Monday, June 18, 2007
june brings joys and struggles
June 15th 2007
I’m sitting here in my room with a laptop and cat on top of me. Trying to type. He’s a pretty well behaved cat, much more civilized than Saltamonte, who we had for 6 months last year. Tarapoto is orange and white. He’s been purring since the day he arrived from Otuzco, and hasn’t stopped. I’m really the only cat lover in the house and he knows it, so he’s naturally formed a fondness for my lap. Physically I’m feeling better, after being sick for over a week. Earlier in the month I had this nagging cough that wouldn’t go away, than it continued into muscle aches, diarrhea, and a general malaise. I was having trouble sleeping, but still able to go about day-to-day activities as long as I didn’t exert any strength. I didn’t have energy. I started feeling well for a couple of days, and than one afternoon out of no where I threw up! That night I was feeling the same symptoms. By the next day I was almost 100% better. How strange. I almost always blame my sickness (which is usually diarrhea) on the inadequately prepared foods in my site, and everywhere else I eat. But my host family thinks it could be contact with animals, the dogs and cat in the house. Who knows? They also think that it’s bad luck to sweep at night, and won’t mix bananas and milk together.
Before I leave Peru I’m going to make a list of familiar beliefs- some are just hilarious. And some American ones are too…. I mean side walk cracks?
I invited two fellow volunteers to my site for a weekend at the end of May. It hadn’t rained for almost 2 weeks and was turning into the dry season. Isaac and Khaliah had never been to Carata and were looking for a break from their costal sites. Both live within two hours of Trujillo, from the north and south, whereas I live to the east of the city. They got permission from PC to visit and we planned a presentation about their work to my villagers. They arrived on a Friday afternoon and I hiked down to Motil to meet them. We got to Carata in the dark. The next morning I showed them around town, and we prepared for our afternoon presentation in the health post. I was surprised to see my new health promoters and some town authorities strolling in –late but as the saying is, better late than never. Mejor tarde que nunca…
Isaac spoke about trash disposal and environmental work and Khaliah presented her success stories with her health promoters from the community of Chao. I enjoyed taking a back seat role for once. The locals took pleasure in meeting other volunteers and were curious about where they were from, Isaac being from San Diego and Khaliah from Tampa.
We planned to camp sat. night and brought all our equipment down to a beautiful site away from the center of town on a quite hillside. Our camp fire was quickly going as the sun set. We made some grilled cheese sandwiches and s’mores for the locals and explained the tradition of camping to a couple of them who live close by. The culture of “camping” isn’t very common in the region where I live, tourists typically visit other parts of the Andes, especially the department of Ancash. The villagers in Carata had never even seen a tent and thought it was pretty strange that we were going to spend the whole night outside. I tried to explain that it was no different than the huts they make alongside their potato fields where they act as Shepard’s to prevent theft. I need to start making more grilled cheese sandwiches, if only we had sandwich bread locally!
I’ve been to a couple of other volunteers sites, and have really enjoyed it. Every community is so different especially if you factor the varying climate and weather. Costal communities are different than sierra communities and in between the two there’s a wonderful mix of low altitude tropical areas where pineapple and bananas are grown. The ecosystems range from dessert to dry forest to wet high altitude and productive vegetable fields and green hillsides with tree farms.. It’s quite a range. I pass through all of this from the route I take out of Carata to the coast. Aside from the nature aspect of visiting others, I’ve enjoyed hearing about peoples projects, meeting their families and counterparts and thinking about how their day to day life is similar and different than mine. PC told us we should never compare sites, but we always do, everything from language differences to food, to customs. I think in the end Khaliah and Isaac enjoyed Carata. We even filmed a little with Isaac’s new cam.
I’m trying to stay focused on work and give it my all during this last 6 months. I’ve got a lot of things juggling around at the same time, my tooth brushing club, a clean classroom contest, health promoter trainings, the potable water project, a youth camp and the beginning of our grant project. Maria is insisting that I help complete home visits, and a teacher training. Merli and I have been playing a lot of volleyball, since the weather is consistently sunny.
