This week I had the chance to attend a meeting about the ecoefficient schools network that one of the third year volunteers in my province is helping to develop. I am interested in getting some of the schools in my area to follow suit and at least try and start in on some of the requirements for this program. Aside from being an introduction to a potentially excellent opportunity for my community, this meeting served as an excuse for me to check out my friend's site, who happens to live where this network is being developed. Her site is closer to the stereotypical Peace Corps experience that I was anticipating and, therefore, I was curious to step into her world for a bit.
I haven't given up many of the amenities that I had mentally prepared myself to live without prior to the Peace Corps and, although I am grateful every day for my refrigerator, gas stove, and bathroom, I have been dying to try out the day to day life of some of my fellow volunteers. The town I stayed in has no electricity or running water, which, as it turns out, has many blessings in terms of the social dynamics of the community. My adventure in the caserio (small rural annex) of sincape began with an afternoon watching soccer and chatting with the women and children who gather every day to watch the young men play. Because there is no electricity, soccer, card games, and conversation dominate the social scene. The afternoon of soccer was refreshing after six months with the tv almost constantly playing in the background.
That night it turned out to be my friend's host mother's birthday. I was thrilled that my meeting happened to fall on an event providing me with a chance to see how they get down in Sincape. I knew it was going to be a memorable experience when the first step to preparing for the party was selecting the fattest guinea pigs from the herd running around in the kitchen. After the women of the house filled a bucket with the heartiest sources of meat, I made a conscious effort to avoid the prep of our tasty rodents so as to avoid losing my appetite. One of the most offensive things a guest can do in Peruvian culture is refuse food that they have been offered. I have toughened up a lot in Peru but I still don’t feel like watching a guinea pig slaughter. As it turns out, the dinner was delicious, the best guinea pig I have had since I have been there. I was pleasantly surprised because I lost any enthusiasm I may have had about eating these creatures I used to regard as adorable pets when my host mom prepared it last week and failed to remove all the hair from the skin before tossing it in the frying pan. As I cautiously picked my way around the fur, I thought I would never eat cuy (the Peruvian word for guinea pig) again.
After dinner, the car battery arrived. In a world without electricity, the charged car battery is a precious commodity because it means tv and music. We hooked it up to the stereo and the dancing commenced. At any event where dancing is involved, I become even more the spectacle than I already am so I was obligated to spend the entire night dancing until the last people left. I was thankful that the next day was a work day so the party wound down a little after midnight rather than lasting until the sun comes up like weekend parties.
The next day, my fellow volunteer and I headed to the river for another activity very significant in the day-to-day life in Sincape, bathing and washing clothes. Whereas I wash my clothes in a large sink in my house and bathe in a shower, my friend experiences these two activities as a social event every afternoon down at the river. All of the women from the town were there laughing and gossiping and the kids were running and jumping into the water. We even got into a splash war and a rock-skipping contest with about 10 of the children. It was the most lively and social bath that I had ever taken.
When I left Sincape, I was given very firm instructions to come back soon and was even invited to multiple birthday parties coming up in the future. Even though I only spent one night there, I am already in love with this town and I look forward to my next visit. In the mean time, I am appreciating my electricity and running water.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Life as Señorita Dani
The past couple of weeks have been incredibly busy between planning and executing an Earth Day parade and recycling collection, continuing in my efforts to get funding from the municipality, and attending my first in service training. I am feeling very productive and I am incredibly excited to continue with larger scale projects that will be sustainable. The work that I have put in over the past three weeks has been the most rewarding part of Peace Corps yet.
The Earth Day celebration was weeks in the making and I couldn't help but worry as I waited in the plaza for the students to show up for the parade. As it turned out, there was no need to worry. At 9 am exactly the students from the four schools that I had invited came flooding in carrying the picket signs they had worked so hard to create. One of the elementary schools even brought their marching band along which made it impossible for the community members to ignore our parade. During the parade, the students from one of the schools went door to door to collect recycling, which they then sold to raise money for an amplifier they can use at school events. The parade was incredible and boosted my confidence as a volunteer. Of course, as with any project, there were a couple of glitches. The prizes we had solicited for the poster contest were meant for individuals but the students worked in groups so we had nothing to give the winners but we have decided to buy clocks for the winning classroom once the money for our solid waste management education budget comes through from the municipality.
