Ghosts

Yesterday Lam, the president and founder of Farmer Community School where I volunteer and live, was telling me about ghosts in the village. Right now, men are hanging red shirts in front of their houses because a lot of men have been dying lately and they believe that a lady ghost comes to find a husband and kills the men so they can be her husband. But she is afraid of red, so the shirts keep her away. Last year she was in Plaboo, where I am, and nearby villages and 16 men died. 

Lam has a ghost in her house but he is good and protects them. 

Before I came, they gave food to the ghost in my house and asked permission for me to live there and for him to protect me.

There is a girl who works here who can't live in her house right now because she did something the ghost didn't like. They had monks and Lam's mom and dad go to the house and pray and ask forgiveness for what she did. 

There is a forest down the road that ALL the other ghosts are in. Lam said it's next to where I run sometimes but it should be ok because I don't go at night. But no one is allowed to go in the forest to use any plants or dump compost or anything without asking permission first because if you do, you get sick immediately after; it happened last year to a woman here.

There are also these necklace type totems that frame various monks they hang from their car mirror or around their necks that is suppose to protect them from ghosts and bad things happening (car accidents, sickness...). The old tattoos and artists, done by hand, have the power to protect you from ghosts and bad things. Lam says they're really hard to find now and that everyone uses the electric ones like we have in the U.S., but they don't mean anything. But there is an older man in my village who still does the old tattoos.

Neato, huh? :)

I thought it was interesting that a lot of people in the US believe in ghosts and will have priests or mediums come to get them out of their house because they're bad. But if good things are happening/nothing bad has happened, no one really thinks it's because of a ghost looking out for them.

Well I guess sometimes people are like "oh someone's looking out for me" meaning like their late family or something. But Lam doesn't know the ghost in her house, he's just a random spirit who is good to them.

Week 2 in Costa: So It Begins [J]

Meradith, founder of AM,
getting her dance on.

Closing in on my second week in Potrero, the real work has begun. I have spent the bulk of my days seeking out and executing interviews with community members. The goal is to interview as many locals as possible in order to gain meaningful statistical data that represents the total population of Potrero. The population is categorized into five groups: students, parents of students, adult students, business owners, and local non-participants of Abriendo Mentes. I find much of the feedback I have received fascinating. The organization has gained a high degree of trust in me. They have given me much of the responsibility in the project, I now work mostly on my own. Their trust inspires me to stay focused and work diligently. Having said that, today, Saturday, is my day off to explore the surrounding areas. Therefor, I am kicking the day off with a discounted yoga class, then am off to a nearby tourist hotspot, Tamarindo beach. Hasta luego amigos.

Here are two pictures from the annual end of school year party AM puts on for the community.

Olivier took control of the dance floor.

4. The Struggle

Perhaps the title is not only cliche, but also slightly misleading. There really isn't one struggle that I've faced or been faced with in my six weeks here so far. There are a lot. I've dealt with some personal challenges, such as overcoming my fears of saying what I want and expressing myself honestly and staying healthy despite all the cold/flu sickness that's been going around. I've also been faced with some more external struggles such as those of the people I met who the the Healing House aims to help and the compelling stories I've heard from homeless I've spoken with.

There's one struggle though that's really been hanging over me like dark cloud, although recently the weather here has been truly fantastic. That is the struggle to maintain a blog. It's hard enough to find time in the day to just meditate and reflect on my own life, but also to synthesize that into a readable post for friends, family, and colleagues elsewhere in the world is quite a challenge. Especially when you fall a bit behind and get off track, it feels nearly impossible to start back up again and get writing. I'm still a week behind in my personal daily reflections, and I feel like I need to catch up there before I can post here. Never fear, however; I'm overcoming that and getting back on track. Today is my half way point. I've been in Peru for seven weeks now and I'll only be here for another seven. Perhaps realizing that is what gave me that extra impulse to continue.

So a few weeks ago, I got a job as an English teacher at a bilingual school across town and started performing on the weekends with a jazz/rock and roll group. Both were incredible opportunities that have taught me a lot so far. Still, those new responsibilities coupled with my continued service at the Healing House got to be quite overwhelming. Preparing lesson plans, practicing songs, and even just finding time to work shifts at the House were enough already. The week that all started, my writing and daily reflection fell off to the side. Recovering from that has been tough. There's no way around it. Still, there will be longer posts about those experiences in the coming couple of days.

There's an even bigger underlying reason as to why it's been hard for me to blog. I do have some great isolated stories about the adventures I've had so far, but it's not what I planned in the least. The Saturday creative kids program at the House has gone well in the past couple of weeks, and I've continued to help out however I can with that. Still, I can't report triumphantly about how the plans I made while I was home have been a huge hit. Actually, we haven't been using the lesson plans I wrote. Each week at our creative kids volunteer meeting we decide on a theme and then come up with different art, music, and yoga activities that correlate.