My program director, Emilia comes to visit on July 2nd, Peace Corps makes a habit of trying to visit each volunteer 2-3 times during their service. Our sites are so far from the main office that usually our program directors won’t make it on every visit but a local coordinator or security official will come in place of them. I’ve had more than my share of visitors since arriving in 2005. Language teachers, trainees, my doctor and other program directors and security staff have come for the day or stayed a couple of days.
Emilia and I are going to meet with Maria and talk primarily about my work load- which is getting to be too much to handle. As Maria’s health promotion assignments pile up, she has been putting more and more on me. And the more I refuse the worse it gets. I was so feed up in May with the situation that I put Emilia and Maria on the phone together. And even though they talked, nothing changed. The route of the problem is that Maria’s org. MINSA (the Ministry of Health) bases their work principals on quantity instead of quality programs. And Peace Corps believes in quality programs, regardless of the amount. Ideally I’d rather do 3 quality projects than 10 poorly done projects. Lógico.
In fact the Ministry of Health has such high standards and tries to do so much that their employees can’t possibly attain all of the goals. So what do they do? For fear of loosing their job, staff members falsify documents, lying about programming certain events or hosting community meetings, or visiting houses. Last year Maria’s supervisors insisted that we hold three informative sessions on rabies. When I refused to do it (because I was too busy with other assignments and didn’t think rabies was that important) Maria made up false documentation saying that we taught the three sessions.
It’s quite sad for everyone because the patients loose out, the staff become masters at deception, and in the end state documents which are sent to the higher governmental levels are plainly artificial and meaningless. The current system hurts the progress of the country. A country that needs to progress. I’d bet that it’s safe to say half of all health care documents are manipulated in some way, from tiny changes to complete fabrication of data. The Ministry of Health needs to re-evaluate their goals, and make the proper changes to make things more realistic, more attainable and thus producing better results. As I felt overwhelmed when first arriving to Carata, due to the amount of work to be done, I soon realized I couldn’t change everything. I had to focus on a few manageable tasks. Unfortunately the government who oversees health policy has yet to grasp that idea.
I feel stuck between a dysfunctional Peruvian system and my own organization’s program goals that I agree with.
Compromise has been a struggle. Emilia wants me to focus on fewer projects while Maria insists that I help more on assignments that I don’t even want to do! And she doesn’t take no for an answer. I told her I don’t have time nor agree with monitoring four communities’ water systems. She begged, and in the end, as a last resort stated, “It’s easy, just make it up. Have anyone sign the documents”. I refuse to work like that, doing half-ass projects. That’s the last thing that Peru needs! She gets angry when I can’t help, and tries to guilt me into it. All because it’s her head their going to have. I’ve said many times, “These are your responsibilities, not mine; your organization is asking you to complete outrageous tasks, not mine. I will help you when I can, but ultimately you’re responsible. If you can’t handle the work load, talk to your supervisor instead of being immoral!” Moreover, Maria doesn’t understand my role. I’m available to assist, but not to be taken advantage of. Peace Corps and the local agency should collaborate together. So when Emilia comes for her final check-up of my site, we’re going to have a discussion with Maria. Putting feelings aside, the truth will emerge. And based on our conversation, maybe Carata will get a replacement volunteer maybe not.
At least I can look forward to a little reprieve, when my Mom and Knox come August 1st. Before their arrival I’m going on a hiking trip through Santa Cruz for 4 days (I’m postponing Huayhuash until after service). And than meeting the two in Lima for another vacation to Cusco where we’re taking an alternative route to Machu Picchu. I’m more than excited and knowing that these trips are coming up, it has helped me get through the drama in Carata.
“We can see that all the desirable experiences that we cherish or aspire to attain are dependent upon cooperation and interaction with other sentient beings” - Dalai Lama
Thank you for sending birthday wishes my way, Sunday the 17th had a bizarre start but good ending!
