13-12-07

I’ve almost completed my first two weeks in site. I could look at it as though I’m leaps and bounds closer to that 2 year mark, or I could look at it as though there are now only 102 weeks left. This week I was relatively productive. On Sunday I was invited to an inauguration ceremony for the neighborhood watch program that was set up in many of the outlying communities. I was given one of the 7 chairs of honor on stage, alongside the mayor, governor, and other official people. They even asked me to come up to present the vests and whistles to the head of one of the community watch groups. Then a tray of shot glasses was passed around and we all toasted and took a shot of pisco at 11am. To honor the community members participating in the program, there was a ‘parade’ afterwards where the 7 official people, including me, stood on the curb and cheered for each group as they walked past us down a ½ block stretch. The presentation was set up in the plaza, and the loudspeakers were facing my house, so members of my host family kept popping their heads around the corner as they heard my name being called out.
I started writing and revising a health survey this week for use with the members of the anexos to learn more about their communities. I tried to keep it short, but it still takes about 20 min to administer. I passed it around to a bunch of nurses and doctors at the health post to correct and revise, but was a little disappointed by the lack of feedback. I know certain nurses have special side projects that correspond to certain parts of the survey, such as nutrition or sanitation of environment, but when I asked them for feedback they just said it was fine. I was hoping for a more collaborative document that more people could take ownership of. Yesterday I started giving a few interviews when the nurses and I went to visit the health post of a side community. There was one woman who impressed me immensely – I am going to find her to help me with projects in that anexo because she seemed to really have a grasp on what needs to be done.
Today I helped teach an English class at the public primary school, and the English teacher is nice – I look forward to working with her on a diagnostic exam for her students and maybe having seminars with some of the older kids where I help them practice speaking in English. The director agreed to let me paint my world map on the wall of the school, which is awesome because it’s in the Plaza de Armas, and therefore is a high exposure area. Now I just need to find some kids to help me with the drawing and painting. I also went to the catholic school today to introduce myself to the director. He has it together; the teachers seem very professional and nice, and from what he told me it seems that the majority of students head to University, with a back-up of a tech institute after high school. The only issue is that I want to work with sex-ed topics, and I can’t do that within a catholic school. Hopefully I get to know some of the high school kids well enough to have a side group out of school or am able to share information informally to not get in trouble with God’s rules for parochial schools. The director took me around and introduced me personally to almost all of the high school classes, one by one. It was great to meet the kids, but kind of embarrassing to have him give a verbose and well-put together introduction in each classroom and then have me stuttering to think of something slightly different to say each time so he wouldn’t think I was an idiot. In a few of the classrooms they asked me to greet them in English, which started as an English translation of what I had said in Spanish – a formal “thank you for having me and I’m looking forward to getting to know you better over the next few months” kind of speech. By the end of it, realizing that no one knew what I was saying other than “hello my name is Martha” I started getting a little goofy and using the time to entertain myself.
There is a big demand to learn English among quite a few of the adults here. All the doctors and nurses at the health post want classes, as do people in my host family and their friends. I’ve started to put together lesson plans and activities for English classes. With this I could either start teaching an ESL class to adults (kids are tiring) or use the exercises to supplement classroom activities when I work with the local teachers. Speaking English is a skill that I have (most of the time) that people are interested in, so I figure I should take advantage and use it to get to know people in my first few months here.
It sucks being away this close to the holiday season. I miss my family so much, and it’s hard to not be able to talk to friends either. I have a cell phone now, but the rates for calling from that are ridiculous. I’m going to get a pair of headphones to use with skype, and then hopefully I will find an internet cabina that does not have the background music from world of warcraft blasting at full volume to be able to talk to people. There are also new rules in the customs that no individual can receive any more than $1000 in declared value or 3 packages in a year, and I don’t know if that means boxes or bags as well. Padded envelopes are the most safe thing to send, it seems, and to be send through USPS because they link in with our national service, Serpost. Anyway, that is lame because I like care packages. Trashy magazines have never been so exciting. After I read them I spend my free time (of which I have a lot) doing arts and crafts – I can now made beads out of strips of magazine to create jewelry, and I’ve been weaving small baskets as well. Yes, Dad, I think I finally could tackle that underwater basket weaving. They offer the official class at UC Santa Cruz if you still want to try it out.
I miss being home, but I’m dealing fine. My host family is nice – I taught my host mom how to make peanut butter a few days ago and she is thrilled. She can’t get enough of it. Martha knew how to make peanut-butter, you ask? No, it was my first time, but I pretended like I could teach her how and it wasn’t that hard, so it worked out well. And now I have natural peanut butter to put on my bread for a snack.

My new home . . .

After spending a few days shopping in Arequipa for household necessities, I arrived at the bus terminal with 8 bags stuffed into a mini taxi and a mattress perched precariously on top. No problem, we just transferred all the stuff to the back of the bus. And when I got off at my site, I found a taxi to drive the stuff to my house for me, where my new host madre made her sons shlep it up the stairs into my room.
Setting up my room has been going well - I bought a couple bookshelves to put clothes, books and food on. I was coming back from the provincial capital yesterday in a combi with a desk and bookshelf strapped to the top, then got dropped off in the plaza of my city. I could see my house from where I was standing, holding my bag of pots and pans next to my bookshelf and my table. I´ve been warned enough times not to trust people with my things, so I pulled a superwoman move and picked the bookcase up with my left hand and wrapped my right arm around the table. There were all these grimy guys just sitting around watching as I carried both pieces of furniture all the way across the plaza and to my house. At least I can say I´m making them question traditional gender roles . . .
Today I am going around town and introducing myself to some of the leaders. I went to the police station to meet the chief and I found him in a tank top and shorts scrubbing the bathroom floor. He was so embarrassed not to be in uniform. I´m glad that each time I venture out to meet someone new it seems like new events are added to my ´social´ calendar as well. And by social I really mean chances for me to appear in public with a proper introduction and meet more of the population. Today is the National Police Day, so I am invited to their celebration, and on Sunday there is an inauguration of the new program that is like a neighborhood watch. One event a day, that´s all I need. I have a new cell phone and address now, so send me an e-mail if you want to get that information from me.