In Ecuador, basketball is just called "basket". You know, leave out the "ball" and just forget that entire other word that you learned in school, "baloncesto". What does that mean anyway? Nothing here.
Alausi has an annual city-wide tournament that spans several months and includes all the city institutions and companies that can field teams. The men play indoor soccer (indoor), volleyball (Ecua volley) and basketball. The ladies play basketball. Theres been no explanation why women don't play the other sports too. It's not much, but I guess we'll take it. Machista much?
Anyway, games are 4 days a week, and there are 4 games a day. Since there are so many teams, my team (the hospital) has only played 2 games, the second one tonight. It seems like we'll be playing once every 1-2 weeks or so. We've won both games so far, but I've heard that the teams from the municipal government and the "artesanas" (not sure exactly who they are) are really good and play hard. Like, as in, they hit a lot. I will have bruises probably.
Despite the fact that it's hard to watch some of my teammates travel, double dribble and foul like crazy, and then have the cajones to tell me to "be careful because you have 2 fouls", I'm so happy to be playing an organized sport. I forgot how much I missed it. While sports have always produced a good amount of stress for me (and these past games have been no exception), I love playing. I love team sports. I have been playing on one team or another for probably 20 years now (DAMN), and I think it is an incredibly valuable and important experience. Lots of life lessons, lots of friend-making, lots of good old fashioned exercise to get those endorphins flowing. It's also good to take my mind off myself and work on something that feels bigger and is more important in the moment.
Actually the entire Peace Corps experience is really about that...
Lesson One: IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU.
Lessons 2-10: It's STILL not about you. Sorry.
Lesson 11: You're not that awesome. Well, at least not in the ways that you want to be. Sure, people come to watch you play basketball, but here's the break down: 30% are people you actually know, 30% are people you don't know who are curious, and the final 30% are the creepiest guys in town. Congratulations. Feel special.
Lesson 12: You don't know anything about anything. You thought you knew how to play basketball? Oh, thats cute. Ecuadorians (particularly the men) will give you tons of advice about basketball, and some might even explain to you that "In Ecuador, you have to dribble the ball first before you can walk anywhere." Um. Right.
Oh well. Those are just three lessons off the top of my head. Fortunately, when I'm feeling down because I don't know anything and I'm not awesome, I can just walk down the street and inevitably some creep-o will say something like "You're the most beautiful gringa in the world." Should that boost my confidence? Probably not. But unsolicited comments from random strangers work in mysterious ways.
Ok well thats all for now! Soon I'll update on my dry latrine project and other work things. Also, I went to the beach and got the bejesus burned out of me. Yeah, thats like a really bad burn.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Nutrition and realistic behavior change
Howdy! It's March! Yes, I know, thank you Captain Obvious, but really. Time is volando (flying) which is also the expression used here. It's funny that some sayings are exactly the same in Spanish (I wasn't born yesterday, no naci ayer) and other things couldn't be more different.
Recently I've been doing some reading during my down time at the clinic, and I came across a really interesting report from the World Bank published in 2007 called "Nutritional Failure in Ecuador." Guess what its about?
To be fair, Peace Corps gave me the report on a CD after the food security conference I attended back in December, but that CD was loaded with stuff and only recently have I attempted to sort through the readings. There are hundreds. The title of this particular report caught my eye, because they're not usually that blunt. Indeed, it details the policy and program failures of the various health and education programs in Ecuador dealing with nutrition. I think that I've explained a little bit about the issues here, but this report does such a wonderful job of outlining the problems, that I just had to share it. Even though it was written 5 years ago, I think that the vast majority of the conclusions still are true today.
First, the general profile of nutrition in Ecuador:
Ecuador has a variety of feeding programs through the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education, but they are pretty sporadically implemented throughout the country. The World Bank report goes into each of these programs extensively, which was great for me to understand more thoroughly what the heck is going on here, but is probably not super interesting for you.
The one program I do what to highlight is the Ley de Maternidad Gratuita or LMG (Free Maternity Law), a law passed in 1999 that promotes access to free primary health care and medicines for pregnant women and kids under 5. It's a fantastic idea. However, silly me, I thought that since the word "law" is in the title, it meant that it was actually that. A law. Enforceable. How wrong I was. (I probably should not get into the details of this because it has to do with government organizations much, much bigger than me, so suffice it to say that when even the tiniest amount of bureaucracy is involved, "laws" go out the window and its every man, or in this case, clinic, for himself. When I asked the director of my clinic why we haven't had medicine for moms and kids for the last month, he replied that the law is more of a "theory".)
The last part of the report I want to share are the recommendations:
I know thats a lot of information about the situation, and if you actually read the whole thing... Congratulations! Or, thank you! Or, why did you do that? My fascination/obsession with how the whole system works together and how the national policies actually manifest on the ground leads me to believe that I really do belong in public health. So, you know, good to know.
Lastly, I made another tastier-than-average soup this evening for dinner (merienda) which included garlic, carrots, onions, lots of broccoli, veggie stock, quinoa, and pesto. I'm now officially ready to declare that pesto is good with anything. Go on, tell your friends.
Recently I've been doing some reading during my down time at the clinic, and I came across a really interesting report from the World Bank published in 2007 called "Nutritional Failure in Ecuador." Guess what its about?
 |
| The main gang from La Merced in all their "Lord of the Flies" glory. Seriously, its chaos there. |
To be fair, Peace Corps gave me the report on a CD after the food security conference I attended back in December, but that CD was loaded with stuff and only recently have I attempted to sort through the readings. There are hundreds. The title of this particular report caught my eye, because they're not usually that blunt. Indeed, it details the policy and program failures of the various health and education programs in Ecuador dealing with nutrition. I think that I've explained a little bit about the issues here, but this report does such a wonderful job of outlining the problems, that I just had to share it. Even though it was written 5 years ago, I think that the vast majority of the conclusions still are true today.
