Tag: service

* Michelle Thoughts, * Peace Corps

What to Expect from a Returning Volunteer

mcmeeshi

footprints in sand

Quick life update: We just got back from two days in Kingston doing our final check out process with Peace Corps. We have only 4 days left in country! Wowza. Our upcoming travel itinerary is posted on our new travel blog if you’re interested.

We haven’t even left Jamaica yet, so how can I tell you what to expect from a returning volunteer? I guess I’ve experienced “re-entry” a few times before, albeit from shorter stints abroad. And I’m also basing this on some of the things we’ve been told through our Close of Service process and past volunteers.

First, I’ll share with you the abstract side, in poetry, then the practical, in bullet points. (I’m not really a poet but was compelled to compose my thoughts into a poem because it didn’t sound right any other way.)

Going Home: A Poem

A new place is a new world.
A blank canvas.
Before you experience it for yourself,
its image in your mind
is mostly empty.

The first time I went to a Caribbean island,
it was little more than a black hole
of wonder.
I tried to see into it,
but there was nothing there yet.
Coming to Jamaica,
I pictured the movie Cool Runnings
and the familiar colors of Caribbean islands.
But still, it was two-dimensional snapshots.
A pile of postcards.
Pictures without personal meaning or context.

Immediately upon arrival in that new place,
when you see it for yourself,
the blank canvas
starts to form a few nebulous sketches.
The longer you stay
and the more you experience,
the black hole transforms
into a world of colorful details.
Just as you can walk through your own bedroom
with your eyes closed,
you can picture so many now-familiar corners of your new world
without actually being present to them.
Now they are full of history,
meaning,
memories,
and nuances
that color them deeper.

A “new world.”
Although sharing the same planet
and the same humanity,
it does feel like you’ve been transported
to an altogether different place.
Going between the two
is so unreal
you almost have to forget the one you just left
in order to function.

Going home.
Your mouth is incapable of translating
the world you hold in your mind.
You try speaking in text
to people who see only in postcards.
It becomes like a distant memory
or a story you once heard second-hand.
But if you take the time to remember,
to step out of the home that immerses you as if you’d never left,
it’s not a black hole
or a pile of postcards
that you recall.
It’s a whole world
and many stories.
This world of nostalgia
may haunt you
in the most unexpected moments-
the colors,
the faces,
the familiar nooks and crannies,
… the simpler life.

Practical Ways You Can Help a Returnee

  • Don’t expect everything to be exactly the same
    Returning home “should” feel comfortable for RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers). But in reality, it might not. Because we may not even realize how much we’ve changed on the inside, Returned Volunteers may feel conflicted or confused even when things are familiar. We will be seeing our former life from a different vantage point, good and/or bad.
  • Support us by showing interest
    Whether you see it or not, we’ll be processing the experiences we’ve had in Peace Corps for a long time coming. It’s a huge part of our lives that we don’t want to forget or minimize. If you do want to hear about our experiences, it can help to carve out a time and space to really talk. But we don’t have to sit down and hash it all out at once. Ask genuine questions that you’re curious about, as you think of them. Or, just hang around and our stories will come out naturally in conversations. However it happens, we’ll definitely appreciate your interest.
  • Please try to ask specific questions
    It’s basically impossible to answer the question, “How was it?” As my friend Brandi put it so well, this is as good as you’re going to get: “There were some really awesome parts, but honestly, there were some really awful parts. Most days were something in between.” Could you sum up the last two years of your life on the spot? Again, if there’s something in particular that you’re truly curious about, ask. (What kind of resources do the teachers have access to in Jamaica? What are the most common meals people eat? What was your apartment like?) If you don’t know where to start, ask to see a few of our videos- they’re a short and sweet way to share an overview of our experiences with you.
  • Include us
    Yes, we’ve lived apart from each other for two years, so we’re no longer in the habit of hanging out. And true, we may not be around on a regular or permanent basis even after we return. But we could sure use some friends to make home feel like home again! We’re leaving a highly relational culture and re-entering into a very independent one. Let’s reconnect!

