After a full week of volunteering at Centros Las Libres, I can confidently say that this really is the perfect place for me to study abroad. The women who work in the organization are confident, accountable, and efficient while balancing being caring, playful and fun. Their motivation and personal management demonstrate the potential efficacy of a non-government organization. Often with these types of organizations, holes in accountability and poor leadership lead to wasted resources, time and unsuccessful efforts. I hadn’t realized the extent of this until reading Easterly’s White Man’s Burden, which opens with the disheartening statistic that over 2.3 billion dollars have been spent over the past 5 decades on foreign aid and there is little to no correlation between this money and improvements in decreasing poverty. Fortunately, any fear I had of working with such an organization has been completely appeased. Along with the knowledge I will gain on womens rights, on working in a Latin community, and on the process of making small changes that affect big issues, the Spanish I am learning, the fun I have eating with the women and hearing them speak passionately about important issues and the friends I will make are all making my experience completely wonderful.

The other thing I realized over the week is the importance of committing to a long period of volunteer work, especially in a new community with language barriers. My first month will give me the opportunity to adjust, learn more Spanish, understand the organization and the work environment and learn the culture of Guanajuato. Then I still have 5 months to develop, carry out and see the results of a more personal project. Without this extensive amount of time, I wouldn’t be able to credibly address any of the issues facing this community. Even though I speak Spanish proficiently, I cannot speak in the language needed to address a group of women on sexual health with any semblance of authority. Even though I have researched women’s health and women’s rights, I wouldn’t be able to grasp the intricacies of this community and the factors which have lead to a culture which supports machista traditions and interactions in Guanajuato. Being here for 6 months won’t give me complete insight, but surely it will give me much more than 4-6 weeks would. I couldn’t be more grateful for this opportunity and this challenge.