Saturday, February 28, 2009

Tough decision

Well, this last illness scared me. I've lost 30 pounds in my 5 months in Peru and no longer feel I have the physical reserves needed to continue Peace Corps service. I am aware that my ability to rebound is significantly different from the younger volunteers. I have begun to dread more illness and know that they are inevitable in the challenging living circumstances.

So it is with a great deal of regret and sadness that I have made the decision to return to the United States. I'll be resting for about a week before returning to La Cruz to say my goodbyes and pack. Then on to Lima for Peace Corps final processes and home to Madison.

I fully expected to serve 2 years. I'd like to have given back to the community a small measure of the love and support I received from the people. I had projects lined up that would have been quite satisfying to bring to fruition. I'd like to travel in Peru and see more of it's incredible diversity. I've made great friends who I'll miss dearly.

Ryan asked me last night if I regretted coming. No,not for a moment.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Rough patch in Peru

Well, this PC volunteer has indeed hit a rough patch. I’ve had a couple of illnesses that have laid me low and necessitated me going to a city 5 hours south of my site for medical care and rest. No weird tropical diseases, nothing I won’t bounce back from but tough.

Right now I am staying in a hostel, eating Jello and sipping Gatorade. I may never want to see Gatorade again! And I do hope never to have another combi ride like the one that brought me here. I’ll spare you the details except for my gratitude to a woman on the ride down. My host brother had helped me get to the combi and saw that I had a window seat. As passengers were getting on, they started grumbling about the gringa having the window seat. One woman piped up and said, “The gringa is sick, she’s nauseated, she needs the window”. Bless that woman.

Actually, I have a lot to be grateful for including the patient Peace Corps docs who answer the phone whenever I call and arranges for good care. The my PC friends who call to check on me, the volunteers here in Piura who have brought me food and drink and all the support from home.

Needless to say, I’m discouraged waiting for energy and appetite to rebound.

Rats
Sarita

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Stretch your limits


Part of life in the Peace Corps is dealing with the inevitable illnesses that are brought on by food, water and insects. I’ve been slowed down several times this month with frustrating intestinal illnesses that take time and energy. Fortunately we have great doctors on call, lots of raunchy humor about our conditions and medications when needed. I often look at food with suspicion and regret every bad decision! And with the stress of illness, I’ve been homesick this week. My host mother asked what I would be eating in the US and I couldn’t answer, everything is so different here. When we talked about rice, I tried to explain brown rice. My family said, “it must be toasted” or “it must be precooked” but consider it inedible with the hull. I compared it to whole wheat with no better success. They figured the problem was my Spanish so I called my friend Sarah who validated I’d been using the right words.

When the rains come, flies emerge and are everywhere all the time. Water is more contaminated than usual which makes washing fruit and vegetables difficult so even with boiling all my water, I’ve caught the bug. When I am talking with families about water, most boil water only for the smallest children while the adults drink crude water. I’ll never view water the same way again both because water in the US is plentiful and clean from the tap. We’ve been getting water every 4-5 days during the rainy season so I’ve learned to really use my tank conservatively. I can’t explain why we get so little water when it’s raining and rivers are full. Roofs don’t have gutters so collecting rain This week the dengue patrol came to my house inspecting my tank to see if it was clean and covered (it was!).

Now there are more mosquitoes and at first I was surprised to see how much fear people have of them as I think about the hoards of mosquitoes in Wisconsin every summer. But mosquitoes in the US don’t carry dengue or malaria which changes perception of them a lot. The question that comes to me frequently is if mosquitoes carry HIV as they go from person to person biting. When I say, “No, the virus dies in the mosquito stomach”, the next question is “Why don’t they study what kills the virus in the mosquito stomach”. One of my medical friends could send me a better explanation of this!

I have a sticker on my notebook here that says “Stretch your Limits” and I certainly have done many things I never thought I could. This last weekend, my friend Robyn brought 20 kids from her youth group to the beach for the day. Some of the kids from a youth group here joined them and started up a game of volleyball on the beach. Now I hated volleyball in high school and never played it again after graduation 48 years ago. I planned to watch and take photos but the kids really wanted me to play so I stretched my limits. I’m pleased to say I can still serve volleyball. When it came to volleying back and forth, my technique sent them rolling in laughter in the sand, especially when I ducked and covered my head exactly as I had done in high school. Now they want to give me lessons. I think I should act my age…

So that’s the news from Peace Corps Peru.
Sara aka Sarita

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Pest control

Since it´s the rainy season here, bugs are multiplying rapidly including mosquitos. Dengue fever and malaria are endemic here as is vigilance against the diseases. There have been no cases of dengue in La Cruz and few cases of malaria. This Peace Corps volunteer is faithfully taking her anti-malaria medicine. The health post people are busy going door to door looking for standing water that is not covered, cleaning water tanks and putting some chemical in them that kills the larvae of mosquitos (only if they find larva). Saturday, the health clinic is closed while all the personnel go house to house on this campaign.

