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At this time last year, I was finished with my 7th semester at Grinnell, celebrating the holidays with my family and preparing to return to Grinnell for my last semester as a college student.
I am amazed at how much difference 365 days can make. While a little more than a year ago I was cramming for finals and stressing out about what to do after graduation, I spent this December in the northern central regions of Namibia, working with 14 Namibian college students. The students were studying indigenous fruit trees in the area, examining the role that farmers have in the diversity and distribution of the trees. Every morning we would go out and talk to farmers in the area, asking them about how they use fruit trees, what products they make from the fruits, whether they plant fruit trees and how they managed their tree resources. We spent our days walking around farms (which are nothing like the farms surrounding Grinnell) and talking to people. In the evenings we came back to camp and discussed what we'd found and how we could use the information gathered. What an amazing experience.
The students are part of a training course offered by the Desert Research Foundation that gives Namibian students the opportunity to learn more about the process of doing research, conducting field work and analyzing and presenting the results of their research. It is an incredibly course that exposes students to current environmental issues, teaches modern research techniques and encourages interactions with renowned scientists and policy-makers from around the country. I'm the curriculum coordinator, which means that I'm responsible for helping organize and plan the course, as well as for documenting the entire course. I also help facilitate lectures, lead discussions and help the participants with data analysis and report writing.
For the first time in my life, I am somewhat in the role of instructor (even though most of the students are older than I am). Although it's been tough and frustrating at times, it's also been incredibly rewarding to work with students closely and learning from them, knowing they are also learning from me.
One thing that I love about this fellowship is that it gives me the opportunity to experience new things. I never though that I would enjoy teaching, and I probably never would have explored teaching had it not been for this fellowship. I don't know if I will ever decide to go into teaching, but working with the Summer Desertification Programme has let me try it out.
It's impossible to describe in words how incredible this fellowship has been so far. I have learned so much in the past seven months. In some ways, I've learned more than I did the entire four years of college.
College, especially Grinnell, teaches you how to think and react and rationalize and write coherently. This fellowship has taught me how to use those skills in practical ways; and more importantly, how to properly use those skills in a working environment.
One of the hardest things about this fellowship is that sometimes I don't see the direct results of my work. I do so much, and am so busy here, but I sometimes forget to take a step back and look at the larger picture. What I do, even if I don't always recognize it, contributes to the continued running of Gobabeb and to long-term projects that I may never see the final product of.
Looking at the job description, it's sometimes difficult to remember that this is a volunteer service job; it's certainly not your typical volunteer service position. I don't spend a lot of time with communities or working on development projects. But, in my opinion, my service to this organization is to provide an extra hand and help the Gobabeb Centre and the DRFN build and grow. I do what's needed around the station, and will help out with all kinds of different projects if an extra hand is needed. One of the hardest things about working here is that very often it's difficult to see the product of my hard work. Projects that I contribute to may not develop to fruition until long after I'm gone. But that doesn't mean that the work we do here isn't valued. What Grinnell Fellows do here contributes to the progress of the organizations that we work with.
This fellowship is a volunteer position, and I do believe that I'm doing service work. But it's in the context of working in a real job and an office. Many of the difficulties I've experienced in my seven months here have been a product of the fact that this is my first job. One of the best things I'm learning from this fellowship is how to negotiate difficult office and working relations, and how to accept that things don't always run smoothly. Things will never run smoothly, regardless of what job I have and where I'm working. And sometimes I do get overwhelmed when things don't work the way I'd like them to, or when dealing with government or office bureaucracy becomes too frustrating. But the best thing to do when that happens is to just take a walk into the dunes and sit. For me, that puts things back into perspective. It makes me realize that for the difficulties that come with working in a job (any job, not just this one), that this job has benefits that far outweigh any of the difficulties. The
Grinnell Fellowship has given me the opportunity to work for a dynamic, growing organization that contributes to the betterment of real people. I have met so many wonderful, interesting people through this job, many of which I will be able to keep in touch with and maybe even be able to work with sometime in the future.
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