fiesta de san andrés

My grandfather Andrés is the father of 9 children, grandfather of 29(30, including his new host granddaughter from the US!), and great-grandfather of 3. No one exactly knows how old he is, but he is approaching his eighties. This week our family celebrated his saint’s day, day of Saint Andres. We all had a big dinner and then danced and drank until literally 5 in the morning. Peruvians continue to impress and surprise me with their abilities to party until wee-hours in the morning (even the great-grandfathers!).

día internacional de VIH/SIDA

December 1 was World Aids Day. For months, the youth health promoters and I have been preparing a Healthy Lifestyles Fair to celebrate this day. Each grade was asked to prepare some sort of presentation for the fair to demonstrate what they had learned over the past few months from the peer health promoter’s campaign about sexually transmitted diseases, prevention of teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and leading healthy lifestyles as adolescents. The students and teachers really impressed me with their creativity, participation and knowledge. The winning class, who all won t-shirts that have a message about the fight against HIV/Aids, did an entertaining skit about HIV. Another class did a creative radio commercial which we will air on the local radio station. After months of hard work and several bumps along the road, I am so happy that this healthy sexual lifestyles campaign ended so well.

intercambio entre el perú y los estados unidos

One of the projects I have been having the most fun with here has been a correspondence program between a fourth grade class in Virginia and the fourth grade class in Pampa Elera. I have been in touch with a teacher from my very own elementary school. Each student in her class has a pen pal with a student in the fourth grade class here. It has been a lot of fun to see what the Peruvian kids and American kids have in common and what they are curious about each other’s differences. The kids here have really gotten excited about having friends from the US and this correspondence has made them ask questions that they never even knew they had. Although I haven’t yet met the fourth graders back home, I can tell from their letters that they are also very enthusiastic about sharing with and learning from kids their age in Peru. I have found that this has been a great way to share with Americans what life is like in Peru, and vice versa, especially with kids, who have no preconceived notions about socio-economic, political, or cultural divisions.

Here are some pictures of my class here who have pen pals in the US.

noviembre en el perú

November was a very busy month for me. I was working hard preparing for World Aids Day with my youth health promoters, doing activities in the elementary school on health promotion, visiting community members, and being visited by a group of Peace Corps trainees who came to my site to see and experience the life and work of a volunteer. The month really flew by.

In addition to a lot of work, November was also a fun month for me. I started it off by celebrating my birthday/Halloween with the other volunteers in Piura. I spent a week in Lima for mid-service medical checks and program meetings. During my time in Lima, I visited with my old host family and spent time with the other Health volunteers. At the end of November, Dave came down and we celebrated Thanksgiving back in Piura on the beach.

limpieza en la comunidad

Trash contamination is one of the major environmental and health problems in my community. Littering is disgustingly normal here. It is so much more common to see a child or adult throw a piece of trash on the ground rather than in a trash can. And the trash that is actually collected is burned. This problem is not necessarily the fault of the community members. They are simply accustomed to these methods, and have never been taught different ways or reasons why these behaviors are harmful to their health and their environment. What’s more, there is no system for trash management or collection, so there are little or no options available other than throwing or burning trash on the ground.

For several months, I have been working with a committee to tackle this problem. It is a pretty big issue that cannot be solved overnight. We have met with the district municipality to discuss our options and have plans to continue to work on this issue by setting up a trash management program. We held several community-wide meetings to raise awareness about the problem and its effects on our families and environment. During these meetings, we also planned a community-wide “limpieza,” clean-up day. We made the project into a competition to motivate all of the families to participate. The community was divided into sectors and each sector competed to be the cleanest. It turned out to be a huge success and there was overwhelming community participation. Our limpieza and community meetings were first steps in working on maintaining a clean and healthy community. The committee is going to continue to work with the community and municipality to work on this problem.

