About five years ago, I was planning to join the Peace Corps and awaiting my invitation to whatever country I would serve in. I had a friend at the time tell me that it was a horrible idea. ¨Two years is so much time!¨ she told me. ¨You can learn Spanish and travel another way!¨ She did not like the idea of the Peace Corps. Four years of service later, and I think I made the right decision for me. I am very happy that I did not take her advice!
Yes, that time has finally come that I am no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer! In Peace Corps lingo, I am officially an RPCV or Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.... even though I have not officially returned yet! Many of you followed me through my first two years of service through my emails and blog. When I lived in Sincape in the northern dry forest of Perú, everything was new and different. I experienced for the first time what real poverty not only looks like, but what it feels like, and who is behind the faces we often see in pictures about the ¨developing world¨. It was a real growing experience for me and something I could not and will not forget. I am grateful for all of your support and kindness through my entire service, particularly during those first two years!
Two years after moving away from Sincape, I still regularly communicate and close to my host family. I just got back from a recent visit to my small village home. I got to bath in the river again, play card games with my youngest host brother, and talk at length with my host parents and host sister, Ericka. Thanks to many generous friends and family members, I was able to pay for Ericka, to go to college for her first year. She is studying International Relations and is the first person in her family to pursue a higher education. The rest of the family is doing well. There are less people in the house now, only the four youngest who now have three, grown up siblings with very different lives to admire. They tell me that my host brother Paul, a rambunctious 12 year old when I first moved in with them, is now more interested in school and will be graduating this year and is thinking about going to college like his sister, either to be a chef or to technical school. My oldest host brother has found love ever since he moved to the city and started working in a chinese restaurant. His soon-to-be wife is now pregnant with their first child! The baby of the family, Briana, is two years old and talks all the time while climbing on everything. Alfonso and I have been asked to be the baby´s god-parents, which is such an honor! I am looking forward to being a part of their family in a new way. And of course, there are still a dozen (literally) roosters wandering around cock-a-doodle-doing at all hours of the night... it sometimes feels like they are singing right into your ear when you are just falling asleep. The family also has a dog that is super cute and they even feed it dog food! Big step up from a diet of pure rice and chicken bones!
For those of you that supported Ericka through her first year of college (and those would perhaps like to start/continue supporting her!), here is a short, 5 minute video I made of her during my most recent visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
My life as a Peace Corps volunteer changed in the additional two years that I stayed. I think I mentioned in previous emails that last year I worked as the Environment Program Coordinator. I got to travel the country visiting volunteers, giving advice, revising reports, etc. It was an interesting year and I learned a lot about the administrative side of Peace Corps. Towards the end of that year, I didn´t feel quite ready to leave and I wanted to go back ¨to the field¨. When I made that decision, I searched around for local organizations that do environmental education work and found two that were willing to take me on as a full time volunteer. I proposed the idea to Peace Corps Peru, suggesting that it would create stronger bonds between Peace Corps and the local community in Lima, and they went for it! And my newly invented position as a 4th year volunteer was born.
Therefore, this year I returned to doing community work. The NGO I was working for 4 days a week concentrates their intervention on marginalized zones of Lima. The program is called Buena Voz or Good Voice, and it´s methodology is to form a club in different schools that holds sessions every Saturday morning, teaching high school kids about self esteem, respect for their families, communities and themselves, and, of course, how to protect the environment. Some of these kids come from very messed up homes, and many have never experienced kind treatment or been listened to by a teacher or their peers before. The majority of graduates of the program will tell you that Buena Voz changed their lives, boosted their confidence, and made them better people. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be a part of a pre-established, functional program. My role was to organize meeting with the graduates of the program. I had regular meetings with them, held events, and motivated them to continue doing environmental and community projects. Through it all, I bonded with a handful of the kids, making it hard to say goodbye to them at the end of the year.
