Another week has passed in my little Ecuadorean bubble. In that time we have lost one volunteer and gained two. We have also recruited for - and filled - thirteen English classes at the centre; are running eight community projects at our community centre, and running eight community programs with partners. We currently have four volunteers to do this. We will gain one more at the end of September, but it is going to be tough.
The good news: we got our green light to recruit local volunteers. We have already had two applications. We are looking to attract more, but the reality is we won't be able the volunteers in place until the middle of next month, which places considerable strain on us. For instance, I am only supposed to be teaching one English class (my role is something different). I am currently teaching four until the fifth volunteer gets here. Then, I will teach two which is more manageable. Ironically, I am the only qualified ESOL teacher out of the five of us. This has translated into me offering workshops on ESOL teaching to the other volunteers. One thing I will say for certain here: my skills are always needed. I'm sure some will disagree, but I have felt for a long time that academia de-skills you. It keeps you in a kind-of repetitive loop and your mind harks back to the days when you were in practice jobs having to think on your feet a lot more and using every little resource and skill you had.
For this alone, I'm very glad to be where I am now. It's a breath of fresh air; although I'm sure, with enough time, it could become it's own repetitive cycle. What also excites me is the group of volunteers I am working with. We are all women, with different professional and academic backgrounds; but very similar values, perspectives and goals. Collaborative working is a model we are all eager to pursue; and seem to recognise in the other skills we don't yet have but would like to grow. This is another breath of fresh air. There is real power in recognising that someone has a very similar skill set to you and that, together, you could accomplish much more than either of you could do alone. It is like that between the four of us (and hopefully number five... we are praying for a Virgo moon) and, as a result, I can see that we are going to accomplish a lot together this year. Inspiring to say the least.
This emerged strongly in our succession of meetings yesterday which began at 10:30am and finished at 6:30pm. The meetings kicked off with an analysis of the role of community development in the practice of international NGOs, and finished with us all agreeing to incorporate a shared definition of sustainability into the monitoring and evaluation of the programs we are running. All things in between were exciting, refreshing and inspiring. It's teamwork thinking. It's trusting the people you work with. At this stage, there is very little 'othering'. The logic of equivalence has done its magic and we all seem to share a similar vision of what 'bad' community development practice is. The shared discourse is emerging, and it will be a real pleasure and privilege to document it. The absolute joys of practising what you preach. It was what my thesis was all about. It was based on a recurring problem I had witnessed in practice in a number of different contexts. But I didn't have the vocabulary or knowledge to be able to deconstruct it in the necessary level of depth. I sat in that meeting yesterday and could actually see floating and empty signifiers coming together in the discussions we were having. I kept smirking to myself. All that crap was worth it. The almost six years of crap, the rolled eyes and the projections behind my back. It works. I knew it would transform my practice, and the practices of others. I just didn't realise how much.
Today I'm off to one of the local universities to finalise a course I am running with them, and then I'm doing a lecture later on this afternoon on bottom-up approaches to international community development. Then, I'm finalising the first workshop I'm leading on ESOL and ESOL methodologies. And then I'm leading a conversation class on a pre-defined sociological topic. Life is good. Exhausting, but good. There is a real satisfaction in knowing you are where you need to be, learning what you need to learn, and doing what you need to do. It's all about the transformation. I've gone through quite a bit already, and I'm just over 1/12 of the way through this. I will be excited to know me at the end of this journey. I hope you will be too.
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