A Reminder of America

Happy New Year! Yes, it’s been some time since my last blog post but I thought y’all might enjoy a couple of guest posts for a little; getting to see what it’s like from someone who doesn’t live here all the time, writing from a pair of fresh eyes. But still it’s been about a month now since Kaylie has gone back to the states and I'm sure some of you have just been counting the days awaiting another blog post from myself. “What has been going on down there!?” you might have found yourself asking. Well pretty much right as Kaylie left I was hit with an onslaught of things all at once which is why this post is more of a catch up after the fact because I haven’t had much time to sit down and write.

“So what are all these things that you could be busy with? I thought you spent your days relaxing in a hammock, eating fresh bananas off your farm, and when you have a chance swing over to the local school to teach a class or two.” Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to catch as much hammock time reading American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis as I would like, but hopefully soon I’ll be able to catch up on it.

First off the end of January marks the end of Peace Corps’ trimester for reporting. That means that (every four months) I compile a larger-than-I’d-like report on everything that I've been doing. This includes everything from what my site is like, any new partners/connections I've made, how I'm doing and how Peace Corps can best assist me, and the most time consuming part is entering all activities that I've lead or been a part of. But entering the activities are more than just a quick description of what happened. I need to include the number of people involved/attended broken down by age groups and sex along with which objectives and indicators the program matched based off of the EH!PICC Framework. The one nice part of doing all this work every four months is that it will make all my paperwork and reports at the end of service that much easier because I can pull the information off of these trimester reports. But the reports don’t stop there! Recently the HM at the secondary school that I teach HFLE (Health and Family Life Education) at asked me to start submitting monthly reports on what I'm teaching. So I had to send in my report for the classes I taught this January. During a quick break from all my computer work out to our veranda for some water, I was joking with my host mom, Verna, saying that I felt like I was back in America. It’s been quite some time since I've sat at the computer for hours upon hours typing reports/papers. I really felt like I was back in the states working and not tropical Guyana.

If it was just those two things I would be fine. However on January 25^th there was a protest in Linden so Peace Corps decided to evacuate me, my site mate, and the volunteers in Linden and bring us out to Georgetown. At first, this might seem a bit drastic of a decision; however about a year ago there was a protest that lasted about two months long with a total city shut down so the decision to pull us out was not without merit. I would have been safe in site, per se, but could have been stuck there if the protest became something bigger as Linden is my gateway to the rest of the country. Imagine receiving a call at 8:20 am, 5 minutes  before you’re about to begin work telling you to go home, pack up for an indefinite amount of time (plan for ~3 weeks) but take everything of importance in case you’re never able to return home and be ready to leave in a few hours. Well that was the call I got on Friday the 24^th. So that was definitely a shock. Something I've become aware of since serving in the Peace Corps is that I'm quite a minimalist. I packed up my necessary things: passports, legal documents, money, computer, clothes, etc. all in my backpacking backpack (or “haversack” as they say here). But being a diabetic, I also had to pack up all of my supplies and insulin so I had an additional box of stuff that I had to lug out of site. But I’ll be honest, I’m kind of upset that the protest didn’t really last longer than a day, I was getting excited for an “e-vacation” in town for a bit. A/C, showers, and wifi are a nice thing once in a while.

In reality though, I was planning on leaving site that Sunday for a jam packed three days of meetings at the office from Monday to Wednesday. I’m on two committees/task forces, one of which I know I've mentioned, GAD (Gender And Development) which is responsible for organizing Camp GLOW, and VAC (Volunteer Advisory Council); essentially the “student body” wing of the Peace Corps where myself along with five others (3 from each group) meet with all of staff to problem solve and relay messages back to fellow volunteers. Both VAC and GAD had meetings with staff these three days and held their own meetings throughout this period. It was a crazy few days, but very productive.

Once I was back in site, Wednesday night, I had only two days before I was back out to Linden. GAD has wanted to organize a boy’s camp to parallel Camp GLOW for girls. The volunteers in Linden organized the first Camp BRO (Brothers Reaching Others). So it was a VERY crazy/stressful/hectic/fun/eye-opening weekend with close to 80 boys ages 11-15 met for the weekend for a two day camp. During the camp I was responsible for co-leading sessions on sexual health and mental and emotional stress, which if you’ve seen the latest Camp GLOW video, we also did paintballing as part of this session. And what better a way to finish camp than grabbing a few beers with the rest of the PCVs who helped out that weekend and heading to a local bar to watch a pirated stream of the Super bowl! I know what you’re all thinking, and yes, I will be on the lookout for Super bowl XLVIII Denver Broncos Champions t-shirts and other apparel; let me know if you’d like one.

Then back to site, but no hammock time as yet. Between finishing my trimester report, monthly report, I am part of a “tools development working group” along with four other members of Guy 25 and Peace Corps staff. Through this group we work on, develop, and test various tools in the field to help other PCVs with their own work. This is aimed to make reporting to various indicators within our job frameworks easier, but also help with various activities in our communities. For instance, I’m working on a tool to measure Positive identity and self esteem

(SSI YD-001-A / PDI HE-211: # of children/youths, out of the total number of children the Volunteer/partner worked with, who described or displayed three or more of their own personal strengths or assets as evidence of improved sense of self-esteem or self-worth).

In one of my HFLE classes I created an “activity” that along with the lesson itself, guides the students to help them identify their developing sense of “self,” values, roles they play in life, and things they excel in. So I've been working on developing this tool to better assist other PCVs in reporting to the same indicator on the framework by using this tool.

Something else I’m excited about is helping my friend at site get into this program. I found out about an opportunity hosted by the US Department of State and ESPNW called the Global Sports Mentoring Program, where 20 women from around the globe are paired with various female executives from US sports organizations and spend a month in the states with them learning business and management skills in the sports field. Only 2 women from each country, i.e. Guyana, are nominated and I’m hoping that my friend will be one of the women chosen. In order to apply, in addition to basic biographical information, she needed to submit her CV (curriculum vitae). That wouldn’t be that hard if we lived in the states, but here a CV is such a foreign concept. So it took some time to sit down with her and explain how all the little things she does and takes for granted, or doesn’t realize she does, has applicable value to include on a CV. She started off saying how she “doesn’t do much;” just goes to church and works in her shop turned into a full page, explaining all the skills gained from just working in her shop (e.g. accounting, organizing, marketing, sales, managing/supervising, budgeting, etc.). I’m really excited to hear how she does as it sounds like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

This next week I’ll spend working in the Peace Corps office for an entire week working alongside staff and two other members of my group to revise the training program for the upcoming Guy 26’s arrival this May. And to kick off my time in town, VAC will be representing Peace Corps at S4's event in town "One Billion Rising"

One Billion Rising began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that one in three women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than one billion women and girls! On Friday February 14, the S4 Foundation will join activists, writers, thinkers, celebrities, and women and men across the world as we express outrage, demand change, strike, dance and rise in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women.

I’m really excited for this event to see everyone that comes and to represent Peace Corps at our own booth at the event.

Alright, I need a break from the computer. I’m off to wash about 60 eggs that my host niece just picked.