Why am I here? answered.

For the .5% of you unfamiliar with a "mullet," it's a hairstyle often described as "business in the front, party in the back." Although it has experienced a resurgence in Europe ("the Euromullet")in recent years, don't be fooled, it's still in asshole haircut no matter how you style it, what kind of smart Puma shoes you sport, or how metrosexual you are. Some famous examples of mullets include Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon, Lionel Richie in the eighties' (the rare jheri curl mullet), MacGyver and Chuck Norris.

Why have I shared this with the readers you may ask? Because Zack
brought up an interesting point the other day when he wrote, "I feel
like in order to be there with you, I need more information regarding
your work responsibilities/work environment. I've got the "party in
the back," (social/cultural) I need the "business in the front." Yes,
I agree with you Zack. I want to give the six people that read this
blog a better idea of what exactly it is I do in Costa Rica besides go
out 4 nights a week and travel to visually stunning National Geographic cover shot locations every other weekend.

And so for the two of you still reading this, here goes: first I'll
provide an overview of the organization and my office. Habitat for
Humanity International is divided into four regions: Europe and
Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, and
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Each region has a headquarters
or Area Office (AO). The LAC AO is based in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Organizationally, there's the home office in Americus, Georgia, then
the Area Offices, then the National Offices (NOs), then the local
affiliates. I work in the LAC AO as the International Volunteer
Program (IVP) Volunteer Coordinator.

The IVP was started several years ago and consists of long term
international volunteers like myself that work primarily in an office
capacity (that is, they don't do construction work unless it's quite
specialized if they're engineers or architects) and have work experience
and a college degree. There are several NOs in LAC, but in order to host
volunteers from IVP, they need to certified by the AO. That's where I
come in. One of my responsibilities consists of helping walk
countries through the certification process. They need to fill out an
emergency evacuation and safety plan, provide an outline of the
orientation they plan to give the volunteer, ensure that they have
enough space and resources ( e.g. a computer, desk, telephone) to host
a volunteer, and the national program has to be considered a stable,
well-run program in a country that doesn't have travel warnings (i.e .
Colombia). So I work with the countries to get them certified.

Another responsibility is to manage and monitor the volunteers. If
they're volunteers in the AO, I give them a 2-3 day orientation of the
country, office procedures, safety measures, overview of Habitat and
the role of each department in the AO, and general stuff they need to
know. I have weekly group meetings with the AO volunteers and check
in with the IVP volunteers in other countries via e-mail. I also check in
with their supervisors to make sure everything is going well. The basic conundrum we want to avoid (which unfortunately is not that uncommon in the world of volunteer or intern management) is when a volunteer isn't given a defined set of responsibilities and is underutilized or undervalued, or their duties don't match their job description, or their supervisor doesn't provide /adequate guidance. So the volunteer may wonder what the point of volunteering is. Want to make sure the supervisors know exactly what hosting a volunteer entails and awareness that it requires work and guidance on their part.

A major part of keeping the volunteers engaged and committed is organizing a build day. The volunteers in the AO are usually in the office working on a computer all day. Once a month, in conjunction with the NO, I organize (I'm still working on organizing the first one since I've been here) a day for the volunteers where we all go out to a Habitat site and help a team build a house. I'm really looking forward to this aspect of the job because it's fun and is at the core of what Habitat does. It's also nice to get out of the office and do some manual labor. What kind of Latino would I be if I didn't secretly long for manual labor?

I also help with the volunteer hiring process. Once an IVP certified
NO develops (in conjunction with me) a job description for the
position they need, the IVP manager in Americus, Georgia forwards a
list of pre-screened candidates to me. I conduct the first round of
interviews and then make my recommendations to the people in the NO or
AO who conduct the final round. Once the NO decides whom to hire,
they let me know and I pass it on to the IVP manager in Americus who
notifies the candidate. I then send the new hire all the relevant
paperwork they need to fill out. I'm also the liaison between all of
the NOs and Americus. If they have an IVP related issue they need to
pass along to Americus it's filtered through me.

I also help promote the IVP program and find and recruit volunteers
through the internet using different websites and list servers. The
department is also really interested in promoting Latin American IVP
volunteers to send to other regional countries. The main obstacle as
you can imagine is financial. Volunteers get a stipend but it's not
much and they have to pay for airfare and medical insurance. So my
idea is to get local companies to pledge money to sponsor a volunteer
every year and tie it into their business. So Banco de Costa Rica
might pay for the living expenses of a volunteer in Bolivia and the
volunteer would work specifically as the financial literacy housing
volunteer or the financial resource volunteer. By helping defray the
costs I'm sure we could generate more interest Latinos volunteering
abroad. There is also an elite class of student from top universities
that do have the money to volunteer abroad and I'm looking at ways to
reach this group; most likely through presentations and talks at top
universities.

I know this can be a bit confusing but I hope this gives you a better
idea of what I do, "the business in the front" if you will. Below
I've included a scene that I often use to "motivate" the group of area
volunteers I manage (I'm a more benevolent version of Blake, played by Alec Baldwin). It's quite inspirational and never fails to bring a tear to my eye. Pura Vida!

