at midnight, it is the custom to put baby jesus in the manger... this is me having the honor of putting jesus in the nativity scene this year.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
It's that time of year... christmas time is here
campanas with ribbon...my idea and the raw materials cost less but look nicer so we sell it for more and they sold out at the fair!!
one of the purses with the wooden asas(handles) ...only 20 soles ruffly 6 dollars!!
this is made with the tela that we got from Cajamarca and the wooden asas...40 soles...roughly 13 dollars!
oh the ways you can entertain yourself at a fair you are at for 10 hours a day!!! Haha this was among the various games of "throw the straw ball inside the sombrero - 1 point" game and the "how many straw balls can you juggle at once" game... yeh it was like that
another pic of the fair signs outside jockey plaza
Monday, December 8, 2008
Fri 5 de Dic
pics with Maria Martha and me ... on our 2nd exportation of the month to a store in Jackson Heights... they were soo excited.
Martha signing the exportation document in Exportafacil in Serpost!!!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
2 de diciembre 2008
So I havent written in a while, I'm sorry... I've been really busy with reconnect.REconnect is a three month reunion after our initial 3months at site. I spent the week talking about my site and hearing about other people's sites. It was a good time Imissed everyone a lot, but it was also good to hear everyone else's perception of site, because Irealized how lucky I am and how happy I am. Thank you pop and uhoh (for putting in the good word). My site no matter how much I think I deal with is nothing compared to others. Also I am happy for all i deal with and the activities I am busy with, because as I foudn out a lot of other people aren't as busy as I am. I'm heading to Lima for another fair dec 19-21 which is good to keep my mind off the holiday... which will be esp hard this year w.o. my fam. But I think it will be good for me to learn another cultures non-materialistic perception of Christmas. But who am I kiddin, I still miss my shit load of presents!!!!! lol !!!! and not to mention the cold... it has started the season where you are sweating beyond belief... I have (what karrie calls) swamp ass. It's like walking around with a wet butt... i knowthat sounds graphic but it is!! lol okay the reason I am in the city is becauseI have the AIDS conference tomorrow since PEPFAR is starting their campaign in Peru and one of the departments that the epidemic is highest is Piura where I live. So tomorrow starts the PEPFAR conferences and I will be participating with my alcalde and the districto alcalde. Then I have to head back to my site because I have the session de tutoria at 4 but before that there is a man with my artisans that is teaching alternative dying techniques for our products... which im really excited about... so we will see. I'm glad to have gone to reconnect and here other peoples experiences because I have come to realize howlucky i am to have my site and be as happy as I am. Okay well I will write later...
Chau
Elizabeth
Chau
Elizabeth
Monday, November 17, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
form the deck on the hotel in Tunal
after my charla which i thought was a success on Product Design and targeting your market
posing with the artisan products from vince´s group
laughing and that is vince´s head dropped in shame because i just referred to him as vincenta basically a girl
who knows why i was laughing
me and mari
gemelass
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Dia de los muertos
this is the grave site that mari's dad is and obvi where we held the vigil for dia de los muertos
sitting at the vigil
brother in law mario and mari
getting down to the wee hours of the vigil... isn't the background beautiful with the lights in all the graves
Sunday, November 2, 2008
some pics from this week
the trainees checking out the colegio... behind them is the world map in process...
Medioambiente tech trainer Monica with the trainees
trainees with martha
Thursday, October 30, 2008
29 de Octubre 2008
Just finished painting my toenails and thankfully it is the end of the long Senor de los Milagros celebration in my town. Before I go ahead and tell you about my day, I’ll give a brief about my trip to Lima.
It ended up really being beneficial for me, regarding the relationship I have with my artisan and vice versa. We left Wednesday night from PiuraI took Ittsa which is a bit of the luxury bus here and was okay about the price tag because for this event PC pays our pasajes. Anyway, I get all excited because I think I’m going to get at least 5 hours of sleep on this bus, wrong!! Just so happened that all the 2 and 3 year olds that live in Piura decided to head to Lima on the same exact bus as me. I had a screaming and kicking toddler behind me named Sebastian, the mother had no control over him and a peek-a-boo poking 3 year old in front of my named Olivia. Trust me on a 14 hour bus ride cute is not the word that will come to mind with dealing with them not to mention the other 5 playmates scattered throughout the bus! Well we arrived about 8:30 in the morning and I headed to Flores (another bus line) to meet up with my artisan. Then we headed to the office got there a little after 10 dropped off our products and headed to the US embassy for the workshop. I spent the whole day feeling disgusting and just waiiiiting to take a shower in the hotel room. Which turns out, when we went to check in, occupied. My artisan and I went to about 3 different hotels before we found a room thank god. I got showered and changed and headed out to a sports bar to catch the Phils game with a couple of the volunteers. The next day was the fair at the embassy it well extremely well for us. In a matter of speaking because some groups did about 2000 soles while mine did about 780. This is when my artisan saw the benefit of not only going to contact/exhibition fairs but also to selling fairs. She’s a bit too focused on exportation to remember basic rule number 1 of business sell your product to whomever would like to buy it, 1 or 20 of them! Also the capacitation the day before really helped because the volunteers who presented really focused on the topics I have been presenting to my artisan and who’s not been taking it to heart. Maybe it was the amount of other gringos and my bosses there made her realize that yes we do need a finance book and to keep track of inventory. And new designs can be made from existing talents, not every design needs a capacitation. Also we did sell the products with the ribbon which I don’t have a picture of sorry but we plan on making more in the future. Due to all the compliments and the suggestion we should do more did my artisan finally agree =)
Saturday we had the Christmas Bizarre at Colegio Roosevelt (the pic is obvi from there). The event was alright most groups lost profit because of the high entrance fee and low sales. I didn’t think we did that well, but we did make profit therefore my artisan was happy. And she learned to write sales down in the finance book!! Score! Also, we have been working on the whole email process, going well, slow but well. I headed back Saturday night and am pleased to say that from my pure exhaustion from the previous 2 days and the fact I took the Sofa-cama bed home, I slept 10 hours on the bus!! Oh! I forgot to mention that at the bus station the night before on my way back to Piura I ran into the health aspirantes (trainees) from Group 12 who were headed out to their FBT. (My FBT was during training and I went to Cajamarca). I was telling them that 5of the environment trainees will be heading to my site on Thursday and I was my usual over excited self gabbing away… they didn’t seem all to into it. Haha I am a bit overwhelming at times. I got back about 9:30ish on Sunday and went to have breakfast with Glen, Marian, and Erin who were staying in for the weekend in the capital. After which I took a nap and showered, used internet and waited for the Phils to start!! Oh ps trying to explain to your family why you’re staying to watch the world series because your team hasn’t been in it since 1980 and it’s kinda a big deal and you don’t know when this will happen again during the time of a festival in your town that everyone is wasted at and apparently you should be too, is a no-go. So I stopped answering their 20 phone calls to come back and party and watch my game and ate a hamburger! (PS the music started up again, damn! This won’t end till 12 tonight!) and lucky me the celebration is at the house across from mine.. yeh!
