Monday, June 29, 2009

internship challenges and reflections

So far our internship has been a bit rocky. First of all, it is rather difficult to acclimate to the rhythm of the center. We sometimes come in the morning and other times in the afternoon. However, no matter when we come, there is a chance that all or most of the girls will be busy. For example, the other day we arrived at the center and found that all of the girls were cleaning. This was a bit frustrating, for we have a one hour commute by bus each way to get to the center. It is also an uncomfortable feeling to have a sense that you are being ineffective and possibly not spending your time in the best way.

My roommate made a good point about our presence at the center. She said that the girls are hesitant to interact with us because it is common for foreigners to come for a brief time, do very little, and leave. This led me to begin to question the validity of our service there. Previously, I had considered the possibility that our presence there would not be entirely helpful. However, this led me to question whether or not our presence could be harmful. To develop a relationship and then leave after a short time could be harmful. Furthermore, since we are there for such a short amount of time, we might see something that we think should change, change it, and then find that in fact it is a harmful change.

This issue of change has been very much on my mind. I was hoping to make some kind of change to the psychological care. However, though I might be able to offer the assessment tools, without having any treatment solution, I simply might be making the situation work. Also, coming in and questioning the manner in which they conduct their care would show an incredible amount of hubris. Before even beginning to try and make a change, I would have to spend awhile carefully assessing the manner in which the care is conducted. I found out today that there are social workers at the center. However, it is unclear how much training they have. Perhaps this experience is also teaching me that sometimes you have to be realistic about how much can get done in a limited amount of time. Yet, this will be a valuable experience if it gives me a better sense of how I could work to make such changes in the future.

In interacting with the girls, we have found that slowly but surely we can keep their interests with certain activities. For one, they enjoy learning songs in english. We have also taken pictures of them, printed them out, and then let them decorate frames. This is something special for them, for they rarely have pictures to remember their time at the shelter. This is especially true for the girl who is leaving the center at the end of the month.

In inquiring further about what we can do to help, we discovered that the staff wanted to practice english. This was a bit surprising to us, for we had been using our vietnamese roommates as intermidiaries to communicate with the staff this whole time. We found today that they actually speak rather impressive english. Hopefully practicing english with them will help build their confidence to better communicate with outsiders who may be able to help give funding or volunteer at the center in the future.

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