Resource List

2 Screwdrivers
5 Volunteer trainees
350 Elementary school students
2 National anthems
1 Play about self-esteem
1 New set of sheets
5 Besos de moza


I'd like to share my resource list for last week and I have to tell you that I am totally exhausted. I had a blast with the new volunteers who came to visit as part of their training. When they arrived to Piura we took them directly to Cappucino's, our favorite restaurant which serves screwdrivers with fresh squeezed orange juice. In the morning, I asked them to put on a play about self-esteem for all 350 of my students. They went to both of the schools where I work and did it up. All the kids were into meeting the gringos and asked them all kinds of questions about themselves and life in the US. They even asked us to sing the national anthem. We did a fairly painful but, very well received rendition. Then, all of the students sang the Peruvian national anthem to us. The language facilitator responded with a traditional ballad from Lima and finally my dear friend, the first grade teacher sang a traditional song from Northern Peru about Algarroba, a tree related to Mesquite that is native to this area. It was the most beautiful impromptu karaoke cultural exchange I've ever witnessed.

This week, in processing and reviewing the play in health class the kids were able to tell me the message loud and clear. Apparently, it worked great and Peace Corps certainly has some interesting lessons up its sleeve. Kids still are not my thing despite all the time I spend with them here. I like what I'm doing for now, but I'll be glad to not be a health teacher anymore when I go back to the US. I'm trying to figure out how to make a second master's degree in something that will let me be a therapist/counselor worthwhile financially. I'm glad that I went to grad school, but it was not that great for my pocketbook. Of course, neither is Peace Corps...

With the Language Facilitator here I was reminded of how bad by grammar still is and I'm inspired to try to make it better. It's really a question of me being lazy. I need to pay attention to the way I speak. I became fluent in an Ecuadorian trial by fire when I was 15. I landed in rural Ecuador all alone and needed to get by so I just started talking and trying to understand and be understood. When I went back to school I failed the only class that I have ever failed, high school Spanish. Thinking about all of that made me nervous and I was forced to indulge in my new favorite food Besos de Moza… one a day to be precise. In English this means a kiss from a pretty girl. Cute, no? It’s a cookie with a large dollop of marshmallow cream on top that is completely covered in chocolate. Like a cool s´more without a campfire. Totally amazing.

And, I almost forgot to mention that in all of this busyness my new kitten got really mad at me for not being at home and my helpful neighbor closing my back door so he couldn't get it his litter box. His revenge was to pee on my bed. In all honesty I haven't had a pet since I was 18 so I had forgotten the love that is cleaning up after animals. Here's what I learned: follow with hand washing and one more Beso de Moza.

Lately

Here is the reason that my greatest personal casualty in Peace Corps will be my dental health.




Meet my one-eyed-people-eater who Tessa and I christened Scooby-doo Newton John. In truth my wee neighbor Pedro came up with Scooby-doo, but Tessa and I added Newton John.



Mototaxi bliss

Eternity

My dear friend Dave the Jazz Musician cum Poet just sent me this poem that he penned and I think it's amazing. He is also available for music events in the general New York City area. I'm sure he'll give you a good deal.

Eternity

Not a line,
but a point.

My nephew, Chase,
runs from the back of the house
to the front,
and then back again.

I try to catch him on one of his passes –
whatcha doin',
I ask.
Just runnin',
he says,

and on he goes.

Authority, Autonomy and Creativity

I was talking to my mom on the phone about my recent shenanigan with my Country Director here in Peace Corps Peru and I was complaining that I felt like the authoritarian leadership style is ineffective and creates an environment that makes me want to run and hide under a rock, or maybe just away for a stealth beach vacation. She said she thought it was just the easiest option and does get results in the short term. She doesn't think it's a good way to keep good employees long term but, if you're working with a 2 year contract no one is going to worry about keeping you. I wonder if that's true. I mean if you hire a small group of people who you're in very close contact with it seems like it's easier to keep tabs on everyone's motivation and outcomes and go for long term growth in terms of human resources. But, if you have lots of volunteers most of whom haven't had jobs before scattered throughout the Peruvian highlands is authoritarian the only way to go? There are a lot of people, especially us overachiever Peace Corps types who really don't think that we're living without working as hard as we can. Even so, there certainly are times when I could try harder, do better or just try different options and I need some leadership to get me there. But is a methodology that mandates rather than lets you figure it out plausible inside this big and unwieldy bureaucracy? I have to think so.