peregrinos

It has been interesting for me to live in a Catholic country and observe customs and beliefs of the people here. I’ve attended masses, baptisms, had interesting conversations about religion with my neighbors, and the priest of a nearby town has even tried to convince me that I should let him baptize me. Last week, I got to witness yet another interesting aspect of the Peruvian Catholic culture as hundreds of pilgrims passed through our valley.
As in any Catholic country, saints are a big deal here. In October, Peru celebrates the Saint Señor Cautivo de Ayabaca. This particular saint is the patron saint of the town of Ayabaca, which is in the highlands of Piura (about 2 days by foot from my town). Devout Catholics from all over Peru make a pilgrimage each year to Ayabaca. Pilgrims come all the way from Lima, and even more south. They walk north for weeks as more and more people join them en route to Ayabaca. It was fascinating to see them cross through the valley, only 2 days away from their final destination; some of them in large groups marching to a beating drum, some dragging a huge cross, some carrying a Saint Señor de Ayabaca statue or a portrait of a sick loved one, and others literally crawling to demonstrate the penance of their sins. It was very dramatic; I was tempted to start walking with them. Maybe next year…

sesiones en el cadi

The sessions we are having in the center for infant development are going well. Each week more mothers and their babies are attending. It is really exciting to see the progress of this project since its start in May and know that it can only grow from here. Here are some pictures of the babies and infants with their moms playing in the center with the toys that the promoters and I put together.

¡un año en el perú!

This month I am celebrating living one year in Peru. It is pretty hard to believe that over a year ago, I left Charlottesville to venture off on a 2 year journey without really knowing what I was getting myself into. There have been ups and downs, to say the least. I have learned so many things about myself and the world that are not only surprising, but also disappointing, exciting, silly, thought-provoking, sad, and blissful. It is hard to put into words the range of emotions, discoveries, and thoughts that I have had in the past year. I have faced challenges that I had no idea I would have to face. I have met wonderful people who have broadened my perspective. I have seen situations of poverty that have changed my outlook on the world forever. I have participated in community and family events that I will never forget. I have started projects that hopefully are starting to improve the health and well-being of members of my community.

It’s weird to think that my time in Peru is not even half way over (27 months in total). But I am really looking forward to the rest of my Peace Corps service. When I got off of the plane a year ago, I was excited, but also really scared about what was to come. Now, I can confidently say that I am excited (but not scared) to continue to learn about myself and the world; and most importantly, make a positive impact in my community.

sesiones en el centro de aprendizaje y desarrollo infantil

After a lot of planning, we have finally started our sessions in the infant development center. I have worked closely with 7 women who are the “Promoters” of the center. They are community members who have volunteered to be in charge of running and organizing the sessions. I have given them several training sessions about the importance of early intervention and stimulation and infant development. Our center is focusing on children under the age of three, which is a crucial stage in development. We are starting with the basics by emphasizing the importance of play. Most of these infants are under-stimulated and don’t ever have proper “playtime.” After doing some background research about infant development stages and appropriate games and toys, I collaborated with the promoters to make some basic toys that will stimulate development. While I would have loved to recommend to the mothers the latest Fisher Price toy that stimulates the senses and develops of hand-eye coordination and motor skills, I had to keep in mind what resources we actually had to work with. We had several workshops to make toys such as mobiles, rattles, stacking blocks, textured books, shape puzzles, etc that are made from basic materials that are easily and cheaply available in our town that target development for babies and infants 0 to 3 years old. For example, we made rattles out of plastic bottles and rice rinds (being surrounded by rice fields, this is one material definitely in abundance). After prepping with promoters with some background knowledge and working with them to make toys, we invited the mothers with babies in our town to the center for our first session. While the first session definitely left some room for improvement, both the promoters and the mothers and babies showed enthusiasm and interest.

It is hard to explain the significance and important potential that I see in this center. In the States, the infants are effortlessly stimulated and played with. Surrounded by toys, healthy food, good medical care, and a high standard for learning at a young age, the average infant in the developed world is lucky with what she has, without her or her parents even realizing it. But in developing countries, there has been little or no focus on early infant stimulation. Imagine a home where the two year old literally plays with trash and stares at the ground for hours. She gets fed a plate of rice three times a day and has never visited the doctor. I have seen so many of these homes here, and I think (and hope!) that our new center is going to make a difference for the youngest members of Pampa Elera.

sesiones educativas de promotores escolares

For the past two weeks, I have been working hard with the youth health promoters giving talks in the high school. The peer health promoters have been visiting every classroom in our high school and teaching, discussing, and promoting healthy lifestyles through the prevention of HIV/Aids, Sexually Transmitted Infections, and unwanted pregnancies. It has been interesting, because I know how “sex-ed” talks to teenagers can be awkward. But I think that the students and teachers have been absorbing what we’ve been discussing and hopefully we’re making a difference. I’ve been having the promoters use non-formal educational techniques so that these talks can be (relatively) fun and interesting and (relatively) un-awkward.

