Upon my return to Pacora, I found that it can be very detrimental to leave fragile Peace Corps projects in the hands of busy community members during harvest season. I came back to a community garden that had been left unwatered and eaten by chickens and two recycling projects that had not been started as we had agreed prior to my trip. Since I have gotten back it has been pure catch-up (with a short break for the world cup final with fellow Peace Corps volunteers). I have been running recycling campaigns in two elementary schools, starting to plan a garden with my ecological brigades at the high school, getting a proposal together for the participatory budget for 2011, and, in the midst of all this, taking 4 high school boys to a weekend leadership camp. WHEW!
The leadership camp happened this weekend and turned out amazingly thanks to our fearless leaders who planned the whole thing. The camp consisted of lectures about effective communication, self-esteem, leadership, project design, environmental topics, and health, and activities ranging from a soccer tournament to a s'more making workshop. For the health lecture we brought in our Peace Corps doctor from Lima and sent away the girls to facilitate an open discussion about risks and challenges facing young boys particularly having to do with sexual health. Even though I wasn't present at this particular talk, I have seen the same presentation given to girls and Peace Corps volunteers and I can tell you that it includes incredibly graphic real-life photos of genitals infected with the nastiest of diseases. The culmination of this talk is a condom relay, which I found hilarious. Each boy got to go through all of the steps of using a condom starting with discussing it with their "partner" (i.e. a male peace corps volunteer). It was a great way to take the pressure off of the one on one sex talks.
My responsibility at this camp was to give the solid waste management talk, which, due to the lack of enlarged photos of genitals, was a little less exciting than the health talk. Little did the boys know that after my talk they would get to participate in the building of a micro-landfill, translation digging in the hot sun while I watched and kept talking about the benefits of burying trash as opposed to throwing it in the river or burning it in the back yard. My main point was that it is important to minimize the amount of trash by reducing, reusing, and recycling so that you don't have to dig many holes. I think they got that point after busting their asses and getting about a foot into a meter deep hole.
Camp VALOR was a success and now I have a core group of boys to help me in any project that I do with the high school. We have discussed doing recycling collection, building a solar oven, and building a garden and I am really excited to take advantage of the newfound motivation that has been generated in these kids.
Since coming back from camp I have been replanting the community garden that got eaten by chickens and sorting recycling. My campaigns with the elementary schools are going very well aside from the fact that I have to figure out how to keep them recycling in their houses once I quit giving them stickers for bringing it into school. We always talk about tangible results versus behavior change in the Peace Corps and I am working on my strategy for making the jump from the former to the latter with my school children. I must say that these campaigns are so rewarding that they become an invaluable way to bond with the students, teachers, and parents, and to get people thinking about waste management and recycling if not actually changing their behavior…yet.
In health related news, I had my first experience with exciting third world parasites since coming back to site. THIS PARAGRAPH IS NOT FOR THOSE WHO ARE EATING OR FAINT OF HEART. I noticed a small sore under the end of the toenail of my second toe and I attributed it to my new running shoes that my parents had brought me and forgot about it. One night, while sitting in my room and watching the Sopranos as I usually do after dinner, I noticed that my toe was a little swollen and hurt a bit. After poking at the sore, I squeezed out the usual puss along with the egg sack of the pique, a small insect that makes its home in pig shit and burrows into the flesh of unsuspecting victims to lay its eggs. Even though this was a particularly disgusting experience, at least I caught it before the eggs hatched. One of my good friends let hers go too long (also thinking it was a running shoe issue) and her toe yielded a whole batch of maggots instead of just an egg sack. Of course, like an idiot, yesterday I went out into the rural area again in flip-flops but this time I remembered to do a thorough check before going to bed. I ended up finding at least four piques burrowing into my skin and I just hope that I got them all.
Aside from being the host to some unwelcome friends in my toe, life has been pretty good here. I feel successful as a Peace Corps volunteer and I look forward to seeing my projects through. I have found some motivated counterparts who are always willing to work with me and I have gained a good amount of respect in my community. Now if only I could get the chickens to stop eating my plants and the kids to recycle for the sake of the environment instead of the stickers, candy, and pencils that I hand out. If anyone has any potential prizes lying around, feel free to send them (along with dark chocolate, trashy magazines, and hand written letters). My address is:
Dani Rueter
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla Postal 208
Serpost Chiclayo
Peru, S.A.
I miss everyone! Keep in touch!
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