Monday was a lazy day I was trying to get things, loose ends tied up on a couple different things, met with my artisan to talk about what we learned form the training and how we can better the association. Then on Tuesday I headed into a town nearby to have an email session with my artisan and at 5 had my Jovenes Emprendedores classes. Which onlyb about 5 people come too but it makes me so happy to do this because I actually know what I’m doing and am passionate about it, I can’t stop! Lol, I shouldn’t really be holding a class with 5 students but I just have too, for my happiness at least! Today I went to the Colegio to set up everything for tomorrow (Jueves) when the trainees will come to do a charla about the 3 R’s. Personally I think we should start with charlas about don’t throw your excretion in the street before we should have them on reduce reuse recycle, but who am I. Also I am finalizing things with the math professor regarding the new tutoring sessions. When I got back to the house I finished up my laundry that I started on Monday and ate lunch with my family though I was invited to the house of the celebration to eat lunch there. 20 minutes later I was being served a 2nd lunch to my dismay. I just don’t get it, no wonder I’m gaining weight, we’re always eating, and to refuse food is like a slap in the face. They were trying to get me to drink chicha but I didn’t. I just give the little kids I play soccer with a hard time about it so I don’t want to be like saying one thing and then when they’re sitting there getting wasted the next day on chicha. I told my family I’ll try it when my family comes from the states. So get ready family for some serious moonshine.
Well that’s about it I have to go to bed early though really 9 is my bedtime, because I have to notify the mayor before I leave to get the trainees in Piura and I have to make a fruit salad for them and also have to take down my laundry. (Omg those trumpets…they have got to be kidding me!! Seriously though this is the 5th day of an apparent 3 day celebration! I don’t know how anything gets done here! WOO RA Jesus!)
Un beso - Elizabeth
PS a good read is Three Cups of Tea, about a man named Greg Mortenson building schools for girls throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan, really interesting read, will def increase your understanding of the central asia area
It ended up really being beneficial for me, regarding the relationship I have with my artisan and vice versa. We left Wednesday night from PiuraI took Ittsa which is a bit of the luxury bus here and was okay about the price tag because for this event PC pays our pasajes. Anyway, I get all excited because I think I’m going to get at least 5 hours of sleep on this bus, wrong!! Just so happened that all the 2 and 3 year olds that live in Piura decided to head to Lima on the same exact bus as me. I had a screaming and kicking toddler behind me named Sebastian, the mother had no control over him and a peek-a-boo poking 3 year old in front of my named Olivia. Trust me on a 14 hour bus ride cute is not the word that will come to mind with dealing with them not to mention the other 5 playmates scattered throughout the bus! Well we arrived about 8:30 in the morning and I headed to Flores (another bus line) to meet up with my artisan. Then we headed to the office got there a little after 10 dropped off our products and headed to the US embassy for the workshop. I spent the whole day feeling disgusting and just waiiiiting to take a shower in the hotel room. Which turns out, when we went to check in, occupied. My artisan and I went to about 3 different hotels before we found a room thank god. I got showered and changed and headed out to a sports bar to catch the Phils game with a couple of the volunteers. The next day was the fair at the embassy it well extremely well for us. In a matter of speaking because some groups did about 2000 soles while mine did about 780. This is when my artisan saw the benefit of not only going to contact/exhibition fairs but also to selling fairs. She’s a bit too focused on exportation to remember basic rule number 1 of business sell your product to whomever would like to buy it, 1 or 20 of them! Also the capacitation the day before really helped because the volunteers who presented really focused on the topics I have been presenting to my artisan and who’s not been taking it to heart. Maybe it was the amount of other gringos and my bosses there made her realize that yes we do need a finance book and to keep track of inventory. And new designs can be made from existing talents, not every design needs a capacitation. Also we did sell the products with the ribbon which I don’t have a picture of sorry but we plan on making more in the future. Due to all the compliments and the suggestion we should do more did my artisan finally agree =)
Saturday we had the Christmas Bizarre at Colegio Roosevelt (the pic is obvi from there). The event was alright most groups lost profit because of the high entrance fee and low sales. I didn’t think we did that well, but we did make profit therefore my artisan was happy. And she learned to write sales down in the finance book!! Score! Also, we have been working on the whole email process, going well, slow but well. I headed back Saturday night and am pleased to say that from my pure exhaustion from the previous 2 days and the fact I took the Sofa-cama bed home, I slept 10 hours on the bus!! Oh! I forgot to mention that at the bus station the night before on my way back to Piura I ran into the health aspirantes (trainees) from Group 12 who were headed out to their FBT. (My FBT was during training and I went to Cajamarca). I was telling them that 5of the environment trainees will be heading to my site on Thursday and I was my usual over excited self gabbing away… they didn’t seem all to into it. Haha I am a bit overwhelming at times. I got back about 9:30ish on Sunday and went to have breakfast with Glen, Marian, and Erin who were staying in for the weekend in the capital. After which I took a nap and showered, used internet and waited for the Phils to start!! Oh ps trying to explain to your family why you’re staying to watch the world series because your team hasn’t been in it since 1980 and it’s kinda a big deal and you don’t know when this will happen again during the time of a festival in your town that everyone is wasted at and apparently you should be too, is a no-go. So I stopped answering their 20 phone calls to come back and party and watch my game and ate a hamburger! (PS the music started up again, damn! This won’t end till 12 tonight!) and lucky me the celebration is at the house across from mine.. yeh!
