Shooting for the Stars

November 22^nd, 2011

            Well this past week I had my first official visit from PCH staff when my boss came out to visit me along with another volunteer who just extended for a third year and is living in Santa Rosa. This visit is basically a visit to see how I am doing and to make sure that everything is going alright in my life. Contrary to popular belief it is not an evaluation of how my work is doing, there is not really any sort of evaluation in place for my work. Make up your own mind about whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. Anyways, the meeting involved some time where me and my boss were able to talk about any/all problems that I am having in site and also a meeting with all of my counterparts together. It was really nice to have the meeting with all of my counterparts because the plans that they have for me and my own plans were all discussed so it really put everyone on the same page. Being on the same page is really huge here of course and can be hard to do especially since I am still learning the language, but I feel that we are all on the same page right now and we are ready to get through these next three months when next to nothing usually gets done because everyone is picking coffee.

            The meeting did leave me really excited about my service here because we discussed so many of the projects and ideas that I have as well as my counterparts have for my two years here. With all of the ideas placed on some pieces of paper, I have now hung those pieces of paper up in my room and have named that my “dream wall,” sweet name I know.

My "Dream Wall"

          I plan to leave those papers up in my room for the next two years and adding to these lists whenever I have a new idea and hopefully I can actually accomplish some of these goals. I say hopefully because it is a reality that it is very hard to get projects done here in Honduras, there seems to be an acceptance of mediocrity in the culture. One of the first things that other volunteers have told me once you get down here is that you have to readjust your goals and make them more realistic for the culture. Most volunteers come in with these lofty goals of changing the world and are very idealistic; I would say that I fit that mold. However, I have been thinking and readjusting your goals is kind of another way of accepting mediocrity right? Now this is in no way a shot at these other volunteers they have been living in this culture for much longer than me and know better than me, this is merely me thinking (or rather typing) out loud. My thinking leads me to believe that if I have these less lofty goals, then I am setting limits on my community, I am telling them what they can and cannot accomplish. In the world of special education that is a cardinal sin, you never want to set expectations for your students because most likely they will never surpass those expectations, only meet them.

            As a PCV, I hope that I never accept the part of Honduran culture where I am settling for mediocrity. I want to keep my high and lofty goals; I want to change the world for the better because this culture needs that. This culture needs people who say, no you can do better than the status quo. Sure there will most likely be failures and short comes along the way but that is all part of the journey. I am sure that all of my lofty goals will not be reached within these 2 years here and that is not a bad thing (I have some pretty lofty goals…), but I would rather shoot for the moon and land amongst the stars than not shoot for the stars at all.