Self Starting

So it’s interesting to think about what being a self starter really means. It’s something we talk about in essays and interviews in the States, but with only a week in the interior under my belt I’m betting I am going to deepen my understanding of the concept.

Because there is nothing I need to do and nowhere I need to be, nor any particular time I need to be there – unless I go out and engineer it for myself, within a foreign culture and a foreign language. Of course, going out and doing that is kinda my job here. I’m not exactly one to laze around all day, but there is no doubt that it is work here just to start trying to find…work to do. Days are long here. In some ways, it was easier this week because I basically had no ability to feed myself or any of the stuff that would let my little house become a comfy castle, but in other ways it was harder because I lacked the excuses of cooking, washing dishes and clothes, etc that I will have when I actually start living in Pikin Slee.

Looking for a job is always work, but it’s pretty intense to start from zero. Especially for the first three months, when I’m not supposed to start any projects, it’s my job to just get to know people. So wandering around, looking over people’s shoulders and asking them to teach me what they are doing or take me with them where they are going is in fact my work. The goal is for that to develop a rapport and a local competency that enables successful, sustainable project work, but it is still a dauntying task.

Playing soccer around 630PM started to be the highlight of my day pretty quickly. Not because I love soccer, though I do (people are mad skilled here, by the way), but because it was a time and a place I knew I could be at a certain time in order to do a certain task with clearly defined goals and obstacles. Though some unexpected obstacles include not remembering who is on my team and not understanding what people that are actually on my team are yelling from across the field. Ah well.

Anyway, I can already tell that it’s going to be hard to fill the hours at times. You can fill them in your own head in your own house, but it is actually my job to fill them as much as possible by interacting with Surinamers. And it’s tough. Mentally and physically – it is hot here! They don’t speak English and cold drinks are rare. In a way, that’s nice – when something is hard like that, it makes it easier to think of it as my job and thus to approach it with the discipline it requires.

And the incentives for doing a good job are pretty awesome. If I do it, I get to learn new things, meet new people, and have experiences that just about no one gets an opportunity to do. A mean come on, I live in the jungle! Also, the better I do at getting to know people the more I will be able to do to . More projects will materialize and I will be able to do a better job of helping make them happen. Just getting to know people has its own intrinsic value and it makes me happy, but project work is why I wanted to come here and accomplishing things that have a real, lasting impact on people’s lives that I can see is important to making me feel satisfied with myself.

So you gotta do job 1 to get to job 2 – both are important, but they absolutely build off of each other. And both are real work that I can find real satisfaction in doing. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that getting to job 2 is important to me in a slightly different way. I like to be able to see the results of my work. I want to do a least a few things here with visible, sustainable, real impact on people’s lives. That is a real part of Peace Corps, but far from our only focus and so it’s important to me to keep it in mind. And additionally, just to be honest, I want to have stuff like that on my resume so that I know I’ll be able to land at the next thing when I’m issued a plane ticket at the end of two years.

That’s one of the fun things about Peace Corps – it has an expiration day. So you have to get yourself started every day, because I’ve heard the days are long but the two years goes fast. It’s exciting to be starting.