Congratulations from World Connect!

Dear Kim,

CONGRATULATIONS! After reviewing your application, World Connect is pleased to inform you that your project has been approved for a grant. We were impressed by your plans to help your community and are delighted that we can support your project.

And just like that, Roberto and Lorena's modern dance academy has been financed!!

A few months ago, after the Youth Business Plan competition where we came in second, I applied for a grant to World Connect to finance the project.  I just learned this week that my proposal was "out-right" accepted, which means they were happy with how I presented it and didn't require any changes in order to finance it.  

So, we've got $1,500 and quite the fixer-upper for the next few months!  With these funds, this space will be given a new floor, improved walls, lighting, electrical connection, an electric welcome sign, full-length mirrors, and a sound system, and the young owners will get business cards.  We then hope to have a grand opening before the start of the summer camp season.

I had the pleasure of announcing this tonight, at Margarita's birthday dinner (Lorena and Roberto's amazing mother).  Seeing the expressions on their faces and hearing their thank-you's was definitely one of those Peace Corps "high's" they say that makes the "low's" worth it.  This all came about because of how hard Lorena worked in putting together the business plan.

The only part that made the night less than perfect was a feeling I got walking home from the celebration, with Hector and Wilmer, two of my best artisan work partners.  As they expressed happiness for Margarita's family and the dance academy group, I couldn't help but perceive a tinge of jealousy in their voices.  I can understand why-- it's very rare to come across grant money like this, because virtually no one in Monsefú is equipped with the knowledge or skills to put together a legitimate grant application, nor they do know of or have access to many grant sources.  So I'm sure their immediate thought is "Why didn't Kim put together a project like this with us?"  

There are plenty of reasons to that question, #1 this came out of a youth business plan competition where Lorena herself wrote a 30-page plan that served as the whole base for the grant application, #2 financing the construction of a new shared artisan workshop would be very expensive and not necessarily possible through a grant, #3 a shared artisan workshop is already a planned project in the Municipality, although it is not moving very fast and #4 the artisans are already putting together amazing activities and projects by themselves, without grants.  At least they found out directly through me... I think the reaction/rumors could be worse if they had heard about the project indirectly.  Anyway, I'm trying not to let my anxieties about this overbear the excitement for Margarita's family and the dance kids.

I've been working really hard this week in final preparations for two events: a Vocational Fair, where more than 20 higher education institutions will come to Monsefú to share info about their programs with high school students, and an Artesanía (Handicraft) Competition organized by my Artisan Council.  I'll be done with these events on my birthday, October 23, and then I hope to take some personal time before starting up with this dance academy implementation.  I think this is going to be a really fun project for November thru February.  After these past few months of "limbo," it's finally starting to seem like I have a plan for the next (and final!) stages of my service!

WORK

November - ?: Weekly radio program promoting healthy lifestyles and savings with 3 other Volunteers

November - December: Develop "Concept Book" for new artisan designs

November - December: Finish revising Youth Business Plan teaching manual

November - February: Implement, open and operate Dance Academy

March:  International Women's Day March 8, plan anti-machismo event

March - May: Implement Savings Banks in high school classes

March - May: Implement SexEd and Peer Health Promotors project with my sitemate

July: "Fexticum" Independence Day festivals in Monsefú and FINISH MY SERVICE!

FUN

Thanksgiving: Dad comes to my site, and we go to Cuzco and Machu Picchu!

New Years and January: Corbin comes to my site, New Years on the beach, and we travel through the Amazon by cargo boat!

February: City-wide paint-fight "Carnaval" in Cajamarca

March: To-be-decided Holy Week vacation, possibly in southern Amazon

April/May: Possible visit from Fran and her mom?

May: Close-of-Service Conference in Lima... it's (kind of) over!

Sometime end of July/beginning of August: Say my goodbye's and move back to the US of A.

So I hope this ridiculous schedule of vacations and fun, manageable projects will make my last 9 months everything that I want them to be.  Only 9 (and a half) more months! The end is coming fast, my friends.

Not So Fast...

