To Do and Virgin de Soccorro

I just made it though a few weeks there where I had way too much time on my hands. I'm not sure why or what happened, but things have picked up and my life is much better for it. It's fabulous! On the other hand, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. When I'm overwhelmed I make lists...

1.Solid Waste Management Project with the local government: Trying to be a nudge and get a study of trash production per capita started and finished... in theory by the end of September. Make friends with the engineer working on the project by giving a talk in the provincial capital about environmental health and trash to a group he works with because he asked... even though it's on the same day as one of the community trash pick-ups.

2.Weekly health classes with 4th and 5th grades in two different elementary schools: Complete nutrition unit and get started on the self-esteem and sexual health unit. Keep trying to get the teachers to actually stay in the classroom during the class.

3. Colibri (Hummingbird), a youth development program with the local police station: Develop a series of environmental health and trash workshops and help them chaperone an overnight trip to Piura with 50, yes 50 kids in mid-September to see the museum, cultural center, and library.

4. Diadesol, a Pan Caribbean and Latin America day sponsored by organizations like the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization that celebrates cleanliness in public spaces and citizenship in the 3rd week of September, a great way to celebrate the Solid Waste Management Project: 2 marches- one with each elementary school with slogans about not throwing trash and supporting a sanitary landfill, 2 community trash pick-up days- one with each elementary school conveniently planned right before Llicuar's patron saint's festival, play a couple of movies with follow-up discussions at the high school (We're thinking March of the Penguins and An Inconvenient Truth)

5. CARE: Maybe, just maybe, plan self-esteem and sexual health workshop series with CARE for young leaders in my town, which a guy from CARE will watch and then replicate in a nearby community. (How cool would that be if it actually works?)

6. DEMUNA: Finish a series of talks with the DEMUNA office, an office in town hall that helps women and children in situations of domestic violence take care of legal issues, like child support. I only have 1 of these talks left.

7. Weekly loud speaker (emissora) program: Martin and I went to a workshop in Piura recently about using radio in community development. There really aren't any community, grassroots radio stations in Rinconada Llicuar like there are in the mountain communities so I was thinking of starting a weekly loud speaker program. (Yes the same loud speakers that wake me up at 5:30AM.) I need to make a few recordings to show to the emissora operators. I've started but I'm frustrated with the sustainability factor of me making recordings and playing them like a program. I gotta figure out something better.

I think that's it.... but I feel like I forgot something. Some of this will surely be cancelled at the last minute or fall through, which I usually hate but at the moment it's a relief to keep in mind!

Fun holidays are happening too. There are 6 or 7 different saint's day festivals in a row in Rinconada Llicuar between late July and October. This is a video from the Fiesta for la Virgin del Socorro, patron of Rinconada. Men get dressed up in costumes and do traditional humorous dances in the streets and preceding the fairly solemn procession. I'm not really sure why the two go together, but who cares? The dances, processions, masses, and passing around 1/4 glasses of Cristal beer make for pretty funny parties.





Word on the street is that it's Labor Day weekend in the US! Have a nice long weekend everyone!