Friday, August 26, 2011
Pictures!
For Your Entertainment
For those of you with queasy stomachs, I advise you to stop reading after the first paragraph.
For those of you who find enjoyment in the misfortune of others, this one’s for you.
So my first couple days at site started off amazing. I got here on Sunday afternoon and had time to buy my mattress and get my room completely organized and get myself ready to live here for the next two years. Afterward I talked to my host parents and found out they were going to take me to the school the next morning to meet the director and the other teachers as well as the student body. I got up early Monday morning and got myself ready for all Spanish all the time. At breakfast my host dad informed me that every Monday was the “formation,” where all the kids stand in lines on the cancha (cement soccer field/volleyball court) and are addressed by the director, which is what they call principals here. My mom and I get to the school and look for the director first thing but he is nowhere to be found so my mom takes me on stage anyway. The director appears out of the crowd and starts talking on the microphone and I hear him start to talk about me. Next thing I know he turns around and hands me the microphone. So there I am standing in front of the entire school with a chance to make my first impression, and the first thing I do is thank the director by calling him a girl (“gracias directora“). However other than that the day went extremely well and they invited me to start having charlas (sessions/classes) the next day about leadership. We are supposed to mainly work on our diagnostic for the first three months but we are also allowed to have other side projects so I said yes. Tuesday then I taught my first official class in Spanish, and although I struggled a little bit the kids were pretty receptive and I think some of them got something out of it. I was then supposed to start repeating this charla with all the other classes but I couldn’t quite make it on Wednesday.
Those of you who having been following know that I have struggled a great deal with illness here in Peru. I was hoping that at site things would start to change, but as you may have guessed by now they haven’t quite yet. Tuesday night going to bed I was feeling a little ill, but not too bad, just the normal warning signs that diarrhea was coming back for round 4 (or 5 I can’t quite remember now). Anyway I went to sleep and woke up around 1 feeling like death itself was in the bed with me and not sure which end was going to erupt first. I made it to the bathroom to find my old friend bicicleta (that is the slang term they use for diarrhea but it actually means bicycle). I went back to bed and woke up again around 4 and had to go back for a second tour. However this time upon my return I found myself sitting in bed wondering if I shouldn’t run back. I started to feel better so I laid down… (here comes the good part)
No sooner had I laid down then I knew I was going to throw up. It felt like it was at least somewhat in the distance though so I thought I would have some time, my first mistake. With confidence I got up and left my trash bag on the floor heading for the toilet which I thought was a for sure reachable goal. However as soon as I set foot outside of my room I felt it coming with unstoppable force and took off for the bathroom which was just around the corner. I was holding my breath with everything I had in hopes that I could still do it but as soon as I stepped into the bathroom door it was too much. I projectiled all over everything in site (the wall, the fake flowers, the mirror, the stool, the hand towel, the water bucket, and oh yeah the stool cover that my host mom hand knitted). And as if that weren’t enough I jumped over my mess in the middle of the floor just to make it to the toilet without time to pick the seat up and needless to say destroying that as well.
So here I am sitting next to the toilet, admiring the range of what I had managed to ruin, realizing that I now have to find something to clean all this up. I gather myself together and find my flashlight and go searching through the house for a mop or something that can help me, having to stop in the downstairs bathroom (thank God they have two) and finding nothing but a broom and a stick. There’s no way I can clean this with a broom so I take my stash of TP and go to town. An hour and a roll later I am sitting by the toilet again, throwing up more and trying to pick all the chunks out of the flowers. At this point I think I may just pass out in the bathroom (definitely would’ve been the better choice) but I manage to rinse the hand towel and the stool cover in the sink first and least just leave them with stains.
From here I drag myself back to bed and pass out for the remaining hour before my host family gets up and I get to try to explain what happened. The next thing I know I am waking up slightly before my alarm to discover that my subconscious mind really didn’t want to be a part of that silly pool anyway, yep that’s right I not only pooped my pants but the bed as well. I couldn’t decide what was more disappointing literally dropping out of the pool or the fact that I just added to the list of things I now have to try to take up to the roof and hand wash.
And so friends there you have it the thing that so many have waited for has finally arrived. That was my second full day at my site but I have survived and only left stains on the wall, the towel, and of course the stool cover. And for those of you looking for the moral to this story, here are some of things I’ve learned during my long, lonely nights on the porcelain throne;
1) Thank God there I have that throne, my heart goes out to all those other volunteers fighting this fight without only a latrine
2) There are more than 30 levels on jewel thief on our phones, none of which are that much fun
3) It really doesn’t matter if you eat or not, it’s still coming
4) Always take some form of TP with you even if it’s your own house
5) and finally never take for granted having water at all times of the day, because when you don’t you’re always leaving something behind for the next visitor, which unfortunately usually happens to be myself!
