This week my training began in earnest. In the mornings (8-12) I have language school. For me this is hard going. I am not a linguist by any stretch of the imagination (although developing language skills is one of my motivations for working abroad)… with a bit of effort I can remember individual words, but I struggle to string them together into coherent sentences. I am in class (at a primary school!) with two other volunteers & already I am the bottom of the class. Luckily I get a week more than they do & I’m working hard in the evenings so hopefully I’ll have mastered the basics before I leave for Flores. My favourite words so far are:
Teman (friend);
Keren (cool); and
Maaf, saya tidak tahu (sorry, I don’t know).
Me, Pak Gunewan, Mavis & Christine in class
In the afternoons (1-6) I receive various briefings on the work of VSO in Indonesia. Yesterday we covered monitoring and evaluation. I went into the session feeling a little cocky, after all it’s what I do for a living (kinda). But I was asked to think about what impact I will see during my placement on individuals, on the organisation I am working for & on the wider community. My answer was that I am there to do a specific job, I will see little direct impact at a local level, that I am conducting research & will report the findings to the project sponsor. Apparently this was not satisfactory.
Impact is a discussion that was frequently had at NFER and I know that some of my colleagues there felt very strongly about their work having a direct impact on children’s education. However I often struggled to feel that direct connection, now here I am 1000s of miles away struggling with that same dilemma – am I just here to do a job, or am I working for some kind of greater good? Obviously I want to do ‘good’ (I would never feel happy working for some big capitalist corporation), but maybe I’m just a little cynical about the measurable impact of that ‘good’ and my input into it. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
6 comments:
Hang on a sec... two points:
First. Of course you have to have an impact! Whether for NFER or VSO, your job isn't to create a paper trail, it's to make something happen - a change of policy, or opinion, or something... but something, not nothing. Maybe it's a paper that comes out of your work, but that is a means, not an end.
Second. Just coz you work for a charity, doesn't make what you do good. Vice versa, just coz I, and a lot of people you know, work for big capitalist corporations, doesn't mean we can't or don't do any good. It's related to the first point - the means are one thing: charity, big corporation, the ends are another.
Third. (I know I said 2, but I'm on a roll here, and it's related to the second point anyway, and the last para was getting too long) Just because you are working for a 'good cause' AND having an impact, doesn't mean it's a good impact. (Wo)man has done terrible things under the auspices of doing the right thing. We're getting onto the neo-missionary argument there though, and you covered that already.
Just my 2p. Looks like you're having fun. Hope you find a way to make an impact ;-)
Kerry
Thanks Kerry, I agree with most of what you say. I hoped this post would stir up a little controversy (as well as giving me a medium for reflection).
It would be nice to hear some NFER views too...
NFER just sits on a fence
Hi Karen
Hope you are enjoying yourself!
What is the aim of the research? It's hard to join the discussion without knowing a bit more about it
Rachel
BTW I found details of Flores on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flores
Have you been to the lakes that change colour yet? And have you seen the giant rats?
Not sure if this is bad blogiquette, but I thought other people might be interested to see where you are. Sounds really amazing!
Rachel
Hi Rach,
My research is on how infant and maternal mortality is affected by mobility in rural areas.
I'm not yet in Flores - I'm just coming to the end of 2 weeks language training in Bali. I fly to Flores on Saturday where I am hoping to see the 3 coloured lake but not the giant rats!
Post a Comment