An interview with a Peace Corps Volunteer

Recently, I had to fill out my first tri-annual Volunteer Reporting Form (also known as the VRF since everything in the government has to have an acronym) for the Peace Corps Peru and Washington Office. This report is done in order to update the various Peace Corps governing bodies on my work projects, physical and emotional health, and progression in the fulfillment of various Peace Corps goals. Gotta prove that I’m not wasting those American tax dollars! After finishing the very, veeeeeerry long survey, I though I’d covert some of the questions into a mock interview blog post:

How integrated do you feel in your community? Somewhat integrated

What have you learned in the process of integrating into your community? (How is your language learning going? What have you learned about cross-cultural integration? Do you have any suggestions for training based on your community integration experiences?)

I came to Peru with an already high language ability, so language difficulties were never a serious problem for me. I would say that I'm still learning new words, but my language level hasn't increased much since I got here. I find very little difficulty in communicating, although I still make grammatical mistakes. To help further things along, I've been trying to read more books in Spanish in order to learn new sentence structures and vocab. However, I will admit that my language learning progress is slow because I still turn to English frequently. When I'm stressed out or when I need a mental break, I treat myself to a pirated American TV show or movie or curl up with an English book. It doesn't help my language learning, but it is necessary for my mental health. 



As for cross-cultural integration, I'm still learning how to integrate myself properly here. I find that although I try to engage people in conversation and discuss aspects of my and their culture, conversations stay superficial and always gravitate to very simple topics (the weather, whether I’m cold at night or not, local crop growth, etc.). I have found it easier to learn more about Peruvian culture and share my own American culture with a select number of people, those who I would consider to be friends rather than acquaintances. We watch movies, cook food together, and go to town events and parties as a group.

What challenges have you faced in your project or in other areas of your Peace Corps experience?

One of my greatest challenges is just remembering that relationship building takes a great deal of time and effort. Sometimes I feel frustrated that I still don't have any close friends here in site. I do have friends, but I still haven’t yet reached a point in the relationship where I feel comfortable going to them to vent my emotions and feelings. 


Another serious challenge has been making myself feel useful. For the past couple of months, I really haven't done...well, pretty much anything. I've helped at the health center when I can and attended town meetings, but until recently I hadn't done anything that I could truly consider work. I had no ownership of any project, no matter how small. This was extremely discouraging for me, since the reason I decided to leave the US and dedicate two years of my life to the Peace Corps was to actually HELP people and WORK. Unfortunately for me, I arrived at my site at the worst possible moment. School was just about to be let out for the year, and all of the teens took off for the coast for vacation. Also, the rainy season was just about to begin. Every day for two months it rained like clockwork. Days were dismal, damp, and dreary, especially since about 50% of the townspeople left for the coast to enjoy warmer weather and work. I was left to wander around in ghost town with absolutely nothing to do besides my community diagnostic.

Making friends was very difficult not only because of culture shock, but also because, frankly, no one was around to talk to. Stress, depression, and apathy were daily occurrences, and I’d say I probably had at least 2 pity-parties/crying-fests every week. All I could think about was what my life would have been like if I had chosen to stay in the United States: I’d have a 9:00-5:00 job or be a student with a day full of classes, I’d have actual, definite work to do every day, at the end of each day I’d have a physical, tangible product of my hard work, I’d be up-to-date in world news, pop culture, and family events, and I’d be in constant contact with my friends and loved ones. Instead, I found myself at what felt like the God-forsaken middle-of-nowhere hole of Peru, locked in my cold, cement room to avoid the rain, without anything to do to widdle away the hours. Thankfully, this is perfectly normal for Peace Corps Volunteers during their first 2-4 months in site.

Typical of a government program, the Peace Corps has done studies about the patterns of emotional and mental health of volunteers during their 2 years of service. During my training in Lima, I was giving a handout with a graph depicting the trajectory of highs and lows volunteers usually experience over a two-year period. One of the biggest “dips” and all-time lows is shown between months 2-4, when volunteers are adapting to their sites, missing home, and having failed or slow starts to their projects. However, around the end of month #3 the graph begins to slope upward and happiness increases. Thankfully, that is actually starting to happen with me. Slowly but surely projects are moving forward, every day I have things to do, and I feel more confident, busy, and useful. As a result, I feel a lot healthier and happier. 


Describe lessons learned about your project, community or yourself.

1. It is important to spend the majority of your time doing what you love. Your community may want you to do other projects, but you should always consider them carefully before you agree to participate. That is not to say that you should not help your community realize and meet their specific needs. However, if you find there is a lot of pressure for you to do something you simply do not enjoy doing, you should try to find other ways to help. Maybe agree to advise the project or help organize it, but not spearhead it yourself. If you find you are spending most of your time doing activities that drain you and give you no satisfaction or joy, you will become bitter. That bitterness and tiredness will spill over into the projects that you actually enjoy, will dramatically affect your mood and your willingness to participate in the community, and taint the conversations you have with people. 


