Work in my new community

I’ve been in my new community for a few weeks now and am feeling pretty good about things in general.   My first three months in site are supposed to be dedicated to doing a community diagnostic, which means meeting as many people as possible, asking questions, hanging out, and just generally getting to know my new home.  (I’ve been drinking lots of coffee with random neighbors.)  This makes a lot of sense, as far as understanding where I’m living and who I’m living with before jumping into any real work.   BUT, in my case, my project is already kind of in action…

I am working with a foundation called FUNDASEP (based in San Juan, a town about an hour from my pueblito).  Their mission: to alfabetize the “Valley.”   The valley includes my pueblo, Tabara, as well as 4 surrounding pueblos.   33 literacy classes between 5 pueblos.  That’s a lot of work right off the bat!  So I’ve been observing classes and meeting teachers and students everyday.   The classes range from kind of ok to so downright awful that I can already feel the frustration building.  Sometimes this already feels stressful… but usually it just makes me excited to work with the teachers and try to make the program better.  While I do feel like I am already working pretty hard for diagnostic time, it’s been a great way to meet lots of people around my pueblo.  Classes are held in or around the teachers’ houses, so for every class I go to I meet a bunch of students, the teacher’s family, neighbors, random passerby, etc.  Sometimes they give me coffee or fresh fruit juice.  (Last night I was observing a class and an old woman called me over from across the street to give me candy and a bowl full of guyabana fruit.  YUM.)  Everyone is always really excited that I’m there.  They sometimes seem nervous too, which is kind of funny.  I think I was portrayed to the teachers as their new boss lady, but after talking to them individually and explaining that I’m here to support/help, they seem more at ease.  

While literacy will clearly be taking up a lot of my time, I also want to have some youth groups and work in other areas of education here.  Adult literacy will continue to be a problem if half of the jovenes drop out/don’t learn anything in school anyway.  I could write a lot about the high schools I’ve seen here, but lets just say that I want to do youth empowerment, health charlas, job ideas, business planning, critical thinking… so many things that are lacking.  My host sisters will be awesome helpers with this too. 

So anyway, work is underway and I feel super welcomed into the community and into my family.  Life is good. J