Some wise friends have asked (and I hope future interviewers will too) what I've learned here. As the year is nearing it's close, I am happy to reflect on the many lessons that the learning community of Agahozo-Shalom gave me. In a couple of categories, here's some of the things ASYV has taught me.
some really tangible lessons:
1) How to jimmy a lock. I break into my and others' rooms extremely frequently, as well as my own, just to get my work done.
2) How to save frogs, and why to save frogs. A lizard in your room can survive, but a frog will die without moisture and that is gross and sad. Saving frogs is no easy task, as they hop around a lot, but with some skillful maneuvering every frog can make it back outside.
3) How to hoe. Thank you members of Patrice Lumumba family.
some less tangible, but potentially more important lessons:
1) Even if my ideas are excellent, and will make everyone happy, everyone still would likely rather not be told them. Everyone likes to be heard, so give everyone a chance to speak up and have their ideas considered before making a change that affects them. Someone remind me of this when I have kids and again when I'm just a few steps away from achieving world peace.
2) I don't work in the clinic. In other words, there's nothing life or death urgent in my work. So I should walk rather than run, as a good friend once told me. In the end it usually takes the same amount of time, and if I run I spend more time waiting and cursing, whereas if I walk I get to see the birds along the way (this is both metaphorical and very literal). This is a big jump from my "everything is urgent" mentality of the DC activism world, and it will be interesting to reconcile the two.
3) I have a culture that I got from my upbringing and history, and it's very different from other people's cultures. While I still believe that people are the same, more or less, and have the same basic goals, I've learned that cultural differences are very real, and should not be underestimated. That doesn't mean that they should ever impede collaboration, but they should certainly be honored if collaboration is to work.
I've learned much more, including how to expect the most from people, how to teach about the present perfect tense, and how to find family in 16 teenagers. Mostly I've learned that most things I thought I knew were only partially true, at least here, and that if I want to keep knowing things, I'd better be prepared to keep learning, probably forever.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Would You Like Tikkun Olam with that?
Giving ain't easy. As a cash-strapped 20-something I frequently feel compelled to give to causes, but can't bring myself to give more than the occasional small donation. And, I'm sure, many 20-somethings join me in occasionally failing to give because we think that our small donation is "too small to make a difference."
Well, here at Agahozo-Shalom, our kids find no such obstacles. Par example:
This winter our director told the kids about a country not unlike theirs that had been devastated by an earthquake. Within a few weeks and with a few starter ideas from the staff, the kids were well on their way to raising money to help the kids of Ha-i-ti (how we pronounce it here).
The kids gave up meat for two weeks, asking that the village instead donate the money to Haiti. The kids and staff donated their personal funds, and the canteen gave all pencil sales profits to the cause. In the end a village of Rwandan orphans raised $800 for Haiti. We sent the money, along with cards from the kids, with the JDC's envoy to Haiti.
Amazed? Me too, and it continues:
My co-adviser to the Canteen Club and I had just completed interviews of all of our club members asking them what they most want to do in life, in hopes of getting some ideas about how we can use the club to help them learn about things they are interested in. Many of the kids expressed interest in helping other kids like themselves, with some even explaining that they wanted to be like Anne Heyman, the founder of our village. As we created new projects for the canteen based on these interviews, we asked these kids to be in charge of the canteen's tikkun olam (more on this phrase later).
They handily took on the challenge deciding to collect money for school supplies for kids in the surrounding village of Rubona. Now, whenever the canteen is open, the kids ask customers (or sometimes sternly encourage customers) to give their change to the cause. They've also increased the price for Fanta such that 10 Rwandan francs from each Fanta sale goes to the tikkun olam fund.
Why are these kids so awesome and able to give? I could hypothesize for hours, but two environmental factors surely contribute:
1) Rwanda is a country in which giving is not seen as optional. It is not uncommon to meet a woman with 2 or 3 surviving biological children and 3 or 4 adopted children. It is not uncommon to for distant relatives, or even strangers to pay an orphaned child's school expenses. Whenever I express my amazement at this giving culture, they explain that it is what they must do in a country where needs are immense.
2) Tikkun Olam, or the concept of repairing the world taught in Judaism, is a major tenet of the philosophy here at Agahozo-Shalom. The village encourages the kids first to practice Tikkun HaLev, or repairing their hearts, and then Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. We talk about the concepts a lot here in the village, and the kids also live them through therapeutic activities and, as they get older, through programmed Tikkun Olam activities in the community surrounding our village. Every Tuesday, our older kids go out into the community and plant gardens for people with AIDS or fix walls for widows. They help out at the local clinic and teach kids at the nearby school. Every term we hold a fundraiser to fund the kids' Tikkun Olam projects and the kids and staff have a ball getting the funds together.
Wow, right? These kids didn't let their small donations scare them away from giving, and now neither can ours. In such spirit, where's your favorite place to donate your small change?
Well, here at Agahozo-Shalom, our kids find no such obstacles. Par example:
This winter our director told the kids about a country not unlike theirs that had been devastated by an earthquake. Within a few weeks and with a few starter ideas from the staff, the kids were well on their way to raising money to help the kids of Ha-i-ti (how we pronounce it here).
The kids gave up meat for two weeks, asking that the village instead donate the money to Haiti. The kids and staff donated their personal funds, and the canteen gave all pencil sales profits to the cause. In the end a village of Rwandan orphans raised $800 for Haiti. We sent the money, along with cards from the kids, with the JDC's envoy to Haiti.
Amazed? Me too, and it continues:
My co-adviser to the Canteen Club and I had just completed interviews of all of our club members asking them what they most want to do in life, in hopes of getting some ideas about how we can use the club to help them learn about things they are interested in. Many of the kids expressed interest in helping other kids like themselves, with some even explaining that they wanted to be like Anne Heyman, the founder of our village. As we created new projects for the canteen based on these interviews, we asked these kids to be in charge of the canteen's tikkun olam (more on this phrase later).
They handily took on the challenge deciding to collect money for school supplies for kids in the surrounding village of Rubona. Now, whenever the canteen is open, the kids ask customers (or sometimes sternly encourage customers) to give their change to the cause. They've also increased the price for Fanta such that 10 Rwandan francs from each Fanta sale goes to the tikkun olam fund.
Why are these kids so awesome and able to give? I could hypothesize for hours, but two environmental factors surely contribute:
1) Rwanda is a country in which giving is not seen as optional. It is not uncommon to meet a woman with 2 or 3 surviving biological children and 3 or 4 adopted children. It is not uncommon to for distant relatives, or even strangers to pay an orphaned child's school expenses. Whenever I express my amazement at this giving culture, they explain that it is what they must do in a country where needs are immense.
2) Tikkun Olam, or the concept of repairing the world taught in Judaism, is a major tenet of the philosophy here at Agahozo-Shalom. The village encourages the kids first to practice Tikkun HaLev, or repairing their hearts, and then Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. We talk about the concepts a lot here in the village, and the kids also live them through therapeutic activities and, as they get older, through programmed Tikkun Olam activities in the community surrounding our village. Every Tuesday, our older kids go out into the community and plant gardens for people with AIDS or fix walls for widows. They help out at the local clinic and teach kids at the nearby school. Every term we hold a fundraiser to fund the kids' Tikkun Olam projects and the kids and staff have a ball getting the funds together.
Wow, right? These kids didn't let their small donations scare them away from giving, and now neither can ours. In such spirit, where's your favorite place to donate your small change?
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