But aside from my work experience, I have learned a lot this year about Peru and about myself and my calling. I witnessed first hand a lot of the corruption and weaknesses that occur in the education system in Peru. There were many times when I felt frustrated and sad for the kids. How can they be expected to grow when they are afraid they might get robbed or attacked on the street? Then they go to school where they are yelled at and referred to only by their last names... sometimes by a number! While I had already decided I would apply to graduate programs this year, witnessing these problems and feeling helpless brainstorming solutions became my inspiration as to what my focus would be. I know what I want to change, how I want to help, and I feel like I can now focus my future endeavors on that pursuit. I feel that if there is anything that Peru needs, (and many other countries as well!) it is improved and accessible education. That way, entire generations will change and grow. I will find out in the next few months if I get in to any programs!
I found an article recently called ¨Don´t Join the Peace Corps¨, posted on a girls blog. I really identified with it because the author brings up all the horrible things that can happen to you during your service. It made me think of all of the struggles I have gone through while living in this country. My first dog was poisoned and killed by neighbors; my oldest host sister got pregnant and dropped out of high school in her final semester; I was threatened to be slapped by a local teacher; I was treated like a foreign princess by local authorities, instead of as a professional.... and the list goes on and on. But most importantly, I became stronger, more confident, and more self aware. Peace Corps was the most difficult challenge I have taken on in my life so far, but also the most worthwhile!
For those of you interested in the article, you can find it here: http://peacecorps.
Ok, this email is getting a little deep. Time to share some fun stories!
One day in 2013, while working with my NGO, I got a call from the Peace Corps office. They asked what my work involved, where I was working, etc. I was then told that there would be a " visit" from the US in a few weeks, and the people visiting wanted to see volunteer work but didn't have time to go out to the field... which is where I came in because I work in Lima. A few days later, the Peace Corps Peru Director called me and said he wanted to clarify more about the visit. He told me it was top secret (at the time, not anymore!), but that the person who was visiting was the first lady!!! That's right, they wanted to organize a visit to one of the schools I worked with for Michelle Obama! I was blown away. But first, her crew of security and organizational team from the white house had to see what the visit would be like and then decide if they would include it in the first lady's visit. I had to coordinate with the school, pick my best students to give a presentation and convince my NGO to go along with it... all without being able to tell them who was coming!!! The visit from the white house staff went really well! The two girls I asked to speak were star students. The Peace Corps director and NGO director all came for the visit. The girls talked about the program, and when the white house staff asked them what their favorite part of the program had been, one girl answered, "The class where they told us that 'yes we can'" and everyone in the room laughed and the poor girl had no idea why! The best part was that half way through the presentation, the electricity was cut out! What an experience. The staff members told me afterwards that they really enjoyed the visit, one even said it had been her favorite so far!
A few days after they came, the government shut down and Michelle Obama's visit to Peru was canceled. Cant have the first lady flying around the world while the country is in crisis!
While I feel like there is so much I could write and share about long bus rides, avocados and bananas you can boil to eat.... I feel like this email is already a little too long. It has been a wonderful year of adventure and new found passion for my work. My parents even came to visit again! But that is worth an entirely different email. This time they went to the northern cloud forest and the jungle! It was quite an adventure.
I will end with my last bit of news.
I will not be moving back to the US alone. After I moved to Lima two years ago, I soon met someone that I would grow to love very dearly and that I am not planning on sharing my life with. Alfonso and I have applied for a fiancé visa so that he can move to the states in June and stay with me while I pursue my graduate degree (assuming I get into any programs of course!). While we are not expecting this move to be easy on either of us, we think it is the best decision for our future together. For those of you who have never heard of him, he is a smart, funny and charming Civil Engineer here in Peru that stole my heart! I know, I am laying the corny on thick in this email! I will be in Peru until March so as to accompany him through the visa process and make plans.
As always, thank you for reading and for being a part of my life! I love you all and miss you and look forward to seeing everyone again when I finally get home!
No comments:
Post a Comment