PLACEMENT SITE NAME: Common Hope (
www.commonhope.org) with occasional work with CEDEPCA – Centro Evangelico de Estudios Pastorales en Centro America (www.cedepca.org).
YOUNG ADULT VOLUNTEER: Laura Amlin
LOCATION: In a small town around Antigua, department of Sacatepequez, about 1 hour west of Guatemala City.
DATES OF SERVICE FOR VOLUNTEER:
(START DATE) August 30, 2010 (END DATE) August 2, 2011
POSITION:
Your first responsibility and role is to be in relationship with the people of your community. You’ll become involved in community life and the life of a local church in one of the small towns outside of Antigua – I'll let you know more about your small town, family and church in August or when you arrive. Your work assignment will be at Common Hope. Common Hope focuses on improving educational opportunities for Guatemalan children. They would like you participate in their program to improve educational quality at public schools. Teachers at elementary school level in Guatemala have only graduated from High School with a concentration in teaching (they don't have to have attended college), and so their formation is not very strong, which is one of the fundamental problems in Guatemala's low level of educational quality. You'll work with other staff at Common Hope to spend weekdays in a school or schools in small towns around Antigua, helping give training to teachers on classroom management, teaching techniques, and other relevant topics. You'll also support the teachers in some of their classroom activities that tend to distract them in order to let them focus on teaching. We think that your experience will be extremely valuable in this position!
In addition, you’ll be invited to participate in some events at Cedepca during the year, and you may be invited to help accompany and later in the year translate (as you’re comfortable) for groups from U.S. churches and/or to accompany some processes of psychosocial attention in neighboring communities to help people work through disaster-related trauma.
These are basic guidelines to get you started, but you may get involved in other things in addition to these areas as you meet people and develop relationships with people.
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS DESIRED IN A VOLUNTEER:
The most important ways to develop a great relationship with your Guatemalan community are:
- Be proactive in speaking to people. When you enter a room, greet each person, and gradually try to ask them about themselves and their activities.
- Before judging what’s good and bad about people’s lifestyles, religious practices, culture, etc, try to understand the causes of why things are how they are.
- Strive to know yourself, your gifts, and what you love to do. Even simple things you like to do like painting, playing an instrument, leading icebreakers, listening empathetically, etc, are things you can share with others.
- Put effort into continually improving your Spanish.
- Try to share your vulnerabilities with Guatemalans – when things are hard for you or when you’re struggling with something in your life, when appropriate talk to Guatemalans about them instead of only calling home or other YAVs. As Guatemalans see your vulnerability, they’ll share theirs and more meaningful relationships will follow.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLACEMENT SITE CONTEXT:
The climate is spring-like all year round, ranging from highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s to highs around 70F and lows around 50F. You will want a mix of long and short sleeves and long pants or long warm skirts. You’ll want clothes to layer. You'll have easy access to internet cafes and supermarkets, open-air markets, banks, etc.
It was a day of abundance. Abundance of joy, of love, spirit, and support. Through the generosity of these churches and individual members, I am $1,505 closer to my fundraising goal...and many people have ownership in international mission for the first time. Amazing. Amazing love.
