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2006). The United Nations believes that stronger relations can be built so long as both the toured and the voluntourist reach understanding, leading to further strength of the global relations. In the case of Love Binti, Taiwan and Kenya does not form diplomatic ties; yet, the stakeholder H6 once mentioned “the Kenyan communities we visited know very well where Taiwan is, but not the name of their own president.”

Volunteer tourism is to improve cross-cultural understandings through the exchanges, but the question lies in who was understanding whom and at what level (UN, 2013).

In keeping with previous literature that beneficiaries who do not speak English well or at all, compared to those fluent speakers, are less likely to receive health care (Jacobs et al., 2005), the researcher found that language and cultural barriers from the voluntourists can impede their ability to immediately assess their surroundings, behave accordingly and communicate appropriately; not to mention when the beneficiaries, especially women and schoolgirls, cannot read or speak English at all.

4.2.1 Imaginative “othering” of the voluntourists by the local community

Based on the great discrepancies in socioeconomics and understanding of living between the voluntourists as well as the beneficiaries, “volunteers often enter their voluntourist projects presuming great neediness in the community” (Raymond, 2008);

despite whether the reality is like that or not. Though poverty certainly exists in Kenya, as elaborated in Chapter 2, the voluntourists are still surprised by the status of Kenya’s development and the lack of such neediness as they used to presume. The occurrence is the cause of little to no understanding of the reality of Kenya under the imbalance power structures and thorough cultural understandings. Without comprehensive understandings of different cultures, as Raymond asserted, power dynamics can complicate through the inequality of socioeconomic statuses.

Furthermore, desire can be aroused for wealth disparities between the hosts and

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voluntourists. Following are some incidents jotted in the notes by the researcher when the unequal power relations were reflected in the interactions of voluntourists and Kenyan locals at Maasai village, Mountain Elgon as well as slums nearby Kitale town.

The arranged sightseeing tour at the Maasai Mara National Reserve brought the voluntourists to meet the warriors of the tradition-maintained Maasai tribe. Owing to the frequent visit of the tourists, Maasai people seemed to gain knowledge of the outside world through the lens of the visitors. Learning about the plants and wildlife of Masai Mara ecosystem, a slight appearance of modernization for the villagers can be spotted easily. “They keep asking to exchange their handicraft for my watch, also the scarf I bought from Turkey when we are invited to their place,” VT 4 expressed discomfort when sharing the story; whereas H4 has used the trade picture as her social media cover photo (see Picture 3).The researcher also noticed that the only person who wore the watch was the son of Maasai’s chief. This shown the social hierarchy struggling of the tribe men, who secretly ask for exchange of goods when the voluntourists were invited separately into their house. Interestingly, “time” is rather a westernized concept while the African concept of it has been the focus of plentiful debate over the continent’s history of colonialism, and “post-colonialism.” Interacting with the organization stakeholders, the most thing be heard from the locals and Taiwanese staff were that “there is no such idea of time here in Africa for they have either nothing to do everyday or simply the frequent phenomena for countries straddle the Equator” (H2, H5& H6).

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“If the children there start gathering around you and trying to touch you, do not be afraid. You can also take a selfie with them and show them the picture since a lot of them probably have never seen their own appearance,” said H5 when we were heading to the nearly abandoned border of Kenya and Uganda. The researcher noticed the gesture of voluntourists taking out the expensive cameras or iPhones for picture taking would first intimidate the locals, either performing the jigger treatment or teaching pads making. Waving around the symbol of power and wealth can be potentially alienating, but after awhile, most started to climb over you by touching everything that the voluntourists wear, including watch, sunglasses, mobile phones, even hair and skin. In positive attributes, the voluntourists helped Kenyans experience a new culture when they (Kenyans) did not have the funds to travel themselves.

However, if the volunteers were unaware of their showing of wealthy status, negative influences might flaunt their socioeconomic status in the face of the suffering.

The voluntourists were no strangers to being asked of money and helped building local construction when volunteering in the cross cultural land. Upon seeing the voluntourists, the locals, often children started calling out mzungu² to describe the voluntourists. The Kiswahili language implies the concept of us being “the rich and has a lot to offer.” The privileging neoliberalism may also help driving the process.

“Cultural and geographic distance and difference create an atmosphere ripe for the

‘othering’ of the voluntoured by the volunteer tourists,” as once explained by McGehee and Andereck (2008: 18). Volunteer tourism has the potential to “reproduce or reinforce existing inequalities, create dependencies and a ‘new form of colonialism’

contributes to elitism, or advances [volunteer] interests over host community goals”

2 Mzungu, pronounced [m̩ˈzuŋɡu], is the Bantu term used by Kenyans describing people of European descent as “someone who roams around aimlessly”; nowadays, referring to “someone with white skin.”

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(Kass, 2013). Consistent with Sin (2009), volunteer tourism in this case involves the

‘better off’ providing aid in the same way to the ‘worse off’; a situation that creates an unequal relationship whereby the giver might appear superior to the receiver.

4.2.2 The recreation of neo-colonialism by the voluntourists?

NGOs have been criticized for their potential harm and forms of neoliberalism since 2013; however, with volunteer tourism as a growing industry in Taiwan and worldwide, it is an industry receiving the same comments ever since. The researcher partaking the voluntourist role in Kenya collects the firsthand conceivable recreation of neo-colonialism brought by the voluntourists. As mentioned in the paragraphs before, the unequal power dynamics remains proliferating the voluntourism industry.

The ongoing readjustment towards the voluntourists and the hosts appeared when teaching affordable reusable pads to the Kenyans. “I told the seed teacher she has to find an assistant collecting the tools when teaching the girls. A lot of them will hide the scissors, pencils, or erasers I brought, and this is unacceptable,” VT 2 later added

“so I changed my ways by keeping all the tools with me, they [local learners] have to borrow them from me and return afterwards.” The presence of voluntourists changed the teachers’ ways of teaching because the former considered the local’s being disorganized and inefficient. To add on that, the informants complained for not given complete information on the donation goods in need for the school students and the numbers of the family members to meet at the slum, as VT1 mentioned:

“We are always aggressive in wanting to know the necessity of the visited a day before so we can prepare the donation goods with exact amount. If so, the unfairness for giving some three pads, while the rest only receive one or two pads would not have happened over and over again.”

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The power dynamics seemed not only appeared between the voluntourists and the recipients, but also with the program organizers. What other most commonly heard from the voluntourists (VT1, 2, 3, 4) to summarize their pad-teaching experiences was that “I am a hundred percent that they will not keep doing it once we leave, the result is ineffective. But they still need to be taught since we are not sure the change for betterment might take place in the long run.”

Love Binti campaign are mostly carried out in slums, classrooms and churches since the seed teachers are either working at community schools or church members.

On March 21^st, the campaign was in the yard outside the church. One of the seed teachers Inmelda said she only promote the event through five women in church and was amazed by the thirty people shown up that day. According to her, the community women are taking baby steps in changing the discourse by sharing “women issues”

and deserve to be the architects of their own liberation. “Access to economic independence can change the long tradition of suppression of women and denial of opportunities” (Rathakrishnan, 2009), of which the theory is rectified by Jessica-one of the local mom adopting pad making skills since Love Binit’s companionship-to win back the power to give, to hope, and to love.