First, the general profile of nutrition in Ecuador:
- Stunting of children under 5 is the main nutritional problem in the country.
- The prevalence of stunting varies greatly by socioeconomic group and by geographic location. Stunting is highest in rural areas, in the mountains (or Sierra), among indigenous populations, in poor families. Which is to say, exactly who I'm working with.
- Like in other countries, almost all stunting is produced within the first two years of life.
- There is probably a huge micronutrient deficiency problem, but the data is really old.
- Children's nutritional states worsen markedly during the first year of life, and then remain stable. The critical window of opportunity for interventions to prevent stunting is during pregnancy and in the first year of a child's life. ---> In my experience, the primary reasons for a lack of growth in the first year of life are an overall lack of hygiene, lack of knowledge of best feedings practices (particularly when the first foods are introduced), the common use of unpurified water, and frequent occurrences of diarrhea and respiratory infections (the #1 killers of kids under 5).
- The height of the mother is an important determinant of the child's nutritional status. Every Ecuadorian girl rescued from stunting now, reduces the likelihood of a future child being born stunted.
- The mother's expectation regarding her child's height is highly relevant to stunting outcomes. Other things being equal, women who did not realize that their child was too small at birth are more likely to have a stunted child today. Counseling at the community level to improve nutritional knowledge should be a main plank of nutrition strategy. ---> You'd be shocked at how common it is for parents to say that their baby is "just small". Parents of small babies seem to feed them less, the justification being that since they are small, they don't need as much food. This is a very persistent belief and its difficult to convince people otherwise.
- Children in urban areas have much better growth prospects than rural children. Nutrition strategy should concentrate on rural communities.
- Altitude has a strong, negative association with nutritional status. Nutrition strategy should give high priority to the isolated communities of the Sierra. ---> Mountain dwelling people are known to be smaller all over the world, (because of a lack of oxygen and availability of nutritious foods? I'm not totally sure) but on top of that, kids are too small.
- Household's resources are an important determinant, but offer a "long route" to improved nutrition outcomes. Other more direct strategies to improve nutrition are needed to complement income growth. ---> There are two welfare programs I'm more or less knowledgeable about: one is for families in the lowest two-fifths income brackets and is a $35 grant every month. The other is for pregnant mothers and kids under 1 year of age and is $10 every other month. That grant is small and supposed to cover the costs of transportation for moms to get to the clinic every month for a checkup. The idea is that at these monthly checkups, the doctor will counsel the mother in best practices if the child is under weight or height. In theory, awesome idea. In practice, uhh... sure, something like that happens.
- Stunting is positively correlated with the number of household members and the number of preschool children in the household. Adequate birth spacing and reduced family size are relevant strategies for improving nutritional outcomes. ---> In my interviews, I found that the average number of kids per family was 3.3. However, the kids typically come rapid fire, one every 10-18 months, far less than the recommended 2 years a mother's body needs to recover and recuperate nutritionally.
- The availability of toilets has a positive impact on nutritional status. Investments in rural sanitation are likely to yield positive returns in nutritional status. ---> I was so excited to read this! Just another reason to push for this dry latrine project, and another factoid I can use to justify the project when I ask organizations for funding.
- Once the model is fully specified, ethnicity does not appear as a statistically significant factor causing stunting. The stunting observed in indigenous communities results from their location, socioeconomic exclusion, behavioral factors, and policy failure in overcoming these problems--not from genetics.
Ecuador has a variety of feeding programs through the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education, but they are pretty sporadically implemented throughout the country. The World Bank report goes into each of these programs extensively, which was great for me to understand more thoroughly what the heck is going on here, but is probably not super interesting for you.
The one program I do what to highlight is the Ley de Maternidad Gratuita or LMG (Free Maternity Law), a law passed in 1999 that promotes access to free primary health care and medicines for pregnant women and kids under 5. It's a fantastic idea. However, silly me, I thought that since the word "law" is in the title, it meant that it was actually that. A law. Enforceable. How wrong I was. (I probably should not get into the details of this because it has to do with government organizations much, much bigger than me, so suffice it to say that when even the tiniest amount of bureaucracy is involved, "laws" go out the window and its every man, or in this case, clinic, for himself. When I asked the director of my clinic why we haven't had medicine for moms and kids for the last month, he replied that the law is more of a "theory".)
The last part of the report I want to share are the recommendations:
- Improve programmatic coordination in the nutrition sector under the Ministry of Health. They've got so many programs doing so many things, and there are lots of repetitions and some significant oversights.
- An important piece of Ecuador's nutrition strategy is community-level counseling, linked to growth monitoring. I don't know why this is such a difficult idea to grasp, but I believe it is THE MOST important thing Ecuador could do to improve nutrition in the Sierra. Individualized, frequent community counseling with growth monitoring would do wonders. It just doesn't exist now. Well, it does sporadically, but to be effective it needs to be consistent. Giving a single 1-hour talk to moms every three to six months will not make a difference (especially for women who maybe have a year or two of primary school and can barely read or write), and it is endlessly infuriating to me that the people I work with don't seem to get that.
- Program assignments should be adjusted based on the severity of the regional situation. Duh.
- Transparency and accountability at the program level should be given high importance. Pretty important to keep track of where the money's going and whether it's making any difference.
- Make main welfare grant linked to nutrition outcomes.
