GOLDEN RULES OF VOLUNTEERING IN BULGARIA
(According to the US Peace Corps - Bulgaria)
The following words of wisdom
were gathered and complied from former foreign volunteers in Bulgaria
to help you through the inevitable hardships of the adaptation process.
The list was created in the hope that you and your mentor can cash in
on somebody else's experience and accommodate it in your specific situation.
Every match of volunteer and mentor is unique and views the problems and
possible solutions in a different way. We hope that the following friendly
advices might help both of you adjust easier and work together successfully.
COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE. Lack of sufficient open
communication, which may lead to misunderstanding or miscommunication,
is one of the two most common reasons for foreign volunteers' frustrations
with work and people. You come from a different culture and in many cases
the same facts or words can be viewed and interpreted very differently
by you as well as the Bulgarians. Ask questions, regardless of how trivial
and obvious they seem, and talk as much as possible with your co-workers
in order to really understand what's going on. Do not be shy, remind people,
if necessary, that you expect their feedback.
Learn the language. Improving your Bulgarian is absolutely vital not
only for your professional effectiveness at site but it will also ease
the hardships of your adaptation period, ensure faster better integration
into the community, increase your understanding of the Bulgarian culture,
and improve social life and cooperation with your co-workers. Invite them
over at your house. By doing this, they will become more open for communication
and will look upon you from a more personal perspective, which will improve
your working environment by all means. All of the above, combined, constitute
a very good remedy against the blues and frustration you might face with
during your adaptation.
Don't expect a perfect match between your skills and your site's needs.
Those needs might be only an overall vision, and your duties may not necessarily
(and most probably won't) call for many of your qualifications. Your specific
scope of work needs to be created together with your co-workers after
you have arrived at your site.
Be tolerant, not judgmental, with respect to differences.
Be outgoing and proactive, get involved, take initiative in and out of
the workplace, be open to new experience.
Don't let your limitations hold you back. "Make" your work
despite difficulties.
Foreign volunteers are here to identify and respond to the needs of the
host country and the individual organizations. They are in Bulgaria to
do what their host-country organization asks them to do.
Bulgaria is in a process of transitions and changes and host agencies
need help in approaching those changes. The foreigners have a different
perspective and life experience and that's exactly what Volunteers are
here for - show it, share it.
In the vast majority of cases technical expertise, knowledge and technology
are already here. Volunteers strengths are not that they know something
better but that they know something in a different way. They will not
change the whole world. Their niche is the host-country organization,
their workers and community.
Foreign volunteers and the hosting organizations come up with different
ideas and need to work together in a collaborative manner for a common
goal and aim for the best possible outcome.
The effectiveness and satisfaction, site "quality" and meaningful
work, depend to a large extent on both of you, on your flexibility, resourcefulness,
and positive attitude.
The only way to deal with a different way of thinking is compromise -
meet in the middle at a round table and develop a climate of mutual understanding.
You always need to listen to your colleagues and friends, they know what
problems exist, they just don't know how to fix them or know only one
way of doing it.
The process of adjustment is an ongoing one and continues during the
whole service. The road of learning new ways to interact more effectively
with your colleagues is very rocky at first and will flatten out over
time. But the sooner you allow it to happen, the better your journey on
it becomes. Being together on that joyride is what both parties need.
Volunteers must remember that they are not living in their own country
and cannot expect to be effective immediately. In situations when their
skills are not fitted to the task at hand they must learn to rely on their
resources. The First place the Volunteer should go to for help is the
host country mentor. Volunteers need to remember that no matter how much
knowledge and experience they have in certain field, it is the mentor
who knows how things operate in Bulgaria. It's their job to help the Volunteer
understand the local field in order to be able to utilize his/her skills
more effectively.
The most important skill for Volunteers is the ability to adapt and apply
their knowledge to foreign situations. Volunteers cannot expect the whole
host organization would change to match their skills, they have to develop
them within the organization.
Volunteers have to realize that they cannot come into a completely unfamiliar
place and tell others how things should be run. After developing a strong
relationship over a long period of time with co-workers a Volunteer then
may become effective in being open about these issues. However when a
Volunteer is new and does not really know what is going on it is only
destructive to be so critical.
It is important that Volunteers only give suggestions and do not make
demands. This only causes hostility on the Bulgarian side. It is not effective
to act as the all-knowing co-worker. It is vital that Volunteers are extremely
sensitive to this in order to have an effective impact on a project.
"Unlike high-profile contracted foreign experts or consultants visiting
Bulgaria, Volunteers are regular team members of the host organization.
Be patient and persistent. One of the problems that most foreigners working
in Bulgaria experience is the slower pace at which things get accomplished.
The best way to deal with this is to establish a working relationship
that is flexible enough for the Volunteer to work on other projects when
the primary activities are advancing slowly.