So long, farewell...
As we complete our final week here in Guyana there is so
much to reflect on. Although we had weekly initiative specific meetings and QHO
wide education sessions, we had no clue what actually being on initiative would
be like until we were here. We appreciate all the teaching and information that
our Program Directors and QHO gave us, but no amount of information could have
prepared us for what living in another country for 7 weeks would feel like. In
Georgetown we share bedrooms with one another and have very little personal
space, so we have had to balance not only a change in environment and culture,
but also learning how to operate in such close proximity. Obviously there have
been ups and downs, but overall I think that we can all agree that we have
experienced some personal growth and learning just from being with only three
other people for such a long amount of time.
Throughout our time in Guyana,
and specifically in Georgetown, we have engaged in non-stop thinking and
discussions with each other. Georgetown has become such a comfortable place for
all of us. After the first week of learning how to navigate within Georgetown we
became much more confident and comfortable making our way to classes, the
market and through our every day routine here.
We think that it is really
important to acknowledge that we have had many conversations about the
implications of our unique positionalities as foreign volunteers, good and bad.
For example, for the three white females on our initiative, we have often
considered the complexity of our race and gender while in Guyana. Due to these
intersecting identities we have been very aware of our position as visible
outsiders within the community. As a result of the colonial systems of white
supremacy we have undoubtedly experienced the privilege of our race. However
our gender has resulted in different interactions while in Georgetown.
Something that we think has been
really important to reflect on besides our unique identities has been the
complexity of volunteering. According to Audrey Scott’s article, volunteering “involves actions ‘performed with free will, for the
benefit of the community, and not primarily for financial gain’ (Leigh et al.,
2011). In essence, we give our time and
skills to benefit others.” (2017). We would like to make it very clear
that QHO is an unpaid volunteer experience and that any traveling done while in
the country is done through personal funds. In comparison to our volunteering
experience, the term voluntourism is “used to
describe short-term volunteering placements of tourists as part of their
overall vacation or travels” (Scott 2017). Unlike voluntourism, which is
associated with a number of consequences, we have come to Georgetown through a
volunteer organization primarily to discuss and share knowledge (ibid.). To
ensure that we are not compromising local programs and economic structures we
collaborate with the Ministry of Education for the length of our initiative.
We are aware that there are
pitfalls to short-term programs; however, we hope to continue working on
establishing more community outreach in order to create long-term partnerships.
Through these long-term
partnerships the hope would be to strive for strengthened relationships with
contacts to collaborate on more sustainable changes (Bauer 2017). Although we are involved with QHO in order to share
physical, sexual, and mental health knowledge through conversations with people,
we do know that volunteering is not a completely altruistic act (ibid.).
Throughout our experience we acknowledge that we have benefited, learned, and
grown so much from this opportunity, though we also feel that we have transferred
needed information. Yes it is
true that we are not “helping” by any means, and this is not our goal. An
attempt to “help” would result in an assumption that the local community is
“helpless” and “vulnerable”, which is absolutely not the case. Our intentions
are to be able to establish mutual-learning networks in order for necessary
knowledge to be shared, even if we can only share it with a small number of people.
As this is our final week we
sadly had to say goodbye to our classrooms and head teachers. We have been so
fortunate to have such welcoming and enthusiastic head teachers being able to
help coordinate to allow QHO to run its program in their classrooms. The
students have been very busy getting ready for final examinations so
unfortunately we were unable to have a last lesson with some of the students.
However, we hope that through our discussions and question box periods that
every student was able to learn something. It has been a bittersweet week
having to say difficult goodbyes to head teachers, contacts, and students.
This week we also focused on
completing final paperwork and policy reflections in order to continue being a
reflexive and growing organization. We hope through the policy reflections and
program report that we will be able to continue improving QHO yearly in the
hopes of creating a more effective program.
On one of our final nights in
Guyana the beautiful women who run and work at our accommodations generously
made us dinner. They consistently went out of their way to ensure that we were
comfortable and enjoying our stay. We could not imagine our experience in
Guyana without talking with them throughout the day. We will truly miss all of
the kind and generous people that we have had the honour of meeting along the
way.
We have so many thoughts and emotions
that we could discuss but it is so hard to put our experience into words. We
have each had distinct experiences and thoughts simply based on the fact that
we are all different people. Thank you to everyone who checked in on us, we
truly appreciate your support. We are all looking forward to seeing our friends
and loved ones and seeing what the future holds for us.
A final bittersweet goodbye from yours truly,
Shannon, Haylee, Shannen and Manny
Peace out Georgetown, Guyana
Works Cited
Scott, Audrey. 2017.
“Volunteering and Voluntourism: The Good, The Bad, and The Questions You Should
Ask.” Uncornered Market. Retrieved
June 14, 2017 (https://uncorneredmarket.com/volunteering-voluntourism-good-bad-and-questions-to-ask/).
Bauer, Irmgard. 2017. “More harm than good?
The questionable ethics of medical volunteering and international student
placements.” Tropical Diseases, Travel
Medicine and Vaccines 3(5). doi: 10.1186/s40794-017-0048-7.