How
do you measure your successes on a daily basis? How does your host agency
measure successes over a longer period of time? How do your daily successes
impact their overall success? Do you believe you are making a difference?
I
wouldn’t say I’ve consciously used some itemized metric to evaluate my success
on a daily basis before I leave the office, rather it’s something I’ve kept
track of subconsciously. I’m happy with my day’s work if I was able to do what
I had set out to do, staying on track with the projects I had. At the same
time, successful isn’t necessarily all work—a large part of it certainly has to
do with the people I have had the privilege of knowing and the relationships
I’ve formed with them. So, success can just as much be making progress editing
and correcting the health survey as it is occasionally helping杨姐in the kitchen. In all circumstances, the
common link is that I’m always learning and getting to know others better.
Sometimes, it’s also about knowing myself better, not only my strengths but
also my weaknesses. During the implementation of the health survey, I was
feeling quite confident with my grasp of handling communication as I could
understand the residents’ heavy accents and was also getting to know the
volunteers. However, I saw how lacking I was with respect to the most basic
aspects of communication when twice our English-speaking project leader didn’t
know where we were going until we had arrived. Luckily, he was very generous
and graciously went with the flow, but it was certainly humbling for me. It was
a grounding experience to realize that at the end of the day, I couldn’t let
myself forego the everyday communication essentials in favor of the communicating
with others to learn and exchange. Thus, after returning to the office, I
consciously made sure I was enabling communication among the members rather
than ‘selectively filtering.’ Aside from all the jokes exchanged, ideas were
presented and change was initiated.
In
terms of long-term success as measured by CURA, I would say this hinges upon
the sustainability of the project itself. For example, this health survey will
likely be considered a success if it yields useful demographics and statistics
which can then serve as a baseline relative to future anticipated improvements.
A success story for CURA would be Anlong village, which has 8 organic farmers,
most of which run a CSA (community supported agriculture) program as well. Additionally,
the village has a lot of eco-infrastructure, including methane biogas
digesters, wetlands and dry-composting toilets. Since being installed, they
have tangibly improved the residents’ standard of living, not to mention
improved the eco-friendliness of the village itself. Anlong is now a ‘model
village,’ that is regularly visited a variety of people interested in following
a similar model. Nevertheless, infrastructure aside, CURA certainly measures success
in terms of relationships as well. Dong, a CURA staff member, lived in Anlong
for at least a year when he was overseeing the construction of the
eco-infrastructure. Despite having a difficult time at first fitting in, he was
eventually accepted and is now always greeted warmly by the people we pass in
the street. Likewise, with the village in which we did a health survey—shuitianping—it
was just as much about cultivating our relationship with the community as much as
it was about gathering data. Thus, prior to the health survey, we hosted a
health lecture in a villager’s house discussing the advantages of DIY vinegar
in household chores, both in terms of environmental friendliness and
effectiveness. This gave us the chance to get our foot in the door and actively
contribute for the betterment of the community.
As
for the tie-in between my own successes and CURA’s, I would like to think that
my daily successes do impact CURA’s overall success—i.e. developing the survey,
recruiting volunteers, organizing the survey training. Because CURA doesn’t
have a large staff—I believe this means volunteers can contribute a lot more.
It meant a lot to me when Dong said of me that I had been working like a full
time staff member in terms of time and effort. From this, I knew I had helped
contribute to furthering CURA’s mission and vision.
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