- Figure out the micronutrient policy! This is one thing that Ecuador is trying and retrying to get right because apparently they just recently figured out that micronutrients are super important to growth and development (you know, vitamins and minerals). The problem with the current policy is that its all over the place, and no one ever quite knows whats going on. First, they came out with a nutritional supplement for kids under 5 called Mi Papilla, or my baby food. Then they threw that out the window (I'm not sure why) and now they've got Chispaz, or sprinkles, which as far as I can figure is the same thing. They're little packets of powdered vitamins that providers are supposed to add to specific kinds of food once a day. I guess moms couldn't figure it out, so they've made it the responsibility of the day care centers. But ask the cooks to explain to you how they're supposed to prepare the food and add Chispaz, and you get shy giggles and "I don't remember." Hopefully they're doing it correctly in practice and just unable to explain it.
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| A few of my little homies from Chalaguan, posing for the 8 millionth picture, which was followed by many minutes of insane giggling. |
Lastly, I made another tastier-than-average soup this evening for dinner (merienda) which included garlic, carrots, onions, lots of broccoli, veggie stock, quinoa, and pesto. I'm now officially ready to declare that pesto is good with anything. Go on, tell your friends.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
February Update
Hello! It's February! Where did the time go? Two months just flew by, and all of the sudden I've been in Alausi for 6 months now. A year and a half to go! Before I came to Ecuador, I told myself I wouldn't be one of those annoying volunteers that has a countdown on their blog... but I've come to realize that people don't have those because they can't wait to get the heck out of their country. Counting months is a way to stay sane. To appreciate the work that I've already done, the lessons I've learned, the trips I've enjoyed, and to gauge the rest of my service. Will I have enough time to do the projects I'd like to? Where do I hope to be six months from now, at the half way mark?
So many lessons are learned every week, I'm constantly revising my ideas about Ecuador, my work, the nature of service, my SELF, etc. To live a sane, productive life, we've all got to develop cohesive ideas about our lives. For most people, these ideas are held for months, years, sometimes even decades before they're challenged and we're forced to confront the most basic things we've known to be true. I think it's natural to fight back against the evidence that indicates we're mistaken in our world view, but damn, when your ideas are confronted several times a day, every day of the week, it is tiring. Some affronts aren't all that threatening, but when a co-worker who doesn't believe in viruses starts spouting off about how the flu vaccine works (which happens to be a million percent wrong) or when a neighbor tells you you're selfish and egotistical for not believing in God... Well, the examples are endless. I could give you seven more that were equally frustrating to experience.
Sometimes every day is filled with frustrations. Absolutely nothing seems to work and no one else cares or realizes that this situation is the worst ever. On these days, the only thing there is to do is take a deep breath, gather all the patience I can muster, and calmly move forward.
Anyway, I just needed to get that little disclaimer in here. I think about ranting about all the crazy things that happen around here, but thats probably a bad idea. The real problem is that I'm a complainer. I whine. I bitch. Hi, my name is Chloe and I complain too much. This is a quality that I'm not proud of, and unfortunately this experience has brought it out more than ever. I'm working on it.
The good news is that Carnival was this month! Weeee! How fun and weird is Carnival? Basically all Ecuadorian celebrations are the same: 2-5 days of heavy drinking, parades, dances, concerts and bull fights. Carnival is slightly different in that it's tradition to throw water, flour, foam, eggs, dirt, whatever at other people, whether you know them or not. I have to admit, that I didn't "play Carnival" as much as everyone else, but I personally like my clothes without huge purple stains (from the powder they throw sometimes) and my hair without eggs in it. It's hard enough to get and stay clean here, people! Why do you have to make it so much more difficult!
Next year, I'm sure I'll get more into Carnival, but its definitely one of those things that you have to be part of a gang of people "playing Carnival". Its not so fun to get water balloons and whatnot thrown at you when you're just walking alone down the street to buy bread. Next year I'll form a Carnival gang. Let me know if you want in.
The other good news is that I'm working with a little community called Chalaguan to do a dry latrines project. The Peace Corps is hosting a week-long workshop in April to teach 20 volunteers and their community counterparts how to build and maintain these latrines. I approached the president of Chalaguan a couple weeks ago to see if there was a need and if they'd be interested in working together. Apparently there are zero latrines in the community! The 36 families that live there have electricity and water (a bit of both... not much) but thats it. So! After presenting myself and the idea at a community meeting the other day, both the president and secretary of the community are very interested in going to the workshop. The three of us signed the application and I sent it in on Friday. Now, it's just wait and see if both guys can attend the workshop, and in the mean time, investigate some possible sources of funding. I really have no idea how to go about doing that, but we'll see what happens.
Yesterday, Lucita and I went up to Chalaguan to do a little cooking class, which went pretty well. Lucita's husband had the day off so the whole family (Lucita, husband, son) drove down to come with us to the community. We made "tortillas de sardina". Unfortunately, "tortillas" as most people in the States know them (delicious flat, flour things) do not exist here. I'm not sure why all Latin American countries insist on having the same words for food things that are totally different depending on the country, but they do. In Ecuador, a tortilla is like a little fried patty. In this case, we boiled potatoes, mashed them, mixed them with sardines, formed them into patties, and then fried them in a little oil. Pretty good actually! Especially with the tomato and onion salad on top, that everyone here is so in love with. I mean, you can put the tomato/onion mixture on anything really, but its not a salad. More of a fresh condiment.
Here is a picture of everyone working hard, learning how to make these thingys. Well, not everyone. Notice the group of men in the background. Sure, they helped fry the tortillas, but they giggled like schoolgirls the entire time. So silly.
