From Delhi to Nairobi: What on earth am I doing here – again?

Volunteering is sweeter the second time around – or so my experience tells me. This is VSO Version 2.0. From Delhi to Nairobi, I’ve picked up a few lessons and gleefully plucked blinking light bulbs in the air, shedding light to the question that haunts volunteers during frustrating times: What on earth am I doing here anyway?

When you’re volunteering for the second time, you make up for the mistakes you made the first time. You make a bigger room for compromise, stretch your patience longer and develop a deeper understanding of the people you work with. If you still make the same mistakes, well brother, you must be a damn fool.

I’ve always subscribed to the premise that as a volunteer, you never impose your presence or your expertise, even if you’re so tempted to stand on a chair, blow a whistle and scream “Wait people, there is a better way to do things!” The minute you strut about the office and be cocky because you know you have the skills and they don’t, you blow off your chances for your co-workers, especially locals, to accept, listen, help and eventually cooperate with you. I stepped into two organizations that were both existing before I even arrived, and if they had been operating all this time, then they must be doing something right. Here are a few strategies that helped me:

1. Know who’s doing what, with whom and what you’re not supposed to be doing. (It’s not what you think, silly). This simply means that establish roles and expectations between the volunteer, the employer and VSO. Believe you-me, this could make or break your placement. Ideally, all three parties should have a clear understanding and acceptance of the volunteer and the placement, including the job that you as a volunteer can and cannot promise to deliver. Likewise, your programme manager should discuss VSO’s role and the extent of its responsibilities (particularly on mid-term and end of service reviews), as well as the employer’s particularly on accommodation, hard furnishings, workplace provisions etc. This is the ideal situation of course but as a volunteer I’ve realized that I had to either initiate this set-up or mediate between my programme manager and my employer on the nasty details of their obligations. It gets frustrating at times but if you let this fester over time, no one else is going to suffer but you.
2. Observe the organization first. During my two-year placement, I had a lot of time to do this, in between twiddling my thumbs and staring at the walls. I observed the office dynamics, hierarchies, management style, work ethics, staff affinities, who shares lunch with whom, who dislikes working with whom, who’s the real authority and who are those simply pretending to be. Once I’ve gotten the temperature of my workplace, I’d know how to approach different people and integrate myself into the sub-culture. I’d also know how to establish my credibility without intimidating my line manager and my colleagues.
3. Establish rapport. I found it particularly important to establish rapport with my co-workers because you’ll never know whom you’re going to need help from and who will be vital to the success of your placement. In Delhi, I had to endure several chats with  one of the directors about why I’m not married, why my father hasn’t found me someone to marry and that my biggest problem as a woman was that I wasn’t married. After some time (as they love to say in India), she warmed up to me and entrusted me with the archived documents that I so desperately needed to write the process documentation.
4. Go straight to the “gatekeeper.” In the beginning, I found it frustrating that my co-workers in Delhi would not cooperate with me on my work. I found out the hard way that I had to go straight to the “gatekeeper,” in that case the Executive Director, for her support on every single activity that I would do that needed my colleagues’ involvement. If there was no mandate from her, the people under her would not move. I could not work directly with many of my colleagues at first because there was no explicit go signal from top management.
5. Accept that there are things beyond my control. This has to be the most frustrating thing that I have to go through as a volunteer. You have these ideals and ideas in your head, you hit the ground running, and then you hit a wall. Management decisions may not always be made on the spot. Work will always be a lot slower than you’re used to (any volunteer who would say otherwise must be on meth). Some activities may never come to fruition. Resources may not always be available. Colleagues will be late for meetings or not show up at all because they were mistakenly arrested by the police or their friend just got killed in a gang war. It’s time to be flexible. And just breathe.
6. Be in touch with reality. Time and time again, we were told to have low expectations and maximum tolerance. Both my organizations in Delhi and Nairobi are small local NGOs with spartan offices. In Delhi, my workstation was on the hallway with the double doors right behind me which were kept open all day. During summer, I felt the heat and humidity suck out every ounce of energy in me. During winter the cold wind went straight to my skull. In Nairobi we only have one table which I share with the rest of the staff. And they love to play loud music. That’s not even half of it. Both organizations are meagerly funded but are still operating to deliver either a product or a service: in Delhi, Astha provides early intervention services for children with disabilities. In Nairobi, Slum TV produces newsreels and documentaries about the lives in the slums. While both organizations operate on minimal budget, both still fulfill their mission and justify their existence. When things get frustrating at work, I just need to remind myself that I am still privileged to be involved in grassroots NGOs that directly make a difference to people who are marginalized and underprivileged. And that was precisely why I volunteered in the first place. Volunteering is not just a sacrifice, it’s a privilege.
7. When in doubt – don’t. Volunteers were selected through a process and not through random lottery. We were placed in organizations because we have something that they need. I once had doubts if I ever made any difference at all in my placement in India. All I needed was an affirmation from my colleagues. What I thought was a simple library system that was a no-brainer for me to set up actually helped my co-workers access information more efficiently.
8. Volunteer life is a roller coaster ride. One minute you’re up, the next minute you’re down. And the down moments usually happen during the first few weeks or months when most co-workers are totally clueless about what you do, the local culture is just too much to take, and you start to wonder if this volunteering thing would ever be worth the trouble. Things will not go as planned. Things will change. It’s the same dynamic wheel in my work back home but out here in my placement, it’s more pronounced because I’m detached from my usual support group. Gratification takes time. Results take time. And as soon as your work starts showing results, brace yourself because then people would expect more from you. So fasten your seat belt and enjoy the ride.
9. Lose everything else but never your sense of humor. I used to feel so sorry for myself when I first volunteered. I worked in a noisy office, my boss didn’t have a clue about my job, I lived with seven other women whom I shared a single bathroom with, I couldn’t connect with other foreigners, I was getting diarrhea at random times and places, and I felt alone in my misery. When you’re constantly annoyed and depressed about your environment, people will not always sympathize with you – they will leave you the hell alone. When you have a positive outlook, you attract laughter and lightness. So never mind that my phone was snatched from my hand; the fool will probably sell it, buy drugs and pass out on his own vomit. Never mind if the man sitting next to you on a bus keeps staring at you. He’s just probably counting the facial hair on your upper lip – and you happen to be female – and he knows it.
10. It’s development, not charity. Dole-outs are so passé. We’re not Hollywood celebrities walking on the red carpet wearing shirts that say “Darfur” just to earn media mileage. And we certainly don’t need to call the paparazzi everytime we adopt a black baby from Malawi just to show the world we’re helping the poor. It’s all about empowering people to help themselves. Donations are still essential; a lot of local NGOs still live by them. But what bothers me is the prevailing mentality that a lot of uninformed people still have  –give money to the poor, feel good about yourself, problem solved. Pity is not a currency. As volunteers I think we have a responsibility to demonstrate to the wider public that it’s not charity, it’s development. Anywhere from microfinance, teacher’s training, business development, advocacy, participatory decision-making – a whole slew of skills area that we possess, non-monetary contributions that point to the empowerment and ownership of NGOs, communities and even governments. And particularly for us VSO volunteers, we are professionals with the knowledge, skills and practices to impart to our respective organizations that would eventually become their assets. We have part of the solution and we are part of the solution.

Advertisement