This coming week we're going to just focus on art though. We'll be explaining to the kids about plastic and how the insane amount of plastic bags used here affect the environment. Then we'll be decorating tote bags that we had sewn out of recycled flour sacs to give the kids something cool to use instead. The main point is though that we get the kids to be more conscious how their individual actions affect the world. It's a really cool lesson, but I'm still skeptical of how effective it'll be. The reliance on plastic that I've seen here (and I mean they use plastic bags for everything) seems more like a symptom of something larger. Perhaps they're so widely used because it's just cheaper in the short run and not something everyone can afford to go without.

Anyway, this coming month each weekend Tori (my fellow FSU Global Scholar) and I will be carrying out our prepared lesson plans each Saturday. Tori brought with her some disposable cameras for a photography project and I've still got my plans and songs for a choir class. I'll admit I've amended them quite a bit given what I've learned and experienced working with the kids each Saturday, but I look forward to really taking the lead when it comes to this social project.

Well, that's all for now. Stay on the look out for a few more posts covering these past few weeks.

Paz,

Sylvia

The man who got hit by a bus

I have gone to the orthopedics emergency department a couple of times. I usually go later in the afternoon, after I am in Pediatrics. It is always really interesting and busy. The first time I was there a man came in that was side swiped by a bus. When the bus made a u-turn it hit his bike and he fell, and since he folded his legs in it did not run him over.  There were tire marks on his shirt, and he had a lot of scrapes. It looked really bad, but luckily for him his biggest injury was a wrist fracture. The doctors work as efficiently as they can. Many times there are parents crying for their children to get attention and we have to kindly ask them to wait. I noticed that there are a lot of children that have bone fractures from falling off trees, playing, or falling off their bikes. I really like to help with these patients because I talk to them and ask them about their family and their favorite colors to try and distract them from the pain. Children with fractures are usually hospitalized. I also help calm the mothers down, because they sometimes come in a state of panic. The doctors know how to talk to them and explain to them what the treatment will be. Nicaraguan Spanish is a bit different than Mexican Spanish, it can be spoken very kindly with a lot of words of endearment, and I believe this also helps when dealing with people in pain.  The most common injury that I have seen are wrist injuries.

            I have gotten to see many x-rays, and although I cannot always see if there is something wrong, or analyze them correctly, the doctors usually help me see or tell me after. I have assisted with suturing, cleaning wounds, and putting on casts and splints.  I like to stock up on material when I see that it is starting to run low. The key is to be productive, the doctors, residents, and students will not be on your back asking you to get things all the time. And if I ever don’t know where something is I ask the nurse that is there in between surgery and orthopedics ER. It is really hot in the ER because the air conditioner is not functional; it is broken beyond repair. Sometimes there are doctors that will bring their own fan from home.  And even through very uncomfortable conditions, these doctors keep going.  I have always had high thoughts about doctors, and especially those who can adjust to difficult circumstances.

Ghana Week 2: Natural Beauty

I am sure you have heard this before, but the natural beauty of Africa is astonishing. Ghana is filled with luscious green covering the very shapely terrain consisting of rolling hills and large valleys. The red clay acts as the bond that holds all of it together.The landscape is exactly what I would imagine the Garden of Eden would have looked like. Unfortunately, this beauty is a stark contrast to the man made cities here which have scared the natural landscape.

When a city is build, the first thing that happens is all the greenery is cut away, leaving just the brown dirt that no longer sticks to the earth, instead swirling around the air in a constant dust-storm. Then, buildings are built, some look handsome but most are just little cubes dotting the new landscape. Then, infrastructure is created, dirt is compacted to make roads, asphalt is laid for the major ones. Open sewers are created, they flow down hills to their exit point, a pipe pointing at the ocean. Power lines are strung overhead with the occasional pole holding them up, with a bright yellow light shining down. Now that nature has been thoroughly hidden under a blanket of human creation, people begin to populate this new town. Now these people domesticate animals, buy cars, and produce trash. The trash begins to fill the sewers, it flows down into the ocean to wash right back up on the once pristine beach. The trash that makes it into a dumpster just gets lit on fire and enters the atmosphere as a toxic black smoke. The cars shoot thick black soot into the air every time someone depressed the gas peddle, the cars’ fluids create a new stream running down the roads into the same sewers as the trash. The animals eat any remaining greenery, they litter the streets in a land that is foreign to them. The city is now well-established. It is no longer a blanket covering nature’s beauty, it is a permanent scar on mother earth.

