Becoming Relevant 101

Phase 1 of YAV Year: “YAVs typically arrive to their place of service with great educations and desire to serve others. Unfortunately, for all the knowledge they may bring to their place of service, it is irrelevant until they learn how to integrate that knowledge into their new context. This first phase focuses on learning skills to adapt to a new context, culture, and work environment.”

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As if it weren’t obvious enough, that becoming relevant in a different country and culture, would be difficult- I surely understand that now. Although I have traveled to a few different countries and have taken part of activities and events outside of my culture, I have realized the differences in being a tourist/guest vs. being a temporary resident/member of a host family. Though it has shown to be challenging, it has been one of my greatest experiences, thus far.

After a few weeks of being welcomed into Moyobamba and the deaf and mute community here, I have yet to come up with an exact equation of how to become relevant, helpful, and useful to this place and people. Though my supervisors continually support me and patiently walk me through each step, its always been my mission in any position I have been put into, to surpass the laid-out goals.

But what I have learned is that patience and humility is key and that you cant skip any chapters when aiming to become relevant. I am learning how to be comfortable in vulnerability knowing that with time comes answers, with learning comes knowledge, with trying comes laughter, with an open mind comes appreciation, and with smiles and simple conversation comes friendship.

I am extremely thankful to my small, but growing, Peruvian community who has so warmly accepted me and continues to stretch me.

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• 6:30am: Wake up; Get ready for the day
• 7:00am: Have (a hefty) breakfast with host family in kitchen; Help mom clean.
• 8:00am: Walk to bus(van) stop
• 8:30am: Board bus(van) with our teachers and students for a 45 min. ride to the school
• 9:30am-4:30pm: Classes begin- two rooms, 4 groups split up by age. (2 groups in one room, one group outside, and one group in the other room).
  • Current duties: assist assigned teacher with lesson plan/learn alongside the students.
  • Current difficulties: 1. Realizing assisting the teacher is much harder than it sounds when you know very little sign language. 2. Realizing eye contact and body movements are the only way to keep a child’s attention and/or address behavior (meaning there’s no calling out “Let’s pay attention,” “Please, don’t do that,” etc..).
• 4:30pm: Board bus back to Moyobamba
• 6:00pm: Sign language class (taught by one of our adolescent students)
• 7:00pm: Head home and have dinner with host family; Help mom clean.
• 8:00pm: Shower, relax, review notes from the day.

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Photos from the past month: