Giving Back

As we round the corner of our last week – our last weekend and, by the time this is posted, the end of our volunteering time – it seems appropriate to put into words some thoughtful reflection on what exactly this experience has meant to us.

Certainly, as the blog can attest, it has been an experience full of both joys and frustrations. We feel sure that this record, unfortunately, has probably been more faithful to the latter than the former. And while it’s difficult to say exactly what we will make of this whole thing a year from now, perhaps while braving the last of winter and (if we could even imagine such a thing) feeling a touch of cold, we can say now that our time here has been positive, exciting, and entirely the adventure we sought.

About Paul’s work, at EDYM and beyond, we can’t say enough good things. He has impressed us with his hopefulness, energy, and tenacity. We hope that our time in Have has leant a small measure of sustainability to the project and extended the promise of realizing Paul’s dreams for the program. Although we think that our small contribution has been worthwhile, we feel more than ever that true and lasting change for this or any community will come from the passion and commitment of people like Paul.

It would be a lie and entirely disingenuous to say that everyone we met was lovely. Certainly at times we felt like we were fighting a two-man losing battle against ages of misconceptions and prejudices. We met many people who seemed to appreciate why we were here but still more who understandably did not, and in those cases it was sometimes difficult to deal with their expectations. For one thing, we became keenly aware of the resentment we felt towards those who demanded things of us that we would have otherwise freely given.

Perhaps the biggest surprise (though it really should have been no surprise at all) was finding out that our time volunteering in Have was considered to be the beginning of a relationship with the organization and the community, not an end unto itself. As such, we sometimes found it difficult to feel as though we’ve given something substantial, knowing that the community still wants more.

Still, if we look for a little perspective, the unique and wonderful experiences of the last two and a half months are hard to ignore. We wanted to stay in a place long enough to feel as though we knew, if only in a small way, what it was like to live there. While Have and EDYM could not be described as a ‘home away from home’ for us, the challenges, familiarity, and finally the comfort that we eventually felt was well worth the gamble.