Which really brings me to my point, this isn’t unique to Ghana, nor is it unique to the developing world, this is human nature. While the damage caused to the environment is very obvious here, that’s because it’s just beginning to happen. This process has been happening so long in the United States and the rest of the Western World that we don’t even notice it anymore. I can see the clues as to what Cape Coast looked like before it started being developed. On the other hand, can you tell me what New York City looked like in it’s natural form? I mentioned that they just burn trash in dumpsters here, yet Ghana was the 142nd country in a ranking of countries by greenhouse gas emissions per capita; The United States was 14th. I have always been aware that we harm the environment as a byproduct of modern society. In fact, as a Computer Scientist I have always looked to solve problems in a logical systematic way. I have considered our damage to the environment an important problem we must solve, one that we could easily solve by taking a systematic approach. Yet, I never really realized the huge scale of this problem. It wasn’t until I visited here, where me and my colleagues were appalled the clear disrespect for the environment , that I was able to take a look back at my lifestyle and our culture to see how unsustainable our current lifestyle really is. The environment really is one of our greatest challenges, and one that we are directly responsible for. Let’s do something about it.

Full Speed Ahead!

I sincerely apologize for my lack of keeping everyone informed with my project and Work placement here, as I still am having troubles with the Internet.  However, as I head in to the end of my fourth week, and before I move any quicker, I want to bring everyone up to speed with the weekly reports that I have been making in regards to my project. Therefore, if time permits, please read up as we will be boarding for the next half of this journey soon!

Weekly Report: 
June 3rd-June 7th

This week all of the interns received a strong introduction on what the social welfare Department in Cape Coast consisted of. After our introduction, we were asked to choose an area that we desired to focus on while interning with the Department. After a deliberation, we all felt that it was crucial to place our energy in working on enhancing the methods used to monitor and Register Day Care Centers and Residential homes/ Orphanages who operate as None-governmental organizations here in the Cape Coast metropolis. Upon this decision we all than agreed that it was important to first revise the “SMCD Day Care Regulations Act”, as a way to give distinction on what to look for when inspecting Day Care Centres for their registration with The Department of Social Welfare. We completed Revision of the Act on Friday June 7th, 2013. It is now our hope that we will be able to get those on the Assembly in the Cape Coast metropolis who are in charge of assisting The Department of Social Welfare in inspecting and monitoring the quality of Day Care Centers in this area, to adopt and enforce our newly renovated Bye-law to the Act. In the mist of all of this, our team here at the Social Welfare Department received the honor of visiting two Day Care Centres as well as one orphanage/residential home. This experience definitely gave us all a better understanding of the conditions that Day Care Centres and Residential homes here in Cape Coast operate under. More importantly, the chance to visit the centers allowed us to witness more issues that need to be addressed in our bye-law in order to ensure that the proper care for the children is in effect at all times. Because of this, after visiting the centers and the home, we decided to go back through our bye-law a second time for revision to add some important details. This Week has been filled with so much! I am extremely happy with my placement at The Department of Social Welfare, I really feel as though the work that I am doing here will be long lasting!

Expectations for Week #2
During week two it is my hope that my team and I will be able to spend more time brainstorming ideas(incentives) to get the Assembly Members, whose job it is to monitor the Day Care Centers in the Cape Coast area, to be more actively involved in the community by doing so. If I have not explained before, Assembly Members are individuals within different communities who have been voted by the people in thier particular community to serve as advisors and overseers of the activities that are taking place within their jurisdiction. As Assembly members, one of their tasks is to monitor and inspect Day Care Centres and report the quality of them to The Department of Social Welfare, who will in return do follow up inspections to make sure that all rules and regulations are being abided by in accordance with the Day Care Centers Regulation Decree. Because it is so important to get the Assembly members involved, I strongly feel that our work here in Cape Coast will be insufficient or for a better word incomplete if we are unable to find a way to better resolve this issue. As I have observed over this past week, my findings have concluded that a non-involved assembly is the root of the challenges when it comes to monitoring and registering Day Care Centres and NGO's in this community.

Challenges:

My main challenge and I think the Main challenge for our Department as a whole, is finding a way to Provide incentives to the Assembly Members who along with the rest of those who are a part of the Ghanaian culture, are always looking for some type of reward for their doings (may it be something that is considered required of them or not.) This is an example of why it is a challenge to get things done in Ghana, as everyone wants a handout, but there are not enough resources to be handed out.

