Replacement volunteer

I am curently living in the shadow of the previous volunteer, Missy. I'm struggling to get my footing, but perhaps with time I will.

Yesterday my regional leader (a third year volunteer), Meredith, came to visit. Regional leaders visit volunteers in assigned regions several times during their service to provide these current volunteers with technical and emotional support. Anyway, she was a helpful resource and was present for the events that happened in the last few days.

Event one, my ADESCO meeting that I've been waiting two weeks to have. First of all, I prescheduled my general assembly for the end of the month in the school because I was afraid that the ADESCO is not on track to having their general assembly. Apparently, I made a good decision because this topic didn't even come up. The meeting, scheduled for 4:00p, began around 4:30p, Salvo style. The meeting went well at first. We began by discussing budgets of our water committee, our recent legalization, changes in our garbage pick up, and my recent presence and my future involvement. I did my FODA with them too, an activity that analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the community. But then, it got a little frusrating. Don Muncho, our very oppinionated president, starting telling the story of how Missy got computers for the school and then proceeded to ask what money I would bring the ADESCO. Cool. He just wants money. At this point, Meredith interjected and explained that I was new, that I need time, and that we have access to grants for certain projects, but we're not here just as a money source, and perhaps over time we can work together on tapping into financial resources. I really appreciated her input and her well articulated Spanish. I guess I have to work on explaining my role in the community and remind them that this is a process and I am at the beginning.

The second event was today, I attended the escuela de padres, a meeting with the parents of the students and the school director. It was refreshing to see the school director, Don Armando, so enthusiastic because sometimes I sense apathy with him. At the beginning of the meeting he presented me to the parents, many of which I know already. I stood up and introduced myself and began talking about the recent library training I attended with one of the parents, which was nice, announcing something I could contribute. The director and some of the teachers spoke on recent news and changes in cirriculum. And although Missy's successes were brought up, I felt like I had a lot of support from the community members present.

It's still hard to be compared to her though because I just started my service, I'm trying to learn Spanish, I'm trying to get a feel for the community, and most importantly, I'm trying to do something different. My boss put me here specifically because I have a different skill set than Missy had. I feel a lot of pressure to do lots of work right away, even though I'm not sure exactly what to do yet. It's hard. I'm trying to help the community remember how it was when Missy first got here, but they're struggling with that concept.

To be a successful development volunteer, you need to live along side of the people, get to know them, and figure out their needs; this takes time. Time that I feel pressured to rush. That's the current struggle, but it's something a lot of people go through. And considering I'm only about one month into site, I feel okay. I'm working on figuring all this out still. I'm doing my best.