One of the parts I love about my Peace Corps service is the unpredictability of daily life. Every morning I wake up with a fairly clear idea of what I intend to do during the day, but yet it is vague enough to allow for the unexpected activities of the day or week. Some of these activities include:
• A few weeks ago my WatSan director called me to inform me he is coming down to my region. He wonders if I can meet him for lunch. I meet him for lunch the next day, and we eat with representatives of the United Nations and UNICEF. Then I talk with the director of the UN Ica about what my work is as a Peace Corps volunteer. No pressure. No big deal.
• The following day I explain to a mayor in a neighboring community the importance of Peace Corps and what I do as a volunteer.
• I go to a meeting that is supposedly about the participatory budget. But in all actuality, it is a workshop lead by the Red Cross and Crescent Moon about how we can lead community development. It was like Peace Corps training all over again.
• A few months ago I get a call from the Peace Corps Perú director telling me the ambassador of the U.S. has been trying to contact me all day but had the wrong phone number. The next day my phone keeps ringing, and I am talking to people who work in the embassy to see if we can arrange that they visit me at my site…unfortunately, it never works out.
• I spent hours upon hours helping tear bolts of fabric into three-meter lengths
• Each evening at 5:00 we leave for one of my communities to give talks and participatory discussions on different topics about water and sanitation. The meeting is supposed to start at five. We usually arrive around 5:30. Sometimes around 6:30 people show, and other days, no one shows up. Maybe we hold the discussion, maybe we don’t. It’s always a gamble and a surprise.
• Tonight we went to one of my communities and only five people came to the meeting. While discussing an activity called a FREESOP (talking about Family, Religion, Economy, Education, Health, Organizations and Politics) a heated debate broke out between the community members. My socio and I get involved. I have always enjoyed debates in practice. However, I must say presenting arguments in a language I have not mastered yet…now that is a thrill, a challenge and a little frustrating. We were debating whose role it is to ensure the community advances in the direction it wants to advance. There were a couple people convinced that they are completely helpless and all is the mayor’s fault they are not progressing…interesting.
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