I don't care about money, I just want to BE WONDERFUL- Marilyn Monroe: Corruption, Condoms, and Go Fish

Week of Sep. 26-30

Busy busy week. Yes, despite all of my posts about football, Trujillo, parties, and care packages, I actually do work here :) The fun stuff is just easier to write about and more fun for you guys to read.

In addition to the family party on Monday, I went to a town hall type of meeting held by the sugar factory in the town next to mine. The purpose of this meeting was to address the community with a discussion on their actions with regard to the environment. It was a tense atmosphere and a very political approach to this sensitive issue. My community partner who invited me along with her put it best when she said that this was a good opportunity for me to "see the reality" of a big issue in the community. I don't really know how to explain this so I will give you this example: we were at a meeting about this company 'caring' for the environment and they gave everyone in attendance (at least 100 people) a packet of 80 pages of paper, which was printed on one side only. Really? This was a very interesting experience and I am really glad she invited me. If anything, it was just good to get a better idea of what this company is like and who was invited to the meeting, etc. Meetings here are a great way for me to network and learn about what's going on, so this was a win. And I can't forget the free chicha and snacks that I get at meetings. That's always a big win ;)

On Wednesday, I taught my English lesson to the teachers of high school English on a provincial level. Turned out only being about 20 people, but I was really happy with the way it went. They seemed happy just to have a native English speaker there. It's so great working with motivated adults there to learn and ask questions and participate. Way different than the teens, but I like them too :) My favorite part of the English lesson was 'go fish.' I made a game of 'go fish' with letters so that they had to practice letters and sounds. This was our first activity to get them talking. When I planned this, I did not realize that Peruvians don't play 'go fish.' I had no idea there was so much room for error with this game. Once they got the hang of it, they loved it. This was fun for me :) The focus of the session was pronunciation and participatory activities so we did a lot of talking and I showed them a load of games they can use to get their students talking. It was really fun playing English games all afternoon and feeling like an expert at something. lol.

The following day brought my meeting of the Red Ambiental. Our theme this month was teen pregnancy so I got to draw some really awesome visuals ;) and I managed to get 90 free condoms from the Centro de Salud which was a huge win for me. Lucky for me my friend and fellow PCV Kerry, who lives not too far from me, came along with her school so I had a buddy for this event. We had a great time with the kids and I think they enjoyed it too. Again, I think the pictures can explain this better than I can, so I leave you to some visuals.