2.22.2006

The circus is in town

The circus is in town. I can´t wait until they leave. Why? First of all, I hate clowns. I don´t like things with masks or painted faces that make them look maniacal. Second, they have found it necessary to play the same 20-second advertisement sound clip for 3 hours straight every day they are here, from last Sunday to tonight. And then since it´s just down the road from my house, I hear everything that goes on all night long. The only good thing is that they randomly play some Indian music, which I like. That Kenny G version of "My Heart Will Go On" that they play twice in a row (whenever someone plays that song they have to play it more than once)? Not so much.

Yesterday, about 12 mototaxis went by my window in a motorized parade, complete with trumpet players playing from within the mototaxis. They were supporting APRA, one of the 25 political parties that have presidential candidates in the April/May election. APRA´s presidential candidate is Alan Garcia, a former Peruvian President who was responsible for extreme hyperinflation, where the price of everything increased significantly within a few hours. Every Peruvian recounting those days gets understandably animated and dramatic, remembering the impossibly long lines they waited in, hoping to be able to buy some corn before the price went up by 300%. Despite this, the last I heard was that he was pulling at number 3 in the polls. And he´s putting up a good fight. His fans are very organized, and he also is getting suspiciously more air time than other candidates. I think he might have the most walls painted with his name on it. Which is a feat. Almost every wall here is covered in paint supporting either Alan Garcia or the top two candidates (as of a few weeks ago), Ollanta Humalla, who is rumored to possibly join the Hugo Chávez crew if elected, and Lourdes Flores, who was pulling at number one. If she wins, she will join the growing number of female presidents/premiers around the world, such as in Chile and Germany. Unfortunately, she´s very conservative. But, you know, I´m not supposed to take sides here. Not publicly, at least. All in all, Perú has a chaotic and crazy presidential history that will be very interesting to watch as a new chapter unfolds.

2.19.2006

My scheme is working

So two entries ago, I hinted that I was planning to do something that would rid myself of ridiculous secretarial duties. Well, the plan is underway and working out beautifully!

The plan was to start working more with women´s organizations -- I learned that there are 32 in the Municipality, 22 being Club de Madres´, which organize Soup Kitchens that offer low-cost meals. International Women´s Day is March 8th, and I knew that my town would celebrate, since we´re so organized. I was right. After nearly begging the the president of the Women´s Committee, a Regidora (politically appointed town leader, powerful), that I wanted to help them with those activities, we had a meeting this past Tuesday. Sadly enough, only 9 people showed up. The meeting started with a few women blaming the Regidora for not sending out the meeting invitations sooner. It makes me reflect on how e-mail has made working in the US so efficient. Another small "cultural shock" I noticed was that after introducing the meeting, the Regidora sat down and had one of the MEN who work at the municipality run the rest of the meeting. Ooh, that would never happen in the US, especially since we were organizing what we should do for International Women´s Day.

After the initial tension, everything turned out very friendly. I left extremely hearted about my role in the community. I met new leaders, suggested ideas that they voted to keep on the agenda, and volunteered to run a self-esteem workshop for adolescent girls. It truly lifted my spirits -- that is the environment I hoped to work in -- one of mutual respect, exchanging ideas and organizing something useful. Plus, I haven´t seen or TALKED to my counterpart since Wednesday. Ah, I feel so liberated!

2.14.2006

VDay Love

Love from the KIDS, that is, hehe.

Today I grabbed 3 of my nearby PCV friends and presented 2 skits/plays in a nearby town. First, we did a skit I wrote up really quickly this weekend about a balanced diet. Perú uses 3 food groups. I pretended to be a news reporter. Using my fake mic made out of toilet paper rolls and a black plastic bag, I interviewed Prima, who pretended to be a nutritionist. Then, we had the audience "feed" Bad Girl and Good Boy. Good Boy grew, felt like he could run a lot and had a shield that warded off the toilet paper roles we threw at him that said "gripe," which is the flu (or a cold). Bad Girl didn´t grow, felt weak, got sick when we threw the toilet paper rolls at her, and even though she ate corn, nothing happened since she didn´t eat a balanced diet. It went pretty well. We improvised a lot, which was fun and made them laugh.

Then we did the handwashing skit, AGAIN. However, I changed roles and was the parasite. I ran around with my snorkeling mask and laundry gloves on. I think everyone laughed more at the fact that it was really foggy with my sweat rather than what I was doing. At least they laughed! And most importantly, I think they learned.

I don´t fool myself into thinking that they´re going to eat well and wash their hands now. Behavior changes take months or years or effort. However, I have to trust that some good came out of it...it lifted all of our spirits and we fulfilled the cultural exchange part of the Peace Corps mission, at least. After we presented our skits to the women, we talked to them about our work as well as what they do. It´s really rewarding to do development work in a community that probably has never had another American work there previously. The regidora (a political appointee, powerful) who organized the event is really interested in getting a youth development volunteer there in the future. No matter what happens, it probably won´t be the last time I work there now that they know I´m 10 minutes away.

All in all, a good date with the kids and mothers. I cherish any chance I get to actually do development work rather than writing official documents! Plus, I got to meet really sweet people from a nearby town while hanging out with really good friends. What more could I ask for?

2.11.2006

feeling used

Why do I feel used?

1. My host family thinks I´m big money. I told them I asked a friend to help me put my bike together and they suggested that I ask our neighbor to do it. Then I started to get a funny notion and asked them, "Is he going to charge me?" And they basically said, "of course!" like that was a silly question.