2. Protecting and caring for yourself is not selfish. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) is one of the most selfless things you can do, and it is part of the PCV's job to think of others and help communities meet their needs. However, that does not mean the PCV should be completely self-sacrificing. As PCVs, our emotional, mental, and physical health is imperative. If we do not care for ourselves, we cannot be good PCVs. Taking time for yourself is not taking away from your community and is certainly not selfish. You're giving to yourself so then you can give back to those around you. 


3. You do not always have to succeed. If you aim for success every time, you are not just going to fail. You are going to fail badly and painfully. Failure is part of the Peace Corps experience, and it's fine to not have a bunch of "success stories" to share to others. Rather, those failures are, as corny as it sounds, opportunities to learn and develop. Never be afraid of failure, and don't think that just because things don't work out immediately that you're a bad PCV or wasting your time.

What activities do you intend to undertake in the next few months?

1. To help improve the sanitation and health practices of the Aurahuá Health Center, I am helping the medical staff build two small landfills on the center’s property. Currently, the medical staff uses the local landfill at the edge of town to dispose of their trash. Once the trash is thrown into the pit, it is burned. This is dangerous for several reasons. First, burning trash is very harmful for the environment and for personal health. When trash is burned, toxic ash and smoke is produced. These can be very harmful to the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs if they are inhaled and can produce other negative effects on plant life and the atmosphere. Furthermore, if someone were to enter the landfill and come into contact with used needles and syringes, they could become seriously sick. For this reason, the health center needs its own trash deposits where it can safely dispose of any waste produced during the treatment of patients. Our plan is to build two small landfills: one for medical waste and one for organic waste.
2.  I am currently facilitating a recycling project with the local elementary school’s 6^th grade class. Late last year, the students asked me to be their madrina de promoción (godmother of graduation). Traditionally, the madrina is in charge of organizing and paying for the students’ end-of-the-year graduation party and vacation trip. Since I do not have a salary, I made it clear to the 6^th grade teacher that it would be impossible for me to finance the graduation. However, I could help the school organize a party and help the students with various fundraising activities. The teacher, Professor Grover, said that would be more than enough. To help the students not only raise money, but also learn how to care for the environment, I organized a recycling project. Students collect plastic and glass bottles as well as white and colored paper. When enough has been gathered, I take all of the recyclables to Chincha to sell to a recycling vendor. I’m pleased to say that the project has been quite successful. Word has spread around town and many local organizations, such as the police station and the health center, as well as local stores have agreed to donate their recycling to the project as well.
3.  I am still slowly but surely working on making a local public library. Currently, the health staff, Professor Juan, and I are working on making a committee to organize the project and oversee the library.
4. With one of the new medical interns, a psychologist by the name of Liset, I am organizing an Escuela de Padres (Parents’ School). Classes will be held with parents of the kindergarten, elementary school, and high school students once a month to help them improve their parenting skills. Themes of the classes will focus more on mental and social health, such as how to facilitate communication with your children, emotional control, stress management, healthy forms of discipline, the difficulties of adolescence, how to talk to you children about sex, drugs, and alcohol, and how to instill values and raise the self-esteem of your child. 
5.  I am just a couple of steps shy of beginning my Pasos Adelante (Steps Forward) program within the local high school. Pasos Adelante is a program designed and promoted by the Peace Corps that teaches teens about self-esteem, sexual and reproductive health, how to plan for the future, and how to be a leader. It’s kind of like a mix of D.A.R.E, basic sex ed., and a Culver Academy leadership class. The program has 12 sessions in total and, once the students complete all 12 classes and graduate, they become health promoters within their high school community. They are charged with teaching at least 50 of their peers and are trained to give accurate, confidential, and confident answers to any questions fellow students might ask them regarding sexual health or about healthy relationships. Currently, I have created a work plan for the program and am finalizing the last details of the classes with the high school director. I’ve also distributed parent permission slips and applications to all of the students, which I will collect in a week. From there, I’ll be able to choose which students will participate in the program and begin holding classes. To help with this, I’ve also made an Adolescent Health Committee composed of the science teachers at the high school and various health personnel to help co-facilitate the classes and organize outreach events in the community.
6.  Other projects I might embark on in the next couple of months include establishing a health radio program, training local health promoters, and continuing to help the local health center in its public outreaches and health promotion events. 

The second goal of the Peace Corps is "to help promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of the peoples served..." Have you have done something in your community to help promote a better understanding of Americans -- of your own cultural heritage, of American ideals you care passionately about, etc?

I have yet to do anything "big" to promote American culture to my community. If I had to list any large project, I'd refer to my library project. Although I don't know if you could consider it an American ideal, there is a very prominent reading culture in the States. Children are introduced to reading programs from a young age and young adult literature is a very widespread cultural phenomenon (Hunger Games and Harry Potter, anyone?). I am trying to plant aspects of that culture here by showing kids and teens that reading can be fun and giving them the means to develop a love for reading. Besides this, I've done a couple of small activities with specific groups of people. One of my favorite moments was when I watched a dubbed version of the film "The Help" with my health staff. This lead to a great discussion on ethnic rights and racism in Peru and the US, the history of the US Civil Rights Movement, the aspects of Southern culture and gastronomy in the States, and differences in culture between the US in the '60s and now.

