Preparing for the possibility

When you leave for Peace Corps, you prepare yourself to be away as best you can, knowing that you’re most likely going to miss important holidays, birthdays, weddings and all kinds of other celebrations.  It’s part of the sacrafice.  Volunteers go home for some of these events, but they can’t go home for all of them.  And while it’s not fun to miss these events, you get by.  I spent Thanksgiving with other volunteers and Peruvians, and shared the holiday with them.  I spent Christmas with my homestay family and felt really at home.  Not once did I feel horribly homesick that I was missing these events. 

But something happened that I was only somewhat expecting, but never really thinking about.  My grandmother died this past month.  While not going into details, it was expected and unexpected.  I’ve gotten calls from home during Christmas, Easter, etc and always felt happy about it, but this was the opposite.   Instead of missing an event where everyone was happy, I was missing a traumatic moment with my family…one where everyone converges for a few days and puts everything else on hold.  And I was in Perú with no way out. 

Before I left, we talked about the possibility of my grandmother dying and what we would do if it happened.  Peace Corps only pays for the volunteer to go back to the states for immediate family emergencies (parents, siblings), and seeing as how getting a flight that soon would be very expensive and by the time I got from my site to home, she would be buried, it just wouldn’t be possible to go home.

I prepared myself for being away for holidays, but maybe this is something you just can’t prepare yourself for.  To be honest, I did feel alone and depressed for a few days and took some time out of site in the regional capital.  My homestay family was compassionate and caring, but it just wasn’t the same.  I talked with other volunteers, and they helped out, and I took a few personal days. 

I don’t mean to write this to be depressing, or discourage the 16er’s that will be arriving in Peru in less than a month.  This is just one part of your experience in Peace Corps, not really glamorous.   And my advice would be that before you leave, talk with your family about a plan of action if someone dies.  Although it’s hard to even talk about it - let alone go into the specifics since most likely you won’t know where you’ll be stationed, and access to communication- it’s better to have the plan and know a little bit before you go, rather than having it all hit you at once. 

TFA versus Peace Corps

Within the last years, Teach For America (TFA) has received attention from the press in front of the academic crisis that our country is struggling to solve.  Facing a shortage if teachers in some areas (regions and specialties) or teachers deemed ineffective by various instruments, TFA seeks to solve that by placing high achieving college students with no to limited experience and training with teaching into the classroom for two years.  Kinda sounds like something familiar, eh?

Much of the current criticism is that the candidates are generally under qualified to be effective teachers and by the time most participants leave the program, they’re just finding their way around the gig.  But I say that we face the same problem from many entering the education field with a teaching degree…many who receive their undergrad in teaching spent most of their time learning theory of teaching with little direct practice except maybe one or two student teaching units.  And there’s a high attrition rate among new teachers as well (those that can actually find jobs). 

And TFA does really (even suspiciously) sound very similar to the Peace Corps.  Mostly recent college graduates, who agree to serve in underserved (albeit foreign) communities for two years.  Most volunteers have some experience in the area they work in, but it might not be direct (most Water/Sanitation volunteers have a background in construction or engineering, Environment in sciences or nature).  Some countries and programs have high attrition rates just like TFA or teaching in general, and these are typically in very difficult assignments.  And most volunteers are on the two and out program and most are not necessarily likely to continue in the field of international development or foreign service. 

Instead, volunteers in Peace Corps and TFA carry the experience with them.  While they most likely won’t work in teaching or international development, they’re likely work in community development or other social programs.  At the least, they’ll remember they’ll remember their service, the inequality and the struggles they see and experience in their daily lives working in underserved communities and populations.

Vacation happy to get away...

A recent conversation with an American amgio, Jason 'The Dream' Farson:

Farson: How's vacation?
Me: Living the dream....sitting in bed eating rotisserie chicken and COPS is going to come on.  Gonna take a hot shower later.
Farson: Just think, back in America your vacation could be like every day

Six Months In And What To Show For It?

