Sunday, March 18, 2012

Month-and-a-Half Update!

February, the Month of Getting Things Back on Track

Hubris. That is the best word I have to describe what happened January. I had my big Youth Leadership Summit in December, people came to me with potential projects to help with. Although I knew I still had a lot of work to do, I thought I was done being proactive to go after projects, and thought they’d all roll out in front of me.

Head-up-my-you-know-where. That’s another way to put it.

Point is it was a learning experience, and Febraury was not only rebuilding the links to the projects that just didn’t get started, but also developing new projects, trying to find new ways to reach certain groups (for example, the out of school youth in the upland, mountain barangays) and just generally trying to set things up for summer break, which in the Philippines is April and May.

Here are the nine potential projects I now have. Some of these are repeats of what’s already been brought up before. It’s doubtful all of them will pan out in the next couple months (in fact, I’ll get no sleep if that happens), but a lot of what I spent the month doing was making opportunities so that even if over half of them are postponed or fall through entirely, I’ll still have something to do. I’m putting a * by the projects I feel the most confident will work out and will get started soon.

1)      *Stress management in the office. I have the Mayor’s approval, and this is one of the things my site mentioned it wanted when requesting a Peace Corps Volunteer. I’ll start with some interviews and some activities to figures out the source of stress first. Then I’ll consult people who know more about it than I do.

2)      Training within the LGU on facilitation and presentational skills. That seems to be my biggest strength in the Philippines (well, except for being white and “nagwapo”). I can have some semi-formal sessions with anyone in the LGU interested in tuning their skills.

3)      *Applying specific, measureable goals to the municipality’s Child-Friendly, and Character First programs. Both are great in theory, but hopefully the local youth leadership and I can develop some specific objectives to aim at to get some more active participations and results.

4)      Newsletter form the LGU to the barangays. The idea is that if more people can be reached and told out projects from us, more people will support and get behind them. This was actually developed by one of my coworkers during out PDM training (explained below).

5)       Working with Nueva Viscaya State University and their extracurricular activities. This is one that was conceptualized in November, but hasn’t moved forward. Hopefully this summer break we can sit down and discuss exactly what kind of help they’re looking for.

6)      Working with Belance High School to get volunteerism started again. They’re an hour’s drive away, and have been busy with finishing the school year. Hopefully like NVSU, there will be time to get things started in the summer, in preparation of next school year.

7)      *Training the Provincial SK (youth leaders) with project design and management. This is actually a jump up for me. Though my site is only one of the 15 municipalities in Nueva Viscaya, this project is with the youth leaders of the entire province. Upon some discussions, I discovered they haven’t received the training they were supposed to. I’ve offered my services to help get them some training (and to tell them they can do it as many times as I can). Hopefully the motivated members will take me up on my offer whether it’s five or thirty.

8)      Another summit, this one for the out of school youth. Still need to meet them. I’m going on a few different angles now trying to get in touch through the Alternative Learning Systems, the Health department, and might even start through the Barangay Captains too. I don’t want to run any summit until I’ve met them and actually understand a few things such as a) how’s their English, how’s their Ilocano? b) how much schooling do they have? c) how much self confidence do they have? d) what do they want?

9)      *Training of trainers for other municipalities who want to run a leadership summit. There is interest, just need to get a date later this month or April to get it going.

In-Service Training and Project Design and Management (IST and PDM)
At the start of March I left my site for 11 days for a training event that marked six months at site. We started with our IST to cover just a few topics. After that, we had a counterpart come to do a several day “project design and management workshop”. Originally I wanted to bring the Provincial SK Chairmen, in charge of the youth, but sadly her finals were at the same time, so I ended up inviting a coworker. We went through the step by step process of making a project, and the newsletter idea stemmed from it. It was 80% my counterpart who developed the project.
Although the PDM was not designed for the volunteers, it did teach me two things. The first was how to run PDM session of my own. Number seven on my list above is exactly the same thing (I also plan on stealing the materials to we got during the workshop [and by stealing I mean humbly requesting]). The second thing I learned was ways to impart these skills to coworkers one on one. Creating projects and managing them are not easy skills, nor are they simple. However, running through it step by step really helped. It’s something to consider trying out with more coworkers in the future, on my own.

It was also nice to see everyone again. I hadn’t seen over half the volunteers in my batch since last September. It was great to catch on and swap stories both good and bad. I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it, that culture matters. I continue to find it easier and easier to get to know Filipinos, but I also understand that a common culture and a common work with all the other Peace Corps volunteers will always make them share a commonality that I love. One thing I’m going to be taking back with me once service is finished is a greater appreciation of how much we in America do have in common, both the good and the bad.

The Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC)
As stated before, I’m one of five members from my group of volunteers elected to represent our batch in quarterly meetings to discuss policy, concerns, and initiatives with the staff. I had my first meeting on the 12th along with the representatives of the previous batch.

But backtracking a bit, I had the opportunity to practice what I’d like to dub… hmm… uh… well I can’t think of a good way to blend the two words “Matt” and “politics” so we’ll just called it Matt’s politics. My first measure what to beg the volunteers in the region I’m representing for feedback. In the title of my first email I including at the end (Pretty please read with sugar on top!!). I further continued my begging tactic in the first short paragraph promising those who read that there was a useful link at the end, and some good information within the body of the email.

My second tool was humor. Let’s face it, policy and such just doesn’t strike everyone as sexy like it does me. At appropriate (and inappropriate) times I threw in a little tidbit, such as references Starbucks in reasosn why we needed our volunteer allowance raised and such.

My final trick was nagging. I did see quite a few people from my region before having the official meeting, and badgered them all for input.

Begging, joking, and nagging. The Matt Hirschinger way not only with politics, but in relationships too.

I’m single for some reason.

So the meeting came and went, and to sum up, it was educational. Being stuck between what the volunteers wanted, and what the staff wanted felt like being between a rock and a hard place at certain points during the meeting, but luckily we all share in common the desire for some good work to be done, and overall I think the meeting went well. There was also yet another reference to staff’s premature expectation for me to extend my service (which is a nice compliment, but it’s still too early!)

Sadly though, I am not VAC President. Although I maintain that I had a lot of success getting responses from my region using the Matt Hirschinger approach, and I did a lot to get to know staff better and listen to their own ideas, I have to admit the other guy is a better choice for the dynamics within the five of us. Somehow, through the elections we ended up with two people in their twenties, one male and female (the male is me!), along with the only three males of which one is in his thirties, one is 60, and one is in his early seventies. They are the only three male volunteers older than thirty in our batch. As the decision was made within the five of us, I think the right choice was made (not that the wrong choice [me]) wouldn’t have been acceptable in my book too.

And Where Do You Stand Now, Matt?

I’m not going to lie, right after the VAC meeting, I was in a slump for a few days. Manila and the surrounding areas is not my favorite place in the Philippines. The VAC meeting, although rewarding, had its stressful moments, and there’s a lot on my plate. Also I found out my electric bill doubled due to my fridge. However, getting back to my site, my home, my mood improved greatly. It’s a good sign when my site has become a place I feel comfortable and welcome too. I’m not looking to getting back to America for respite, nor my pre-service training site, but Dupax del Norte.

I’m content with the way things are moving at the moment, but am being more active this time around. If at least two projects don’t get underway by the end of next week, that contentment will fade really fast, but that’s then, and this is now.

My next big thing is to follow a stricter day to day schedule. My temporary plan is bed at 9:30, get up at 6:00. We’ll see if it works. Basically, I want time to work out and go to market if need be before work at 8:00. Whether or not I have to resolve and discipline remains to be seen. (Perhaps I can use the Matt Hirschinger approach on myself too?)

A Thought on Community Development
There is a method to the madness. I’ve learned a number of tools and activities in the Peace Corps, most of them focusing on how to determine what the project is. After all, I’m here to help the local community with what they want, not with what Whitey (that’s me!) wants. It’s kind of tedious, and lacks the romanticism of jumping into the thick of things, but after trying both methods, the thorough and structured way works so much better. Community development isn’t the only topic like this. I remember my time at the youth shelter in America prior to leaving, one of the workers there used the phrase “What are two things you are good at?” to calm down a young male resident at the shelter. It was a line she learned in the classroom, it was scripted, but it worked. She had doubts about using it, and it being fake, just as I’ve had doubts about going through methods and tools just so people can find out what they want, but if it works, it works.
So the lesson learned here is that there is knowledge already out there on what is effective, in a wide variety of subjects. Whatever your career, whatever your interests, find those sources from those that have done it before. As smart as each of us thinks we are, there were those before us who figured out a lot, and it does no good to reinvent the wheel. Don’t be afraid to tweak things to your own style, and to the situation at hand, but respect what others have come up with too.

What’s Next?
In a few weeks I’ll have another post up. I’m thinking another picture heavy blog post is due. Pics of my place, the community, and maybe some of the projects if they get up and running.

‘Til next time.