Until next time, 
"Araba", (Tuesday Born)  LC


Week 2 Social Welfare 
June 10th - 14th
This week was not as fast paced as last week, however there were many things that occurred that will assist us in the advancement of our project which is to find a more efficient way to Monitor and inspect the quality of  Day-Care centers (If you haven't read.)
 In order to reach our goal, this week all of the interns worked diligently on the following things:
To begin with, we found activities to incorporate into the Attendant (child caregiver) trainings so that they are not simply being lectured to throughout the entire course, but also have some type of activities to assist them with during their course of learning. Some of the ideas that we came up with to include in the trainings are: Making a PowerPoint of the training courses, Role playing to assist with the proper learning of 1st aid, and the incorporation of games such as Bingo and Charades so that they are better able to digest some of the material. Attendant training s are given through the Department of Social Welfare, and it is required that at least one of the two or more attendants caring for the children, attend these trainings. However, while doing inspections at Day Care Centers, I have learned that most Attendants do not meet this qualification nor do they meet most of the other qualifications listed in the Decree under the section title” Qualifications for attendants.”  In addition to brainstorming activities for the training courses for Attendants, the interns and I worked on finalizing the Creation of the Bye-Law for the “SMCD Children's Day Care Centre Regulation 1979” so that it will be ready to be presented to the Assembly members at a follow up  workshop that we are in charge of putting together. The meeting will be held sometime next month.
 Lastly, and what I believe to be the most important event that took place this week, was our meeting with the proprietors and proprietress who serve as the Head Masters of the Day Care Centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis. This meeting took  place on Wednesday the 11th of June and was called in order to ensure that all proprietors and proprietress are doing all that they can to enhance the quality of their Day Care Centers so that they may continue to meet the requirements for registration and renewal with Department. In addition to this, one of my fellow interns Meghan who will be leaving this weekend gave a speech on her project with the social welfare department. Meghan’s project included visiting Day Care Centers, and teaching the Children how to properly clean their hands. She had chosen this project after going to inspect Day Care Centers and seeing that most of the children were not properly cleaning before meals. I had the pleasure of going along with her on one of my visits to inspect a center and in addition was able to assist her in helping to teach the children how to wash up before meals. At the end of the meeting, we introduced the new bye-law to the proprietors and proprietress of the Day Care Centers since it is targeted to their organizations. I hope they were able to fully understand what this means for them....New regulations to be enforced!

In conclusion to the meeting, the interns and I were able to get a feel of some of the concerns that the proprietors and proprietors have in their community, and with running their organizations, such as parents not paying, rules with registration etc.  Along with this, we also were able to hear some of the concerns that the executive board (The Department of Social Welfare, and Chairmen of the Board of Education) has with the proprietors and proprietress, such as hiring attendants who are not properly trained, and some of them not attending trainings themselves.  I really enjoyed this meeting as it was extremely informative and assisted us in understanding the things that need to take place in order to move forward with our project. Also this meeting gave the interns and me an idea of how a meeting is set up and how we should conduct the Assembly Members Workshop meeting. So far, we have created a timeline/setup of how our meeting will be laid out. It is my hope that Next week we will have completed at least the entire PowerPoint for the Meeting as well as put into place a final structural set up of how the Assembly Members workshop will flow. I am excited to develop questions that we can ask as a team, as to what we can do to further assist the Members on becoming more involved in the community. I am also excited to see how accepting the Assembly members will be of the new bye-law. This will be a very important meeting for me, The Department, as well as the rest of the Interns.

Sincerely, Araba

Week 3
June 17th-21st
It takes three weeks to form a habit, so I would like to say that I am really in the groove of things here at The Department.  This week, the Interns and I traveled to three Day Care Centres, "Brightly Beamed", "Redeem Baptist" and "Cape Coast Educational Complex" in order to investigate their candidacy for registration with The Department of Social Welfare. One thing that I witnessed while doing my inspection, was the lack of space that each child has for playing and learning. As a result, there was no room to maneuver around the rooms to do a thorough inspection. However,  in addition to this, it was surprising to see that as unregistered Day Care Centres, each of these Day Cares where qualified in an area that many registered Day Care Centers are not, which is having some type of medical Care for the Children available should they fall ill. After witnessing this, I have come to wonder which qualifications are most important when it comes to What Day Care Centers and Residential Homes The Department of Social Welfare decides to register, as no Centre that I have inspected (registered or unregistered) have meet ALL of the qualifications for registry under the old Decree let alone the new bye-law.
At the end of each inspection, The Department then goes the recommendations that they have for improvement with the proprietors and proprietress of the center. However, as I have witnessed, The Department has not been very strict in the past or as of yet, when it comes to pushing the proprietors and proprietress to make the recommended changes that we handout in a detailed report after inspections. I have found that this challenge persists because Ghana as a whole is a culture where people often fear rocking the boat. It is very hard to be strict by laying down the law since most of us can either empathize or sympathize with the economic and environmental conditions that many are living and working in. However, I fear that if The Department does not do its job by stating the requirements and enforcing them, the quality of education for children in this area will continue to decrease. This is the last thing that Ghana needs. My question now, is when is enough, enough? When does one stop giving out pity, and begin to hold those who must act accountable, accountable?

