Children's Book Project

When I accepted a two-year long volunteer position to improve the health of a community in Peru, literacy was the farthest thing from my mind.  My focus was on measuring the levels of malnutrition and preventable illnesses, like diarrheal diseases from poor sanitation (“Montezuma’s Revenge” still exists in Peru!), and surveying each household on their knowledge and behaviors regarding nutrition, early childhood development and hygiene, and documenting their barriers to change.

But my focus expanded when the neighborhood kids started coming to my house every afternoon to see what the “gringa” is doing.  Often I am found sitting in front of my host family’s home seeking shade and a cool breeze that allows me enough relief from the mid-day heat to study Spanish textbooks, or just read for pleasure.  The kids were curious about the books I was reading, and I got into the habit of reading aloud from whatever book I had with me.

Eventually I realized that these kids have rarely (or possibly have never before) seen anyone read for pleasure.  The town’s library is woefully lacking books and there are no textbooks books in the local school.  In addition, most parents have a reading level that is too low to read to their kids; even if there was a way to buy or borrow a book it could seem like an insurmountable challenge to read more than a few pages.

I wanted to continue reading to the neighborhood kids, but they got bored of hearing about my Spanish lessons and they were too young for the fantasy adventure book I was reading. So, I asked my mother to send me a few children’s books, including a Curious Jorge book that told the story in both English and Spanish. The children were absolutely fascinated with hearing the stories in both languages!  They listened with rapt attention and tried to figure out which English words corresponded to the Spanish words. 

The children started coming over on a daily basis begging me to read to them and asking to borrow the books to read to themselves.  I was tickled to see their fascination with the books and it spurred an idea to ask my friends and family to send more books that could be donated to the library.   I collected over 100 donations of books from the following contributors:

Sandy and Nik Nichols

Bob Crow and Pat Snyder

Connect360 Multimedia 

Michelle Quivey

Julie Triplett

Allison Eichele

I scheduled regular weekly reading sessions in the community library, which received an overwhelming response.  Each week 40 to 50 kids packed the tiny library to hear magical stories and finally have a chance to hold a book in their hands.   I would like to thank the book donors for their generosity in helping me provide an opportunity to spark a love for reading for so many children.

Reading is a skill that is essential for developing a child’s mind, which is essential for learning and critical thinking later in life.  Given their limited access to books and internet, the children in my rural town finally have the opportunity to stimulate their minds by exploring new and different worlds through stories told in books.  I have been so delighted to find support from kind people who want to give these kids a chance to expand their imaginations and lose themselves in reading, as we once did when we were young.  I am hopeful that this project will truly have a lasting impact in the children of my adopted community which will carry through to the next generation. 

48th Anniversary of the Founding of the District of El Tallan: October 4, 2013

At the parade with my host family

Drinking contest with homemade corn beer ("chicha jora")

Drinking contest with homemade corn beer ("chicha jora")

At the dance with Stefani

At the dance

Dance performance by the Youth Committee



Group dance performance by the Youth Committee

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Authorities of the Municipality plus the newly
crowned Miss El Tallan and Miss Simpatia

The mayor of El Tallan Cipriani Zapata Ramos and
Miss El Tallan Orfelinda Faviola



Authorities get the parade started



Workers from the Municipality

High school students

Students doing high kicks

Students carrying international flags



Principal and teachers from the local school

Representatives from the local mother's clubs

Health post staff



Parade of mototaxis



Association of Mototaxi Drivers

Posing with Miss El Tallan

Gratuitous Cat Photos

I’ve become a cat person, but not by choice.  I never understood the persnicketiness of cats; they seem to barely tolerate humans and delight in the rejection of affection; their prolific use of sharp claws to indicate both enjoyment and annoyance with whomever is engaging them is confounding.  I just cannot deal with cats.

 

However, when a person witnesses the level of mistreatment of animals that occurs in rural parts of Peru, one cannot help but to develop an obligation to protect them from the conditions they face.  And after I rescued two kittens from certain death, I couldn’t stop myself from falling in love with them.

 

The family calls all three cats “Pichaling.”  There is a mom cat and two kittens, a boy and a girl, that were born in January 2013, only a few months after I arrived.  The mom cat had three kittens; one died right away.  The other two survived, and after a few months they were a couple of cute furballs running around the house behind their mommy and peeing and pooping everywhere.

 

The mom cat has a nasty temperament and avoids all contact with humans.  The two little kitties were terrified of people and would scurry away anytime anyone got close.  So, it was particularly strange when the smaller one sat himself down in front of me one day and started pathetically mewing at me.  It seemed like such an odd thing to do after avoiding me like the plague up until this point.