Have you experienced any personal issues at site that are affecting your work (host family, acceptance in community, your health, etc)?

The only major incident that occurred had to do with my community diagnostic presentation. During my first three months in site, my primary work was to compose a community diagnostic, an extensive analysis of the health situation within Aurahuá. When I returned from Lima after attending the Peace Corps’ EIST (Early In-Service Training) in mid-March, I immediately wrote and left an oficio (a formal petition for resources or help) at my municipality asking the opportunity to present my community diagnostic during a specially organized meeting. In this oficio, I also expressed the urgency of organizing the presentation quickly, since I was scheduled to travel to Ayacucho after the following week.

A couple of days later, I returned to the secretary's office to see if my oficio had been considered. I was told that it had, in fact, been read, but only the mayor knew what decision had been made. Since our mayor had returned back to Chincha without telling me anything, I called him on his cell phone. He told me that Gladys, our regidora de salud (kind of like a governor of health), was in charge of the project and hung up on me. I then spent the next week and a half looking for Gladys. I called her multiple times every day, I visited her house every other day, and made almost daily trips to the municipality to see if she was in the office. I called the mayor again to ask where Gladys was, but he offered no help and again hung up on me. When it was clear that there was now no time to organize a presentation before leaving for vacation, I wrote a solicitud (a different kind of formal document that solicits a specific kind of resource or help) asking to present my diagnostic during the April reunion de consejos (a monthly meeting where townspeople and authorities are able to propose ideas or ask for help from the municipality). I left it in the secretary's office, had the cargo (this is a copy of the legal document, such as an oficio or solicitud, that the petitioner has signed and keeps as a receipt of proof that their document has been officially received and registered by the municipality) signed, and then called the mayor to let him know I had left the solicitud and also told him what I was soliciting in the document. After listening to everything, he hung up on me again.

When I returned from Ayacucho, Gladys found me at the health center and we organized the presentation. I finished my PowerPoint slides, spent a great deal of time practicing, and arrived at the meeting dressed professionally with all of the projectors and computers set up. When I walked into the office, I was told that I could sit politely in the room's corner until the meeting was done. This greatly surprised me, since I had specifically requested to give a presentation, not just come and listen. When I explained this to the mayor and the other regidores (kind of like governors, each has a specific area of oversight such as health, public works, education, etc.), they all expressed their frustration, rolled their eyes at me, and said this was not, in fact, what I had asked for. After chastising Gladys for not "properly handling me,” I was told that they might have time to listen to my presentation at noon, if I kept it to 15 minutes. I had arrived at 9:00. I had to wait three hours for them. To say I was not pleased was an understatement.

When 12:15 came and they still hadn't left their office, I knocked on the door to remind them that it was time for me to present. They continued to make me wait and came out about 10 minutes later, laughing and joking like nothing had happened. At this point, I was about ready to explode. I was absolutely livid at the way I was being treated and was determined to have my revenge before the day was through.

After giving my community diagnostic presentation, I put on a smile and asked if the audience had any concluding comments or questions. Afterwards, as the regidores began to get up to leave, I announced that I had a question of my own to pose to all of them. Puzzled, they sat back down and watched as I pulled the original solicitud's cargo out of my bag.  With my voice practically dripping with poison, I read a section of the document out loud to them where it clearly stated that I wanted to present my diagnostic, not just "sit in" on the meeting. I then demanded an explanation as to why I had to wait over three hours to get their attention and why they had treated me so unprofessionally. Looking at each other in shock and embarrassment, they could give me no answer. That’s when I let them have it. Stepping in front of them and blasting them with the full force of my fury, I made it blatantly clear that they were never, EVER to treat me that way again. Although I admitted that I was foreign and young, I made it abundantly clear that I worked for the US government and I served as its representative in Aurahuá. Henceforth, when the municipality addressed me it would treat me as if it were addressing the US government itself. Furthermore, if I went through the trouble of respecting their rules and customs by writing solicitudes and oficios, they would give me the basic courtesy of actually reading them and pay attention to what, exactly, I was asking.

During the whole time, I don't think my mayor was there for more than 2 minutes straight. He constantly was getting up and leaving during my presentation, talking on his cell phone, or, if he was actually present, looking visibly bored. Unfortunately, that meant that not only did he miss the entirety of my presentation, but also in my reprimand. However, I decided not to tackle that problem and address it later. Based on what I saw at the end of my presentation, I think the message was driven home. The municipality's staff was visibly shocked at the sheer magnitude of my anger and ashamed of the way they had treated me. It was actually almost comical to watch them shrink further and further into their seats as I continued to yell. Despite everything, I want to give them one more chance and see if my outburst was enough of an incentive for them to treat me more respectfully in the future. However, if such an incident occurs again, I plan on calling upon the Peace Corps Office and schedule for my directors to either pay a visit or make a phone call to put the fear of God into them.

Hopefully that gives you all a better idea as to what my accomplishments, goals, and struggles have been for the past four or so months. Thanks for tuning in, everyone!