Fun But Tiring

FBT, or Field Based Training, is one of the milestones of our first three months in country. During FBT, volunteers travel with their respective programs to a rural site in Peru. There they put into practice what they have learned during their first month of training by working directly with local municipalities and small projects. In addition, FBT marks one of the first serious evaluations of all the volunteers. The technical directors and the program director travel with the volunteers and evaluate how they interact not only with each other, but also with the local culture. Based on their evaluation of the volunteer, the directors will then begin to decide where to place him or her in their final site. So, FBT is not only a great opportunity for volunteers to explore more of Peru and develop their own personal skills, but it is also one of the most important events for deciding the next two years of our lives.

Yesterday I returned to Chaclacayo after completing the health program FBT. For the past five days I have been in the Huancavelica province of Peru, which is located in the south and away from the coast:

Huancavelica falls within the Peruvian Sierra. As a result, it is characterized by arid highlands, a cold to temperate climate, and deep mountain ranges. In my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful provinces of Peru. However, it is also one of the poorest. Poverty is very widespread within Huancavelica and many basic amenities are few and far in between. That being said, our FBT was extremely challenging. However, it was also an extremely amazing and rewarding experience.

My FBT started bright and early Sunday morning. Really early. Too early. It takes anywhere from 10-12 hours to get to Huancavelica by bus, so we had to leave the training center by 6:00 AM to reach our hotel by night. That’s right. We left the training center at 6:00, meaning I had to wake up at 4:00 in order to get dressed, snag breakfast for the road, and catch a bus into town. Ouch. When we all left together, I had perhaps one of the most miserable bus rides of my life. We packed 15 volunteers, plus their backpacks, into a minivan. I was smashed from all sides, without fresh air, and without any access to a window to see the road for six hours. I didn’t know what was going to get to me first – the severe leg cramps, the claustrophobia, or the motion sickness.

Thankfully we got a bit of a reprieve when we stopped for lunch in Coayllo, Lima. However, there are no true “breaks” in the Peace Corps. Free time is an opportunity for more work. So in addition to eating, we got to visit a Peace Corps water and sanitation volunteer and help him with his project. He had just recently finished building a series of improved kitchen stoves in his neighborhood and we were charged with the task of conducting follow-up house visits. I was with a team that visited three houses. We inspected the kitchens and conducted surveys to determine how they were being used and if they had or had not improved the health and sanitation of the households. When conducting these sorts of house visits, you have to be a detective. You’ll find that people will give you an answer that is not 100% true, or only one side of the story. For instance, several of our families claimed that they frequently used the improved kitchens and greatly enjoyed them. However, upon closer inspection you could see cobwebs inside the burners and a large collection of ash. Hm, frequently used? I think not. However, it was a good first step. Behavior change takes a long time to take effect and volunteers may not see the fruits of their labor until much, much later. Unfortunately we didn’t have too much time to spare to discuss the results of our surveys. We had to jump back into our minivan of misery for another 3-4 hours.

Finally at 6:30 PM we arrived at our hotel at Huaytara, Huancavelica. Huaytara, which is located at 8,944 ft. above sea level, would prove to be our home base for the next two days. We would eat and sleep there, but our projects were located in towns 1-2 hours away. Although I didn’t get to spend much time in Huaytara, I did find one glimmering, glistening gem that will always make Huaytara near and dear to my heart. HOT SHOWERS. I had not one, not two, but THREE hot showers (ok, more like lukewarm but it still felt glorious) during my stay there. It’s the first time I’ve had hot water in a month. Lord be praised!

My first day of work was held in Quishuampampa (Kee-shwam-PAM-pa…I know it’s a mouthful), a town at 11,155 feet above sea level and home to about 230-250 people. To begin, we stopped at a local health post to meet with a health volunteer, Ally, who was serving in the area. Health posts are pretty common in Peru, especially in rural sites. They are medical posts that provide basic care to the community. They are often staffed by nurses and maybe an obstetrician, but rarely by any full-fledged doctors. Peace Corps health volunteers often work closely with their local health posts to design outreach and educational programs. From our chat with Ally and a local nurse, we were able to understand what this relationship was like and how to begin working within the health post network. When we were finished, we hiked 10-15 minutes to a nearby house in order to build our first improved kitchen stove.