 

It was the first time I had been so close to the kitten, and I noticed that he was terribly skinny and shaking, with glassy, sunken eyes.  It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t seen the mom cat around the house for a few days, or possibly longer.  Honestly, I couldn’t remember the last time I saw her.  Apparently, the kittens have not been getting milk from the mom, and given that the family doesn’t feed the cats…it hit me like a thunderbolt: these kittens are starving to death – literally right in front of me!

 

The tiny kitty was so desperate for food that he set aside his mortal fear of humans to beg me to save his life…and, of course, I did.  There is no cat food in my house and there’s nowhere to buy it in my town, so I cracked open some raw eggs and the two kitties lapped them up like they were caviar. 

 

I was relieved to see them enjoying the eggs and I have continued to feed them eggs (which they love!) along with canned anchovies.  Eventually, they started gaining weight and looking healthier.  The smaller one was so scrawny, and although while he became healthier and started growing, he still hasn’t caught up to his sister.

 

I feel like a proud mom who rescued two adorable kids who are now precocious teenagers; the boy is always stirring up trouble and the girl is now a pregnant teen.  (Oops, I guess I forgot to give her the sex ed talk).

Enjoy the photos!

 

 

 

Brother and sister cuddling together.
You can see how he is dwarfed by her size.

She used to sit behind my laptop and reach around to
swat her paws in front of the screen while playing with me. 
Here she is grabbing at my camera strap.

His favorite place to nap is underneath my mosquito net.
And when he's feeling frisky he tries to climb it!



Adorable sleeping kitty



The only photo I have with his eyes open.
He doesn't look as mean.

I think she's stalking me.

MUCHO EXITO

My definition of success has been drastically altered since coming to Peru.  As can be expected, things just work differently down here.  An event is still considered successful if only half of the participants show up and they arrive an hour late.  But they are more likely to show up if refreshments are being served -- not because people are starving; they just really appreciate tasty snacks.

Very recently I launched my first two events, one to benefit mothers with children under 3 years and the other to benefit the adolescents in my community.  I was really hoping that both events would be successful, if only to prove to myself that I am actually contributing something to my community.

 

The event to benefit mothers with small kids was a workshop that the mothers who are enrolled in our Healthy Homes program are obligated to attend.  The topic of the workshop was how to prevent diarrhea illnesses, because, as you can imagine, there is a LOT of that here.  And it is dangerous for children to have repeated bouts of diarrhea, as it can impede the proper growth and development of a child’s brain and body when essential nutrients are lost during the illness.

 

I enjoy talking about poop.  Or rather, I get a kick out of talking about a subject that is gross, and I’m aware that people will be more likely to remember my presentation if I cross into that gray area that makes people uncomfortable but not totally disgusted.  So, I included images of bacteria, virus, and worm-like parasites that live in your guts and cause diarrhea.  These critters come from poop, and the most common way to get them into your body is by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water.  (More than half of these illnesses can be prevented just by washing your hands.  Oh, it seems so simple, doesn’t it?)

 

I wanted the mothers to really comprehend that when their child has diarrhea, it’s the result of feeding poop to their kid.  And when they get diarrhea, it’s (most likely) because they ate poop.  I’m hoping the gross-out factor helps people remember to wash their hands.

 

To organize the workshop, I coordinated with two community health promoters who were co-presenters, along with the staff at the health clinic.  We drafted a session plan that detailed exactly what we need and on what topic each person would be presenting.  I wrote an official request and submitted the document to the Municipality to provide material support we needed for the activities and demonstrations during the event. 

Almost every day during the weeks prior to the event, I was meeting with the staff at the health post or meeting with the health promoters to discuss our plans, or checking with the authorities at the Municipality on the whereabouts of the materials, or working on my presentation.   You may be surprised to find out that the most pressing question on everyone’s mind was “What kind of snacks will you be serving?”  (Not “What information will you be presenting?” or “What are your learning objectives?”)

 

I became concerned about a week before the event when my deadline for receiving the materials had passed.  I became more insistent about needing the materials and I talked to anyone at the Municipality who would listen to me.  Finally, the day before the event, the mayor told me that I could have half of the items I requested.  (So, only half of the families will receive materials?  It’s not ideal, but we can work with it).  I rushed over to the supply office to talk with the manager, but he was already gone for the day and it wasn’t likely that he would be able to acquire materials the next morning.