Monday was a lazy day I was trying to get things, loose ends tied up on a couple different things, met with my artisan to talk about what we learned form the training and how we can better the association. Then on Tuesday I headed into a town nearby to have an email session with my artisan and at 5 had my Jovenes Emprendedores classes. Which onlyb about 5 people come too but it makes me so happy to do this because I actually know what I’m doing and am passionate about it, I can’t stop! Lol, I shouldn’t really be holding a class with 5 students but I just have too, for my happiness at least! Today I went to the Colegio to set up everything for tomorrow (Jueves) when the trainees will come to do a charla about the 3 R’s. Personally I think we should start with charlas about don’t throw your excretion in the street before we should have them on reduce reuse recycle, but who am I. Also I am finalizing things with the math professor regarding the new tutoring sessions. When I got back to the house I finished up my laundry that I started on Monday and ate lunch with my family though I was invited to the house of the celebration to eat lunch there. 20 minutes later I was being served a 2nd lunch to my dismay. I just don’t get it, no wonder I’m gaining weight, we’re always eating, and to refuse food is like a slap in the face. They were trying to get me to drink chicha but I didn’t. I just give the little kids I play soccer with a hard time about it so I don’t want to be like saying one thing and then when they’re sitting there getting wasted the next day on chicha. I told my family I’ll try it when my family comes from the states. So get ready family for some serious moonshine.
Well that’s about it I have to go to bed early though really 9 is my bedtime, because I have to notify the mayor before I leave to get the trainees in Piura and I have to make a fruit salad for them and also have to take down my laundry. (Omg those trumpets…they have got to be kidding me!! Seriously though this is the 5th day of an apparent 3 day celebration! I don’t know how anything gets done here! WOO RA Jesus!)
Un beso - Elizabeth
PS a good read is Three Cups of Tea, about a man named Greg Mortenson building schools for girls throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan, really interesting read, will def increase your understanding of the central asia area
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Feria at Colegio Roosevelt
This is at the Feria in Coelgio Roosevelt in Lima... yes the layout looks a bit messed up but this was basically with an hour left till close
Saturday, October 18, 2008
more thingssss
14 de Octubre 2008
Well, Saturday I ended up having an empty class!! After I woke up early to prepare then had class at 3:30, I thought, no one came! Well all for the better I guess, I don’t know what I’m going to do with English classes. Well then at night I was supposed to have a meeting with one of the organizations in my house. However, I think there was a theme of sticking up the gringa, so that never occurred, but 3 people did come. Domingo, nothing happened too special I went to the mass for the celebration of Jesus Cautivo. This was the ceremony I filmed earlier this month, though when I was explaining it, I explained that I thought they walked 8 days to the spot of the miracle and killed a cow or something, well its not like that, they might kill some chickens to eat or turkeys but they walk 8 days to Ayabaca. The reason I was confused was porque the name of the town, Ayabaca, sounds like vaca which is cow. Lol There are many of these instances because I’m still learning. It’s quite funny. Okay so I went to the 6:00 mass with La Angelica my mom, but in true Latin American fashion, the mass began at 6:30! =) I got a kick out of waiting in the church for half an hour. Then I came back and went back to bed till about 9:30. Then, I headed back to the church for the parade of Jesus Cautivo. But that was the slowest march of my life so I walked for a 2 blocks and went home. Seriously! Lol they stopped every block to drink chicha, I did not have the time to do that when I had more important things like sunbathe and read my novel. Then at 4:00 I was to have a meeting with Karrie, because Monday we were going to el gobierno regional to meet with the director there of the artesanas de bajo piura. (The same lady I met with on Friday with all the artesanas.) That didn’t happen though because she was stuck in Piura so I watched some movies with my sister, in Ingles and translated it for her. (There were only subtitles in Frances y Ingles). That was annoying and I don’t want to do it again lol. I slept well, but for some reason I woke up like 4 times with diarrhea and vomiting then when I woke up in the morning and it was gone!
Monday I was up at 6 and out of the house before 7 to head to the city. I got into the city about 7:30 to have breakfast with Marian. She is living in the Sierra and was back only for the previous night and was heading back to site at 11. After breakfast Karrie and I headed to our meeting at 9. Our meeting lasted about 2 hours. We were basically asking for a meeting in a sense of the responsibilities of the artisans with the government. Yes, there is a lot of money for the government to give to the artisans but many times, they are just receiving it and not doing anything to earn it or to control it. We wanted to collaborate with the government, that to receive money the assoc needs to write a plan de trabajo of what they would like to do with the money and how much it will cost. Because, when karrie and I express the importance of this is doesn’t register. I mean, would it, if you didn’t have to write this information in the first place to receive money? Would you write a formal plan? No! So we got the yes, we understand and we will start asking for things instead of just giving. But not for plans, that’s apparently to intense and demanding, but other things like all the groups need to register their members. Because as of right now the list says there are 3 artisans in Bajo Piura! Imaginate! So yeh, poca a poca. But they def got the jist of it, which was our goal. After our meeting, I headed back to site for my meeting with the math teacher at 12:30. I made it there with a minute to spare! But she was 20 minutes late so I could catch my breathe. I met with her to talk about the change I was going to make in the sessiones de tutorial. Instead of how I was having the sessions, which was basically, me helping kids from different grades individually and trying to give all individual attention in 2 hours. It’s just not possible. So I thought about what I could do and of course came up with the most sensible which is to work with the professor to ask the kids in the class that are the most intelligent and grasp math to tutor those who need it and ask for tutoring. Also, the kids who the teacher asks to help and say yes, will receive extra credit in the class. She thought this was a great idea, so I will prob meet with the kids, 2 from each grade, (just in case the hour of tutoring one can’t make it and also to let them have a system of switching on and off each week) this week or next week sometime and go over with them about turoring and their ideas of what days/hours are the best as well as which is better to assign the kids with bad marks to tutoring (like the teacher wants) or to have the optional hour open to all students with each class being about the tema of that week that was in class ( like I wants). We’ll see… Either way I think it’s much better to have tutoring between the students who are in the class. And, it’s also a lot more sustainable, which is PCs #1goal and fav word. Then after that I ate quickly then headed back to the colegio to continue work on the mapa mundial. Basically, though my lists has about 15 boys listed with only 1 girl, it was me, my friend Brenda and the one girl who signed up!! Some of the boys stopped by and graced us with their presence but left to play soccer! It’s def because were only in the beginning stages, not in the painting or drawing stages. Well, we are drawing but only the cuadras to draw in, therefore it’s prob below them… excuuuuse me!! Lol. Then after that I headed back to grab dinner then head to a meeting with Martha about the associacion. She told me she didn’t have time to have the meeting because she was leaving to teach, then continued to talk to me for 45 minutes about how when I leave I will bring her or her daughter to the states to set up a business there and sell straw products… yeh just a normal daily conversation with her, never about the things I want to talk about just what I can do for her to get her to the states or sell directly there. She constantly asks for my list of contacts to export too, I say to her… listen there is no one in their right mind sitting in the empty store twiddling there fingers saying…OH I hope a straw purse made from artisans in Peru comes in the mail today!! And plus she doesn’t have the organization for exportation, she can’t read email! Well, enough about that, all of that is annoying and things I have to deal with daily. Speaking of, I have a meeting right now with her, so I will head over there right now!
