October 11, 2008

Saturday evening. I just finished eating dinner with my host family – a very underrated meal which, in the campo, consists of sugar water with a pinch of insta-coffee, a loaf or two of bread and occasionally the leftovers from lunch. Lunch time is where it’s at here – a 2 course meal with fruit, bread and desert involved. So, if any of you know me, you know that my eating patters have undergone an adjustment in this country. Anyhow, I’ve begun this blog with a tangent.

I realize through talking to you that many of you have no clue what I’m doing out here in the wild! So let me explain. The first 3 months at site, a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) like myself spends his or her time completing what is called a Community Diagnostic Activity. The CDA is a comprehensive project designed to increase the PCVs awareness and understanding of his or her community, so that the work done over the 2 years of service can be meaningful. This is done through informal interactions – just talking to people on the street - to surveys and interviews with leaders within my community. My goal is to learn about family structure, gender roles, religion, other forms of social structure, the education and health systems, the municipality, the history of my town, folklore, local beliefs, the state of the youth, local and external organizations active in the community, among other things. Essentially, I am doing a comprehensive research project on this little mountain town that I will call home for the next 2 years.

At the end of my first 3 months in site, I will present my findings to the Peace Corps authorities and my training class at Reconnect on the coast of Peru. During these few days of heaven that I’ll spend with the 37 people I trained with in Lima, we will “reconnect” by sharing our experiences of our first months at site. Other things we’ll be sharing will be the hot Peruvian sunshine, the cool Pacific waves, Thanksgiving turkey, ceviche, and a maybe a cold beer or two. I’m looking forward to it.

So now to describe an average day at my site. Ha! As if! I have willingly relinquished the idea of a “schedule” and live life to the beat of my own drum these days. Right now, I’m in the middle of a 2-week project at the school. The Peruvian school system is divided into Inicial (Kindergarten), Primaria (Lower School) and Secundaria (Middle and Upper School). My target youth age is from 12-18, so I am spending most of my first days and months in the Secundaria. Each grade is divided into sections A and B, so of the 5 grades, there are 10 sections. Every week, each section is governmentally mandated to have 1 hour of Tutoria, an hour where a teacher leads discussions on adolescent themes like decision-making, sexuality, communication, self-esteem, etc. As a youth development volunteer, this hour is highly appealing to me for several reasons. The topics discussed during Tutoria fall under my goals as a PC volunteer of developing a healthy lifestyle, developing vocational skills and developing leadership and community involvement within the youth. Also, if I can work together with the teachers during this hour by developing meaningful workshops, then my work has the potential of sustainability once I’m gone. Hopefully, the teachers I’ll work with will continue these workshops with the kids. By attending every section of Tutoria over the next 2 weeks, I’m getting to know all the Tutors, the other teachers, the kids, and the school administration. It’s a beautiful thing. Memories of GFA definitely run through my head. I feel really fortunate to work with a school system that is not so developed as a way to give back for my awesome New England prep-school education. These days it’s all about contrast.

I’ve also identified a few other projects I’ll probably work on during my service. My town does not have a trash collector – the trash is either burned or thrown in the river. Given that my town is at the base of one of the most important glacial mountains in the world, I would like to initiate an environmental education / recycling campaign with the long-term goal of getting a trash collection truck up here. The road from the main highway to my town (a 30 minute drive up the mountain), was created only 5 years ago, so I think there’s hope in this project. I also plan to create a community garden behind the health post as a way to promote nutrition while involving the nurses in the community. Over summer vacation, the health post nurse and I plan to create a teen social theatre group. She and I, both very experience in theatre, recently attended a Peace Corps workshop on the utility of teen social theatre groups. Besides increasing self-esteem and leadership skills in the youth involved, teen social theatre groups have proved to be an excellent method in sending social messages to developing communities in need. Through these plays, we’ll cover themes like gender roles, nutrition, environmental awareness, and alcohol and drug use. I’m thinking of starting an early morning running club (yes, I said it), a yoga club, and definitely an English club… or else I’ll probably be kicked out of this town. So many adults want to learn English, and if I can figure out how to tie in this club with youth development issues, then it could be great. I’m also going to make them teach me Quechua in return.

Other than that, I cook for myself, I do yoga almost every day, I read for hours, I go on beautiful hikes and runs, I’m taking lots of pictures, catching up on the occasional episode of Gossip Girl, and hoping that you haven’t yet forgotten about me! If you ar so inclined to send me a care package, Triscuts, Sour Patch Kids, US Weekly, and any sort of chocolate is greatly appreciated. If you want more ideas, let me know. ;)

Love,
Sophie