When I returned from my technical trip, I really just had one last week of training and with my host family. The week flew by, finishing up training competencies, spending time with my “Olmedo girls” (who I had lived with in town and spent virtually everyday with), last minute errands in Cayambe and preparing our despedidas with language groups, families, and Peace Corps.
For our “good-bye community” lunch, we prepared and presented a traditional dance and song. (I sang and didn't dance, surprising I know...) We also prepared a meal to share with our families. The Peace Corps ordered two Horneados (whole, baked pigs), to feed the families, and each group of volunteers in communities prepared a side dish. The classy ladies of Olmedo (that would be my group), made broccoli salad. Friday afternoon we chopped 20 heads of broccoli, kilos of grapes, bunches of green onions, and bags of raisins and walnuts in preparation for our delicious salad for the party. My family was skeptical of a raw broccoli salad, but by the end of the meal both huge pots of salad were gone!
After the party with the families, all of us trainees met up at the “Coffee Bar” in Cayambe for our personal despedida. We all ordered drinks and light snacks and enjoyed all being in one place together, since normally our personal outings were limited to groups of 5 people. A good time was had by all, but headed home early because I knew my family was preparing another special despedida for me. I walked into the house to find a cake on the table, and two huge pots on the stove. Within the next half-hour all of Edita's family was arriving and we sat down at the table to make speeches and toast with peach wine (a terrible, preferred drink in the Sierra!) We ate a soup filled with chicken insides and feet (I ate around what could...eeek) and then arroz colorado, the Ecuadorian version of fried rice with plantains, shrimp, veggies and of course, chopped up hot dogs. We all sat at the table and chatted until all of the sweet, sticky wine was gone and then I got tearful hugs and well wishes from the whole family as they left. I of course had much packing to do before bed.
I was up bright and early the next morning, to finish getting ready to leave. I got an extra special breakfast with an egg and onion sandwich and another wrapped up to take with me. :D All 5 girls loaded up Senor Segundo's truck with our many, heavy bags and I couldn't help but cry as I said good-bye to Edita and Mariela who had taken such good care of me and showed me so much love! I know that I go back and visit them at least once during my stay here!
In Quito we settled into our hostel, which would be our home the next few days. We visited the Mitad del Mundo Monument, ate a traditional lunch at a really nice restaurant, and did all the touristy things: straddled the equator and attempted to hold the world in our hands for pictures, visited the museum, etc. It was a really cool place and I can't wait to have visitors to go back and spend more time there!
We had two more days of work in the office and then Wednesday, August 19th, I swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer for the second time. I have to admit it was not quite as exciting the second time, but I did shed a tear or two during the speeches because Peace Corps service is such an awesome opportunity, and I am so privileged to be here for two years learning, growing and working. So here I am for the second time, about to head out to my corner of Ecuador this time. My bags are packed, by job description is murky, but I am so excited (and nervous) to get started once again – and this time with a much stronger grasp of the language! This has to be easier the second time around! (Right?!)
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Tech Trip Adventures
In our seventh week of training, Omnibus 102 packed up and took training on the road! Truly, this was the most fun and informative week of training yet. Each sector divided trainees into two groups, for Youth and Families one group went to the province of Esmereldas and the other group (my group) went to the provinces of Guayas and Santa Elena for a 5 day technical trip.
Myself, 10 other trainees, 3 facilitators: Ines, Lenny and Cisa, the PC language and cultural coordinator, Rolando, and Volunteer, Grace set out Sunday afternoon on the long trek to Guayaquil on the coast, about an 8 hour overnight bus trip (but not before we ate some delicious crepes in Quito for dinner!). Monday morning, we met three Guayaquil area volunteers for breakfast (one who went to Willamette and graduated with me too!) and chatted about their experiences as volunteers. Then it was on another bus, this time much shorter, to the oceanside towns of Salinas and La Libertad, where one of my fellow trainees will be working. In reward for our long trek out to the coast, we ate a delicious marisco- (seafood) filled lunch and headed to the beach to sun ourself and relax. Que rico!!! Later in the afternoon, we met up as a group to go over the objectives and tasks of our technical trip (because we're there to work, right?) and we began the preliminary planning of the workshops that were were going to give during the week with the help of our facilitators.
Our first real day of work took place in La Libertad. We met up with Alexandra, Grace's counterpart, and possibly the sexiest woman in Ecuador! (I'm talking Farrah Facet hair, body hugging jeans, heels, and an attitude and air of sexiness that just doesn't stop!!!) She is a doctor and local politician that has dramatically improved health-care access for La Libertad area. Her two main projects are a community clinic funded by the city, where anyone can go and see any doctor, therapist, dentist, get lab work, whatever for $2 a visit. Wow. Likewise she runs a free clinic at the area High School and does a lot of health promotion with the students, especially specific to sex-education and reproductive health education (and if there is any middle-aged woman who is going to get teens to listen and get on board with safer-sex it is Alexandra!). My group gave two charlas, workshops, in La Libertad; one to a group of 15 and 16 year-olds about sexuality and mainly just getting kids to talk to each other and be open about communication when talking about bodies, sexual activity, and risks. It was super fun, and the kids seemed to break through some of the shyness and start addressing the topic with maturity. The other charla was for a group of young mothers, talking about the same topic, but focused on how families can educate their kids and help them make good decisions about sexual activity.
