Interview With Neil, Former Katimavik Volunteer: Part 2

By Kate | Permalink | No Comments | June 12th, 2007 | Trackback

After asking Neil about his motivation to do Katimavik as well as the volunteer work he did in Part 1, I also made sure to ask him about the living situation – with nine volunteers from all over the country sharing a house for thirty weeks, it’s bound to be an interesting time. What was it like?

“Needless to say, it’s an unusual living arrangement. It has some similarities to hostel living, in that you’re sharing space with everyone, and as most travellers know, even in the short term, the wrong roommates can make this difficult. The problem isn’t really the geographic diversity, but the differences in individual styles and goals. Being someone who’s grown up in an intellectual environment, where debating and the like are encouraged, made me seem like an argumentative asshole to someone who’s from a “keep your opinions to yourself” type of background. And then there’s some people whose goal for the trip was to drink as much beer and sleep with as many girls as possible, and then there’s those who want to experience what Canada has to offer. Nothing to do with where they’re from.

In the long term, there are loads of issues to deal with.

As part of program we have a group dynamics workshop, where they do teach a fairly accurate model of how group relationships work. There’s four basic stages, which the model refers to as Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. At first there’s the honeymoon - trying to impress each other and make people like you. Then there’s the fighting phase, where those who don’t see eye to eye really have some epic fights…usually verbal, but not always. Then the “Norming” stage, where you kind of accept that some of your roommates are jerks and learn to live with it, and finally, a theoretical performing stage where people have established roles and are able to work together without much friction. That pretty much describes how living in a Katimavik group goes.”

Come back soon for Part 3 to see how the actual experience compared to Neil’s expectations and also what advice he has for others.

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