Another week of rainy season, woot!

When I got back to my site on Monday from carnivales in Cajamarca I was really sick.  I am sure I caught it from one of the kids in my English class, but everyone in my site thinks that I partied a little too hard at carnviales.  There is this overwhelming belief amongst Peruvians that if you get wet or cold you will get sick.  I even got that from the health post workers-who should know better- ‘you’re sick because you played carnivales and got all wet.’  It frustrates the hell out of me, but trying to explain in spanish how bacteria and viruses work is exhausting, so I smile and agree.  Why yes, you are exactly right.  I got wet in Cajamarca playing carnivales and that is how I got sick.  I lost my voice because I screamed when the Peruvians shot me with their super soakers and threw buckets of paint on me.  It solves so many problems to just agree-I perfected this trick when I worked at Sweetwaters and customers would argue with me about what they had ordered versus what I had heard them order.

So I did not work on encuestas this week, because the poor Peruvians have enough trouble understanding me when I have my voice let alone my 2-pack-a-day-sounding- scratchy-cough voice I had this week.  Instead I finished the rough draft of my diagnostic.  In writing the first draft a lot of holes in my information came to my attention.  For example, the majority of the people in my town at first glance appear to be subsistence farmers, however, I know that people have money.  They don’t have a whole lot of money, but they have to have some cash in order to send their kids to school, pay for electricity, and buy rice imported from the coast.  The people in my town must be selling their crops or their animals, but I don’t really know much about it and I need to find out more.  It’s silly stuff like that, but it really makes a difference in gaining a clear understanding of how things work. 

I also spent a good deal of time traveling up and down the mountain to get the t-shirts I ordered with my English class.  There was a whole lot of drama with buying them, because unlike one of the previous volunteers I didn’t personally buy the shirts for all the students.  Instead I told the kids that I could cover 3 soles if they could cover the other 7 soles, because there were 35 kids throughout the 2 month class and did not want to spend 10 soles a kid.  I knew that the 7 soles would deter some families, but I was surprised that some families were angered at my asking for contributions.  In the end 8 students purchased shirts, I bought 1, and my friend Jennifer (also a volunteer here in Cajamarca) bought a shirt.  Several times this week I went down the mountain, walked to the printing business and was told they would be ready the next day.

Finally Sunday the shirts were ready.  So when a Peruvian business tells you your shirts will be ready on Tuesday, what they really mean to say is they’ll be ready the following Sunday!  Uggg.  The reason I was in such a hurry to get the shirts is because those 8 kids have been popping up around town all week asking me ‘are the shirts ready?’  It was all worth it though, because when I walked to each kid’s house today with the shirts they were unbelievably excited.  My host brother and cousin jumped up and down while stripping off the shirts they were already wearing in order to change. 

Today my regional director came to visit my site and see how I am doing.  My family seemed a little nervous about impressing him.  Dalila, my host mom, was going to cook guinea pig for lunch.  Now, that is a big deal, you don’t cook guinea pig for just any old occasion.  FYI-for anyone who may have been thinking about coming down to Peru for a visit, Dalila has informed me that if I should have visitors we will definitely get to eat cuys (guinea pig)!  She told me when my whole family comes down next year she plans to slaughter my favorite pig (I named her Priscilla) in their honor…I don’t know too many people who have had pigs slaughter in their honor.  It would be quite the bragging right.  Although I do believe my friend Jason Fernandez has had 2 pigs slaughtered in his honor; 1 for high school graduation and 1 for college graduation.

The site visit went so well.  Jose visited the health post and we discussed ideas for health promotion projects with all the staff.  It sounds like I am going to focus on 3 main project themes; malnutrition, clean water (last year they tested all the kids in the elementary school and 100% of the kids had parasites), and a youth health promoter program (peer educators in sex ed.).  The projects are all large scale, but I have a ton of Peace Corps resources plus the support of the health post workers.  We were briefly able to chat with the director of the secondary school and he expressed his receptiveness to the peer educator program.  The previous volunteer already did training with a group of high schoolers, but they haven’t started actually teaching.  So I just need to reinforce what they already learned, cultivate more peer educators, and figure out a way to set up a committee of parents or adults in order to ensure that this program continues after I leave.

I have already heard from my site mates; who completed their first year in December and live about a 40 minute walk away, that the municipality of Bambamarca wants to coordinate with me on doing a improved cook stove project.  Part of receiving a new cocina mejorada (improved cook stove) is attending educative classes in health topics; handing washing, nutrition, vegetable gardens, small animal husbandry, clean water, auto esteem, family violence prevention, etc..  The parasite problem appears to be the most difficult.  In order to successfully make a change in the water system of my site, everyone in the community would need to be on board and willing to do some work.  I expect that coordinating with every organization in town will be tough, especially considered my level of Spanish.  Anyhow, the visit went really well and I feel so motivated after all the day’s discussions of change.  I am the last volunteer the work in this community so I plan to make my time here really count!  I feel like I have a lot to do, but that it is all totally doable-it's an awesome feeling.

 

Chau for now,

kb

*I promise to post pictures when I have better internet-right now, I can't get them to upload.