I'm reading a book called The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. It's a great book and it's also sort of what I like to call a social science no brainer. It's a detailed but succinct description of how large companies are losing opportunities when they do not think of the global poor, the infamous masses who make less than $2 a day. It also criticizes lenders who haven't thought to market loan products to entrepreneurs with low incomes. So, for example here in Peru Pantene sells shampoo in little ketchup packets that cost 2 or 3 soles instead of big bottles that would cost 18 or 20 soles. One of it's basic assumptions that I completely agree with is that globalization is not something that you can really be against as it is a global economic reality. For me, it's sort of like being against grocery stores. You could try to buy direct from farmers and ranchers but it wouldn't really be feasible for large numbers of people because grocery stores are just the way of our economy. Anyway, why am I rambling and what does this have to do with leadership? I'm thinking about creativity and autonomy. The people "at the bottom of the pyramid" find the most innovative and appropriate technologies for their lives. If they are too constrained by having no capital or the power to use the resources that they do have they cannot contribute to the global economy and if multi-national companies don't take advantage of their insights they will lose money and probably not know it because they missed the concept that a market is there at all. I think it's that way for human resources too. If inside a company the human resources are so constrained by their rules and bosses that they're not allowed to create, doesn't the organization lose money? Or in the case of NGOs and government aid organizations, don't they miss out on development opportunities? How do you manage that with accountability in an environment where there are no profit margins to be the end all be all of measuring success?

Eating with People

I liked this article from the NY Times. I was thinking that my life in general feels healthier here and I think that living with people who are intimates, sort of like family, rather than just roommates is a big part of the reason. I mean it's weird to say because I do not exercise as much as I did in the US and I certainly do not eat the variety of fruits and vegetables that I used to because they're just not available but, I still feel healthier. It's also weird because some might characterize my living situation as me living alone. I have several rooms to myself with a separate door to the street- some might call that my own place, but the backyard is one with that of the family that owns my house. I hang out a lot with the family that shares my house/compound area and I eat with another family that treats me like I'm part of the extended clan. Peace Corps Peru policy is that all volunteers live with a family for their entire service, so the family that I'm currently "living with" has their own door to their own structure and is connected to my house by the yard. I do hang out with them almost every day. Usually, we just drink tea and watch TV in the evening and I go to their family events like Sunday family gatherings, the prayer services that are held for the anniversaries of deaths, and birthday parties. I feel like this situation is helping with my nutritional health. I am also taking a daily multi-vitamin, so don't worry :)

My Non-existent Dating Life as a Campo Gringa

I recently learned a new word: brichero. A brichero is apparently a Peruvian man who seduces gringas in order to get money or a visa (see The Spanish Word of the Day). As you may know, I have to learn everything the hard way. I generally try to accept and embrace the humiliation and aggravation this causes me but, every once in a while it's still stunning. Here's my latest lesson reaffirming for the millionth time that first instincts are really the way to go. We had a mini-crisis in Rinconada Llicuar recently because the antenna that gets the Internet signal was damaged by a dust devil and the family that runs the Internet had to save up to get it fixed. No Internet, Eeek! As a result, I was going into La Union, a larger town up the road pretty frequently. This is no big deal because it's very close by, it just costs me more because I have to get there and back in a mototaxi. But they have these amazing candy/cookie things there called Besos de Moza so that makes the trip worthwhile. To add to the adventure, the competitive judo fighter who runs the Internet cafe loves to chase the ladies and has for the past several months been trying to get me to go out with him. He has probably asked me out 27 times and I have always said no and kind of regretted not inventing a happy marriage with a Peruvian when I first met him. That's what I usually tell taxi drivers because they always ask and really it's amazing how much nicer they are when they think that I'm married to a paisano. It has been a lonely few weeks in Rinconada Llicuar and in a moment of weakness, tempted by the idea of movie popcorn I said, "Sure, I want to go to the movies. Call me." I think that he may have gotten some less than bright ideas in his state of ecstatic delight because the next thing he said to me was, "So my friend tells me that if you marry a North American you can get papers to go to the US. So for example, if I married you we could go to the US." Blink, blink. Did that really just happen? I gaped and then I explained that yes it's true that spouses of citizens can work in the US and eventually get citizenship but, some unlawful members of our society charge for that service and by the way isn't it a horrible idea to either break the law or yuck, to get married? Classic, I'm thinking myself out of my good instincts once again.

