In the Peace Corps, you begin your first three months in site observing, watching, interviewing, and just getting to know the lay of the land. You live with a host family for the entirety and prepare for a presentation to present your plans for the community and the school. We do this so we don't just throw ourselves into things without asking the gente what they want and would benefit from a Peace Corps volunteer.
My first three months my school was canceled A LOT. Basically, my first month in site I was hardly in the school because there was protests or the children had vacation or the school needed a good cleaning. Here, they will cancel school often, just like the school districts in Western Washington when there is an inch of snow or ice. There is no water in the school, canceled. There is no milk to pass out to the kids, schools canceled. Entonces, because of this I spent my first three months getting to know the community very well. I made it a goal to meet one new person a day, whether that be walking to the store ("tienda") or going out and playing a game with the kids in the road, or attending a church event to meet a lot of people at once. I soon found myself finally remembering names and remembering where people lived and who's kids were who's. It wasn't as easy as I am making it sound though. I had a lot of anxiety getting started on that because my gente didn't speak in Spanish with me at first. They would only talk to me in their indigenous languages, but after time they warmed up to me and began speaking to me in Spanish and sitting down with me to teach me their languages. Also, in my host family I had four siblings that kept me very busy, so anytime I wanted to escape the house I had to take them with me when I left to go meet someone or I had to sneak out the backdoor. After that first month, I found myself in a groove and made sure to check off one daily accomplishment so I didn't put myself down with thoughts that I was not integrating as well as the other volunteers in my group. Ways that I battled some anxiety is by having questions ready in advance to ask and to always have my phone ready to take notes or to translate a word I didn't know.
Now looking back at my first three months I am so grateful for the time to really get to know my host family, my community, and the school without the pressure of doing and starting various projects.
To signify the end of my integration period I held a presentation with important community members I identified, my counterparts, my guides, and the important people of the school. My boss came and watched as I presented three ideas for the community and three ideas for the school. Of course I can do more than these things, but the point is to give people an option to agree or disagree with the needs that you found for the community. During the presentation, I spoke on the strengths of the school and community and how I plan to use those strengths with my projects. Some ideas that we all agreed on is community English classes for the adults so that they can assist their children with their homework, an English dance club for the kids, lessons on gender equality and futuristic goal planning, and lastly a program to reinforce the English they learn in class. There are other ideas I have that
I will introduce before the next school year, but for now that is what I have and all present were very pleased with these efforts. It was nice to see everyone together talking about what they want to see and what they want to improve upon. It was also nice to see how the people have reacted to having me for the first three months.
One thing I want to address that is a slight difficulty for me is how hard it can be to ignite change and how hard it is to motivate people that are not you. I am a follow up volunteer so I am constantly compared to the person before me. Luckily, the person before me was AMAZING and the community can only say nothing but nice things. They were able to get this site started, got the ball rolling, and began some great activities and classes started. Now it is my job to continue these things and to add on. But, because the people loved the volunteer before me so much I've had to convince people why I will not be doing everything the same. I have not come equipped with the same talents, skills, or experiences as the volunteer before me. I come as the person that I am, but luckily I love the ideas that were started before me. Now, this leads me to my big goal here. My big goal is to make the projects that are started here sustainable so that when there is not a volunteer here, the projects will continue. So that is what my mind set will constantly be when I am planning these things.
Other news: Integration is never over, I am still meeting new people every day and joining new hobbies and events here in site. I have moved into my own house and it is wonderful. It is just the space I needed to think and get some well needed self care time. Having the solo space has given me the opportunity to cook for myself, start brainstorming the planning of projects and co-teaching in the school, and more time to reflect on each day and my time here.
What do I do now that my three months are up? I will begin co-teaching with my teachers in their classes on days that they ask for more help. We will plan together and I will be way more hands on in the class. I will get started on projects and get the leaders that I need from the community prepared for these said projects.
Update on Kaylee and Josh!
Josh has finished BMT (Basic Military Training) and is now attending Technical School in California where he is studying Vehicle Maintenance and ROCKING it. He is in his zone there and it is so nice to see him be so successful. We are so excited for him to move to his first base after Tech School and I cannot wait to visit. We've been growing through this distance, but it is nice to say we've been growing together. Sharing these experiences daily and talking about the ups and downs makes it feel like we are still together daily. One thing we decided to try for a challenge this month is to pray together on the phone each night about something for our relationship or for the future. It was exactly what we needed to feel close in all ways of our relationship.
In total, all is well and feeling good. The groove is getting started!