Day 1
The first day of service learning at the womens microenterprise certainly served as an introduction. They showed us the variety of raw materials, soy beans, corn, and peanuts that they use to makea variety of products such as peanut sticks and tofu. My inability to speak French immediatlely set my service learning apart from a couple of the other students who have at least a decent grasp on the language. Regardless our first interaction felt very divided as we sat apart from the women when we did our tasks of sorting bad nuts from the good ones. These interactions fit well with why service learning is bad as the division along with my inability to speak French preventned me from gathering information from the women on what they needed and expected from us. It made me feel as if i was participating in voluntourism, simply there to observe something different with the false pretense of making a difference in the community involved.
The best of example of this was when they showed us their method of exracting peanut oil. A blob of paste was put in a bowl as one of the strongest and biggest women used her strength to extract as much oil from the paste as possible. The sweat covering her head after several minutes proved this was not easy work. While everyone was watching a different group of women were attempting to move a table unsuccessfully. I turned to a French speaker and told them to ask the women if they needed help with moving the table, but the question was misinterpreted and they assumed I wanted to help with the peanut extracting process. Not wanting to decline I allowed them to wash my hands and I awkwardly tried my hardest to do the work of the women, and of course was nearly useless. I believe I wasted more oil on my hands than in the bowl of oil, hurting the group, and further proving the point that my presence was a hindrance to the productivity of the group. Language skill and communication would have helped in this problem.
The first day of service learning at the womens microenterprise certainly served as an introduction. They showed us the variety of raw materials, soy beans, corn, and peanuts that they use to makea variety of products such as peanut sticks and tofu. My inability to speak French immediatlely set my service learning apart from a couple of the other students who have at least a decent grasp on the language. Regardless our first interaction felt very divided as we sat apart from the women when we did our tasks of sorting bad nuts from the good ones. These interactions fit well with why service learning is bad as the division along with my inability to speak French preventned me from gathering information from the women on what they needed and expected from us. It made me feel as if i was participating in voluntourism, simply there to observe something different with the false pretense of making a difference in the community involved.
The best of example of this was when they showed us their method of exracting peanut oil. A blob of paste was put in a bowl as one of the strongest and biggest women used her strength to extract as much oil from the paste as possible. The sweat covering her head after several minutes proved this was not easy work. While everyone was watching a different group of women were attempting to move a table unsuccessfully. I turned to a French speaker and told them to ask the women if they needed help with moving the table, but the question was misinterpreted and they assumed I wanted to help with the peanut extracting process. Not wanting to decline I allowed them to wash my hands and I awkwardly tried my hardest to do the work of the women, and of course was nearly useless. I believe I wasted more oil on my hands than in the bowl of oil, hurting the group, and further proving the point that my presence was a hindrance to the productivity of the group. Language skill and communication would have helped in this problem.
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