I told her that I feel as if I am not being as productive as I could be. About a week and a half ago, we had a meeting with the Health PCVs and SILAIS (Sistema Local de Atención en Salud, aka, the local level of Ministry of Health, MINSA). There are 9 health volunteers in Nueva Segovia, including our Vol Leader, and 4 of us are first year. We all gave brief presentations about what we are up to in our sites and brought two colegas with us for support.
My presentation consisted of all of the murals I have helped with, giving some charlas about Chagas and family planning, and the huerto project at ProFamilia. Seeing other people's presentations I have noticed that they are taking on other projects like teaching English. I have told myself that I am not going to do community English classes because A. My SM is a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Volunteer and B. There are community members who profit from teaching private English classes from their homes and I don't want to take business away. SM is going to start a conversation group and I am more than happy to help with that to improve somewhat-English speakers' skill levels.
ANYWAY, after my presentation, one of my colegas stepped up and said that I am not one to say "no". She told the group about me helping with the Diabetic group, about giving a presentation in another community for 30 kids about adolescent pregnancy, helping with the vaccination campaigns and being a good support at the centro. Huh, I guess I have done stuff!
Health volunteers, along with Agriculture, don’t get the easy route like TEFL, Science or Business volunteers. We have to make our own schedule and find the work. The three latter sectors are mainly in schools and have a pretty set schedule. Us and the Aggies are a little more “hard core” in that we are in more rural sites and have to find people to reach out to. Which is why I love my sector!
The Vol Leader told me the best advice that I'm going to go by: Do one thing every day. Whether that is going to the school and giving a charla or going to the Casa Materna; just doing one thing every day will keep me busy and I have the ability to have a face in the community.
So this week, I took that to heart!
On Monday, I did some errands and introduced myself to more people in the town and had my meeting with the Vol Leader.
On Tuesday, I went to the Casa Materna and gave a charla about Maternal Mortality. Not the happiest of subjects, but one to be aware about for sure. As a matter of fact, there has been a case in the past year in Jalapa of a mother passing away not too long after having her baby. We talked about knowing danger signals and risk factors and what to do if they find themselves in that type of situation. There were 3 mothers at the Casa and after my presentation, I had them write "letters" to their unborn babies about how they will love them, care for them and educate them in the future.
On Wednesday, I helped finish the Father's Day mural for the padres who work at the centro with my colega in the morning and returned to my casa to workout and relax a little bit before going with her and another colega in the afternoon to the high school to help support student leaders give a presentation to fellow students about teenage pregnancy. It was nice to see how students reacted to this theme and I was able to gain confianza (confidence) with the students and some of the male students came up to me and my colega asking if we can teach them how to properly use a condom. We told them that we will set up a workshop or they can stop by the centro at any time and we'd be happy to show them and give them as many condoms they may need.
Up until that afternoon, I had been home alone. Profe had to go to Managua for a day because her uncle had passed away and the Doctora had been in Ocotal. The Dra got home right before I left for the high school and went straight to her bedroom and watched some telenovelas (soap operas...they're a big deal around here).
I got home around 6, with my two colegas, who wanted to check up on her (since she had been gone all week) and the minute I stepped in to the house, it was a pig sty. I keep my part of the casa clean and clean up after myself in the kitchen. That’s were the mice like to hide out.
Editor's Note: All of my food is stored in containers, and the arquitecta who just moved out told me to go ahead and finish off the box of Corn Flakes that she had left. Last week, after I finished eating my cereal for breakfast, the Dra. told me that a mouse was snooping around in my bag of cereal the previous night. AFTER finishing my breakfast...not during, not before. Since then, I have been super picky about keeping the kitchen spotless. No worries, my body is completely fine and I didn't get sick from eating mouse-infested cereal.
When I got home, there was food everywhere: old onion peelings on the counter; cold pasta on the stove and so many crumbs and dirty dishes scattered about. I was only gone for 4 hours! Lest to say, I cleaned up everything because I don’t want more mice in the house. Another thing to mention is I take out all the trash...all of it. If you remember, we don't flush our toilet paper in the toilet since the pipes aren't that great. Never once has she offered to take out the bathroom nor kitchen trash. I’m going to be having a long talk with her about this. She’s been saying she wants to move out because she doesn’t like the living conditions. Well, better for me, because aside from her messiness and lazy behavior (I take out the trash, sweep, mop and do the dishes…hello! You can take some responsibility too!), I’m perfectly fine here!
Whew, ok. Rant over. On Thursday, I went to go work on our huertos at ProFamilia. Me, the FCP representative and about 5 teen boys showed up. We extracted some radishes and cucumbers, transplanted some cabbage and planted more radishes and peppers. It was a fun morning; though we work more as a smaller group, we actually get stuff done! The guys were even hanging out with me, asking how to pronounce different words in English and were even letting me in on some of their jokes. I became one of the guys! It was great and I love that the teens can come up to me and have that confianza to joke around and hang out with me.
On Friday, I went back to the Casa Materna and gave another charla about breastfeeding and there were 9 MADRES. I was not expecting that many! Especially since I was told that the house only has 8 beds. They all learned something and after the presentation I gave them some drawings to color because TODAY is Nica Father's Day! Since fatherhood can sometimes be an iffy situation with pregnant women (sometimes their partners abandon them), I told them to color the drawings for either their dads, uncles, brothers, or any "father figure" in their lives.
To end this post on a happy note, Feliz día del Padre! I like to think I have the best in the world, not to be biased ;) I hope all dads, fathers, and padres all have a fantastic day. You all deserve it!
POST SCRIPT! The Casa Materna is looking for newborn/baby clothes, so if you or anyone you know is getting rid of any baby clothes that your tyke is growing out of, we can use them! Same goes for any old children's books (English AND Spanish).
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