The other part of this battle is waged with pesticides. Last night as my English class was ending, I heard a horrible racket in the neighborhood. The door to door pesticide men were out in full force with portable machines that fog homes. Houses all over the neighborhood were emitting clouds of pesticides, the kids were running through the clouds shrieking and I was unglued. I´ve had all of 2 mosquito bites in my time here as the ocean breezes keep the mosquitos at bay in La Cruz. Today the pesticide crew was in my barrio and I stood at my door like a cross cat to make sure they didn´t fog my little house.

Rain last night and my roof leaked with drops on my bed. I was so tired that I put a washbasin on the bed under the drip and went back to sleep. Today my host brothers are mobilizing to patch the roof. And as I went house to house doing interviews today, I was very aware that my living space is luxurious for a single person here. I have a cement floor, cement walls and lots of space. My water tank lasts for 4 days if I am careful. Who could ask for more!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Mud

Rain comes in the night, pounding on the tin roof and turning packed dirt into thick clay mud. I woke once to listen to the rain, felt a few drops on my bed and went back to sleep! This morning the temperature had dropped to a lovely cool 76. The town was quiet except for tiny yellow birds singing. I was reading in my mediation book when my neighbor (on the other side of a half inch plywood wall) called out to me. I had hung clothes out to dry yesterday and assumed they were soaking wet. She had gone out when the rain started and brought them in to hang in her house. Yep, it´s about generousity...

I am very happy in my little house. I can read, study, work and rest in a relatively quiet place. The funny thing is that if I´d started in this house, I´d probably think it was noisy because there are 3 little kids next door, a dog and the TV. But now it seems peaceful!

This morning I talked again with the midwife at the local clinic about classes. I showed her the childbirth class phamplets and other educational material sent from the states (thanks to Kathy G, Sara D and Norma). She was so excited because materials like this are rare here. She´s petitioned for a room for me to teach childbirth classes. Last night I met a young woman just back from physical therapy studies in Lima who wants to help me with my projects. I asked her to help me learn the Spanish I need to teach childbirth classes. I´ve got a long way to go...

Cheers
Sara

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Home sweet home!


Yesterday afternoon, my family helped me move into my little house. The move itself was a riot as you can see from the photo of my host dad. He and my host mom worked very heard painting and cleaning. Then my host dad moved my bed, dresser and all my stuff. He also packed up a lot of it in random bags! Once everything was moved, my host parents went into a frenzy of activity, putting up pictures (theirs), calendars, my dry erase board, nails for dress hangers, you name it.

I am so relieved. My bedroom is painted, the toilet functions (bucket flush), I have a water barrel for bucket baths and the living room will get painted sometime. The window (which has the required bars) will get glass sometime. I´ve seen the house lizard on the wall. On the otherside of the wall is a family of five, the neighborhood dogs bark at night and the roosters crow but the difference in noise level is incredible.

I was so excited last night I couldn´t sleep. Felt like a kid at Christmas. When I shut the door, I am alone in my own space. I not only treasure the reduced noise level but realize how much I wanted to be able to have my own space.

Hooray!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Talking with pregnant women


So aside from learning how to live in this totally new environment, what am I doing here? Well, our first priority is to do a community diagnostic including house to house interviews along with assessment of the strengths and weakness of the area. This is a good thing because my first impulse like most people is to plunge in trying to “fix” things that look obviously broken. But as time goes by, I get more of a sense of the complexity and community priorities.

The house to house interviews are amazing. People are used to the health post staff going door to door doing inspections for standing water where mosquitoes breed and giving vaccines. The community does not have a radio, newspaper or loudspeakers (thank goodness) so door to door is the way to reach people. I go out with the health post staff and after some initial hesitation the families welcome me into their house. Generally everyone in the house gathers to watch, listen and comment. The health staff helps when people don’t understand me which happens less frequently now than a month ago. This month I’ll start data entry so I can do an analysis which means I’ll be face to face with an old enemy, the Excel spreadsheet.

I am also at the health clinic 3 mornings a week to talk with pregnant women about nutrition and breastfeeding. Occasionally I encounter women who rarely eat fruit or vegetables and have no idea why they should. And then there was the woman who ate lots of both including making fresh beet/orange juice every day. The vegetables here are limited and unvaried. Many people consider yucca and potatoes to be vegetables. I’m still trying to get one of the merchants to bring in beet greens but they are fed to the pigs and folks think this gringa is crazy.

