So I now know officially that my site is Vicco, Pasco. I know that I'm replacing a female volunteer named Briana, and I believe she is still in site. I'm going to be living in the house she lived in, with a mother who is 40, and a sister who is 9. The mom is a restaurant owner apparently, which I'm pretty excited about. The family is pretty small, which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing. I have a grandma and brother who stay "temporarily" whatever that means. Apparently, that they don't LIVE in the house though. My room apparently is accessed through another bedroom, which I'm really iffy about. Briana has lived there so I guess it must work out.
My site apparently has about 1,200 people in the pueblo, with an approximate total of 2,000 in my area. So it's not as big as I feared which I'm happy about. We do have a paved road, and all communication types, including internet. I have mixed feelings about having internet access in my own site. I definitely wanted it in my regional capital that I will visit twice a month, but to have it in my own site is a little weird. I didn't come here to spend a ton of time online. But then again, it is internet at a cafe meaning I'd have to pay and it's likely very slow. So it's doubtful I'd spend significant amounts of time on it. Speaking of which, I would want to keep somewhat updated on current events. Maybe I should ask someone to send me emails like once a month about the major news events of the month. Someone want to volunteer for that position?
Since I'm replacing Briana in the same house, I'm still curious if I can leave some books and manuals there. I'm going to bring them, and may have to bring them back with me if it doesn't seem safe to leave. I'm hoping since she is going to be leaving very soon, that I can buy her stuff off her. She has to have plenty of great things that are perfect for my new site. I don't know when she COS's (Close of Service), but I'm relatively sure she hasn't done it yet. If she has I'm going to be really bummed. I'd really like to meet her so I can get all the juicy info about our site and her work there for the last two years that I will be continuing.
Apparently, Cerro de Pasco, which is a large city very near my site, is ugly and relatively dangerous. Diego, our APCD (boss), said he didn't recommend me going there monthly to get stuff. However, Junin which is a large city close to the center of our cluster of volunteers apparently doesn't have a Banco Continental? We had to withdraw all our money for the trip today because we weren't going to have access to free withdrawal ATMs there. If this is true, while in my site, I'd definitely want to visit Cerro. Either that or I'd have to travel all the way down to our technical regional capital which is a 5 hour bus ride. Cerro is supposedly about a 30 minute ride from my site. I'm looking forward to being able to answer these sorts of questions.
Lastly, I got to read the Community Diagnostic that Briana did at the beginning of her service about Vicco. It had a lot of great info about the types of problems Vicco had back then. Apparently, she foresaw trash being a big area to work in, and also a tree nursery. I'm very curious to hear how things went and what the situation is like now. I will definitely be working in education though. Diego has told us that he very strongly encourages us to do a summer school class because it starts in our second month at site and lasts 2 months or so. This will help us build confianza in the community and in ourselves. I've been thinking a lot about what summer school class I'd want to give, and Diego helped me reach a decision. He took me aside Monday and asked about if I studied a martial art. He said he'd heard rumors, and was really excited when I said that I had. He strongly encouraged me to teach a class at my site, and said he'd support me in anyway I needed to do it. So I think that shall be my summer class. I'll start off small and once the normal year starts, hopefully I'll have a good routine down. Shout out to my Hapkido family, please email me ideas for Hapkido classes to give to kids of various ages. Every suggestion is welcome, from everyone in fact. Ideas for a sort of lesson plan would be nice. I think I'll combine the class to being an exercise class. Mix Hapkido, yoga, and perhaps some hiking field trips (yay for including Environmental themes)? I'm not sure, which is why all suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Email me at aleichele@gmail.com or just post comments!
The class sounds like a great idea! I can send you my yoga book (it's a tiny book pocket-sized that I had to buy for a yoga class I took years ago... Surprisingly useful!) if you would like.
ReplyDeleteSince I promised to send you snail mail, give me your address when you settle in and I'll send you a couple of things. :)