JUMP Health Promoters

After two years you start wondering, what it is that you have done? Where did the two years go?

I posted this video because this is where our time went: the kids - working week in, week out together as JUMP (Youth United and Motivated for Progress) Health Promoters.

We first trained them, and then as promoters, together we painted murals, gave workshops to peers on hygiene, nutrition, sexual health, alcoholism, held health campaigns, promoted vegetable consumption, put on theater presentations, road hundreds of combis, ate refrigerios, frustrated each other and laughed. From March 2011 we have met almost every single Saturday at 10 a.m. in either Jangas or Marcará.

To celebrate our service together we all took the kids to the Playa de Tortugas (the same ol' trustworth Ancash Beach!). The kids got to be kids, and we got to be kids too. We visited the beach, for a few of the teenagers, their first time in the Pacific and ate ceviche together (thank you George W. Bush - Matthew you should get this reference).

At the hostal, Kyle, Johanna and I cooked pasta and red sauce and then as a treat chocolate fondue! We then played a spirited game of UNO (we're still friends...) and the next day held a sexual health campaign in the Casma Plaza.

Fortunately, the relationships will not end when Kyle and I leave Ancash in August. Peace Corps has gone new age. Dad's community kids banged on his door, my Jangasino friends still do this (occasionally at 6 a.m...) but nowadays the kids hit me up as soon as I get on facebook, bombarding me w/ chats, uploaded images, friend requests and the rest of the 21st century friendship jargon.

I pretend to be annoyed by it, but I'm really happy and always love to chat for a few minutes. The kids plan to keep the group going by themselves and in coordination with outstanding Lima host family sister PCV Ali Foley and our mentors Liz and Miguel.  Together these young adults will make a big difference in their communities and in their country.

 I can't imagine a better use of two years.

                                   ¡After a year+ of hard work together - celebrating at the Playa!

Vegetable Fest 2012

                                    Blanca and one of the Participants

Now I could write this blog entry myself, but after two years we get a lot better at delegating responsibilities and running projects, therefore, we actually got some local press to write-up our recent Vegetable Festival, so I'm gonna phone this one in.

I'm not going to lie, the idea for the Veggie Fest probably sprung from my teenage obsession with Iron-Chef and my attendance of countless Shelburne Farm's Harvest Festivals. The basic idea was to have a cooking competition that centered around vegetables. Despite its rich soil and ability to grow most things green, most plates in Ancash involve three main ingredients: potatoes, potatoes, and potatoes (and sometimes rice!). Sadly, despite the rich climate, children still suffer from malnutrition which damages their performance at school, jeopardizing their entire future.

We presented the green cooking competition to our financiers (the local Gold Mine Barrick) and they ate it up (no pun intended). The plan for the cooking competition was executed with PCV Kyle Blair (there hasn't been a single project we've done here that hasn't involved Kyle's invaluable support in one way or another) and my great counterpart Blanca Flores at the Jangas Municipality and the Barrick Gold Mine. Remember, vegetables are apolitical. I think I've said enough, and I'll let the Huaraz newspaper take it from here: those who read Spanish can save themselves my translation:

http://www.huaraznoticias.com/locales/exitoso-festival-de-la-verdura-jangas-2012

                            One of the contestants with Ancash Lettuce

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Successful Vegetable Festival in Jangas

The festival promoted the consumption of vegetables to fight malnutrition and improve quality of life.

The Jangas Vegetable Fest successfully promoted healthy eating habits and incentivized concrete actions to fight malnutrition. The event was organized by Peace Corps Volunteers (Kyle and I), an organization funded by the US government, and counted with the financial support of the Barrick Mine and the Jangas Municipality.

The festival aroused the attention and the participation of the Jangas town. The festival had different activities like the “healthy food” competition where women from several mother's clubs from Jangas participated. The winners received cooking materials, utensils and vegetable seeds as prizes.

Among the competing plates were a vegetable tortilla and salad, squash stew and tortilla, fried beans with a squash dessert, guinea pig stuffed with vegetables, guinea pig pachamanca and a green salad, vegetable pie, potato stuffed with vegetables, wheat stew with vegetables, pizza with vegetables, wheat and beat juice, sweet carrots, coca ice cream, among others.

Américo Alva Montes, Mayor of Jangas, highlighted the importance of the festival because “it allows us to promote the consumption of vegetables and healthy food” in a time where “people consume too much fried food which damages their health.” For his part, Jhon Williams (original spelling included) representative of Peace Corps, the institution that organized the event, mentioned that malnutrition links closely with poverty and effects children and young people, and that with this festival, Jangas, in many respects, had converted into the world's vegetable headquarters.

The first Vegetable Festival Jangas 2012 evidenced the interest of the local authorities in promoting education and health, showing their vision to create development initiatives with their strategic allies, Peace Corps, the Barrick Mine and other institutions from the region.

                                    Kyle, the JUMP Health Promoters and I

Next time I promise I'll do the writing.

Still in Jangas, yours truly, oh and eat your vegetables!

Jhon Williams