Of course talking with pregnant women is something I love. I’m also talking with the midwives about ways I can help them including teaching childbirth preparation classes hopefully in March. I’ve been greatly supported in this by educational materials in Spanish from nurse friends at home.

Muchas Gracias a todas!!

The woman in the photo is in my family and is standing on the front porch. And good news, my bed is being moved into my new house this evening. Not all the work is done but the tiny bedroom is painted and clean!!!

Sarita

Monday, February 2, 2009

February 2, 2009

Happy Birthday Sean!!! Can you believe that Sean is 30 today!

And I'm in Tumbes staying in a hostel for 2 days of rest after a crises in my family. The husband of one of my host sisters died last night after a year of leukemia treatment. His two children live in my house and I´ll probably never forget the sobbing of the 8 year old girl last night when she learned about her father´s death. This is the 2nd death in a host family home I´ve experienced here in Peru. The whole family is going to a town 4 hours south for the funeral but planned to leave two teenagers behind to make sure I wasn´t alone. I called the Peace Corps doc and got authorization (and money) for 2 nights away.

So I sat at the ocean awhile, packed a few things, tried to find words of comfort for the little girl, sent Sean a cell phone message and headed for Tumbes. I´ll have lunch with a Peace Corps friend (who is a birder!), dinner with the midwife from the clinic and a shower. Did I mention a shower??

Sarita

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Patience and maracuya

Just when I think I’ve had it, something happens to change my perspective into “you can do this”. Today I had a quiet conversation with my host mom during breakfast. I’ve been frustrated and angry with her over the pace of fixing up my new living space but I also have a lot of respect for her. She is a smart, strong woman with a long history of community activism. Today was her turn to prepare food for Vaso de Leche (glass of milk). My host mom is raising her 18 month old grandson and 3 granddaughters. She’s been aggravated because Vaso de Leche hasn’t worked for several days when someone shirked their duties and didn’t find a replacement.

Vaso de Leche is a government sponsored nutrition program for small children organized neighborhood by neighborhood. The program serves children years old and younger. Every day, one of the mothers on my street prepares a huge pot of Quacker (oatmeal porridge) with milk and sugar. Families with small children come with their pots to receive one cup for every small child in their house. The government gives supplies for oatmeal with water one day and a cup of milk on the alternative day. Since most people don’t like Quacker with water (really nasty) the mothers purchase milk to add if they have the money (about 80 cents US) but a can of evaporated milk is very expensive for most families. This is often the only milk a child gets in a day especially now in the season when fish are scarce and the fishermen only have work a day or two per week. Today, the big pot of Quacker was on my front porch.

Then I went to the health clinic for a long conversation with one of the male midwives about the possibilities for my work here. He talked about the steadily growing change in women’s awareness of their rights and their ability to seek work outside the home. This guy clearly loves his work, moonlights for extra income and is studying accounting so he can change to a field where he can better support his family. He also delighted me by recognizing what a massive life change it is for me to live here, awareness rarely expressed. And I was pleased to realize that this was a fluid conversation while a month ago I barely understood him.
Inevitably the discussion led to the talk about foreign (US) companies extracting petroleum from the ocean here but employing and training only a handful of local people. The oil company currently preparing to drill here has been holding town meetings that are well attended and boisterous. They give things to the community and fund some good works as part of a public relations effort however that has not diminished concerns.

I returned home midday to see that the carpenter and cement guy were busy working on the repairs for the tiny house I’ll be moving into when it’s ready (on Peruvian time). In the front yard of my house, the littlest boys were comparing their penises (some things are universal). Lunch was waiting with my favorite fresh juice, maracuya. I napped in the midday heat and bathed in about 2 quarts of water.
Later in the evening I went to a big community meeting with representatives of the oil company, representatives of the government department of mining and petroleum department, the oil company manager doing his PR job with about 200 people from the community.

The discussions were lengthy and intense as the fishermen expressed fear for their industry through disruption of the currents, damage to the fishing beds and the potential for an oil spill. The over 1000 fishermen are the town’s economic base as well as bringing in the main protein source for the area. The local construction workers are trying to get an agreement that will bring more employment. And a young woman mayor of a nearby town spoke passionately about the threat to the fishing industry in her area as well as the potential damage to a major ecological area, Manglares. The Manglares is a unique mangrove forest in a lagoon that is home to many migrating birds as well as shellfish.

In the midst of this meeting I had the sense of watching the David’s of La Cruz face off with the Goliath of the oil company while my role is to be a US representative of peace and friendship.