My week was a pretty low key one. The kids are all out of
school for a week of vacation so there were no classes to help with. I got to
use the internet in the school on Monday though, since the kids weren’t in
class…that was nice. Since I didn’t have to focus on any classes I used the
time to get some things together for my community diagnostic. We have to give
surveys to gather information and I’m hoping to be ready to give those pretty
soon. I also had the chance to talk with Doriza and Doctor Alfredo at the
health post about my diagnostic. I think they have a good idea of what I’m
working on now and will be able to get me some good information. Also it turns
out Alfredo speaks a fair bit of English. That was extremely helpful when it
came to asking about illnesses because I didn’t have to ask in Spanish :-P I
think I’m going to start helping him with his English some, not that he really
needs it, but he wants conversation practice. Considering how good his English
is, I might have just set up the easiest project I will do for my whole Peace
Corps service. :-P
Tuesday evening I went out to a cemetery
with my host family to place flowers on the grandmother’s grave. The cemetery
is in a place called Campo Santo. Back in the 70s there was an earth quake that
caused an avalanche that completely leveled the old town of Yungay. The
cemetery is built up on a hill though, so it’s the one thing that didn’t get
destroyed. From the top of the cemetery you can actually still see the path
left by the avalanche. It’s a memory garden now that tourists come to see. It generally costs for tourists (that’s code
for gringo around here) to get in, but not for families to visit the graves of
their loved ones; so my host family told me to carry the flowers in so I
wouldn’t have to pay. I briefly wondered if this was wrong on some level, but
it’s their family member so I decided it was their choice.
Wednesday I went back into Yungay
with Jon Paul to watch the parade for a school’s anniversary. Some of the
students from Mancos were invited to march in the other school’s parade so we
went to see them. That afternoon I went back to knitting class with Faviola.
I’m actually starting a scarf now. The ladies have all taken me on as their
little project, so they take turns sitting with me to make sure I don’t screw
up whatever they’ve been teaching me :-P Not only am I making friends and
learning a new hobby; but I’m already gaining support for projects I haven’t
even planned yet. How’s that for multitasking?
No comments:
Post a Comment