In their regular coursework, there is no mention of sex, sexuality, adolescence, or prevention of pregnancy or STIs. And because the majority of the families are conservative and religious, from what I can tell, parents aren’t really giving “the talk” to their kids. In addition to a relatively high prevalence of STIs reported by the health post, there are also a high number of teen pregnancies in my town. During this school year, three of the girls in the senior class (of 25 students) dropped out because they were pregnant.

In our educational sessions in the classrooms, the adolescents are getting a good opportunity to learn from their own peers about these important themes. We have the permission of the teachers and parents, so we are not imposing any taboo topics. We are able to bring up topics that the kids are obviously curious about (and experimenting with) so that they can be safe and healthy.

agua y sodis

I often write about work I’m doing or fun events in Pampa Elera, but I have neglected sharing about my everyday routine and basic lifestyle here. I’ll dedicate this entry to the basic life essential: water. After reading this, I hope you all appreciate the next time you turn on your sink and drink a nice glass of clean running water.

None of the homes in my community have running water. We get all of our water from the river. To wash my clothes, we go to the river. To bathe, everyone goes to the river (sometimes I go along; and sometimes, stuck in my American ways, fill up my shower bag and attempt to “shower” in my house with water dripping out of a bag). To cook, clean, and drink, we all haul buckets of water from the river to our houses (which is REALLY HARD!)

Once the water is in their homes, most of the families boil their water to purify it. I use a purification system called SODIS, which is solar water disinfection. It uses solar UV-A radiation to kill pathogens that may cause diarrhea. I put the “contaminated” water into a transparent plastic bottle and then put the bottle on top of my tin roof for the day. In 6 hours of direct sunlight, the UV-A rays kill the microbes and improve the quality of the drinking water. Although time-consuming, it’s a pretty cool method and the water tastes fresh and delicious.

promotores escolares

Since June, I have been working with a group of 7 high school students on an HIV/Aids prevention project. The teenagers participated in 15 hours of training that I put together and they are now certified as Peer Health Promoters. (Getting certificates is a big deal here, check out the pictures of our certification ceremony with their parents). During their training, the promoters learned about themes such as adolescence, gender and sexuality, reproduction, prevention of STIs and pregnancy, and all about HIV and Aids.

After their certification, we wrote a grant proposal for funding for a promotion campaign. We are soliciting funds from PEPFAR, which is the President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief. The US government has money set aside for small projects in developing countries with HIV prevalence. We have turned in our grant and are waiting to hear if we are approved! If we get the funding, we plan on doing a radio show that promotes healthy lifestyles, three educational sessions in all of the high school classes, making t-shirts and other promotional materials, and putting on a health fair on December 1, which is International HIV/Aids Awareness Day. The Peer Health promoter project is probably the biggest project I am working on right now, and will be spending a lot of time from now till December working with the teenage promoters and the rest of the school. Stay tuned for more updates!

charlas en la primaria

A few weeks ago, I spent a lot of time in the primary school working on health promotion. I developed a work plan for the rest of the school year with the director of the school. I am starting with the basics, but also the most important, especially for kids. Hand washing and basic hygiene. 2,000,000 kids a year under the age of 5 die from diarrhea. In Peru, kids have 5-10 episodes of diarrhea per year. Even if kids are surviving these episodes, have up to 10 several-day episodes of diarrhea a year is equivalent to not eating for 2 months a year. Washing hands and basic hygiene has been proven to be the best way to prevent diarrhea. It was reported in 2005 that only 6% of families in Peru washed hand with soap, even though 97% of families had some type of soap.