There are more pictures of the cooking class on my Flickr account in the folder "Tixan". I'm also uploading lots of pictures from my backpacking trip to Cajas National Park from last.... November. Sorry. Just realized I never shared them. You can find those in the folder "Ecuadorian Excursions". Enjoy!
Well, thats about it for now! Until next time, compañeros.
So many lessons are learned every week, I'm constantly revising my ideas about Ecuador, my work, the nature of service, my SELF, etc. To live a sane, productive life, we've all got to develop cohesive ideas about our lives. For most people, these ideas are held for months, years, sometimes even decades before they're challenged and we're forced to confront the most basic things we've known to be true. I think it's natural to fight back against the evidence that indicates we're mistaken in our world view, but damn, when your ideas are confronted several times a day, every day of the week, it is tiring. Some affronts aren't all that threatening, but when a co-worker who doesn't believe in viruses starts spouting off about how the flu vaccine works (which happens to be a million percent wrong) or when a neighbor tells you you're selfish and egotistical for not believing in God... Well, the examples are endless. I could give you seven more that were equally frustrating to experience.
Sometimes every day is filled with frustrations. Absolutely nothing seems to work and no one else cares or realizes that this situation is the worst ever. On these days, the only thing there is to do is take a deep breath, gather all the patience I can muster, and calmly move forward.
Anyway, I just needed to get that little disclaimer in here. I think about ranting about all the crazy things that happen around here, but thats probably a bad idea. The real problem is that I'm a complainer. I whine. I bitch. Hi, my name is Chloe and I complain too much. This is a quality that I'm not proud of, and unfortunately this experience has brought it out more than ever. I'm working on it.
The good news is that Carnival was this month! Weeee! How fun and weird is Carnival? Basically all Ecuadorian celebrations are the same: 2-5 days of heavy drinking, parades, dances, concerts and bull fights. Carnival is slightly different in that it's tradition to throw water, flour, foam, eggs, dirt, whatever at other people, whether you know them or not. I have to admit, that I didn't "play Carnival" as much as everyone else, but I personally like my clothes without huge purple stains (from the powder they throw sometimes) and my hair without eggs in it. It's hard enough to get and stay clean here, people! Why do you have to make it so much more difficult!
Next year, I'm sure I'll get more into Carnival, but its definitely one of those things that you have to be part of a gang of people "playing Carnival". Its not so fun to get water balloons and whatnot thrown at you when you're just walking alone down the street to buy bread. Next year I'll form a Carnival gang. Let me know if you want in.
The other good news is that I'm working with a little community called Chalaguan to do a dry latrines project. The Peace Corps is hosting a week-long workshop in April to teach 20 volunteers and their community counterparts how to build and maintain these latrines. I approached the president of Chalaguan a couple weeks ago to see if there was a need and if they'd be interested in working together. Apparently there are zero latrines in the community! The 36 families that live there have electricity and water (a bit of both... not much) but thats it. So! After presenting myself and the idea at a community meeting the other day, both the president and secretary of the community are very interested in going to the workshop. The three of us signed the application and I sent it in on Friday. Now, it's just wait and see if both guys can attend the workshop, and in the mean time, investigate some possible sources of funding. I really have no idea how to go about doing that, but we'll see what happens.
Yesterday, Lucita and I went up to Chalaguan to do a little cooking class, which went pretty well. Lucita's husband had the day off so the whole family (Lucita, husband, son) drove down to come with us to the community. We made "tortillas de sardina". Unfortunately, "tortillas" as most people in the States know them (delicious flat, flour things) do not exist here. I'm not sure why all Latin American countries insist on having the same words for food things that are totally different depending on the country, but they do. In Ecuador, a tortilla is like a little fried patty. In this case, we boiled potatoes, mashed them, mixed them with sardines, formed them into patties, and then fried them in a little oil. Pretty good actually! Especially with the tomato and onion salad on top, that everyone here is so in love with. I mean, you can put the tomato/onion mixture on anything really, but its not a salad. More of a fresh condiment.
Here is a picture of everyone working hard, learning how to make these thingys. Well, not everyone. Notice the group of men in the background. Sure, they helped fry the tortillas, but they giggled like schoolgirls the entire time. So silly.
There are more pictures of the cooking class on my Flickr account in the folder "Tixan". I'm also uploading lots of pictures from my backpacking trip to Cajas National Park from last.... November. Sorry. Just realized I never shared them. You can find those in the folder "Ecuadorian Excursions". Enjoy!
Well, thats about it for now! Until next time, compañeros.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
January Happenings
Hi! It's been a rough month, let's just start there. The highlights so far include:
The good news is that I'm nearly comfortable enough to start doing some stuff on my own, apart from the clinic and the hospital. The reality is that I'll probably never be completely comfortable working at the schools and in the communities, but its now or never. I'm here for another year and a half and I can already tell how quickly the time is going to pass in terms of getting work done. Sometimes things just take FOREVER to happen.
One project that I'm particularly interested in doing while I'm here is with dry latrines (aka composting toilets, I think). According to my initial surveys, something like 1/3 of people in the communities don't have any sort of bathroom/latrine/hole in the ground which is a huge huge health concern for everyone. Peace Corps is having a dry latrine workshop in April, I believe, and I would really like to take a community member to the workshop (well I think its required). The key is to actually have selected a community to work with on this stuff. I have 2 in mind, but I've got to meet with the leaders and see if people are interested and what we're up against first. I've got a couple organizations in mind for funding, because these dry latrines will cost a few hundred dollars from what I've heard, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Mostly I just wanted to mention this so anyone who reads this can ask follow up questions to remind me about it. :) Also, if anyone's interested, I'm learning about dry latrines from a book called Humanure, which sounds disgusting, I know, but is pretty cool.