For those of you who find enjoyment in the misfortune of others, this one’s for you.
So my first couple days at site started off amazing. I got here on Sunday afternoon and had time to buy my mattress and get my room completely organized and get myself ready to live here for the next two years. Afterward I talked to my host parents and found out they were going to take me to the school the next morning to meet the director and the other teachers as well as the student body. I got up early Monday morning and got myself ready for all Spanish all the time. At breakfast my host dad informed me that every Monday was the “formation,” where all the kids stand in lines on the cancha (cement soccer field/volleyball court) and are addressed by the director, which is what they call principals here. My mom and I get to the school and look for the director first thing but he is nowhere to be found so my mom takes me on stage anyway. The director appears out of the crowd and starts talking on the microphone and I hear him start to talk about me. Next thing I know he turns around and hands me the microphone. So there I am standing in front of the entire school with a chance to make my first impression, and the first thing I do is thank the director by calling him a girl (“gracias directora“). However other than that the day went extremely well and they invited me to start having charlas (sessions/classes) the next day about leadership. We are supposed to mainly work on our diagnostic for the first three months but we are also allowed to have other side projects so I said yes. Tuesday then I taught my first official class in Spanish, and although I struggled a little bit the kids were pretty receptive and I think some of them got something out of it. I was then supposed to start repeating this charla with all the other classes but I couldn’t quite make it on Wednesday.
Those of you who having been following know that I have struggled a great deal with illness here in Peru. I was hoping that at site things would start to change, but as you may have guessed by now they haven’t quite yet. Tuesday night going to bed I was feeling a little ill, but not too bad, just the normal warning signs that diarrhea was coming back for round 4 (or 5 I can’t quite remember now). Anyway I went to sleep and woke up around 1 feeling like death itself was in the bed with me and not sure which end was going to erupt first. I made it to the bathroom to find my old friend bicicleta (that is the slang term they use for diarrhea but it actually means bicycle). I went back to bed and woke up again around 4 and had to go back for a second tour. However this time upon my return I found myself sitting in bed wondering if I shouldn’t run back. I started to feel better so I laid down… (here comes the good part)
No sooner had I laid down then I knew I was going to throw up. It felt like it was at least somewhat in the distance though so I thought I would have some time, my first mistake. With confidence I got up and left my trash bag on the floor heading for the toilet which I thought was a for sure reachable goal. However as soon as I set foot outside of my room I felt it coming with unstoppable force and took off for the bathroom which was just around the corner. I was holding my breath with everything I had in hopes that I could still do it but as soon as I stepped into the bathroom door it was too much. I projectiled all over everything in site (the wall, the fake flowers, the mirror, the stool, the hand towel, the water bucket, and oh yeah the stool cover that my host mom hand knitted). And as if that weren’t enough I jumped over my mess in the middle of the floor just to make it to the toilet without time to pick the seat up and needless to say destroying that as well.
So here I am sitting next to the toilet, admiring the range of what I had managed to ruin, realizing that I now have to find something to clean all this up. I gather myself together and find my flashlight and go searching through the house for a mop or something that can help me, having to stop in the downstairs bathroom (thank God they have two) and finding nothing but a broom and a stick. There’s no way I can clean this with a broom so I take my stash of TP and go to town. An hour and a roll later I am sitting by the toilet again, throwing up more and trying to pick all the chunks out of the flowers. At this point I think I may just pass out in the bathroom (definitely would’ve been the better choice) but I manage to rinse the hand towel and the stool cover in the sink first and least just leave them with stains.
From here I drag myself back to bed and pass out for the remaining hour before my host family gets up and I get to try to explain what happened. The next thing I know I am waking up slightly before my alarm to discover that my subconscious mind really didn’t want to be a part of that silly pool anyway, yep that’s right I not only pooped my pants but the bed as well. I couldn’t decide what was more disappointing literally dropping out of the pool or the fact that I just added to the list of things I now have to try to take up to the roof and hand wash.
