Peace Corps experience!

Here I am.

Here I am. In Guatemala. Wearing my black slacks, a nice shirt, and my hiking boots sweeping the dirt ground.

Dirt is their floor.

I was not invited and I am not welcomed.

I can no longer speak and I have to remind myself every 30 seconds not to stare.

There’s a kitten at my feet that looks like it will die any minute now. I assume it has never had food offered to it.

The old woman who answered the tin door is now taking corn from one woven basket and transferring it to another while the wind gently carries away any little pieces. She then dumps the corn slowly back into the other woven basket again and again this process goes on. Whenever she stops for a second to politely pretend to listen to the health promoters a chicken comes over and begins eating the corn…and then the duck comes…and another chicken….and I assume it’s the families dinner too.

There’s a small little river running through the yard. Its contents are brown water, poop, and plastic trash. It also serves as the drinking water for all the animals running around. Some promoters begin to wash her dishes….in the only water she has….brown. I stand there staring. Staring. Staring.

I knew I was coming to the Peace Corps and I knew a lot of people lived in Poverty. But I was standing in the middle of it, in my nice clothes…completely out of place. It was as though I had been cut from a magazine and with a giant circle of tape on my back I was placed in the center of another world.

After about 5 minutes of staring I figured I had come for a reason and I should help clean. I gathered a black trash bag and went at it. I didn’t know where to begin but with my bare hands I began picking up anything and everything I could find. Then I began sweeping the dirt. Sweeping it away from the house along with the trash. The Health promoters followed behind me putting water on the earth. Half of the yard was dedicated to “the trash burning zone…” and the woman who owned the house casually picked up a tiny stick and unsuccessfully tried to move things into the center to light it on fire.

From what I could tell their bathroom was simply four sheets hung up in between trees. Little kids were running everywhere and chickens were in the bedrooms running free. There was a very old withered wrinkled short woman who every once and a while would leave from a room and come back with a pot of water on her head.

When we left all the old woman could say was “Im embarrassed.” And All the health promoters said was “No tenga pena.” Don’t worry about it. And as fast as I entered that world we left.

The context is this: My job is working with the health promoters in little villages. They are volunteers who work at the puesto de salud in their town. This is like a little clinic for those in need. By little I mean One nurse and One room to see patients. I am working with 2 puestos de salud. San Luicito and San Lorenzo. My job during training is to follow health promoters to houses and watch them give “charlas” which means a little lecture. The nurse picks a few houses in poor condition. The health promoters, most of which with no education in health, show up on surprise and give them a charla. The real situation was a bit different in San Lorenzo because the health promoters brought a bag of cleaning supplies to each house. The goal was to get them started. Teach them how to use everything and then they would have a little extra to do it themselves. Im sorry to say that I am 100% positive this did not work.

The health promoters gave a 5 minutes talk on why good hygiene is important. And then we began cleaning. The owner of the house did nothing. I suppose she was learning for watching but I don’t think so. I am really struggling to figure life out here.

The whole time I was sweeping I was asking myself…Why am I here and what is this lady learning? The only way I could feel good about it was thinking that this woman is going to have pride maybe just for one day in the way her house looks. Pride is one step in the right direction huh? All the other volunteers in my town who went with different health promoters had similar experiences where we all felt our point did not get across and we were all shocked. Next week It’s out turn to give the “charla” in Spanish to these families and the promoters are going to watch. I am also giving a charla on healthy breast feeding to a mom who has a 5 day old baby next week. I am excited but I have to learn a lot of new words in Spanish for this one! J

When I am a volunteer my real “job” is going to be teaching the health promoters how to give charlas in a way that the people will respond and learn. It’s going to be very interesting and complex. Training is really getting me prepared for the things I am going to encounter as a volunteer in my site. This is a very long journal entry but I hope you enjoyed it! Life here is amazing and everyday I see something new, smell something new, taste something new….everything is amazing. Eye opening and Real.