We Can Work it Out...

I haven’t yet blogged about work yet and I guess it is time that I did as that is what I have come here to do. Although my CEO reads this so I will be careful about what I say! (joke!)

My overall feeling is one of enjoying my placement. The people are brilliant; I’m learning Indian Sign Language and people share their lunch. Well, these things are important! I was told before I started by the other Deafway volunteer that the staff liked Nutella sandwiches. Everyone here brings their own lunch in little tiffin boxes with chapattis wrapped in foil. The boxes usually have anything from mixed veg, Aloo Gobi and other veggie cooked stuff that tastes amazing and I can’t name. They hanker after my pasta, try my fishcakes and seem astounded if I manage to cook Indian. They also tell me everything needs more salt. They’re right.

Everything you are told in your VSO training, you are told for a reason. It is so easy to forget all of this when you start. The mantra is relationships are important, take time to build them, don’t be task-orientated, you are there to advise. How easy it is to get caught up in tasks rather than holding back and trying to see the bigger picture first. Anything done in the first month will inevitably be wrong as there is no way you will have understood the wider context, either of the organisation or the country.

Working here hasn’t been without its frustrations and that would be the biggest downside. The aim was to work alongside one Deaf person and one Interpreter to set up training. The interpreter left for a month to be with her husband and get pregnant and the Deaf person left for a government job. These are the two most highly prized things in Indian society: having children, more specifically a son, and having a job for life that comes with benefits. Sometimes I have to downgrade my expectations from what I thought I would achieve. The PHD won’t be on the cards just yet. I’m settling for creating partnerships and capacity in an interpreting organisation that will strengthen, influence and shape interpreting in India for hopefully years to come. Not that it is ‘settling’ for anything, it’s a tall order and slightly different from the original placement. I should have known. VSO told us it would happen. Cor, they know so much!

Looking back on my first two months in placement, there are times I feel I’ve achieved little but I know I’ve achieved more than is quantifiable in western terms. I’ve made contacts, built those oh-so-important relationships, read a lot and understand a lot more about the complicated context in which I will be working over the coming year. I work alongside my colleagues too and we discuss work problems. Some days it all feels normal then I look back at what I would have been doing in the UK and I know it is a cliche but I feel this immense privilege that I am here. Actually the first thought is usually...bloody hell!