The Peace Corps health program has three primary areas of focus, one of which is environmental health. Peace Corps volunteers strive to improve quality of life by improving water sanitation and health, a goal which is accomplished by teaching hand-washing classes and building latrines and improved kitchens, among other things. Most kitchens within rural households are very poorly made. They are low to the ground and unstable, making them difficult to use. It is common for mothers to suffer from back problems from having to bend over their stoves. Burns are also common since it’s easy for pots to get knocked off the stoves or for the wood-thatched houses to catch fire. Respiratory illnesses are also frequent, especially with children, due to poor ventilation and smoke inhalation. Finally, these stoves often require a lot of wood. As a result, mothers often can’t afford to use extra wood for tasks that seem non-essential, such as boiling water. Consequentially, families will often suffer from diarrheal diseases and poor nutrition. By building more fuel-efficient stoves, Peace Corps volunteers can greatly improve the health of the household. If they are used properly, these kitchens can reduce burns and respiratory illnesses and increase nutritional health dramatically. For this reason, it’s essential that we all understand how to build kitchens within our sites.

Ally was about to launch her own kitchen stove project and we had the opportunity to help her build her first stove. We started with a bare corner of the house. Thankfully, the family already provided many of the supplies including the adobe bricks, the shovels, and the picks. Emma, another volunteer, also took the time to mix the mud for us, which consisted of water, dirt, and estiércol de vaca (aka cow shit). I took the role of shoveler. I climbed down into the mud pit and shoveled piles of mud onto potato sacks that were then carried inside and dumped into the corner. The mud was then smoothed out and leveled and adobe bricks were placed in rows on top. Cracks between the bricks were filled with adobe chunks and more mud. This continued until we had about three layers of adobe and mud. Then it was time to plan for the stove. We talked with the mother of the household and she requested that the stove be placed close to the front. That way, she had more space in the back to store pots and pans. We had brought a metal sheet with four holes cut in it that would serve as our stovetop. Using a measuring tape, we found which bricks would be located directly under the four stove burners. These were temporarily removed and we placed a layer of broken glass, sugar, and salt underneath them. This would help conduct heat once the stove was used. We then put down the stovetop and made the firewood cavity. We also tied a metal sheet into a tube and inserted it through the roof. This was also adhered to the stove with mud and would serve as a chimney. For the final step, we had to go over all the cracks and finalize the firewood cavity with a special mud. How is it special? It’s got more cow shit in it. According to Emma, this is crucial. In areas of high heat, like the firewood cavity, normal mud will crack and split. This will allow smoke to be released into the house and render the improved kitchen ineffective. Because cow shit has grass and plant pulp it in it, it is able to resist the heat and does not crack. Thus, we had to mix a new type of mud to be used as a sealant. And guess whose job that was?

I went back to the mud pit and hauled a large pile of mud onto a potato sack. To my great dismay, as I began to haul it into the house one of the family members then presented me with a large trash bag. Inside was a big pile of freshly pooped cow shit. Wonderful. I took both of my prizes into the house, carefully poured some of the poop onto the mud and added a cup of water. Tadaa! I presented my mud-sealant to Emma with pride.

“Great! The ratios look good, but, Lyndsey, you’re going to have to mix it.”

Pardon? Mix it with what? I can’t bring the shovel inside and it would be far too clumsy to use it. I’d get mud everywhere. A spoon is too small and I don’t want to use the household kitchenware. There are no handheld shovels so, what then? As I looked at my fellow volunteers I could see their faces fall when they realized what had to happen. That’s when I understood what I’d have to use – my hands. I looked down at my blister-ridden palms and realized I’d have to plunge them into a big, steaming pile of green cow shit. As I bent down and contemplated all the ways bacteria could enter the cuts and sores, I was hit by the smell. Ah yes, the smell of cow shit. Fragrant. 

“I really need that sealant, Lyndsey.”