So, my goal in the school was to raise awareness about the importance of hand-washing, drinking secure water, and washing fruits and vegetables. I visited every classroom from preschool to 6th grade to talk about microbes and how they get into our bodies. I did a puppet show about “Miguel the Microbio” and a story about “Maraquita Cochinita” (Dirty Margaret), a hand-washing demonstration, among other fun games. The kids seemed to show interest and hopefully will change their behavior. I don’t think I will have eradicated diarrhea in my community, but hopefully the classroom visits made some difference. Last week, three parents approached me and told me that their kids were insisting that they wash their hands before their meals.

luna

Living on my own has been a great experience thus far, but it does get a little lonely. When Gloria’s (my host “mom”) cat had kittens, I immediately fell in love with the litter of kittens and decided it was time to get myself a roommate. As soon as she turned two months old and was ready to separate from her mom and brothers and sisters, my kitten came to live with me in my house (not after several intensive flea baths though!). Her full name is Luna Choclita García Sayre. Luna means “moon” in Spanish and Choclo means “corn.” All Latin Americans have two last names, so it is fitting that Luna does too.

I feel a bit guilty for treating Luna like an American cat rather than an emaciated Peruvian one, giving her real cat food and treats (as opposed to the occasional table scraps that most cats have to fight for among the pigs, dogs, and chickens). She is learning how to use a litter box, which everyone here thinks is simply ridiculous. I plan on taking her to the vet in the city to get her vaccines, which also seems like a ridiculous extravagance to my host family. And worst of all, something that is considered animal abuse here, I plan on getting her spayed (I can handle one Luna, but not six more!). I figure that my treatment of my cat can just be another cultural learning experience for my community. Even though people here think I’m a little bit weird for the way I treat and love an animal, I think that they are a bit amused by it.

ist

I spent this past week in the city if Piura with a member of my community, Rosa, along with all of the other health volunteers in Peru and their community counterparts for In-Service Training. We participated in a 4 day long workshop where we learned about options for community projects which include organic gardens, agriculture, latrine construction, construction of improved kitchens, and early childhood and prenatal stimulation. The workshop was very helpful and I am especially excited that Rosa, who is the president of the Women and Mother’s club in my community, got the opportunity to come to the training sessions to not only learn more about Peace Corps but also take back some valuable and useful skills and information about projects we can do in our community.

sesiones demostrativas

One of the initiatives of the Health program in Peace Corps Peru is prevention of chronic malnutrition. In Peru, 40% of children under the age of 5 years old living in rural areas are chronically malnourished. Along with the NGO PRISMA, I have facilitated several sessions for mothers with young children about the importance of nutrition and how to prepare nutritious meals for their families. The women are so accustomed to serving rice and maybe a little bit of meat to their growing children every day. After talking about the significance of a balanced meal where children can get protein, and the important vitamins to be healthy growing children, we prepared foods from the region to show how easy it is to stay on a budget and prepare food that their kids will enjoy, but also that will provide adequate nourishment.
For this project, I worked with the Health Promoters in my community, who are volunteers who help with health promotion for families in Pampa Elera. It was great that I could get them involved and also that we could show the community that the community is working for itself to improve the health of its own children (not just have a random extranjera come in and teach how they should change their health practices). The sessions seemed to be successful and we plan to do follow up house visits with the families to ensure that they are practicing healthy and nutritional habits in their homes.

visita a la selva

Last week, Dave came down to visit and we took a trip to the jungle of Peru. Being in the jungle was such a cool experience. The culture, climate, and surroundings made me feel like I was in a whole new country. We started in Tarapoto, which is a city in the cloud forest. We visited an amazing waterfall there. The next day, we took a 12 hour boat ride down the Rio Huallaga (tributary to the Amazon) to the little town of Lagunas. The only boat we could get to take us to Lagunas was a local boat where everyone takes their own hammock on the boat. We were surrounded by mothers and children swinging in the hammocks. Once in Lagunas, we met up with our guides, José and Johvita. For the next three days, we explored Reserve Pacaya Samiria, which is Peru’s largest national reserve. José and Johvita took us in a conoe up and down the small rivers and lakes that make up the Western part of the reserve. There, we saw macaws, crocodiles, anacondas, crocodiles, capuchin monkeys, wooly monkeys, butterflies, spiders, lizards, turtles, and many river fish including pirahnas. After the reserve, we took a 2 day boat cruise down the Rio Huallaga to the city of Iquitos. On the boat, we got to see river dolphins, flocks of tropical birds, and views of jungle villages on the river. We spent two days in Iquitos. Our favorite part was our visit to a butterfly farm and animal preserve, where we met several monkey amigos, jaguar, giant ant eater, tapir, three-toed sloth babies, and butterflies of every color. We ended our trip by spending a few days in Lima. We had a great time.