Fellow RPCVs, what was your experience re-entering the U.S.? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

* Michelle Thoughts, * Peace Corps

Our Peace Corps Process: From Application to Moving In

mcmeeshi
bamboo avenue
Bamboo Avenue, South Coast highway, Jamaica

Values: Choosing Freedom October 2009. You could say this is where it all started. We were well on our way to buying a house but instead, we changed the trajectory of our lives.

The Waiting Game The challenges of being nominees in the Peace Corps application process- a process which apparently has changed since we’ve been serving in Jamaica (hopefully for the better).

You Want to Send Us Where? Things with our placement did not turn out as we expected. This was a difficult bump in the road but it turned out for the best.

Looking Back At 2011: Our Year In Review (VIDEO POST) With almost nine extra months on our hands before our new departure date, the door of opportunity swung wide open. 2011 was packed full of adventures we never dreamed were possible.

Peace Corps Invite!!!!!!!!! (VIDEO POST) A short video capturing the very exciting moment when we opened our official invitation. We knew the region in advance but were surprised to learn our country.

Crossing the Waters (VIDEO POST) In March 2012, we were finally off to meet the other 36 members of PCJ Group 83. The video depicts our transition from home- farewell parties and packing- to staging in Atlanta.

Community-Based Training (Part One) (VIDEO POST) Upon our arrival in Jamaica, we moved quickly from orientation in Kingston to our first home-stay community for several weeks of general training.

Life Pon di Hill and Rise and Shine: A Morning in the Life of a Trainee Here’s a glimpse into each of our “Hub” communities where we spent about 5 weeks doing sector-specific training while living with host families. The video on this page also shows more of the education sector’s Hub training.

Volunteer Shadowing (VIDEO POST) Having the chance during our training to shadow a currently serving Volunteer brought our soon-to-be life as a PCV that much closer.

Shortly after we arrived, these two were born.
Shortly after we arrived at site, these two characters were born in the yard. They’ve grown with us ever since.

Swearing In After about 10 weeks of training, we were finally sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. Jedd was chosen to give one of the speeches at the ceremony (his speech transcript is included in this post).

Home Sweet Home (VIDEO POST) Before swearing in, we found out our permanent site placement and were able to visit for a few days. After swearing in, we got settled in to our apartment, got to know our amazing host parents in the house above us, and started work at the community center and school. (We also celebrated our 4th anniversary!)

There are many more posts from our Peace Corps journey, experiencing the ups and downs as well as sharing what we’ve learned about Jamaican culture… Browse here.

* Michelle Thoughts, * Peace Corps

Better with Both: The Advantages of Peace Corps as a Couple

mcmeeshi

Jedd and I joined Peace Corps for the challenge of growing as individuals and as a couple in an unfamiliar, cross-cultural environment. We knew that the Peace Corps experience would help us conquer new obstacles, refine our values that will guide the rest of our lives, and bring us closer together as a couple through common shared experiences and overcoming challenges. Being the practical (and sometimes pessimistic) one, I was gearing up for two years of tumult, knowing that the every-day stressors in our lives were about to get magnified. But what pales in comparison to the normal, surface-level clashes in our marriage is an underlying thankfulness: I’m so glad I’m not doing this alone!

Some of the single Peace Corps volunteers, who make up the majority of our crew on the island, have told us Continue reading “Better with Both: The Advantages of Peace Corps as a Couple” →

* Michelle Thoughts, When Helping Hurts

When Helping Hurts: How to be Positively Helpful (Part 2)

mcmeeshi

(A continuation in a series from When Helping Hurts. Click on the “When Helping Hurts” link under Categories in the side bar to see related posts.)

