Monday was a lot of talking. I went to the health post to chat with Natalia and Violeta
about some work-related things.
When I showed up, Natalia wanted to talk to me about giving charlas to
adolescents a couple Saturdays a month.
She also asked me for material to use for a charla on self-esteem. I happen to have just done an awesome
charla with my Pasos Adelante group, and promised to make a copy for her. She said she would chat with the high
schoolers about potentially meeting twice a month to do a Pasos Adelante
group. It would be nice to have
another group, since I have really been enjoying teaching the kids I have in
Cabracancha. I’ll update on
whatever happens there. I’m a
little nervous because Natalia says they have other obligations and might have
trouble coming two Saturdays a month.
If they don’t come consistently, it doesn’t really make sense to do a
Pasos group, but I guess we’ll see what happens.
I then went in to the other room to ask Violeta if I could
see the list of themes she had written down when we had a meeting with the
primary school teachers. We’d made
a plan for me to give a charla once a month to the primary school teachers, and
during the meeting, Violeta told me not to worry about writing down the themes
because she would do it. Violeta,
when I asked her what the first theme was, told me I had the list. When I said she had it, she exclaimed,
“You didn’t write it down too?” as though I were completely to blame. I reminded her that she had assured me
during the meeting that I didn’t need to worry about writing down the themes
because she was doing it. She
finally admitted to having no idea where it was. Nice. I then
took out my “informe”, which is essentially a monthly report of my activities,
and handed it to her. It’s a
formality that is really common in Peru, and is also the reason why at the end
of the month, for the last week or so, the health post workers refuse to do
anything but fill out papers. It’s
because their informes are due.
Peace Corps encouraged us to do this so I got on it and made copies for
the mayor of Chota, the President of our RONDA (Don Juan, my dude), the health
post workers, and Director Nóvil of the primary school. When I handed it to Violeta, she looked
at it, saw that one of the first things listed was the Pasos Group I was doing
in Cabracancha, looked up at me and said, “But this is all about stuff you’re
doing in another town.” I
patiently explained to her that there was only one thing I was doing in another
town on my informe. While I said
this, she tried to interrupt me a few times. When I stopped talking, she tried to tell me that I had to
write a separate informe for the health post in Cabracancha of the things I was
doing there, and then write a different one for the health post in Iraca. I was not having it. I explained, a little more firmly, that
it was simply a document with all my activities for the month listed on it, and
that it served the sole purpose of informing everyone what I was up to. She tried to argue again and I just
simply said, “I’m not writing another one.” Seriously, what’s the point? You want me to write a completely different document because
this one has one thing on it that I’m not doing in this community? Forget it. That’s just obnoxious.
I then had a chat with Natalia and Violeta about doing a
Health Homes project. Violeta had
begged me for it a few weeks earlier, so I let them know that I was willing to
do it as long as I could start out small, with just 10 families. We agreed that we would pick the moms
on the 20th of May, which is vaccine day when all the moms go to the
health post to get their kids vaccinated and receive the food supplements,
which usually consists of vegetable oil and “papillas”, which is baby
food. I also had to get a
Community Partner Report filled out with the two of them. They kept insisting that I write in the
report how grateful they were to have me as a resource. They said that, but when are they
actually going to use me effectively without using me, if you know what I mean? I asked if one of them would come with
me to the charla I was giving to the professors on Friday and Violeta was weird
about it for a minute, and Natalia went off about how I’m a resource they
should appreciate and support.
Never hurts to hear good intention. Still kinda waiting for the action.
The last thing I mentioned, was that Emilia, my boss, was
coming on the 13th of June, the day after my birthday. They got super excited about my
birthday (which is a huge deal in Peru for whatever reason) and started talking
about having a giant celebratory lunch the day Emilia came to my site to
visit. I was flattered by their
enthusiasm, and thought it sounded like a good idea. No harm in giving the impression that my town loves me when
my boss comes to visit!
On my way back to my house, I ran into almost all the school
teachers sitting on the benches outside one of the tiendas (little
stores). I stopped to say hi to
everyone and give Director Nóvil my informe. The Director of the Kindergarten gave me this weird sweet
frozen milk thing that kind of seemed like a popsicle. It was surprisingly delicious. I ended up hanging out for a while. They asked me questions about my home,
how far away it was, what was the primary thing we produced. I had a hell of a time trying to
explain maple syrup to them (I couldn't really think of anything else to say). They
asked me to bring back seeds and I had to explain that was illegal, which
involved me trying to explain about invasive species and the effect that can
have on an ecosystem (in Spanish, it wasn’t pretty). I mentioned to them too that my boss was coming on the 13th
and that I was hoping they’d come to a meeting. I also managed to slip in a question to the Director about
the theme for the charla on Friday. (It's nutrition.) It was nice hanging out with all the teachers and talking like we were
friends. They are a lot nicer when
I’m not asking them for anything…We chatted for probably 45 minutes, until it
was time for their lunch break (when all the students go home to their houses for
over an hour for lunch, then come back for class in the afternoon) to end. I headed home.
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