Complexity, Relationships, Questions, Resilience

From a workshop on Innovation and Community Change, I've learned from Dr. Frances Westley that problems we face can be put into 3 categories. The 1st category is simple problem, such as baking a cake. A recipe can be followed, and if everything was done right, one can expect a good probability of success since the steps have worked in the past and should continue to work in the future. The 2nd category is complicated problem, such as sending a rocket to the moon. The system design is sophisticated and the degree of certainty has to be perfect such that success in sending one rocket almost guarantees the next will also succeed. The 3rd category is complex problem, such as raising a child. One can read as many parenting books as available but there are no clear rules to guarantee success, even if they have worked on the previous child. That is because every child is unique, is constantly growing, must be understood as an individual, and building relationship is the key.

A success story was presented to us to demonstrate the need to see problem in its complexity and the importance of interactions amongst people. In 1990, Brazil had almost twice as many cases of HIV/AIDS as South Africa, and a World Bank study predicted that Brazil would have off-the-chart infection rates by the turn of the millennium. The researchers even told Brazil to focus on prevention and simply be prepared to lose all those already infected. By 2000, 1 in 4 people were infected in South Africa, while Brazil's infection rate had dropped to 1 in 160. I was fascinated when I learned that this miracle happened because Freire's theology from Pedagogy of the Oppressed had infused the Brazilian culture, which believed the importance of empowering the poor and creating liberty for all. There was no charismatic leader, just Brazilians at all levels from government to local community leader joining forces in the service of one guiding principle: no person, no matter how poor, insignificant or illiterate, could be written off as beyond cure. They were successful because of the way they worked together and engaged everyone, instead of isolating and looking down upon those who were infected. They asked the right questions with a mindset of abundance. They focused on preventive treatment and educating at-risk youth. More details on the case can be found from the book Getting to Maybe. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, has earned my deepest respect when I read his article on "The future of human beings is what matters" on Financial Times last week.

Putting this back to our context, it's similar to what Rebecca was saying last week - it's hard to really define what The Working Centre's model is. There is a clear direction and vision, but at the end of the day most of it is dependent on the community and its dynamics. Every case is different, and policy doesn't account for that. The focus needs to be on the people it serves and their challenges, rather than "scaling up" the Centre or replicating it elsewhere - because it can't. We work with people, not for people.

My takeaway from all this is: nothing really remains "sustainable" forever as long as the world and its habitants are evolving; and nothing really remains "innovative" forever as long as the human brains are at work. There simply isn't an one-size-fit-all solution that can fix all of world's complex problems as much as we long for one. Quoting from Joanne, the world has always had problems since the dawn of time - be it natural disasters or human destructions. Ending one war does not mean there will never be another war. The AIDS epidemic is the "new plague". When we solve the global warming crisis, something else will already be waiting for us. But we will figure something out if we all work together - we've always had. This is why we need to stay resilient as human beings - continue adapting to changes, entering solidarity with others, fighting for the values we stand for while restoring the world to what we think it should be. Why fight, one may wonder, if eventually someone/something is going to ruin it all again - I think because that's just our human nature and innate ability to survive, create, love and care for one another and our future generations.

Photocredit: phinaphantasy

My frustrations about my frustrations

I struggled for a long time whether or not to post this entry, partly because it is not something I am particularly proud of, and mostly because it makes me feel extremely vulnerable. In the end, I decided I would post because I felt it was important for me to share with you my experience on this journey - that is, both the good and the bad. And all I ask for is a listening ear, a caring heart, and an open mind.

As mentioned in one of my previous posts, I have started volunteering at The Working Centre helping out with the Computer Basics course. When I say basic, I mean basic. This past Tuesday they had their 5th lesson (of 8 in total), and they were learning how to cut/copy & paste from one folder to another folder. I have been with them for the last 3 lessons, and seeing them progress has been the biggest joy and satisfaction I get from being there. Last week before they left, they made sure I would be going again the following week. I even thought I found a new passion in teaching, as I did not grow up thinking that I wanted to be a teacher nor did I think I was good enough to teach anything.

Things started to change this week. A lady was having the hardest time doing the tasks. The exercise was simply to copy a file from My Documents, find her folder (which was saved under C:/), and paste it there. I spent about half an hour practicing with her, drawing trees and arrows and everything I can think of to explain to her: "No, your folder is not under My Documents. It's somewhere else.", and "No, you don't click File --> New when you want to copy & paste something.You go to Edit --> Copy/Paste".

