Wrapping up my work in Bolivia
It´s incredible to think that 6 months ago I headed off on my first of a few rounds of training in Vancouver and back East in Montreal before heading down to volunteer and live in my city of Potosí, Bolivia. My time here has now wrapped up and I have a lot to look back on... the work that I did, the work I wished I could have accomplished, the friendships I have made, the lessons I have learnt, and how I have changed through it all....
I´ve had a few comments about the lack of content on my blog about the work that I was doing down here. I think there are several reasons for that...
The first is that the work that I was doing here was work will have a long term impact, and I found it difficult to put into words what I was doing on a daily or weekly basis.
The second, is that at times I struggled to understand what work I WAS doing. I think I accomplished about 10% of the work that I was sent down to do. And, although I was prepared to be flexible in what I was doing, I wasn´t expecting to be QUITE as flexible as I had to be. Still, I think it all worked out.
I worked on the database that was suppose to be 90% of my job here (to create a database to track social indicators to help direct the NGO). Unfortunately, the database wasn´t something that was achievable, for many reasons that ranged from the compatibility of systems, inability to collect the information required for it over the long term, etc. So, the success out of the work that I did do, was that my work resulted in concrete recommendations / a plan around where this can go in future.
I was able to set up the computer system in the office to allow all the computers to access the internet. Although... it all feeds through a single dial-up line, so the application of this is slllooooowwwwww. (and yes, everyone still uses floppy disks down here too....)
Because of the new internet access, I developed workshops in Spanish and taught the workers in the office the ins and outs of how to use it!! With limited computer skills, these were more lessons in how computers work than anything!!
And finally, the last of my work involved creating a website for the NGO! I´d never done that sort of work before, so I found it really interesting to learn html and javascript! If you´re interested in learning a bit more about the organization that I worked with, I created the site in both Spanish AND English.... Keep in mind that I´m still doing edits on the site, so it isn´t perfect. And... it has some adds on it since we´re still trying to get a web server set up at the main office of the NGO to transfer it on to. Disclaimers aside, here´s the site: www.foncresol.org.
So, with that, I hope I had an impact in the long run with this organization. Because, I know that the time that I spent in Potosí had a big impact on me.
And with that... I´m out of here... (for a bit of travelling of course....)
I´ve had a few comments about the lack of content on my blog about the work that I was doing down here. I think there are several reasons for that...
The first is that the work that I was doing here was work will have a long term impact, and I found it difficult to put into words what I was doing on a daily or weekly basis.
The second, is that at times I struggled to understand what work I WAS doing. I think I accomplished about 10% of the work that I was sent down to do. And, although I was prepared to be flexible in what I was doing, I wasn´t expecting to be QUITE as flexible as I had to be. Still, I think it all worked out.
I worked on the database that was suppose to be 90% of my job here (to create a database to track social indicators to help direct the NGO). Unfortunately, the database wasn´t something that was achievable, for many reasons that ranged from the compatibility of systems, inability to collect the information required for it over the long term, etc. So, the success out of the work that I did do, was that my work resulted in concrete recommendations / a plan around where this can go in future.
I was able to set up the computer system in the office to allow all the computers to access the internet. Although... it all feeds through a single dial-up line, so the application of this is slllooooowwwwww. (and yes, everyone still uses floppy disks down here too....)
Because of the new internet access, I developed workshops in Spanish and taught the workers in the office the ins and outs of how to use it!! With limited computer skills, these were more lessons in how computers work than anything!!
And finally, the last of my work involved creating a website for the NGO! I´d never done that sort of work before, so I found it really interesting to learn html and javascript! If you´re interested in learning a bit more about the organization that I worked with, I created the site in both Spanish AND English.... Keep in mind that I´m still doing edits on the site, so it isn´t perfect. And... it has some adds on it since we´re still trying to get a web server set up at the main office of the NGO to transfer it on to. Disclaimers aside, here´s the site: www.foncresol.org.
So, with that, I hope I had an impact in the long run with this organization. Because, I know that the time that I spent in Potosí had a big impact on me.
And with that... I´m out of here... (for a bit of travelling of course....)
posted by Sandra @ 6:10 PM
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