As the father is here, there are three weddings in town today. As you can imagine, there is not enough room in this small town for three bands. The arguing bad wind music is mildly torturous.
When I emerged from my room my host family was killing one of the sheep that came down from the ranch with the llamas this week. Immediately, my father requested his favorite: fried liver. My host mom went to work as I did dishes and fed my dog sheep blood (yes, somehow this street dog has taken to me and follows me everywhere, I have love/hate feelings about this relationship).
I have to admit, the liver with spicy aji pepper, rice, and onion, was absolutely delicious. They served me my normal portion size (tiny), and I asked for more… twice. Admittedly, I was hungry. I remember being a vegetarian and hating the smell of liver when I was in Russia, but today, this sheep liver tasted great.
After cleaning the guts and blood off of everything I could so I could wash laundry, I hide in my room again. Today’s to-do list:
-Balance the VALE badget from last week’s purchases, confirm what is left to purchase from supply lists
- Write training session for incoming Peace Corps volunteers on communicating with impoverished communities.
- Write talk I will be giving August 2 in Arequipa City at the International Conference, Exito y Emprendimiento- Mujeres que cmbian el mundo: “Building Success- Women who change the World”. Aside: Cristina Reyes Hidalgo is the main speaker. She is an attorney from Ecuador and known for being a Master in Political Action. The conference is meant to bring powerful young women together and discuss how to be successful. The NGO CoPlan is one of the head organizers, and their president and good friend of mine, Raul Jimenez, pulled me aside when I was at a Peace Corps meeting last week and we had this conversation:
“So, can you be here on the second of August to speak?”
“At this point, I cannot confirm for sure. You see, in my line of work I need to help the family I live with in the fields and be in site as much as possible. I need to see where we are in the farming and then I can make a decision. I need to know if they need me first.”
“But, the young women of Arequipa need you here.”
Not sure if that was a sleezy latino line or not, but Raul really doesn’t seem to be that. Extremely flattered, I was left speechless, called Roxana, and the following day confirmed my ability to speak. There is something to put on the resume! And what a great opportunity to meet people.
- Edit the Liderazgo en red- “Leadership Network” program’s mentorship curriculum. Another aside: I met their coordinator, Michelle Davis, because I wanted to talk to her about bringing mentors to Madrigal. As many of the adolescents here aspire to be professionals, I want to help them reach that goal, however, a lack of role models that live here produces a gap in the ability to know how to act in order to receive a better education and become an attorney, nurse, engineer, etc. As we were chatting she expressed a need to develop their program a little more before expanding. Some frustrations came out as it seems that they are at a roadblock with curriculum development. “I am your lady” nearly burst from my lips. While in Arequipa, I met with Michelle’s psychology interns that are struggling to develop a way to get the mentees in the program to enjoy their meetings with their mentors, and still reach the leadership and self-esteem goals the program has set. It was empowering to meet with this group of excited college students. In the meeting Michelle called, she presented me as a tool to help them develop and organize their ideas. We started with questions. Somehow, I was able to answer their questions about child development and stimulating these urban, impoverished youth they work with. For this, I am surprised and proud. The best part of the meeting was when I could see these intern’s eyes sparkle with new ideas and their pens scribble down as quickly as possible while the eureka moments came flying through their heads. We concluded the meeting with them requesting me to read their curriculum and add any ideas or modifications into the margins to get back to them within the month. With a pile of paperwork that didn’t weigh me down in the slightest, I floated out of the meeting. That morning reminded me of the quote,
“When you get the right people in a room, the impossible becomes imaginable. We want to find the right people. Then we want to stimulate their collective imagination and harness it for real world progress.”
Richard F. Schaden
- Then, I need to start really familiarizing myself with the VALE curriculum I wrote about a year ago now. I need to memorize the classes and get ready to teach. We start in three weeks!
- Sometime soon I also need to finish the last two talks for the teacher workshops and then meet with Hirma to plan the parent workshops/library open house.
I also wanted to take a moment today to request patience from you, my friends and family. I realize that I have been more distant than normal this past month, and I have felt frustration from you. Please know that you are still very much in my thoughts, but my responsibilities here are taking up much of my personal time right now. Once VALE gets off the ground I am sure I will slither back into grasp. I love and miss you.
No comments:
Post a Comment