Comprometida.
I am currently in the capital, Quito for a week and a half of training and presentations at a conference called ReConnect. The objectives are clear: to give us an opportunity to come together with our contrapartes y compañeros to access practical skills to incorporate within our service.
This is being done via:
Developing successful workshops to teach Sexual & Reproductive Health
Hands-on workshops to develop Community Gardens
Staff-led sessions to identify challenges & gain perspective
Sharing Creative PCV Life Hacks
Fun competitions to reiterate the importance of Safety, Security & Personal Health
Ample time to gather with our peers
Needless to say, it's been a long, yet productive & tasty week.
Spent last night testing out recipes with my Tumbaco (Quito) host family for my healthy cooking classes... yumm chicken & veggie pesto pizza. Everyone participated! Gracias, os quiero!
Next week, I will be presenting on my proposed projects in Paján (alliteration, heh) in front of my peers and our counterparts... all in Spanish! I am super stressed about it... and not just the public speaking in Spanish part.
Before you throw a bunch of well-meaning lines of advice like "don't worry, you got this!" and "it's really not that big of a deal, you're gonna kill it!"... hold up. I made a commitment to this country when I swore-in to give my best efforts to helping my community grow. This commitment has felt like a dark cloud most of my first 3 months, because quite honestly, I don't really know where to start. There is so much need around health and wellness and food access in my community, that I want to make sure that what I'm proposing (after such a short time, mind you) is actually going to be sustainable for them in the long run.
I want to be sure that I'll have something to show for my service in 2 years.
But this isn't the reality of global development. The difference between being an engineer in a controlled business environment and an engineer in the space of social responsibility and sustainable development is that stock prices and scientific conclusions don't drive our decisions nearly as much as people do. Return on investment does not come through dividends & bonus shares. Nobody in my undergrad taught about the power of human capital in engineering innovation, and this is a skill that now must be developed, cultivated, and embraced in order to make a lasting impact on the direct lives of human beings.
This means that I can no longer solely rely on my scientific abilities or my business acumen as the drivers for success. I cannot argue using the bottom line as reasons for my ideas. I must rely on people, on their ideas and on their priorities. This is difficult for a girl like me who relies on hard quantitative data to set those goals, which is requiring a major adjustment in how I see innovation & development.
Being at "The Corner of STEM & Social Responsibility" means that the latter has more of an impact on the former than my data-driven mind would prefer to admit. It also holds a larger stake in the work, because it is the community, the people that I serve, that will be most impacted by the commitment that I have made to bring my full skillset and experience to make sure that their needs & wants are centered.
Ultimately, I made a compromiso to center the lives of my community:
To put their needs ahead of mine.
To gather all the knowledge I need to help gather the resources they desire to lead healthier & more empowered lives.
To make sure that this journey is not about me.
To sit down, to be humble.
Estoy comprometida.
