WATER IS LIFE!

8.28.10

This morning I had a great surprise, that I was able to shower with running water! It has been confusing because I know the water runs, not sure if it does every day though. But, I’ve seen my host mom fill up the receptacles with water almost everyday, but I’ve tried to turn on the “bomba” to make the water run, and it doesn’t. The bomba is something that pumps water from the river into the plumbing in the house, or that is my understanding. Anyways, it was AMAZING to shower without a bucket to dump over my head and such, it felt great. The picture shown is of the bathroom, it's difficult to see but the green things are the receptacles where water is held when there is no running water.

This morning I started the census of Salinas with Alllllbbbbaaaa! I say her name that way because it reminds me of the Flinstones when Fred says, "WIIIIILLLMMAAAA!". She is my neighbor and I was introduced to her by Chalo (an employee at the San Vicente Town Hall). She doesn't have a job right now and agreed to help me do a census since she knows everyone in Salinas. We talked to 33 different families and it took us from about 9-2pm, a really long day of repeating questions. Most of the questions include people's names, ages, level of education, occupation, income, and the types of health problems they've had, from asthma to malaria or dengue, a sickness from mosquitoes.

Tonight there was a mass at the Catholic Church for the Virgen Cisne, not sure what role she plays in the church, sorry! Alba came to pick me up for church, so we went to mass a Brazilian nun who gave mass. Salinas doesn't have a pries that consistenly comes to hold mass because there aren't enough priests, so usually one of the nuns comes from San Vicente every couple of weeks. Of course at mass they had me jump right in and do a reading. Today is the mass for the Virgen de Cisne, so there was a procession afterwards up to where they had set up for a baile, or dance. Everyone has been asking if I like to dance or if I can dance. I didn’t want to stay at the baile because I don’t feel comfortable yet with the ppl, and didn’t want to be embarrassed. Alba and I hung out outside the baile while ppl were starting to come and talked to her uncle. Afterwards we went to the Evangelical church just to check it out. We were standing outside for a while and people kept offering for us to come inside but I was comfortable just watching and was almost ready to leave. This church was worshipping, loud music, lots of people with their hands up in the air, and people crying. One woman approached us and pretty much dragged us into the church to sit down. It was just a little uncomfortable because I don’t know the people that well and I don’t usually see tons of people balling with their arms in the air. Then towards the end of the mass the pastor started asking people to come forward to pray and “ receive the word of God” etc. Eventually, he called Alba and I up to join the group of people, and everyone continued to cry and scream out etc. It was fine for me to stand there, but THEN, the pastor called me out and and tried to get me to come forward again with a man to give myself to Jesus. I then felt more uncomfortable and didn’t really respond/stood still, and according to Alba, turned fire red! Then he asked, “You don’t beleive?” I pretended like I didn’t understand what he was saying to me and eventually he moved on. It was frustrating because I didn’t even want to come into the church, and it was my first time going there. I don't know a lot about Evangelism, but I respect other religions and the way they want to worship. However, I don't appreciate being accused that I don't believe in God by someone I don't know and who has never seen me before. I talked to Alba after about it that I don’t go to the same kind of services as the evangelical church, but i respect what they do and how they practice their faith, I just don’t share the same style as they do.

I talked to Pastorita (my host mom) when I got home about it and she said she was baptized Catholic but really likes the Evangelical services. She told me a story about how she was having trouble with her pregnancy with one of her kids and needed to have a C-section. During the process at the hospital and after, she said she was feeling like she might die, because everything felt so far away and she had lost a lot of blood or something. She said that she had told God if he let her live that she would come back to church and find him at the Evangelical church. She said she is still working on it to get back to the church but we didn’t really go farther into the reasons why she hasn’t been.