Besides the workshops we gave in La Libertad we ate super well! We found the most economical and delicious way to eat in the tourist spot of Salinas which was super expensive (well for us as PCVs...) Dinner included: pinchos (skewered beef, chicken, or shrimp and grilled...yumm!) choclos, (sweet corn, either on the cob or in patties with onion and garlic), chelas heladas (cold beer) and plantains 101 ways (grilled and split with cheese, battered and fried, in patties, in balls, and more.) All delicious and a tasty and filling meal for about $3.
The next day we headed up the coast visit some other sites. First we stopped my Palmar, where Stephanie, a girl from my group, is going to be living. Palmar is a quiet, dirty little beach town with a lot of character and an amazing and organized youth base. We met with the coordinator of NeoJuventud, where Stephanie will be the fourth and final volunteer. The youth organization if funded and cordinated in part by CARE International and partners with the local Catholic Church. The group does a lot of peer education and outreach, organizes mingas (community cooperation projects – beach clean-ups, etc), replants the local mangroves, and has various small businesses (a bakery, cyber cafe, and alcohol-free hangout.) I think that Stephanie is going to be working with outreach and expanding the reach of the projects to more rural communities and creating a regional network of youth groups in the area. Very cool.
From Palmar we caught a bus to Manglaralto, and traveled an hour on a cramped bus standing with our backpacks...but we arrived to this sweet, little town, right in front of a beautiful beach. Our hostel had bright-colored hammacks hanging and we gladly occupied them whenever we were hanging out. I was super happy to be in Manglaralto to meet the mythical Carita who had lived with my host-family before me. Just like they said, she is a beautiful, kind woman with the hugest smile and warmest personality. She took us out to small town about 30 minutes in the campo, called Dos Mangos. It is mostly a farming and artisan community; our local guide took us to see the local production of woven hats, bags, and other things made from a special grass in the area, as well as the tagua, translated as vegetable ivory. The tagua comes from a palm-like tree, and the fruit can be eaten when it is young and when it is aged, can be dyed and carved into jewelry. I really loved it, but only found something from my friend, Molly, not for me! So I am on the look out for a tagua treasure of my own!
For dinner, Carita, had arranged for us to all have a group dinner at a little choza (hut) on the beach; the owner was the sweetest man and served us a delicious meal of marlin steaks, rice, salad and patacones (smashed and fried, green plantains – delicious with katsup!)
The following day we caught a bus further up the coast to a community called La Entrada, a town whose local economy as been transformed by the Fundacion Nobis. The local coordinator there had a full day planned for us; we visited fisherman coming in from their morning rounds, played with some still alive octopuses, talked about community entry tools, had a demonstration of their open-ocean oyster farming techniques and we did a workshop with local scholarship recipients about goal-setting. Of course another highlight of our trip was eating once again! There is a parada turistica (a tourist stop) with amazing lunches, for $2 we had one of the best meals we have had in Ecuador with a shrimp soup followed by more shrimp cooked in a white wine sauce that was absolutely amazing; a chef came and gave cooking lessons to the local restaurant to cater to a higher caliber of cuisine and we all think that it was a lesson well given and received! Then for dessert we headed to the famous “Pie Shop.” We all passed around pieces of strawberry cheesecake, oreo cheesecake, chocolate cheesecake, passionfruit pie, and more. Everything was amazing and I finally got to try the famed, real Ecuadorian coffee. Mind you, I have been drinking Nescafe for the past two months, so when I was brought just a cup of hot water I begrudgingly waited for the coffee powder to arrive momentarily. But no, a little silver pot was brought out filled with a super-strong, concentrated coffee, to which you add to your coffee. It is so rich, tasty and strong. And because my coffee addition had not been filled since I arrived, the minute the caffeine hit my blood stream, I was in the clouds with pleasure, and asked where I could purchase some of this blissfully coffee immediately. Which I did. One dollar for kilo of delicious, local, coffee.
When we returned, it was our last night in Manglaralto. I was giving the charla for the next day, and with my two partners we had planned on doing a similar goal setting activity with high school students in Mangalaralto. But there was new twist. Our group had jumped for 25 to 70 participants and our original activity was going to crash and burn with so many students. Jessica, Jcov and I, crash planned a mini-ropes course activity with three main points: communication, team-work and trust. I was super nervous about how it was all going to go, but we pulled it off with flying colors, the students were totally engaged, and at the end of the activity commented that they really liked it and wished it could have gone on for longer (which Carita says they rarely have a commentary about any activity. So our technical trip wrapped up with a success and we spent the next few hours laying in the sun and being pummeled by the barreling waves before heading out on our return trip to the Sierra. It is also worth mentioning that on our way back to La Libertad to catch the bus to Quito, there was a disco-power hour and we had a bus wide sing-and-dance-a-long. In one word: Magical.
