Just one of those Moments

Sometimes an experience comes and goes that you just have to share in a blog entry. Today, such an experience happened.

In the first three months of service at site, we are responsible for writing a “Community Diagnostic.” The idea, as I may have described earlier, is that we get to know our communities before we start setting up programs, so our programs are more targeted to specific community needs—a worthy ideal. , As part of the way to get to know the community, I have decided to volunteer at the colegio in a few English and Math classes—to better get to know the students, the teachers, and through them, the community at large.

The day was going normal, right up to a certain point. I had worked on conjugations of “to be” and how to form questions, and translating verbs for the majority of the morning. Then came the “tutoria” session—more or less a mandated time for alternative subjects that a teacher gets to choose—as you can imagine, topics here can and do vary. Señora Elba, the English teacher who I work with had something special planned for today. A Ministry of the Peruvian government has an “Agua Para Todos” (Water for Everyone) Initiative, which partially involves educating school-aged children on hygiene. This policy trickled down (haha) to the level of tutoria--and this is where I get involved.

Before I knew it I was helping evaluate the class of fourteen year olds. This was no ordinary high school test. Instead of bubble sheets, my job was to inspect my high school's classes´ nails, yes you read that right—nails. After I self-consciously checked my own nails to make sure I wasn't being hypocrytical in this examination, I started to check my students nails to see if they were “limpio” and “corto” (clean and short). I had three options—no, “en proceso,” and task completed! Needless to say, I couldn't help but laugh at myself as I inspected thirty or so pairs of high-school aged nails. There are three follow up examinations—so if we all pull together, hopefully we can get a few more “logrados” by then.

After this, I asked (via honor system) if they were all washing their hands before eating, and after going to the bathroom. Mostly everyone affirmed they were, but in the end, I reminded everyone that it doesn't matter what the response was—it matters what they're really doing.

As someone whose stomach has gotten to know a significant number of Peruvian parasites on a personal level (not due to inadequate handwashing--remember the tippy tappy) and spent his fair share on Peruvian toilets in three different provinces—anyway you can protect yourself is seriously important. In the future, I hope to work on projects that involve such basic health issues that can significantly improve people's lives inside and in the adjacent and more rural communities surrounding Jangas.

After I finished evaluating finger nails and hygiene practices, I walked home (2 minutes) and ate w/ my older host brother Aurelio who's 29. After a small nap and reading (Peace Corps goals 4 and 5), I talked to my REAL family which was great and then played Volley Ball for 2 hours which was a lot of fun. My height significantly helps me here—I am yet to see a taller person in the town, and until I can figure out the style of soccer here, I'm gonna stick to volí.

Tonight I prepared a bit of bi-nomial long-division for a Math class I'm helping with tomorrow. I'm pretty sure most of the kids will have no idea about the subject—there are significant differences in skill levels which makes classes very difficult as most lack basic math skills. I hope to focus some on math skills during my time here, so it's good to see what people can do in school.

As I sit here writing this, I have just kicked out the third of three cats in my room—I thought there was only one, apparently there were three (or four for all I know). Besides 6 cats we have 2 dogs, a couple rabbits, and a herd of guinea pig—the rabbits and guinea pigs aren't permanent pets, let's just put it that way.

From Ancash, with Love.

John William