Because I know you are all big fans of my "work". Which reminds me, have I ever actually talked about the work I do here in my little town in Peru? In my last post I explained more about Peace Corps (happy 50th anniversary!), but I've never talked about what I do specifically. So, lucky email readers, your getting an email full of real-life Peace Corps volunteer work details, yey!
But first, as some of you may know, the Peruvian presidential elections (first round) just passed by on April 10th! Although I know almost nothing about any of the 5 candidates, it is an exciting time and the atmosphere is contagious. In my town, where access to news and information is limited, what I have understood of the candidates is that there is: a woman who's Dad was president a while back, a guy who has already been president and running again, and an "American" (who is really a dual citizen, born in Peru) that they call "PPK" because no one can pronounce his last name and his first two names are "Pedro Pablo". The woman is really popular among the women (shocking) in my town. My environment program boss says he likes PPK and got annoyed when I asked if he was American, saying that is what his opponents are trying to spread to get people who don't like the US to not vote for him. I watched the Debate the other night but found it mostly comical because I don't know much about the issues. I don't like admitting my lack of knowledge about all of this, but as a side note, Peace Corps has a strict policy against us volunteers getting involved with any political groups in order to keep us safe. So, for me that means knowing as little as possible so that I don't get opinionated or upset about the results. I guess the only thing I'm worrying about is the supposed anti-american candidate called Ollanta (his last name) because he might not want Peace Corps in the country anymore if he wins. Election day is Sunday, April 10th and it is mandatory voting in Peru or else you have to pay a fine. When I wrote this originally, it was before the elections, but just to update, Ollanta and Keiko are the two winners who will go on to the second round of voting in June for President.... interesting.
Ok, now going back to what I'm actually up to in my town. So, because the only real institution in my town is the local school, I do almost all of my work with them. In the city of Olmos, we (the group of volunteers in my region) have started a network of environmental schools that meets monthly and each participating school tries to do environmental classes and projects. Most of my work last year revolved around this. I helped them build a little tree nursery that was successful until summer vacation came around and no one watered them except for me once a week. I did a few little talks in the high school level classes about trash management and my school was motivated to buy out-door trash cans for the school where before everyone just threw it on the ground. Then we needed something to do with the trash so we sorted recycling to sell and built a mini-landfill for the non-recyclables. One of the more motivated teachers had her classes expand the tree-nursery and also started compost piles. Then, for fun and for "cultural exchange" I played for the girl soccer team, went to local parties and events and did a lot of laundry in the river with women.
This year is starting out with a bang and things are moving fast and I feel great about it! I was awarded money from an NGO in the US called Kids to Kids to do my summer school classes and that was incredible! My classes were really popular, growing almost every week. We did mostly English, with time set aside each class to do environmental lessons and sports/games. It was tiring and took almost all of my energy and time planning and executing the classes, but I loved doing it and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves as well. Summer for them was December, January and February. At the end of my classes, I took them on a field trip to a nearby local zoo! The kids and a couple parents were thrilled because they rarely get to leave town, let alone see exotic animals. So I was really grateful to Kids to Kids to give me enough money to sponsor that trip. Now school is back in session, classes started in March. So, we have another year of the environmental network that I'm excited about because we have a new volunteer in the region organizing it and she has some great ideas. I had the idea in February to start up a radio show for the entire city of Olmos and got my volunteer regional buddies together and we started a weekly, Monday afternoon show where we talk about the environment, health and other fun things. If you ever want to listen to it (even though its in spanish) you can find it at this site: http://superwfm.com/
at 4:30 (5:30pm in the US because of daylight savings time) on Monday's. You can at least listen to hear my voice and my sexy spanish talk, right? I love doing the show, and a lot of people in my town listen to it and even call the radio station sometimes to say hi while I'm there!
Other then that, I had money left over from my Kids to Kids grant, so I decided to buy things for the school. After talking to the principal, we decided on trash cans for every classroom and new soccer and volley balls. Because Kids to Kids gave me money for an environment and sports based camp, I feel these things are appropriate. I presented the new trashcans and blue paper recycling bins to every class in the school just the other day and it was really fun and exciting! Also, because my school doesn't have any running water but does that the infrastructure (piping, sinks, bathrooms, etc), I applied for another grant from an NGO called "Appropriate Projects" (http://www.appropriateprojects.com/) that gives money to volunteers in the field doing water project. They gave me enough to buy a new electric pump that will pump water from a nearby well into the tank of the school, effectively giving them running water!!! I was really excited about this as well, but the installment has been taking some time because the organization called the "fathers of the family" that works with the school wanted to fix up the piping and stuff first. But, hopefully sometime this month that water will be flowing and it will be MUCH easier to take care of all the trees I want to plant in the school!!!
Finally, this month I am organizing a poetry contest for Earth Day which is the 22nd of April for all the high school students. The winners get a movie, a trip to the town of Olmos with me, and they get their poems read on the radio show. Also, starting this Saturday I am starting an environmental camp for the elementary kids, and I will be doing monthly environment workshops with a group of selected high school students.
That is my work in a nut shell. There are obviously a lot of day-to-day things and failures and new ideas bouncing around all the time, like the annual boys and girls camp that we organize as a department (the whole "state" of Lambayeque) where we bring a few selected youth to a three day camp about leadership, health, etc. Right now, I am loving my job and feel happy and successful. I guess that is the goal with any job right?
Oh... and I learned how to milk a cow the other day! :)
So, I will be writing again soon but I wanted to send a little update saying hello to all of you. I hope everyone is doing well and I hope to hear updates/responses! I miss you all, thank you for being supportive.
Love and hugs,
Carolyn
No comments:
Post a Comment