Evolution of the Slow

Americans are fast people. We don’t pause to listen & tend to just charge on in the direction of our dreams (or at least the direction we were most recently facing…) At least that’s the stereotype. At least that’s most of us Trainees. I am even more thankful now for the lessons I’ve learned in rural Appalachia. I finally understand what they must of thought of me. Never pausing long enough for them to give a response or to voice a thought. Never realizing that they hadn’t responded and might have had something extremely important to say.

Multiple times now this has happened to me here. Shopping for a cell phone, getting a trike ride & now I’m amazed at exactly how much it bugs me. I want to handle my social interactions at a much more relaxed pace & that pace has served me quite well and just so happens to include the person I’m talking to and pauses to make allowances for (or figure out) whatever pace they feel like going at. All of this reminds me very strongly of LeEta, the secretary at Scott County, TN High School and a good friend of mine during my summer there. Sit & listen & its amazing what you can learn. This is my main asset for PC service & it has served me well so far with other Trainees. Take Michael. At face value he really is a grumpy, withdrawn old man a lot of the time. But he has, for him, good reason. This is his 4^th time through all of this training and his 3^rd time to the Philippines. To top it off, he’s getting screwed on his site placement. They want him to learn another language instead of using the Tagalog he already knows. But you don’t know any of this unless you listen to him and you could miss the way he lights up and his eyes glow when he answers all of our nervous questions about what life is like. Sit & listen & you learn. Be confident yourself, in who you are & when you have nothing to prove to the person sitting across from you it becomes so much easier to listen & only then do you learn.

I know people. Everything else will come from that.