Twelve days after the departure of the AMIGOS volunteers, I am on a plane flying back to the States. The departure of the volunteers was a day that woke up at 2:00 am in order to send off 60 plus volunteers by 10:00 am. We corralled the volunteers into the airport by 3:30 am, said teary goodbyes, and sent them on their way by 5:30 am. From there us Staff still had six national volunteers who we dropped off in their own Panamanian communities by 9:30 AM. In true AMIGOS fashion, a lot of work was done by 10:00 AM. When my last volunteer (a Panamanian) was dropped off at the entrance of her community outside of Quito, I felt a giant weight lift from my shoulders. Suddenly I was not responsible for the well being, mentally and physically, of eight human beings. I realized that for the past six weeks I had been on constant alert in case anything were to happen. I woke up at 6:30 AM every morning, and the first thoughts that entered my head were about my volunteers. I was constantly thinking about their projects, their health, their happiness, their safety. Though it was stressful to have so much responsibility, I truly enjoyed the experience. I really liked being a role model to high schoolers. I found it fun and interesting to find the right balance between being a friend and an authority figure.
The volunteer experience is one very large part of the program, but another equally important part is the host community experience. The relationships I built with my volunteers were strong, and I think I built just as strong relationships with the community members. My job is essentially to be the link between the (sometimes clueless) volunteers and the goals and mission of AMIGOS. Thus, I worked really hard to build trust with host families and other people who were involved in the experience with the volunteers. Because the host community experience is so important to AMIGOS my job didn’t end with the departure of the volunteers. The volunteers left by 10:00 AM, I was at Staff House by 12:00 PM, and the next morning I was on a bus to community by 6:00 AM. In every community the Project Supervisor has to do “close-outs”, which basically entail having a community meeting with members who were involved with the project and the volunteers. For example, I invited host families, teachers, and construction workers. The meetings were short, but so valuable for the betterment of the experience for everyone. AMIGOS has plenty of flaws being a volunteered-centered program working on “community development” and “sustainable cultural-exchange” in developing countries in Latin America. But, for what it is, AMIGOS does a very good job at making it as sustainable as possible. I truly did value what community members say, and I made a big effort to pass on their advice to those higher up at AMIGOS (via plenty of paperwork). One of the most important things I learned was to not have so much doubt in the presence of Volunteers (whether they be Panamanian or United States-ian) in these rural communities. I really questioned the impact they had on the communities and if the communities really did benefit from their presence (whether it be personal relationships or monetary help). Only in the close-outs did I see more clearly the positive impact most communities felt. I was surprised with the amount of desire to have Volunteers in the future, the amount of excitement for future projects, and the lack of complaints. I now have more faith in the experience, whereas at the beginning of the experience I really doubted it. All that being said, I would recommend this job for people who are ready for responsibility and have the ability to be more flexible than you thought possible. Imagine being a camp counselor. Multiply that experience by 5,000 and then throw yourself into a foreign country that you have never been to. Toss in many a teenager, digestion troubles, and unpredictable public transportation. Be ready to be an automatic role model, to be a “special visitor” everywhere you go, to eat plates and plates of rice, to slam delicious government-distributed cookies, and to wake up with the chickens (and everyone else) at 4:30 AM. And then if you can do this, you can probably take on any other job anywhere ever.
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Lydia CollinsLydia is the Project Supervisor this summer for Amigos de las Americas in Panama. Archives
August 2014
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