OCTOBER 16
The meeting went well enough, we ended up making the products of tela with paja and we’ll get to show them off at the Cuerpo de Paz feria which is next week on Friday and the Christmas Bazaar fair is Saturday the 25th. I will be leaving for Lima on the 22 then heading back to Piura on the 25th, yeh 14 hour bus trips! Okay where did I leave off, oh I believe Tuesday. Well in the morning I had a meeting at the gobierno regional, and was the first one to arrive 10 minutes late and was the only one there for about 1 hour, until more people came. After, Karrie and I went out to grab lunch then I met with Wilfredo to talk with him about some concerns I have… Then I went back to site because I had my first jovenes emprendedores class in my town. To jostle your memory, it is basically the FBT course I did in Cajamarca but extended into a two month course. At the end, the participants receive certificates. I had a great time doing this; it really was a break/confidence booster for me to do something I was confident in. Many times here it’s just hard to be looked at as knowing solutions about problems, when in reality I have no knowledge in the matter. It also was a slap in the face that I had my lecture all on the computer and slides to use with a projector, when guess what happened. Like they say in the pc nothing ever goes as planned. The projector wasn’t returned to my boss, so I wasn’t able to bring it back to site with me. But I was content to just use my comp and then when I got to the building, found that the electricity that was to be restored, never was. So I basically threw up some papelotas (big papers) and went from memory! Which was fun. I had 11 people come from the 15 that signed up, I considered that a success. And to add to that, they were on time. Then after when I got home, like I said I had a meeting with Martha to go over the meeting that was in Piura and to talk about a few other things.
Wednesday, though I was supposed to run to Catacaos to buy a few things, I ended up doing my laundry, my sister claimed the heavens were about to fall and La Angelica said it was a miracle lol. But I cleaned all my clothes and dusted my room floor to ceiling. I also put on the new egg crate mattress thingy mom and dad sent on my bed and now I can’t feel the wood planks underneath!! Woo hoo! Though I am afraid to say sleeping 6 weeks on the planks has done some damaged. After my morning doing that, I ran to the municipality to have a quick meeting with Esther and Miguel about Club de Madres. We planned a meeting with 3 of the groups for Friday at 4 so hopefully this time, they will come to get me and not forget about me. I prob should be writing my agenda for the meeting instead of a blog entry, but such is my life as a procrastinator! I had a meeting with one of the professors in the colegio but she was busy. She ended up giving me a list of the students who wanted to participate in the tutoring program. Now I have to write a plan de trabajo and invitations to them… Wed afternoon I ran into Catacaos with Mari and ran into Karrie with her sister there. Then I came home and was a little sick, I think it is from the bread they have here… I can only attribute that to the difference in my diet on the days I get sick…
Today was a bit like yesterday I didn’t want to do anything and didn’t feel like talking Spanish lol. But I had a meeting with Esther in themuni to talk about the library project and ludoteca then I was asking for her help in the rifa for the kids shoes. I got a really interesting phone call from one of my tech trainers, Ivan, the aspirantes from Ambiente (environment) are coming up for their FBT in Piura and they are seeing a bunch of sites in the sierra as well as in the city of Piura. He asked if I had a colegio in my site (which I do) and if maybe the director would be interested in having 5 aspirantes come to do charlas about education ambiental, which of course I said I would ask him because I had a meeting with him conveniently that day. I headed to the colegio to meet with the director first to ask about a few things and also about the charlas, he of course said yes he would love them to come. Then I met with a professor’s daughter who comes for free to do charlas about autoestima and liderazco to the kids. She is studying at the universidad de piura for a degree in psychology. She’s going to the US to work for 3 months in a program through the university. I gave hermy cousins number bc she did the same program about 2 years ago, then I asked her if she wouldn’t mind coming and helping me with the Club de Madres here. She said of course and also through her I could solicit more students from the university to come and talk according to their specified specialty, for free!! Cool, no?! All in all pretty good day, though I got nothing done that I needed to get done like my questionnaire for the artisans and also the one for the community and I didn’t further my efforts in the rifa around town. Okay well I’m tired and tomorrows another day and hey maybe I’ll get some things done =) I mean I couldn’t use mycomp all day bc we didn’t have electricity, which has been really faulty lately and its like the only person that cares is my sister who goes into the city and ask about every time it goes out. The other week it was out for 2days.
Un beso-Elizabeth
Well, Saturday I ended up having an empty class!! After I woke up early to prepare then had class at 3:30, I thought, no one came! Well all for the better I guess, I don’t know what I’m going to do with English classes. Well then at night I was supposed to have a meeting with one of the organizations in my house. However, I think there was a theme of sticking up the gringa, so that never occurred, but 3 people did come. Domingo, nothing happened too special I went to the mass for the celebration of Jesus Cautivo. This was the ceremony I filmed earlier this month, though when I was explaining it, I explained that I thought they walked 8 days to the spot of the miracle and killed a cow or something, well its not like that, they might kill some chickens to eat or turkeys but they walk 8 days to Ayabaca. The reason I was confused was porque the name of the town, Ayabaca, sounds like vaca which is cow. Lol There are many of these instances because I’m still learning. It’s quite funny. Okay so I went to the 6:00 mass with La Angelica my mom, but in true Latin American fashion, the mass began at 6:30! =) I got a kick out of waiting in the church for half an hour. Then I came back and went back to bed till about 9:30. Then, I headed back to the church for the parade of Jesus Cautivo. But that was the slowest march of my life so I walked for a 2 blocks and went home. Seriously! Lol they stopped every block to drink chicha, I did not have the time to do that when I had more important things like sunbathe and read my novel. Then at 4:00 I was to have a meeting with Karrie, because Monday we were going to el gobierno regional to meet with the director there of the artesanas de bajo piura. (The same lady I met with on Friday with all the artesanas.) That didn’t happen though because she was stuck in Piura so I watched some movies with my sister, in Ingles and translated it for her. (There were only subtitles in Frances y Ingles). That was annoying and I don’t want to do it again lol. I slept well, but for some reason I woke up like 4 times with diarrhea and vomiting then when I woke up in the morning and it was gone!
