C ONFRONTATION WITH OTHERNESS

The purpose of this section is to analyse the volunteer tourists’ narratives during their journey at Nepalese orphanages. Their pre-trip experience was based on stereotyped representations of poor countries and parentless kids. Narratives related to the lived experience shed light on another facet of otherness anchored in the practices of volunteer tourism.

The volunteers’ narratives show a noteworthy dialectical tension between romanticism and moralism. On the one hand, Nepal is portrayed as a “spiritual”

and “peaceful” country in general. References to nature, “mountains,” “sun,” and

“wonderful landscapes” are very common. People are described as “poor” and

“miserable” but “generous,” “friendly,” and “honest.” On the other hand, the volunteers become critical and moralistic when describing their relationship with the orphanage’s employees and their host family. The people in the orphanage were less appreciated; they were usually described as “violent,” “uncivilized,”

“stupid,” and “opportunistic.”

4.3.2.1 Romantic narrative

“In America, we are so used to the basic amenities, such as fresh water, electricity, and clean living quarters, that we have truly lost the ability to see life for what it actually is. Despite the harsh living conditions of this Nepali village, the inhabitants there are obviously a tight-knit community of genuinely happy people who work very hard to maintain their health and vitality despite very meager supplies and tools. Here in Suresh's village, they have very, very little, but in that material vulnerability, they are connected to one another in a way that few people in America could even imagine. …In Suresh's village, they are materially impoverished but have no concept of individuality; they are a large family, each one wholly reliant on the group as a means of emotional and physical survival. Their clothes are tattered, and their bodies malnourished and unwashed, but they are happy, smiling, singing, dancing, laughing, and bursting at the seams with real, actual joy—the kind that, unlike the

“things” we Americans desperately cradle as life itself, cannot ever be

Chapitre 4. Consuming poverty in the volunteer tourism experience: An ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage

taken from them. Pure immutable happiness. There are no words to describe it, and I doubt there ever could be”. (John, blog)

This is an extract from John’s blog, which was titled “Poverty”. John was describing his random encounter with Suresh, a Nepalese with whom he socialized. Suresh offered to show them some places in Kathmandu and then took them to his village—a “very poor” place that was “materially impoverished,”

with “harsh living conditions” and “very meager supplies and tools,” as described by John. In his narrative, John was comparing Suresh’s village to his country, the United States. According to him, people have all of the material necessities in the United States but Americans have “truly lost the ability to see life for what it actually is”; they are materialistic and individualists.

Oppositely, “poor” Nepalese were portrayed as “noble savages,” poor but happy, natural, and innocent: “Their clothes are tattered, and their bodies malnourished and unwashed, but they are happy, smiling, singing, dancing, laughing, and bursting at the seams with real, actual joy.” Material poverty was somehow compensated by happiness, joy, and “human connection.” It is important to note that this blog was written during the first week of his journey, when John had not yet started his volunteering at the orphanage. In fact, his poverty experience was limited to mere observation. Within two hours or less of walking in the village, he was able to see that these people were poor but happy, innocent, and honest.

John is not a single case; this is a typical story of a journey in Nepal. This quick and superficial judgement of others shows how much the myth of noble savage is anchored in “Euro-American” culture and presents the lens from which Western volunteer tourists imagine, consume, and evaluate their experience.

For instance, Crossley (2012, p.235), in her paper “Poor but Happy: Volunteer Tourists’ Encounters with Poverty,” showed that volunteers’ encounters with poverty provoke a feeling of anxiety. That is why they tend to negotiate this anxiety in three ways: “by transforming poverty into a source of moral

Chapitre 4. Consuming poverty in the volunteer tourism experience: An ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage

redemption; by allowing poverty to become subsumed into a seductive, exotic landscape so that it can be admired and consumed; and by constructing impoverished communities as ‘poor but happy.’

In the same fashion, volunteers frequently associated happiness with simplicity, nature, and poverty, as reported in this narrative from Alison’s blog.

“Happiness comes from acceptance, growth, and appreciation. It’s about taking your flaws, trying to use them to grow and eventually accept and appreciate them. Today I took a nap in the sun in a field between two rice flats overlooking my village and the river. There were two goats grazing nearby, and when I woke up, they seemed to be smiling at me”

(Alison, blog).

Volunteer tourists’ narratives show an important emphasis on happiness as a result of appreciating “simple” things like a nap in the sun. This seems to be one of the key lessons learned thanks to the volunteers’ immersion in Nepal. “A nap taken in the sun between two rice flats overlooking her village and the river”

made Alison meditate on life, happiness, and appreciation.

4.3.2.2.Sexuality

Another important aspect of volunteer tourism is related to the notions of escape and freedom. Just like other forms of tourism, volunteer tourism is consumed as a form of escape (Tomazos & Butler, 2010). The encounter with otherness and immersion in a primitive environment allows abandoning social roles as well as home and social influences. Volunteers feel free to experiment with sex and drugs without constraints. After all, Nepal and Kathmandu were the first hippie destinations.

