Soy chambeadora!

So much has been going on since my last post! I should probably share the best news first- I now have a bathroom! It’s completely installed and has a toilet, sink, and shower. We had an inauguration party of sorts, with a delicious Pachmanaca a la olla lunch, my homemade banana bread, and some toilet paper decorations. I bought a little trash can, a shower curtain, and a mirror to make the whole thing complete. I’ve only taken a couple “showers” in the bathroom because the water is so cold it actually hurts. My host family thinks I’m nuts for using the shower but sometimes it’s just easier than heating up water for a bucket bath. I’m also not sure that my family uses the bathroom. They’re just not used to it. They actually told me they were going to put a lock on the door and give me a key so only I could use it. But that just defeats the point. The little ones are getting better about washing their hands too. They had a ball painting the bathroom door with me.

My bathroom door

In other news, I’ve gotten two grants to do two different projects in Huarimayo. One of them, my “Healthy Schools” project, was funded thanks to you all. The vegetable garden is well on its way but it’s been a very slow, painfully slow, process. But I’m learning so much along the way that I know if I had to do some of this stuff again, I could do it better. I won’t bore you with all the road blocks we’ve encountered, but I’ll tell a couple quick anecdotes. The first official day of the project, a couple men in my town were supposed to water the land so that the following day the parent association could till the land. I’m not sure quite what happened, but the men never showed up, probably because I didn’t go to their house that day to remind them. I’ve definitely learned that personal reminders/personal house visits are necessary here. So the following day, I had to call an agro-engineer friend of mine to tell him not to come because our land wasn’t ready. And sadly, he was going to Lima the following week and wouldn’t be able to help us the next weekend. Fortunately, the next week I got myself and the Committee of the Parent Association on the same page and on Saturday we watered and tilled the land, and the next day removed rocks, organized the land into parcels, and formed the beds. I got out there with my pick axe along with the rest of the parents and hauled rocks off the land. They kept telling me, “Gringa, tu no trabajas!” (“Gringa, you shouldn’t work!”) but there was no way I was just going to stand there. That would be boring!

!

My little guys

For the next couple days, the different grades took turns planting seeds in their parcels. On the second day, the 5^th/6^th grade teacher stole my carrot seeds. He had asked me earlier to “regalar” him some seeds (which is one of the few phrases I cannot stand here in Peru, it’s kind of a way of saying “give/gift me” something; in some contexts it’s ok, but in this situation the professor wanted me to give him seeds because he thinks I’m rich and can afford to buy more). I told him no, that the seeds were property of the school and the students, and I think that made him mad. As I went to gather up my things, I noticed my carrot seeds were gone, which were the ones he had asked me for. I knew he had stolen them and I didn’t know what to do because the last thing I wanted was to be in bad graces with the people crucial to the success of the project. Fortunately, Mike, our new third year Peace Corps Volunteer Coordinator, was coming out to Chavin to do some site development. We ended up going to the professor’s house (with the auspice of we were just in the neighborhood and wanted to introduce Mike) and talked to him about the seeds. Mike explained to him that if I didn’t find the seeds I was going to be in trouble and have to pay for new ones and the professor started to get all nervous and fidgety. He said he’d look for the seeds and talk to his students and let me know the next day. And miraculously, the seeds appeared the following day. So it all worked out in the end!

We already have a couple baby plants sprouting up! It makes me feel so proud after all the work getting the project going, and keeping it going. Watering the garden has been a nightmare. I’ve gotten in a couple little squabbles with some of the farmers who said it was their turn to use the stream system (you have to redirect the water toward your land when you want it) when it was my turn. The problem would be solved if my hoses and sprinklers worked, but their isn’t enough water pressure to get the sprinklers going. We’re going to install some kind of reservoir/tank thing, but that requires setting up a meeting with the parent association, pulling a few teeth to get the parents to help me, and then setting a date when everyone will show up. So that’s for the future.

And what’s going on in the school at this moment while I am in Huaraz buying supplies? Hopefully they are installing the sink! I bought a pre-made cement sink with the Peace Corps Partnership grant money so that the kids would have a place to wash their hands. I also bought toothpaste, soap, and toothbrushes for all the students and soon I’ll be teaching some personal hygiene classes. The rule for the hygiene campaign is that the students have to leave their personal items at the school, and after 3 weeks, if they’ve brushed their teeth and washed their hands every day, they can take their things home. I want them to get in the habit of taking care of themselves every day. This should be starting as soon as the sink is in!

And what’s left? Installing a latrine, painting a health mural, and maintaining the garden. The garden is something I’m hoping to keep up for the next year of my service. I just bought worms in Lima to do worm composting and I plan on doing a couple of other types of composting. There’s a long way to go, but really you have to go poco a poco. The teachers and parents are getting more supportive I think.

I am also working on a “Health Homes” Project and just received my SPA Grant money from USAID yesterday. We’ve already had 6 educational sessions, which have absolutely not been as easy as I thought they would be. Every week there is a new complaint/issue/problem- one Senora yelled at me because I wouldn’t let her participate in the project since she already had a cocina mejorada, another Senora yelled at me because I wouldn’t let her send a replacement to the meetings (the practice of sending replacement to meetings is really common, but the problem is they often send their children), and a couple Senoras got angry when I canceled a meeting so they could attend the funeral of a little old lady who died in the town. This project has not come without it’s complications, and I have to admit, I have run to my room and cried after several of the meetings. It’s hard being an authority figure when you are half the age of the participants. It’s also hard when you don’t speak their language. I realized after trying to do the first 2 educational sessions in Spanish, that the women just didn’t capture any of the information. So I got smart, and now I make sure I have a health promoter come to every meeting to translate and help me. The latest problem is that people have missed more than 2 meetings (which means you lose the opportunity to receive the cocina mejorada) and are telling me they were sick or had to work or whatever. I’m going to have to be strict and tell them they can no longer participate because they signed a contract saying they wouldn’t miss more than 2. There really is no excuse for them to be missing meetings at 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday, especially since they picked those times (and I’ve sacrificed going into Huaraz on the weekends for more than a month to accommodate their schedules). It’s going to be really difficult to tell them no, since I really want everyone to receive the cocina mejorada. However, it’s not fair to the ones who have come to every meeting.

Despite all the bumps in the road, it’s been exciting to see the plans I’ve been working on for months being put into action. It definitely gets frustrating but the little kids and Senoras make it worth it all. I would never have imagined I’d be doing worm composting or building adobe cooking stoves or broadcasting a health talk show, but that’s the job I was given, that’s what the community needs, and that’s what I’m enjoying doing right now. I thought the months of September/October/November were going to be really low key months, but there is a lot going on besides the two projects I’m working on. I’m being sent to an HIV/AIDS training in October, which is followed by two different field training sessions here in Ancash for the volunteers in training. And in November, we have our one year medical checks right before Thanksgiving. I’m planning on spending Thanksgiving hiking volcanoes in Arequipa. I guess Peru is kinda cool. :)

It’s hard to believe I’ve been out of the US for a little bit more than a year now. Time really does fly by. So all of you who have promised to visit me better get here soon- I’ve only got a little more than a year left!