Other than working on the investigation of Day Care Centers for registration, we began and finished a presentation for ProWorld discussing none governmental organizations and the role that they play in Cape Coast metropolis. The Department will be in charge of giving this presentation within the coming week or so. The role of NGO's in Cape Coast is to deal with some of the issues the Government does not see as a main priority or better said an issue that can wait until later to be resolved since it does not have the resources to care for everything. In order to find out what NGO's mostly work on in Ghana, the interns and I went through all of the files for registered non-governmental organizations in Cape Coast and found that the top 3 areas worked on, are Education, Health (HIV/AIDS, Sanitation) and Woman's Empowerment. As I look around, I wish to know more about the budget plan for Ghana, and even more specifically for Cape Coast. Where are all of the Government Resources going? (Many professionals such as teachers, Doctors, Nurses and Government workers have not been paid since January.) I also wonder, what sectors do Government feel to be the most crucial areas to pay attention to at the moment, and how is it that they tending to them? I think it would be nice to have a better understanding of these things, and a foundation lay as to how things once were in Ghana and how far the country has come as a whole, being one of Africa's most developed countries. On that note, we also learned the importance of laying a foundation in order to better understand what something means. It was not until after clarification that we learned the history behind where the Children's Act 560 and it's sub part came from that the interns and I understood exactly what this new bye-law we have created, will mean for Cape Coast if it is adopted....It is definitely a huge deal!  Lastly all of the interns, (Emily, Lydia and I) worked more diligently on planning and creating the presentation for the Assembly Members Workshop, which we are close to finishing.

Next week, I would like to be able to finish the Assembly Members Workshop meeting, and have a total layout of exactly how things will go such as the date it will be held on, and any other important details that must be established. In addition, if time permits I would also like to have more discussion on the Social issues in Ghana with my Director as he seems to be an open book of information!

Be back soon,
Araba! (Tuesday born)
LCD

Thai teaching week3

Week three of teaching has, yet again, started out rough. The younger kids, 5-9 years old know a lot less English than what their teachers think they do. The ABCs at random are useless and, while they can repeat what we say, writing down the letter “A” is another story.

            They are sweet kids though. Of course, you’re going to have a few clowns who are really done with the school year already (we can all relate to that), and it comes down to age in retrospect. At five years old, they hardly know the Thai language, we couldn't have expected them to know the English alphabet as well.

            We are making progress though. The 10-12 year olds can spell for the most part and we have moved on to simple sentences. Vocab is a part of the lesson for every group; and spelling is a main focus for the 7-9 year olds, while just to master the alphabet is the goal for 5-6.

            Farmer Community School has really taken off these past few years. Six years ago when they had their first volunteer and offered this English class, the volunteer was teaching six students. Last year they had two girls come and they taught about fifty. This year...Will and I have near 450. The schools in nearby towns were very excited to be able to offer their students two months worth of English lessons, and we’re excited to be here to help. Whether we’re actually doing that is hard to judge with so many students.       

            We are determined though. Will has the charisma I sometimes lack, and I can follow up one on one. We have five more weeks, and after this weekend in Chiang Mai, I feel refreshed and ready to take these next five weeks by storm. Now we know the village, the skill of students, and how we can improve. We attempt to teach 80-100 kids each day. Five hours a day. Monday through Thursday. Practice makes perfect, and we are practicing teachers. 

First week in Costa [J]

Today marks my first full week in Potrero. I can already tell this will be a life changing experience. My work here brings me a sense of purpose and belonging to an extent of which I had not found at home. Not to mention the breathtaking scenery. Butterflies dance, monkeys holler, animals co-exist in perfect harmony amongst a vast array of greens.
I was brought here to, along with two partners which includes the founder of Abriendo Mentes, design, carry out, and present a community sentiment survey. However, my partners did not arrive in Potrero until 3 days after I did. I took advantage of that time by taking part in as many of Abriendo Mentes' programs in order to gain an understanding of the organization as well as to become familiar with the community members whom I am to interview to ensure a sense of somewhat trust which will hopefully result in honest responses.
The majority of what I did this first week was to serve as an assistant in the english lessons. The lessons are separated into classes of kindergarten/1st graders, 2nd/3rd graders, 4th/5th graders, 6th graders, and adults (I have yet participated in the adult lessons). Each class is an hour long and meets 3 times a week. Their activities range from coloring while continually being asked to name the color they are using in both spanish and english, to reading english childrens books (such as Dr. Seuss) and interpreting its meaning.
Other activities I took part in include refurbishing a bodega, cleaning a "paint explosion" in a neighboring town's school, and participating in the AM event "Fun Friday (Viernes Divertido)" which essentially involves cooperation with Lacrosse the Nations in a sort of P.E. class, we also played games such as "duck, duck, goose!"
The AM group is a very united group with strong leadership. Often we get together as a whole for both business and pleasure. This results in a welcoming sense of family which promotes hard work and success in many forms. This photo is after a weekly staff meeting.