Prima thinks that´s "way out of line," which shows a huge difference between her rural and poor, yet extremely generous community and mine. But then again, her family doesn´t charge her a cent. She buys them marmalade and some other things every once in a while. Yet they are a family who recently got their clothes stolen as they were drying outside and now don´t have an extra change of clothes. My family recently built a second floor to the house, tiled the entire place up with gorgeous tile, painted the inside and outside and charge me 340 soles a month to live here. I am a renter, not part of the family.

2. My counterpart. Again. Yes, complaining about him again. Now I am supposed to write "informes," which are like this official document requesting a meeting between a biologist, an NGO, me and the municipality. Why am I the one who is supposed to write that??? And I am also supposed to write an informe to get a clean-up crew out to the beach and garbage cans installed. I tried explaining to him that I was hoping to get the kids I´ll be working with to ask the mayor (while I forewarned the mayor and ensured his consent) to make them feel more empowered to help the environment. No, it´s urgent, he says. Write an informe.

I am a personal assistant, a secretary, a right-hand man and a sugar daddy.

Don´t worry, I have a crafty scheme up my sleeve. I´ll keepy you updated if it works.

2.09.2006

RESE FOX FOR PREZ!

I am so excited, a little tear came to my eye just now. My good friend who I spent countless emotionally draining (stressful is an understatement) hours with during my last year in college trying to making PIRGIM a real chapter at the University of Michigan is running for student government President. If she wins, the biggest failure of my life will all of a sudden adopt a totally new meaning. Although I am usually an optimist, I hadn´t been able to find any satisfying meaning or justification behind that failure. However, if she becomes Presidenta of the student government, I will feel like I went through the worst hours of my life for a reason. Justice will be had! And she will be such a good Presidenta, I have utmost confidence in her competence and judgement. She has a really tough race it seems, but I know that even if she fails (which she won´t because she is a highly skilled campaign organizer and highly likeable), this party has great potential to gain momentum from this election cycle.

MSA PRESIDENT RESE FOX! Ah, I love the sound of that.

I give this day 5 out of 5 stars just for that piece of news!

2.06.2006

It´s raining in the desert!

Today I woke up under my mosquito net to the sound of rain falling steadily outside. Listening to rain in the morning gives me such a peaceful, rejuvenated feeling, that everything is tranquil as the sky is nourshing the earth. I missed the rain. I thought I wasn´t going to get any of it for the next two years, which has been the case for the past year or so in these parts. It´s even more exciting to see the rain since the authorities have been freaking out about the drought, which is not so good when agriculture is one of the principal economic activities in Piura. In addition, as I can verify just by tasting the salty tap water, fresh water sources (groundwater) are depleted. Hooray, for rain!

February 2nd was World Wetland´s Day, as I´ve mentioned in previous entries. At the end of the day, I thought, "what a typical Peace Corps experience."

Thanks to my counterpart bringing me to Piura to do nothing but wait and kill time for 6 hours the previous day (I was supposed to translate a document, even though I ended up not having to do it, arghhh), I had been up until midnight working on a PowerPoint presentation chock full of photos of different wetland types from different countries around the world. I was excited to show the kids all the beauty that there is in this world, reminding them that the world is a lot bigger than Piura. Having learned from the Mangrove Festival, I went to the Municipality early to double check that everything was ready -- the two big buses, the cookies, soda, drawing materials, opening up the auditorium and more. Then they told me that there was a blackout until 11am that day. So all those hours and love spent on this presentation were in vain. Oh, well, that´s what I get for depending on technology and electricity in Peace Corps. Then the people collaborating with us decided to change my plans at the mangroves when the kids were getting off the bus. I had planned that they would engage the kids in the kite-flying and drawing competitions while we took 10 kids at a time for a nature walk. What ended up happening was the different groups of 10 kids each got their own guide, either from INRENA (Nat´l Resources gov office), the biologist, or myself. I was disappointed because we never pre-planned what educational content to dispel nor did we have enough binoculars and telescopes for every group to have their own, so it was really disorganized. I had wanted to make sure all the kids learned about wetlands in addition to mangroves, the importance and threats to mangroves, and what they could do to protect them. Oh well. We also ended up in a different spot than I had planned for since my counterpart told the driver to go somewhere else, even though I had told the driver where to go and he understood where I meant. So we were not even located close to the mangroves. Then, none of the adults helped me make sure the kids stayed out of the water, so most of the day was spent letting the kids fool around and have fun. I´m not opposed to fun, but I really wanted it to be an educational day as well. However, the kids really loved using the binoculars and telescopes. So did the adults who came to help supervise. Plus, there´s always World Water Day on March 22nd!

I saw two movies this weekend: Jarhead and La Mujer de mi Hermano, which is written by a Peruvian author. I definitely recommend Jarhead. Liked it a lot. Wasn´t another stupid war movie depicting how everyone dies but all it really does is wow people with visual effects. Instead, the movie focused on the messed up psychology of Marines during Desert Shield, and there were no scenes of limbs flying mid-air and bleeding. La Mujer de mi Hermano was alright, but the book is much better. I´m in the middle of it right now.

I walked in the desert for 3.5 hours on Saturday with two engineers from INRENA to map the GPS coordinates of the protected area. I got a sunburn on my face with a sexy sunglass line. I saw a wild goat, an iguana, lots of lizards and lots of sand. No foxes, unfortunately. The engineers asked me whether I´ve ever taken a wilderness survival course, haha. I was ready with a white long t-shirt, hat, sunblock, insect repellent, a Nalgene-full of water, sucking candy, a plantain, and two handkerchiefs. Nope, I said. Just lots of hikes through the jungle.

I´ve uploaded more photos onto my flickr site. I like them!