ok, so maybe not

We had interviews again with the environment program director. His main message to all of us was don`t expect anything in terms of where you will be or what you will do because then you might get disappointed. So I`m trying to do just that although I was very upset at him and frustrated with the whole process yesterday. Our group still knows nothing although the health trainees have an idea of their climate, geography, project, urban or rural, if they`re replacing another volunteer (our group won`t be replacing anyone since we`re the first environment group!) and even if they`ll be near another person in the group. All the environment group knows now is: we will all be working with kids in some shape or form, we`ll all be working with a community garden somehow, many of us will be in urban environments, most of our counterpart (mentor) organizations will have fairly structured goals for us and most of us will be clustered together so we can work together. So until November 8th, I won`t have any updates.

This morning I went to Huayoringa Alta, a nearby community that is only about 17 years old. I went with 3 people, 2 fellow trainees and an environmental health promoter. The 2 trainees and I are working together on a joint project...I will call one, ¨Prima,¨ because our host moms are sisters, and ¨prima¨ is the Spanish word for cousin. The other I will call ¨Borracha¨ because her host family always pressures people to drink an ungodly amount of alcohol during parties, which she does, and ¨borracha¨ means¨drunk.¨ Anyway, so Prima, Borracha and I met with E.H. Promoter this morning at the Health Center near our houses. We wanted to do a health skit for mothers of a nearby community who are involved with soup kitchens and day care programs. I never realized how much I miss performing, but I am so excited to have the opportunity to act and be silly with the purpose of teaching about good health practices in a fun way. After we confirmed the general idea and the date, E.H. Promoter asked us if we wanted to go to the soup kitchens to meet the women and promote the event. We happily accepted and within minutes, we were on a bumpy bumpy combi bus ride up the mountain to Huayoringa Alta, which E.H. said had the neediest soup kitchens. Along the way, I saw that the entire community is comprised of makeshift walls with a piece of corrugated metal thrown on top to make a roof. Since not all the walls were the same height, cardboard boxes or potato sacks or whatever could be found were attached at the top of walls that didn`t reach the roof. Surprisingly, I felt comfortable here. I remember the first time I entered such a poor community in the Dominican Republic. I felt so alert, so upset at the conditions they live in. This time around I feel less sad and more like, ¨perfect, what can we do to help?¨ I was actually excited to be there rather than in my rich suburb. We went to four different soup kitchens (¨comedores populares¨) that receive certain goods such as rice from a government program, which also gives them a little bit of money with which to purchase whatever vegetables they may need. Unlike in the U.S., the mothers who volunteer there are members of the community and are as ¨needy¨ as the people who take advantage of the meals. The meals are not free but rather have a symbolic charge. As E.H. asked about the presidentas of the soup kitchens and other facts, we watched the women grind cilantro or prepare soup. Some of the women crowded around us, interested in the gringas that wanted to present a health talk and skit for them. Without warning us in advance, E.H. also proceeded to tell them about a ¨concurso,¨ which is as I understand it a cooking competition between the soup kitchens. The kitchen with the most nutritious meal will receive a prize. Somehow during his excitement, E.H. also said that we`d show movies and use the megaphone or microphone, which I didn`t know existed in a such a ramshackled community. Anyhow, this is turning out to be a lot bigger than we anticipated with probably an audience of over 50 women. The children from the day care centers might also attend. We met the woman who runs the day care centers and I will probably go back to visit them to fulfill a mini-project requirement.