Sunday, November 22, 2009

No longer the Newbies...


Pretty much all of my actual "Youth"

Entering the Christmas season and summer at the same time is a very interesting concept, particularly given that I have spent the last 4 years preparing for the holidays in the bitter windy cold that is a Boston winter. It’s funny that despite temperatures that are climbing into the 90s, much of our traditions for Christmas decorations have been adopted. I’m not sure how common any of these things are outside of the city, but right now the market is full of fake Christmas trees, and strings of lights and garlands. The supermarket is all decked out for the holidays and playing Christmas music. The music has all the same tunes, but since lyrics obviously don’t translate to fit the tune, the words are all different. It’s going to be an interesting month… I haven’t really felt homesick since the first week or so of training, but as anyone who knows me probably would have guessed, the holidays are starting to get to me already. I am the ringleader behind decorating the house, cooking big meals, gift wrapping, etc. I think I had underestimated how hard is would be to not be going home. Also, it does not help that Peace Corps preaches to you about the importance of celebrating Christmas in site for the cultural exchange, and my host dad walks into my room to inform me yesterday that they are going to be traveling to the other end of the country to celebrate Christmas with his family… lovely. And while I have made some amazing friends here that have already offered that I can come celebrate with them and their host families, it’s still another blow to the holiday season.

On the bright side (haha yes there is one I promise) the place that I work, La Molina is planning a big “Chocolatada” which is a traditional Christmas party in Peru for Christmas Eve. All the families of the kids who I work with will be coming to celebrate, so I will have at least that party where I know people and feel like part of the community. I’m actually really looking forward to that one. One big reason is because according to Peace Corps, and logic, giving people gifts does not lead to sustainable development. However, Christmas is a fun exception to that rule in my mind. So I can finally get the kids in La Molina a few gifts to keep at the Ludoteca. For example, the kids love to draw and paint, so I want to get some supplies, and they actually do read if there are books around. This is also my attempt to solicit any help in the gift giving department, especially any teacher friends who read this J Let me know if you have anything, small toys, games, etc that you would not mind donating to my kiddies for the holidays. I would especially love if anyone had Spanish language kid’s books. Our one Where’s Waldo book in particular took on a life of its own here. So, if you would be at all interested or able to help out, let me know. Come on, they’re so cute:





Can you be hardcore while you read Where's Waldo?






The face sums her up :)


Oh Benjamin...

The ludoteca has actually had a recent makeover that I am thrilled about. With the help of my Regional Coordinator and Heather, another volunteer, we cleaned all the random trash out of the building itself and painted some of the random tires that were piled up because as I like to note, once you paint them tires are toys not trash ;). Over the last few weeks, Dina, another volunteer has been bringing supplies donated by the NGO out to the site. After 2 years the kids finally have some basic toys, a play kitchen, some books, more puzzles, etc, and we actually have seats now yay! While I technically had little to do with getting the supplies, I get the feeling that the ludoteca had been pretty ignored until I started working there and needed more attention from the NGO staff than a normal volunteer might need. Hey, if my ineptness at Spanish gets these kids more toys and games, I’ll take it.

I’m finally starting to feel like more of the community out in La Molina. I actually got my interviews done for my diagnostic by going house to house to speak with parents and fill out a survey. So as a result, I know all of the mothers of my kiddies finally. Everyone has been surprisingly helpful, even if I can’t understand all the answers and they often contradict each other… Señora Zeta, the mother of the girl I work with who owns the ludoteca building, is honestly one of the sweetest people I have met yet in Peru. She rivals my host mom in Yanacoto. She went house to house with me and helped translate my Spanish into, well, actual Spanish. We wandered all around town for a few days, and she’s one of those people you meet who gives you hope in being here just by supporting what you are doing. I pretty much owe my entire diagnostic to her. Also, my rides out to site always make me laugh now. Everyone who works on the combi knows me and automatically stops when they see me walking and they let me off at the ludoteca without my asking. I even have one guy who drives a cab in addition to working on the combi who has given me free rides to work. I’m sure this is not my best or safest laid plan, but free cab rides are always a nice option compared to a crowded combi trip…


The Before:


The Work:

The painting process (730am Saturday morning no less...)

My helpers :)


And the After:

The Kids love it :)

I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I am helping coach my students for the Special Olympics – Handball and Rhythmic Gymnastics (feel free to laugh at the concept of me coaching anything). Fortunately for me handball has basically no rules, and the rhythmic gymnastics comes with a cd and dvd in English, which I am pretty much sure was the only reason I was asked to help out. However, while practicing with the CD trying to get the steps aligned to the music, it took about 20 minutes and 8 run throughs of the routine before the other teacher realized that I could follow the steps because they were being called out in English on the CD. (trust me I had tried to explain this point several times before it magically occurred to her that I seemed to always finish on cue…) Then they wanted a Spanish translation for phrases such as: tip-toe turn spinning the rope – not sentences I usually work on saying. Despite the lost in translation frustrations, it’s actually been a lot of fun. It gives me a project and a chance to really work with the kids. I also get to work with a lot of the teenagers who are in the “inclusion” program who don’t usually come to the school. For the record, I don’t know how much confidence I have in a an inclusion program that lets the kids miss several weeks of classes to come to the school and play handball with me every day, but that’s a separate issue. I am so used to little kids or kids with more severe problems who don’t know my Spanish sucks, or adults who or are too polite to point it out, that teenagers who just blatantly mock me in such a good natured honest way just makes me laugh (most of the time). I am traveling with the whole school up to Los Organos, which is supposed to be a pretty nice beach, for a few days. As part of this experience I believe that I will get a tshirt and another track suit, so life is pretty sweet. And yes video of the rhythmic gymnastics routine will be posted, but no one gets cameras well enough at the school to film me doing it… sorry ;)

The other day the mayor of Castilla came by the school for this big ceremony thanking him for his donation to help repare the wall of the school. Now maybe this is just being a little cynical, but the government should be paying for repairs that prevent public school children with disabilities from running out into the street in a dangerous part of town, no? Doesn’t really seem ceremony worthy to me, but then again I am not Peruvian. Anyway, the mayor showed up 30 minutes late, gave a 5 minute speech, toured around to look at the wall and left. The highlight was the hilarious moment when the rope broke during the flag raising it so they rigged up a way to hang it like a foot off the ground, no one else seemed to find this as funny as me… I was however, slightly annoyed when the director thanked me for coming by “por un rato” basically calling me out for showing up right before the ceremony and leaving as soon as it ended. For the record, this was a day I don’t actually work at the school, and I had spent all morning at a meeting with the new volunteers waiting for my community partner to come speak about our relationship (she was 45 minutes late) and then had to run to La Molina where I usually work that day. Relations are mildly strained at the school, as I have yet to figure out what the heck I am going to be doing there. Hopefully summer vacation will give me time to plan, or something…


Jairo with the Mayor and my Director The Ceremony

The Mayor speaking The random tour of the wall


Flag incident

A few of the older kids performed a traditional Peruvian dance - the Marinera

You just have to love him...


On a semi-related note to the story above, the new volunteers have officially arrived in Piura today :) The 13ers (my group) are no longer the newbies. We have 5 volunteers in the Health program. It’s crazy to think that I have been here nearly 6 months, and now I am the person showing people around Piura and answering questions. While I do have my fair share of days that drag, this whole thing is pretty much flying by, I’m not quite sure if I have acustumbrar-ed (look it up, you know without the -ed) quite yet, but I guess this crazy world is home now, no?