Thursday, February 17, 2011

Paso a Paso (Step by Step)

I know, it has been a while. A long while. Now I have to play catch up. So what have I been doing? Well, I presented all my findings from the community at Peace Corps three month In Service Training. All business volunteers came to the capital with their project partner for a weekend of presentations and strength building workshops. It allowed us to prioritize projects in my site and see the need of the community. Did you know...

49% of my community never finished primary school

Unemployment rate is at 52% with only 15% of the population having a stable job

The median income is $188.00 U.S. Dollars

15% of the community do not have a latrine or a bathroom

This is some of the information that I collected from my first three months. It is very helpful in shaping my projects and what I will focus on in the next two years.

After returning from the conference, I thought that things would speed up-I was going to be moving into my new home all on my own, starting up some of my projects. Just the opposite happened. It has been very difficult to find motivated people to work with. It has been even harder to have the community decide on a project to work with. Some days I think they are confused as to why I am there. At our development association meeting I finally stood up and said something. I told them that we must meet more than once a month to accomplish anything and that I am here as a resource and that they reallllly need to use me. I talked about forming committees so we can have a strong group working on projects, having a vision for the year with long and short term goals. I think I got to them, but like I said, things are slow.

My fishermen are continuing to surprise me. They are motivated to work and I have taken them on as one of my main projects. A lot is going on in the country about developing code of conducts for fishing, trying to promote sustainable fishing practices, etc. They are going to see a big change in the next year or so as the government is taking more of a stand with the fishermen. For us, this is great. We want to do conservation projects and we are hoping that organizations in country will support us. I started to write a grant for lobster houses and FADs (Fishing Aggragative Devices) with the hope of repopulating the lobster species and taking pressure off the reefs from being fished.

O, forgot...started two English courses. I have 100 students. Yes, one-hundred. It is too much, but I am surviving. The little kids are tough. I am currently recruiting a classroom mom for help control the rascals. My older group is doing great. They are learning little by little and it makes me proud (even though I am not too keen about being an English teacher).

My first big event is coming up in March-I will be hosting a Peninsula wide International Women's Day event. Over sixty girls from the Peninsula will be attending. The day will be filled with activities including a Volleyball tournament, sex and gender dramas, career planning and self-esteem talks, a professional volleyball player will be attending to mentor the girls, we will be having lunch and at the end of the day we will be parading through the community showing everyone how strong we really are. I am very excited. Hoping that the girls in my community come through to help me. Lets just say at our first meeting, only two girls showed up, an hour late. But that is how things are here and you have to learn to roll with the punches.

I am living on my own now. My host family doesn't understand that they don't have to prepare food for me anymore. They also get very upset when I don't show up at night to watch soap operas with them. Some things will never change. The independence is glorious. I get lots of visitors. My neighbors are great. It is a little loud (the owner of all the 4x4s lives right next to me and he stores the vehicles there at night, so at 7:30 am his workers are revving the engines getting them ready for excursions). But I am used to it. The roosters usually wake me up before the 4 wheelers.

My sister came and visited. She just left Monday. It was incredible. We relaxed, enjoyed sister time, saw whales, went to all the beautiful beaches. I was able to show her some of my work too. I think she has a better understanding of what I am doing here. Maybe a little bit more appreciation. She experienced living without water for three days...let's just say I don't think she will be joining Peace Corps.

Today I am in the capital at the office awaiting another visitor. I had some time to speak to one of my bosses. Although lately I feel like I haven't made any progress, she gave me the assurance that I am actually picking up speed and doing a lot. Some days I just need to hear it. Since I don't physically see anything changing, sometimes I get down in the dumps, thinking that I am making no progress. It was a pick me up that I really needed.

So I have a lot on my plate right now. English classes, volleyball team, fishermen, starting a latrine project, maybe constructing a park, learning to live on my own. At this point I take day by day. You can't think so far ahead because things change and everyday brings something new to the table. It's slow, but I am still chugging.

Some fun from sissy's trip...




La Cascada en El Limon
view from El Cabito
Humpback whale season!