In this scene, Blake (Alec Baldwin) is confronting the employees of a
tough Chicago real-estate office, Shelley Levene (Jack Lemmon), Ed
Moss (Ed Harris) and George Aaronow (Alan Arkin) while their
unsympathetic supervisor John Williamson (Kevin Spacey) looks on.

Blake: Let me have your attention for a moment! So you're talking
about what? You're talking about...(puts out his cigarette)...bitching
about that sale you shot, some son of a bitch that doesn't want to
buy, somebody that doesn't want what you're selling, some broad you're
trying to screw and so forth. Let's talk about something important.
Are they all here?_
Williamson: All but one._
Blake: Well, I'm going anyway. Let's talk about something important!
(to Levene) Put that coffee down!! Coffee's for closers only. (Levene
scoffs) Do you think I'm fucking with you? I am not fucking with you.
I'm here from downtown. I'm here from Mitch and Murray. And I'm here
on a mission of mercy. Your name's Levene?_
Levene: Yeah._
Blake: You call yourself a salesman, you son of a bitch?_
Moss: I don't have to listen to this shit._
Blake: You certainly don't pal. 'Cause the good news is -- you're
fired. The bad news is you've got, all you got, just one week to
regain your jobs, starting tonight. Starting with tonights sit. Oh,
have I got your attention now? Good. 'Cause we're adding a little
something to this months sales contest. As you all know, first prize
is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anyone want to see second prize? Second
prize's a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired. You get
the picture? You're laughing now? You got leads. Mitch and Murray paid
good money. Get their names to sell them! You can't close the leads
you're given, you can't close shit, you ARE shit, hit the bricks pal
and beat it 'cause you are going out!!!_
Levene: The leads are weak._
Blake: 'The leads are weak.' Fucking leads are weak? You're weak. I've
been in this business fifteen years._
Moss: What's your name?_
Blake: FUCK YOU, that's my name!! You know why, Mister? 'Cause you
drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove a eighty thousand dollar
BMW. That's my name!! (to Levene) And your name is "you're wanting."
And you can't play in a man's game. You can't close them. (at a near
whisper) And you go home and tell your wife your troubles. (to
everyone again) Because only one thing counts in this life! Get them
to sign on the line which is dotted! You hear me, you fucking
faggots?_(Blake flips over a blackboard which has two sets of letters
on it: ABC, and AIDA.)_Blake: A-B-C. A-always, B-be, C-closing. Always
be closing! Always be closing!! A-I-D-A. Attention, interest,
decision, action. Attention -- do I have your attention? Interest --
are you interested? I know you are because it's fuck or walk. You
close or you hit the bricks! Decision -- have you made your decision
for Christ?!! And action. A-I-D-A; get out there!! You got the
prospects comin' in; you think they came in to get out of the rain?
Guy doesn't walk on the lot unless he wants to buy. Sitting out there
waiting to give you their money! Are you gonna take it? Are you man
enough to take it? (to Moss) What's the problem pal? You. Moss._
Moss: You're such a hero, you're so rich. Why you coming down here and
waste your time on a bunch of bums?_(Blake sits and takes off his gold
watch)_
Blake: You see this watch? You see this watch?_
Moss: Yeah._
Blake: That watch cost more than your car. I made $970,000 last year.
How much you make? You see, pal, that's who I am. And you're nothing.
Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you -- go home and
play with your kids!! (to everyone) You wanna work here? Close!! (to
Aaronow) You think this is abuse? You think this is abuse, you
cocksucker? You can't take this -- how can you take the abuse you get
on a sit?! You don't like it -- leave. I can go out there tonight with
the materials you got, make myself fifteen thousand dollars! Tonight!
In two hours! Can you? Can you? Go and do likewise! A-I-D-A!! Get mad!
You sons of bitches! Get mad!! You know what it takes to sell real
estate?_(He pulls something out of his briefcase)_Blake: It takes
brass balls to sell real estate._(He's holding two brass balls on
string, over the appropriate "area"--he puts them away after a pause)_
Blake: Go and do likewise, gents. The money's out there, you pick it
up, it's yours. You don't--I have no sympathy for you. You wanna go
out on those sits tonight and close, close, it's yours. If not you're
going to be shining my shoes. Bunch of losers sitting around in a bar.
(in a mocking weak voice) "Oh yeah, I used to be a salesman, it's a
tough racket." (he takes out large stack of red index cards tied
together with string from his briefcase) These are the new leads.
These are the Glengarry leads. And to you, they're gold. And you don't
get them. Because to give them to you is just throwing them away. (he
hands the stack to Williamson) They're for closers._I'd wish you good
luck but you wouldn't know what to do with it if you got it. (to Moss
as he puts on his watch again) And to answer your question, pal: why
am I here? I came here because Mitch and Murray asked me to, they
asked me for a favor. I said, the real favor, follow my advice and
fire your fucking ass because a loser is a loser._(He stares at Moss
for a sec, and then picking up his briefcase, goes into inner office
with Williamson)