Castillos and Mr. Burns

I missed my first party in Peru last night. Parties here seem like they start anytime someone is moved and then end three days later with the sunrise. When I heard we were having a party for a saint called Sr. Cautivo de Ayabaca and then my friend and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, Alyssa was in the big city taking care of some errands I invited her to visit Rinconada and celebrate. People in town love meeting gringos and I love for my American friends to know about my daily life so, with common interests life is easy. Alyssa and I made a delicious spaghetti dinner, played with my new kitten Spot (whose name may change soon), and heard the party start thinking that it would dawdle on for 3 more days. When we went out to wonder at the revelry the square was totally empty and they had already set off all of the fireworks. Fiestas here are designated as such by castillos, several story-tall bamboo geometric structures with fireworks tied to the corners. Castillos are among my favorite things in Peru. They involve moving parts and bamboo bell shapes that spin off into the crowd shooting fire. Sometimes they are formed into costumes that a guy gets inside of and then dances a dance called the Vaca Loca (Crazy Cow). Alyssa and I polished off our bottle of red wine and headed out to the town square to find empty silence. Everyone in town was huddled around a television set at the store. Peru was playing Paraguay and the score was 1 to 1. Not being very well informed about soccer I had no idea this was happening, or even what tournament it was.

In other news, I have been spending my Internet hours in a debate with my authoritarian and patronizing country director. When I started Peace Corps we were given five vacation days around Thanksgiving and he decided to cut this down to three. He pulled a fast one, put his decision in the minutes of this meeting and then sent around a new copy of our handbook, a 100 page document that of course no one read. After a few weeks he said, "Nany-nany-boo-boo you should have spent your time lawyering the documents that I sent around. Te-he I took two vacation days from you." He didn't break any rules or laws to do this so there's really no hook for recourse but still, no one even made him feel appropriate shame for being lame because they're scared of this guy who looks like Mr. Burns. I felt that I needed to take that on as authoritarianism is one of my angry buttons. The outcome of our hopefully professional conversation is that I am officially not his favorite person and he actively threatened me. Now I need to send him an email that ends with him being okay with writing me a solid letter of recommendation within a year. Hopefully it will be a magical email. Wish me luck. I am charming after all.

Then, I went to this amazing workshop about child development and education methodology this week. The town government paid for it and had the schools cancel two days of class to invite all the teachers. I'm not sure it was worth the kids missing school but, it was really interesting for me to get to brainstorm about learning toys and games that focus on the different sensory groups and different developmental stages.

I also was invited to give a lesson at a newly formed after-school center to elementary-age kids signing a song about trees to the tune of I'm a Little Tea-pot. I wish that I could claim the creative mind for this song, but my friend and fellow volunteer with a gift for early childhood education, Tessa wrote it.

It goes something like this:

Yo soy un árbol muy feliz
Desde mis hojas hasta mi raíz
Llega el sol y la lluvia y
Crezco, crezco, crezco, crezco así


She might kill me because I'm not exactly sure those are the words that she wrote, but something like that.

Back to El Solazo Norteño

Here's me on a recent field trip with the police station youth group! (Random and unrelated to text.)

I'm happy to be back in sunny Piura. I didn't realize how much Lima's gray skies were weighing on my spirit. In Lima's backpacker hostels travelers from the northern hemisphere exploring Peru enlightened me. Listening to their impressions after my first impressions have long worn off reminded me of my own North American lens that I carry with me always. It's easy to forget it's there. But somehow when watching a trivia drinking game with Australians and Brits playing against my fellow countrymen my culture and homeland come rushing back. I love the US and my home, but it's easy to be insulated there. It's a big country, basically linguistically homogeneous, and yet quite proud of its diversity... which compared to a place like Peru with multiple language families, ecosystems, and conquerors is pretty tame.