Myself, 10 other trainees, 3 facilitators: Ines, Lenny and Cisa, the PC language and cultural coordinator, Rolando, and Volunteer, Grace set out Sunday afternoon on the long trek to Guayaquil on the coast, about an 8 hour overnight bus trip (but not before we ate some delicious crepes in Quito for dinner!). Monday morning, we met three Guayaquil area volunteers for breakfast (one who went to Willamette and graduated with me too!) and chatted about their experiences as volunteers. Then it was on another bus, this time much shorter, to the oceanside towns of Salinas and La Libertad, where one of my fellow trainees will be working. In reward for our long trek out to the coast, we ate a delicious marisco- (seafood) filled lunch and headed to the beach to sun ourself and relax. Que rico!!! Later in the afternoon, we met up as a group to go over the objectives and tasks of our technical trip (because we're there to work, right?) and we began the preliminary planning of the workshops that were were going to give during the week with the help of our facilitators.
Our first real day of work took place in La Libertad. We met up with Alexandra, Grace's counterpart, and possibly the sexiest woman in Ecuador! (I'm talking Farrah Facet hair, body hugging jeans, heels, and an attitude and air of sexiness that just doesn't stop!!!) She is a doctor and local politician that has dramatically improved health-care access for La Libertad area. Her two main projects are a community clinic funded by the city, where anyone can go and see any doctor, therapist, dentist, get lab work, whatever for $2 a visit. Wow. Likewise she runs a free clinic at the area High School and does a lot of health promotion with the students, especially specific to sex-education and reproductive health education (and if there is any middle-aged woman who is going to get teens to listen and get on board with safer-sex it is Alexandra!). My group gave two charlas, workshops, in La Libertad; one to a group of 15 and 16 year-olds about sexuality and mainly just getting kids to talk to each other and be open about communication when talking about bodies, sexual activity, and risks. It was super fun, and the kids seemed to break through some of the shyness and start addressing the topic with maturity. The other charla was for a group of young mothers, talking about the same topic, but focused on how families can educate their kids and help them make good decisions about sexual activity.
Besides the workshops we gave in La Libertad we ate super well! We found the most economical and delicious way to eat in the tourist spot of Salinas which was super expensive (well for us as PCVs...) Dinner included: pinchos (skewered beef, chicken, or shrimp and grilled...yumm!) choclos, (sweet corn, either on the cob or in patties with onion and garlic), chelas heladas (cold beer) and plantains 101 ways (grilled and split with cheese, battered and fried, in patties, in balls, and more.) All delicious and a tasty and filling meal for about $3.
The next day we headed up the coast visit some other sites. First we stopped my Palmar, where Stephanie, a girl from my group, is going to be living. Palmar is a quiet, dirty little beach town with a lot of character and an amazing and organized youth base. We met with the coordinator of NeoJuventud, where Stephanie will be the fourth and final volunteer. The youth organization if funded and cordinated in part by CARE International and partners with the local Catholic Church. The group does a lot of peer education and outreach, organizes mingas (community cooperation projects – beach clean-ups, etc), replants the local mangroves, and has various small businesses (a bakery, cyber cafe, and alcohol-free hangout.) I think that Stephanie is going to be working with outreach and expanding the reach of the projects to more rural communities and creating a regional network of youth groups in the area. Very cool.
From Palmar we caught a bus to Manglaralto, and traveled an hour on a cramped bus standing with our backpacks...but we arrived to this sweet, little town, right in front of a beautiful beach. Our hostel had bright-colored hammacks hanging and we gladly occupied them whenever we were hanging out. I was super happy to be in Manglaralto to meet the mythical Carita who had lived with my host-family before me. Just like they said, she is a beautiful, kind woman with the hugest smile and warmest personality. She took us out to small town about 30 minutes in the campo, called Dos Mangos. It is mostly a farming and artisan community; our local guide took us to see the local production of woven hats, bags, and other things made from a special grass in the area, as well as the tagua, translated as vegetable ivory. The tagua comes from a palm-like tree, and the fruit can be eaten when it is young and when it is aged, can be dyed and carved into jewelry. I really loved it, but only found something from my friend, Molly, not for me! So I am on the look out for a tagua treasure of my own!
For dinner, Carita, had arranged for us to all have a group dinner at a little choza (hut) on the beach; the owner was the sweetest man and served us a delicious meal of marlin steaks, rice, salad and patacones (smashed and fried, green plantains – delicious with katsup!)
The following day we caught a bus further up the coast to a community called La Entrada, a town whose local economy as been transformed by the Fundacion Nobis. The local coordinator there had a full day planned for us; we visited fisherman coming in from their morning rounds, played with some still alive octopuses, talked about community entry tools, had a demonstration of their open-ocean oyster farming techniques and we did a workshop with local scholarship recipients about goal-setting. Of course another highlight of our trip was eating once again! There is a parada turistica (a tourist stop) with amazing lunches, for $2 we had one of the best meals we have had in Ecuador with a shrimp soup followed by more shrimp cooked in a white wine sauce that was absolutely amazing; a chef came and gave cooking lessons to the local restaurant to cater to a higher caliber of cuisine and we all think that it was a lesson well given and received! Then for dessert we headed to the famous “Pie Shop.” We all passed around pieces of strawberry cheesecake, oreo cheesecake, chocolate cheesecake, passionfruit pie, and more. Everything was amazing and I finally got to try the famed, real Ecuadorian coffee. Mind you, I have been drinking Nescafe for the past two months, so when I was brought just a cup of hot water I begrudgingly waited for the coffee powder to arrive momentarily. But no, a little silver pot was brought out filled with a super-strong, concentrated coffee, to which you add to your coffee. It is so rich, tasty and strong. And because my coffee addition had not been filled since I arrived, the minute the caffeine hit my blood stream, I was in the clouds with pleasure, and asked where I could purchase some of this blissfully coffee immediately. Which I did. One dollar for kilo of delicious, local, coffee.
