The Interview (en Español)

Good morning! It´s a sunny Wednesday in León, Nicaragua. You have woken up to find yourself, like many in this country, in the curious state of under-employment. Granted, your situation is not nearly as dire as many locals: You have a room and a hammock and enough money to live on for a few months. In fact, you are only looking for voluntary work: you want to do something worthwhile with your time. You would think that as a charming, English-speaking young man this would just fall right into your lap. Well, it hasn´t.

You spend the morning studying Spanish in your hammock, and then you go out looking for a job. Your friend Marcus, from the school where you studied Spanish, works in a project in the afternoon. You go see him after class. He tells you that he asked his supervisors and they want to meet you. (The school is called Proyecto Rocas and you want to volunteer to help the children with their homework and extra-curricular activities.)

You start walking to the restaurant for your lunch meeting. Naturally you get a little bit lost. You see a man on the street that you´ve been introduced to once before. He is thrilled to see you again. He introduces you to his sister who is holding a baby. You coo at the baby. The man brings you back to his house so you can meet his daughters. He offers you lunch. You cannot do this because you have the meeting so you take your leave as politely as you possibly can in Spanish.

You arrived at the restaurant and soon the supervisors of the project walk in: One Nicaraguan man, two Scandinavian ladies, along with your friend Marcus. One of the ladies asks you if you speak Spanish and you nod your head and say, ¨hablo un poco." They then begin, out of respect for the Nicaraguan fellow, to conduct the interview en español. This concerns you at first because you really don´t speak Spanish yet; you´ve only studied it for three weeks. And an interview is not like a regular conversation with a friend where you can trip up and make mistakes. You need to understand everything they are saying to you and answer the questions they ask. You are trying to convince them to let you work with the children in their program.

Somewhat surprisingly, everything goes splendidly. You rise to occasion, miraculously understanding words you´ve never heard before and saying things you don´t yet know how to say. You explain to them your educational background, youre experience working on projects in other developing countries, your reasons for coming to León and asking to work with them, and how you might be useful. Everyone at the table seems satisfied with your responses. Marcus looks somewhat amazed. You yourself are befuddled and sweating at the effort.

(This is much better than the time just last week when you went to the director of Las Tías, asking to volunteer. She had asked you to bring a letter of introduction, and then they start laughing at you because your letter is in English, not Spanish. Your friend Gerald quickly translates the letter. You feel embarassed but you´ve also never written a letter in Spanish before.)

So then the women tell you they are going to ask you some things in English. This is a bit more up your alley. They ask you a bit more about your experience and opinions on issues like poverty, development, and working with children. You can speak much more articulately in your native language. The women are smiling to each other. You know you´ve hit a proverbial home run.

They confer for a moment and then tell you can start that afternoon. Finding a job is apparently as easy as giving an interview in a language you don´t really know. ¡Felidades!