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 25th 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 24th. 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.