taller de danza

When I arrived in my community, many of the kids in the high school expressed interest in having dance workshops and learning different dances. Because this has been one of my ideas since I decided to join the Peace Corps, and I have some background in dance, I was thrilled! It brought me back to the days of WAHS Dance Team. We decided to start with a dance to prepare for the school's anniversary in mid-July. I let the kids pick out a song they wanted to dance to and then I choreographed a routine. It was definitely a lot harder than I thought it would be, considering the fact that none of the kids had any experience in learning choreography, the difficulty of yelling out moves and steps in Spanish, and the pure cultural contrast in discipline. When I said we would have dance classes two days a week at 3 o'clock, everyone needed to come prepared, and if you want to participate in the anniversary show, attendance was mandatory, I was going by my North American customs and expectations. But I soon had to learn that I would be forced to adapt to the customs and expectations of these teenagers. So the 3 o'clock classes started no earlier than 3:45pm (sometimes 4:30pm), kids would often skip or show up for just half of the class, and I often left the classes with a little bit of a headache.

Before the big show, I was a bit frustrated because not everything had gone according to my plan. But I took a step back, and saw how much fun these kids were having. They rarely have opportunities to learn and dedicate themselves to something outside of the classroom. I thought back to how much I enjoyed all of my extracurricular activities in high school, and probably took them for granted. These kids had a fun after school activity and had worked hard to learn something very new and different. I could see in their faces how excited they were to show off what they had learned to their peers and community. It was very rewarding to see the kids perform. It also felt great to share my passion of dance with these kids; because I could tell that they were having as much fun and were as anxious/excited before the show as I was when I was in my high school dance shows. Hopefully we will continue with our dance workshops and continue to improve and have fun dancing!
Here's a clip of the anniversary show:

bebe jesica

A few days before my family's visit, a baby was born in my host family. Roxana and Raul (Gloria's brother) gave birth to a baby girl. After meeting my beautiful sister Jessica (who during her visit was called “Princess,” “Barbie” “Really White,”-which is a good thing, etc), my host family fell in love with her. They are still talking about her and how beautiful she is. In fact, her legacy will live on for quite a while because the new baby was named Jesica! This is the second Peruvian baby named after a family member. In Julcan, if the baby was a girl, it was going to be called Rebecca Marcia (Marcia, my mom, and I got left out because it was a boy.) The new baby was named Steven, in honor of my dad, who the family never had even met.

I'm not quite sure why they like us, or at least our names, so much. It's flattering, I guess. Peruvians are very enamored with all aspects of North America and its culture. They are always asking about it and curious about life there. For example, I have heard WAY too much about Michael Jackson's death in the past week. I'm not sure how big it is in the news in the US, but Peruvians want to talk all about MJ with me.

Anyway, back to baby Jesica. As I've talked about in previous entries, a huge part of Peruvian culture is having madrinas and padrinos (godparents) for EVERYTHING. I've been a madrina for an elementary school graduation, a high school graduation, an inaguration, and, now something new. I was asked to be Jesica's madrina for her earpiercing and first nail cutting. That sounds as weird and confusing to you as it did to me when I was asked to be the madrina. It is an honor to be someone's madrina, but I didn't really understand. Well, I had to do exactly what it sounds like. I pierced the baby's ears! And then cut her nails. It is tradition that a chosen godparent cuts the fingernails for the first time for all babies. And for girls, a godparent pierces the baby's ears. I freaked out a little bit, when I saw the earrings the mom's hand and she asked me to just stick them in. I declined at first, because I would NEVER do that sort of thing in the States. But they begged and pleaded and I decided to embrace yet another bizarre part of the culture. So I pierced Jesica's ears, and then cut her little nails; she barely even cried. And now I am the godmother of her ears and fingernails.