WHAT TO EXPECT FROM VOLUNTEERING?

Our responsibility

CDL Spanish School Guatemala’s responsibility is two-fold. On one hand, we are
responsible to the organizations that are accepting the volunteer/intern. We
have promised them people who fulfill specified minimum requirements and who
will provide certain services for an agreed upon amount of time. For this
reason, our reputation and the future of our program depend on each
volunteer/intern we send. On the other hand, we are also responsible to the
people who we are sending to fill these positions. We promise a quality
placement based on an agreement with the organization. Therefore, we are also
responsible to ensure obligations are met by the host organization. Our
Volunteer/Internship placements are a coordinated effort between CDL Spanish School
Guatemala and the individual organizations in need of assistance. To help make
sure that everyone gets what he/she bargained for, CDL Spanish School Guatemala
will be actively involved should any problems arise during the course of your
placement.

Your responsibilities

Honor your commitment to the organization for whom you are working. Please
keep in mind that even though you will not be getting paid for your work, you
should take it as seriously as any job. You are expected to work the full
schedule for the full length of time for which you register. If you do not
complete your work duties or break any rules set up by the host organization,
you will be dismissed without a refund. If you experience problems, you should
speak with your volunteer coordinator at CDL Spanish School who will do everything
possible to help resolve the problem. There may be times, as there often are in
new cultural experiences, when the frustrations may make you want to throw in
the towel. These highs and lows are an inevitable part of the adjustment to your
new situation. Learning to ride these out and to draw on all of your resources
to help develop the skills as well as the perspective needed to make it a
success, is one of the challenges involved in an international work
experience.

Take initiative on the job.

Some organizations have extensive experience with volunteers and interns,
while others are venturing into new territory with the concept. You may not have
all of the guidance that you might expect in such a situation in your home
country, with objectives and daily tasks laid out clearly, and a clear-cut
system for evaluating your contributions. Most organizations find their
resources very stretched, so they do not always have the ability to dedicate
time to a volunteer/intern or may not have the experience to know what to tell
you. Help them out by asking questions, by making your own observations, and by
presenting new ideas. While each situation is slightly different, the general
rule is to take initiative. In many situations you will be given a few basic
duties and it will be up to you to "take the ball and run with it." Get as much
information as is available, generate your ideas, be sensitive to the hierarchy
and established ways of getting things done in that setting. Build
relationships, ask questions to the appropriate people, and be pro-active rather
than waiting around to be told what to do. Part of your job is to find out what
it takes to get things done, as well as what the organization needs to be done.
In addition, you are bringing your unique experiences and ideas to contribute in
ways that others there cannot. In sum, you are walking a delicate line of
fitting in harmoniously with the already established efforts of the organization
and making your unique contributions. It takes considerable maturity,
sensitivity, perseverance and creativity to do this well, to the benefit of
yourself and those around you. A positive attitude, respect for co-workers and
the host culture, and a genuine desire to contribute will be your tools for
success. While we want you to put your best efforts into the job, remember also
that you can't expect to "save the world" with a few short weeks or months of an
internship. The humanitarian that goes into the organization expecting to make
dramatic, sweeping changes in the economic or social systems will be setting
themselves up for disappointment. Instead, remember that every little bit really
does help, and your sincere efforts will leave it a better place than you found
it.

Challenges

Volunteering can challenge you in ways you may not have faced yet. Remarks
such as: "Why are they doing it this way! They have no common sense! I can't
stand it when they.....Why can't things just be normal..." are much used by
volunteers but are a normal reaction for someone who is not used to do things
differently. You will experience different values, perspectives, behaviors and
attitudes that are in contrast to your own…however this is a natural step on the
way to cultural adjustment. Adjusting to a new culture is a process of getting a
deeper understanding of the Guatemalan culture as well as yourself, in other
words conquering the ´culture shock´.

Same Word, Different Cultural Meaning

Some of the differences that are often sources of frustration between
foreigners and Latin Americans are issues of time, ideas about work, and telling
the "truth". While there may be a direct linguistic translation for these words,
a cultural translation is more accurate.

