What the heck am I doing here?

Some things I have learned about my community so far:

- Most of the area is agricultural, though the land is very dry and the soil is sandy and very poor

- There are 2, 166 families in the area, 8,189 people total. Now it is 8,190 if you count me!

- Careers: farmer, shopkeeper, seasonal planter, teacher, government worker. 

- There is one bank (no atm), 14 gas stations, 21 rice mills, 57 stores, 9 schools, and 12 restaurants. 

- There is a post office and one cell phone store, along with 19 swamps/marshes. 

- There is a EMS group but no fire station or fire truck. 

- Each village (there are 20) has a community income generation group.

- Most people here speak Lao (from Laos) during daily activities. They can understand and speak Central Thai but prefer to speak Lao. 

- Most people do not eat regular rice, but gluttonous sticky rice everyday. They rolls into little balls in the their hands and then dip into whatever mush they are eating (I stay away from the unknown mush!)

Since it's hard to explain exactly what I'm doing here and I'm not exactly sure myself, I did some reading on the Peace Corps definition of what a development volunteer should do. An excerpt is posted below:

There is a tendency by all of us from industrialized nations to view devlopment as a finite project that addresses specific needs such as health, education, housing, income and so on. Certain inputs are supposed to produce quantifiable results during a specific time frame. Often we assume the beneficiaries cannot achieve these objectives on their own and therefore we do it for them. We build their schools and houses, and think that getting them material goods (computers, construction supplies, machinery, transportation means) will improve their lives. What we fail to realize is that development is a process, not a project.  It is a learning process in which the people involved are developing skills, knowhow, confidence, and the ability to identify and address their own issues. As a process, development sometimes move painfully slow and goes through different phases leading to higher levels of skills, efforts, and achievements over time. When it is working well, it expands opportunities for people to fulfill their basic needs and achieve their aspiration for a better life.

Your role as a Volunteer, then, is to join your community in its learning process, serving as teacher and student, facilitator and participant. As you assist others in building their capacity, you will strengthen your own abilities in ways you perhaps never imagined possible. 

                               - Roles of the Volunteer in Development

I like this definition a lot and it is helping me to maintain focus. Of course I would like to jump in and start some type of project immediately, but as you can see there is more to it than that. This morning for example, I was planning on studying Thai and researching recycling in Thailand. Instead I was whisked away to an early morning wedding, in which I stomped through mud to get a good view of. I went with co-workers and some neighbors and made a few new friends. This may not sound productive, but according the definition of development, it most certainly is. I am "joining" my community. I was also able to recycle some empty Coke bottle laying around on the way out!