10 Noviembre 2011 take two

Well I just spent the morning crunching numbers.

The monitoring for the VALE program consists of attendance numbers, ratings done by the students’ teachers, and grades.

Here is your 2 month report:

Attendance is huge. We have an average of 80 students a week (which is 11% of the total population and 40% of the youth population of Madrigal).

We are going to take a look at the grades of students with regular attendance (>3weeks a month). We will take their grades from last year before the program started, and compare it to their grades at the end of this year. Because this school year, nor the program has ended yet, we can’t look at that yet.

But, what we can look at are the statistics on the teachers’ objective observations of their students. They were given a monitoring scale asking about the programs’ holistic goals and how they have manifested in the youth.

We got some interesting results.

Here is a look at a couple graphs I made based on the improvement.

This graph depicts in what themes the group as a whole is showing the most improvement in:

Group scores

This graph depicts where the individuals show the most significant changes in the themes:

Mejoramiento

So, as a conclusion, so far, one could say the youth population of madrigal is becoming more interested in education and knowledge in general.

And, as individuals they are acting more responsible when it comes to their education and community.

I say, woot woot!

10 November 2011

“Yes, I felt closer to my fellow men, too, even in my solitude. For it is not physical solitude that actually separates one from other men, not physical isolation, but spiritual isolation. It is not the desert island nor the stony wilderness that cuts you from the peoplee you love. It is the wilderness in the mind, the desert wastes in the heart through which one wanders lost and a stranger. When one is a stranger to oneself then one is estranger from others, too. If one is out of touch wit oneself, then one cannot touch others. How often in a large city, shaking hands with y friends, I have felt the wilderness stretching between us. Both of us were wandering in arid wastes, having lost the springs that nourished us- or having found them dry. Only when one is connected to one’s own core, is one connected to others, I am beginning to discover. And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude.”

Anne Morrow Lindebergh

9 Noviembre 2011 take four

This week’s theme was “What can I do with my friends, books?”

Lucia, the young woman who will be replacing me when I leave, shadowed me for the first couple days of the week. She is so excited about the job and the program she can’t really contain herself. It is beautiful.

Anyways, she had this idea for the beginning of the week, so I scrapped what I had written and we rolled with it. The idea was to make researching fun.

So, we had the little ones draw a circle in the center of their papers, then find what that circle could be in the books, and turn it into what they found (an eye, an egg in a nest, the Sun, etc). They did a great job, and it was fabulous to see Lucia with the kids, and I really know this week motivated her.

For the older group later in the week we did a scavenger hunt. I wrote out questions on themes that we didn’t get to touch in the program due to time constraints and they competed in groups to find the answers.

They learned how to use an encyclopedia…

Thank you Monica Kline!

Special Thank You to Monic Kline for becoming the Madrina of Mujeres Campesinas-Women Farmers of Madrigal. We sincerely thank you for your donation and making the soup kitchen functional and giving the women uniforms for the local soccer tournament.

9 Noviembre 2011 take three

My host mother and president of "Women Farmers"

I am looking for a microgrant.

This isn’t a micro lending situation, because it isn’t going to generate money. But, I thought someone might be interested in supporting an already successful club here in town.

Mujeres Campesinas (women farmers) is a group I work with often. It is pretty much just a club of women. They help each other when planting and harvesting, they dance in the festivals together, they volunteer in town even cleaning the streets from time to time. But, in my opinion, the most important thing that they do is run the soup kitchen. They receive food (rice, oil, and lentels) from the government, and they rotate 5 days a week cooking it in a little adobe hut they built. This food is sold at about 1.50 soles a plate (less than $1) and most often serves elderly, orphans, and the disabled. The money earned goes to buying potatoes, carrots, onions and other things the women grow to add flavor to the dishes.

The president of Mujeres Campesinas (my host mom) asked me if I could help find funding to buy the women uniforms because they want to play in a soccer tournament. “Then,” she said “we could use those same shirts to look official when we are working in the kitchen.”

As we were pricing the shirts we found where they could be made with their logo for only about $3 a piece. With 8 women, that is only a $24 donation.

“Is there anything else the club or soup kitchen needs?”

“plates, we lost some plates”

Having seen the women eating their rice with their fingers I asked, “What about spoons? Could you use some spoons?”

“Oh yes! And cups!”

“Ok, I will see if we can get those too. Are you ladies ok with pots?”

“We have two large ones, but we do need a medium one.”