When we returned, it was our last night in Manglaralto. I was giving the charla for the next day, and with my two partners we had planned on doing a similar goal setting activity with high school students in Mangalaralto. But there was new twist. Our group had jumped for 25 to 70 participants and our original activity was going to crash and burn with so many students. Jessica, Jcov and I, crash planned a mini-ropes course activity with three main points: communication, team-work and trust. I was super nervous about how it was all going to go, but we pulled it off with flying colors, the students were totally engaged, and at the end of the activity commented that they really liked it and wished it could have gone on for longer (which Carita says they rarely have a commentary about any activity. So our technical trip wrapped up with a success and we spent the next few hours laying in the sun and being pummeled by the barreling waves before heading out on our return trip to the Sierra. It is also worth mentioning that on our way back to La Libertad to catch the bus to Quito, there was a disco-power hour and we had a bus wide sing-and-dance-a-long. In one word: Magical.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Site Visit
I had the luck of being selected to live and work in beautiful Bahia de Caraquez, a coastal resort town in the Province of Manabi. It is a town of about 50,000 people, located on a peninsula in the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by water on 3 sides, clean, picturesque and absolutely charming. I am still kind of reeling that this is my Peace Corps post. There is not a hardship to be had it seems. I will spend my 2 years living in a modern, oceanside city, in an apartment similar to what I would in any US city. I'm really feeling like a Posh Corps volunteer....but know that I will find my work and life in Bahia very rewarding in almost the opposite way that I did in Madagascar.
When I arrived for site visit, the information I had about Bahia and my job there were pretty vague, so I was anxious to arrive, meet with my counterpart and get to know my new host family.
Day 1: I arrived late. Very LATE. In fact, by the time I arrived to Bahia, I had my first surprise: my counterpart had already left to a meeting in Portoviejo, 2 hours away and she would be gone all day. As soon as I pulled into the terminal, the INFA truck picked me up and took me to the office. It was clear as soon as I arrived no one knew what I was here for or what they were supposed to do with me for the day. There was another girl from the Netherlands in the office too, she wants to volunteer with special needs kids in Bahia, so she tagged along for the day too. The next surprise of the day: I was dropped of at my “host family's” house. My host family equaled a 22 year old girl, who works at INFA and lives in a 1-bedroom apartment. (not really within the PC expectations for a host family in anyway...) I changed, got ready for the day and started making some visits with my escorts...more surprises: it soon became clear that my escorts for the day believe that I am a specialist in Special Needs – as far from the truth as possible! (I would love to work with special needs kids, but I don't know anything about the field!) Angela, one of the women in the office, is under the impression that any foreigner that comes to work with kids in Ecuador, is here just for the Special Needs kids, like the girl who is in town from the Netherlands...(in the end I AM going to work with the Special Needs center, but more with creating family training program and collaborating with the center, than direct care.)
Next I go to lunch with some women from the INFA office and after we finish, they say its beach time!...so Judy (my “host” chica) takes me home to change and we spend the afternoon walking and sitting on the beach. Later that evening we meet up with Emmalee my site mate and eat pizza for dinner. I am left thinking: I am supposed to have a job and task here...day one is over and I have no idea what this office does, and I realize that I have a place to stay these 3 days, but no place to live after I swear-in!
Day 2: I arrive to the INFA office at 8am and am greeted by my counterpart, Yvonne. We sit down in her office (which is like an air-conditioned ice box!), she asks me what I think about Bahia, what my education is, and tells me that there is a lot of work to be done here. Bueno. She also tells me that the structure of INFA is changing completely - in January the organization went from being a private to a government agency, and things are quite complex now. By 8:30 Yvonne's office fills up with the whole INFA team for a meeting, and by 9am she is on her way to Portoviejo, again. Meanwhile, the whole INFA team is swirling about the office, and I am thinking again: what am I doing here!? On her way out the door, Yvonne tells me I'll be spending the day with Angela (the one who thinks I am a special needs specialist...) to show me what an average day of a tecnico is all about. Angela informs me she has some appointments scheduled starting at 10. “Great” I say, “I'd love to come along.” I spend the next hour, sorting through my paperwork getting an idea of what I need to accomplish the following day with Yvonne, and am on the phone with my program director, Cris, letting her know that my housing situation is not going to work out as is...
A few minutes before 10, Angela and I depart to the same office as before, for special needs kids. The group is in a training session. Unbeknown to me, I am about to be abandoned. Angela accompanies me upstairs, I sit down at the table, greet everyone, and they Angela peaces out and says she'll be back for me in the “tarde.” When!? She doesn't know, I don't want to make a scene, so I take out my notebook, listen and participate in the training. The meeting ends at 12, and I remain at the table, not knowing what to do with myself. Glory to grace, I get a call from my site-mate Emmalee asking if I would like to have lunch with she and her counterpart. Yes!!!! I say my goodbyes and grab a taxi (communal taxis only cost 25 cents! holler!) downtown to the Municipal where Emmalee will work.