I asked her to write steps down, then follow the steps as she tried to copy & paste again. She refused, and I  felt frustrated. I was already getting impatient when she didn't know where her folder was, because we've gone over that extensively in the last 3 weeks. Then I felt irritated when none of my explanations seemed to make any sense to her. Finally my heart sank when she just gave up. I felt mad - not because she didn't understand how to do something, but because I felt like she didn't care enough. I wanted to just say, "Well if you want to learn how to use this thing, you need to try harder. Don't give up. I can help you. "

Ok I didn't actually say that. At the end of the class she still asked me as usual whether I would be there the following week. I told her I wouldn't be because I was going home for reading week. She seemed disappointed. As soon as she turned around, I couldn't hide my emotions anymore. I couldn't believe I almost lost my patience whereas the last thing she needed was another person getting frustrated at her. I felt horrible. All I wanted was for her to do well.

The worst part of this is, this is not something uncommon that I experience. I come across a lot of people in my life, whether they are people I am extremely close with or just someone I happen to know, whom I feel should simply care more. I get bothered and all I want to say is, "Stop sitting there and complain. Do something about it!", or "What do you mean you don't care? Why don't you care?" Although most of the time I'm able to pull myself back and behave how a good friend should behave, I am having an extremely hard time coming to terms with myself. It makes me want to throw something at them. It makes me feel responsible. It makes me question myself, "Should I care less?"

A mentor told me this, "You can't help someone unless they want to be helped." But am I supposed to just sit there and watch, pretend nothing is wrong and just not do anything? To be honest, I don't have this quite figured out yet. I don't know how this post is going to sound to people. Some of you are going to think that I don't need to care about other people's business, not everyone is going to agree with me, and that's okay. Just writing this post already makes me feel very emotional. I care, and I have a feeling that my encounters this summer are going to be even more challenging for me.

How learning should be like

Taking the #1 advice from Sacha Chua's list of 10 tips for new bloggers , I am going to choose an audience for this post. Today I would like to write to my fellow Beyond Bordians.

First off, I would like to thank all of you for posting on your blogs. I have enjoyed reading all of your entries so much. It is -very- comforting to know that I'm not the only control freak out there (hehe!). And to know that we are all learning and going through the same challenges is definitely a great source of support.

So yesterday I had my first day at the Working Centre . (For my other readers who are not familiar with the Working Centre, you can read all the Working Center 101 entries by Jess DB , Marissa , or Sabrina ). I had chosen to work at the Computer Training Lab, helping Sergiane (the instructor) with the Computer Basic course every Tuesday afternoon. I have always believed that technology can empower people, and I am very excited to be able to be part of a team that make that happen.

This Computer Basics course is for people who have no previous knowledge of computers, but are looking to pick up this practical skill, so they can get a better job, for instance. They pay $30 for this 8-week course, and yesterday was their 3rd class. Sergiane started by going over last week's homework, answering any questions they had, then started the lesson for week 3. They had to learn the concept of folder vs. files, how to create new documents, and save them into a chosen folder. My role was to go around and assist the students as Sergione asked them to perform certain tasks (like a TA) to make sure they were following and understood what was going on.

There are two important lessons I took away from the afternoon. On one hand, they are messages I tried to convey to the students. On the other hand, they could be extremely valuable if applied to my own learning.

Lesson #1: Don't just jump into things and start clicking. Pause and first think what you have to do here.

Lesson #2: Don't be intimidated to be starting from the basics. That's how all of us have always learned.

When we were kids, we were not afraid mistakes, we were used to learning new ideas everyday, we would not be embarrassed if we didn't know something. But as we grow up, all of that seem to have changed. For some reason, we expect ourselves to know all the answers in the world. We feel bad if we don't know the answer, worse yet, we apologize for asking questions. Why is that? Quoting from Scott, "You can only ask questions (the non-stupid ones) if you already know something."

But the truth is, we cannot learn without first making mistakes. We fell many times before we learned how to walk. We spelled everything wrong before we learned how to write. We mumbled and nobody could understand us before we learned how to speak. What's wrong with making mistakes? They are not supposd to make us look stupid, they just show that we're learning something new. Quoting from Joanne, "Learning -should- be frustrating."

While reflecting on all this, I thought of Freire again. Like what he said in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed regarding the teacher-student relationship, "People educating each other, mediated by the world." I went to the Working Centre to teach people how to use computers. In turn, my students have reminded me how learning should be like.

Whenever I come across something relating to the Beyond Borders program, I find myself thinking about Freire a lot. It's like people who wear bracelets that say "What will Jesus do?" I almost have an imaginary one around mine that says "What will Freire say?" ha!

To end this post, I want to remind myself that while all these projects at the Working Center are a lot of fun and very exciting, I shall not forget the original purpose of why we were sent there for this course - which was for us "to be engaged in justice, peace and development activities within our own local community".