So there we have it ladies and gentlemen. When crunching the numbers I found that we could get them more than what they need to get by for a few years for about $100.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in making a donation to Mujeres Campesinos. I am not going to go through all the PC hoops because it is such a small amount. I am going to throw in $25 to make sure they get their uniforms before the tournament in December, but would greatly appreciate help on the other $75.

Sorry for the plug.

9 November 2011 take two

This is just a general statement.

And what they call the “x-pat” in me coming out.

But, in general, Americans are embarrassing.

Our obsession with efficiency and perfection creates this self-righteousness that cuts at relationships.

It is easy to pick out a US tourist from European or Australian just based on the way they talk to people.

It is like they can’t understand why anyone would ever do anything that isn’t the best option. But every single culture in the world has things that they do, just because that is what they do. It doesn’t make sense, but it is part of the culture.

Yeah, not washing your hands is stupid and unhealthy, but so is eating fast food.

Driving close to other cars and people is dangerous, but so is smoking.

It all comes down to how you treat someone.

You might not agree with what they do, but that gives you no right to treat them badly for it.  We consider ourselves an advanced and modern society, but we treat people who don’t think like us as badly as this culture does with the LGBT community.

That is what I have always loved about America. That we are literally a melting pot of so much difference that lives together. We agree to disagree and have a constitution that allows for that. But, lately with the help of new medias, our differences are pulling us apart and we are fighting about disagreeing.

I beg you, my family and friends to fight it. In your daily life. Yes surround yourself with people you enjoy, but treat all kinds with respect and compassion. 

For my Christian family and friends, take seriously what jesus took seriously.

“ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together”.-Eugene Ionesco

9 Noviembre 2011

For the first time in my 2-year Peace Corps service I didn’t write for a week.

This past week I was working with the NGO Quechua Benefit in a medical campaign.

I was translating for an Australian team of eye doctors, general physicians, pediatricians, and surgeons. It was a week of everything and by far my favorite campaign I have ever worked.

Every single one of the doctors was inspiring. We worked every day of the week from 7am in the morning to 7pm at night, usually without a lunch break-just stuffing our faces with fruit and cookies on-the-go to get by. They wanted to see everyone they possibly could. I think the final numbers came out to 70ish a day with the 2 eye doctors, 30+ a day with the general physician, and 30+ a day with the pediatrician. There were +/- 10 cataract or trigium surgeries a day as well, and the surgeons followed up every morning with the patients from the day before. They were ruthlessly loving doctors committed to providing for the need. They bathed in cold showers and got no comfort from the food provided by the locals, every single one got sick with diarrhea or vomiting at some point, but they complained not. They smiled and were appreciative of the opportunity to help.

One of the doctors I became good friends with by the end of the week said, “This has been the hardest week of my life.” And, when I took a moment to reflect I realized the profoundness of his statement. Could I say the same? I don’t know. 

We had everything in the patient grab bag. The emotional push and pull is indescribable.

To put free glasses on a woman who couldn’t see more than three meters in front of her her entire life.

To remove the bandages from a man who had dense cataracts in both eyes and watch him observe color for the first time in twenty years.

To medicate a 5-year-old who’s eyes had been infected for more than 2 years and were so swollen they thought she might have downs syndrome… fixed, with a drop.

One man came every morning. Blind and half deaf with a limp he begged the doctors for anything. As the translator, it became my job every day as he walked in to half shout into his good ear that there was nothing that could be done.

“But, my daughter lives in Spain, she can buy any drop I need and send it to me.”

“I am so sorry sir, but the damage to your eyes has been untreated for so long, that now it is too late, there is no drop in the world that can bring back some of your vision.”

This patient brought tears do mine and the doctors’ eyes.

During one of the cataract surgeries one woman’s retina collapsed and the doctors had to get out as quickly as possible, unable to replace the lense in her eye. The woman will need another surgery, and will probably not be able to see much better than she could previously. I was not present for the surgery. Imagine for a minute, as the doctor is explaining the outcome to the family, they understand nothing. The have their intense listening ears on, but don’t understand the English as much as they want to. As the doctor speaks, and I begin to understand what happened, I can’t react. I wait for her to finish, take a deep breath, and translate to the family that that tiny risk factor before the surgery that we explained, happened. At no fault to anyone, the surgery was unsuccessful. Not fatal, but with the amount of cataracts this woman has in the other eye she will not be able to recognize anything but figures anytime soon, if ever. The renound surgeon then walks away to allow her self to tear and I stay nearto explain post op instructions to a silent crowd.

It was a beautiful week. I am proud to have been able to help and I send a sincere thank you to Quechua Benefit for how much I  learned in the process.