There are a handful of cases where I felt I have been a conveyer of information or a teacher. Those moments are kind of like a flash and typically don't come where I expect them. For instance, of all the giant water seminar topics we presented in San Juanito, I feel like the only real teaching moment I had was a tiny little sentence that described a way of electing a water leadership group with a secret ballot. It was the tiniest thing, but seemed to rock folks' worlds. Granted they didn't end up implementing any of the advice whatsoever, I still felt as though it was an "ah-ha" for many. Certain topics and certain auduences as well tend to seem more prone to these "ah-ha" moments. For instance, I've never seen such attentive listeners as when we did condom "how-to" demonstrations in Piedras Gordas and Vallecito. In fact, we are often rocking the boat when we touch on sexual health topics. But in reality, over my year and change in country I haven't been the revolutionary teacher I thought I might be.
So if we aren't playing a teaching role with daily revelations for all, what are we? In the Peace Corps jargon we play 6 roles as volunteers in development: mentor, co-facilitator, change agent, project co-planner, trainer and learner. That's training jargon for you, I'm going to let you know a little bit about my experience with each one.
Mentor. Mentoring is a hard one to nail down when you aren't straddling cultures. Are you teaching? Guiding? Suggesting? To what extent? That stereotypical, "gee-Beav didntja ever think not to play ball near Old Man River's garage window" mentoring feeling is not really realistic here due to my frequent language stumbles and flubs. Today, I was trying to instill the value of hard work in some young whipper-snapper (a.k.a. I wanted help carrying some stuff) and asked him to poop the bucket instead of carry it. Dang "cargar" and "cagar" being so close. Fortunately, to me mentoring has the flavors of teaching, listening and just plain hanging out. It seems most effective down an age gradient (older to younger) simply because experience accumulates over time. Getting that sort of mentoring feeling is not tough. Just being a good role model goes a long way. We listen way more than we talk for sure. And hanging out is the prescription for the day's activities just about every single day. I am a mentor when kids come to the library at our house because it pushes them to read and talk to me about books.
Co-facilitator. I see facilitating like teaching, but scored like golf. You try at all costs to avoid taking direct credit for someone learning something. The better you are at getting a group to teach themselves, the better facilitator you make. I believe in most of the little seminars and workshops we undertake, I play the role of facilitator. The "co" comes from the ever-elusive dream of working shoulder to shoulder with host country organizations to facilitate things. Panamanian agencies, in my personal struggle, have been tough nuts to crack and I have not yet had the pleasure of being a "co" with a Panamanian. I have been a "co" with fellow volunteers, which is both awesome and amazing. Lauren and I have been each others' "co" until we are blue in the face. I was a co-facilitator during the San Juanito water seminar because we studied a model aqueduct together to figure out the three laws of water flow and what happens when there is a hole in the line.
Change agent. We are told a change agent is like a catalyst or a kick in the pants. Someone who is looking to change a behavior may just have one tiny barrier left and a change agent empowers them to just do it (TM). I give the person being changed just as much credit, if not more, than the agent because he or she has done so much work to get ready for that last baby step. I do not know how to wake up in the morning, say, "today I am going to be a change agent," get out there and do it. I do know being present (the literal definition of "in attendance") is a key ingredient to doing it. I also believe trying to be a change agent is enormously frustrating because no one can read minds. But, once you realize you were one on a lucky occasion you A of all, know it for sure and you B of all, claim it was the easiest thing in the world. If I have been a change agent, I haven't realized it yet, but trust me I have tried ultra hard. Lauren was a change agent when she and fellow volunteer Kelly spent less than a half-an-hour showing our friend Cleto how to use the agriculture leveling tool known as the Nivel A. We returned some days later and he had leveled and terraced his entire hillside, which is a gargantuan amount of work. Cleto had been waiting with his finger on the trigger to do something to improve his production for probably his entire working life. Lauren and Kelly barely broke a sweat and changed his working habits and thus his life.
Project co-planner. This is self explanatory. In Peace Corps we sometimes do projects and plan them to make them good. We strive to be "co" with community members or groups and in many cases flat-out refuse to work otherwise. I can imagine how irritating it would be to have someone roll into Fort Collins and say, "so...you all are eating with forks and spoons and that's pretty good. But, you've just gotta change over to the spork. Don't worry! I'll be here for two years to help you make the transition. I live off Drake and Shields if you've got any questions or anything." I'd tell that person to take their sporks and put them...well...elsewhere. I am a project co-planner with Señores Serafin and Boliver as we work towards a better potable water system in the Santa Cruz sector of San Juanito.
Trainer. A word closely associated with trainer for me is reps. A trainer helps one practice a skill so that it becomes as easy for you as it is for the trainer. You then exist on the same level in that skill as the trainer and as such can be the trainer for others. This is something I aspire to do in my remaing time here in Panamá. I feel ferrocement (steel reinforced concrete) is a hugely useful skill out here and I intend to offer training on it (as training was offered to me) in hopes that others will be able to feel the power of making thin, strong cement objects cheaply and let their imaginations run wild for applications.
Learner. Exactly. This is what I feel I am constantly, more than any of the other roles or the combination of them all. I've learned more than a class more than reading a book more than an entire degree. From knowing how to organize and motivate people to names of obscure plants to hand washing clothes in a river to making hand tools do the work of power tools to whatever other madness I have participated in I feel like during the rest of my life I am going to surprise myself with some bizarre skill and try to remember where I learned it. The answer will likely be Panamá.
So there you go. The roles I play in the official jargon and in practice. Keep it crazy people!
Until next time,
Alex
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