Working with the municipality has proven quite an ordeal so I am concerned about relying on their timetable. The volunteers that I replaced got a solid waste education project approved last year through a program called the participatory budget. I came to site thinking that I would have this large budget waiting for me but, as with any bureaucracy, it was not that simple. I have spent the past six months fighting alongside the solid waste committee to get the money that the previous volunteers had been promised. As it turns out, their project had been lumped together with a large municipal project that is going to cost 700,000 soles (about $250,000). The municipality will never have this kind of money and they refuse to simplify the project in order to make it more feasible. They also insist that they cannot start any aspect of the project until they have funding lined up for all of it. My job has been to get the solid waste committees project separated from the large-scale municipal project so that we will have control over the timetable and logistics. This week I made huge strides to getting my hands on the funding that my predecessors were promised last October. I should have access to the money to start purchasing garbage cans and educational materials next week but I will believe that once I have money in my hands. I am confident that we are almost there in which case I can establish recycling programs in all of the schools of Pacora, which will earn them income and, therefore, have more of a chance at sustainability. I have learned a ton from this process about patience, persistence, and lobbying skills. These are all qualities that will come in handy if I decide to work in the U.S. government. I'd like to think it will be easier to get stuff done in the United States but that would be naïve, bureaucracy is bureaucracy.
In terms of general Peruvian life, I don't have anything too exciting to report. This may be because I am getting used to the things that used to throw me. I now don't think twice about the goats in bags on the combi or the bowls of organs in the refrigerator. My perspective on some things is much different now. For example, I am no longer offended by people publicly picking their nose, ears, bellybutton, or other orifices. I only hope that I will be able to shed my rural Peruvian manners once I get back to the U.S., especially since I will be traveling home for my sister's wedding, not the ideal setting for public displays of personal hygiene maintenance.
The Earth Day celebration was weeks in the making and I couldn't help but worry as I waited in the plaza for the students to show up for the parade. As it turned out, there was no need to worry. At 9 am exactly the students from the four schools that I had invited came flooding in carrying the picket signs they had worked so hard to create. One of the elementary schools even brought their marching band along which made it impossible for the community members to ignore our parade. During the parade, the students from one of the schools went door to door to collect recycling, which they then sold to raise money for an amplifier they can use at school events. The parade was incredible and boosted my confidence as a volunteer. Of course, as with any project, there were a couple of glitches. The prizes we had solicited for the poster contest were meant for individuals but the students worked in groups so we had nothing to give the winners but we have decided to buy clocks for the winning classroom once the money for our solid waste management education budget comes through from the municipality.
Working with the municipality has proven quite an ordeal so I am concerned about relying on their timetable. The volunteers that I replaced got a solid waste education project approved last year through a program called the participatory budget. I came to site thinking that I would have this large budget waiting for me but, as with any bureaucracy, it was not that simple. I have spent the past six months fighting alongside the solid waste committee to get the money that the previous volunteers had been promised. As it turns out, their project had been lumped together with a large municipal project that is going to cost 700,000 soles (about $250,000). The municipality will never have this kind of money and they refuse to simplify the project in order to make it more feasible. They also insist that they cannot start any aspect of the project until they have funding lined up for all of it. My job has been to get the solid waste committees project separated from the large-scale municipal project so that we will have control over the timetable and logistics. This week I made huge strides to getting my hands on the funding that my predecessors were promised last October. I should have access to the money to start purchasing garbage cans and educational materials next week but I will believe that once I have money in my hands. I am confident that we are almost there in which case I can establish recycling programs in all of the schools of Pacora, which will earn them income and, therefore, have more of a chance at sustainability. I have learned a ton from this process about patience, persistence, and lobbying skills. These are all qualities that will come in handy if I decide to work in the U.S. government. I'd like to think it will be easier to get stuff done in the United States but that would be naïve, bureaucracy is bureaucracy.
In terms of general Peruvian life, I don't have anything too exciting to report. This may be because I am getting used to the things that used to throw me. I now don't think twice about the goats in bags on the combi or the bowls of organs in the refrigerator. My perspective on some things is much different now. For example, I am no longer offended by people publicly picking their nose, ears, bellybutton, or other orifices. I only hope that I will be able to shed my rural Peruvian manners once I get back to the U.S., especially since I will be traveling home for my sister's wedding, not the ideal setting for public displays of personal hygiene maintenance.
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