Snowballs

About a year ago the St. Vrain Habitat Global Village Team returned from a weeklong build in Paraguay. They had a wonderful experience and enjoyed getting to know the culture and the people who worked for the local affiliate. And then Julie had a snowball. For those who are unfamiliar with Julie and her snowballs they usually go something like this: Julie has an idea. Julie's idea quickly gains momentum. Julie recruits other people to be a part of her idea and (for better or worse) it either turns into a snowman or an avalanche. And now I'm sitting on the back porch of a house in Paraguay writing a blog about how to say cheers in Guaraní and wondering which it will be, a snowman or an avalanche. Did I skip a few steps? Snowballs sometimes do. (Background info: Julie is in charge of International Development at St. Vrain Habitat and at one point, actually wanted a snowball graphic as part of a powerpoint presentation we were working on, which is where the term "snowball" officially started).

What I am actually doing here in Paraguay is part of an exchange. St. Vrain Habitat has been sending money to Habitat Paraguay as a part of their International tithe program for many years. After the Global Village trip we decided to deepen this relationship and provide an opportunity for both affiliates to learn more about the other through an exchange of staff members. The Development Director from Habitat Paraguay, Raquel, will spend 2 months in Colorado doing parts of my job and using her skills to recruit Hispanic volunteers for St. Vrain Habitat while I spend 6 weeks in Paraguay learning Spanish, translating materials, researching English-based foundations with international funding and recruiting volunteers. 

I spent three weeks with Raquel teaching her parts of my job and dividing up other parts for others to help with so she also has time to recruit Hispanic volunteers. It's a weird thing to teach someone else how to do your job, especially someone of technically higher ranking but with the English knowledge of a 4-year-old. Just that piece alone is a good exercise for anyone to go through, if for nothing else it made me realize how much I do without thinking. During this time we collectively came to the realization that I was not going to be able to completely unplug for 6 weeks. I told people that I would still have access to e-mail and they could contact me if they needed anything but I did not want to spend more than an hour/day responding to e-mails about things back at home.

I think my favorite e-mail from my first day away came, not from Raquel asking about something related to scheduling volunteers, not from my intern or the AmeriCorps I manage, but from someone asking my opinion on what to do about lunch for volunteers at a meeting. Last time I checked I was neither a personal assistant nor a lunch lady, but I guess I have performed both of these duties in the past, so why not "Just ask Nicole"? Well, LMGTFY. Maybe for the next 6 weeks you can figure out how to order a pizza.

-- 
I promise this weekend I’ll write something about actually being in Paraguay.