 

I had already started accumulating a few things that we could use during the event just in case the Municipality dropped the ball entirely.  I was determined not to overhaul the session plan and cancel activities or demonstrations just because we were missing a few materials.  After I got the news from the mayor, I made a list of every essential teaching tool that we were missing and I hopped on my bike to ride to the market in another town 30 minutes away.

 

After scrambling to pull it all together, we had a decent turnout (21 of the 33 mothers attended) and people participated in the discussions and group activities, such as hand washing, preparing oral rehydration solution, and the Diarrhea Cheer:

¡Pasame la “E”!

¡Pasame la “D”!

¡Pasame la “A”!  

¿Que dice?  ¡“EDA”! 

¿Que significa? “Enfermadades Diarreicas Agudas”

 

And I’ll bet you are wondering how tasty were the snacks?  Well, the mothers seemed to really enjoy the home-baked banana bread I baked and the sugar-free Tang.

 

Mothers showing off new Tipi Taps

Mothers participating in hand washing activity

 

The other event I launched last week was a Movie Night for the teens in my community.  The genesis of this event was inspired by three youth in my pueblo motivated to get involved in community events, and so we formed an official Youth Committee.  I have been impressed with these three young women to take the initiative, come up with great ideas and motivate others to participate.

 

Their plan is to raise enough money at the Movie Nights (by charging a very small entrance fee) to hire a professional dance coach to choreograph a dance and teach it to the girls to present during our town’s anniversary celebration in the first week of October.  Great plan, right?

The only hitch was that in order to pull off the Movie Night I need official Authorization from the Municipality to use the event space, security guards, sound equipment, projector and chairs.  I submitted the official documents and (to my surprise) the request was accepted!

 

The girls on the Youth Committee wanted to promote attendance by offering a free snack with the price of admission (don’t forget the all-important snack!), and so they coordinated the preparation of little bags of popcorn. I took care of the logistics.  Given that an event like this had not been done before in my community, there were a LOT of questions, judgment calls, and hectic last-minute changes.

 

For example, even though I had received official Authorization from the Municipality to utilize the security guards, sound equipment, projector and chairs, and I still had to coordinate with each person responsible for each item and then confirm that they would actually show up.  For example, as is customary (and expected), I bugged the person responsible for bringing 50 chairs to the event space numerous times throughout the day and (finally!) they arrived 30 minutes after the scheduled start time of the event.  Which actually was not a problem because the movie-goers didn’t begin arriving until one hour after the start time.  (It’s a common practice called the “Hora Peruana”).  However, we were provided only 28 chairs -- not the 50 promised to us -- which left us with no choice but to ask neighbors and attendees to bring chairs.

 

Despite the last-minute scrambling, nervousness and teen angst, we managed to bring in over 50 people (although many arrived in the middle of the movie, two hours late) and we doubled the money we were expecting to earn from this one event.   Our second Movie Night occurred last night, which was much better coordinated (thanks to my handy task list :-) and it was also wildly successful.  We’ve got two down and two more events to go…wish me and the Youth Committee good luck!

 

P.S. for the non-Spanish readers: the word “exito” in Spanish means “success” not “exit.”  I’m not trying to imply that when I host events people go rushing for the exit-o. J

 

Kick Up Your Heels; It's a Dance Party!

On Saturday morning, I was in a rush to get back to my pueblo in time to attend the church service to mark the 6-month anniversary of the death of my colleague Sr. Rufino Martinez, who was a well-respected city council member, president of the health committee, and major advocate for my placement in this site. 

It was a shock when Sr. Rufino died suddenly, after complaining of a pain in his belly.  He was never diagnosed with a particular malady, he was just here one day and gone the next, which is often the case. (See the blog post “DIARRHEA”).  I was personally invited by his late wife to attend the church service and wake afterward at her home, and I felt it was important  for me to attend and show my respect for my former colleague and advocate.

 

I made it home in time to catch the end of the church service, and while I was rushing out the door my host mom invited me to attend a birthday party for Luisa and Calixto, the sister of my host dad and her husband.  She said there would be a big dance party  today in a remote farming community in my district, and we would need to leave as soon as her daughter Lucia arrived. (Lack of advance notice is typical here).  I told my host mom that I needed to attend the service for Sr. Rufino and I would return after it was finished.

After Catholic mass concluded, as many as 100 mourners filed out of the church and into the home of the widow.  It is customary for food to be served at all events, and this case was no exception:

1^st Course – We were served the local moonshine (called “chicha”) made from corn. I only took a tiny sip, because I had tried it once in the past and it made me horribly ill.  No damage done to my intestines this time, luckily.

