Attitude:
- Acceptance that you are playing the game by someone else's rules. You are a guest in the place where you are working, and you do not set the agenda, rules or even the 'game'. Talk of 'cultural acceptance', etc, is easy, but often foreign workers end up very sheltered from the realities of ordinary people's lives. This distance makes it easy to look down on the culture and make assumptions.
- A commitment to community participation, even when it means your suggestions are not acted on.
Knowledge:
- You stay informed.
- You know where your strength lies, and are comfortable saying that you don't know.
- You seek out people who know the answers.
Goals:
- You know you are not there to solve problems as much as to enable locals to solve problems, and empower them to do so, effectively, after you have long gone.