Sometimes looking into the lessons you are learning is painful, frustrating, and a huge pain in the butt! Everyone that is volunteering is aware that their are many lesson that you learn in these situations. Sometimes you are not able to see them until you are home and some continue to look you in the face during the trip. It is partially because of the time you have to spend looking at yourself, your pace of life changes, and you are out of your comfort zone.
As a teacher, I have a goal or curriculum to follow and have a structure that is straight forward. I have struggled with not having this here. Our girls have goals lined out for them and many volunteers seem to ignore them, probably out of lack of experience or know how. We are now the volunteers in the group that have been at our assignment the longest for Shanti Dan volunteers. When people ask for advice it seem to be given and forgotten about. Today, my lesson was more in my face than usual...We have a method to hanging laundry to maximize the space that it used. Things that must be dried stay in one area if it looks like rain, sheets are always hung in the uncovered area. All things are hung in the sun if the sky looks clear and it will not rain soon. I reminded some of the new volunteers that have been her for about a week, about how to hang since it was sunny. Needless to say, they ignored it and I just left it alone. Not long later, I was asked to go to the roof top and move the laundry that had been hung for the past hour over where I had asked the girls to hang it. It was now quite hot and I was alone on the roof moving laundry. Pulling it down and carrying it across the roof and rehanging it!
I was hot because of the heat and hot because no one listened. LESSON...Let go of the control. It is my personality to be in control, maybe because I am the oldest, I am in control in my classroom at school, I have a little stubborn streak...This lesson has been my biggest struggle for the last few weeks, my biggest obstacle on this trip. My job is to let got of the control and embrace the change. Half of the lesson is just realizing it is to be learned!
As a teacher, I have a goal or curriculum to follow and have a structure that is straight forward. I have struggled with not having this here. Our girls have goals lined out for them and many volunteers seem to ignore them, probably out of lack of experience or know how. We are now the volunteers in the group that have been at our assignment the longest for Shanti Dan volunteers. When people ask for advice it seem to be given and forgotten about. Today, my lesson was more in my face than usual...We have a method to hanging laundry to maximize the space that it used. Things that must be dried stay in one area if it looks like rain, sheets are always hung in the uncovered area. All things are hung in the sun if the sky looks clear and it will not rain soon. I reminded some of the new volunteers that have been her for about a week, about how to hang since it was sunny. Needless to say, they ignored it and I just left it alone. Not long later, I was asked to go to the roof top and move the laundry that had been hung for the past hour over where I had asked the girls to hang it. It was now quite hot and I was alone on the roof moving laundry. Pulling it down and carrying it across the roof and rehanging it!
I was hot because of the heat and hot because no one listened. LESSON...Let go of the control. It is my personality to be in control, maybe because I am the oldest, I am in control in my classroom at school, I have a little stubborn streak...This lesson has been my biggest struggle for the last few weeks, my biggest obstacle on this trip. My job is to let got of the control and embrace the change. Half of the lesson is just realizing it is to be learned!
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