First Contacts with the High School

8.27.10

This morning I went to a meeting at the high school/colegio with my neighbor, Alba and Zeneida (my counterpart in Salinas). We spoke at length with the professors there about why I'm in Salinas and offering help to come and give charlas/workshops to the kids on topics from sexual education to values and communication. A bunch of other issues came out while we were there that made me really confused because I have no idea how the school runs. A more delicate problem now is there is a girl who is the only one in her class and she has to study in a room by herself. This is the same space that teachers use to meet when the don't have class and talk about their problems with the children, which is not appropriate for her to hear, and also causes some great distraction for her in terms of getting her work done. Zeneida wants to come back next week to see if the school has resolved the problem, in which she suggested that the teachers meet in the office to discuss issues and leave the girl alone with her teacher so she can focus and learn. I felt awkward that Zeneida was bringing me into the situation during the first time I'm meeting the staff and the principal of the school, and they all talk so fast it was hard to keep track of what everyone was saying!!

In the afternoon Zeneida and I went to the microempresa (mini-business area at the entrance to Salinas) to talk with police about a marcha, or protest that many leaders of the town want to carry out against some youth. Lately they say that Salinas is becoming more dangerous and the youth are starting to use more drugs and drink, and also engage in delinquent behaviors. The marcha would be a demonstration that the town has had enough, but also to offer the youth help to start a group or to look for jobs, something to support them to stop doing these things. I also feel awkward about participating in a marcha when I just recently got to my site. I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression that I'm just here to criticize what people are doing. I especially don't want to push away the youth when I haven't had a chance to get to know them or them to know me. In the end the marcha wasn't ever carried out because of a lack of interest.

history of Salinas

8.26.10

The main highlight of the day was that I read a lot which felt good, good for the soul ya know? talked to Zeneida’s mom about the history of Salinas. It used to be a salt mining town, where the people filtered the land and used the salt (i’m terrible at remembering/understanding/explaining these things so bear with me). So the salt brought the people to Salinas and also it has access to the water where people can catch shrimp and fish as well. Zeneida’s mom talked about her parents living here and this is where she was born and raised her kids. She had 12 kids total, but a couple of them died, and she also semi-adopted a couple as well because there was a woman she knew who didn’t have the means to raise her kids, so the family took them in. It was a great conversation because I don’t know her very well but it was cool that she shared a little bit of her family’s history with me. Then there was a meeting at the school that I went to with Zeneida and there was another man there from ERA (Escuela Revolucion Agraria), a school with the Department of Agriculture or something. He’ll be coming her twice a week, Weds and Thurs for a few hours to give seminars and help the people learn how to cultivate the land to improve the look of the town and increase production of agriculture. I was also reintroduced to the people at the meeting and talked about the census and evaluation of the town over the next few months. Afterwards a few of us stayed and there is a growing concern that the jovenes/youth are involved in delinquent behaviors, drugs, theft, etc. In the end the adults want to organize a marcha against this behavior and present the jovenes with an opportunity to work together to find other solutions to working or getting involved in something else more positive.

strategizing

8.25.10

Chalo (Cleo's boss/city worker in San Vicente) called to have a meeting later in the afternoon. He is pretty much the mayor's right-hand man, that's the impression I get anyways. He came to Salinas and we met in the church's hall. He said that the mayor was impressed with me! And he wants to come to Salinas next week to meet with the people, awesome! We kind of talked “strategy”, he wanted to know when I would start the census and I told him that I would talk to Zeneida but for sure we would start next week. We looked through the CAT (Community Assessment Tool) book to get an idea of what questions we would ask, and then talked about going back to visit the homes after the census to do more interviews or the assessment in terms of project ideas and what the people are looking for. I met Alba, another community leader who works with the Catholic Church in Salinas and also with some of the young people (jovenes). We organized that I will join her on Friday morning for a meeting with the parents at the High School, but before I will meet the professors to talk about my work and offer ideas about after school programs or groups if they are interested/needed.

