100 spf: Julia's Peace Corps Ecuador Blog: January 2013

So what am I up to these days? Who knows. Keeping work consistent is difficult. In December, I went around to a lot of the rural communities to meet with the principals of the schools, as well as the parents. I told them how I wanted to work with the kids during the school day; working on a program we coined “Escuelas Saludables” or “Healthy Schools”. We will be discussing the topics of hygiene, nutrition, recycling, self-esteem, and sex-ed in a few of the schools. Then in the afternoon, I will work with the parents regarding some recycling crafts, cooking healthy recipes, exercise, etc. I have 8 schools and visit each of them once a month. Getting transportation out to these communities is tough. Most often, if there is a bus going to the community, there is only one and it leaves the community in the morning to take the kids to the high schools and comes back to the town in the afternoon to bring the kids back. Therefore, it is really tough to visit the schools more than once a month because we have to pay to get a driver to take us out there. This past month, I started visiting the schools to actually implement the program. It went well. The kids were a lot of fun and the moms enjoyed learning how to make beads out of recycled magazine paper. Some of the kids took really well to learning about nutrition. In other classes, it was very difficult to maintain order because the kids walked all over me. I feel terrible looking back at how I behaved with some of my teachers in school, particularly when we had substitutes. When we wanted all hell to break loose, all hell broke loose. This is basically what happened with some of the classes I worked with this past month. When the teacher came in, they were all good and shaped up, got quiet. The minute they walked out, it was like animals being let free from a zoo. I’m hoping eventually I can learn some tricks to get the kids to calm down with me. If you have ANY tips, I am alllll ears! Unfortunately, for this reason, I often wasn’t able to take pictures. I was too busy attempting to maintain some semblance of order. I was able to capture some pictures in the school that only has about 15 students. They were a little bit easier to manage. Those pictures are included below.

Currently, there are two situations that kind of stink. First, the schools start their three month vacation in February, so right when I start having an actual schedule, I go back to having no schedule for three months. I will still be visiting the communities to work with the moms; I just won’t work with the kids until they come back in May. Now the other situation. There is a possibility that all of the schools that have less than a certain number of kids are going to be closed. The government is thinking that it might be more worthwhile to spend the money on bussing the kids that attend these small schools into the main towns to attend the bigger schools, sort of like how it is for high schools. To be honest, I am not entirely sure how I feel about this. Some of the kids would probably get better off because they would get better education. However, a lot of the schools function just fine as they are, while fostering a sense of community. As well, a major issue here is the drop in attendance of high school. At least here in Pedro Vicente, it is difficult for the children in the rural communities to get to the high schools in the main part of the town. As a result, they don’t go and will work instead. There is always a fear that a similar situation with the lower/middle school would cause a drop in attendance as well.

My counterpart told me that this could all happen over the summer, but I just can’t imagine it happening that quickly. Obviously it’d be a bit of a bummer because I’d have to reconstitute my plan for work, but again, obviously, that is not what matters the most. I guess we will see what happens in the coming months.

Anyway, I am hoping this past month was a good sort of pilot run and that when the kids get back into school, I will really be able to get going with the program. Hopefully it is something that can be kept up. During the summer, like I said before, I will go to the communities to work with the parents as well, I figure I will also help out with the basketball classes that are happening here in town. They basketball coach is going to offer more classes during vacation, so I figure it is an opportunity for me to start helping out again.

Speaking of basketball, I’m on a basketball team. I actually think it is I was on a basketball team. It was a league where we played about 8 games. We lost all the games except for two. One game we won outright, the other game we won because of a forfeit (the team didn’t show). When the team didn’t show, we played against a team of women that were just around in the stadium. That “team” beat us. Yeah, we weren’t so good. Actually I didn’t think we were so bad, but I guess we were. It had a good time anyway. Well except for the ref, who’s lack of knowledge of the rules often made me quite angry (I think most of you know how I feel about referees who don’t know the rules). The playoffs start Monday; I think my team will be in the bleachers watching.

That’s all for now for this post. There are a few more posts after this one so click on older posts to see more.

Food Pyramid

Drawing a meal

Personally think this frog can camouflage, but the kids told me they are born this way

“Hey Gorda, how much did that cost?”

A picture update is following this post, so click older posts to see it.

I don’t mean for this post to sound like a rant, at all really. I am really just posting because it is something I deal with here of which my United States upbringing has made it difficult to adjust. They are things I wonder if I will ever adjust to in just 2 years.

Something that I don’t think I will ever get used to? …Being asked, “How much did that cost?” I never really feel comfortable answering, let alone answering honestly. My answer is almost always about 80% of the actual price. Either way it elicits some kind of response alluding to the expensiveness of the purchase (yes expensiveness is a word, I looked it up) or the lack of a need for the purchase. I always come away feeling like I need to defend myself. However, I feel like, to some extent, this is good for me. People are entitled to their opinions, just as I am entitled to mine. It is important to care about what other people think of you and your decisions, but maybe I care just a little too much. So what if they have a differing opinion about something as little as something I bought? There is a reason(s) I bought it and that should be enough for me. Now, I say that, but let’s by honest… I’m going to continue feeling awkward about it. Maybe little by little I can allow that new mentality to sink in. Enough of being self reflective, now on to another topic.

What I am still confused about is referencing someone’s weight. My level understanding of this continues to progress (progress in a circle). We were prepped during training that the talk of weight would be much more open here than it is in the United States. My first host parents often referred to each other as “Gordo(a)” in an endearing way. Gordo means fat. I always figured it was something that was sort of open to talk about. At least, that is always what I told myself when people here in PVM kept telling me that I was getting fatter, even people that I am not particularly friends with. Or the basketball coach telling some of the girls that they need to “eat less rice and work out more” (which no matter what the deal is with talking about weight, I will never think is ok). So after a bunch of scenarios as such, a couple of situations started changing my perception about the openness of weight discussion.

First, my counterpart and I were at a community planning some activities, talking to the teachers. I had finished my business with them and was watching the Christmas festivities. I looked over at him after the teacher he was speaking with walked away. He looked horrified, so I asked him what was up. He accidentally poked her in the stomach with his pencil, so he said “Oh I’m sorry, gotta watch out for the baby”. Now I know you’re probably thinking ooohh no because you already know what happened. However, she had juust recently had her child. My counterpart had just forgotten that she had probably already had it, which she had. As he recounted this to me, I was surprised by his degree of dread. I said something along the lines of, “But I thought it isn’t an insult to call someone fat here.” He said, “No it absolutely is.” Waaiiitt what? So I shouldn’t feel bad for crying that time my host mother found a way to call my fat in over a handful of ways in less than 3 sentences? I was confused.

Then, one afternoon I was chatting with my host brothers. We were talking about Kevin’s new girlfriend and his ex. His ex was not the nicest girl. She broke up with him saying that her father wouldn’t allow her to date anyone, but really she was dating someone else. As we were talking about her I said, “Yeah she is fatter than your new girlfriend.” I wasn’t trying to be mean in any way and it was definitely in context. Jokingly, he put his fists up like he wanted to fight me. Once again, I said, “but I thought it isn’t mean to call someone fat.” He said, “It is”. Then he elaborated, if you are friends with someone, then you have the right to call them fat, but if you are not friends with them, you cannot say anything about their weight.

So basically, now, I am lost. I don’t know what the proper etiquette is. All I know is that I will refrain from trying to fit in by referencing someone’s fatness. That’s another thing I wish I could change about myself. I wish I didn’t scrutinize my body so much. I wish I weren’t so easily affected by someone’s comments about my body, but I am. I don’t think I am alone on that.