It also occurred to me that sharing the workshop that my friend Libby and I did at training for the new volunteers this week might offer some insight into the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer. The class was about working with "community partners." When you get assigned to a community in Peace Corps you are also assigned a person and a local agency,your community partner. This can be a complicated relationship because you are not employed by or really beholden to this partner agency, nor are they to you. Libby's husband Ben labeled this the paradox of the professional volunteer. So for our workshop we wrote skits to try to get the new volunteers to problem solve around building these professional relationships.

Community Partner Episode #1: “Sabotaged by mediocrity"
After six months in site, you have a forged an outstanding partnership with the local office of an international NGO. This relationship has allowed you to funnel the NGO’s money and resources into an improved wood-burning stove project. Planning has gone well and the budget is fixed for the installation of thirty stoves in your community over a three month time period. The first few workshops go superbly and you are impressed with the preparation and professionalism of your NGO partners. As you enter the second month of the project and families are beginning to build their stoves, the project gets more intense and time consuming. A series of disappointing events transpire. The faithful NGO engineer arrives late to several meetings and the families complain about his punctuality (especially because timeliness has been a central theme of the project). He apologizes at the next meeting stating that projects elsewhere have also picked up pace and his office responsibilities have increased. A week later, he interrupts the training with the bad news that the budget has been cut and there are less materials available and, therefore, fewer families will receive support. The families are understandably upset and the next few meetings are dominated by logistical discussions about who should get the support. Because you live in the community much of the complaints fall on your shoulders. How do you feel? What should be your course of action?

Community Partner Episode #2: When did I become a rock star?
After having been at site 2 or 3 months you realize that a group of community members worked together to get you there. News to you. This group includes key community contacts: your socio comunitario (community partner) and other health post personnel, the school principal, mayor and city council member in charge of health. They are thrilled to have a gringa around and invite you to speak at EVERY possible public event from izamientos (weekly flag raising ceremonies) to kid’s parties to PTA meetings to begging you to sing the Star Spangled Banner at a ceremony with 500 people held to welcome you. How do you channel all of this excitement into action?

Community Partner Episode #6: Missing out?
You have a great, friendly relationship with your socio comunitario (community partner), the technician at the health post. He is professional, energetic, always follows through, and creates activities that are concrete and feasible. Because he is good at his job and a workaholic he is very, very busy and sometimes does not come to your community for several weeks at a time. You have a lot to do and like to work independently but realize that sometimes you miss out on health post events because no one told you about them. How do you feel? What should you do?

Gato Limeño

I have been in Lima for the past few days working on the newsletter that Peace Corps sends to all health volunteers in Peru. I also got to go and help with a workshop for the newbies at the new training center! We did skits about relationships with community partners and professionalism. Now that I have been here for a while training seems like a very long time ago. It was great to be around all the aspirantes (in Spanish you trainees are called aspire-ers). They're all so excited to be here and begin this new phase of their lives. It was really refreshing and inspiring to be around.

In other news, I have been looking to get a cat and the lady across the street from me in Rinconada gave me a kitten last week! After about 4 hours of non stop crying at my house and a flea bath that it really hated I named it Perico, a nickname for someone who talks too much. Then, I went out and when I came back the kitten was gone! While I was looking for it in the middle of the night there was a pretty strong earthquake and I decided that maybe fate was sending me a no cat message. The next day I went to see if that kitten had gone back to mom and it sure had. I asked if I could leave it there until I come back from Lima. We shall see if it actually ends up coming to my house. I'm thinking it has sent a clear message, no. Please note Perico's very angry facial expression.

Oddly, when I got to Lima a friend of some fellow volunteers who lives here had just picked up a stray that looks exactly like Perico. She wants to take care of it but can't have a cat where she lives. So, she is going to send it Piura with me! And when I say send it to Piura I mean that she is going to put it on an airplane to fly to Piura on Monday. She's worried about traumatizing it on the bus... where I'll be on my way back to Piura.