Chalo and I walked around the side streets of Salinas and he introduced me to some more people and we talked about the census so they are aware. It was great to meet them and also spread the word so next week isn’t awkward showing up to people’s houses, but Zeneida will come with me as well so that will help.

getting settled

8.24.10

Went to the meeting at Municipio de San Vicente (town hall), met Humberto Garcia, the mayor/alcalde. I went with Zeneida and Miriam (community member involved in asking for volunteer). It was a good meeting, just talked about my role and what the town of Salinas needs, and the mayor offered to help us in whatever way possible, he also talked about coming to Salinas to meet the people. We discussed working on getting a census taken of the town and from there interviewing the people to see where we should focus our efforts and such. From there we spent some more time in San Vicente and I met Fabricio, one of the city employees, we talked about soccer and also different after school programs I could put together, in addition to teaching english. Not something I'm crazy about doing (teaching english), but I will do it to get to know the people and the kids. The rest of the day I spent resting and unpacking my stuff and feeling a bit more organized. Also learned some card games that are similar to what we play in the States, like 31 instead of Black Jack, War, etc. I played with my host mom and Mirtha, they are pretty funny, really good people. My host mom is so loving right off the bat, willing to help and kind of the motherly/grandmotherly worry wart.

THE ARRIVAL

8.23.10

I spent day at Cleo's office and caught up on the internet met Miriam, a community leader in San Vicente and talked with her and Cleo about the CAT Tools= very overwhelming at first to read everything, but it does offer a lot of options and flexibility to make things my own in a sense. CAT Tools is a book that Peace Corps gave us to do an assessment of our communities to see where the needs are and what projects might be appropriate to fulfill the needs. Organized a meeting with the mayor in the morning for tomorrow at 8 and to have Zeneida come too to get his support and input on the situation in Salinas. At 5 pm, Zeneida’s cousin, Eduardo, and his wife Betty, drove me to Salinas, they live in Portovelo which is a small town on the way to Salinas. I finally arrived and met Zeneida’s mother (I’m staying at her mother’s house), her name is Pastora. Mirtha was there as well and when we drove up a few people said that they were excited that I was back and that they have been waiting for me to arrive, so that definitely helped to calm my nerves. The people are so sweet! And the fact that I wasn’t shocked like I was for my site visit also helped that I had been there before and had met some people. I pretty much ate dinner and went to bed after a while. Met Mirtha’s dad, Juan, who reminds me a lot of my uncle Tom back home, he kind of has the same build, look, and body movements I guess. Talked to Zeneida about the meeting and she will come along, we also talked about what had happened over the weekend and it all worked out fine, I don’t think she was mad or anything. I was nervous she was going to think that I didn't want to come to site and stayed in San Vicente to put it off for the weekend. I was definitely anxious to get settled and organized in the house, but it worked out for the best to talk with Eik and have a couple days to calm down and mentally prepare.

Blah blah

8.21.10

Woke up at Jennifer's/Eik's houseand made eggs with peppers and onions for breakfast, walked around, stopped at the beach but it was cloudy and a little cold/windy, so we didn’t stay long. We went to the market and bought some fruit and chicken, veggies, pasta, to make for dinner. Had some fruit and granola for lunch, and then took a nap for a couple of hours. Then we went out again to get olive oil and some wine to bring back to her house and start dinner. We started cooking at about 7ish and finally ate at 10 haha. Eik's stove only has one burner, so it took awhile to boil the water and make pasta, then soak the tomatoes for marinara sauce, and then sautay all the other veggies for the sauce, and cook the chicken. We talked a lot about where everyone’s sites are, random stuff. The whole weekend we listened to a lot of Carrie Underwood, love her! Eik hadn't heard her latest album which is so good, so I'm taking credit for getting her hooked. Then her friend paula came over to borrow Eik’s bike to go to a meeting. When she came back we were still cooking haha so she stayed to have a glass of wine and ate a little bit with us. We finished dinner and went to bed by about 12 am, the wine definitely helped me fall asleep pretty fast!