And so friends there you have it the thing that so many have waited for has finally arrived. That was my second full day at my site but I have survived and only left stains on the wall, the towel, and of course the stool cover. And for those of you looking for the moral to this story, here are some of things I’ve learned during my long, lonely nights on the porcelain throne;
1) Thank God there I have that throne, my heart goes out to all those other volunteers fighting this fight without only a latrine
2) There are more than 30 levels on jewel thief on our phones, none of which are that much fun
3) It really doesn’t matter if you eat or not, it’s still coming
4) Always take some form of TP with you even if it’s your own house
5) and finally never take for granted having water at all times of the day, because when you don’t you’re always leaving something behind for the next visitor, which unfortunately usually happens to be myself!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Host Family / Site Visit
Just a brief description of the family I am expecting to live with for the next two years. My host parents are both teachers, dad - gym and mom - communications. Communications I think is like language arts or something similar. I have three host siblings, a twin boy and girl who are the same age as me as well as a younger brother. None of them live at home, they are all away at school, so in the house it is just my host parents and myself. So I have gone from all brothers in the US, all sisters in my training family, and now essentially the only child.
My site visit was the first time I got to meet this family and the best description I can give for how my visit went was that I won site assignments. My town (pueblo) is awesome. A lot of the people there knew past volunteers and are excited for another. Also instead of explaining what Peace Corps is and what I plan to do like other volunteers do I have people telling me what I am going to do. There is also another volunteer there now so we will get to work together on some joint projects. The Business and YD programs have some pretty good opportunities to work hand in hand with youth and entrepreneurship so I am excited to see where that goes.
Some of the highlights of my visit were running laps at the soccer field with my host dad and my host brother, visiting the pre-Incan ruins that are in my community, climbing trees and eating fruit straight from those trees, swinging on a rope swing that looked like you were flying straight into the valley, and playing fubolito with some of the people in the community. Fubolito is a form of soccer that is really popular here, they play it on a small concrete court and it is kind of like futsol but has a few different rules. Also from my understanding when I get back I am going to be playing in some sort of league which I am pretty excited about, both just to get to play and to have a great way to meet people and assimilate into the community.
I feel very fortunate to have such awesome potential at my site and to have such a cooperative and welcoming host family. I can’t wait to move there (except for the actual moving part) and get to assimilating.
My site visit was the first time I got to meet this family and the best description I can give for how my visit went was that I won site assignments. My town (pueblo) is awesome. A lot of the people there knew past volunteers and are excited for another. Also instead of explaining what Peace Corps is and what I plan to do like other volunteers do I have people telling me what I am going to do. There is also another volunteer there now so we will get to work together on some joint projects. The Business and YD programs have some pretty good opportunities to work hand in hand with youth and entrepreneurship so I am excited to see where that goes.
Some of the highlights of my visit were running laps at the soccer field with my host dad and my host brother, visiting the pre-Incan ruins that are in my community, climbing trees and eating fruit straight from those trees, swinging on a rope swing that looked like you were flying straight into the valley, and playing fubolito with some of the people in the community. Fubolito is a form of soccer that is really popular here, they play it on a small concrete court and it is kind of like futsol but has a few different rules. Also from my understanding when I get back I am going to be playing in some sort of league which I am pretty excited about, both just to get to play and to have a great way to meet people and assimilate into the community.
I feel very fortunate to have such awesome potential at my site and to have such a cooperative and welcoming host family. I can’t wait to move there (except for the actual moving part) and get to assimilating.
What we actually do
Being a Volunteer - The First Three Months
Okay so now that I am moving to my site and becoming an actual volunteer I am going to work to keep the blog a little more updated in hopes that I am going to be able to do some more exciting work. Training was beneficial and my Spanish has improved immensely but I am glad it’s over and I can get to something that doesn’t feel like an extension of college.
Speaking of that real work I thought this would be a good time to try to answer the question I got a lot back home, “what does the Peace Corps actually do?” While I can’t answer for every program in the world, I will attempt to explain what the program in Peru is like, specifically that of Youth Development, or YD. There are five different programs in Peru; Youth Development, Small Business, Water and Sanitation, Health, and Environment. As of now two groups come in every year, one in June and one in September, however that is subject to change pending the financial issues in Congress. Fortunately for my group the money is already dedicated for our two years but there is no guarantee for groups following us. However now the June group is YD and Small Business and the other three programs come in together in September. We all go through ten weeks of training that includes both language and technical training for our actual programs. After the ten weeks we are sworn in as volunteers (assuming we meet the requirements such as language and professional development) and get shipped off to our respective sites throughout the country.
There in our first three months we do what we call a ‘community diagnostic’ (somewhat similar to what we did last year in Macro class for those of you in the SW program). In this diagnostic we utilize a manual of tools for getting to know our communities and at the end of three months give a presentation to the community and to members of the Peace Corps Staff on what we have found such as needs, wants, and resources in the community. That information is designed to be the starting point for us to begin our real work in the community. It is encouraged to work alongside other community members in both the diagnostic and beyond to promote sustainability of our projects. Specifically in YD we want to create things that teachers or other community leaders can replicate for other groups after our service has ended.