I’m sitting here in my room with a laptop and cat on top of me. Trying to type. He’s a pretty well behaved cat, much more civilized than Saltamonte, who we had for 6 months last year. Tarapoto is orange and white. He’s been purring since the day he arrived from Otuzco, and hasn’t stopped. I’m really the only cat lover in the house and he knows it, so he’s naturally formed a fondness for my lap. Physically I’m feeling better, after being sick for over a week. Earlier in the month I had this nagging cough that wouldn’t go away, than it continued into muscle aches, diarrhea, and a general malaise. I was having trouble sleeping, but still able to go about day-to-day activities as long as I didn’t exert any strength. I didn’t have energy. I started feeling well for a couple of days, and than one afternoon out of no where I threw up! That night I was feeling the same symptoms. By the next day I was almost 100% better. How strange. I almost always blame my sickness (which is usually diarrhea) on the inadequately prepared foods in my site, and everywhere else I eat. But my host family thinks it could be contact with animals, the dogs and cat in the house. Who knows? They also think that it’s bad luck to sweep at night, and won’t mix bananas and milk together.
Before I leave Peru I’m going to make a list of familiar beliefs- some are just hilarious. And some American ones are too…. I mean side walk cracks?
I invited two fellow volunteers to my site for a weekend at the end of May. It hadn’t rained for almost 2 weeks and was turning into the dry season. Isaac and Khaliah had never been to Carata and were looking for a break from their costal sites. Both live within two hours of Trujillo, from the north and south, whereas I live to the east of the city. They got permission from PC to visit and we planned a presentation about their work to my villagers. They arrived on a Friday afternoon and I hiked down to Motil to meet them. We got to Carata in the dark. The next morning I showed them around town, and we prepared for our afternoon presentation in the health post. I was surprised to see my new health promoters and some town authorities strolling in –late but as the saying is, better late than never. Mejor tarde que nunca…
Isaac spoke about trash disposal and environmental work and Khaliah presented her success stories with her health promoters from the community of Chao. I enjoyed taking a back seat role for once. The locals took pleasure in meeting other volunteers and were curious about where they were from, Isaac being from San Diego and Khaliah from Tampa.
We planned to camp sat. night and brought all our equipment down to a beautiful site away from the center of town on a quite hillside. Our camp fire was quickly going as the sun set. We made some grilled cheese sandwiches and s’mores for the locals and explained the tradition of camping to a couple of them who live close by. The culture of “camping” isn’t very common in the region where I live, tourists typically visit other parts of the Andes, especially the department of Ancash. The villagers in Carata had never even seen a tent and thought it was pretty strange that we were going to spend the whole night outside. I tried to explain that it was no different than the huts they make alongside their potato fields where they act as Shepard’s to prevent theft. I need to start making more grilled cheese sandwiches, if only we had sandwich bread locally!
I’ve been to a couple of other volunteers sites, and have really enjoyed it. Every community is so different especially if you factor the varying climate and weather. Costal communities are different than sierra communities and in between the two there’s a wonderful mix of low altitude tropical areas where pineapple and bananas are grown. The ecosystems range from dessert to dry forest to wet high altitude and productive vegetable fields and green hillsides with tree farms.. It’s quite a range. I pass through all of this from the route I take out of Carata to the coast. Aside from the nature aspect of visiting others, I’ve enjoyed hearing about peoples projects, meeting their families and counterparts and thinking about how their day to day life is similar and different than mine. PC told us we should never compare sites, but we always do, everything from language differences to food, to customs. I think in the end Khaliah and Isaac enjoyed Carata. We even filmed a little with Isaac’s new cam.
I’m trying to stay focused on work and give it my all during this last 6 months. I’ve got a lot of things juggling around at the same time, my tooth brushing club, a clean classroom contest, health promoter trainings, the potable water project, a youth camp and the beginning of our grant project. Maria is insisting that I help complete home visits, and a teacher training. Merli and I have been playing a lot of volleyball, since the weather is consistently sunny.