Well folks, that "Mid-Service Crisis" that I thought I wouldn't have definitely has happened.  This difficulty of this last month and a half hit me as a surprise, but I remember now that I saw this coming months ago-- June through August my schedule was full of exciting milestones (1 year in country, 1 year in site), new arrivals (new volunteers who I got to train on 2 occasions, my site-mate arriving in Monsefu), work trips to Lima, and the amazing visit from my mom.  I knew that I couldn't take on new projects during those busy months, so I anticipated that September and October were going to be somewhat schedule-less and quiet, and hence difficult.  Add to that an unexpected trip to the States for my grandmother's funeral, and it's easy to for me to see what put me in this weird feeling of limbo.

At the same time, I've noticed that I've reached what might be my final stage of integration in site.  And ironically, that might be what it causing my "crisis," which mainly has to do with a complete loss of patience for corruption, incompetence, selfishness, and other fun realities of my work.  My host family, counterparts, and friends seem to feel much freer including me in conversations about personal conflicts, corruption, unfaithfulness, etc.- and while it is very enriching for my experience, it leaves me wondering how someone who lives here can continue working towards "good," in the face of such selfishness, ineptitude, cruelty, and futility.  I want to share with you all some examples of what I'm talking about, and I apologize in advance that there are some really upsetting stories here.

• Strikes are a constant reality in Peru.  You probably heard about the mining strikes, but what affects even more communities are the teacher and health worker strikes.  In Peru there aren't laws like in the States where jobs that are crucial to public safety/service can't strike (air traffic controllers, teachers, etc.) so the teachers actually do it all the time.  They recently ended a strike of TWO MONTHS, meaning there was no class for two months in the public schools, except for the teachers who broke strike to teach, and what kids are going to come to school when only one or two of their teachers are there.  There was then another national-level strike, but thankfully Monsefu didn't participate in the second one.  The strike is mainly about increasing their salary, which is somewhat valid, but at the same time they don't even work a full half-day and not showing up to class is commonplace.  These strikes combined with the generally horrendous quality of public and most private school in Monsefu is maddening.

• My host dad mentioned something really upsetting over lunch a while ago- a 14 year-old girl in his class was raped recently, by her uncle (father's brother).  Her parents are separated and when her mother found out, she called the girl's father- his response was "what am I suppose to do?  I can't charge him, he's my brother."  Worst part- because of the strike in the Health Post, she couldn't get prompt medical attention.  I don't know if she got medical attention later or not.  Then, my host dad says the same uncle had the nerve to escort the girl to school one day and introduce himself as her uncle.  I can't imagine the terror she is going through, my heart breaks for her.

Open sewage smells just wonderful.

• Corruption has been rampant.  It was just discovered that the woman in charge of artisan fairs in the provincial government had been making a 100% profit on all artisan stands, because she was charging the artisans S/.300 and giving over S/.150 to her office.  She was allowed to leave quietly because she was a political appointee from the past provincial mayor anyway.

•  This is what many of the streets in my town have looked like between June and now.  This was part of a huge sewage system replacement project, funded by the national government, executed by the local (municipal) government.  Well, turns out the national-level experts found that the project was over-valued by 23 million soles (9 million dollars)... a.k.a., more corruption from my mayor.  So, the project has been suspended for investigation and the streets are slowly being closed back up.  When I took my Politics of Corruption class in college, we learned that most corruption happens in public works, because it is easy to lie about prices or number of bags of cement needed.  That is definitely the reality here in Peru.

Felipe and I co-hosting FextiMODA

• The most popular radio host in town, Felipe, was detained for four days on charges that he accepted money to say false things about someone on the air.  He was released (after paying S/.3000, I believe) and is back on the air.  His first day back he apologized for "making a mistake," and accepted tons of calls and text messages from people voicing their support for him. He does lead and help a lot of great projects in Monsefu, but it's believed that he often personally benefits from them some way.  Just this September there were whispers that he had made a big profit on the 50th Anniversary committee of his high school, where the funds raised were supposed to go to replacing the school bathrooms.  You may remember Felipe as the guy who publicly criticized my Artisan Fashion Show project when it turned out badly the first time.  This last time around, when the artisans lead the show, Felipe was my co-host (My anger at him had cooled by then).  Three other Volunteers and I wanted to put together a weekly radio program with him, which would be a fantastic project, but is very complicated by this corruption business.  I don't want to give my passive support to him and his program, but he is also just so darn helpful and likeable.  And dangerous if you offend him.