I gave one last desperate look at my comrades and pleaded with my eyes. Nope. No one was going to budge. Ok, I told myself, you have 5 seconds to curse the fact that you’re about to submerge your hands in crap. Think about it…think about it…3...2…1. And you’re done. Now get to work. As I shoved my hands up to my wrist into the pile, I told myself that I was kneading pie dough. A big, smelly, green pie dough. A pie dough that was still warm after leaving a cow’s anus. Fantastic. But my pain wasn’t over yet. With the help of another volunteer (finally), I had to then use my hands to spread the sealant all over the inside of the oven and into the cracks. There could be no holes.

Despite my slightly horrific experience and all the hard work, I loved making the kitchen. It was extremely satisfying to transform a barren corner of the house into a fully functional, working kitchen that would help a family for years to come. That being said, though, I couldn’t wait to clean myself off. My shoes, my jeans, and my shirt were streaked with mud and my hands were still covered in crap. It took me a long, long time to scrape the shit out of the inner corners of my fingernails. And let me tell you, I don’t think I’ve used so much hand sanitizer in my life.   

After a lunch break, we returned to town and held a nutrition workshop with a group of mothers. Ally went through the town and rounded them up, and once the mothers arrived at the health post we gave a small lecture on the food groups and why it was important to feed kids a balanced diet. Afterwards, we made ensalada rusa, a cold salad of cooked potatoes, beets, carrots, and eggs mixed with mayonnaise and salt. Once we were finished, it was finally time to head back to Huaytara.

It was around this time that people started dropping like flies. I’ve been mentioning the altitude of each site for a reason. Have you ever experienced altitude sickness? Trust me, it’s a doozy. One by one I watched as my fellow volunteers succumbed to the vicious consequences of the altitude. People became bedridden and couldn’t keep down food. They walked around like zombies, green from head to foot. Out of the 30-some volunteers in our FBT, 1 out of 5 became violently sick. Thankfully, I was not one of them. My only point of suffering was when I had to climb stairs or any sort of hill. By the end, I’d be huffing and puffing like an asthma patient. Due to the low oxygen, even normal, every-day activities became an anaerobic workout. Consequentially, we were constantly starving and scarffed anything that was reasonably edible in sight. So much for my Insanity workouts.

My last day of work was at Pilpichaca, which is situated at a whopping 13,123 feet above sea level. We began by visiting the municipality. We got to meet David, the health volunteer stationed at Pilpichaca, and the mayor and had a nice, long discussion about the role of the local government in health outreach programs. Next David took us to a microred, a health center that oversees several health posts. Unlike a health post, a microred is staffed by doctors, has the ability to treat more serious cases, and, normally, even has an ambulance or two. We visited with obstetricians, biologists, dentists, and general physicians and discussed the nutrition and childhood stimulation programs they implemented within the facility. To finish off the afternoon, we broke into teams and conducted another round of house visits. David had previously conducted a series of health and sanitation workshops with some of the nearby households. We were in charge of following up with those houses to see if they had implemented any of the new knowledge and to determine if they understood the material. The first house we visited was empty, but thankfully the second house proved to be occupied. We convinced the mother to take a break from her housework and took a tour of her home. We noted if she had cleaned her floor, how she stored her pots and pans, and where she disposed her trash. We asked her to demonstrate how she washed her hands and quizzed her on how to prevent and treat diarrhea and dehydration. After about 30 minutes of conversation, we thanked her and left in order to present our findings to the group.  

When lunch was over with I had time to enjoy a brief rest. I walked around for a bit and enjoyed the scenery, which I have to say was gorgeous. There was a river nearby and crystal clear, blue mountain water rushed over the rocks and through the ravines. The mountains were sparsely vegetated, but richly colored. The ground shimmered with greens, oranges, and coppers that deepened as a raincloud darkened in the sky. The town only consisted of one street and couldn’t have had more than 200 people living there, but it was quite homey and welcoming. Everyone was extremely polite and greeted each other with genuine warmth. I loved talking to those who passed by, and many of them asked me when I’d be moving into town. I was sorry to tell them that, unfortunately, the site was taken and that I wouldn’t be staying full-time.