Anyway, thats about it for now! Until next time, my friends.
- Lost my camera and favorite hoodie on New Year's, followed by a debilitating hangover. I blame Ecuadorian peer pressure and the unofficial "finder's keepers" social policy.
- Witnessed the brewings of some significant work drama at the clinic. It just sucks. I'm trying not to get involved because its mostly stupid crap, but it really pisses me off. These supposed health professionals let all kinds of petty BS get in the way of them performing their job duties correctly. The worst part is, who suffers because of it? The patients.
- Contracted a moderate bacterial intestinal infection, eating up a long weekend. I definitely jinxed myself in the last post.
- Gave my first nutrition talks to elementary school children, which went pretty well. Trying to coordinate an interesting, informative and coherent agenda (and then getting her to stick to it) with my Ecuadorian co-worker proved to be the most difficult part.
- Lost my phone (or had it stolen... not entirely sure) on the morning bus to work. I had to buy a new one the next day, which wasn't that big of a deal, just a pain in the ass.
- Currently, I'm laying in bed trying not to swallow because I've got strep throat. The good times just keep on coming!
The good news is that I'm nearly comfortable enough to start doing some stuff on my own, apart from the clinic and the hospital. The reality is that I'll probably never be completely comfortable working at the schools and in the communities, but its now or never. I'm here for another year and a half and I can already tell how quickly the time is going to pass in terms of getting work done. Sometimes things just take FOREVER to happen.
One project that I'm particularly interested in doing while I'm here is with dry latrines (aka composting toilets, I think). According to my initial surveys, something like 1/3 of people in the communities don't have any sort of bathroom/latrine/hole in the ground which is a huge huge health concern for everyone. Peace Corps is having a dry latrine workshop in April, I believe, and I would really like to take a community member to the workshop (well I think its required). The key is to actually have selected a community to work with on this stuff. I have 2 in mind, but I've got to meet with the leaders and see if people are interested and what we're up against first. I've got a couple organizations in mind for funding, because these dry latrines will cost a few hundred dollars from what I've heard, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Mostly I just wanted to mention this so anyone who reads this can ask follow up questions to remind me about it. :) Also, if anyone's interested, I'm learning about dry latrines from a book called Humanure, which sounds disgusting, I know, but is pretty cool.
Anyway, thats about it for now! Until next time, my friends.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Reflection Time
Here we are at the end of the year, the end of 2011. What a year, huh? Tsunamis and earthquakes and occupations and oil spills. Ridiculous. And also probably the most important event of the year: I LIVE IN ECUADOR NOW. How weird is that? It's been an overwhelming transition, but I'm so glad that it happened. I'm happy to be doing this. Of course there are days where I ask myself, "What in the hell was I thinking?!" But you know, those moments pass and then I avoid assessing major life decisions until the next unexpectedly sunny morning. It might not work, but it's my system.
I suppose starting the Peace Corps and all that is my big news of the year, but I also lived in Portland for the first 6 months of 2011, which was pretty fantastic. January through May was mostly filled with work (catering), more work (youth sheltering) and the occasional east-side karaoke excursion, but I also squeezed in trips to Wenatchee, Santa Barbara and New Orleans.
Anyway, to reflect upon 2011, I thought I'd make a list of things I learned or accomplished or things that are just sort of cool. Here are 20:
1. My Spanish is so much better than when I got here!!! Most of this has to do with confidence... and also not caring that I sound like a fool. This numero uno on the list because I have been learning/struggling with Spanish more or less since I was 9, so it really feels fantastic to be able to form sentences and have actual conversations.
2. I'm learning little bits of Kichwa. The indigenous people I use it with occasionally think its funny and endearing (I think). Ashi tutamanta! Good morning!
3. I've learned SO MUCH about maternal health and breastfeeding and baby foods and child development in the first 4 months here its ridiculous... and I just keep reading more and more. I never expected to pick up so much technical information on the job.
4. My first trip to the real south (New Orleans, not Florida) was surprisingly lovely and I look forward to spending more time there in the future.
5. I spent about two weeks volunteering with the Portland Housing Authority in February helping out with the biannual Homeless Street Count, which was many hours of data entry. That was fine with me though, because although I wanted to volunteer with the count, I wasn't super excited about doing the actual surveys. Win win!
6. On a related note, I got a decent amount of experience working at a homeless shelter which provided me with many strange, funny and terrifying stories. I'm not sure if I'd ever consider working at a similar program full-time, but I'm grateful for the experience.
7. My other job catering for McMenamins was ridiculous as always. Particularly Easter and Mother's Day brunches. Yikes! I'm not sure if I'll ever dine out for brunch on those days again, knowing what I know now. The good news is that after those experiences, everything else was a walk in the park.
8. I got my wisdom teeth out! And all I needed was ibuprofen and a couple days of rest. I had a prescription for a stronger pain med, but when you have crappy health insurance and have to pay out of pocket for prescriptions, you think twice about indulging in unecessarily expensive drugs.
9. I learned how to make tamales (yesterday).
10. I learned how to wash clothes by hand on "the rock". I hate it.
11. I ate alligator sausage in New Orleans.
12. I saw Kermit Ruffins perform in NOLA. There was a surprising amount of Black Eyes Peas, which was annoying. I have a couple videos of it somewhere...
