Guillermo, FANCA and Friendship

It took me about over a month to figure out exactly when my personal transformation as a Peace Corps volunteer took place here in Bahia. At the beginning of November I was still feeling like was was participating in things with the Parroquia and foundation, but showing up without any real personal purpose. About the second week of November things seemed to be falling into place, I had a fuller schedule, places to be, things to plan, and people who were counting on me. As I look back to that time, I have to thank another volunteer, Guillermo Rey. Guillermo arrived to Bahia, and everyone including me, thought he was another priest from Spain. Guillermo came as a volunteer with a vision of supporting families in the barrio of FANCA through a project of a community survey and a series of talleres para la familia (talks/workshops/whatever you want to call them for the family).
I was asked to participate in the project because I was working in the comedor with the kids everyday, and Guillermo was going to be spending his days at the comedor as well. Like any friendship, our relationship started out with some mildly awkward conversations mostly about Peace Corps, plans for the survey and presentations, the kids at the comedor and the community of FANCA. But everyday our friendship started to shape more and more, through shared experiences with the kids, analyzing and improving the survey, talking about the results and our observation, and mostly talking about the needs of the community and ways we could contribute to improving the situation of the barrio, the families, and the greater community that the Parroquia serves.
As far as the work that Guillermo did, we spent the afternoons of November going door to door, barrio by barrio, conducting our survey about the make up of the families and habits of the families in FANCA. Part of the survey was also inviting each of the families personally to attend a charla, or talk. The charla was a block-style type event, we bought the projector and music to each of the different sectors of FANCA, 8 in all, giving a personalized presentation in each sector of the barrio. Our response was variable, but a few people always showed up to listen to the talk about family values and the importance of communication within families.
For the entiretly of the month of Novemeber, I think I spent more time with Guillermo than any other person here. We worked together from noon-3:30 at the comedor, surveyed from 3:30-5, and then did 8 presentations together which from preparations at the church to set up, and then clean up was about 2 ½ to 3 hours. I was really the only person dedicated to helping him with his project and presentation, so I quickly became his trusty assistant, and I know that he thought of the work more of ours than his. I soon found myself at the church house most nights with he and the two other volunteers, Maria and Natalia, sharing good times, Pilsners, and our nightly communal-effort dinner or going out together. I found Guillermo to be someone who saw what I saw in much of the same way, and we spent many hours talking about possible projects in the community of FANCA, ways to support kids there, and how we could organize ourselves and the greater Bahia community to support FANCA.
One of my biggest personal challenges with the Parroquia, I feel, is finding someone with the time to listen to me bounce ideas off and give me feedback on my future plans as a volunteer; Guillermo was an invaluable resource to me in that sense. Always interested in what I had to say, and always patient enough to listen to my sometimes semi-coherent phrases until I got it all out. Just shortly before Guillermo returned to Spain, I found out from Maria and Natalia how highly he thought of me. The girls has mostly tired of hearing Guillermo's raves about how great, special and perfect I was. They told me all of this after coming to my apartment for dinner my first night in my apartment; Natalia had left her sweater and I was going to drop it off my balcony. The girls had said: I hope it doesn't get stuck on the other balcony, or on the mass of power lines outside the apartment; Guillermo responded: It's Whitney, she does everything perfect! Don't worry! And the girls had to finally tell me that Guillermo saw me with glowing halo of perfection. All of this makes me laugh, because I feel 100% less than perfection here, stumbling over my words, trying to stay on top of activities and events, and just trying to keep going at a steady pace with work here!
In all actuality, Guillermo is like a proud parent. He is about the age of my parents, he has raised his kids, and he was, I think, happy to be working alongside a young person. The day I knew he really did care about me, was a day that he was trying to make plans for the weekend to explore a bit more of the Northern Manabi area, and I made a comment that I would love to go with him somewhere, but I really needed to take advantage of the weekend to go to Portoviejo and do some shopping for my apartment where it was cheaper. I wasn't suggesting or expecting him to come with me, but without even thinking about it for a minute he was coming with me, and within an hour had arranged a ride for us to and from with Humberto who had a class that day. We went, he helped my with my price analysis and helped carry all those bags! In all honesty had it not been for him, I don't know how I could have done my shopping in one trip to Portoviejo!!!
Working with Guillermo on this project during the month of November was an invaluable experience, helping me get to know other key people that live and work in FANCA and simply becoming acquainted with the community of FANCA and finding my way around by walking through it daily. Especially, Caguita, who guided us through the sectors of FANCA, and in the process became a very good friend of mine and has introduced me to a countless number of important contacts. Also, he is just a really great guy, who has welcomed me into his family, calls just to check on how I am, and genuinely is interested in being my friend and working with me in the future for the benefit of his barrio. Honestly, from the time I arrived in Bahia, I have been facinated with FANCA, the supposed red zone of Bahia; a place you never go alone because the people are bad and rob everyone, supposedly. What we found through our surveys is that FANCA is a community of families, with numerous children. After a month of work there, I now know more people there than I do where I live in Bahia and the people are warm, fun, and interesting. They are not rich or educated, but they are good people that deserve the respect of the rest of the community.
In fact, part of our Peace Corps work in the first 4 months at site is a community diagnostic. I had struggled with how to implement this in an urban area that is big and diverse. Through the survey, I was able to become better acquainted with the community of FANCA and follow up with some focus group activities to put together a more complete idea of the barrio and its needs. I can't truly say that FANCA is my community the way that I can say with certainty that Guillermo has become a very good friend, but it is a place that I feel comfortable in now, that I care about, and that I would like to see and work toward improving in th time that I am here.
On a related note, Guillermo is returning to Bahia and the Parroquia in March and staying for two months this time. He just didn't get enough of the community here and all of the fun (I mean work) we have here. :D I am excited for the possibilities to plan and collaborate more with him in the coming months!