Many jobs can teach you responsibility and the importance of honesty and transparency.  Volunteering at Common Hope has taught me something unique: how to forget my fears and learn from the bravery of others. 

I have been working in the Hospitality department in Antigua for about eight months.  I serve as a cultural intermediary, a translator, a travel agent, and an open ear.  I must forget my fears, because the relationship is not about me.  I am the smile, the explanation, the intelligible words that allow for caring to pass between the visitor and the child, student, mother, father or elderly person.

With my last Vision Team, I received word that although the team members were not professional massage therapists they would be happy to give hand and neck massages to any audience.  During our time at the New Hope site we visited a shelter for abandoned women, where three women on our team came prepared with tiny pinwheels and colourful expandable toy balls as props to lead a few simple breathing exercises, as well as lotion for hand massages.  We gathered the women from benches in the hallway and moved them into a meeting room for the exercises.  One woman touched me lightly on the arm twice.

“Miss, I can’t see.  I can’t hear,” she told me.

“That’s alright,” I replied, lightly touching her hand.

After we had explained the activity the team members went around individually giving hand massages to the women and helping them to practice deep breathing with their pinwheels and toy balls.  There was some laughing, but more quiet smiling, as the women were content to be pampered and receive friendly attention for a short while.   I knelt down next to one of the team members, helping to ask permission to give the massage.  The blind and partially deaf woman recognized my voice and tapped me lightly again.

“Miss, I can’t see.  I can’t hear,” she told me again.

“That’s alright,” I said again.  I was busy translating for the woman beside her, so I just held her hand.  It was all I could think to do.  I hope I helped.

As we were heading back to the Vision Team area for lunch, the team members told me they really enjoyed the activity.  I applauded them for their activity idea and willingness.  “It’s not easy for most people to just go in there and share some time with those women," I said, "but it really means a lot to them.”

I don’t know if they knew how truly genuine my praise was, or that I am one of those people for whom praise is not so easy.

Without competing for a salary raise or racing towards success, I test my limits and challenge myself here.  I grow in ways that are impossible to regret.  I am thankful for the bravery of those visitors that come with open hearts and hands to receive an understanding of Common Hope, and I am thankful to the program for allowing me the responsibility of negotiating these encounters.    

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