The Improved Stove and Healthy Homes Project is underway. We have started with the health workshops and the mothers are attending and participating with enthusiasm. The toughest step of the actual construction of the stoves is still to come, but so far we are making progress and the families are very grateful. Many of the mothers wanted me to pass along a big “Gracias” to all of you who donated! I also have exciting news to report about the project. Originally, our budget (through the Peace Corps Partnership) was for 37 stoves. PRISMA, a Peruvian non-profit organization that works in our valley, has become quite interested in the project. Because it was so well organized and there are active mothers already involved, PRISMA wants to support our community project. With PRISMA’s support, I have been able to add 14 new families to the project. 14 more stoves! This means a lot more work for me, but ultimately more of an impact in the community. Now, even after increasing the project participants up to 51families, I still have a waitlist. The project is turning out to be quite successful, and I am crossing my fingers that I will continue to have good luck until the end.
My Vacaciones Útiles (summer school) courses went really well. I was impressed with the kids’ participation and enthusiasm in the courses. Hopefully their enthusiasm for learning will continue into the school year. Last week, I had a closing ceremony and party for the kids. I gave each of them certificates and rewarded those who participated in the most classes. After the short ceremony, we had a fiesta to celebrate our successes. We danced, played, took pictures, and enjoyed ourselves to appreciate the summer and prepare for the beginning of school.
Dave (called Daveed in my site) got a chance to come and visit Pampa Elera last week. It was great to have him here to see what I get to do here and meet the people with whom I work and live. It was also nice that he was able to experience the obstacles and stressors I face day to day. He spent 6 days in my site and then we went to the beach for days for some clean showers and air conditioning! During his visit, Dave and I worked on my family’s new vegetable garden, worked on the women’s rights promotion campaign, attended a birthday party of an 87 year old in Chipillico and experienced the fun and strange cultural differences of a Peruvian party, went horseback riding around the valley, played volleyball and soccer with the local kids, went to my English class and summer school closing ceremony and party, washed clothes by hand in the stream, went swimming in the swimming hole with a group of the kids, celebrated Mayra’s (my little 8 year old host sister’s) birthday, and just hung out with community and host family members. I am sure that my community will be talking about Dave for a long time.
I mentioned in a previous blog entry that I will be working with adolescent girls in my town on a campaign to promote women and women’s rights. The campaign is called “Mujer: Infórmate, Conócete, Defiéndete, Valórate: Es tu derecho.” (Woman: inform yourself, know yourself, defend yourself, and value yourself: It is your right). For the month of March, Women’s history month, we are focusing the campaign by promoting women’s rights, empowerment, and leadership in the community. I am working with Lindsey, the volunteer in the neighboring town, and the four girls who went to our women’s leadership retreat in February. On March 8, World Women’s Day, we did a radio show as well as a commercial on the local radio station to spread the word about the campaign and thank the women in the community. We also are interviewing local women in the community who are mothers and leaders and are positive role models to others.
A few weeks ago, I traveled to Cajamarca, a department in the highlands of Peru to visit with other Peace Corps Volunteers. Lindsey (my site mate) and I first traveled to Celendin to visit our good friend Mark. His site is absolutely beautiful! We did several hikes in the mountains to waterfalls, ate some delicious cheese (for which Cajamarca is famous…lots of cows!!), and walked around Celendin. We then took a very long and windy road back down to the capital city of Cajamarca. Cajamarca is Peru capital for celebrating Carnavales. There were about 30 other volunteers in Cajamarca to celebrate with us. The weekend was filled with a lot of water balloons, paint (being thrown, in water balloons, and in water guns), huayno dancing, drum beating, singing, and, oh yeah, a lot of rain. It was a lot of fun (despite the fact that this year I was not the Carnaval queen) to experience all of the traditions of Peruvian Carnavales with my fellow Peace Corps volunteers.
In the beginning of Februrary, the Peace Corps volunteers in Piura held a four day camp for teenage girls. It was called ALMA: Actividades de Liderazago para Mujeres Adolescentes (Leadership activities for adolescent girls). Since last November, a group about 20 of us had been meeting to plan the retreat. The camp was completely PC volunteer run: we arranged for speakers, a vocational panel, team-building activities, leadership games and activities, and all of the logistics of the camp. Each volunteer brought 2 or three teenage girls from their own communities who excel as leaders in their community and show potential to excel. I brought two 15 year old girls from the high school, Perlita and Roxana. I have worked with both girls a lot over the past school year and have seen that they both possess a lot of potential to succeed and go to university to become professionals. Currently, it is very uncommon for high school graduates (especially girls) to leave Pampa Elera and go to college. The goal of this retreat was to reward the girls for their hard work thus far, and show them some of the options they have outside of their little communities.
The retreat was, by far, one of the most rewarding projects I have worked on so far in Peru. It was so wonderful to Perlita and Roxana meet other girls from all over Piura who are just like them, and have what it takes to succeed. In addition to meeting other girls their age, they got to hear from and get to know successful Peruvian women. Over the four days, a doctor, a businesswoman, a policewoman, a teacher, an engineer, a sociologist, a lawyer, a psychologist, and an artisan came to meet with the girls to share their stories, give advice, and inspire them. Most of these professional women came from low socioeconomic backgrounds, just like the girls at the camp, but overcame their challenges to become successful Peruvians. The girls also learned about volunteerism, entrepreneurism, sexual health, feminism, self-discovery, and domestic violence.
At the end of the retreat, Perlita, Roxana, and I discussed what we had learned and started to plan how we were going to take our knowledge back to our community. The girls are planning on doing activities in the high school with the other teenage girls to inspire them to be successful women. We will celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8 by doing a show on the local radio station to talk about women’s rights and the importance of having successful women in our community. For the following weeks on March, we will be doing interviews that will be aired on the radio featuring a strong woman in our own community (teacher, president of women’s club, pharmacist, shop owner) to remind the men and women of our community how valuable women are to the harmony and success to the community.
I would like to thank all of you who have contributed to our Improved Kitchen and Healthy Homes project. I was quite surprised to find out how quickly funds were raised. Thank you to all for your generousity to the community. Now that funding has been reached, I am starting to realize how much work I have ahead of me! Although I will continue to have other secondary projects, this stove project will be one of the main things that I will be focusing on this year. I am happy to report that the project has officially begun. All of the “socias” of the project have met and I have told them the good news. They are anxiously waiting for the rain to stop so that we can start with construction. Until then, we will be starting our health workshops so that they can start improving the conditions of their homes and health of their families. I have also met with the district mayor and he has agreed to support the project with transport of materials and a few additional materials that were not included in the original budget. I will be sure to keep all of you updated on our progress. Thanks again for your support!