I walk up to La Oficina de la Mujer (the Office of the Woman) I am instantly impressed with all of the women there and Emmalee's counterpart, Jacqueline. She is a brilliant, motivated, hardworking woman who has it together! She is a single mother, a respected director and she commands respect while caring for everyone who crosses her path. And she says she will help me find a place to live after work. Hallelujah!
“La Oficina de la Mujer” does a lot of consulting and event planning in the city as well as help women and children in abusive situations, they also have multiple campaigns related to reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and healthy relationships, and generally are just a resource for women and children in Bahia. At lunch I realize it is day 2 of my site visit and know more about Emmalee's projects and office than I know about mine...hmmm. I'm suddenly concerned for myself!
After lunch, Emmalee's counterpart excuses us to spend the afternoon wandering around Bahia, sampling some delicious local snacks and just soaking up this sweet spot. We stopped by INFA to find that Angela wants me nowhere around, and the other tecnicos are all out on visits (that I could have been on too!!!!), so we wandered around some more....
At 5:30, we meet Jacqueline to start the great apartment/vivencia search for me. We walked up and down the streets of Bahia checking out apartments that were being rented and I found out that living arrangement in Bahia are super nice and expensive! Not quite the PC arrangements I had pictured for myself...late in the evening I was worried that Judy and I were not going to find an apartment in the two days (Cris, my program manager, approved that I could have a roommate instead of a host family, and Judy said she would prefer to live with a roommate as opposed to alone, so we set out to find a 2 bedroom apartment). The last place we went to look at was just a one bedroom apartment behind a house, like a mother-in-law apartment. When I arrived I knew it was the best option I had seen, not too big, or fancy, very secure and safe, it seemed like I had found a place to live, at least temporarily...then the woman, Karla, said she had a room in her house that was unoccupied and asked if I would like to see it. So I went, and the more time I spent with Karla and her son Carlos ( I know, cute right?) I realized what a great family they would be to live with! So, I found a place to live and a host family all at once! I think it is going to be a really great living arrangement. They have lived with Americans before, in Chile, and Carlos was so excited that I would be moving in, he was actually bouncing! whew! At this point it was pretty late, I was tired, and I had done so much stressing that mid-day my sickness had progressed into a sinus infection with my face swelling, head aching, and teeth throbbing! What a mess! I still didn't know that INFA had in store for me for work, but at least I had now had a place to live!
Day 3:
Again, I arrived to the INFA office at 8 am to meet with my counterpart Ivonne. She was already at her desk sifting through reports and verifying things when I arrived. Then I had the best news of my site visit: we were going to spend the whole day together, talking about INFA, the needs of the community and her plan for me. FINALLY!!! In just a few words, my day was amazing.
She and I spent the majority of the morning talking about development theory, the structure of the office, and the role she wants me to play in both. She told me very directly that she wants me to do a lot of community analysis and needs assessment (which I am going to train the tecnicos to do, because we work in 4 Cantones -like counties- and I can only do so many interviews!). Next we talked about program sustainability. Ivonne strongly believes in sustainable development, in fact its a passion of hers... (she gave me her thesis to review so that we are on the same page about her methodology...) This is also Peace Corps' main goal of our work too; the idea is that we are facilitating, training, and supporting rather than leading and doing the work ourselves. This can be a hard accord to achieve because it is easier to just to it ourselves than to get people on the same page as us, with language barriers and cultural differences. Ivonne told me straight away, I would be responsible for helping staff members plan workshops and community activities, but in the field, my ultimate role would be to observe and improve, rather than do, the work directly. The reason being if I do the work in the field, then community members get used to seeing me, then when I leave, they lose their confidence in the program and progress stops.
The more time Ivonne and I talked, the more I am realized what an amazing post I was given. Theoretically, I will impact the communities my INFA office serves in the long-term because I am training and empowering people to do their work better versus doing the work myself. It was kind of bitter pill to take that I wouldn't get to be playing with kids and hanging out with youth all of the time, but then I realized there is a daycare center attached to the INFA office, which is always understaffed. That means that at any point in my day, there are kids just across the fence, who want to show me their skills on the jungle gym or a baby who need to be held, loved and talked to. Precious.
Later in the day, Ivonne took me out to a few of the barrios on the outskirts of town that INFA works in. These communities started as squatter settlements, and the city has built some infrastructure around them so that basic health and sanitation requirements are met. There are many government and church sponsored daycare and lunch programs out in these barrios because children are generally left alone while parents are at work, and school is universal here, but not obligatory, so many kids are not in school during the day. Ivonne told me that abuse (physical and sexual) is a huge problem out here, and kids grow up in the presence of too much alcohol and drugs, along with exposure to gang activity, community violence and other negative influences. It was heart-breaking to see hungry children who light up when anyone talks to them about anything. But I needed to see these barrios and understand the challenges that exist outside of the urban area and need to be addressed. I want to be out in these communities each week, because living in beautiful central Bahia, it would be easy to forget the poverty that exists in the margins of the community and focus on the urban youth who are very middle-class and privileged in comparison.
