Work... (or lack there of)

12.12.12

I remember I use to look at the Peace Corps website and read the featured story of the month (or week or whatever), “Peace Corps Volunteer helps local community ______.” It’s always a great success story about a volunteer in some part of the world that designed an awesome event with their community and had a great local impact. I admit, I opened that website and imagined myself in that headline. Not exactly as the volunteer that helped her community develop a fair trade program for organic coffee, but you know… I fantasized about being THAT volunteer. That volunteer that would go out and actually help. That volunteer that would make the Peace Corps headlining story.

Ambitious, right? Ahaha…

Well, it’s December 12^th today…. Exactly four months into my service and sadly, my work as a peace corps volunteer is no where near that ‘success’ story fantasy of mine. I get it, I’ve only been here for a few months and should give myself a break… change doesn’t happen overnight and I certainly didn’t (and don’t) expect to be doing BIG things in my first few months of service… I think the disappointment thus far is seeing my association fall into a very delicate and potentially detrimental situation.

Remember a few months ago when I got my placement with Associação TIOS Moçambique (ATM) and I was really excited? I had heard great things about them and was psyched to have gotten a ‘good’ placement? Well… some things have transpired since my arrival at site. About three weeks ago, my association got evicted from the house that they had been renting out as their office space. Turns out, they were months behind on their rent and over 24,000 mets (almost $900 dollars) in debt to the landlord. The President and VP were even escorted to the police station by the dono de casa one Saturday afternoon for not adhering to the lease agreement.

So… this is where I am right now. My placement is falling to the ground and I haven’t had an office to go to (or any work) for almost a month now…. I’ve been in touch with my association and they are scouting out new spots and looking for a new office space.

… I want to stay positive and think that my association is going to rise above this. I want to believe that I’m going to still have a job-come the new year. I want to believe that we’re going to come back stronger and that we’re going to revive our projects and do GREAT things for the community. But then… the Peace Corps ‘lower your expectations’ talk rings in my head.

During our pre-service training we were given the ‘lower your expectations talk.” We come in as new trainees full of hope and excitement. We join the Peace Corps because we want to change the world. We are full of idealism. Then we arrive in country and we’re hit with a dose of reality- “you’re not going to change the world. You may not even see a change in your community during your two years here,…” We were given a sheet “25 tips for Peace Corps Volunteers,” and one of them reads:

“ 6) You will not see tangible, measurable results in 2 years anywhere close to what you hope or expect. The saying that “what takes a day in the USA takes a week in Africa, what takes a week in the USA takes a month in Africa, what takes a month in the USA takes a year in Africa,” is close to true for reasons that you have no control over. So after your first month on the job, when you are still in USA mode, write down what you would like to achieve in 2 months time. This now becomes your 2 year work goal. NOTE: You can achieve more than this if you move into ‘take charge mode’ but not through a capacity building approach. Also, in 2 years, you will probably not move out of USA mode.”

I admit this felt like a slap in the face. Why was I here then? Why did I leave everything back home for a ‘lower your expectations’ scenario where I truly, had little to no control?

I don’t have all the answer and I admit that I’m still trying to figure a lot of things out… I truly hope that things with my organization work out and I hope that I can continue to work with them and help them strengthen/revive their projects (because the truth of the mater is- they have done really cool things in the past)… but, if things don’t work out- I will take the initiative to look for other organizations to work with. Since the holiday season is approaching (although it could feel LESS like December, in my opinion… it’s too fucking hot for that December/Xmas-y feel), many of the organizations around town are shutting down and there isn’t much going on. They will resume their work in late January… so, until then I will just kind of hang out and see what happens. Once January comes around, I will be proactive and scout out other options/see what I can do to help out my org.

On a side note though, I want to create a file of resources for ‘Women in Development/Gender & Development’ (WID/GAD) that will be shared with the other volunteers in country. It will basically be a compilation of resources to help volunteers incorporate gender issues and hopefully, a women’s empowerment dynamic into their work as (health) volunteers. As many of you know, I am really interested in this field (Women’s issues in Development) and I’m hoping that I can contribute to the development of more gender inclusive projects and resources for our program.

Women’s empowerment is a KEY issue in development for many reasons that go BEYOND this post, but I hope that I can write about this in the future… but until then, I do have a BIG favor to ask of my friends. To carry out this research, I need some more resources that are beyond my reach in Mozambique. I hate to ask, but some friends have reached out to me asking if there’s anything I need/want, so here it is-

I would LOVE to get my hands on a copy of these 2 books:

-The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World by Joni Seager

-The Women, Gender & Development Reader

I think these books could really help me with this WID/GAD project and I would be sooooo eternally GRATEFUL for your help.