When everyone else had finished we moved on to our last activity of the day. David had just finished a 12-week program called Pasos Adelante (in English, “steps forward”). Pasos Adelante is a program directly tied into the third goal of the Peace Corps health program, which is geared towards promoting sexual health and decision-making among adolescents. Using the Pasos Adelante manual, David met with local youth once a week to discuss themes such as self esteem, HIV and AIDS, how to prevent unwanted pregnancy and STIs, and how to accomplish their dreams. We had arrived on graduation day and got to see all of the students presented with certificates and awarded in front of the community. However, before the ceremony started David wanted to host a chat with both the parents and the teachers. This was the first time Pasos Adelante was implemented in Pilpichaca, and as a result many of the adults had difficulty understanding why the program was important. They had only been peripherally involved in the program, and David hoped that by hosting an activity with them he could get them excited for the next round.

I was in the team scheduled to talk with the teachers. I had an hour to plan with three other volunteers and one language supervisor. We decided to open with a brief description of the Peace Corps and an icebreaker. We’d then follow up with a discussion of Pasos Adelante and describe the program’s goals and course material. We then hoped to make the teachers understand that the Pasos Adelante graduates were a great resource for them and that these students could be used to facilitate discussions that many adults found uncomfortable. Next we’d host two activities. The first would be a brainstorming activity where the teachers would try to think of ways they could support their new peer educators. At the same time, two peer educators would be chosen to write down ways they wanted teachers to support them. We’d then compare and contrast the lists and come up with an action plan. As a final activity, we’d break the teachers into teams and give each team a different scenario:

1)    You notice that a student who is normally very active and participatory in class is becoming more and more withdrawn. After several days, you find that this student rarely says anything at all. How would you use a peer educator to approach this student and discover what is wrong?

2)    After class you notice two of your students drinking behind a building. How will you use a peer educator to approach them and discourage the use of alcohol?

3)    While at school, you overhear two female students talking about their boyfriends. They say that their boyfriends are ready to have sex, but they don’t want to use condoms. What do you do, and how do you use a peer educator to approach this issue?

The teachers would have to come up with a solution and then present it to the entire group. We’d then finish with a summary and time for questions.

Like everything within the Peace Corps, things didn’t go 100% according to plan. I was in charge of facilitating the brainstorming activity, which, of course, proved to be our trouble spot. When the teachers started filing into the room, I was told that the peer educators were late in arriving. As a result, there was no way we’d be able to obtain any opinions from the kids and compare and contrast two lists of ideas. My activity was shot. So, I had to come up with something on the fly. On the spur of the moment, I decided to turn my brainstorming activity into a discussion. I started by opening with a question: “What responsibilities do you think peer educators have within your community?” We then talked about the student’s role as a role model and how they had the ability to talk candidly with fellow students and promote healthy behavior. Next I asked, “What difficulties do you think peer educators will face as they fulfill this role?” After a pause, the teachers began to talk about peer pressure and other social obstacles teenagers might face at school that would cause them to abandon their duties. Finally, I finished with, “Knowing this, how do you think you, as an experienced adult, can support your peer educators and give them the help they need?” The pause was slightly longer this time, but gradually the teachers began to talk about how they could advise their students and give them the facilities they needed if they wanted to host discussions or educational sessions after school. By the end of the session, we could tell that the teachers were slowly starting to realize the importance of Pasos Adelante and the role of their new peer educators. Likewise, the other group had equal success after talking with the parents. By the end of their activity, not only did the parents want to enroll their other kids in the program, but they also wanted to start and adult version of Pasos Adelante to teach them how to talk about sex and other sensitive topics with their children. Needless to say, David is going to have quite a bit of work ahead of him.

We left Wednesday in the late morning at 11:00. I tearfully said goodbye to my hot shower and got onto the bus for a three-hour drive. We stopped in Chincha, Lima for a brief lunch before we headed back on the road. We were dropped off in Lima and afterwards I took a taxi back home. I arrived at 8:30.

I absolutely loved my time in Huancavelica. Although the work was extremely hard, I fell in love with the small towns, the beautiful mountains, the crisp air, and the friendly people. I would consider myself very lucky to have a site similar to Ally’s or David’s. Fortunately for me, I won’t have to wait much longer to find out. Today the directors are meeting to discuss the placements and by tomorrow I’ll know in which province I’ll be stationed. I’ll keep you all posted!