Additionally, there is a human rights center that is opening in Bahia this month. It is staffed and funded, but not programmed – so I am going to be working with the staff to set goals and initiatives to educate the community about human rights ranging from child rights, to reproductive health rights, to everything! I am super excited to learn and develop along with the professional staff and be a part of their initialization! There are also two young women from Spain, who are special needs experts, and there are opening a special needs school and center in Bahia; I will be collaborating with them to build a parent support center for special needs kids and developing a training program for parents to better support and nurture special needs kids and prepare them for adulthood. Amazing! Gaul, one of the tecnicos and I, already have plans to get a youth leadership group off the ground this fall, we just need to get the ball rolling! There are a million things that Ivonne and I discussed in this one day, I have no doubt that I will be BUSY for two years in Bahia! One thing Ivonne and I are going to work on together is opening a Children's Library with regular educational programming and activities. This is one of her life goals for the community, and I think it will be a great addition to the resources that exist in the community and I am honored that she wants me to collaborate with her.
And so my site visit went...it started out slow with many doubts, but ended with me feeling like I have a place in the office and a lot of really great work opportunities ahead of me. Just as any successful site visit should be, I didn't want to go back to training...I just wanted to get settled and get started with the next two years of life and work in Bahia!
When I arrived for site visit, the information I had about Bahia and my job there were pretty vague, so I was anxious to arrive, meet with my counterpart and get to know my new host family.
Day 1: I arrived late. Very LATE. In fact, by the time I arrived to Bahia, I had my first surprise: my counterpart had already left to a meeting in Portoviejo, 2 hours away and she would be gone all day. As soon as I pulled into the terminal, the INFA truck picked me up and took me to the office. It was clear as soon as I arrived no one knew what I was here for or what they were supposed to do with me for the day. There was another girl from the Netherlands in the office too, she wants to volunteer with special needs kids in Bahia, so she tagged along for the day too. The next surprise of the day: I was dropped of at my “host family's” house. My host family equaled a 22 year old girl, who works at INFA and lives in a 1-bedroom apartment. (not really within the PC expectations for a host family in anyway...) I changed, got ready for the day and started making some visits with my escorts...more surprises: it soon became clear that my escorts for the day believe that I am a specialist in Special Needs – as far from the truth as possible! (I would love to work with special needs kids, but I don't know anything about the field!) Angela, one of the women in the office, is under the impression that any foreigner that comes to work with kids in Ecuador, is here just for the Special Needs kids, like the girl who is in town from the Netherlands...(in the end I AM going to work with the Special Needs center, but more with creating family training program and collaborating with the center, than direct care.)
Next I go to lunch with some women from the INFA office and after we finish, they say its beach time!...so Judy (my “host” chica) takes me home to change and we spend the afternoon walking and sitting on the beach. Later that evening we meet up with Emmalee my site mate and eat pizza for dinner. I am left thinking: I am supposed to have a job and task here...day one is over and I have no idea what this office does, and I realize that I have a place to stay these 3 days, but no place to live after I swear-in!
Day 2: I arrive to the INFA office at 8am and am greeted by my counterpart, Yvonne. We sit down in her office (which is like an air-conditioned ice box!), she asks me what I think about Bahia, what my education is, and tells me that there is a lot of work to be done here. Bueno. She also tells me that the structure of INFA is changing completely - in January the organization went from being a private to a government agency, and things are quite complex now. By 8:30 Yvonne's office fills up with the whole INFA team for a meeting, and by 9am she is on her way to Portoviejo, again. Meanwhile, the whole INFA team is swirling about the office, and I am thinking again: what am I doing here!? On her way out the door, Yvonne tells me I'll be spending the day with Angela (the one who thinks I am a special needs specialist...) to show me what an average day of a tecnico is all about. Angela informs me she has some appointments scheduled starting at 10. “Great” I say, “I'd love to come along.” I spend the next hour, sorting through my paperwork getting an idea of what I need to accomplish the following day with Yvonne, and am on the phone with my program director, Cris, letting her know that my housing situation is not going to work out as is...
A few minutes before 10, Angela and I depart to the same office as before, for special needs kids. The group is in a training session. Unbeknown to me, I am about to be abandoned. Angela accompanies me upstairs, I sit down at the table, greet everyone, and they Angela peaces out and says she'll be back for me in the “tarde.” When!? She doesn't know, I don't want to make a scene, so I take out my notebook, listen and participate in the training. The meeting ends at 12, and I remain at the table, not knowing what to do with myself. Glory to grace, I get a call from my site-mate Emmalee asking if I would like to have lunch with she and her counterpart. Yes!!!! I say my goodbyes and grab a taxi (communal taxis only cost 25 cents! holler!) downtown to the Municipal where Emmalee will work.
I walk up to La Oficina de la Mujer (the Office of the Woman) I am instantly impressed with all of the women there and Emmalee's counterpart, Jacqueline. She is a brilliant, motivated, hardworking woman who has it together! She is a single mother, a respected director and she commands respect while caring for everyone who crosses her path. And she says she will help me find a place to live after work. Hallelujah!
“La Oficina de la Mujer” does a lot of consulting and event planning in the city as well as help women and children in abusive situations, they also have multiple campaigns related to reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and healthy relationships, and generally are just a resource for women and children in Bahia. At lunch I realize it is day 2 of my site visit and know more about Emmalee's projects and office than I know about mine...hmmm. I'm suddenly concerned for myself!