Monday I was up at 6 and out of the house before 7 to head to the city. I got into the city about 7:30 to have breakfast with Marian. She is living in the Sierra and was back only for the previous night and was heading back to site at 11. After breakfast Karrie and I headed to our meeting at 9. Our meeting lasted about 2 hours. We were basically asking for a meeting in a sense of the responsibilities of the artisans with the government. Yes, there is a lot of money for the government to give to the artisans but many times, they are just receiving it and not doing anything to earn it or to control it. We wanted to collaborate with the government, that to receive money the assoc needs to write a plan de trabajo of what they would like to do with the money and how much it will cost. Because, when karrie and I express the importance of this is doesn’t register. I mean, would it, if you didn’t have to write this information in the first place to receive money? Would you write a formal plan? No! So we got the yes, we understand and we will start asking for things instead of just giving. But not for plans, that’s apparently to intense and demanding, but other things like all the groups need to register their members. Because as of right now the list says there are 3 artisans in Bajo Piura! Imaginate! So yeh, poca a poca. But they def got the jist of it, which was our goal. After our meeting, I headed back to site for my meeting with the math teacher at 12:30. I made it there with a minute to spare! But she was 20 minutes late so I could catch my breathe. I met with her to talk about the change I was going to make in the sessiones de tutorial. Instead of how I was having the sessions, which was basically, me helping kids from different grades individually and trying to give all individual attention in 2 hours. It’s just not possible. So I thought about what I could do and of course came up with the most sensible which is to work with the professor to ask the kids in the class that are the most intelligent and grasp math to tutor those who need it and ask for tutoring. Also, the kids who the teacher asks to help and say yes, will receive extra credit in the class. She thought this was a great idea, so I will prob meet with the kids, 2 from each grade, (just in case the hour of tutoring one can’t make it and also to let them have a system of switching on and off each week) this week or next week sometime and go over with them about turoring and their ideas of what days/hours are the best as well as which is better to assign the kids with bad marks to tutoring (like the teacher wants) or to have the optional hour open to all students with each class being about the tema of that week that was in class ( like I wants). We’ll see… Either way I think it’s much better to have tutoring between the students who are in the class. And, it’s also a lot more sustainable, which is PCs #1goal and fav word. Then after that I ate quickly then headed back to the colegio to continue work on the mapa mundial. Basically, though my lists has about 15 boys listed with only 1 girl, it was me, my friend Brenda and the one girl who signed up!! Some of the boys stopped by and graced us with their presence but left to play soccer! It’s def because were only in the beginning stages, not in the painting or drawing stages. Well, we are drawing but only the cuadras to draw in, therefore it’s prob below them… excuuuuse me!! Lol. Then after that I headed back to grab dinner then head to a meeting with Martha about the associacion. She told me she didn’t have time to have the meeting because she was leaving to teach, then continued to talk to me for 45 minutes about how when I leave I will bring her or her daughter to the states to set up a business there and sell straw products… yeh just a normal daily conversation with her, never about the things I want to talk about just what I can do for her to get her to the states or sell directly there. She constantly asks for my list of contacts to export too, I say to her… listen there is no one in their right mind sitting in the empty store twiddling there fingers saying…OH I hope a straw purse made from artisans in Peru comes in the mail today!! And plus she doesn’t have the organization for exportation, she can’t read email! Well, enough about that, all of that is annoying and things I have to deal with daily. Speaking of, I have a meeting right now with her, so I will head over there right now!
OCTOBER 16
The meeting went well enough, we ended up making the products of tela with paja and we’ll get to show them off at the Cuerpo de Paz feria which is next week on Friday and the Christmas Bazaar fair is Saturday the 25th. I will be leaving for Lima on the 22 then heading back to Piura on the 25th, yeh 14 hour bus trips! Okay where did I leave off, oh I believe Tuesday. Well in the morning I had a meeting at the gobierno regional, and was the first one to arrive 10 minutes late and was the only one there for about 1 hour, until more people came. After, Karrie and I went out to grab lunch then I met with Wilfredo to talk with him about some concerns I have… Then I went back to site because I had my first jovenes emprendedores class in my town. To jostle your memory, it is basically the FBT course I did in Cajamarca but extended into a two month course. At the end, the participants receive certificates. I had a great time doing this; it really was a break/confidence booster for me to do something I was confident in. Many times here it’s just hard to be looked at as knowing solutions about problems, when in reality I have no knowledge in the matter. It also was a slap in the face that I had my lecture all on the computer and slides to use with a projector, when guess what happened. Like they say in the pc nothing ever goes as planned. The projector wasn’t returned to my boss, so I wasn’t able to bring it back to site with me. But I was content to just use my comp and then when I got to the building, found that the electricity that was to be restored, never was. So I basically threw up some papelotas (big papers) and went from memory! Which was fun. I had 11 people come from the 15 that signed up, I considered that a success. And to add to that, they were on time. Then after when I got home, like I said I had a meeting with Martha to go over the meeting that was in Piura and to talk about a few other things.