Due to the nature of the community diagnostic our assignments are not outlined like job descriptions. There is a field of possible programs that we can use and tons of available resources, and of course we can always create our own new projects. There are all sorts of projects from long-term to short-term that we can do. Some examples of the short-term are the World Map Project, a project where together with a group from the community we paint a mural of a map and teach about geography and culture around the world. Another can be teaching English classes (which can also be a long-term project). The teaching English can often be a way to meet people in the community and an easy thing to do when you’re still learning Spanish, and it is also a program in high demand by many communities as they have English classes in the schools but often times those teachers don’t know English that well themselves. In just one visit to my site I was asked a few different times if I could teach English. Long-term projects can be anything from HIV/AIDS education to recycling programs to working on health and diet and much more. We have a lot of leeway in what we want to do which is great because we really have the freedom to tailor projects to the specific needs of our communities. The other programs of course work with different projects which at this point I don’t know a whole lot about. I do have a site-mate that is a Small Business Volunteer so I’m sure I will be learning more about her program.
During the first three months we are also able to start some of the smaller projects (like teaching English) along with working on our diagnostic, but that is going to be my focus for the upcoming time. In my site there have been previous volunteers who have done other diagnostics so I am hopefully going to get a look at those and go from there. I will also continue my Spanish learning process, something I expect to carry on for my total time here.
Hopefully that gives somewhat clearer picture of what I am actually starting to do down here in Peru. When I have a chance I will have some pictures up of training and my site (I know I keep saying that but it is really a big effort to load pictures on the internet here). So keep me updated with what is going on back home and I will try to share some of the amazing experiences I am having in Peru.
Also if you have interest in a quick lesson in all things Peruvian check out the Peru, Nebraska video on YouTube.
Okay so now that I am moving to my site and becoming an actual volunteer I am going to work to keep the blog a little more updated in hopes that I am going to be able to do some more exciting work. Training was beneficial and my Spanish has improved immensely but I am glad it’s over and I can get to something that doesn’t feel like an extension of college.
Speaking of that real work I thought this would be a good time to try to answer the question I got a lot back home, “what does the Peace Corps actually do?” While I can’t answer for every program in the world, I will attempt to explain what the program in Peru is like, specifically that of Youth Development, or YD. There are five different programs in Peru; Youth Development, Small Business, Water and Sanitation, Health, and Environment. As of now two groups come in every year, one in June and one in September, however that is subject to change pending the financial issues in Congress. Fortunately for my group the money is already dedicated for our two years but there is no guarantee for groups following us. However now the June group is YD and Small Business and the other three programs come in together in September. We all go through ten weeks of training that includes both language and technical training for our actual programs. After the ten weeks we are sworn in as volunteers (assuming we meet the requirements such as language and professional development) and get shipped off to our respective sites throughout the country.
There in our first three months we do what we call a ‘community diagnostic’ (somewhat similar to what we did last year in Macro class for those of you in the SW program). In this diagnostic we utilize a manual of tools for getting to know our communities and at the end of three months give a presentation to the community and to members of the Peace Corps Staff on what we have found such as needs, wants, and resources in the community. That information is designed to be the starting point for us to begin our real work in the community. It is encouraged to work alongside other community members in both the diagnostic and beyond to promote sustainability of our projects. Specifically in YD we want to create things that teachers or other community leaders can replicate for other groups after our service has ended.
Due to the nature of the community diagnostic our assignments are not outlined like job descriptions. There is a field of possible programs that we can use and tons of available resources, and of course we can always create our own new projects. There are all sorts of projects from long-term to short-term that we can do. Some examples of the short-term are the World Map Project, a project where together with a group from the community we paint a mural of a map and teach about geography and culture around the world. Another can be teaching English classes (which can also be a long-term project). The teaching English can often be a way to meet people in the community and an easy thing to do when you’re still learning Spanish, and it is also a program in high demand by many communities as they have English classes in the schools but often times those teachers don’t know English that well themselves. In just one visit to my site I was asked a few different times if I could teach English. Long-term projects can be anything from HIV/AIDS education to recycling programs to working on health and diet and much more. We have a lot of leeway in what we want to do which is great because we really have the freedom to tailor projects to the specific needs of our communities. The other programs of course work with different projects which at this point I don’t know a whole lot about. I do have a site-mate that is a Small Business Volunteer so I’m sure I will be learning more about her program.