13. I participated in a traditional Ecuadorian beauty contest... and lost.
14. I did several 30 minute radio shows about nutrition in Spanish SOLITA! (alone) And survived to tell the tale.
15. I learned how to eat crab out of the shell.
16. I went on a pirate ship booze cruise.
17. I did a 3 day, 2 night backpacking trips through Cajas National Park in Ecuador, which was easily the most difficult and surprising hike of my life.
18. I moved into my first apartment all by myself. So far, so good... although the urge to stay home by myself and do nothing is incredibly strong... And thats not just because I'm in another country.
20. I'm thrilled that I have neither suffered from a major parasitic or amoebic infection or been bitten by a dog, both of which are daily possibilities. Knock on wood I'm not jinxing myself for the next 12 months!
Well I suppose thats about it. Not in any way an exhaustive list or summary of the past year, but it will have to do. I hope everyone has a lovely New Year's Eve and I wish you lots of health and happiness and funtivities in 2012.
I suppose starting the Peace Corps and all that is my big news of the year, but I also lived in Portland for the first 6 months of 2011, which was pretty fantastic. January through May was mostly filled with work (catering), more work (youth sheltering) and the occasional east-side karaoke excursion, but I also squeezed in trips to Wenatchee, Santa Barbara and New Orleans.
Anyway, to reflect upon 2011, I thought I'd make a list of things I learned or accomplished or things that are just sort of cool. Here are 20:
1. My Spanish is so much better than when I got here!!! Most of this has to do with confidence... and also not caring that I sound like a fool. This numero uno on the list because I have been learning/struggling with Spanish more or less since I was 9, so it really feels fantastic to be able to form sentences and have actual conversations.
2. I'm learning little bits of Kichwa. The indigenous people I use it with occasionally think its funny and endearing (I think). Ashi tutamanta! Good morning!
3. I've learned SO MUCH about maternal health and breastfeeding and baby foods and child development in the first 4 months here its ridiculous... and I just keep reading more and more. I never expected to pick up so much technical information on the job.
4. My first trip to the real south (New Orleans, not Florida) was surprisingly lovely and I look forward to spending more time there in the future.
5. I spent about two weeks volunteering with the Portland Housing Authority in February helping out with the biannual Homeless Street Count, which was many hours of data entry. That was fine with me though, because although I wanted to volunteer with the count, I wasn't super excited about doing the actual surveys. Win win!
6. On a related note, I got a decent amount of experience working at a homeless shelter which provided me with many strange, funny and terrifying stories. I'm not sure if I'd ever consider working at a similar program full-time, but I'm grateful for the experience.
7. My other job catering for McMenamins was ridiculous as always. Particularly Easter and Mother's Day brunches. Yikes! I'm not sure if I'll ever dine out for brunch on those days again, knowing what I know now. The good news is that after those experiences, everything else was a walk in the park.
8. I got my wisdom teeth out! And all I needed was ibuprofen and a couple days of rest. I had a prescription for a stronger pain med, but when you have crappy health insurance and have to pay out of pocket for prescriptions, you think twice about indulging in unecessarily expensive drugs.
9. I learned how to make tamales (yesterday).
10. I learned how to wash clothes by hand on "the rock". I hate it.
11. I ate alligator sausage in New Orleans.
12. I saw Kermit Ruffins perform in NOLA. There was a surprising amount of Black Eyes Peas, which was annoying. I have a couple videos of it somewhere...
13. I participated in a traditional Ecuadorian beauty contest... and lost.
14. I did several 30 minute radio shows about nutrition in Spanish SOLITA! (alone) And survived to tell the tale.
15. I learned how to eat crab out of the shell.
16. I went on a pirate ship booze cruise.
17. I did a 3 day, 2 night backpacking trips through Cajas National Park in Ecuador, which was easily the most difficult and surprising hike of my life.
18. I moved into my first apartment all by myself. So far, so good... although the urge to stay home by myself and do nothing is incredibly strong... And thats not just because I'm in another country.
19. Sang Wilson Phillips "Hold On" with McMenamins coworkers at karaoke.
That might be one of the proudest moments of my life. Seriously.
20. I'm thrilled that I have neither suffered from a major parasitic or amoebic infection or been bitten by a dog, both of which are daily possibilities. Knock on wood I'm not jinxing myself for the next 12 months!
Well I suppose thats about it. Not in any way an exhaustive list or summary of the past year, but it will have to do. I hope everyone has a lovely New Year's Eve and I wish you lots of health and happiness and funtivities in 2012.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Six Months = Half a Year
Forgive me, this post is about 3 weeks old, but its got a lot of info, so I didn't want to just delete it. Just imagine what you were doing 3 weeks ago, and insert this information into your nightly blog browsing...
Hello again! I'm comin' atcha with another update from my exciting, confusing and often weird life. Many things have happened in the last month since my last update, and I'll do my best to summarize it all here.
1. Reconnect
As I mentioned in the last post, after the first 3 months at site, everyone participates in a conference called Reconnect. At this conference, we shared the results of our community interviews and presented a plan for our activities for the first year. Of course, this "plan" is subject to change because after 3 months I think it's impossible to fully know the opportunities and where our time will be best spent. Since Reconnect, I've already learned about two possible projects that I would much rather work on than the stupid things I mentioned. So we'll just have to see what happens.
For the conference, we were back at the training center in Tumbaco, which is not my favorite place in Ecuador. Maybe bottom 5 so far. We also stayed with our host families from training, which I was dreading beforehand but which actually turned out pretty great. I was able to relax more and head to Quito a couple times, which I definitely would not have been able to do if we were all staying together at the training center.
