40 Before 30 : The Hardest Part

The Hardest part is not the work, but the hardest part is saying good bye. It's a short time you build connections, you make people feel good, you listen to them, you challenge them, you empower them, and then you leave. It's why organizations encourage you to volunteer for longer periods of time. Sometimes you can be "hurting" rather than "helping" a community when you come for such short time with no goals and just a strong desire to "help people." This is not enough to make an organization grow rather it's just temporary work to satisfy your own self rather than benefit the actual organization.

As a clinical therapist for years, social worker, life coach- I am aware of the positives and negatives with working short term in an organization. With hard work and dedication to making a difference, there can also be amazing seeds planted for the community or even for new volunteers.

As a human being, I made the choice to make the most impact possible per organization. With a short time of 2 weeks per organization in each country, I made a community and or clinical assessment on what needed to be done and I did it. Instead of just "volunteering", I made a commitment to leave something permanent at each organization whether full behavioral reports, rewards systems, power point trainings, and full efforts with staff and clients working to my potential . It was me leaving something useful for them rather than just playing with some kids and walking out the door like many volunteers.

With these short term connections, it becomes difficult to leave. When you are working with preschoolers and young children, it becomes even more difficult to leave. With the preschoolers, they don't always understand why I am leaving and they look at me funny. You get the questions, "Where are you going?" "Why are you leaving?" One student even said, "Can I come with you?" I joke that I will just take everyone with me and we will all take a big bus together and travel through Guatemala. I will feed them fruit and lots of ice cream. We will all be content with each others company not in need of another intellectual to give us their directives. It's just a dream I mentioned and the teachers absolutely love this idea. There is no harm in a perfect dream.

In reality, I have to leave to go to the next project, which was organized ahead of time. It's not an option to stay longer when I made a commitment to another NGO. Organizations like Mayan Families with clients and a community who touch my heart-saying goodbye is the hardest part. While the teacher did make an announcement, many children don't actually comprehend what is happening and leaving my favorite clients is difficult.

In my case, the teacher made an announcement and many kids ran up to say Goodbye. My favorite client and my little learner, Angel, looked surprised to hear me leaving and he didn't look content. It made me sad to see his little brown eyes look like a puppy dog. Me encanta el! This little munchkin was walking to the door waving his little hand. It continued to waive out the door as he was walking with his father. We just kept waiving at each other until distance was lost- difficult, but life keeps moving and more clients keep coming.

The teachers were so sweet and thankful saying I was the best of everyone in Mayan Families. It is so sweet that they recognize my work and my commitment to people-that's a wonderful connection. It was truly a blessed experience and I would definitely consider visiting again and potentially working with the indigenous community.