Lessons in Central America

Hola from Nicaragua. I am 3 countries into my 5 country tour of Central America and it has been a challenging, tiring and amazing time so far. Yes, I am on 'vacation' but have been trying to travel in line with my ethics, and have not had to compromise as much as I imagined. There are so many great things going on down here. Recycling programs in trash-ridden areas, craft co-ops, organic coffee and chocolate plantations, sustainable agriculture...it is inspiring. If you want to volunteer down here there are many places where you can just show up and look for flyers. Everything from turtle nesting observation to soccer coaching. This trip has been a good overview of what CA is like, and a great chance to start working on my Spanish. Once I get settled in Colorado I am going to really study so that future trips can just be spent in one place working with the locals and gaining a better understanding of the people and culture. I have also talked to many of my travel-mates who have already done volunteer programs here and in South America and they all have great things to say about it, so I say go for it!

Quitting Time!

It's a bittersweet end to March and the 5th month of volunteerevolution. I have finally quit my job (yay!) and am saying goodbye to friends in New Zealand (boo hoo!). I'm have also finished up my refugee work which was a mixed experience itself.

I really enjoyed working with the refugees, and was frustrated by how not having a car limited the type of friendship I was able to offer. I was able to do administrative stuff for them but not offer to take them to the beach or invite them to festivals. I also was disappointed in my team experience. Each team member was a friendly person and shared their strengths with the families but I never felt like we worked together or that we went beyond the required basics. Other teams were taking their families on outings, having meals together, making photo albums, etc. We didn't communicate much, didn't take on tasks together and everything quietly petered out at the end. Since no one was the "leader" it didn't feel possible to speak up and push the group to do more. Oh well, lessons learned, and our families seem to be getting along on their own now, chattering away in English and building community networks. I will definitely do this again!

Posts will be quiet over the next 2 months as I organize my overseas move, and spend time traveling through Central America. I'm already building my stash of craft materials and over the counter medicine to donate, and am looking forward to visiting local non-profits and making contacts for future trips. I have also been searching the opportunities in Colorado (which abound!) and am really excited about Alianza who teach Spanish in order to train bi-lingual volunteers. I'll be practicing during my trip and will sign up with them in June. It's the end of one era but the start of so many new things, I can't help be excited!!

International Cultural Festival

There's me at the Refugee Resettlement info desk talking to potential volunteers about the program. We had a booth at the Auckland International Cultural Festival which is a chance for all different nationalities to share performances, information and of course food (my favorite). I had some yummy Ethiopian food and some Vietnamese tofu spring rolls, and when I spotted the Finnish tent I thought, "baked goods" and was not disappointed, mmm-mmm! This was the first year of the Ethnic World Cup soccer tournament which got pretty intense from what I heard.

It was great to see how many different groups were represented. There were people from Africa, El Salvador, Brazil, Eritrea, Afghanistan, places I've never even heard of because they haven't achieved their independence! Sometimes Auckland can feel quite divided, downtown is devoted to the Asian students studying here, while everywhere else in the country is predominantly European with pockets of Maori or Pacific Islanders...guess that does sound diverse...but you rarely see everyone mixed together like we did at the festival. A really enjoyable afternoon and hopefully some good recruiting got done too.

On another positive note, our first Kiva loan has been repaid. Donations to volunteerevolution that aren't needed immediately are put through the microloan program first so we get multiple use out of the money.

The Next Step...Input Wanted

Refugee work continues but with everyone enrolled in school or English classes and taking the bus to appointments etc, the move towards functioning independently is speeding along. It's great to see the families making friends in their community and becoming more confident. Our 6-month commitment to them will be over in two more months, but I know we'll all want to keep in touch and continue to support through visits, conversation and friendship.

As things wind down it's time to focus on the next step and I am keen to get as much input on this as possible. With fresh donations on hand and moral support I'm excited to see what can be accomplished in this first year. The general idea is to form a partnership between a staffing agency(ies) and volunteer programs in order to use income from customers to subsidize wages to people doing volunteer work. This means charitable organizations who cannot afford to pay staff but rely heavily on volunteers can get the help they need. On the other end people who want to work in more meaningful jobs but need income can do so. I'd like to extend that by offering job skill training and job experience to unemployed and un-skilled workers. Organizations relying on "volunteers" should be more willing to provide a bit of work experience in exchange for labor which will hopefully open doors to more skilled, better paid employment for these workers. There are so many variable possibilities that we should be able to accomplish our goals through some means. If need be we may have to start our own staffing agency, and there would hopefully be tax benefits for our paying customers as incentive to participate. You can imagine many other options I'm sure.

I've never started a business, but have worked in many small ones including staffing agencies. If any of you have experience or enthusiasm to help develop these ideas please share your thoughts via email (volunteerevolution@gmail.com) and lets get things moving.

Get Involved Online

Ever since I heard of Ashoka I've been amazed at the ideas their entrepreneurs come up with. But I felt those people and their accomplishments were far beyond my abilities. Now there is an open source online forum so you can read about what people are doing, enter your own ideas or just comment and help refine solutions to social problems. What a great way to get people involved and thinking! Changemakers.net

Check-up Time

My volunteer team recently attended a 6-week checkup meeting along with other teams to discuss how things were going with our refugee families and make sure the key tasks had been accomplished. It was an eye-opening experience for me, on some levels I felt inadequate because other teams had really taken initiative and provided for their families in special ways like creating photo albums and taking them to events. On the other hand we thought we had seen a huge issue arise over a $400 phone bill until we heard from the group whose family had charged $2000 of calls. Hopefully we identified issues that can be avoided in the future and came away with inspiration and new ideas.

This week is school enrollment for the kids and English classes start next week for the adults which will help alleviate the boredom they've experienced over the holiday period.

Helping build Independence or Dependence?

Sometimes it's really hard to know how much to help, or if what you think is help is really creating dependence. A refugee's goal is to function independently in their new country, but of course they start off (and likely continue) with state housing and an income benefit along with other special grants. While the dollar amounts don't look like much to you or I, it's reliable housing and income that they have not experienced before.

But what happens when you don't understand how to use your phone card and a bill for $400 shows up? I know how much I would cry if that happened to me, and although I wouldn't enjoy paying it, I could do so easily. Imagine that it's more than 50% of your take home income. Stressful right? So my question is, if I can afford to help pay the bill should I? Even if its done anonomously? Will that help them learn to be more careful with the phone, will it help them learn to budget, or will it set a precedent that when they are in trouble someone will bail them out? We have been cautioned in training not to give above and beyond what is truly necessary as the community talks to eachother and it can set high expectations that future volunteers cannot be expected to meet. On the other hand maybe its just as simple as I have money and they need it. What do you think?