After lunch, Emmalee's counterpart excuses us to spend the afternoon wandering around Bahia, sampling some delicious local snacks and just soaking up this sweet spot. We stopped by INFA to find that Angela wants me nowhere around, and the other tecnicos are all out on visits (that I could have been on too!!!!), so we wandered around some more....
At 5:30, we meet Jacqueline to start the great apartment/vivencia search for me. We walked up and down the streets of Bahia checking out apartments that were being rented and I found out that living arrangement in Bahia are super nice and expensive! Not quite the PC arrangements I had pictured for myself...late in the evening I was worried that Judy and I were not going to find an apartment in the two days (Cris, my program manager, approved that I could have a roommate instead of a host family, and Judy said she would prefer to live with a roommate as opposed to alone, so we set out to find a 2 bedroom apartment). The last place we went to look at was just a one bedroom apartment behind a house, like a mother-in-law apartment. When I arrived I knew it was the best option I had seen, not too big, or fancy, very secure and safe, it seemed like I had found a place to live, at least temporarily...then the woman, Karla, said she had a room in her house that was unoccupied and asked if I would like to see it. So I went, and the more time I spent with Karla and her son Carlos ( I know, cute right?) I realized what a great family they would be to live with! So, I found a place to live and a host family all at once! I think it is going to be a really great living arrangement. They have lived with Americans before, in Chile, and Carlos was so excited that I would be moving in, he was actually bouncing! whew! At this point it was pretty late, I was tired, and I had done so much stressing that mid-day my sickness had progressed into a sinus infection with my face swelling, head aching, and teeth throbbing! What a mess! I still didn't know that INFA had in store for me for work, but at least I had now had a place to live!
Day 3:
Again, I arrived to the INFA office at 8 am to meet with my counterpart Ivonne. She was already at her desk sifting through reports and verifying things when I arrived. Then I had the best news of my site visit: we were going to spend the whole day together, talking about INFA, the needs of the community and her plan for me. FINALLY!!! In just a few words, my day was amazing.
She and I spent the majority of the morning talking about development theory, the structure of the office, and the role she wants me to play in both. She told me very directly that she wants me to do a lot of community analysis and needs assessment (which I am going to train the tecnicos to do, because we work in 4 Cantones -like counties- and I can only do so many interviews!). Next we talked about program sustainability. Ivonne strongly believes in sustainable development, in fact its a passion of hers... (she gave me her thesis to review so that we are on the same page about her methodology...) This is also Peace Corps' main goal of our work too; the idea is that we are facilitating, training, and supporting rather than leading and doing the work ourselves. This can be a hard accord to achieve because it is easier to just to it ourselves than to get people on the same page as us, with language barriers and cultural differences. Ivonne told me straight away, I would be responsible for helping staff members plan workshops and community activities, but in the field, my ultimate role would be to observe and improve, rather than do, the work directly. The reason being if I do the work in the field, then community members get used to seeing me, then when I leave, they lose their confidence in the program and progress stops.
The more time Ivonne and I talked, the more I am realized what an amazing post I was given. Theoretically, I will impact the communities my INFA office serves in the long-term because I am training and empowering people to do their work better versus doing the work myself. It was kind of bitter pill to take that I wouldn't get to be playing with kids and hanging out with youth all of the time, but then I realized there is a daycare center attached to the INFA office, which is always understaffed. That means that at any point in my day, there are kids just across the fence, who want to show me their skills on the jungle gym or a baby who need to be held, loved and talked to. Precious.
Later in the day, Ivonne took me out to a few of the barrios on the outskirts of town that INFA works in. These communities started as squatter settlements, and the city has built some infrastructure around them so that basic health and sanitation requirements are met. There are many government and church sponsored daycare and lunch programs out in these barrios because children are generally left alone while parents are at work, and school is universal here, but not obligatory, so many kids are not in school during the day. Ivonne told me that abuse (physical and sexual) is a huge problem out here, and kids grow up in the presence of too much alcohol and drugs, along with exposure to gang activity, community violence and other negative influences. It was heart-breaking to see hungry children who light up when anyone talks to them about anything. But I needed to see these barrios and understand the challenges that exist outside of the urban area and need to be addressed. I want to be out in these communities each week, because living in beautiful central Bahia, it would be easy to forget the poverty that exists in the margins of the community and focus on the urban youth who are very middle-class and privileged in comparison.
Additionally, there is a human rights center that is opening in Bahia this month. It is staffed and funded, but not programmed – so I am going to be working with the staff to set goals and initiatives to educate the community about human rights ranging from child rights, to reproductive health rights, to everything! I am super excited to learn and develop along with the professional staff and be a part of their initialization! There are also two young women from Spain, who are special needs experts, and there are opening a special needs school and center in Bahia; I will be collaborating with them to build a parent support center for special needs kids and developing a training program for parents to better support and nurture special needs kids and prepare them for adulthood. Amazing! Gaul, one of the tecnicos and I, already have plans to get a youth leadership group off the ground this fall, we just need to get the ball rolling! There are a million things that Ivonne and I discussed in this one day, I have no doubt that I will be BUSY for two years in Bahia! One thing Ivonne and I are going to work on together is opening a Children's Library with regular educational programming and activities. This is one of her life goals for the community, and I think it will be a great addition to the resources that exist in the community and I am honored that she wants me to collaborate with her.
