meetings, meetings, meetings

Things have picked up lately, well I guess they never were slow to start with really. However these next few days are gonna be pretty busy. Friday I went to a meeting in the local government office about the baby that was abandoned under the tree. Saturday I went to a youth group meeting with some high school students who work in the area of rights of youth to prevent child labor and child abuse. They have some little skits they do and are in the process of recording some radio programs. Saturday evening I’m going to a goodbye party for my dad’s brother who lives and works in Spain and came back to visit for about a month. (I would say the majority of the people here have a family member living in Spain or the US and working because they couldn’t make enough money here) Sunday there will be a lot of people in the subcentro, and I think I’m gonna give a presentation about Colorado a ne what is the Peace Corps. Monday I don’t think I’m doing anything important so far, but Tuesday will be the big meeting with the midwives. I’m going to do my presentation again and give them a survey for my community assessment that I have to do. It will more likely be an interview because apparently a lot of them can’t read or write. Wednesday I’m going to the high school with the obstetrician to see when we can give health classes; we want to do it once a week. Then the next Saturday is a get together with everyone from our “cluster” which is all the other peace corps volunteers who live near Riobamba.
Now instead of feeling overwhelmed with so much projects to do in so little time, I feel kind of useless now. I have been learning more about the projects the nurses and doctors at the clinic are already doing, or planning on doing, and besides these I don’t know what else I can do and I don’t know why I’m here if they already have all these plans. I know they are really understaffed, so maybe I can go out to the communities and do the projects that we plan together while they stay in the clinic, but this won’t be sustainable after I leave. They told us in training that right away when you start thinking of a new project you should start thinking about your exit strategy. Also I’ve been finding out about these other groups, for example the youth group and other NGO’s and government organizations too that work with children and stuff, but yet there is still so much poverty and health issues in the communities. For now I’ll just keep going to the clinic every day to get to know more about what they do on a regular basis and what kind of people come in to see the doctors. School starts next week and I think then everyone will have a more set schedule and I’m hoping I will too – I want to start a youth group and teach in the schools maybe a few times a week. I also need to work on my community assessment, however they have already done that too. There was a comprehensive one done last year by a doctor who used to work there; it’s a Word document that’s 79 pages. I also got a copy of the thesis that the obstetrician did this year for her master’s on undesired pregnancies, and one of the nurses is currently working on her thesis on prevention of maternal death. These projects all make my diagnostic seem silly, but I’m still going to do it so I can get out in the communities and personally talk to people, but it’s a good thing I’ll have all these other resources to fill in gaps in my research.
NOTICE – MAY BE A LITTLE GRAPHIC On Wednesday I went to my other grandparents house whom I hadn’t met yet – the parents of my host mom. They live in a community about a 10 minute bus ride and a 20 minute walk away. They only have running water from a faucet outside and they only cook with firewood like the other grandparents too. They were still out working when my sister and I arrived so we went to check on the animals first, then went to the house and harvested some potatoes for dinner. We peeled them, then caught some guinea pigs (cuyes) from their pen – she thought 3 should be enough for the 6 people who were going to eat dinner. I held a bag open while she threw them in, then we took them into the kitchen to kill them. She just snapped their necks and later cut their eyes out with a knife then I held them upside down over a bowl to collect the blood because her grandma likes to eat it. Then she would take them and dunk them in boiling water so we could peel the fur off. I helped with this too, but I wasn’t as fast as her. Pretty soon our parents arrived and the mom helped us butcher them to remove the organs, but she kept them too to put in the soup. We also put noodles, onions and salt in the soup with the potatoes and the cuy. It was an interesting experience!