Wednesday, though I was supposed to run to Catacaos to buy a few things, I ended up doing my laundry, my sister claimed the heavens were about to fall and La Angelica said it was a miracle lol. But I cleaned all my clothes and dusted my room floor to ceiling. I also put on the new egg crate mattress thingy mom and dad sent on my bed and now I can’t feel the wood planks underneath!! Woo hoo! Though I am afraid to say sleeping 6 weeks on the planks has done some damaged. After my morning doing that, I ran to the municipality to have a quick meeting with Esther and Miguel about Club de Madres. We planned a meeting with 3 of the groups for Friday at 4 so hopefully this time, they will come to get me and not forget about me. I prob should be writing my agenda for the meeting instead of a blog entry, but such is my life as a procrastinator! I had a meeting with one of the professors in the colegio but she was busy. She ended up giving me a list of the students who wanted to participate in the tutoring program. Now I have to write a plan de trabajo and invitations to them… Wed afternoon I ran into Catacaos with Mari and ran into Karrie with her sister there. Then I came home and was a little sick, I think it is from the bread they have here… I can only attribute that to the difference in my diet on the days I get sick…
Today was a bit like yesterday I didn’t want to do anything and didn’t feel like talking Spanish lol. But I had a meeting with Esther in themuni to talk about the library project and ludoteca then I was asking for her help in the rifa for the kids shoes. I got a really interesting phone call from one of my tech trainers, Ivan, the aspirantes from Ambiente (environment) are coming up for their FBT in Piura and they are seeing a bunch of sites in the sierra as well as in the city of Piura. He asked if I had a colegio in my site (which I do) and if maybe the director would be interested in having 5 aspirantes come to do charlas about education ambiental, which of course I said I would ask him because I had a meeting with him conveniently that day. I headed to the colegio to meet with the director first to ask about a few things and also about the charlas, he of course said yes he would love them to come. Then I met with a professor’s daughter who comes for free to do charlas about autoestima and liderazco to the kids. She is studying at the universidad de piura for a degree in psychology. She’s going to the US to work for 3 months in a program through the university. I gave hermy cousins number bc she did the same program about 2 years ago, then I asked her if she wouldn’t mind coming and helping me with the Club de Madres here. She said of course and also through her I could solicit more students from the university to come and talk according to their specified specialty, for free!! Cool, no?! All in all pretty good day, though I got nothing done that I needed to get done like my questionnaire for the artisans and also the one for the community and I didn’t further my efforts in the rifa around town. Okay well I’m tired and tomorrows another day and hey maybe I’ll get some things done =) I mean I couldn’t use mycomp all day bc we didn’t have electricity, which has been really faulty lately and its like the only person that cares is my sister who goes into the city and ask about every time it goes out. The other week it was out for 2days.
Un beso-Elizabeth
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
summarizing more of my life
October 11, 2008
Okay so where I did I end last…oh yes Saturday. Well on Sunday, my niece came to visit she’s 21 her name is Marisela. Then we were invited to participate in the ceremony of the day, this one was especially important, it was the christening of the road in our town. (I have posted pictures) So great at about 11:30 I was walking up the street to await the major of Catacaos to begin the ceremony. He rolled in at a nice and late 12:45. We walked, holding the flag, with the major of pedregal and the senorita of Catacaos from one end of the road to the other end…about 4 blocks. Blocks like in the suburbs. And then we walked back… haha Then the major said a few nice words then more important people said a few nice words then the major of Catacaos spoke about our meeting we had on Thursday and about all I was going to do for the town and promised a bunch of things that I “said” I was going to do and buy. That’s when I almost peed my pants and later that week had to clarify, mind you. Then he announced I was the madrina and yeh! I was off to raise the flag of Pedregal. Then after, we went to a full pitcher of chichi swinging from the tripod and shattered the container over the street and thus, christened the street. The following two hours were filled with games, in the street, of course, to show the diversity of things one can accomplish on the new street that never before could… like… yeh I don’t know, as far as I know chugging contests and soccer matches are pretty much” any where’s fair” kinda thing =) haha lol No, really it was a great time then I had some lunch, consisting of mystery meat and rice and beans. Then drinking began, I excused myself for the night and went home to hang out.
Monday didn’t go exactly as planned but ended up being pretty constructive. I was supposed to have a meeting with the Alcalde but he didn’t show, probably nursing something awful from the ceremony of Sunday. So I ended up chilling hanging out in the municipality to talk with Esther who is the secretary there and also part of Grupo LIDEL which is the youth group of my town. Her and my sister have been talking about starting a library but are having difficulties finding places since all the municipality places are destroyed and falling apart. To help them get on the right foot, she and I went around town taking pictures of each place that would be appropriate for a library. The reason, well 1 to determine the exact locations we are thinking of as well as if they were housing people who had the ownership to but have since left Pedregal or Piura for that matter can give their consent for the use. 2 is something of my own mind, when you actually start something rather than just talking about it, it ends up getting the ball rolling and done faster. We also know that Marcelino (who is also part of LIDEL and a carpenter), if we ask, can give us the estimates of how much it will cost to reconstruct the buildings to not be a safety hazard. With these reports we can then go to several ONGs and also the Piura government to ask for money and help in reconstructing because there have been reach-outs, so to say, but since no one has decided on a place, we haven’t received anything. Also, we set Saturday as the day to meet with the actual youth of LIDEL because I am constantly talking to the people who run it and not those who are a part of it! Also, there is something called a Ludoteca run by an organization from Europe and the US Cielo, I think. These are places where the children can go to place puzzle games and what translates as mind-games. They help stir creative thinking and problem solving while having fun. Also having a Ludoteca gives a place for the organization to run charlas of motivation and such for free to the youth. I ran into this “opportunity/organization” when I was in the meeting in Catacaos with the municipality about trash-dumping. (Which is a whole diff topic) But the guy in charge of the cleaning of Catacaos is on the board of this committee. So Esther and I set a date the following week to go to a local town that has one, and where he will be presenting to see what exactly one consists of and how exactly we can get one in Pedregal.
Then at about 3:30 I headed over to the colegio to start the world map project with some students. Which basically consisted of me handing out some drawing activities to see, who exactly can draw, because since we don’t have a projector to use, we will be drawing by hand a 224x484 cm size map? It is just as much fun as it sounds lol. We ended up drawing the box and figuring out the size then scheduled Thursday to begin painting the white base coat on the wall. Then at about 5:30 I went running with my friend Brenda, she is Esther’s sister. Then at 7 I had a meeting at the municipality to talk about projects and some different things going on, then at 8:30 I had a meeting with Esther and Marcelino.
