Loewenstern Fellowship Envelope #5

Open after you have had a particularly productive day related to your service

What made this day productive? Was the success more for you, the agency, the community, or another individual?


Like what I was saying in a previous post, perhaps it's apt that I write both of these envelopes on the same day since each day I would have productive feelings to always counteract the unproductiveness.

I think one of my most productive days was the Mother's Day celebration at Ciudadela in Bolivia, which was wayyy back in late May.  Not only was I dancing in one of their dances, but I also helped a little with food preparation since the kids were making the food for everyone instead of the Tías.  I got to play soccer with the kids and also they needed help setting up the sound system.  Haha, it was kinda funny, since the director thought his assistant, Victor, could do it.  But he had no idea.  So I took it upon myself to set it up since my dad's like an electrical engineer and all.  Hopefully I'd be able to do it?  haha.  Also, the soundboard was in English, and they didn't really know any English, so I was kind of their only hope.  I think Victor also said something about the Chinese being smart, so he had some faith in me that I could do it, haha.

I was able to set it up correctly after a lot of trial-and-error, and the dance went well (at one point in the middle of the dance, the music just abruptly stopped, but I knew that was because the connection between the DVD player and the soundboard was quite tenuous, so I ran over, fiddled with the wires for a second, and then ran back to my place).  In many ways, it was a success for me, since dancing in front of the kids (wore some traditionalish clothing, and the song we danced to was apparently a kid's song. "Pio Pio," which is the sound that baby chicks make) earned me some cool points, I think.  Heather, one of the other volunteers at Ciudadela, told me they seem to appreciate it when we dance.  I guess it's a fairly big part in their culture.  So I suppose that day helped me out a lot in getting closer to the kids.

My other majorly productive days generally centered around getting lists of stuff at the market with one of my co-workers (I would hide, while he bargained, since if they saw me with him, they'd probably raise the price. Then when he had secured a price, I would come out and pay for it, haha).  Like I was saying, giving things to the orphanages was a much more tangible way of helping out with them, which I suppose it more of a success for the community.