Too often our attitude in service “initiates the very dynamic that we need to avoid, a dynamic that confirms the feelings that we are superior, that they are inferior, and that they need us to fix them” (pg. 126). I would say that our first thought and most common question when we are going into a community to help is: ‘What are the greatest needs?’ While this question makes a lot of sense, in a way it is essentially asking those we are hoping to serve: ‘What is wrong with you?’ What if we turned that question around and asked ‘What is right with you?’ instead? I’ve grown to appreciate this approach, which is demonstrated by community development experts who practice Asset Based Community Developed (ABCD).

Especially for those of us who profess that every human being is made in God’s image and is blessed with their own gifts and talents, ABCD reaffirms the dignity of the materially poor. It “recognizes that poverty is rooted in the brokenness of the foundational relationships and [can be overcome by] restoring both low-income people and ourselves to living in right relationship with God, self, others, and the rest of creation” (pg. 127). Notice how the questions asked by Asset-Based Community Development could make someone feel more confident, respected, and hopeful:

* Michelle Thoughts, When Helping Hurts

When Helping Hurts: How to be Positively Helpful (Part 1)

mcmeeshi
from http://www.haitifoundationofhope.org

Imagine this scene: It’s two months following the catastrophe, in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. A small team of Americans are working eight hour days in the hot sun, clearing rubble from a local school two months after the earthquake. Meanwhile, Haitian neighbors sit idly by.

What does this bring to mind? Why do you think the Haitian people are not chipping in to help? Often when people see this, they assume that the people are lazy, however, there is likely much more going on than meets the eye. What about the Americans? At first glance, it would seem that they are doing a great service for the community, but again- it’s not that simple. The key question here is: are Haitian people being empowered in this situation?

When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself recommends that we “respond when needs of an affected population are unmet by local people or organizations due to their inability or unwillingness to help” (pg. 112). In other words: Never do for others what they can do themselves. Never bring in outside help when it can be done locally. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking we tend to err on the wrong side of this important tenet.

After the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the state of emergency was clear and disaster response professionals from the outside were absolutely necessary to attend to all the wounded. When the immediate danger passed and it came to clearing debris, however, the Haitians were perfectly capable of helping themselves. When North Americans do work “for” Haitians, it is a form of paternalism, undermining the Haitian’s ability to steward their own time and talents. It perpetuates a feeling of helplessness and inferiority in the community members. With the exception of those people who were still in a state of shock or mourning, the Haitian people were- and are- perfectly capable and willing to move debris. Often when North Americans- or others seen as “superiors”- are involved in a project, it is culturally inappropriate to challenge their authority. So even if local folks know there will be issues with our implementation of solutions, they may not feel comfortable bringing it up. Helping where we’re not needed also promotes dependency on Westerners.

I have witnessed a sharp contrast between volunteer sites in developing countries. In one site, groups of Americans often came through the community to tour the organization’s work and to volunteer with projects. When asked to share their bottle of water, snacks, toys, etc. by the children of the community, the Americans felt guilty and would sometimes leave their possessions with the child who asked it of them. Little did the Americans realize that when they left the community and other groups came to visit, the children developed a habit of begging because Americans were now seen as the source of free hand-outs. In another volunteer site with a different organization, this phenomenon of begging did not exist. True, in this second site, the community had seen fewer American visitors to begin with, but more importantly, the Americans there did not give hand-outs. If someone in the community had a need, both the community members and the American volunteers knew to approach the local leaders for assistance. Trusted community leaders were empowered to share the organization’s resources with their people in the manner, time, and amount that their own locally-earned wisdom guided them. In the first situation, the Americans were well-intentioned but their gifts did more to provide personal relief from guilt than to ensure long-term change or to empower the local people. In the second situation, Americans still assisted the community with some needed volunteer services as well as funding from abroad, but the local community and its leaders were empowered to manage their resources. If an American volunteer did want to give a donation to a particular child or community member, they approached the local community leader to discuss the situation, offered the donation to the organization through that leader, and then the local leader presented the donation to the person in need. This protocol helped to reinforce empowerment of local leadership and to avoid Americans being seen as the “saviors” or the Santa Clauses.