2. Thanksgiving
Nothing too exciting for my favorite holiday this year... on the actual day, I worked and then went home and made a sort of tuna casserole for my host family. I took the next day, Friday, off from work and headed to Riobamba, where I helped make a big Thanksgiving meal with a few PCVs in the area. At the last minute, a few others also showed up to eat, so we ended up with 13 people, which was 5 more than we'd planned I think. Fortunately, there was plenty of food to go around and everyone was way too full and sleepy by the end of the evening.
3. Food security conference
I headed back to Tumbaco a couple days after Thanksgiving for a 3 day conference on food security. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, food security refers to people's access and utilization of food in their daily lives. For me, food security is a huge issue in the communities of Tixan on a pretty basic level. For example, I've mentioned before that most families eat meat once or twice a week because of a lack of economic access ("no hay plata", there's no money) and physical access (there aren't markets in the communities to purchase meat, fruits, veggies and other products). However, for people that have access to foods, there are issues with utilization, which is to say even people that eat meat every day can be considered food insecure if they only know how to cook it in lard and eat it with rice and potatoes. A diet like that is going to produce a lot of obesity, diabetes, heart problems, etc.
Anyway, the conference was pretty awesome. There was lots and lots of good information and we shared the training center with the last group (ever!) of agriculture volunteers, who got here about 4 months before us. It was really great to meet the Ag volunteers that are sort of in my area because I will DEFINITELY be calling them for advice or to do a tech exchange in the future. Also, it was exciting because they're cool.
On a side note, this group of agriculture volunteers is the last because Peace Corps does in fact continuously evaluate the necessity and usefulness of volunteers in Ecuador. In recent years, the Ecuadorian government has taken strides to improve support of small farmers in the country (supposedly) and instead of more volunteers helping out in the area of agriculture, the government decided that they wanted English teachers. So! PC Ecuador switched out Agriculture for TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), and the Health program incorporated Food Security and Nutrition as one of our 3 program goals. For the record, the other two goals are Water Safety and Hygiene, and Sexual and Reproductive Health.
At the conference, I got the chance to talk for a bit about the work that I'm doing at the clinic in Tixan, during a Maternal and Child Health session. One of the Health program trainers, Bibi, and I did a little skit demonstrating a typical conversation I have with a mom at the clinic, which was weird to do in English, but went really well. Then we talked a bit with the group about nutrition and pregnancy and breastfeeding and kids under 5 years old. I'm not an expert in these areas by any means, but I've learned a lot in the these first few months and it was really exciting to impart my knowledge with my fellow volunteers. After the session, I got a lot of great feedback from people, which was validating. It was also apparent that even though lots of people like to talk about what they're doing in site, it's hard to tell how much is actually getting done and how much is embellishment. For my part, I'm grateful to now have a small role in my clinic, even though its been difficult to navigate and I've experienced a lot of uncertainty and frustration. I think that as my Spanish improves, I'll be able to do even more!
Well, that's all for now. I hope this finds everyone doing well and getting ready to enjoy the holidays!
Hello again! I'm comin' atcha with another update from my exciting, confusing and often weird life. Many things have happened in the last month since my last update, and I'll do my best to summarize it all here.
1. Reconnect
As I mentioned in the last post, after the first 3 months at site, everyone participates in a conference called Reconnect. At this conference, we shared the results of our community interviews and presented a plan for our activities for the first year. Of course, this "plan" is subject to change because after 3 months I think it's impossible to fully know the opportunities and where our time will be best spent. Since Reconnect, I've already learned about two possible projects that I would much rather work on than the stupid things I mentioned. So we'll just have to see what happens.
For the conference, we were back at the training center in Tumbaco, which is not my favorite place in Ecuador. Maybe bottom 5 so far. We also stayed with our host families from training, which I was dreading beforehand but which actually turned out pretty great. I was able to relax more and head to Quito a couple times, which I definitely would not have been able to do if we were all staying together at the training center.
2. Thanksgiving
Nothing too exciting for my favorite holiday this year... on the actual day, I worked and then went home and made a sort of tuna casserole for my host family. I took the next day, Friday, off from work and headed to Riobamba, where I helped make a big Thanksgiving meal with a few PCVs in the area. At the last minute, a few others also showed up to eat, so we ended up with 13 people, which was 5 more than we'd planned I think. Fortunately, there was plenty of food to go around and everyone was way too full and sleepy by the end of the evening.
 |
| The feast! From left clockwise; mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, zucchini casserole, green bean casserole, camote (sweet purple potato) with marshmallows. Hiding: turkey. Not pictured: chicken noodle soup. |
3. Food security conference
I headed back to Tumbaco a couple days after Thanksgiving for a 3 day conference on food security. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, food security refers to people's access and utilization of food in their daily lives. For me, food security is a huge issue in the communities of Tixan on a pretty basic level. For example, I've mentioned before that most families eat meat once or twice a week because of a lack of economic access ("no hay plata", there's no money) and physical access (there aren't markets in the communities to purchase meat, fruits, veggies and other products). However, for people that have access to foods, there are issues with utilization, which is to say even people that eat meat every day can be considered food insecure if they only know how to cook it in lard and eat it with rice and potatoes. A diet like that is going to produce a lot of obesity, diabetes, heart problems, etc.
Anyway, the conference was pretty awesome. There was lots and lots of good information and we shared the training center with the last group (ever!) of agriculture volunteers, who got here about 4 months before us. It was really great to meet the Ag volunteers that are sort of in my area because I will DEFINITELY be calling them for advice or to do a tech exchange in the future. Also, it was exciting because they're cool.