While escaping from capitalism and modern life was one of the main reasons volunteers emphasised in their narratives, their sexual experiences of others was not highlighted. In the interviews, the volunteers did not speak explicitly about their sexual relationships with locals. When I asked the volunteers, they briefly mentioned the ambiguity and complexity of the relationships between

Chapitre 4. Consuming poverty in the volunteer tourism experience: An ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage

women and men because of cultural differences. However, the immersion in daily life of volunteers at the orphanage, observations, and informal conversations allowed this side of the experience to be captured.

It was noteworthy that most of the volunteer tourists had one or multiple Nepalese girlfriends/boyfriends. For example, a 22-year-old volunteer from Sweden had been in Nepal for 10 months. When I met him, he was dating a Nepalese girl, and I heard later that he married her. Some of these romantic relationships were, I argue, archetypical experiences inspired by movies and romantic fiction, and in general part of the collective Western fantasy about

Besides these romantic love stories, mere sexual relationships between host and guest were largely practiced among volunteers and hosts. For instance, Alison had a sort of “sex revolution” in Nepal. Alison is an “oversized” young blond woman. As she confessed to me, before coming to Nepal, she was not confident at all about her body. She was very glad to know that Nepalese men were attracted to her. She started having multiple boyfriends and enjoying her sexual freedom. One of her boyfriends was a 21-year- old man who was living in the orphanage. I was with Alison the first time she planned to date him. It was an afternoon, and he called her on the phone and told her that she could join him at a friend’s place where they could have intimacy. Alison was very happy.

Although she was not “prepared” as she claimed (“I didn’t shave but I don’t care”), she was very confident about herself. Once back, she recounted her experience to me. Alison was very proud of herself as she declared to me that she felt confident and powerful. In fact, as a white Western woman, Alison was feeling superior to Nepalese men in comparison to American men. Sexual

Chapitre 4. Consuming poverty in the volunteer tourism experience: An ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage

relationships with Nepalese people were considered wilder and taboo free. This narrative also relates to primitivism and orientalist discourse (Said, 1978;

Torgovnick, 1991). The primitive is described as sexual (Torgovnick 1990).

Many tourism studies illustrate this orientalist aspect in tourism experience and consumption. For example, Costa’s (1998, p.332) analysis of paradise discourse in Hawaii shows that:

“Descriptions of native life were often coupled with references to sexuality or sexual freedom, notably on the part of male respondents.

However, an emphasis on sexuality went beyond reference to natives to include personal sexual freedom and the sexuality of non-natives as everyday life experience at the orphanage, at least during my ethnography, was not that “perfect.” Besides being sick and depressed most of the time, her relationship with Prakash, the director of the orphanage, was very controversial.

Interviewer: What about your relationship with host family like Prakash?

Alison: Yeah, I’m just thinking of how to put it, hmm, there isn’t a relationship to be honest, like we kind of avoid them because we don’t know what they are thinking! We don’t know when they are thinking! We don’t know when they use us, when they need us” (Alison, interview).

This extract of my interview with Alison gives an idea of some typical problems volunteers could have with their host families. Alison was sceptical about her relationship with the host family, in particular with Prakash, who is the face of

“authority” in the orphanage. He is the one who gives orders to everyone and makes all the decisions. Alison was bothered by some of Prakash’s attitudes, which, according to her, were not appropriate and were disrespectful. For

Chapitre 4. Consuming poverty in the volunteer tourism experience: An ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage

example, that he talked about her stories to everyone was why she thought he was not “reliable.” She was also bothered because he did not let her go to her boyfriend’s house, which she considered a violation of her freedom. In Western contemporary society, individual freedom and autonomy, as discussed previously, are the main values of society. However, in Nepalese society, the community and the group have more value than the individual. The opposition of holistic versus individualist societies usually causes disagreement and conflict between volunteers and their host families. In this interview, Alison did not say explicitly that she found these attitudes “uncivilized” but our informal conversations on the orphanage were full of moralistic lessons about Prakash’s attitude and the Nepalese people in general, including how they lack respect and could be very intrusive sometimes.

In addition, Alison was convinced, like many other volunteers, that the locals, in particular her host family, were “using them.” As she claims, “we don’t know when they use us, when they need us.” This narrative shows how the host family is described as unreliable and opportunistic. Alison, John, Charlotte, and many other volunteers were persuaded that local project employees and the hosts received them only for their money. For example, below is a statement by John in which he expresses his certainty that orphanage employees do not like him and just need his money.

“I guarantee you if somebody called from there and said we are withdrawing the money that you are getting from him every month to be there, but if you want he can stay, they will be like, “just send him back.”

I get that impression!” (John, interview).

This impression is indeed quite common among volunteers. Part of this is due to the cultural difference and part of it is due to the contradiction between the expected role of “hero” and the effective role they are playing at the orphanage.

Most volunteers who came through organizations were prepared to play the role of the “hero” (Tomazos & Butler, 2010). They were expecting to be treated as

Chapitre 4. Consuming poverty in the volunteer tourism experience: An ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage

“bosses” in the orphanage as they come from the developed world and assumed they were better than locals. Their representations of the “uncivilized,” “poor,”

“uneducated,” and “subordinated” Nepalese did not match what they found in the field. The power relationship was hence challenged, which usually leads to their disappointment and disenchantment.