Move Along Train

It has been awhile since my last post, I know, but I find it hard to have much to write about when work is moving rather slow (I beginning to believe that this is the Peruvian standard–poco-a-poco, no?). Though I am still at a bit of a loss as to what to write about, I figured it was about time for a new post, and hope that the words will come out of my fingertips and onto the page with some sort of fluency…

Attempts at Productivity

Currently I am working a great deal with the directora of the Colegio Especial in an attempt to visit the homes of the twenty-some-odd students who fail to show up to school on a daily basis. They are on the roster, and claim to be students of the school, but I surely have yet to even glimpse their sweet faces! So, in the mornings (at the insistence of the directora, and to my dismay as I know parents will more than likely not be home) I have been going on long walks with the directora to various homes. Typically no one is home, though we have had a few instances where the students are home and their parents away. One girl was even left out in the street without a key to her house while every family member was away. I know doubt can guess that thought pattern of her caregivers was: “Well, she cannot burn down the house if she is locked out of it!” Mind you, this student is older than twenty, though has a mental age much below that, and is often exploited to complete housework for her family as well as receives very little hygienic care (she was wearing dirty clothes and her face was quite dirty when we happened upon her). Unfortunately, I cannot claim that this type of maltreatment is uncommon in Peru…

I hope to continue these visits over the following weeks–though, hopefully with more success! My aim is to figure out if the claims of the directora that the reason that many of these students miss school is due to lack of funds for travel to and from the school. If this proves to be true, then I hope to work with the municipality to gain transportation for these students, for the school is a municipal school. Please send positive vibes my way–I’m gonna need all the help I can get in this undertaking!

When I am not working with the Colegio Especial, I am often working with the health post. I offered to help them recently with a promotional week and fair that they were having to prevent teenage pregnancy. I attended and aided with a sex ed. charla of sorts at the only public school here, Miguel Grau. The only manner of prevention that was really discussed was abstinence, and I found the charla sorely lacking in useful information; however, it was a good opportunity for me to witness the manner of education be offered (the few times that it is!). I think I impressed the enfermeras (nurses) when I spoke somewhat forcefully to the class when they were paying poor attention and laughing at my poor spanish speaking abilities. I decided to regain control of the lecture to pause, wait for attention, and forcefully state that I was learning Spanish to be able to communicate with them specifically and that I deserved more respect from them. Let me tell you, that shut them up! I think that the enfermeras were stunned that I could accomplish such a feat too! Though, I must say that I wasn’t that surprised at my success, I have worked with teenagers with behavioral issues before, after all…

On Friday of that week, the health post had planned to have a fería for teenagers about prevention of teenage pregnancy. They enlisted my aid in this because they have seen what attention I pay to the issue. I thus prepared a neat dynamica (interactive learning game) about AIDS, and was quite excited to use it. The first aspect of the fería that caught my attention as being a bit off was the fact that the nutritionist and dentist were included while the psychologist failed to show. Secondly, I noticed the large number of anti-abortion signs that they had made to post around the arena (I did not feel entirely comfortable being made a part of this platform, but comforted myself with the knowledge that it is actually illegal here). Thirdly, true to Peruvian tradition, no one showed. Three of the four schools in town were gone on paseos (field trips) and the fourth school, Miguel Grau, had failed to tell the students to attend the fería before they left school for the day. I could only laugh about it later with my family, as I had turned down the invitation to join in their paseo in order to work with the fería.

Along the lines of continuing with sex ed. programs, I hope to begin aiding one of the obstetrices with the sex ed. charlas that she has begun at one of the schools in the pueblo joven of Fujimori Fujimori with the aim of a smooth transition and aid in my charlas at the other schools in Salaverry. However, true to Peruvian tradition, she did not show up for her charla this past Thursday when I intended to begin aiding her. Here’s hoping that she shows for her session this Tuesday!

I have also been attempting to work with the promotora program at the health post, through which women of the community come to the health post and receive charlas on different health issues and are then expected to impart this information to their friends and neighbors. This is the same group that threw me my second birthday party. Three hours late. I think I can leave it at that reminder for you to understand how productive my work has been with them!

A Little Fun Along the Way…

I think the most rewarding aspect of my work as of late has dealt with my involvement in a local youth group. This group is composed of locals in their late teens to early twenties and is self-governed by them as well. They are a social organization with the main goals of social aid and planning and presenting various religious celebrations. They are also the closest thing I have to friendship at site. They have readily accepted me as a member of the group, and poco-a-poco as my language skills develop I am beginning to fit in well with them. I know that they will be a great help with future projects as well.

Anyways. this group, Elite they are called, threw me a belated birthday party of soda and chips at the meeting the Thursday after my birthday. We also had a chocolatada (hot chocolate and bread with butter) at the pueblo joven of Fujimori Fujimori this past Thursday. It was a rather successful event, and the eight or so gallons of hot chocolate as well as 200 bread rolls were gone with in a matter of a half hour. It was a fun event, and I felt more closely bonded with the group afterward. They then invited me to join them on a night out that night as the following day was a feríada (holiday).  I readily accepted this invitation, realizing that I would not be able to work much the following day either, and joined them on their night out. It was fun and tranquil, and I participated in my first ever Peruvian drinking circle–haha! It’s really just nice to know that I have a group of people who I can be chill with and not have it feel like work all the time. We had a paseo planned for today, Sunday, but our transportation fell through, so here’s hoping to a ¨rain date” in the near future!