looking back on my progress

last week marked my first time here not being the one everyone referred to when they said "gringo(a)" with the arrival of our newest trainee from canada, david. it changed my position a bit since up until now the only trainees had been myself and lina, our colombian trainee that´s already been here for 7 months. even though i wasn´t the only trainee, i still felt kind of alone since lina had already been here so long, understood how things worked, knew everyone, and spoke portuguese...she felt more like one of the brazilians to me, which is guess is good for her that she´s adapted so well :D lina´s awesome.

anyway, david, like me, arrived not knowing much about brazilian culture and knowing nothing about the language. it was me, really, a month and a half ago. especially since we work at the same company and everything, i really wanted to help him with things that were hard for me when i first arrived and just be understanding kind of, you know? lots of people helped me when i arrived but no one had really quite been in my situation so there were certain kinds of things that i felt alone in, like adjusting to the cultural differences, not understanding when people talked to me, etc. i guess i´ve now been here long enough that i´ve fallen into the routine of living here, how things work, and have begun to understand more, but it´s been so gradual that i hadn´t noticed until i saw a little bit of my former self in david.

he´s picking up things fast and getting along really well with everyone and we get along well too, which is good, but his appearance here i think has projected me in a different light not only to myself but to my co-workers too. all of a sudden i became the "translator" and the one that knew things and the one that could speak english (they´d never heard me speak so fast before, ha ha) and the one that would understand what was going on...when did that happen??? in t-minus 1 day i had gone from the clueless trainee to the trainee with all the answers...just goes to show you how much familiarity can influence your perception, ha ha :)

so i´m kind of a dual role right now until he completely adjusts as a trainee and an icxer...i somehow feel underqualified to be explaining things that i just learned myself to someone else, but i really like having the chance to help when this person in turn can help someone else...that´s what this organization is about anyway, right? well, life really should be like that, it just doesn´t always work out that way, unfortunately :(

the whole experience has inspired me to keep challenging myself and helping to ensure that others have the opportunity to do so as well, not just in the form of a traineeship, but in many ways...there are so many things to experience in the world that are unfamiliar, amazing, and challenging, from places to music to dances to art to food to ideas to methodology to problem-solving to relationships, etc. realistically, i won´t be able to experience them all, but i can try - i love being inspired by the situations and people i´ve encountered here, and i can only hope that one day i´ll have the chance to inspire at least one person too :)