another project we did in the environment group, was the dust/dirt that is in abundance here, and mixed it with a little water, and made cement/clay quadritos with a mochikan art symbol on it. just like how the ancient mochikans did their artwork.
working on creating their quadritos.
all finished!
oh hi! long time no see! what have i been up to lately? well, that is a great question, indeed!
let’s see…
my environmental arts group ended. this is everyone with all their projects they completed.
this is my part of my world map painting group waiting for my socio to show up with the needed projector, and who didn’t show up for the second day in a row…
third time is a charm. after waiting for 2 hours on the third day, he finally showed. we had a blast drawing the map.
between my day planner and the random plastic bag i found in my bag, it was a pretty sturdy setup….
i hiked all 15k through the bosque de pomac, and it was a nice break from the usual distractions.
this is the million year tree and is sacred to the incans who originally inhabited the area. also, the government is working on the reforestation of the bosque, since many of the trees were cut down to use the wood for pollo a la brasa.
a group of volunteers went camping. this is part of our group enjoying the sunset.
i celebrated carnaval in illimo and joined banda verde. this was my favorite verde float.
though the red team went all out in the decorations.
carnaval in illimo is a big celebration. the day before there was a giant water fight in the town square between the two teams.
originally for international women’s day, i wanted to give a charla to the women of vaso de leche about the importance of being a woman. though, big surprise, my muni said no and wanted to do a parade instead. so, i worked with vaso de leche to organize the muni workers for a parade. this is everyone after.
after giving a little speech on gender equality, the band decided to play more more tunes, which resulted in a mini dance party. i was partnered with a regidor (equivalent to a city council member/officer).
ysabel and i after the parade, with the sign i made.
i finally gave my community diagnostic presentation. it was….interesting to say the least…but it happened and some positive things came out of it.
my family and i went for a night out on the town in chiclayo and dined on the finest pollo a la brasa. seriously. it was DELISH.
the artisans had a number of new products, and so i spent an afternoon taking more pictures for them.
and of course. samia and i are still keeping it real. school has started, so sometimes i help with her homework. or sometimes we just hang out and pretend to dance marenara.
the number of mosquitos in my site has increased significantly i now know what it feels like to get eaten alive. i go through insect repellent like it’s my job, but it doesn’t seem to keep them away. also of note, as seen in the pictures above, there are a lot of ups and downs. and that is exactly it. there have been a number of challenges i have been facing work-wise in site. sudden changes with my socia at the health post…i had been working with her for 3-4 months on the preparations for one project, and now she is no longer working there, and other health post employees are overloaded already. my municipality has been more of a challenge to work with than anything else. the school i normally work with cancelled it’s first week of classes, then during the next week, i went to coordinate my program with them, there were zero teachers in the classrooms with kids, and they had yet to make the schedule for the new year, and the schools are just handing out textbooks/curriculum this week. in fact, the official school schedule will not be ready until next week…that is 4 weeks after the school year has started…and even though i am little astonished by this, i can’t say i am anymore surprised by it. in fact, all of it seems pretty par for the course, in regards to the experiences that one has not only living in a developing country, but also it’s just part of the peace corps experience.
the important part is concentrate on the positives and learn from the things that don’t work out. and with that, i am concentrating on the goals and things that i want to get done in site, and if i keep that perspective, i really think some positive changes will happen. and the winds are slowly starting to change in my favor!
…it’s about time…
this past few weeks i have been working on my vacciones útiles programs…literally meaning “useful vacation.” because most youth are either planting rice or traveling to lima in january, we waited to begin until the end of january and will continue them until the beginning of march. i have two official programs that i am working with people in my community with.
me with the different project examples.
the first, pictured above, is my environment group. there are 25 participants with ages ranging from 10 to 32. when originally conceived and gained approval from museum administration, i wanted to bring more environmental awareness to the community, and even have a few “clean the pyramids” days and a couple of art shows made from recyclable items with entry being paid with recyclable items…we would then sell the recyclables, and use the profits to pay for a beach day. however, as with most things in the peace corps, it changed and now it is namely a group that is learning how to reuse their recyclables into other objects, which still has a great message to it. and honestly, it is nice to be able to show up and craft with a group of eager youth. and it’s been fantastic getting to know some more youth in town.
for our first project we have been making bags from used catalogs. it should be noted that peruvians love catalogs. in fact, as i have gone around town collecting used catalogs, i have been corrected almost all occasions that they are not catalogs but magazines. but really, they read those things like magazines…needless to say it’s been a bit of a challenge to find them. the making of the bags is actually quite tedious, and i think i have spent over 15 hours on mine…and i am still probably at least 2 hours from being done…but i will post a finished product. we will start our second and final project next week, making traditional mochica art out of paper pulp!
not pictured…and honestly…not happening anymore (again, normal peace corps experience) is my pasos adelante group. honestly, the fact that this first try failed was a little bit of a disappointment, as i had been preparing for this for months, and hope to make this my primary project in site. however, it was just my first try, so there will be other ones. it is a health promoters leadership group…and one day there will be hopefully numerous ones in tucume. anyways, it started with a really strong showing. when i went to the classes to promote the group, i had 55 sign up, and having to wait almost a month the start the group, i still had about 20 show up for the first meeting. then my town’s fair happened, and it quickly dropped to 3 and then to 1 and then it just stayed at 1. and you know, that’s okay. at least one person was excited about the group, and i am reworking the work plan to present to the school with the health post this week, so that we can incorporate it into the school year.
also, thanks to the awesome feria…not complaining too much…because it really was awesome…but it’s even more awesome that it’s over…my cultural group that i was working on with a few other people has completely fallen by the wayside, but one thing that my community is starting to learn is that i am pretty persistent…so next week we will start discussing this cultural group again. woo! anyways, life has been busy. and it continues to be so with work being aplenty…even with the trials and errors, but that is the name of the game!
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