On a side note, this group of agriculture volunteers is the last because Peace Corps does in fact continuously evaluate the necessity and usefulness of volunteers in Ecuador. In recent years, the Ecuadorian government has taken strides to improve support of small farmers in the country (supposedly) and instead of more volunteers helping out in the area of agriculture, the government decided that they wanted English teachers. So! PC Ecuador switched out Agriculture for TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), and the Health program incorporated Food Security and Nutrition as one of our 3 program goals. For the record, the other two goals are Water Safety and Hygiene, and Sexual and Reproductive Health.
At the conference, I got the chance to talk for a bit about the work that I'm doing at the clinic in Tixan, during a Maternal and Child Health session. One of the Health program trainers, Bibi, and I did a little skit demonstrating a typical conversation I have with a mom at the clinic, which was weird to do in English, but went really well. Then we talked a bit with the group about nutrition and pregnancy and breastfeeding and kids under 5 years old. I'm not an expert in these areas by any means, but I've learned a lot in the these first few months and it was really exciting to impart my knowledge with my fellow volunteers. After the session, I got a lot of great feedback from people, which was validating. It was also apparent that even though lots of people like to talk about what they're doing in site, it's hard to tell how much is actually getting done and how much is embellishment. For my part, I'm grateful to now have a small role in my clinic, even though its been difficult to navigate and I've experienced a lot of uncertainty and frustration. I think that as my Spanish improves, I'll be able to do even more!
Well, that's all for now. I hope this finds everyone doing well and getting ready to enjoy the holidays!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Thoughts at Month 3
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| Cooking class in La Merced with Lucita (right) |
It's half-way through November! How did that happen? Time is flying by, just like everyone said it would. Our Reconnect conference starts on Monday, which signals the end of our first three months at site. This conference felt so far away a few weeks ago, and now... it's here!
Also on Monday I'll turn 27 years old. I've been trying not to reflect on this fact too much because quite frankly it freaks me out. TWENTY-SEVEN. It's the magic age at which Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix met their demise. And more recently Amy Winehouse! One of the host brothers has a hat that says "American Legend" on the front and then on the side lists the names of Kurt, Janis and Jimi. Once I explained what the names had in common, which essentially is a cautionary tale about the perils of fame and drugs. I also tried to throw in the mysterious detail of the white Bic lighter found in each of their pockets, but it's unclear if that actually translated or was just me babbling for a few minutes about conspiracy theories.
Anyway, 27. Old, right? Three years to 30. Which is the age at which you die. Just kidding. Theres really nothing to do about aging and the passage of time except accept it. So... ok I just did. Let's move on.
These first three months have been a roller coaster. So much has happened! From paralyzing fear to profound boredom, life here is not easy. You know, they told us that it wouldn't be easy (I believe the slogan goes "The hardest job you'll ever love.") but I could never have prepared for the depth and breadth of the difficulties. It's hard to describe the experience succinctly because life is hard in so many myriad ways, many of which I've never even considered before. Something as simple as peeing is often a much more complicated endeavor. At home, I share a bathroom with 5 people, 3 of them men, so when the bathroom is available, its usually disgusting. Additionally, more often then not there is no toilet paper, and occasionally theres no water. Admittedly, a lack of cleanliness, TP and running water doesn't affect my ability to use the toilet, but it does make the experience somewhat traumatic.
At work, (yes I'm still talking about peeing) theres some problem with the water and so you can only flush the toilets after filling up a bucket in the sink and dumping it into the tank. How many buckets are there? One. How many toilets are there? Three. How many sinks are big enough to put a huge bucket it? One. And that sink takes approximately 58 minutes to fill up the bucket because theres no water pressure. Ok, I'm lying, it's not 58 minutes, but its still a good 5-8 minutes. Which is a really long time if you're watching it fill up. Also, you better not have to go #2 because there is no toilet paper or bathroom garbage in which to dispose of that toilet paper. It's a wonder I haven't developed a UTI yet. *KNOCK ON WOOD*
Anyway, thats maybe gross to talk about, but peeing is on my mind a lot. Or at least, it used to be before I stopped drinking water. Seriously! Whats the point of drinking water if I just pee all the time? I'll have a swig once in a while if I'm parched, but its not worth the ordeal. Trust me. Guys have it a lot easier here because men literally just pee wherever whenever. It's disgusting and it makes me jealous.
In other ways, life has gotten much easier. My Spanish and confidence speaking Spanish has increased a lot, so I'm able to communicate more and with less distress. I can tell stories now! Simple stories, but still. They make sense. I'm getting to know my coworkers at the hospital and the clinic better, which makes navigating the workplace much, much easier. Few people are very friendly or outgoing, so getting to know people is more difficult than it should be. I think most people know who I am, but beyond the blue eyes and blonde hair, there are lots of misconceptions. I've had some good conversations recently which is exciting.
Work is also getting more interesting. The nutrition counseling I'm doing is getting easier and more productive. This week I talked to lots of pregnant moms and there were many nice conversations. Life in the campo is idyllic but incredibly hard and for most women, no one acknowledges the struggle to take care of the kids and the cows and the sheep and the cooking and the cleaning and the husband. I've started talking more about how difficult pregnancy is on the body and how eating well can really help out with the work, which seems to be logic they like and can follow. I'm also starting to recognize women and their kids who come every month for the "controls" so we're able to have more of an ongoing dialogue, which is good. A few moms have even mentioned what they're doing to eat better! It's really encouraging.
This week, I also found a really good apartment prospect. It's a little place in a sort of complex owned by some friends of the other volunteer at my site, Krista. It's a bit out of my budget, but my budget is pitiful and life here is pretty inexpensive, so I think it'll be ok. Fingers crossed it works out!
Well thats about it for now. What a rambling post, huh? My apologies. Thematic posts are overrated :)
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