One Love, Many Beauties

Every time I find myself resting in a new place, I think of how perfect this feeling of exploration is at quelling my homesickness. Sleeping on a first-class bus, on my way to Puno only made me speculate at all the sites I would see while in Puno and only fueled the fire of excitement. One thing that was constant regardless of my resting place was awaking with the same to goals as any other day: to explore Peru and to make a difference. This past weekend on my trip to Puno, the excursion I’ve anticipated most, instead of willing myself to focus on exploration, I was stuck fascinated by the natural beauty of this place.  It wasn’t the older architecture, or the mixture of modern and traditional garb but the areas completely untouched by modern technology that left me in awe. The large pools of water that in the wet season are probably lakes and rivers, the rolling hills that are used for farming that form seamlessly with the snow-capped mountains as their backdrop, all took me by surprise.

As a witness of this beauty I was faced with this other entity growing inside me. Like a tumor that’s benign the vast amounts of sights I saw only fueled this entity growing inside me. As if another physical manifestation for this overwhelming emotion, this tumor was symbolic of my curiosity for the world, the more I took in the more I wanted to see. The beauties of Peru, Especially Puno seemed so organic that I was able to connect with it, and even see some facets of myself, and my life in these natural settings.

Saturday as I drifted across Lake Titicaca I thought of this more. I connected with this lake, somehow identifying with its vastness, its beauty. It's dry season here, and much like me departing from all that I love and know, this lake was missing the rain that keeps it filled of the most essential substance for a lake, water. While I require water the thing that sustains my spirit, love, was how I saw the rain. Without the wet season and the rain that follows it, the geographic greatness that is this lake would dissipate until all the life depending on it would surely be adversely affected too. Seeing the lake functioning is this way I look to my family and the lifestyle I’m fortunate to have as my rain, those significant people and special places, like family and my home, pour into this essential substance, love.

I thought the connections I made on the boat ride between Peru, the people’s lifestyle, and my life would be enough of a revelation. However the sights the islands had to offer only further shaped my appreciative outlook. Uros, the artificially made islands made by the people living on them were fascinating, combining water plant roots, these long reeds, and rope to make a artificially floating island was genius. This was done because they were chased away by others who lived on the mainland, Puno. The people survived by importing goods from the coast and using the same reeds that made the island to drink and eat, as the high iodine content in them had purification properties. 

The island following Uros, the artificial islands, was Taquille the un-artificial island. On this island there was plenty of opportunities to explore the island culture, shop for handmade crafts, and eat some of the freshest Trout ever, that was apparently from the lake. After taking in this island we began our decent from 540 steps. Looking down at these steps oddly reminded me of my family. After reaching about the 350^th step, the point where I could finally see the boat, my escape vessel, my legs began quivering in the most irrevocable way. As if my body had recalled leaving something similarly as beautiful, it was rejecting this experience as it had when I had to say goodbye to the people I loved. I began to laugh at myself, this shaking surely a result of the physical activity was so reminiscent of the emotional state the people I love evoke out of me.

On the boat ride back I tried to decipher and understand why I was feeling this way, why all roads led back to you. It didn’t take me long to come to the conclusion that our bond is so strong that it permeates all my senses, my vision the most detectable. Every sight is tainted with the love I have for you, so now all things worth seeing, all things holding beauty, I associate with you.  This connection with you and the many sights Peru holds only intensify my experience. Baby, thanks for amplifying my experience in Peru without even knowing it you bring me joy 3000 miles away.

With growing love and appreciation for Peru

Mateo

Back from the Villages

Post for week of June 10:

This is my first post since I have been in India. For the past 3 weeks  I have been traveling from one village to another throughout the Himalayas. I am finally back in the office and have electricity and Internet! It has been quite an interesting experience... A lot of hiking, and leeches, and scorpions... But the people were absolutely fantastic! 

In the first village we worked with a local school to teach the kids about hepatitis E, and they in turn taught the parents. 

Oh and they also learned how to play duck-duck-goose!

The kids were amazing!

Work and Its Controversies

June 18, 2013

  

After taking time to reflect upon the various tasks that I did last two weeks, I can say that working here is much different than working in the US. For one, it is the rainy season and thus every time it rains, it seems like the world stops—shops close, people don’t go to work, kids stay at home instead of going to school. On several occasions I was advised by my sister and friend to stay home until it stopped raining instead of going to work. Another thing I’ve noticed is that people’s work pace is much slower than that I am used to. My co-workers are effective and get work done, but they also take their time to do it. I’ll be sitting in the office for one hour or two wondering what I should do or playing solitaire on my computer, and my co-workers will simply be looking out the window observing the snake magician or some other thing, and will be asking me to join them. Don’t get me wrong I believe they accomplish many things; it is just a different work environment that I am used to.

