So training is hard, flat out. I'm not going to sugar coat that we are sleep deprived, bombarded with a new way of life, new language and away from the comfort of our family and friends. Our days are long. Wake up at 6am, shower, meet with the other volunteers, walk to bus stop, catch the bus at 7:30am, training goes from 8am-5pm, maybe go for a run or walk to the nearby church to de-stress, then come home, do homework, dinner's at 8pm...by 9pm my eyes are closing.
Logistics: Basically what I'm doing is health promotion...so teaching good health practices through informal education. We will be working in rural areas to help with three main different ideas.
1) to help with early childhood stimulation through nutrition (checking the growth/development of babies...for training, we all got a growth chart to chart our future kids...we have a family here that we're practicing on and today was the first time we met and the mom was SO open and gracious...her little boys are super cute too...one years old and another that's one and eight months old...so we make sure babies are getting the proper nutrients...milk, veggies, protein)...and "stimulation" through opening up centers for mom's to bring their children to play with toys that help the brain learn)
2) promotion of environmental health through domestic visits (going to visit the families of my community and doing a hands-on assessment of their basic needs...promoting hand washing to prevent from getting sick from bacteria from the meat, we also help build better kitchens for a lot of families that suffer with respiratory problems so we build them windows so there's better ventilation throughout the kitchen...it seems like simple stuff but it's harder to do than said
3) prevention of young pregnancies and promotion of safe sexual practices, prevention against STDs and HIV/AIDS
Within all that, we can create our own projects (if the community wants a soccer team, we can help them do that, for example...sports are a great way to unite a community). It's ALL about meeting the communities' basic needs.
It's so much to learn. We've gone over the history of Peru, political leaders in Peru, the way the healthcare system works here. You'd think what I'm doing is common sense but there are so many strategies that we're learning because we're all going to be alone building these relationships. People NEED to trust you before they listen and take you seriously. Once we get to site, the first month will be just making friends with the people and getting to know the families in my community. Some sites, there wasn't a volunteer before us so we'd have to start from scratch. A lot of people don't know what "Cuerpo de Paz" is. Anyways, after we establish trust, we can begin to do our analysis through hosting meetings, doing domestic visits, getting to know the mayor, and other community leaders that are willing to work with us to help with the community's needs. It's all about bringing the needs of the community to light and acting upon that by using the resources of the community to create sustainability so that when we leave in two years, everything isn't forgotten. To create sustainability, we need to capacitate others/teach someone to do what we know. It's all facilitating and capacitating the people. Informal education is huge in the Peace Corps too. Gotta be creative with the way you teach!
Logistics: Basically what I'm doing is health promotion...so teaching good health practices through informal education. We will be working in rural areas to help with three main different ideas.
1) to help with early childhood stimulation through nutrition (checking the growth/development of babies...for training, we all got a growth chart to chart our future kids...we have a family here that we're practicing on and today was the first time we met and the mom was SO open and gracious...her little boys are super cute too...one years old and another that's one and eight months old...so we make sure babies are getting the proper nutrients...milk, veggies, protein)...and "stimulation" through opening up centers for mom's to bring their children to play with toys that help the brain learn)
2) promotion of environmental health through domestic visits (going to visit the families of my community and doing a hands-on assessment of their basic needs...promoting hand washing to prevent from getting sick from bacteria from the meat, we also help build better kitchens for a lot of families that suffer with respiratory problems so we build them windows so there's better ventilation throughout the kitchen...it seems like simple stuff but it's harder to do than said
3) prevention of young pregnancies and promotion of safe sexual practices, prevention against STDs and HIV/AIDS
Within all that, we can create our own projects (if the community wants a soccer team, we can help them do that, for example...sports are a great way to unite a community). It's ALL about meeting the communities' basic needs.
It's so much to learn. We've gone over the history of Peru, political leaders in Peru, the way the healthcare system works here. You'd think what I'm doing is common sense but there are so many strategies that we're learning because we're all going to be alone building these relationships. People NEED to trust you before they listen and take you seriously. Once we get to site, the first month will be just making friends with the people and getting to know the families in my community. Some sites, there wasn't a volunteer before us so we'd have to start from scratch. A lot of people don't know what "Cuerpo de Paz" is. Anyways, after we establish trust, we can begin to do our analysis through hosting meetings, doing domestic visits, getting to know the mayor, and other community leaders that are willing to work with us to help with the community's needs. It's all about bringing the needs of the community to light and acting upon that by using the resources of the community to create sustainability so that when we leave in two years, everything isn't forgotten. To create sustainability, we need to capacitate others/teach someone to do what we know. It's all facilitating and capacitating the people. Informal education is huge in the Peace Corps too. Gotta be creative with the way you teach!
No comments:
Post a Comment