What examples have you seen of appropriate/inappropriate or successful/unsuccessful assistance to communities? How have you seen communities be empowered or unintentionally undermined?

Other “When Helping Hurts” series posts:  Intro: Caring, Intro: God and Poverty, Context Is Critical, Hung Up On Material, What To Do When, How To Be Positively Helpful (Part 1), How To Be Positively Helpful (Part 2)

* Michelle Thoughts, Other Travels

When Helping Hurts: What To Do When

mcmeeshi
Nicaragua ’10

My last post on this topic focused on the North American tendency to define poverty and the alleviation of poverty in materialistic terms when, in actuality, poverty encompasses much more. From a faith perspective, poverty is not being able to be all that God has intended us to be- glorifying Him through right relationship with God, ourselves, others, and creation. Having enough material things is just a small part of that equation.

Am I saying that giving material donations is bad? It is only appropriate in certain situations, and too often we North Americans over-emphasize materialism in trying to relieve poverty. In some cases, building someone a house, serving someone free food, or gifting money can do more (unintended) harm in the long run. Because poverty alleviation is not just about having enough, doing the “right thing” at the wrong time will negatively affect those core relationships the poor have with themselves, God, others, and creation. Are the poor better connected to their community, better stewards of their resources, or feeling capable and empowered if they have to stand by and watch Americans build them a house? To better understand what to do and when, the book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself describes three phases of poverty alleviation that take the poor further down the path to “being the productive steward they were created to be. … One of the biggest mistakes that North American churches make- by far- is in applying relief in situations in which rehabilitation or development is the appropriate intervention” (pg. 105).

Relief, Rehabilitation, and Development

Haiti ’09

Relief: Emergency, temporary aid to reduce immediate suffering resulting from a natural or man-made crisis. Often materialistic and often over-diagnosed. Relief “stops the bleeding” for someone who cannot help themselves at the time.
Rehabilitation: Restoration to pre-crisis state and minimizing future vulnerabilities. Immediately after the “bleeding stops,” outside help works with victims in their own recovery.
Development: Process of ongoing change moving people closer to being in right relationship with themselves, others, God, and nature. Restoring individual identity and vocation, household, community institutions, and societal laws. Empowering local people. (pg. 104-5)

Who should be receiving relief and material aid? The book provides several guidelines for when it is appropriate to provide relief:

1) There are serious, negative consequences if you fail to provide immediate help. There is no time for the person or community to take action on their own behalf.

2) The person or community is in crisis through no fault of their own. (Our role is not to punish someone for their mistakes but to allow people to learn from them when necessary.)

3) The person or community has no way to help themselves (otherwise, their capacity to steward their own resources and abilities will be undermined by your help). (pg. 106)

People who require relief efforts are: “the severely disabled; some of the elderly; very young, orphaned children; the mentally ill homeless population; and victims of a natural disaster.” For everyone else for whom the “bleeding has stopped, and they are not destitute… rehabilitation or development- not relief- is the appropriate way of helping such people” (pg. 109).

Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College

Other “When Helping Hurts” series posts:  Intro: Caring, Intro: God and Poverty, Context Is Critical, Hung Up On Material, What To Do When, How To Be Positively Helpful (Part 1), How To Be Positively Helpful (Part 2)

 

* Michelle Thoughts, Other Travels, When Helping Hurts

When Helping Hurts: Hung Up on Material

mcmeeshi
Dominican Republic ’05

Alright, today I’m talking about a topic that I hadn’t really considered in this particular way  until I started my “independent study” so I want to give lots of credit to the book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself and the Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College.