And so my site visit went...it started out slow with many doubts, but ended with me feeling like I have a place in the office and a lot of really great work opportunities ahead of me. Just as any successful site visit should be, I didn't want to go back to training...I just wanted to get settled and get started with the next two years of life and work in Bahia!
Unantcipated delays
Of course nothing can be easy and just go as planned, right? I have been fighting a pretty serious respiratory infection since arriving in Ecuador. It started just as a cough that progressed into a body rocking force of illness which progressed into a terrible cold. The PC doctor told me to keep taking my decongestants, drink lots of warm fluids and get as much rest as possible. So I did, and four weeks later I am still sick, looking my site visit in the face, and realizing that all of that cold medicine was doing other bad things to my body, mainly my digestion. hmm. I didn't make the choice, my body did. It said: NO MORE! I got my site assignment one day, and couldn't move myself from my bed for the next 2 full days.
Last Saturday, most trainees were scheduled to depart to their sites in groups, myself included. I woke up at 7am, dragged myself into the less than warm shower, and attempted to prepare myself for my trip. But my body was not cooperating. I was soon on the phone with the Training Manager and doctor, telling them that I was not going to be able to travel and them telling me I must travel. It was a frustrating morning, but in the end, I was able to spend my day resting like I needed, and I slept literally all day and all night. (Its also important to mention that my host mom thought that I was not just sick but possible possessed and wanted to call the shaman – also her mother – over to do a cleansing with an egg and cigarette. I told her, really truly I was just sick and although I am sure her mother is a wonderful healer, I really just needed to rest. So instead she made me delicious naranjada hervida, which is a warm drink of orange juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, and trago – homemade liquor; which probably explains why I slept so well!)
Nevertheless, Sunday morning I pulled myself out of bed, still not 100% but significantly better and began my adventure to La Costa. I met Lenny, one of the facilitators in Quito and he helped me navigate the metro system of buses and trolleys from one end of the city to the other; its about a 2.5 hour trip in all! He made sure I got a ticket on the 11:30pm bus to Bahia and left me to myself in the terminal for the next few hours.
My bus arrived and departed the terminal on time, in a way I had not expected! (a little different system of efficiency than Madagascar for sure!) And my trip to the coast went just as planned until about 3am, when a tire blew out. Hmmm. Now one would think this would be an easy issue to resolve: change the tire and be on our way within an hour. No. My bus had no spare tire. So we waited in the dark, steamy jungle on the side of the road for 3 hours until another tire to arrive from who knows where! By the time we were back on our way, I realized I had no cell coverage to call my counterpart who was expecting me, and advise her of the delay. I feel asleep and promptly was awoken by a distressed call from my counterpart, a woman whom I've never met, when the bus had not come in as scheduled. This being my first trip, I had no idea where we were and how long it would take to arrive...Additionally, there are a lot of small villages on the road to Bahia, but no real major cities, so when I asked my fellow bus mates where we were, they responded “Bahia,” when we were still over an hour from the town! I did finally arrive, tired and about 4 hours later than anticipated, but it was well worth the trip!
Last Saturday, most trainees were scheduled to depart to their sites in groups, myself included. I woke up at 7am, dragged myself into the less than warm shower, and attempted to prepare myself for my trip. But my body was not cooperating. I was soon on the phone with the Training Manager and doctor, telling them that I was not going to be able to travel and them telling me I must travel. It was a frustrating morning, but in the end, I was able to spend my day resting like I needed, and I slept literally all day and all night. (Its also important to mention that my host mom thought that I was not just sick but possible possessed and wanted to call the shaman – also her mother – over to do a cleansing with an egg and cigarette. I told her, really truly I was just sick and although I am sure her mother is a wonderful healer, I really just needed to rest. So instead she made me delicious naranjada hervida, which is a warm drink of orange juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, and trago – homemade liquor; which probably explains why I slept so well!)
Nevertheless, Sunday morning I pulled myself out of bed, still not 100% but significantly better and began my adventure to La Costa. I met Lenny, one of the facilitators in Quito and he helped me navigate the metro system of buses and trolleys from one end of the city to the other; its about a 2.5 hour trip in all! He made sure I got a ticket on the 11:30pm bus to Bahia and left me to myself in the terminal for the next few hours.
My bus arrived and departed the terminal on time, in a way I had not expected! (a little different system of efficiency than Madagascar for sure!) And my trip to the coast went just as planned until about 3am, when a tire blew out. Hmmm. Now one would think this would be an easy issue to resolve: change the tire and be on our way within an hour. No. My bus had no spare tire. So we waited in the dark, steamy jungle on the side of the road for 3 hours until another tire to arrive from who knows where! By the time we were back on our way, I realized I had no cell coverage to call my counterpart who was expecting me, and advise her of the delay. I feel asleep and promptly was awoken by a distressed call from my counterpart, a woman whom I've never met, when the bus had not come in as scheduled. This being my first trip, I had no idea where we were and how long it would take to arrive...Additionally, there are a lot of small villages on the road to Bahia, but no real major cities, so when I asked my fellow bus mates where we were, they responded “Bahia,” when we were still over an hour from the town! I did finally arrive, tired and about 4 hours later than anticipated, but it was well worth the trip!
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