This time next week, the group going to South Africa should be an hour and half into the drive to DC's Dulles Airport for KLM flight...umm...I don't remember the number off hand, but suffice it to say it is a KLM flight to Amsterdam where we will board another KLM flight to Cape Town. Total time in the air is supposed to be around 18 hours.
Flight info aside, it is donning on me that while we have discussed the work we will be doing with SEC in South Africa, we haven't actually learned the processes that will enable us to do our work. This is not a criticism of the program, I can't imagine the work that was done in terms of setting up these 2 weeks of instruction state side, but it is hard to conceptualize the concepts with the knowledge needed to understand them. We keep hearing about SWOC and SWOT analyses and how they are integral to our work, and while they've been explained cursory, we haven't gone through training in how to prepare them yet. (I'll define the acronyms next week.)
The basic affect (or is it effect) is that I am feeling nervous...although perhaps anxious might be a better word. I know there is much for us to learn, but I am starting to realize that the work we will be doing can affect lives for better or worse. No, I am not developing a God complex, but it would be nieve to pretend that the work we will be doing won't have any consequences.
The woman who spoke to us this woman, Maria Jamirillo (I think), reminded us that we aren't going to save anyone, we are just guiding them towards a venture that might benefit them financially. Either way, the stakes are high...and I'm starting to feel that.
Thanks for reading.
-Diggs
No comments:
Post a Comment