I forget what I did on Tuesday. I had a meeting in the night with my artisan. Ohhh I remember… lol I had some meeting in the morning but in the afternoon I decided I was going to attempt the removal of a stump in the front yard or front strip. My family just cut thetree to make room for the road but didn’t actually remove the stump or trunco and personally I think it was ugly. So I sat for about 2 ½ hours trying to remove this stump and I had so many people from the neighborhood come up and were like, the gringa is doing lawn work omg, I doubt she’ll get that out. And I said just wait, woman can do things too, this because they were like just have a man do that. So 2 ½ I worked and still it wasn’t moving then a 5 year olf came out form the house next door and him and his machete started helping me lol. We didn’t get much further then esther’s brother in lawn came over with his axe and tried to make it budge, it wouldn’t. So here’s the image of the three of us hacking at this stubborn trunk and then slowing started moving and removed it, I had to take a picture, hence the photo duhh! Then I said to people who asked and people that came up to me and where like I didn’t think you were going to do it! And I said well you have to be big enough to know when you can’t do something yourself and you need help, that’s called teamwork! So all the kids that day were talking about trabajo en equipo (team work)! Felt nice.
Wednesday, Georgie’s birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I woke up at about 7 to head to my artisan’s house to talk about a few things then schedule a meeting with Karrie’s group at 10. We headed there to spilt up the material and have everyone pay. There are a lot of difficulties I don’t feel like explaining, but I don’t think we will be doing much with the material and incorporation into the purses designs in the near future. Then Karrie’s friends from the states came in so we ended up going into Piura to have lunch with them. I had a glad of wine and it was perfect! Then I went to the market bought paint for Thursday and headed home, but of course stopped to call Geo first! Then I made banana pancakes for dinner, drizzled in honey =)
Thursday, was a great day! I went to the colegio with the head of the health post to give vaccines of Hep B to all the kids. Though I didn’t give them, he wanted me too, I was like I’m this is def where I draw the line, not my specialty! Lol, so I just called out the kids names, which should I mention is another non-specialty of mine lol try pronouncing some of these names! And not to mention that half the class has mas o menos the same name so you need to say the whole thing or ten kids turn their heads! Then at about 12 I came home at lunch with was awesome, I sautéed cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, red peppers with grilled fish! Delicious! Then at about 3:30 headed back to the school to do the first coat of paint with Brenda and another guy from LIDEL with the alumnus del colegio. This is when we saw the anti-progress we made with the inclusion of the kids in this project. This is one of the many reasons that I’m nervous about this project. They can’t even do white paint evenly, def worried about drawing and the small, color in the lines problems. Then after this I came home to an empty house, because my sister and mom went into Piura for the bday of my nephew, Cesar. So I provechar-ed this time to watch the Sex in the City movie (thanks brent and meg!!) and made a fruit smoothie and salad for dinner! Though there was continual knocking on the door and window from Nene the kid who lives next store, he wanted to come in and didn’t understand what “alone-time” meant. He’s still getting the silent treatment from me. Then about 9:30 Mari and Angelica returned with sweets and cake! Then on Friday I woke up for the 8 meeting I had with Martha but again she was too busy to talk to me grr… then we headed into Piura at 10 for a meeting with the gobierno regional about problems artisans are having in their sites. This is with a lady names Consuelo who works there, I scheduled a meeting with her on Monday at 9 to talk with Karrie and me about our associations and our concerns! Then I ran back to site for a meeting with Cely the teacher of math to re-work the tutoria classes. But I messaged her that I wouldn’t make it back in time, rescheduling for Monday at 1. Then I headed into the market at Catacaos to buy more paint and thinner. 3:30 I did another pasado (coat) with Brenda and the guy from LIDEL, sin kids this time and it took about ¼ of the time. When I came back my sister and my brother-in-law where in full swing redoing one of the rooms here so I joined in and helped them, showered and was in bed by 8:30!! Can you believe that Friday night at 22 yrs old and I’m in bed by 8:30…what has my world come too??
Saturday, today, I woke up early to get prepared for English class at 9, at about 9:30 when no one showed I realized, oh wait we changed the time to 3:30. Sooo, I went back upstairs to lie down and read and await the call from mom and dad at 11. Then I changed locations to the patio to sunbathe and read. Ate some lunch and now I am writing this blog entry and it is 3:26, so I shall stop and head downstairs to await my pupils!
Chaufis <33 ekh
Okay so where I did I end last…oh yes Saturday. Well on Sunday, my niece came to visit she’s 21 her name is Marisela. Then we were invited to participate in the ceremony of the day, this one was especially important, it was the christening of the road in our town. (I have posted pictures) So great at about 11:30 I was walking up the street to await the major of Catacaos to begin the ceremony. He rolled in at a nice and late 12:45. We walked, holding the flag, with the major of pedregal and the senorita of Catacaos from one end of the road to the other end…about 4 blocks. Blocks like in the suburbs. And then we walked back… haha Then the major said a few nice words then more important people said a few nice words then the major of Catacaos spoke about our meeting we had on Thursday and about all I was going to do for the town and promised a bunch of things that I “said” I was going to do and buy. That’s when I almost peed my pants and later that week had to clarify, mind you. Then he announced I was the madrina and yeh! I was off to raise the flag of Pedregal. Then after, we went to a full pitcher of chichi swinging from the tripod and shattered the container over the street and thus, christened the street. The following two hours were filled with games, in the street, of course, to show the diversity of things one can accomplish on the new street that never before could… like… yeh I don’t know, as far as I know chugging contests and soccer matches are pretty much” any where’s fair” kinda thing =) haha lol No, really it was a great time then I had some lunch, consisting of mystery meat and rice and beans. Then drinking began, I excused myself for the night and went home to hang out.