So it’s been almost six months in site (the 22nd) and truly time has flown by. It’s really hard to put down anything solidly accomplished for the last six months; no bathrooms built, no major projects completed and only 18 months to go. Factor in that all major projects are supposed to be done by month 21 and that leaves 15 months to go for large scale stuff and we still haven’t started the planning phases. So there’s a bit of stress not only on my end, but I think many of the 14ers are in the same way. But to be fair I’ve also accomplished a lot:

+Completed reservoir cleaning and tube disinfection (another scheduled for June)
+Solid working relationships with the municipality and the health post
+Participated in two sessions with Builders Beyond Borders
+3-4 hours a week teaching English and getting known by the youth
+International Women's Day Charla in the schools
+Strong community integration - about 90% of the town knows I live/work there, 35-40% knows kind of why
+Usually hear the shouts of 'Mateo!' 'Gringo!' and others from the community while walking around
+Actually like being at site and feeling at home.
+Will be presenting my work plan to local authorities in the coming days.

So maybe when I think about it, I'm pretty well planted.

Part of why I´m surviving Peru

So when I think about it, I’m passing close to six months at site and over eight months in Perú. And like it has been said before, the days are long but the weeks and months are short. Sometimes days crawl by forever; no-shows at appointments, meetings that drag on, and at times there’s simply nothing constructive to do. But usually reflecting on the week, or month, I find myself trying to remember what all seemed to happen so quickly.

This is also a bit of a milestone as I’m not really used to staying in one location for too long. Especially during college, I was living on campus for 3 months, back at home for a few weeks, back at school, a few weeks at home for the summer, and a few weeks in Wheeling and then repeat (or mix in a semester in Oman). So living in the same place isn’t something I am too used to, let alone living with the same set of people. But I’m somehow making it work here. I think a big part of this is due to the family I live with.

I was asked by a future trainee whether or not I was used to the cultural differences of living with a host family. In a better perspective, I feel they probably put up with a lot more ‘acustumbrar-ing’ (accustoming?) with having me around than vice-versa. I do take a lot of short trips here and there, and I don’t really have a set schedule. So sometimes I’ll be at home a lot, other times I’ll be out, or even out of the department for a while. I’ll make trips to Ica (I’ve gone to the south end of the country three times in the last four months). But they’re still really loving, supportive, and welcoming to me. They include me in every little family event or dinner, but were also cool that I asked to stick around instead of going to Trujillo for a family party (I wanted to stay partly for some Mateo time and also to hang out with my Peruvian friends and watch the local soccer matches).

For me, my family here is people I trust to ask questions about things I don’t understand or maybe have them explain some cultural stuff to me. Like why isn’t so and so well liked, or how this person got that job and all the inner-workings of the community. They’re well connected and well respected by most of the town, so when I say I live with them I think that respect carries over a little bit. Everyone in my town always says they’re a very kind and generous family, and I for one can definitely vouch for this.

Starbucks Pt 2

So a while back, I wrote a quick blurb about being at Starbucks in Trujillo and how it really seemed ‘American’ and how I was a bit in shock at how it was the same type of ‘Starbucks culture’ here in Peru as in the states, and also the difference/disparity of wealth from where I was that evening (Starbucks) and during the day (my town).

I didn’t mean to vilify Starbucks or the people there, or even really imply that there’s anything wrong with Starbucks. Hell, I purposely went there that night and another time after that for a few hours and bought a drink and used the wireless internet). It can be a good symbol of the disparity, especially between rural and urban: for the same cost as a large frappachino drink, I can buy lunch for a week at a restaurant in my town, clearly the calorie cost is different.

But at the same time, Starbucks can be a good sign. With the prices the way they are (For the same price, I can either buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks or two weeks worth of fresh ground coffee in the grocery store), obviously there needs to be some level of clientele to support the business. And indeed there is. It shows, in a very unscientific way, a growing semi-professional youth culture working/networking and having disposable income. Quite possibly the patrons you might see at this Starbucks are going to be part of the ‘Perú advanza’ model, which won’t be cocinas mejoradas, but larger scale domestic businesses and innovations.