As far as the actual type of work that I am doing, I must say I enjoy it (for the most part) even though it is not something I am passionate about. The type of work I have been doing is public health outreach about Tuberculosis (TB) and Teenage Pregnancy.  Two other volunteers work with me, Sarah and Shelbie. We were given two PowerPoints with information about TB and teenage pregnancy such as: prevention, statistics, testing, symptoms, and health risks. We were then asked to make two brochures with the information from the PowerPoints; we would be using these in our talks.

For TB, our outreach consists of going into communities within the KEEA district (these tend to be very rural communities). We have partnered with a women’s public health center, so that every time they go to a community to weigh babies and consult mothers on nutritional recommendations, we would also talk to the mothers about what TB is, how it can be transmitted, what the symptoms are and how and why they should get tested. We read the brochure to them in English, and then we have someone from PEYORG (the NGO I am interning with) translate what we say in Fante, since most people cannot understand English too well. At first I questioned the value of us since we don’t speak Fante, but I was told by the staff at PEYORG (and I have found this to be quite true) that because we are White, they will listen to us more than they would one of them (I will write more about this experience on another post).

Once we conclude the presentation, we either help the health center staff weigh babies or we screen the people there for TB (this depends on whether we actually bring the forms with us). Screening the people basically means following a sheet of questions of symptoms that are attributed to TB, each symptom has a score, and at the end you add up the numbers and the sheet tells you according to the score whether the person is a suspect (and therefore should get tested) or whether they are okay. We collect their information, and we are eventually going to contact the suspects to collect sputum samples to take to the lab.

Another time, we went to a village and screened people door-to-door. There, I got to screen the Chief of the village! (I was also asked for my clothes, and for money and for a recommendation on eye surgery). We also had the opportunity to go to a local radio station and deliver the information about TB to the community, so that anyone who was around and had felt the symptoms we described could be screened.

For teenage pregnancy prevention, we were told that we would be going into schools and teaching about contraceptives. For this, we would be talking to school children who spoke English, so we just had to talk slow. We compiled different methods of contraceptives into our brochure, but once we arrived at the first school, we were told to we could only talk about abstinence (something I don’t think is effective). I felt really uncomfortable about talking to teens on something I didn’t quite believe especially since we had previously been told that people would listen to us more because we were White. Sarah, Shelbie and I decided to take a focus on education how important it was in order to succeed in life, and that having a child at such a young age would make it very difficult for a person to complete their education. I felt confident taking that route because I do value education and agree that having a child while pursuing an education can be extremely difficult; however, our talk was followed by one of our colleagues who told the teens that God hated people who had pre-marital sex and that is why they shouldn’t have it. This made me extremely upset. After that, I talked to my co-worker and told him I did not feel comfortable talking about abstinence in the manner he was emphasizing, and thus I would like to be out of the talks on teenage pregnancy. He wanted me to talk again to another class, but I refused. Instead, we talked about personal hygiene (washing your hands, and brushing your teeth).

The next day at the office, Sarah, Shelbie and I decided to make a lesson plan that would focus on the value of education and the difficulties/health risks that young teenage mothers could encounter if they found themselves to be pregnant. We decided to take my backpack and fill it up with things. We asked two volunteers to perform certain tasks such as drawing/writing or picking up books from the floor while wearing the backpack to simulate carrying a baby. We asked them which was easier to perform with the backpack or without it. They all said without it. We also asked them about things they enjoyed to do such as “playing with their friends, dancing, playing sports” and crossed them out with tasks they would have to do if they had to take care of a baby such as “feeding the baby, changing the diapers, attending a crying baby”. We felt pretty good after that, but at the end when we asked the teens what they had learned several people raised their hand and said they had learned not to have pre-marital sex because God won’t be happy or that sex is bad (neither of which we had said L)  This got me even more frustrated.

Needless to say, we had to make a new brochure for teenage pregnancy in which we focused on the health risks of teenage pregnancy and how to be abstinent. However, when we were done, one of our colleagues asked us to put in “Because God hates it”. I still didn’t understand why there was such a need for this person to push this theme; I didn’t agree with his views, so I asked to be removed from this project. I understand that teaching abstinence is a cultural value of theirs, but personally, I don’t agree with its effectiveness nor do I feel comfortable showing support to someone who says “God hates anyone who has premarital sex” and who wants us and I quote to “scare the teenagers from sex so that they will not even think about having it”. Teens are going to have sex; wouldn't it be better to equip them with the right contraceptives so that they don’t end up pregnant or contracting an STD?

Later that evening, I was invited to accompany two of the staff from PEYORG to a radio station where they would be having a discussion about teenage pregnancy. I was there for two hours, and I could not understand a thing because everything was in Fante. Nonetheless, it was a cool experience. The radio station was really nice; it had A/C (I was frozen by the end!).

