Mission Post #8

One of the requirements of being selected for volunteer work is completing an online class on child safety - how to detect and report behavior that suggests potential abuse and inappropriate interaction with children and vulnerable adults.  This 2 hour course took me 6-7 hours to complete over a two day period.  

The format and study was easy to work with and accomplish.  The subject matter, on the other hand was not easy to get through.  I was surprised by what I didn't know, the sheer awfulness some people.  As a consequence, it took me a lot longer to get through.  I also wanted a complete record of the course so page by 68 pages, I copied and pasted it into a word document.  

Not knowing what will be expected of us, I know that taking this course could add up to just being a formality.  If it isn't, I sincerely hope that I detect no evidence of actually abuse.  I know we will come face to face with some fierce poverty but neglect and abuse? - well, I hope not.  

Based on what I've read , volunteers aren't left alone with children or vulnerable adults so quite possibly Don and I will work as partners.

I haven't thought about it much this week but the week is young.  I DID have an idea though, on Saturday, the day we went to Sonora to attend a memorial service.  As I listened to Fr. John Fitzgerald speak of why we are drawn to gather together, he reminded us that it isn't death that draws us together, it is love (perhaps a novel idea to some of us).  His words nudged a germ of an idea on recording the experience of this trip.

We will be on the road for at least four months and we will have a chance to meet all sorts of people who may feel very different from what I grew up with.  Don is very adaptable to the slower pace of life and the Midwestern and Southern thought processes.  I'm not.  Very Catholic and Conservative I may be but I'm also firmly imprinted with a California mentality.  It will be a golden opportunity for me to:

• talk and listen
• ask questions
• find out what people know
• discover their points of view

I expect a lot of differences.  I'll take lots of sets of pictures, series that tell a story.  I've also thought about putting the information together and creating a mini-documentary of what we encountered and who we met.   The materials needed will be part of the organized supplies I plan to bring with me so I can mitigate the lack of some art or writing tool that will make my record keeping easier.  But in the end it really is still all just thoughts.