Personality?

Over the course of the year, through AmeriCorps and Any Baby Can, I have participated in three different tests of… well, let me call it character. Some people call them personality tests and others avoid the word ‘personality’ like the plague. This is professional, after all! I have had fun using these tests and getting to know a little more about myself this year as I continue to work and live in a new environment. With a few fellow AmeriCorps members, I took the Enneagram test. This truly is a personality test. It measures your sub-personality into one or more of nine interconnected personality types. More recently, I took a test that measures how we tend to deal with conflict in the workplace. This was a new test for me and was an interesting way of looking at the different ways that people work with conflict. It turns out, conflict is good and having different solutions to conflict is often the most effective way to solve a problem! Most recently, I participated in a training for something called Style Flex. This test had more to do with your way of communicating. It ‘graded’ you on a scale of 5-95 in the four following categories: driver, expressive, amiable and analytical. Then, it guides you through effective ways to approach and communicate with people who are of other dominant communication styles. Here is a quick peek at the styles:

-Driver: Wants action and results, needs to control and win, is decisive and goal oriented, avoids wasted time and energy, fears losing control, is impatient and can be insensitive to others.

-Expressive: Wants feedback and to be liked, needs to interact and verbalize, is persuasive, avoids boredom, fears social rejection, is disorganized, optimistic and can be impulsive.

-Amiable: Wants harmony and peace, needs to serve others, is a team player, loyal and patient, avoids confrontation, fears loss of predictability, and is afraid of taking a stand.

-Analytical: Wants excellence and quality, needs to comply with standards, is accurate and precise, avoids uncertainty, fears criticism of their work, can be worrisome and a poor improviser.

Do any of these ring a bell for you?!

Being a Friend

One of the great things about iACT is that it employs refugee women who have small children to work in the Refugee School childcare. (There are three women who work in the childcare. Two are permanent employees and one rotating position, which means that the latter only works in the position for six months and then another person is employed.) The work in childcare is a great opportunity for refugee women to gain some employment experience as they try to establish themselves in the U.S. The women come from various ethnic backgrounds and nationalities. With past and current employees coming from: Burma, Burundi, Cuba, Iraqi, and DR Congo.

The current women are from Mexico (non-refugee), Congo, and Iraq. And I have had the pleasure of spending more time with these women the past few weeks. I have grown to know these women since I started working at iACT eight months ago, but the past few weeks have afforded me the time to spend a significant amount of time with them every day. I have often marveled and fallen in love with the idea that these women, each from a different background work together to take care of our students’ children who may or may not come from the same country as them. The women must speak English to work in this position, but they also use their native languages on a daily basis to communicate with the children and their parents. It’s often amazing how they are still able to communicate with parents who speak a different native language AND do not speak English. But they get the job done every single time.

These past weeks I have gotten to know these ladies more and I feel like we are becoming closer friends and confidantes. I can’t wait to see them and listen to their stories. I love the (frank) questions they ask me about myself, my family, and American culture (Btw: They are not a fan of how we Americans always have the AC on in every building.)  I love to hear our similarities and the appreciation of our differences. Sometimes I get “lost” in their conversations. I pay attention, but what I mean is, they sometimes talk about great things, about being mothers, and wives, about taking care of children, about their lives here and back in their home countries. I just like to sit there and listen to them talk, as I push toys across the floor and play with the children. These are the times when I realize that I will learn more when I am quiet and listen and learn. That sometimes I don’t need to be heard, but that a lot of the value of my presence comes from just listening to them. I am thankful that they have trusted me with their most precious information. My time with them has made it clearer to me that there are many refugees out there who need a friend, who need someone to just listen to them. I hope that I will have more opportunities like this, to not only listen but to be a friend for other refugees in the future.

Just a quick post to share a cool moment... 

I teach an ABE class on Tuesday mornings and the 3 students are just so caring and wonderful. One man brings in his mail often for me to help him read it. Usually, he can pretty much do it on his own, but just wants to be sure. A lot of times, they are just junk mail, but every so often he gets something meaningful. Last week he brought in 2 greeting cards from his sister, one for St. Patrick's Day and one for Easter. I helped him read them and his face lit up as he realized that these weren't just folded pieces of stiff paper with some glitter on them, they were messages of love and support from his sister. It was extremely rewarding to know that I got to help him feel cared for by his family when he otherwise might not have realized the meaning of the gestures, that he is not alone, that his sister had taken the time to write out and send cards to him because she cares about him. Bottom line, people are good, reading is awesome, life is beautiful.