Now, it's not all bad.  I'm not depressed, I've just been finding it difficult to stay motivated in my work. But at the same time, whenever it all goes to crap, I spend more time with my host family or other friends, and my affection for Peru is restored.  So, here are some positive moments over the past two months:

• My host mom "passed the egg" on me! The majority of Peruvians believe that when you are ill or had suffered a shock or scare, you can be treated by "passing the egg."  This involves rubbing an egg all over the affected person's body, so that the egg takes in all of the "bad."  My host mom wanted to pass the egg on me because I had a terrible nightmare and woke up a little weary from it (that's what happens when ridiculously violent news stories are playing at 11:30pm).  If a person is really ill/shocked, then the egg may actually crack during the passing (hmm...), or you may need multiple eggs to get all the "bad" out.  The egg is then broken into a glass to and you can examine the way it settles in order to find out something about the person's illness.  My egg is picture on the right, and you might be able to see some small white wisps in the center.  These small wisps apparently showed that I wasn't too bad... but still I was told to chuck the egg-water far away from the house as I was leaving!
• Last weekend, I went on an awesome camping trip with a handful of Volunteers, in a dry forest called the Bosque de Pomac that is about 1 hour from Chiclayo.  It is the site of many Moche (pre-Incan) pyramids, made out of mud.  We made the short hike up one of them to watch the sunset over the pyramids and trees :)  You can't see many trees here but these are the tops of the more-than 1000 year-old pyramids, run down by water over time.  We also got to see a current excavation site where they have found 80 bodies.

• This isn't exactly a positive story, but it will be a fun Peace Corps memory.  I helped my host dad kill a mouse/rat in the kitchen.  Our dog smelled it behind the sewing machine and we chased it around the whole kitchen, taking apart counters and everything to get at it.  Finally, it ran up a corner of the wall and my host dad caught it with a broom.  He asked me to hit the rat hard with the end of another broom, but I wasn't good enough at it (also, not sure I have the stomach for that).  We switched responsibilities, so I held the body still while he blunt-forced it death with the end of the second broom.  They were embarrassed that I wanted to take a picture but I promised them I wouldn't post it on Facebook, so no one in town would see it!

Host Dad Gilberto searching for the rat under a broken stove

The finished job.  The picture my family didn't want me to take

• My host family continues to be the best.  I had the worst day I've had in a while last week, after visiting the regional government and talking to my #1 least favorite Peruvian.  She is in charge of artisanry on the regional level and is completely paranoid, gossipy, manipulative, passive-aggressive, unreasonable and just downright crazy.  Explaining the conflict in any more detail would be too arduous, so basically I came home at lunch time and a few tears started to fall after we ate.  My host mom tried to comfort me telling me about how much some of the teachers at her job can suck too, and at the same time my host dad (who was standing) started imitating the Gangam Style dance behind her, while it was playing on TV.  He had me cracking up while my host mom kept trying to be serious, and he eventually came over and started rubbing her shoulders like a massage.  They are so adorable. They are still so in love, after being married 36 years and dating since high school.  I often catch them flirting and holding hands.

So, work is a constant up-and-down, but family is an almost constant up.

Here's a great picture of my family from my host nephew's 4th birthday party.

My Life in Tumblr Form

I'm going to assume most of my family isn't familiar with Tumblr, but it is a kind of blog that has gotten very popular as a site to collect still shots/short videos from TV shows and movies, and use them to describe something in your life.  It sounds more complicated than it is, the examples below will explain.  I just stumbled across a Tumblr dedicated to Peace Corps life and thought I would share my favorites with you.  I have no idea who made this or in what country they served, but goes to show again how similar our experiences are, wherever you are.  Humor is our best medicine!  Click on each phrase...

When people back home ask what Peace Corps is really like...

When people talk about joining the Peace Corps...

The first month in country...

When I walk through my village...

When I get harassed walking down the street...

When someone in my class shows they actually learned something...

When I think we're talking about work and then I realize I'm being hit on...

When I'm in a taxi and the guy next to me is like...

Mid-Service Crisis... (me right now)

When people in America say - why don't you just come home? (even more-so me right now)

When we see hot tourists...

Driving through the mountains on an old bus...

Every time I'm on Pinterest...

When someone in my village doesn't know who I am...