day one planning

First of all, I feel so lucky to be part of my small team of dedicated women. It's a great feeling to know that you can trust your co-volunteers to get the job done and done with heart.

Second, I think day one finds us in the tricky balance of far reaching goals and realistic possibilities. Our fruitful brainstorming sessions have created ideas such as a museum display of the children's art, a community garden and farmers' market sales, crafts as community builders and as English instruction, mentoring programs, health and abuse support groups, and childcare for working parents. The suggestions are so plentiful and the desire to help is so great that it is sometimes hard to compromise the desire to help with the reality that we cannot do it all, or cannot do it all at once.

We continually repeat that our priorities are securing jobs and teaching English. Without these two elements, any attempt at community building is severly limited. Add to this the sensitive issues of gender divisions from the refugees' experiences, traditions, or economic concerns...and the goal of talking to the women one on one grows even more dim.

But I feel that my group is headed in the right direction. We are planning projects that we hope will welcome the women and children to their new home, and create a bond of trust. We are also preparing ourselves to shelve any of these projects at the drop of a hat. These three months have to be about us offering ourselves as helpers, and observing. We will need to read between the lines of family dynamics, exaggerated or simplified answers, and language barriers. It's a play by ear scenario balanced with the mission to serve, empower, and welcome.