What could be said, for example, if there was the Starbucks and it was filled with ex-patriot workers or European/American tourists? Truly more of a divide or even cultural imperialism, maybe. Or is it cultural imperialism to see Peruvians do something ‘American’? I think not as they seem to gravitate to it on there own…there’s no mass media campaigns I can tell to get people into Starbucks.

Being A Mercenary Volunteer

So I’ve been fortunate in that during my first four months of service, I wasn’t chained to my site (not that you ever really are, but still). In February and March, I was invited to journey down to the south of Peru for a week and work with a group called Builders Beyond Borders (B3). In short, they’re a non-profit group that brings between 20-40 high schoolers from the Connecticut area down to a developing country to do a bunch of manual labor. They fund raise around $2,500 to cover for travel, meals, supplies, etc. and take a week out of school or their Spring Break to attend this project. And through the glories of networking and past experiences with Peace Corps, B3 hooked up with some of our Water and Sanitation 12’ers (the group before me) to assist on their bathroom and water system projects. And they were kind enough to invite other volunteers down (like me!) and feed/lodge us, plus let us go with the kids to local activities such as sandboarding and white water rafting (Peace Corps is hard!!!).
In February, I worked with a group in the province of Canyette, which is already ripe with Peace Corps volunteers due to the effects of the 2007 earthquake. This particular group’s mission was dig a ridiculous amount of trenches in various parts of this remote agricultural town and install main water lines, which would later be connected to houses. This was really the thankless part of the project because the kids wouldn’t really get to see anything ‘completed’; just pipes laid and if all went well, no leaks. My job in this instance was to be a point person for technical advice (or talk with the town plumber), translate, and be a ‘role model’. After a week, I was really impressed with the kids and their work ethic. Most of them kept on going strong until quitting time, and even past that. Digging ditches in the hot Peruvian sun is not really a fun way to spend your winter break, especially when $2,500 could be used for so much sweeter stuff (like 2/3 of a Peace Corps volunteer’s living allowance!) but the kids never really complained and really liked the experience of manual labor and getting dirty (probably two things they never really get to do up in Connecticut).
In March, it was more or less the same routine except I was working on a bathroom project in the south of Ica, where the earthquake really took it’s toll. Most of the communities were rebuilt with thatch housing and people were just starting to rebuild with adobe. I worked with two different teams of kids during the week, with two trained maestros (campo handymen/masons/carpenters/etc) to build pour flush bathrooms. This project was a little different because the teams would finish a bathroom in about two days, and therefore just restart from scratch. But they persevered throughout the week and hit the number of bathrooms they aimed for. They all got on really well, and what was interesting is that the maestros really liked the kids, even if they couldn’t fully communicate with them. The kids wound up leaving on Saturday morning, while the PC volunteers and the maestros worked during the morning to finish up some loose ends, and some of the maestros were generally sad that the kids were gone. I was talking with one of them and asked why he looked a little sleepy (it was Saturday morning), and he said he wasn’t sleepy but sad that the kids were gone.
And I think that’s part of what B3 aims for, especially with organizations who just jump in, do a quick project, and leave. B3 really aims for the cultural and emotional experience for their kids, who largely grew up in privilege or at the very least with most of their needs met. These trips allow the kids to see a different way of living, and poverty, and reflect on that as an individual however they want to interpret it. To be honest, I was a little skeptical of these trips…’volunteer tourism’, where you jump in for a week, get to slum it, and then go back to your comfortable living condition. But what I personally hope for with these trips is that the kids hold this experience with them and use it as a bit of a spark to either serve abroad or at home in the United States to help and work people achieve better means and levels of living. And I also benefitted from the trips as well by working with the maestros and seeing what the more experienced volunteers were doing and how their work went from the first couple months like where I’m at, to over a year in and actually doing projects.