportunities, rather, they stand and watch others without having the curiosity to say if I learn from him I can do it myself later. That simply does not happen, however I digress.
The dangers of the ‘god’ syndrome as I call it are many more than immediately spring to mind. Yes there are dangers that people will go too far, yes there are dangers that volunteers might prescribe the wrong medicine but for the volunteer themselves there is the danger that living up to the reputation of the toubab who can do everything then leaves a huge void in their life when they go home and once again find themselves as one of the crowd. In the last week I have heard from two volunteers who left the Gambia some months ago and are having difficulty adjusting back into life in the real world. They are needed by their families but not by the community. They are admired by some but not all. Their skills are now normal and the super powers they possessed have gone. The euphoria of their placement has been replaced by a sea of despondency and already they are planning to come back, not as volunteers but to see those people who so relied on them.
This is the reason that VSO push the policy of building capacity. Helping those you work with build their own skill levels and develop the ability to work without you. It is not nearly as attractive but much more meaningful.