I remember when we were preparing for our Spring Break trip to the Dominican Republic- my first ever intentional trip to a developing country- and one of the college leaders of our church said, “You know, we’re not going on this trip to build the Dominicans new garages so they can keep more stuff in storage.” His point was that we’re not supposed to be making people from developing countries look more like those of us in the Western world. Of course, we’re not going to build a poor person a garage, I thought. But maybe we’ll build them a better house. Now, I’m not sure that’s the best idea either. I don’t think I realized how deeply the American culture of materialism affected my views about poverty.

According to the book When Helping Hurts, having a materialistic view of poverty leads us to come up with materialistic solutions. They asked people “What is Poverty?,” and found that those who are poor have different answers than those  who are not. “While poor people mention having a lack of material things,… poor people typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness. North American audiences tend to emphasize a lack of material things such as food, money, clean water, medicine, housing, etc.”(pg. 53). The distinction affects whether we are just treating symptoms or getting at the root causes and whether we are accurately diagnosing those root causes and prescribing the appropriate solutions.

From When Helping Hurts Webinar downloads (Haiti: Doing Asset-Based Relief, Rehabilitation, and Development)

Here’s an alternative definition of poverty: “Poverty is a result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable,” according to Bryant Miller in Walking with the Poor, pg. 86. The poor describe their poverty in psychological and social terms, in relational terms, not merely materialistic. Poverty is not just about what we do or do not have. Here’s where faith is at the center of the picture again. The When Helping Hurts book suggests that to be all that God created us to be, we need well-functioning relationships with:

Haiti Foundation of Hope ’09
  • God
  • self
  • others
  • creation

Broken or dysfunctional relationships in one or a combination of these categories constitutes poverty. Therefore, true poverty alleviation is holistic and will work at restoring relationships with God (spiritual intimacy), self (humility, self-esteem), others (community), and creation (stewardship).

There is also the sense that in some of these relationships, someone we consider “poor” is likely much richer than we are- in relation to God or to others, for example. Too often we North Americans tend to serve with a “God Complex.” I don’t like to think that I’m better than someone or that I know everything there is to know, but I am motivated to help the poor in part because I want to feel worthwhile, accomplished, significant- isn’t that trying to be like God? The God Complex is considered a “poverty of being,” or an unhealthy relationship to yourself. “One of the many problems in many poverty alleviation efforts is that their design and implementation exacerbates the poverty of being of the economically rich- their god-complexes- and the poverty of being of the economically poor- their feelings of inferiority and shame” (pg. 65).

Instead of making sure poor people have more material things, true poverty alleviation will empower people to earn sufficient material things on their own. “The goal is to restore people to a full expression of humanness… to see people restored to being what God created them to be: people who understand that they are created in the image of God with the gifts, abilities, and capacity to make decisions and to effect change in the world around them; and people who steward their lives, communities, resources, and relationships in order to bring glory to God” (pg. 78, 81). What this means in practical terms for poverty relief will be the topic of upcoming posts.


* Michelle Thoughts, When Helping Hurts

When Helping Hurts Intro: Caring

mcmeeshi

As I (Michelle) mentioned in my last post, I’m starting a blog series related to what I’ve been learning lately. A central part of my study has been the book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself, by Corbett and Fikkert, and their online resources at the Chalmers Center. The concepts and quotes in my next posts will primarily come from these sources.

When I was about eleven years old or perhaps younger, I stumbled upon the notion of privilege. I say stumbled because the thoughts that I pieced together at the time seemed to be coming from somewhere other than my own, simple childhood brain- though it was less like stumbling and more like I was deliberately being led down a particular path of thought. Sitting in my room, surrounded by toys, a dresser full of clothes, a house full of nice things, and a beautiful view out my second story window, I realized that all these things had been given to me without even having to ask. Soon, the image of an African girl came to my mind. She was my age and she didn’t have any of the things in my room. She had experienced a childhood altogether different than my own, where safety, health, and basic necessities were never certain because she was born into a different house on another land. I wondered what she thought of me, if she was angry with me. It wasn’t fair, I decided. But other than feel guilty and try to be more grateful, I didn’t know what to do about it.

