This time of year is volunteer season in San Lucas. Between the holidays, J-Term, Spring Break, and Holy Week, the Parish is almost always full of many visiting groups. Groups come to visit from all parts of the United States, and represent colleges, high schools, churches, medical teams, and more. These groups come to volunteer their time at the Parish, and aside from the medical groups, all the visitors perform physical labor at one of the projects. Currently, most groups are hauling rock to help build a road up to the coffee processing area, breaking rock to make gravel near the new emergency housing site, making more gravel at the Women’s Center, picking coffee, or hauling dirt and weeding at the garden. Performing these tasks allows the paid Parish workers to devote their time to more skilled labor. The Guatemalans who work these projects year-round and understand the trade are far better equipped to handle the skilled jobs, and perform them far more efficiently than anyone visiting for a short amount of time would be able to do.
As a long-term volunteer, volunteer season can be a tough time of the year. Every group that comes in seems to ask the same questions—and there is not always a lot of respect given to us for our answers. Some groups, however, seem generally interested in us, asking about school, plans for the future, etc. As nice as it is, it can be incredibly taxing to answer the same questions week after week with every group that comes in. The story is the same. As soon as you get comfortable with a person or group, they are off, never to be heard from again. This makes it feel almost pointless to get to know each group, especially when there are several here. With groups come a lot of extra tasks for us as well, such as taking sick people (or their stool samples) up to the clinic, and translating various talks and tours. Some talks last as long as three hours, which can be very tiring, especially on top of our regular work schedule, which we are expected to keep up with.
There is a lot to be learned from dealing with the short-term groups though. I am learning how to mediate conflicts, as well as how to be a teacher. The different methods that I have used to explain the basic pillars and missions of the Parish have helped me to gain a more thorough understanding of our principals, as well as to develop ownership of these ideas. The most important role of the volunteers is to be a student. We have to accept our role as humble students of the culture here, who in reality have very little to offer in terms of skills or knowledge. No one understands the way the projects work better than the Guatemalans whose community they are serving, and we can play only a small role in the success of the projects. It can be hard to tell this to a group of people who have spent over 500 dollars each on a plane ticket, but when the message hits home, the experience improves for both the visitors and the Guatemalans.