My program director, Emilia comes to visit on July 2nd, Peace Corps makes a habit of trying to visit each volunteer 2-3 times during their service. Our sites are so far from the main office that usually our program directors won’t make it on every visit but a local coordinator or security official will come in place of them. I’ve had more than my share of visitors since arriving in 2005. Language teachers, trainees, my doctor and other program directors and security staff have come for the day or stayed a couple of days.
Emilia and I are going to meet with Maria and talk primarily about my work load- which is getting to be too much to handle. As Maria’s health promotion assignments pile up, she has been putting more and more on me. And the more I refuse the worse it gets. I was so feed up in May with the situation that I put Emilia and Maria on the phone together. And even though they talked, nothing changed. The route of the problem is that Maria’s org. MINSA (the Ministry of Health) bases their work principals on quantity instead of quality programs. And Peace Corps believes in quality programs, regardless of the amount. Ideally I’d rather do 3 quality projects than 10 poorly done projects. Lógico.
In fact the Ministry of Health has such high standards and tries to do so much that their employees can’t possibly attain all of the goals. So what do they do? For fear of loosing their job, staff members falsify documents, lying about programming certain events or hosting community meetings, or visiting houses. Last year Maria’s supervisors insisted that we hold three informative sessions on rabies. When I refused to do it (because I was too busy with other assignments and didn’t think rabies was that important) Maria made up false documentation saying that we taught the three sessions.
It’s quite sad for everyone because the patients loose out, the staff become masters at deception, and in the end state documents which are sent to the higher governmental levels are plainly artificial and meaningless. The current system hurts the progress of the country. A country that needs to progress. I’d bet that it’s safe to say half of all health care documents are manipulated in some way, from tiny changes to complete fabrication of data. The Ministry of Health needs to re-evaluate their goals, and make the proper changes to make things more realistic, more attainable and thus producing better results. As I felt overwhelmed when first arriving to Carata, due to the amount of work to be done, I soon realized I couldn’t change everything. I had to focus on a few manageable tasks. Unfortunately the government who oversees health policy has yet to grasp that idea.
I feel stuck between a dysfunctional Peruvian system and my own organization’s program goals that I agree with.
Compromise has been a struggle. Emilia wants me to focus on fewer projects while Maria insists that I help more on assignments that I don’t even want to do! And she doesn’t take no for an answer. I told her I don’t have time nor agree with monitoring four communities’ water systems. She begged, and in the end, as a last resort stated, “It’s easy, just make it up. Have anyone sign the documents”. I refuse to work like that, doing half-ass projects. That’s the last thing that Peru needs! She gets angry when I can’t help, and tries to guilt me into it. All because it’s her head their going to have. I’ve said many times, “These are your responsibilities, not mine; your organization is asking you to complete outrageous tasks, not mine. I will help you when I can, but ultimately you’re responsible. If you can’t handle the work load, talk to your supervisor instead of being immoral!” Moreover, Maria doesn’t understand my role. I’m available to assist, but not to be taken advantage of. Peace Corps and the local agency should collaborate together. So when Emilia comes for her final check-up of my site, we’re going to have a discussion with Maria. Putting feelings aside, the truth will emerge. And based on our conversation, maybe Carata will get a replacement volunteer maybe not.
At least I can look forward to a little reprieve, when my Mom and Knox come August 1st. Before their arrival I’m going on a hiking trip through Santa Cruz for 4 days (I’m postponing Huayhuash until after service). And than meeting the two in Lima for another vacation to Cusco where we’re taking an alternative route to Machu Picchu. I’m more than excited and knowing that these trips are coming up, it has helped me get through the drama in Carata.
“We can see that all the desirable experiences that we cherish or aspire to attain are dependent upon cooperation and interaction with other sentient beings” - Dalai Lama
Thank you for sending birthday wishes my way, Sunday the 17th had a bizarre start but good ending!
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