Our volunteering experiences
Trip Start
Jan 23, 2007
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64
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Trip End
Dec 24, 2007
Granada,
Nicaragua
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Realise this entry has been a long time coming, but to be completely honest, we thought we'd wait until we had something positive to write about, but alas, our experiences are still a bit pants so its got to the point of being ridiculous waiting for the satisfaction break through, so here we are!!
This entry will no doubt seem overly negative about the situation in general - its not all doom and gloom we can assure you, but it is incredibly frustrating at times.....where to start?? Should quickly note that while it will be obvious to those people who are currently volunteering here, or have volunteered who we are talking about, we won't use the organisations name anywhere so this blog can't be googled by a prospective volunteer who may be put off from our comments, when they clearly don't reflect those of all the people here...
01. Cesar - Frans taken over his physio
.Anyhoo, Sam is working in a preschool about 2 kms from Granada every morning from 8am til 11. So first off, while it is very tiring, coming all the way here to work 15 hours a week is pretty lame, so thankfully for the next couple of weeks Sam is also helping paint a community centre the organisation has built - more on this later.
Essentially, Sam's job, along with another volunteer in the class, is to help the teacher with the lesson she has set the kids. This would fine, if the teacher ever had any idea of what we are going to do in a day, and kids with behavioural issues and learning difficulties didn't totally disrupt the class.
So morning is usually as follows - arrive, kids are settled but within 10 or 15 minutes they are getting rowdy, probably because we are 'learning' the numbers 1 - 5 yet again and either the kids have no idea what is going on, or have understood for ages and are completely bored. So for the next half an hour, chaos insues - kids screaming, shouting, fighting, punching, kicking, jumping on the tables and running in and out of the classroom or in some rare cases, actually trying, usually unsuccessfully, to do some work.
Once we and the teacher are nearly frazzled, all the kid's biological clocks (or is it the point where our faces are contorting into permanent grimaces?) tell them its break time, and they run outside and play on the swings for half an hour, or run outside the school to go to the local Pulperia to buy some chips or sweets
02. Jill with Cesar - we do this together
.After the break, either they are really hyped up or tired - either way they get fractious, and the next hour is spent stopping monkey business whilst simultaneously trying to help the good kids complete a puzzle etc.
Some of the behaviour is absolutely unbelievable - Sam's been kicked, punched and bitten, and today spent much of his time jamming one kid against the wall and holding another until they calmed down. This meant they devoted all their attention into being annoying to Sam, but at least it meant the teacher and the other volunteer got some good time in with the other kids.
Doesn't help that there are no disciplinary procedures here - discipline is just saying 'don't do that' - very effective as you can imagine - yet it's not our mandate to take the place of the teacher, so we're pretty much stuck in the middle.
The kids themselves are beautiful it must be said, but by and large Sam doesn't find them the least bit endearing.
Should point out that we aren't working in a World Vision advertisement here - no dirt floors and 50 year old desks here - the classes are up to a first world standard as they were built by the Japanese government about 10 years ago. However, the power regularly goes off (fans in the room when its 30-35 degrees is pretty important) and the school has been without water for a month, so you can imagine the toilet situation.
Apart for this, as mentioned, Sam has been painting this community centre with an Aussie guy in the afternoons
03. Cesars home
. This is great as a bit of stress relief, but it's a seriously annoying to paint - the concrete blocks used to build the building are of such poor quality that its like trying to paint an enormous piece of pumice.What's more annoying is the amount of use this building gets - a enduring edifice to wasting money if ever there was one. Great idea - hey, lets build a building the community can use for functions etc - problem is, it has to be locked so no one can steal anything, and only the volunteers know the combination to the lock and we are rarely there. Also, it has no running water so there goes the throwing the party idea (also makes it very difficult to wash paint brushes and rollers....). In a typical week, it probably gets used for about 5-10 hours, and then only because it's there, not because there isn't anywhere else to do things.
Poor Frances' experiences have been even more frustrating. Working with the 'health team', she works about 10 hours (!) a week, taking kids to the eye clinic, the dentist, and doing therapy with a little boy with cerebal palsy.
All very worthy causes I hear you say?
Well lets take the dentist visits for a starter
04. Community centre Sams painting
. The organisation (a very loose term - maybe 'disorganisation' would be more appropriate) pays on average $50 USD per visit 3 times a week to take these kids to the dentist. They have awful teeth - rotten, bar none.But at present, all we are doing it speeding up or delaying nature's course by pulling or filling all these little teeth - the kids for the most part probably don't own toothbrushes or use them only when they visit the dentist.
Now when Frances mentions that she wants to try an start a programme where all the kids are provided with toothbrushes and brush their teeth everyday in school, to try an utilise some of her huge downtime, our 'Operations officer' said (to quote) ' I'm not really sure that brushing makes any difference - once they get their teeth fixed they'll be ok - I never brushed my teeth and they are fine, although I guess they were a bit rotten.....hehe'
WHAT!!!!!!!!!
Even more frustrating, until Frances stumbled across it, the organisation didn't know that there is free health and dental care for everyone here. Although this is a change of the recently elected socialist government, if the NZ government suddenly decided to make all health clinics free, can you imagine the coverage in the media - imagine what fanfare it would meet it here - how didn't they know??
And now they do, there isn't really any urgency to change the programmes to the free clinics
05. Cesar in therapy
. Funny, given that they currently pay for a full time nurse to act like a community doctor - they even buy 100's of dollars of medications for her to dole out, which the government is giving out for free. Craziness.Also, she is having trouble with the Cerebal palsy kid. Clearly this kid needs help, but it seems he's such an endearing little bloke, that all the volunteers have become completely besotted with the organisation helping him, despite his physio visits being free. The most effective way, it would seem, is to help the family learn the techniques to help him, but instead the organisation seems to think twice weekly visits from the volunteers should be an ongoing commitment.
It seems this organisation doesn't really have any clear goal of what its trying to do here - what it's doing is clear, but how effective it is is very murky indeed. It feels to us that they are trying to do good here, but in many cases not really thinking through the best way to do it before crashing headlong into it with money and time.
They don't seem to have any priorities for expenditure for example - surely you would write a list of your priorities, and say that if money runs low, then the least important programmes stop? - not so, seems like if the dental programme runs out of money, they find money for the dental programme etc.....
Lastly, but not leastly (?!), a number of Nicuraguan people have come forward, willing to offer their time ongoing for one or 2 days a week. Fantastic! The organisation has an opening to do what it should be doing - getting the local communities involved, and helping the people help themselves
06. Beautiful child!!!
! YES!NO! What were you thinking!! Apparently it is too hard to integrate part time volunteers into the programmes we run, even if they live here, know the culture, and speak perfect spanish. Seems the organisation has staked its turf on the helping front, and damn it, it's us who are going to do the helping around here!! The nerve of some people!
So thats our rant - not doubt more to come sadly, although hopefully we will win a couple of battles.
Love to all - will write more positive things in future - we are getting to know the other volunteers, and taking dancing lessons, but thats for another entry!
Comments
A lot to think about
You packed a lot of observations into a short space of time. Its not just wasted money is it. There's the stream of volunteers who come expecting to make a difference and have some satisfaction out of the money they have spent in getting there. You all have a right to speak your minds.
The longer the next blog tskes Sam, the more obsessed I become in wondering what part the scorpions are playing. Hope you're both well.