Sorry for the three month old blog post, but my computer broke. Such is life in
a developing country…
Nothing is a more reliable, and terrifying, indicator of how
fast my Peace Corps service is going as major events that take place in the
village and even in my household. To a
villager, these would seem like normal annual events, but for me, it’s a reminder
that I have just one more year left.
September was full of these little reminders.
To start with, I had my last first day of school with the
kids and teachers in the village. It was
actually a little bizarre to see different faces in all their different classes. Not having last year’s Standard VI class
there was also odd. Instead, as is
typically the case with schools, a new group of students had taken their place. Luckily, I have developed a very good
relationship with this group during the previous year, but it’s an adjustment
having to call them the “seniors” of the primary school. And next year, they will hopefully all be in
high school and another group will replace them, and so continues the cycle. It’s crazy to think that one day, even the
little Infant class won’t be so infant any more.
With the start of the school year came new goals that I’ve
set for myself and the school, one of the biggest being the student leader
program. This year is the year where I
start to hand over the program, creating what will hopefully be a sustainable
program that will teach students about the importance of leadership years down
the road. After a roller coaster ride
during the nominations and election process (there was a lot of, “Are you
running or not?” going on), I’m happy to say that we have a great, motivated
group of kids looking forward to the coming year. One of the boys is also hilarious. He came by my room one day and we had the
following exchange:
Felipe: “I used to be a spider once, but I changed.”
Me: “Oh? What kind of spider were you?”
Felipe: “SUPERMAN!!”
I don’t know if I’ve been in the village too long or what,
but I thought it was hilarious.
The big thing that they are looking forward to is
fundraising for a trip to Xunantunich, a Mayan ruin in central Belize. This trip will, hopefully, include trips to
the capital where students can meet with some of the leaders in the government
as well as healthy cooking lessons in Punta Gorda. This is going to be a rather expensive trip,
though, so I’m happy to have a teacher at the school who is very excited in
learning how to write grants and proposals.
Together, I’m hoping that we can knock out a grant to help fund the
trip. This way, not only the students
are benefitting but so is the teacher, and, ultimately, the school.
They will also be continuing to help the school through a
variety of projects and other clubs. The
first of these is to continue work in the library, something that was a huge
success among all of the students last year.
The main difference this year is that I’m not working it. I’ve set up a system with the student leaders
and the teachers in which two days a week, they open up the library. This way, it can continue once I’m gone. I am also going to work with the teachers on
opening up a few clubs that the student leaders have said the other students
would be interested in. These include an
art club, a gardening club, and an exercise club. The student leaders are also going to work to
bring a tire park to the village using old recycled tires.
I have also started a BRO Club, BRO being short for Boys
Reaching Out, with the Standard IV-VI boys in the village. So far we’ve only had two meetings, the first
as an introduction to the club, the second on goal setting. For the next meeting, we’re going to watch
Cool Runnings and ask the boys to identify the different aspects of goal
setting that we talked about during the second meeting. We tried to do this during the second half of
that meeting, but I went to move the desk that my computer was on and it went
crashing down (hence the reason I’m typing a September/October blog post in December;
also, it should be noted that originally, this was typed in early November, but
my computer broke again so here we are, December). The boys seem to have enjoyed the first few
meetings and are really into the idea of watching movies to reinforce the
different lessons we’ve discussed. Some
future lessons will be teamwork, gender and racial equality, and healthy
living. I’m even working with some of
the other volunteers to get a BRO camp up and running where different BRO clubs
from all over the country will get together for a week long camp. This is one of the projects that I’m most
excited about!
This coming year, I’m also trying to work a lot more with
the Community Health Worker. One of the
things we decided to focus on this year was working hard to make sure that we
got the minimum required one school visit.