2^nd Course -  Hot bowls of chicken noodle soup.

3^rd Course – Potatoes, rice, egg and stewed meat.

Between the 2^nd and 3^rd course I received a phone call from host sister Lucia.  She said that she was waiting for me to come home so that she could escort me to the birthday party. 

 

This is one of those moments when I start calculating the damage to my social capital that will inevitably occur if I’m seen leaving the wake of a prominent authority figure before eating the main course (eating together is very important!), OR damage my relationship with my host family if I stay at the wake and miss the birthday party. (Because if I didn’t leave immediately and go with Lucia I probably wouldn’t be able to find transportation to the remote community).  This is not the first time I’ve had to weigh my options (and reputation) when invited to two different conflicting events, as everyone seems to want the gringa to attend their event, and everyone takes notice where the gringa goes…

After consulting with a trusted friend, she encouraged me to ask for the 3^rd course to be wrapped up for me to take to-go, which I did.  Lucia and I made it to the birthday party just in time to be served the typical main dish of rice, potatoes and stewed meat.  We were seated at the head table, which means I would be encouraged to enthusiastically down as much of that food as possible. 

However, the meat being served was pork, which gave me visions of the pig that was recently slaughtered and dismembered in my house and sold to the neighbors.  I can still hear the pig squealing as its throat was sliced open, seeing chunks of raw meat and fat dangling from hooks and the smell of the inner organs being cooked over a campfire in the back the house where my bedroom is located. Pork has become quite unappetizing, to say the least.

Recently slaughtered goats waiting to be cooked

More meat decorating the kitchen

 

Fortunately, the hostess of the event generously provided as much wine and beer and chicha as anyone wanted to drink, and I discovered that the sweet-tasting Peruvian wine tastes great mixed with Peruvian beer. Mistake?  I think not. :-)

 

A curious drinking custom is the drinking circle.  In any celebration there are plenty of beer bottles littering the table tops, and I usually don’t notice anything peculiar is happening until a small glass is handed to me.  Then I look around and realize that the glass in my hand is the only drinking vessel in the room.  And all of the people at the party who have been drinking the dozens of now-empty beers have been utilizing this same glass to drink them.  The beers are passed around the circle with the glass, and everyone waits for their turn to have a shot of beer.  Besides the obvious germ factor, the participants of this activity have absolutely no idea the quantity of beer they have consumed, and given the seemingly unlimited number of beers, everyone at the party got pretty darn tipsy.

My host dad starting the drinking circle - he's holding the only glass.

After the carb-loaded lunch and several passes around the drinking circle, the band started playing Cumbia music.  The birthday boy and girl had the first dance, and then each invited guest danced with the birthday boy and girl.  The rest of the guests danced in a circle around them and it was pretty fun.

 

Things got serious as the band turned up the volume and played their hearts out for the next 5 hours.  It seemed like everyone in the party wanted to have a dance with me; the little kids who were enamored to meet a foreigner for the first time, the older men who were impressed that a gringa could hold her own on the dance floor, friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and the party hostess. I was so impressed to see men and women of all ages grabbing a partner and hitting the dance floor  -- everyone danced, even my 74 year-old host dad who busted out some good moves.

I danced until I literally couldn’t dance anymore, until the Cumbia music had deafened my ears and all I wanted to do was sit down for a few minutes.  But everyone notices what the foreign girl is doing, and everyone wants to make sure that I’m having a good time, so the offers of food/drinks and dancing never stop.  It’s really exhausting sometimes.  And because it’s considered rude to refuse food, drinks or offers to dance, sometimes when I am completely spent of energy I feel that it’s better to leave the party instead of staying and refuse offerings from the host or guests.

But, I also get a lot of flack about leaving early, especially from the little old ladies who dance until the wee hours of the morning, despite having awoken very early that morning to slaughter animals, prepare food, decorate the house, make chicha and otherwise prepare for the party.  The stamina they have is impressive!  I am definitely working on getting my stamina up to that level, and I’ll have another opportunity to show off some moves at the next “Baile” (dance party) next Saturday.

Baile (dance party) at Sr. Rufino's home after the baptism of his granddaughter

Dancing with my host dad at his birthday party

Dancing with my host dad, my host sister Lucia and host brother Orlando



Take my baby, please!

