Turnover

(Posted by Bill @ Project Pisco in Peru)

We have had a lot of turnover in the last two weeks. Many long-term volunteers (the name given to those who stay for 30 days or more) have cycled out as many new faces continue to cycle in. Project Pisco has had a baker’s dozen of veteran long-termers who joined us on previous projects but many here are first time volunteers. Most of the first time long-termers are coping with the departure of their friends; some of the veterans are coping as well.

One of the biggest challenges we face as an organization arises when long-term volunteers return to their “normal” lives, especially if they were a team leader as most end up stepping into a leadership role of some kind during their time with us. A long-termer’s knowledge base of how things work is traditionally the only form of institutional memory we have on projects beyond the operations director.

The turnover rate at Project Pisco, in terms of short-term volunteers is huge because we are in a heavily traveled area and travelers talk when they meet like-minded individuals on the trail. We have had over 430 volunteers walk through the doors so far. A truly amazing number over shadowed by only the volunteer’s impact within this community.

But the challenge of plugging new/fresh volunteers into the project falls in the lap of the long-termers and becomes a team effort to share the knowledge of how this and that is done and what time to do it etc.

The turnover rate presents challenges for our communal style living and the efficiency of the work day but another challenge, perhaps the hardest to deal with for a first time long-termer, is the “loss” of a friend and brother in arms.

On a personal level the significant turnover periods on projects can be hard to deal with. I remember when I woke up one morning in Biloxi during our Hurricane Katrina Relief Project (my first Hands On Project) and suddenly the “Tree Team” I had been working with everyday for 3 weeks had suddenly all returned home.

The realization that “this” won’t last forever and now I have to go and make new friends can be very strange and jolting. The veteran volunteer suddenly feels like the new kid in town because they don’t know anyone else and maybe don’t trust the “newbie’s” because they are new and “they don’t know...” The long-termer is faced with the decision to just leave because they don’t know anyone anymore or stick it out, make new friends and compartmentalize their emotions.

Yesterday long-term volunteer Amy touched upon this during her farewell speech at the end of our daily “All Hands Meeting.” Many of her closest friends left weeks ago but Amy stayed to oversee the rebuilding of a school, a project she started and has nurtured for months. She began by stating how she had debated whether or not she should even get up and speak to say goodbye because almost all of her friends had moved on and she didn’t really know many of the volunteers present. She decided to speak stating, “what I have to say I think everyone should hear anyway.” Man, I was glad along with everyone else that she decided to say goodbye to us and share her thoughts.

Her goodbye came on the 4-month anniversary of the quake that brought all of us together and Amy had been here since the beginning. She was Peace Corps Volunteer who had already been working in the area for 2 years prior and experienced the before, during and after of the devastating 8.0 quake. She described walking in the streets a week after the quake and seeing the sad state people were in and how survivors just wandered around not knowing what to do “... and then HODR showed up…and volunteers started pouring in. I saw the hope in people’s eyes when they realized that the whole world was fighting for them.”

Amy’s goodbye was poignant and reminded all that were present what the point was… to help, to give hope and to do everything we can. Her words rang true to those here for one day and those who have committed til the end. Her words will stick with us as the whole world fights for Pisco.