In the many western industrialized countries, time is money and punctuality
is a necessity. Being punctual shows respect for the people involved and
commitment to the activity. Lack of punctuality, then, indicates a lack of
respect or commitment. But while this may be how western industrialized
countries interpret someone showing up 1-2 hours after the stated time, it may
not be how the Latin American intends it. In many parts of Latin America, life
is not so predictable. Communication, transportation, human relationships and
natural events all may act as obstacles; in fact the presumption is that they
will, and so this is taken into account when the time is stated. "We'll meet at
2:00" can be translated in this environment as "We would like to meet at two but
probably things will arise, as they inevitably do on both sides, so we may not
be able to reach each other until about 3:00, unless something really monumental
arises, in which case it may be 3:30 or 4:00, without impunity." Understanding
that this approach is simply seen as more "realistic", rather than a way to
insult you, will help you adjust to the "hora latina".

Another source of cultural frustration surrounds "the work ethic" and "the
mañana mentality" ("Why don't they want to work hard?" "Why are they always
putting things off?"). At the core of this difference is the fact that North
American and European history is one of self-determinism: pull yourself up by
your own bootstraps, you are in control of your future, work hard and you will
surely reap the benfits. In many other countries of the world however, their
national and cultural history does not confirm this. One's hard work can be
wiped out by natural disaster or the whim of a leader, among other random acts.
Though this may be changing in recent decades, cultural attitudes are built on
centuries of historic events, not on a recent technological breakthrough.
Throughout much of Latin America, as well as numerous other parts of the world,
the irony is that most people work hard just to survive, and many of those who
are ahead don't have to work hard. There is often no incentive for laborers and
other people on the low end of the employment ladder to put forth extra effort.
This may be a frustrating experience for someone from a culture that takes it as
"common sense" that hard work equals results. This does not mean that there are
no hardworking, motivated people in Latin America; of course there are. The key
skill here is learning not to judge behaviors according to your own cultural
perspective, but to be open to seeing them from the local perspective.

Another cultural clash may occur when you find that someone has told you what
they think you wanted to hear, rather than "the truth". Asking for directions on
the street, for example, will never be answered with "I don't know" even when
this is "the truth". In most cases, people really want to be helpful and would
prefer to give you inaccurate information than say "I don't know", which means
to them, "I don't care enough to help you", a message they definately don't want
to convey. Telling you what you want to hear is, in this situation and in
others, a way of showing goodwill to you, and can be equated with the "little
white lie" that ‘we’ find acceptable, except that it is used in a broader range
of situations!

Instead of becoming frustrated with these cultural differences, part of your
"mission" in living and working in a new culture, and what makes one truly
bi-cultural, is to try to appreciate and understand the different way things are
done. You will then be able to step into the cultural mindset, and respond to
events and situations from the perspective of a native of that culture. Success
in your internship experience, as you can see, is about a lot more than just
getting a job done!

Getting the most out of your volunteering experience

It is a great way to improve your language skills, to gain international work
experience, to broaden your worldview, and to experience a new culture as an
insider.

Be open and flexible, become a Latino version of yourself!

In the new culture you will find yourself in many new, and previously
unimaginable, situations. Be open to stepping out of the way you would have
responded in your home culture, and be flexible enough to try to identify and
step into the local mindset. You may need to loosen up on your expectations
regarding hygiene, acceptable levels of noise, privacy, job descriptions, and
"common sense", a well-balanced meal, and socializing. Be aware of your
expectations, and when you will need to adjust them in order to connect better
to the local people so that you can experience the culture as an insider. Be
willing to experiment: think of someone from another culture coming into your
town and being closed to all that it has to offer because it's different from
what they are used to! What advise would you give them?

Take responsibility for your language and culture learning.

CDL Spanish School is your launching pad for your learning, but your learning
will not stop there; there are infinitely more ways that you can enhance your
language and culture learning. Before leaving, read all that you can about the
country and the culture: the history as well as current climate (political,
economic, religious and social). Talk to people who have been there (but take
all stories with a grain of salt- they often tell more about the person telling
them than the actual situation!), introduce yourself to the language if you are
a beginner, or practice, even if it is just in reading and writing. Start a
journal, recording all the information you have been gathering, your hopes and
plan and expectations. Later, while your experience unfolds it will be a point
of reference for your progress!

Discipline yourself to stick to Spanish even if there are opportunities to
lapse back into English. Keep a small notepad with you to write down new words
that you'll want to use again, or questions that come up along the way. Find a
"cultural informant" who can answer your questions about the language and
culture in ways that you can understand. Continue with the journal as a place to
write observations about your experiences, frustrations, insights, keeping a
record of your development towards deeper cross-cultural understanding.

"It was the hardest and best experience I´ve ever had. I know I want to help
in the future by starting another project or something like that. It was really
hard, but the smiles and kisses from the kids make you feel like king of the
world." Floor Roos, from the Netherlands.