The native language of the vast majority of Peruvians is either Spanish or Quechua.  Quechua (pronounced Ketch-WA) is an amalgamation of the various languages of the indigenous people of South America.  It is mostly spoken in the Andean highlands of Peru, fortunately not along the coast where I live. (I’m having a hard enough time learning Spanish!)

If you learned to speak Spanish from Mexico or Puerto Rico, you might be surprised by some of the differences in Peruvian-style Spanish.  For example, Mexicans call cars “coche” and Peruvians laugh when they hear that word.  They use the word “carro” instead, as it describes a modern-day car and a “coche” evokes images of horse-drawn carriages.

Another difference is that a “tortilla” is not a flat bread used to roll up tacos or enchiladas – in Peru, it’s an egg and potato omlette (otherwise known as a frittata).  

 

And a “taco” is not a Mexican-style rolled-up snack, it’s a high heel:

Image of high heel

 

Like any other country, the dominant language is spoken a bit differently in each region.  I live in a region in the hot, dry northern part of Peru in an area called Baja Piura.  I’ve been told by native Spanish speakers from other parts of the world that the style of Spanish spoken in Baja Piura sounds like it’s from somewhere in the backwoods-boondocks.  Just think of the bad grammar and pronunciation of the rural south…and then place it in the Nevada desert.

One characteristic of Baja Piura lingo is the astonishing brevity used by locals.  To put this in context, one evening soon after arriving in my site my host parents and I were watching the latest installment of the most popular telenovela Corazon Valiente, and during a commercial break my host mother asked me a question. “Cuando estamos?” (which literally translates to “When are we…?”).  My host father realized that I had no idea what she was asking me, and he jumped in to explain that she wanted to know what is the date today.  (Normally, a phrase like “Cual es la fecha de hoy?” is used to ask such a question).  

This is just one example of the phrases used by the residents of my pueblo that clearly have some basis in legit Spanish, but have been twisted into head-spinning combinations that perplex even native speakers.  None of my cumulative years of Spanish lessons had prepared me for these kinds of exchanges!

Another example of brevity is when a girl about 11 years old knocked on my door and she said only “Sabe ingles.”  She was basically telling me that I speak English.  I replied that yes, I do speak English. (I can safely assume that everyone in my pueblo is aware of that by now ;-).  What she was trying to say was that she has an English class and that she needed my help.  You can imagine that there was no way I could have deduced that from her initial statement!

It reminds me of my former life in Japan, where speaking in a concise manner was highly valued.  In fact, it seemed to me that the Japanese language was constructed for that very purpose; each word packed in so much meaning that it was possible to make an elaborate statement with only a few brief sentences.  Home of haiku poetry, Japan practically invented brevity:

 

Image of haiku

Given the substantial migration of Japanese citizens to South America after WWII, maybe there was some influence, or at least an affinity of language construction?

 
One of my most notable experiences of miscommunication comes from meeting women with small children who often speak about “regalitos” (little gifts).  There is a long history of foreign organizations coming to Peru loaded with handouts, which is counterproductive to what we are trying to accomplish (we teach skills instead), and volunteers sometimes encounter locals who expect foreigners to be fully stocked with free stuff, including gifts for the kids.  Each time I encountered this type of situation, I got into the habit of launching into an explanation of my purpose for coming to their community and the type of work I would be doing -- which includes teaching skills, but unfortunately not handing out gifts for kids.

 

During one of these encounters with a relative of my host family, I went through my explanation of my purpose for coming to Peru and she didn’t seem to grasp my meaning.  She kept showing me her baby and saying “Un regalito,” and I became more earnest in my explanation.  She interrupted me to ask bluntly “Do you not like children?” and I responded “Look, I don’t have any gifts for your kid!”  Another family member kindly explained to me that she wanted to give me her baby as a gift, but I had interpreted “Un regalito” to mean that she wanted me to give a gift to her baby.  Apparently, it was a joke…..ha, ha?

And that sparks an entirely different conversation about mothers telling their kids that if they misbehave the foreigner is going to kidnap them and take the child back to the U.S.  (Sigh)

Little girl who just made a tippy tap

Girls participating in the celebration of the anniversary of the school

My host family's grandson Juan

 

Photo Montage: Pueblos Around La Union

Curious horse in a rice field

Newly unearthed Incan ruins -- or -- a new house under construction?



 Posters promoting upcoming dances



Political ad from 2011 -- like a yard sign, but permanent
(because it is painted on the side of someone's house)

Coconut trees against the bluest Peruvian sky

Ever-present garbage by the side of the road