It has only been a week since I was last in town, but it feels like a lifetime because so much has been happening here. So many new things happen each day that I lose all track of time!
I’ll start with my work. I haven’t been doing a whole lot so far, which is just what Peace Corps encourages. The first weeks and months are to integrate into the community, build relationships with my counterparts and community members, and begin thinking about projects I want to complete in the future. I have been spending my weekdays at the subcentro observing the consults with the doctor and just hanging out with Lucy, Marta and Pablo, getting to know them better, the work schedules, what they expect from me, etc.
The subcentro here is a pretty amazing place for me to be observing. I knew I was in a rural site, but I’m still figuring out just how rural. Last week a woman who was about 8 months pregnant and carrying a toddler walked for 3 hours to get medical attention at the subcentro, which is a low level center with limited medical facilities and care. We went out one day last week to give medical attention in one of the farthest communities. We drove for about 45 minutes in the car before we couldn’t go any further because of a landslide. The community members who could travel met us at this point after travelling for 5 hours on horseback. Another woman came in last week who was 9 months pregnant and ready to give birth at any time. I was able to listen to the healthy heartbeat of the baby during the consult before she left. Unfortunately we heard this week that she and the baby both passed away over the weekend due to complications during birth at her home in a far community. It is still unbelievable to me that people live so remotely with so little care, but it is quickly becoming more of a reality.
Other than these observations, I am going to be starting my Community Analysis Tools soon, which are surveys developed by Peace Corps as community diagnostic tools. I have to complete 100 household surveys before our reconnect meeting in Quito in November, so there is a lot to do. I will be going to each of the houses in the center of Zhoray (I hear different things, so there are somewhere between 30-80 homes), then I will conduct the surveys with the group of women health volunteers who come from all the communities, as well as in the other communities when I travel with the subcentro staff. They are going to accompany me on all the surveys because they are well known and trusted in the area, so this will help people be more willing to me and help me get accurate answers with my still struggling Spanish levels. I’m excited for the surveys, especially in the town center, because it is really just a great way to meet people and let them know who I am, what I’m doing here, etc. Aside from the surveys, I’ll be working in the medicinal garden at the subcentro, helping with the first meeting of the women’s group of health volunteers next week, teaching English in the school one day a week, potentially working on more of community gardens, and helping tutor kids after school. None of these are overwhelming tasks, so it should be good to help keep me busy and let me get to know different groups of people in the area.
My room is finally coming together a little better. I got fabric to hang over my window for a little privacy (which I hope to sew into actual curtains sometime soon…), I got a dresser today, so my clothes are no longer strewn all over the place, and tomorrow I’ll get a few more containers to put away the random other things I have. I was irritated with my bulky sleeping bag when trying to pack my things from Tumbaco to Zhoray, but now I am SO glad to have it! It is a little bit chilly here, so I sleep in leggings, PJ pants, wool socks and a fleece inside my sleeping bag and under 3 blankets, which makes it just warm enough to sleep! These past few days have been particularly ugly with a lot of rain and wind, so I’ve been layering up more than I ever thought I would have to along the equator. While it’s cold, I’m so much happier to be here than on the hot, humid coast.
I went on a vacation to the coast with my family this weekend, which was a great way to bond with them more, but there was a lot of uncomfortable travel in a short amount of time. We took a night bus on Friday night, leaving Azogues at 8:30pm and arriving at our destination in Santo Domingo at 5:30am. The bus was not exactly comfortable with the lights flashing on and off at every stop, the police stopping for a complete bus search with us standing half-asleep out in the cold, and my own paranoia about night travel after the training sessions we had. We got to the extended family’s home in time to alternate between napping and eating for most of the day. We did some things on Saturday night and Sunday, but mostly hung around the house. Monday took us 5 hours longer than expected to get home, and we were crammed with 7 of us in the cab of a dump truck, not exactly comfortable. We finally got home at 12:30 am on Monday night/Tuesday morning, completely exhausted from a weekend of family and travel!
My host family and I are getting more and more used to each other and they are great. It is awesome to have the other volunteer, MacKenzie, here because they know and love her and she is a great bridge to begin gaining their trust and friendship. The Spanish is still really difficult for me, some days even more so than others, so they use MacKenzie as a go to a lot, but they’re starting to talk more directly to me and learning that if they talk more slowly and rephrase things at times then I really can understand a lot of what’s happening. I live with Carmita, her sister Zoila and her 8-year-old daughter Nayeli, but there is a ton more family in the area. We live in the house owned by Carmita’s brother Napo, his wife Pachi and their young kids Sebas and Michelle, both of whom are adorable. Sebas is 2-years-old and a dancing fool, always entertaining everyone who is around! There is more extended family throughout town and it’s great to know people and I think they will definitely take care of me if I ever need anything.
A few other random things that have happened: the other day on our medical trip out to the further community, I got cleansed by a shaman! He accompanied us to teach the people about medicinal plants because the rarely have access to other medications, then he gave us a cleansing. The cleansing consisted of rubbing two smooth stones all over our body, followed by two smooth sticks, then spitting mouthfuls of some liquid all over us. It was chilly and interesting! Another funny thing about what my life is like: when we got back from the family vacation, the hallway and kitchen where MacKenzie and I live was a disaster. The chickens had escaped from the roof and made little messes all over the place for us to come back to. Not exactly the same problems I’d face in the U.S.! Also, there is a crazy little demon kitten who was gifted (unwantedly) to MacKenzie, so he lives in our space. He is currently pouncing all over me and attacking everything in my room, but earlier he reached a whole new level of bizarreness when I walked out for a minute and came back in to find that he had destroyed a plastic bag I had on the table and was helping himself to my roll of bread! I guess I’m not a cat person (no offense, Thal), but he’s going to take a little bit more getting used to.
I’m still adjusting to not being able to be in touch with people as easily, which is a little difficult. My parents were able to call the subcentro phone while I was hanging out there the other night, which was good because the once spot of cell phone service in the house wasn’t receiving any service due to the rain! It is so great to have MacKenzie here because she and I talk for a long time every night, so I have someone to debrief and share stories with, swap gossip that we pick up from our various connections in town (oftening having different versions of the same story…) and someone who just understands what life is like here in Zhoray. She’s leaving in mid-October, which will be tough, but I know I have to do this on my own and she is a great transition into a very, very different life. This is what I imagined my Peace Corps service to be, so now I’m just adjusting to living it as my reality!
I hope everything is going well at home – happy Block 1 of senior year to all the girls I love and miss so much from CC! Keep in touch, I love getting news from everyone in the States!
Love from Ecuador,
Kerry
No comments:
Post a Comment