School Stuff

Hi everyone, I have just handed in my final journal entry for school, and thought I might post it up here for those of you wondering what i'm meant to be doing here, aside from eating lots of yummy food etc. It's pretty long, so feel free to skip right over it :-)


"Well, this was my final week of volunteer work in Morocco. I am very sad to be leaving so soon, and it was hard saying goodbye to so many people that in all likelihood I will never see again. Before I address how my goals and expectations have been met, I have to say what a great experience this has been, and that I would certainly recommend it to anybody who is looking to broaden their cultural understanding of other countries.

I chose to work for Cross Cultural Solutions (CCS) as I wanted to gain a better understanding of how NGOs operate in developing countries. Obviously there are thousands of NGOs working in developing countries across the world, but I was particularly interested in those that primarily focused on sending volunteers from wealthier countries into poorer countries with the aim of providing assistance, most often in areas such as education and child care. I have always been curious to know how much could be achieved by sending volunteers who are for the most part unqualified into a country where they know little of the history, customs, or even language. After six weeks of working with CCS I have mixed opinions on what can be achieved through a program of this sort.

My initial impression was that volunteers really needed more training, particularly if they were going to be responsible for teaching children or adults English. I still feel that training would of course be a bonus, but if this were a prerequisite for volunteering how would this affect the number of volunteers that CCS was able to attract? I know that this experience would not have been possible for me had I been required to first take the TEFL course for example. The way it stands now, there is a steady stream of volunteers who are able to fill a variety of positions, and offer a number of free services, which simply would not exist if CCS or other NGOs didn’t operate in Morocco. I have been told many times by people who have come to my English classes or my conversational groups just how much they appreciate my being there; I may not feel like I have achieved a lot personally, but I think that overall we have a really positive effect.

My second big concern was that volunteers were being placed with partner organizations which were often less helpful or less positive than the volunteer might have hoped, maybe due to poor organization, uninterested staff, or perhaps even just cultural differences. The role of CCS is limited to providing volunteers for these organizations, so it is in no position to advise, make suggestions or influence the activities of the local organizations. This ensures that local people, who know what is valuable and most needed in their own community, are able to carry out their own set of objectives rather than CCS imposing its idea of what is appropriate on the organization. I still agree with this philosophy, but I think that perhaps CCS could perhaps be a little more selective in the organizations it chooses to provide volunteers to; certain work placements have repeatedly caused frustration among volunteers who feel that their time could be much better spent elsewhere.

The area in which CCS is most successful is in cultural exchange. I know that I have learnt an incredible amount in these past six weeks about a culture and a religion that is often misrepresented in the media, and I hope that I have passed on a little bit of what it is to be an Australian – hopefully enough for people to distinguish me from an American! This sort of influence is subtle and hard to evaluate, but I don’t think we should underestimate the value of this sort of cultural exchange, which can help to promote understanding and tolerance. I know that at times the American volunteers in my group felt that they were fighting an uphill battle to overcome prejudices caused in large part by the Bush Administration, the invasion of Iraq, and other American policies (i.e. Israel), however on the other side the Moroccan people I met seemed determined to make me aware how much they disapproved of fundamentalist Islam and the violence that goes with that. We all have stereotypes that we struggle to disprove, and this sort of interaction goes a long way towards that.

I would like to also say something regarding the language difficulties experienced by myself and other volunteers. I can’t stress enough the value of knowing the local language, and to be honest I am quite ashamed that I have gone all my life without even trying to learn a language other than English. Most of the people I was teaching English to already spoke Arabic and French, and very likely either Berber, Spanish or Portuguese as well. I think that this really influences how people view us - when we only speak English, it almost implies that we expect everyone else to make the effort to know our world, but that we have less interest in theirs; at least this is the impression I got here.

So to sum up, I believe that CCS is most successful in its primary aim, that of cultural exchange. It is harder to gauge the effectiveness of its work with the partner organizations, but I believe that it would be possible to see generally positive results over a long period of time. We’re not exactly putting an end to poverty, but we are aiding in the empowerment of people so that they might have a greater opportunity to improve their own lives. When you think of not just CCS, but of all the thousands of NGOs working in countries around the world, it’s not possible to easily dismiss the influence that they have, and what they can achieve."


Now if only this was all I had to do; I am not looking forward to writing a big essay when i get back!