People back home are always asking me what exactly I DO in the Peace Corps. Honestly, there is no real answer- it isn't like a 9 to 5 job. Half the time I don't know what I'll be doing from one day to the next. The first three months in my community were mostly focused on getting to know the people in my town, and them getting to know me. Building trust, I guess. It was also a lot about learning Spanish. I'm still learning but it gets easier every day and I've really started to feel like I fit in here (as much as I can fit in, with my blue eyes and 1st grade vocabulary).
Anyway, the job that Peace Corps lined up for me was working with a youth cooperative. As a business major, my primary assignment is to help the kids of an all boys private Catholic school with their chicken and pig projects. Basically, they buy baby chics and pigs and raise them, fattening them up, and then sell them for a small profit. Because the private school is focused on farming, this is a great project for the boys, relevant to what they will be doing after they graduate. My job is to help them learn to manage their books and offer advice/suggestions to improve efficiency, etc. I think it will be a pretty awesome job once I get into it but right now the kids are on summer break so I haven't met with them since early December.
In the meantime I work with two other youth groups. The first is an EcoClub that focuses on encouraging environmentally healthy practices at a very basic level, such as not throwing your trash out the window of the bus. Depressingly, Panama can be very ugly along most roads. We are, one step at a time, trying to increase awareness and encourage responsible living. They are a pretty great group of kids. They are between 13 and 17 and always friendly and welcoming. The community that I live in is pretty wealthy (relatively) and the kids have had access to a comparatively good education. Most of them understand a fair amount of English and some of them, though shy, are nearly fluent. There are definitely a few I wish I could take home with me, they are such amazing kids!
My third group is the Muchachas Guias (Girl Scouts). Working with them is more of a relaxed, playful job, though I want to step it up a little bit and start teaching the older ones about sex education and STI's, which are relatively untouched subjects in the public schools. As a result young pregnancies are heartbreakingly common and it isn't unusual for many generations of a family to live under one roof, with a (young) grandma helping to raise the little one. And, often, the mom drops out of school. Because my site is, like I said, more affluent (and, as a result, better educated), this isn't as common, but my site is also very Catholic and talking about sex can be taboo. Hopefully I'll be able to increase awareness without stepping on any toes. And with the little girl scouts I want to start focusing on self-esteem and leadership.
Because I work with kids my schedule works around their school schedule. Since the younger kids don't get out of school until noon and the older kids don't start until then, I usually have my mornings free. But since we're on summer break I generally meet up with the kids three or four times a week, depending on what projects we have going on. Like I said, I don't have a set schedule, which can be frustrating but also very refreshing.
They say that the job/life of a Peace Corps Volunteer is 24/7 and it is true. We are always "on". When you live in a community where everything you do sticks out because you stick out it can be exhausting. My door is always open and I always smile even if I'm having one of those days where all I want to do is scream. It's important to me that they know I want to be here and I want to be a member of the community. Because, at the same time, I need to know that they want me here. I need their support. I need to know that when I leave in two years they won't think back and wonder why I was even there.
This whole experience is so emotionally and mentally exhausting sometimes I wonder if it's worth it. I miss home. But, at the end of the day, I know that I will never regret the decision to come here or the (sometimes daily) decision to stay. This is where I live now. This is my community. And every day it feels a little more like home.
Anyway, the job that Peace Corps lined up for me was working with a youth cooperative. As a business major, my primary assignment is to help the kids of an all boys private Catholic school with their chicken and pig projects. Basically, they buy baby chics and pigs and raise them, fattening them up, and then sell them for a small profit. Because the private school is focused on farming, this is a great project for the boys, relevant to what they will be doing after they graduate. My job is to help them learn to manage their books and offer advice/suggestions to improve efficiency, etc. I think it will be a pretty awesome job once I get into it but right now the kids are on summer break so I haven't met with them since early December.
In the meantime I work with two other youth groups. The first is an EcoClub that focuses on encouraging environmentally healthy practices at a very basic level, such as not throwing your trash out the window of the bus. Depressingly, Panama can be very ugly along most roads. We are, one step at a time, trying to increase awareness and encourage responsible living. They are a pretty great group of kids. They are between 13 and 17 and always friendly and welcoming. The community that I live in is pretty wealthy (relatively) and the kids have had access to a comparatively good education. Most of them understand a fair amount of English and some of them, though shy, are nearly fluent. There are definitely a few I wish I could take home with me, they are such amazing kids!
My third group is the Muchachas Guias (Girl Scouts). Working with them is more of a relaxed, playful job, though I want to step it up a little bit and start teaching the older ones about sex education and STI's, which are relatively untouched subjects in the public schools. As a result young pregnancies are heartbreakingly common and it isn't unusual for many generations of a family to live under one roof, with a (young) grandma helping to raise the little one. And, often, the mom drops out of school. Because my site is, like I said, more affluent (and, as a result, better educated), this isn't as common, but my site is also very Catholic and talking about sex can be taboo. Hopefully I'll be able to increase awareness without stepping on any toes. And with the little girl scouts I want to start focusing on self-esteem and leadership.
Because I work with kids my schedule works around their school schedule. Since the younger kids don't get out of school until noon and the older kids don't start until then, I usually have my mornings free. But since we're on summer break I generally meet up with the kids three or four times a week, depending on what projects we have going on. Like I said, I don't have a set schedule, which can be frustrating but also very refreshing.
They say that the job/life of a Peace Corps Volunteer is 24/7 and it is true. We are always "on". When you live in a community where everything you do sticks out because you stick out it can be exhausting. My door is always open and I always smile even if I'm having one of those days where all I want to do is scream. It's important to me that they know I want to be here and I want to be a member of the community. Because, at the same time, I need to know that they want me here. I need their support. I need to know that when I leave in two years they won't think back and wonder why I was even there.
This whole experience is so emotionally and mentally exhausting sometimes I wonder if it's worth it. I miss home. But, at the end of the day, I know that I will never regret the decision to come here or the (sometimes daily) decision to stay. This is where I live now. This is my community. And every day it feels a little more like home.
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