Monday didn’t go exactly as planned but ended up being pretty constructive. I was supposed to have a meeting with the Alcalde but he didn’t show, probably nursing something awful from the ceremony of Sunday. So I ended up chilling hanging out in the municipality to talk with Esther who is the secretary there and also part of Grupo LIDEL which is the youth group of my town. Her and my sister have been talking about starting a library but are having difficulties finding places since all the municipality places are destroyed and falling apart. To help them get on the right foot, she and I went around town taking pictures of each place that would be appropriate for a library. The reason, well 1 to determine the exact locations we are thinking of as well as if they were housing people who had the ownership to but have since left Pedregal or Piura for that matter can give their consent for the use. 2 is something of my own mind, when you actually start something rather than just talking about it, it ends up getting the ball rolling and done faster. We also know that Marcelino (who is also part of LIDEL and a carpenter), if we ask, can give us the estimates of how much it will cost to reconstruct the buildings to not be a safety hazard. With these reports we can then go to several ONGs and also the Piura government to ask for money and help in reconstructing because there have been reach-outs, so to say, but since no one has decided on a place, we haven’t received anything. Also, we set Saturday as the day to meet with the actual youth of LIDEL because I am constantly talking to the people who run it and not those who are a part of it! Also, there is something called a Ludoteca run by an organization from Europe and the US Cielo, I think. These are places where the children can go to place puzzle games and what translates as mind-games. They help stir creative thinking and problem solving while having fun. Also having a Ludoteca gives a place for the organization to run charlas of motivation and such for free to the youth. I ran into this “opportunity/organization” when I was in the meeting in Catacaos with the municipality about trash-dumping. (Which is a whole diff topic) But the guy in charge of the cleaning of Catacaos is on the board of this committee. So Esther and I set a date the following week to go to a local town that has one, and where he will be presenting to see what exactly one consists of and how exactly we can get one in Pedregal.
Then at about 3:30 I headed over to the colegio to start the world map project with some students. Which basically consisted of me handing out some drawing activities to see, who exactly can draw, because since we don’t have a projector to use, we will be drawing by hand a 224x484 cm size map? It is just as much fun as it sounds lol. We ended up drawing the box and figuring out the size then scheduled Thursday to begin painting the white base coat on the wall. Then at about 5:30 I went running with my friend Brenda, she is Esther’s sister. Then at 7 I had a meeting at the municipality to talk about projects and some different things going on, then at 8:30 I had a meeting with Esther and Marcelino.
I forget what I did on Tuesday. I had a meeting in the night with my artisan. Ohhh I remember… lol I had some meeting in the morning but in the afternoon I decided I was going to attempt the removal of a stump in the front yard or front strip. My family just cut thetree to make room for the road but didn’t actually remove the stump or trunco and personally I think it was ugly. So I sat for about 2 ½ hours trying to remove this stump and I had so many people from the neighborhood come up and were like, the gringa is doing lawn work omg, I doubt she’ll get that out. And I said just wait, woman can do things too, this because they were like just have a man do that. So 2 ½ I worked and still it wasn’t moving then a 5 year olf came out form the house next door and him and his machete started helping me lol. We didn’t get much further then esther’s brother in lawn came over with his axe and tried to make it budge, it wouldn’t. So here’s the image of the three of us hacking at this stubborn trunk and then slowing started moving and removed it, I had to take a picture, hence the photo duhh! Then I said to people who asked and people that came up to me and where like I didn’t think you were going to do it! And I said well you have to be big enough to know when you can’t do something yourself and you need help, that’s called teamwork! So all the kids that day were talking about trabajo en equipo (team work)! Felt nice.
Wednesday, Georgie’s birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I woke up at about 7 to head to my artisan’s house to talk about a few things then schedule a meeting with Karrie’s group at 10. We headed there to spilt up the material and have everyone pay. There are a lot of difficulties I don’t feel like explaining, but I don’t think we will be doing much with the material and incorporation into the purses designs in the near future. Then Karrie’s friends from the states came in so we ended up going into Piura to have lunch with them. I had a glad of wine and it was perfect! Then I went to the market bought paint for Thursday and headed home, but of course stopped to call Geo first! Then I made banana pancakes for dinner, drizzled in honey =)
Thursday, was a great day! I went to the colegio with the head of the health post to give vaccines of Hep B to all the kids. Though I didn’t give them, he wanted me too, I was like I’m this is def where I draw the line, not my specialty! Lol, so I just called out the kids names, which should I mention is another non-specialty of mine lol try pronouncing some of these names! And not to mention that half the class has mas o menos the same name so you need to say the whole thing or ten kids turn their heads! Then at about 12 I came home at lunch with was awesome, I sautéed cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, red peppers with grilled fish! Delicious! Then at about 3:30 headed back to the school to do the first coat of paint with Brenda and another guy from LIDEL with the alumnus del colegio. This is when we saw the anti-progress we made with the inclusion of the kids in this project. This is one of the many reasons that I’m nervous about this project. They can’t even do white paint evenly, def worried about drawing and the small, color in the lines problems. Then after this I came home to an empty house, because my sister and mom went into Piura for the bday of my nephew, Cesar. So I provechar-ed this time to watch the Sex in the City movie (thanks brent and meg!!) and made a fruit smoothie and salad for dinner! Though there was continual knocking on the door and window from Nene the kid who lives next store, he wanted to come in and didn’t understand what “alone-time” meant. He’s still getting the silent treatment from me. Then about 9:30 Mari and Angelica returned with sweets and cake! Then on Friday I woke up for the 8 meeting I had with Martha but again she was too busy to talk to me grr… then we headed into Piura at 10 for a meeting with the gobierno regional about problems artisans are having in their sites. This is with a lady names Consuelo who works there, I scheduled a meeting with her on Monday at 9 to talk with Karrie and me about our associations and our concerns! Then I ran back to site for a meeting with Cely the teacher of math to re-work the tutoria classes. But I messaged her that I wouldn’t make it back in time, rescheduling for Monday at 1. Then I headed into the market at Catacaos to buy more paint and thinner. 3:30 I did another pasado (coat) with Brenda and the guy from LIDEL, sin kids this time and it took about ¼ of the time. When I came back my sister and my brother-in-law where in full swing redoing one of the rooms here so I joined in and helped them, showered and was in bed by 8:30!! Can you believe that Friday night at 22 yrs old and I’m in bed by 8:30…what has my world come too??
Saturday, today, I woke up early to get prepared for English class at 9, at about 9:30 when no one showed I realized, oh wait we changed the time to 3:30. Sooo, I went back upstairs to lie down and read and await the call from mom and dad at 11. Then I changed locations to the patio to sunbathe and read. Ate some lunch and now I am writing this blog entry and it is 3:26, so I shall stop and head downstairs to await my pupils!
Chaufis <33 ekh
Sunday, October 12, 2008
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