Summer Days

I am becoming accustomed to summer and rainy season. We are beginning latrine construction which has only meant frustrating trips to the bank and hardware store an hour away, a meeting with the beneficiaries, a lot of rain and no actual construction. My water filter project hit a catastrophic low point in which 13 out of 25 of the cement filters broke irreparably on the bad road to my community. I will try to salvage the project and offer a talk about hygiene and sickness prevention and present solar disinfection (SODIS). This was already going to be a component of both the latrine and filter projects but will become the beef of a redesigned ¨Safe Water¨ project. My apprehensions are as always, in avoiding being the Foreigner Santa Claus Wise One. Instead of being Santa bringing gifts of stuff and wisdom, I spend most of my time scheming how to get myself out of the spotlight. I have written grants with community members entirely in Spanish that I then rewrite in English. I have asked the clinic workers to present the hygiene talk giving them main points be covered and crossing my fingers.

These projects take about a half hour of my time a day. I used to be a champ at filling time with internet, exercising, driving, buying stuff, eating, TV, a plethora of miscellaneous activities and options. My life here is different and certainly slower. I start my morning with a walk or run with my stick and immediately take my cold bucket bath outside in my underwear with a bar of soap. I make a cup of tea with sugar and powdered milk and successfully avoid dirtying dishes to be washed. While I am a little afraid my drab personality is really shining through this blog, it’s important to shed light on the inherent bore that is the Peace Corps.

From eight to noon and two to six, when I don’t give art camp or English classes, I am trying to be moderately productive. I have two sitting places outside of my house; one is a big shared office space complete with drinking water and no flush toilets, the other the church salon cold water and a dirty latrine. Reading is my favorite activity but English books, however good quality are not productive to my service, so I make myself work for it and employ a schedule much like rotating subjects when doing homework in college.

For art camp, I will make confetti from shiny cracker packets and cut thousands of stars out of magazine paper for gaudy, yet very stylish reuse crowns. Then, I fill out one lesson of my Creole workbook and write the rough draft of the English final, call my project partner about cutting wood for the latrines or money earning myself an article from the National Geographic or a chapter in my book. At noon, I am tormented by what to make for lunch. I have been recovering from a stomach bug that makes me only want to eat white things. Shall it be eggs and bread or milk and crackers? I always try to avoid making too many dishes and eat fast because I don´t have running water and lunch is the time for kids to color at my house. At two, the sitting spots open and I continue until in either rains, when I position buckets to be filled and go on another run/walk, or threatens rain in which I follow my schedule and take another bucket bath. Sprinkle in craving the internet when we have electricity, a little bit of visiting and cheek kissing and there is my weekday.

Lately, nights have been dark, without power, which makes me more social. Sitting in my house with my headlamp and candles is less appealing than hanging with families and chatting. Sometimes I walk around and worry about falling or stepping in something gross to visit my old host mom or buy eggs in the corner store. Other times, I sit in my house and make tea from mint on my patio or more powdered milk and talk on the phone. My favorite Peace Corps present is free minutes between volunteers. It is a lifesaver that allows us to make friends with people we only get to see in person every so often.

I have written a whole entry about global poverty that I won´t post. Through this comparatively slow lifestyle there is certainly no shortage of time to think. I don´t have music blaring in my ears or celebrity lives to follow. I don´t ever think about TV and I don´t even get very much news. I never drive. With no ability to drown out reality, I have no choice but to try to understand what surrounds me and the state of the world. I have read and seen a lot and figured out little. I hope to live conscientiously through the rest of my service but I know it will be so much harder when I go back to still care about people who don´t have access to water. I won´t feel the least bit responsible for people who have to ration food for their kids. I know I am going to want to eat frozen yogurt and watch Friends but hopefully I can use my rotating device. Read one chapter of Depressing Poverty Book, watch one episode of Friends, something like that.