I’m excited to say that, not only have we done the lessons, but that he
has been a major motivator! In
September, we taught Infant I-Standard II students about brushing teeth, and
then passed out tooth brushes and paste that were giving to us from the
Hillside Clinic. Then, in October, we
gave a lesson to Standard III on having good hygiene. I’m extremely proud of the growth that I’ve
seen in him. He seems excited and
motivated about the health of the village.
He is in an extremely difficult position, but he’s doing a great
job. None of the work that I’m doing
would be possible without him.
Another reminder of how long I’ve been here is Independence
Day, you know, the party in the village where they rip the ducks heads off.
Yeah, it’s really been a year since I first witnessed that. This year, though, I decided not to
attend. Instead, I played volleyball
with some of the boys and younger men in the village.
Independence Day was also an excuse to have festivals for
the weekend leading up to it. On Friday,
the school had its queen pageant in which three or four older girls at the
school collect money. Each dollar is
equal to a vote. They then had a talent
show where they had to recite poems, do dances, and answer questions. Between each round, there was a chance for
the audience to donate more money to the girl they thought performed the best. The whole event is a big deal in the village,
and loads of families came out to support their favorite “contestant”. This was also a great way for the school to
raise money.
The following day, there was a football marathon in the
village. Ten teams participated and
about a hundred fans or more, including the Area Representative, came out to
watch. My friend, Dan, even came out
with his village’s team to play, and they actually took first place!
In the past few months, the latrine project has also
continued at an impressive pace. By the
end of December, we should have over 20 latrines constructed! That being said, donations are still very
welcome! Make sure that if you’re
interested in donating, you clearly indicate that this is for San Vicente
Latrine Project, Ac Yuam Development group. Any donations are welcome. The villagers are also extremely grateful for
everything that you all have done!
Other than that, I’ve been involved in a decent amount of
work outside of the village. I was able
to Skype a group of Clemson students interested in doing Peace Corps and tell
them about my experience as well as what Peace Corps is all about. I’m also working on some drawings for a
friend who is putting together a manual for the Community Health Workers that
will make house visits much easier. It
will also act as a way to explain difficult concepts to them so that they can
take that knowledge and pass it to the village.
It hasn’t been all work here, though. I’ve also taken some time to get out of the
village and relax with friends. In
general, volunteers get three personal days a month that do not accumulate
where they can go and take time outside of site, as well as two vacation days a
month that we can accrue. For example,
if I want to go into PG for a night, I’ll use a personal day. If I want to go on a week and a half vacation
to Mexico, I’ll take my vacation days.
In early October, I decided to use some of my personal days to go to
Caye Caulker and hangout with some other volunteers. This just so happened to coincide with the
Clemson-Notre Dame game. Needless to
say, I had a blast!
Side note: Go Tigers, yeah?! 12-0! Whoda thunk it after
losing so many key pieces on defense.
They look great, though! Defense will need to tighten up some against
UNC in the ACC Championship game, but I have full faith that they’ll come out
motivated and ready to play!
Aside from that, I’ve also been waking up to run around 5:00
most mornings. I signed up for a half
marathon in Placencia, but weather here has gotten pretty rainy so a lot of
mornings I wake up and play on my iPod while listening to the rain outside. In other words, training hasn’t been going
too well. Just looking forward to
spending time with the other volunteers.
Should be a great weekend!
Some other things I’ve noticed that have made me go, “Wow,
have I really been here that long?”:
My host nephew turned 7.
He was 5 when I got here.
I have seen my host family construct a completely new house
out of cement in which I am know living.
I put my host nephew in a head lock and started play
fighting with him in a semi-public place.
He got angry, pushed me off, and said, “I’m not a baby! You can’t just
come and play with me whenever you want!” I now kind of know how parent feel
when their kids say that they are embarrassing them. That wouldn’t have happened a year ago, but
he is in high school now. I blame the
change on that. Apparently, though, he
still is kind of a kid at heart. That
evening, he came and jumped in my hammock and wouldn’t leave until I picked him
up and dragged him out my room, laughing the whole time. Kids, man, they grow up so fast…
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