During the first three months we are also able to start some of the smaller projects (like teaching English) along with working on our diagnostic, but that is going to be my focus for the upcoming time. In my site there have been previous volunteers who have done other diagnostics so I am hopefully going to get a look at those and go from there. I will also continue my Spanish learning process, something I expect to carry on for my total time here.
Hopefully that gives somewhat clearer picture of what I am actually starting to do down here in Peru. When I have a chance I will have some pictures up of training and my site (I know I keep saying that but it is really a big effort to load pictures on the internet here). So keep me updated with what is going on back home and I will try to share some of the amazing experiences I am having in Peru.
Also if you have interest in a quick lesson in all things Peruvian check out the Peru, Nebraska video on YouTube.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Second Updates
Hello All,
My apologies for not keeping this blog thing updated. Training has been a whirlwind of activity and word on the street is that once we are in our individual sites there is more time for things like this. Our tasks in site (especially the first few months) are not going to be as time consuming as training has been. Training is typically 8-5 and for those special few who came in with as little Spanish knowledge as I have been granted the opportunity for an extra hour of ‘tutoria’ from 5-6. Of course it would be foolish not to take advantage of it but it does make for a full day with homework at the end. So the blog has definitely been put on the back burner but I have come to the obvious conclusion that I can write them on my laptop and then bring them on USB to the internet cafes (locutorios) instead of trying to get everything done in the hour of computer time available there.
Training itself has been going really well. I have met some really awesome people in our training class and have enjoyed my time with my host family. At this point they are really the only Peruvians I have been able to get to know, my Spanish is coming along but it is a slow process and they are some of the only ones that have the patience and understanding it takes to have a conversation with me. I am at the point where I can pick up on most things but I often miss key parts of the question or conversation. However it is an immense improvement on week 1 and I think I am on pace to meet my language requirement for swearing in (August 19th!).
There have been so many things in training that I can only briefly explain, such as learning the dance where you essentially chase the girl around with a candle and try to light the piece of paper hanging out like a tail, the guinea pig game where the guinea pig is put in the middle and people bet on which box he will run into, and the celebration where you dance around with a machete and chop down a tree filled with presents (all of this happened in one day and as you might have guessed it was one of the best days of my life). Nothing quite compares to playing with fire and sharp objects in a celebration type fashion. We have also been able to see demonstrations of several different types of dances in Peru and other cultural traditions and once I learn how to spell Spanish words better I will attempt to explain them.
Overall the definite highlight of training so far was Field-Based Training. This was an entire week where our class split into smaller groups and went to different parts of the country for some actual hands on work. My group went to La Libertad, a department towards the north of Peru and home to one of the largest cities in the country, Trujillo. Here we went with to different volunteer sites and participated in activities in the schools and communities as well as did a little exploring on the side. The first day we saw a special education school and did a beach clean up then a few of us, myself included, got to help with the kids surfing lessons by pulling them out in the ocean so they could catch the waves. For most of the rest of the week we were dropped into schools with a theme and got to teach classes. For the most part they went okay but I did come to realize many of my current limitations with the language. Just as an example we all had to teach one class all on our own and mine was on the environment. Something that would maybe be a little difficult to teach in English became much more of a challenge in Spanish. The activities we did went pretty well but the discussion part pretty much ruined me. The kids understand that I couldn’t speak Spanish very well and so they started helping me but later turned against me when they found out it was funny to tell me the wrong words. My famous quote from the day “no tirar basura en el rio, tirar su basura en el techo!” The word I was really looking for was tacho which means trash can, what I actually said translates to don’t throw your trash in the river, throw your trash on the roof. After that things got a little silly but overall it was a positive experience.
The other major occurrence, the one that we have all been waiting for since day 1, this past Wednesday we received our ‘site assignments.’ This was the day where we found out where we are to be living the next two years, a brief description of the area and the new host family and some other general information. I will be moving up north to the department of Cajamarca. I am still in the process of learning about the area and will provide more information later, all I really know now is that it is the leader of dairy production in Peru and Cajamarca city is home to the largest Carnaval celebration in the country. This week we are making site visits where I will get to meet my new host family, community partners, and my site-mate (something a lot of people don’t have). My site-mate is a business volunteer so I am looking forward to meeting her and seeing how we can assist each other’s work in the community.
I also now have a Peruvian cell phone that you may call if you are so inclined (and want to pay for it!). I am not going to post the number for privacy reasons but if you are interested send me an email or facebook message and I will be sure to get it to you. Thanks for reading, look for the next blog after swearing in (August 19) and I will plan to go into detail about the outline for our first three months as actual Peace Corps Volunteers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)