So long, farewell...

        As we complete our final week here in Guyana there is so much to reflect on. Although we had weekly initiative specific meetings and QHO wide education sessions, we had no clue what actually being on initiative would be like until we were here. We appreciate all the teaching and information that our Program Directors and QHO gave us, but no amount of information could have prepared us for what living in another country for 7 weeks would feel like. In Georgetown we share bedrooms with one another and have very little personal space, so we have had to balance not only a change in environment and culture, but also learning how to operate in such close proximity. Obviously there have been ups and downs, but overall I think that we can all agree that we have experienced some personal growth and learning just from being with only three other people for such a long amount of time.

Throughout our time in Guyana, and specifically in Georgetown, we have engaged in non-stop thinking and discussions with each other. Georgetown has become such a comfortable place for all of us. After the first week of learning how to navigate within Georgetown we became much more confident and comfortable making our way to classes, the market and through our every day routine here.

We think that it is really important to acknowledge that we have had many conversations about the implications of our unique positionalities as foreign volunteers, good and bad. For example, for the three white females on our initiative, we have often considered the complexity of our race and gender while in Guyana. Due to these intersecting identities we have been very aware of our position as visible outsiders within the community. As a result of the colonial systems of white supremacy we have undoubtedly experienced the privilege of our race. However our gender has resulted in different interactions while in Georgetown.

Something that we think has been really important to reflect on besides our unique identities has been the complexity of volunteering. According to Audrey Scott’s article, volunteering “involves actions ‘performed with free will, for the benefit of the community, and not primarily for financial gain’ (Leigh et al., 2011). In essence, we give our time and skills to benefit others.” (2017). We would like to make it very clear that QHO is an unpaid volunteer experience and that any traveling done while in the country is done through personal funds. In comparison to our volunteering experience, the term voluntourism is “used to describe short-term volunteering placements of tourists as part of their overall vacation or travels” (Scott 2017). Unlike voluntourism, which is associated with a number of consequences, we have come to Georgetown through a volunteer organization primarily to discuss and share knowledge (ibid.). To ensure that we are not compromising local programs and economic structures we collaborate with the Ministry of Education for the length of our initiative.

We are aware that there are pitfalls to short-term programs; however, we hope to continue working on establishing more community outreach in order to create long-term partnerships. Through these long-term partnerships the hope would be to strive for strengthened relationships with contacts to collaborate on more sustainable changes (Bauer 2017). Although we are involved with QHO in order to share physical, sexual, and mental health knowledge through conversations with people, we do know that volunteering is not a completely altruistic act (ibid.). Throughout our experience we acknowledge that we have benefited, learned, and grown so much from this opportunity, though we also feel that we have transferred needed information. Yes it is true that we are not “helping” by any means, and this is not our goal. An attempt to “help” would result in an assumption that the local community is “helpless” and “vulnerable”, which is absolutely not the case. Our intentions are to be able to establish mutual-learning networks in order for necessary knowledge to be shared, even if we can only share it with a small number of people.

As this is our final week we sadly had to say goodbye to our classrooms and head teachers. We have been so fortunate to have such welcoming and enthusiastic head teachers being able to help coordinate to allow QHO to run its program in their classrooms. The students have been very busy getting ready for final examinations so unfortunately we were unable to have a last lesson with some of the students. However, we hope that through our discussions and question box periods that every student was able to learn something. It has been a bittersweet week having to say difficult goodbyes to head teachers, contacts, and students.

This week we also focused on completing final paperwork and policy reflections in order to continue being a reflexive and growing organization. We hope through the policy reflections and program report that we will be able to continue improving QHO yearly in the hopes of creating a more effective program.

On one of our final nights in Guyana the beautiful women who run and work at our accommodations generously made us dinner. They consistently went out of their way to ensure that we were comfortable and enjoying our stay. We could not imagine our experience in Guyana without talking with them throughout the day. We will truly miss all of the kind and generous people that we have had the honour of meeting along the way.

We have so many thoughts and emotions that we could discuss but it is so hard to put our experience into words. We have each had distinct experiences and thoughts simply based on the fact that we are all different people. Thank you to everyone who checked in on us, we truly appreciate your support. We are all looking forward to seeing our friends and loved ones and seeing what the future holds for us.

A final bittersweet goodbye from yours truly,

Shannon, Haylee, Shannen and Manny

Peace out Georgetown, Guyana

Works Cited

Scott, Audrey. 2017. “Volunteering and Voluntourism: The Good, The Bad, and The Questions You Should Ask.” Uncornered Market. Retrieved June 14, 2017 (https://uncorneredmarket.com/volunteering-voluntourism-good-bad-and-questions-to-ask/).

Bauer, Irmgard. 2017. “More harm than good? The questionable ethics of medical volunteering and international student placements.” Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine and Vaccines 3(5). doi: 10.1186/s40794-017-0048-7.