In high school and college, my understanding of the injustices around the world grew as I learned about historical and current events. I can still remember watching a video about Ghana during a youth group “30 Hour Famine” when I learned that children were forced to kill their own families with axes. Horrific. The sickening image was a wake up call as to the enormity of ugliness, brokenness, and evil in the world. I was so thankful everyone had their eyes closed in prayer as my face had become a mess of hot tears and snot- it was one of the first times I felt so deeply that our world is not as it should be.

The introduction of the book, When Helping Hurts, says:

North American Christians are simply not doing enough. We are the richest people ever to walk the face of the earth. Period. Yet, most of us live as though there is nothing terribly wrong in the world. … We do not necessarily need to feel guilty about our wealth. But we do need to get up every morning with a deep sense that something is terribly wrong with the world and yearn and strive to do something about it. There is simply not enough yearning and striving going on.

I don’t consider myself to be an emotional person but from time to time, I have had experiences similar to the “30 Hour Famine” where I’ve been deeply moved to mourn for what is wrong in our world. Recently I had a break-down after watching Defiance (Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe escape into the Belarussian forests in order to protect themselves and about 1,000 other Jews) because it reminded me how inherently messed up and distorted the human condition is, and how desperately we need God. I recall my own shortcomings- how I want to be a better person yet I keep criticizing my husband, I don’t express love and appreciation enough in my relationships, I defend myself instead of taking correction, I take the self-serving path much too often… On a personal level, we all fall short no matter how we try. Our relationships with others are broken as well, evidenced by everything from divorce rates to road rage. Our neighborhoods and cities suffer from crime, inadequate education systems, isolation of the elderly… Our nations are plagued by income inequality, political slander, irresponsible corporations, apathy, war… The lists go on and on. I don’t mean to sound so pessimistic, but I think it’s important to realize the depth of our problems- that we are in over our heads and we can’t get ourselves out. Why? Because then we realize how we desperately need God. He is quite literally our only hope.

I know we are not meant to be in a state of mourning all the time- that would be depressing and, in turn, debilitating. But I think it is far healthier to let the weight of the world hit you profoundly from time to time than to feign ignorance and live as if nothing is wrong. This means allowing yourself to see the ugliness in the world, paying attention to current events and being aware of historical injustices. Look people on the streets in the eye, literally and metaphorically, acknowledging their existence, acknowledging that all is not right. Don’t let yourself become desensitized. When I accompanied a group of college students to Arizona (see video blog here), they asked an immigration lawyer working in Operation Streamline how she copes when her clients are continuously treated so unjustly. Her response was that she doesn’t cope and doesn’t want to. She cries- in court- because she refuses to be desensitized or to go on as if nothing was wrong.

Caring about people and the situations they’re in is the first step. The next step, taking action, goes hand in hand. And when we do take action, we must also desire to act in a way that is not only effective but also avoids any harm.

That leads me to our topic for the series which is to follow. I want to address one more thing before I really get into the concepts of serving others without harming them (or yourself). As you can already tell, I’m coming at this from a faith-based perspective, as does the book “When Helping Hurts.” Faith doesn’t just fit into the picture, it is central to it. More on that next.

Other “When Helping Hurts” series posts:  Intro: God and Poverty, Context Is Critical, Hung Up On Material, What To Do When, How To Be Positively Helpful (Part 1), How To Be Positively Helpful (Part 2)

 

* Michelle Thoughts, Other Travels, Videos

Haiti Recap Video

mcmeeshi

Here’s a quick video montage I put together of our trip with Haiti Foundation of Hope in June 2009.  I wanted to show everyone a little piece of each aspect of the Foundation we saw without getting too in depth or lengthy.  It’s about 6 and a half minutes.  Jedd graciously obliged me by doing some narrating. Enjoy!

Related posts:
The People of Haiti
The Land of Haiti