Overall, I enjoy the fact that I get to go out and visit different villages or communities each day. I don’t think I’d be too happy if I was stuck in an office all day. However, I am not a health expert (in fact I have not taking any hard science classes in the past 4 years!) therefore I feel inadequate for questions on medical treatments or symptoms. Sometimes people assume I am a doctor and begin telling me their symptoms and ask me what they should do. Needless to say I strongly dislike the teenage pregnancy outreach I did.

I talked to the staff about some of the projects I had seen on their website before I came that had sparked my interest such as a local library for children, and a recycling club. I was told that these projects no longer exist.

Other things I have noticed and have had to adjust to:

*promptness- Time here is not taken as strictly as that in other places I've traveled to. We could have a meeting at 9am, but we will be leaving the office at 9:30am and arrive there by 10:15am and still not beginning our presentation until 11am.

*proximity discrepancies- people will say something is “not far” or “oh it won’t take long” but in reality it is far or it does take minimum 30 minutes instead of 10 like  you said.

*preparation/organization- it seems that every time we go out to do a presentation, something is left behind—the brochures or the screening forms or something! I don’t think we've had a day where we had all or sufficient materials for our talks.  

We shall see what else is in store for me!

Trip South to the Sahara

This is my third week in Morocco and it has been exhausting but I've learned so much in that amount of time, especially about my placement and the work it does, language, street lingo (we got ripped off as foreigners and charged 4 times the price of a regular taxi ride! we learned not to back down for next time) and culture, including the wonderful mint tea.

The organization that I am interning for fights for the rights of Berber women, who often are illiterate in Arabic and don't know about their legal rights concerning marriage contracts, divorce, inheritance etc. It also supports Berber women who are victims of domestic violence (there are many, but to ask for a divorce or leave your husband is to commit social suicide so nobody says anything).

So this past weekend, we took a trip down to the desert in order to visit rural Berber women and hear their stories, as well as provide encouragement and support in the hardships that they face. The scenery was incredible and looked like a movie set. We even saw wild camels! (not featured, I couldn't get a good shot unfortunately).

A lawyer also came along with us, talking to them about their legal rights and how they could use them to their advantage. They seemed really happy to learn about our organization and that people out there in the cities are supporting them. They shared their stories about dealing with divorce, girls dropping out of school after middle school to stay home and help out and get married, as well as the unequal conditions for marriage between boys and girls and why they believe arranged marriage is the best solution to avoiding conflict in the home. I gathered excellent material for my capstone project!

We spent the night in Marrakesh and returned to Rabat this morning. This week at my placement we will compile the pictures and information from the trip and continue to update the website.

End of June

As a whole, June has been a busy month for both myself and CREAR. I skyped my mother last night and she commented that I have been in Costa Rica for such a long time when really I have been debating on staying here longer and possibly returning to this area in the future.

Attendance is still small, at least in the CREAR location in Samara. (There are more kids at the El Torito location.) Having a host brother who is in elementary school gives me insight into what schooling is like here and also why attendance is low in Samara. For students school is tedious and repetitive; it lasts a couple of hours every weekday and is generally in the afternoon. There is not much of an opportunity for creativity or critical thinking and it appears that the students that have parents involved with their education are more likely to have higher grades. When there is a lot of rain, as in torrential downpour and lightning, kids do not come to CREAR and it is easy to see why; there are only two main asphalt roads and dirt roads leading to everyone's homes. One cannot expect an eight year-old to walk a couple of kilometers to CREAR in the pouring rain - it's unsafe and inconvenient. Unfortunately, despite this being "winter" and the dry season, it rains frequently. Another factor preventing higher attendance are test days and days when school is cancelled; on both occasions, students (note: elementary school-aged children) are expected to study, which equates to watching television or playing video games.

CREAR has a small staff and its two administrators are both Americans who have lived in Sámara for at least three years. People in the community are familiar with CREAR so there is no issue in advertisement. CREAR also participates in community events like the Caravana Tica last weekend and there are charlas (chats) in the local schools on various topics. Our library is very popular, mostly because it is the only library in the town and perhaps one of the few in the region. Different groups, like the Mareas school (a bilingual school for children), utilize the library and other resources of CREAR.

Overall, since discovering CREAR in January much has changed. The focus on academics and specific themes has been discarded in attempt to raise a more consistent group of children on a daily basis. It's almost funny that many people in the community are confused when CREAR operates or what it does; CREAR hosts U.S. volunteer groups to complete service projects in the area, so at times it can be difficult for some people to know CREAR's exact purpose when CREAR hosts volunteers who renovate a clinic. I do not know how pervasive of a problem this is, but it is something that an administrator told us one day.

CREAR has a two week camp in the first two weeks of July and the focus will be on health. There is a lacrosse team from the U.S. that will be helping out for a week so we will definitely have extra people to help the event. Camps are popular CREAR events so I am excited for it!