Watching the trainees get off the plane, it is a breath of fresh air to see a new batch of people who are anxious to see this part of the world and eager to help. They all arrive with enormous expectations about what “Africa” is going to look like and what projects they will be working on. They bring their ideas, their energy and their willingness to put themselves out there in the hope that something good will come as a result. All in all, they basically just want to change the world. How quickly I forget how nerve-racking it can be to enter into a new culture and learn a new language. I remember bring intimidated after meeting volunteers already in the field who had completed, what seemed like at the time, as these complex programs teaching children and/or bringing communities together. I remember feeling nearly sick to my stomach that I would be held to the same standard and expected to produce similar results. But being here and watching the new group go through the motions makes me excited for them. I see 57 young adults of different backgrounds, personalities, levels of experience and perspective, all working towards a similar goal and each approaching similar situations with a unique point of view.
Zachery Scott writes: The New Recruits
Letters from Southern Africa: The New Recruits
By Zachery Scott | Article Date: 10/14/2008 12:00 AM
One week ago the new class of volunteers arrived, fresh off the plane, to begin their 10-week training to qualify for service. It’s hard to imagine that it has been one year since I arrived in this country. So much has happened in only 12 months that it is kind of exciting to watch a new group begin their journey.
The Peace Corps program in my country is split between two programs; Education and Health. Education volunteers are distributed all around the country teaching English, Biology and Chemistry, and in some cases are the ones who are directly training teachers in these subjects. Though a smaller program, Health volunteers are trained to work within a community and identify opportunities to educate any number of individuals or groups on health issues ranging from nutrition and prevention of HIV to income generation and organizational capacity building. I am a Health Volunteer.
Health volunteers, because of the unstructured nature of the program, tend to be self-starters with at least a general understanding of health issues and group facilitation skills. Teachers need to be able to manage 60 children per class, teach in Portuguese and cope with the variety of issues that the average student might bring to them at any given moment. Neither job is easy, but both have unique attributes.
Training is a 10-week ordeal where potential volunteers are placed with home stay families and immediately given language, technical and cultural training six days a week. Not only are they expected to sustain the massive amount of technical information being thrown at them, but they must also retain enough language skills to meet a certain criteria for volunteers while trying to integrate into their community on a variety of levels.
This of course is all being done while your body is acclimating to new organisms, which is great for your GI tract, and it is expected that you keep an open and positive attitude for the duration of your training. It is commonly known that training is never an easy process, which is why a handful of people almost always go home the first week.
Watching the trainees get off the plane, it is a breath of fresh air to see a new batch of people who are anxious to see this part of the world and eager to help. They all arrive with enormous expectations about what “Africa” is going to look like and what projects they will be working on. They bring their ideas, their energy and their willingness to put themselves out there in the hope that something good will come as a result. All in all, they basically just want to change the world.
How quickly I forget how nerve-racking it can be to enter into a new culture and learn a new language. I remember bring intimidated after meeting volunteers already in the field who had completed, what seemed like at the time, as these complex programs teaching children and/or bringing communities together. I remember feeling nearly sick to my stomach that I would be held to the same standard and expected to produce similar results.
But being here and watching the new group go through the motions makes me excited for them. I see 57 young adults of different backgrounds, personalities, levels of experience and perspective, all working towards a similar goal and each approaching similar situations with a unique point of view.
After their ten weeks of training, they will swear-in and be delivered to their site. There they will begin their own exceptional journey and make a distinctive impact on those around them.
I’ll never forget my first few months in Africa and I know the new recruits won’t either. I remember the words of encouragement that a volunteer gave after I had arrived and expressed my reservations about being capable of making a difference. He looked at me, smiled and said, “Take a deep breath and go change the world.”
