Hopes, expectations and my role as a volunteer

Hello All! I hope you all enjoyed Christmas. I spent my birthday and Christmas in Pacitan, East Java. The town of Pacitan is tucked away in the mountains along the Indian Ocean and is well known for it’s surfing and some of the best beaches in all of Java. It was a fun and relaxing mini-trip spent with Peace Corps friends, Chelsea, Caroline, Catherine, Trum and Kieran. I’m looking forward to heading back there soon.

The following Wednesday after swear-in, the volunteers of East Java, about 25 of us, met with our counterparts and school principals at a hotel in Kediri. The main goal of the one-day conference was to set ground rules for our service and to communicate with our colleagues regarding expectations for volunteers. We had an activity where we were put into groups and in true Peace Corps fashion, wrote things on flowchart paper. We, the volunteers, wrote our hopes and worries, and the teachers and principals wrote theirs.

For us, some major worries included being treated as a substitute teacher, being the magician that will make the entire school fluent in two years, unintentionally offending people due to cultural differences, being “parented” at site, having the work life boundary become blurred, becoming the mascot for the school, and not being listened to when we say no. For the schools, their worries included us not feeling at home, that we do not like or appreciate local customs, and that we are unable to adapt and therefor become closed-off.

For us especially, our worries were pretty valid after site visit. A lot of businesses here, especially in Kediri, would ask us to take photos then would use our photos to advertise their business. Equally as concerning, schools here may use the fact that there is a foreign teacher in order to gain credibility and to look like a better school to potential students and families. Also, culturally, the line between work and personal life is blurred. It is not uncommon for teacher’s to have student’s phone numbers, follow them on social media, and visit their homes. For us, that is something almost incomprehensible.

Our hopes included becoming friends with out CPs, increasing student’s confidence in speaking English, feeling part of the community, that we are treated like adults, that we collaborate effectively with CPs, and that our influence and actions are sustainable. Our school’s hopes were that we improve students’ and teachers’ English skills, improve teaching methods, and learn to understand Indonesian culture.

The ten-hour meeting stirred up a lot of thoughts, and reminded me of my role as a volunteer. Since beginning my major in Humanitarian Studies years ago, paternalism and the savior complex are two huge things that I am constantly thinking about, and one major thing I’ve had to grasp with is my actual role here in Indonesia. What am I doing, literally, as a white female volunteer in the middle of rural Indonesia? I understand my role as a volunteer, my official title is “English Teacher and Teacher Trainer”, but what are the implications behind being an American, inserting myself into a community here? I think this is something very important to understand as a volunteer, and not to shame my fellow volunteers, but there are a few that still possess the savior mentality, to save a certain community, to identify them solely as beneficiaries. They do not think about the long terms effect our service will have on people, but choose to snap selfies with children and post them on Facebook. No one is perfect, including myself, but going into service aware of these implications is crucial. Also, people are not props for philanthropic photos-- it’s that simple. I’m pretty passionate on the subject of international development, and I hope to devote later blog posts to talk about the history of development in Indonesia, as well as Peace Corp’s global approach to development.

"Savior Barbie" is a satirical instagram started by two women who were tired of the acclaim of the White Savior on social media. What started as a joke has become a popular Instagram account that demonstrates how dumb people look when "saving Africa".

One session during PST was focused on our roles as volunteers while following Peace Corp’s approach. The sweet spot for volunteer’s activities are when our (PCVs) goals also meet national priorities as well as local priorities. There are various stakeholders included in programming, but when shifting to the micro-level of programming, the actual actions that we take to meet the major goals of Peace Corps and the Indonesian government, families, groups, and communities play an important role. Rather than strictly going into my community and saying “okay, this is what I think you need”, I have to focus more on building relationships with community members in order to assess and find out what they want. We as volunteers, are not only teachers and change agents, but are learners, co-facilitars, and mentors.

The bottom-up approach that Peace Corps practices is important in that rather than people in Washington making the decisions of what people thousands of miles away need, volunteers collaborate with community members to see how their skills can meet the needs of local municipalities. One way this plan of service is designed is literally by sitting down with CPs and planning out my two years. However, when we were told to get started on the site plan, most volunteers, and CPs, were skeptical with planning this out from the get-go. I personally find it beneficial to do more observing, meeting with students and with teachers.

Prior to coming to Indonesia, we were tasked with writing an aspiration statement. Looking at it now, it hits a lot of the marks regarding my role as a volunteer. However, looking at it now, and having ten weeks of training with me, it’s funny seeing the the optimism in the words I wrote,

“Two strategies for working effectively as a Volunteer in Indonesia include listening and learning in order to understand cultural norms, as well as having adaptability. I aim to be fully integrated into my community, and as I become more acclimated to Indonesian life, I will then be able to meet expressed needs. By understanding cultural norms and customs, I hope to gain a better perspective into the needs of the country, rather than offering services simply as a foreigner. I also aim to employ my ability to be adaptable according to my surroundings. As a guest in Indonesia, and as a representative of the United States, there may be situations in which I attempt to the express needs of my host country partners, but may find what I thought to be the solution would not necessarily work. With humility during my missteps, I will use my adaptability to finding different, creative ways to support Indonesia’s needs.”

I also added, “Cultural immersion in both developed and developing countries has led me to understand my position in the world as a Westerner, and the preconceived notions about the rest of the world that may have come from my cultural upbringing. With those experiences, and my prior studies, I realize the importance of seeing each society as multi-dimensional and multi-faceted, and the importance of not rushing judgment about situations that I do not immediately understand. I have learned to properly interact with communities without being overbearing and to serve not only with good intentions, but with the preparation to assist and develop communities positively.”

I hope to look back at my aspiration statement, and the lessons learned during training, to get a better understanding of what it is I'm doing exactly. More to come. Sustainability is also a word thats thrown around in the development community, and Peace Corps emphasizes the importance of it for volunteers. This is a major programming goal, and I’m looking forward to talking more about it in later posts. I’m interested in learning to understand my role here as service progresses, so stay tuned!

Congratulations, you managed to read through all of this stuff about development and service, which is something I could talk about for hours, but I'm aware people aren't as interested in it. So here’s a few songs I literally cannot get out of my head. Not sure if I’m the biggest fan of Indonesian pop…

This one's not that bad...

Glossary

CPs: counterparts, the teachers we will be co-teaching with in the classroom