January has been an interesting month. My town´s anniversary was this past week (central day being the 29th) meaning that the past 2 weeks have had various events and festivities planned and not a whole lot of people working on anything outside of the anniversary.
Despite this, I managed to get a group of Health Promoters focused in the promotion of healthy lifestyles and the prevention of HIV, AIDS and STDs. We have about 20 youth and 5 adults participating and it seems to be going well. I had to fight with the municipality to let us use the auditorium because the Miss Cayaltí candidates had practice, despite the municipality signing an agreement with an organization in Chiclayo and 2 other districts saying they would support HIV/AIDS prevention efforts and having previously agreed to let us use the auditorium for Health Promoters. In the end I have a signed note from one of the guys in the municipality saying to let us use the space. We´re working with the organization that the Municipality signed an agreement with, Viviendo en Positivo (Living Positive), which is formed of people living with HIV and AIDs and also gays and sex workers. They obviously have more experience with the topic than I do and probably more than the obstetrician or nurse do. Even higher ups in the health system are incredibly underskilled. Bringing me to my next topic.
I am continually amazed/frustrated at what passes as a professional here. Respected and experienced doctors and health professionals regularly insist that someone has a cold because of sleeping with a fan on, eating ice cream, eating hot food and drinking a cold drink, being embarrassed among other things. These are people that should know the basics of health that sicknesses are caused by viruses and bacteria. I understand when a layperson says that; its lore that´s been passed down for generations. But really. If you have completed training to be a nurse and especially if you are a doctor, you should know that a bacteria or virus getting past someone´s immune system is what causes colds, flu, and respiratory infections. Maybe eating ice cream could give you a stomach ache if the dairy wasn´t properly pasteurized but again that would be the culprit of a bacteria! I find it a really sad state of affairs when my high school health education is superior than that of a trained nurse. I know I´m here to help, but I´m also supposed to have people in the community to work with. I could spend two years trying to train health professionals (which I´m really not qualified to do at all...).
Molly. Molly was a really great volunteer from Peru 5 I believe, meaning she left 2 years ago. There was another volunteer that came after her from Peru 9 but she was only here for 3 months and then went home, so no one really remembers her. But Molly was very outgoing, liked to run and play sports, and had no qualms about being dragged out in front of the whole town to dance Marinera or Huayno. I am not Molly. I´m less than outgoing and am not at all athletic. And most of all I really don´t like dancing, especially in front of the whole town. More and more I´ve been getting people calling me Molly or telling me "why don´t you do such and such, Molly used to" Or You´re the same as Molly , right? No. I am not Molly. I am Sara. I have my own personality, my own likes and dislikes and my own strengths and weaknesses. This has come to a culmination lately with the anniversary. A group of old women sitting on a bench in the park while a band was playing yelled to me "Profe! why aren´t you dancing? Why aren´t you like Molly.. Molly liked to dance!" Between wanting to correct them-- I am not a profe-- and wanting to hit them in the face I calmly, though probably a bit tersly replied that I am not Molly, I am Sara. We´re different. And anyways, you´re not dancing either! Goodbye. That, and they must have not seen when I did get pulled out to dance Huayno after the parade in front of everyone and though really not wanting to, went without a fight and put on a smile, because it was the respectful thing to do.
More and more I´m craving people that understand me and don´t pick apart my every move or laugh at me all the time. The difficulties of December have continued, but in a different form. At least now I have some mini successes to reflect on and I at least feel somewhat useful.
Now for some funnies. So this past week I went to the city of Piura for a conference on Monitoring and Evaluation of Projects, specifically those funded by PEPFAR (President´s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief), ie my Health Promoters. Well, we were supposed to bring community partners, but no one wanted to leave Cayalti for the anniversary (great timing!) so I went alone. I travelled with the people Nicole (my site mate in Zaña) was bringing since she was already up in Piura for HIV Initiative Committee meetings. One of them was a minor (one of her health promoters) and we didn´t know that to get on an interprovincial bus she would need notarized permision from her mother or father. Well, she was intent on going. She wanted us to say that the other woman was her aunt, that her mom was waiting in Piura, that we should forge a document, that we should combi hop. I was like no no no. This will not do. 1. combi hopping (the most viable option) can be dangerous and we were travelling with luggage .. i had my computer and 2. interprovincially I have to travel on approved busses. So she finally more or less accepted her fate that she´d have to go back to Zaña. I accompanied her to the terminal and put her on a bus. Well, at the door of the bus was a clown. A clown very insitent on saying hi to me. Despite replying to his Hola, he insisted again.. maybe I didn´t say hola loud enough. Either way, it was weird first having to have the clown move so she could get on the bus and then having the little hola match. So I get back to the bus station, we buy tickets and wait about 30 mins for the bus. Meanwhile, the security guard is walking around asking "Who has the turtle??" I look up, confused, and see two women with a small carboard box under their feet with various nickel sized holes cut into it. Then I heard them say "Better we don´t admit to it..." They topped this off by trying to give it water, a process which involved spilling a great deal of water on the box and lots of giggling. Unfortunately they weren´t on our bus so I didn´t get to see if the turtle caused any more drama or not. The best part of Piura though was a really yummy restaurant where I had an amazing salad and an ice cream place that has amazing milkshakes.
In other news, I have decided that it would be a good time to start stressing myself out about what to do come August 2011. Namely what do I want to go back to school for and which test will be required so that I can start studying.
Oh, and have I mentioned how ungodly hot it is? Really it´s probably only 85-90º, but there´s no AC and the sun is ridiculously strong (hence 2 sunburns in 1 week...). Adobe is a great insulater, but unfortunately my room is like a jail cell and there is no air flow what so ever and I can only put up with so much of my family in the living room where there is airflow. TV, music on the computer and a nephew playing cajon on every imaginable surface and whining is a bit much.
Please February, be kind to this Peace Corps Volunteer....
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