When a person goes through training for Peace Corps, you often here trainers and other volunteers telling someone that will experience extreme highs and lows through training and service. They are right and I got to experience one of my highs this past weekend in Lima.
I was completely exhausted Saturday morning and really didn't feel like getting up at 7am to bucket bathe, walk to the center, take the hour and half trek to Lima in a crazy traffic and then have to take the 2 hour ride back (traffic). However, I'm glad I did.
Youth Development finally got a taste of the severe poverty that goes on just few hours from our humble abodes in Santa Eulalia. We got to visit a program called "Programa Educadores de Calle". Before the trip we were told NOT to wear any bright colors, wear any jewelry or bring ANYTHING with us. We would also be going with small groups and to each group there would be a security person. When we got there... I understood why, but I was also completely and utterly stunned.
I had seen poverty first hand in Honduras, but that doesn't mean when you see and smell the extreme poverty people live in on a daily that it doesn't affect you emotionally. The program is for kids that work in a market (that looked more like a mud pit) with their parents. They wake up around 3am and start selling whatever goods (vegetables, patatoes.. etc, etc) they can. The kids then head to school in the morning and return to sell after school. This is repeated 7 days a week. The program gives them a place to go after school to work on homework, etc. I wish I could have brought a camera because there really no words to the describe what the scene looked like.
However, its not that easy. Most parents NEED their kids to help them sell. The program has people going around the market finding kids and talking to their parents about the program. Educadores de Calle does have many kids, but there are also many parents that will just NOT allow the kids to go to the program. For the first couple minutes our group got to hang out with the kids in the building, and then we had the chance to go with a security guard to see what a normal day in the market is like for the families. It was heart breaking. The smells were horrific...children were picking up dirty and rotten fruit that had be left for garbage to sell.
After the tour of the market we were brought back to the building where we hung out with the kids more. I handed out my "firma" (signature) to all the kids, and talked to them and by talk to them I mean answer their 100 million questions they had about me. I also taught a few kids "head, shoulders, knees and toes" in English. This is where I noticed my Spanish had started to really come along, and it also helped that little kids are very forgiving when it comes to speaking their language. I left that place telling my Tech Trainer that I would LOVE to have this type of work as a primary project. It is most likely not something I"ll be doing, but it doesn't hurt to ask. However, there are other Peace Corps volunteers working with the program in different areas... so we shall see.
I'm heading to Lima tomorrow with half of Youth Development. We are going to the Peace Corps head quarters to have our chats with the Country Director and APCD. Next week marks the halfway point of training and all of the seminars will be in Spanish starting next week.
Also, I know I didn't get to tell everyone... but I hope everyone had a great 4th of JULY! Luckily, all the volunteers, got to celebrate with some amazing burgers, American flag cake and American football! I miss everyone! Please email me at brielle.colby@gmail.com if you have any questions or anything interesting to tell me :)
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