Correspondence Match Program July 27, 2008

The Peace Corps offers the opportunity to participate in a program called the correspondence match program. This program facilitates correspondence between an educator, his or her students, and a currently serving Peace Corps Volunteer. Participants exchange letters, stories, artifacts, photos, e-mail messages, and even phone calls. It doesn’t seem as though it will take up too much time, and is definitely an interesting thing to be a part of!

I am very excited to participate in this program, especially since my friend Ashley will be student teaching in the fall, so it will be a perfect way for us to regularly keep in touch!

If you are also interested in participating in the program, or want to learn more about it, here is some more information:

The handbook

Frequently Asked Questions

Enroll

Hopefully I will know more about the program in time and will be able to write about it in greater detail, but for now I’m just excited to get things started with the educator and start making plans!

Peace,

Sasha

These are hard times for dreamers…

My laptop situation is finally resolved!! July 20, 2008

I bring you this post from my brand-spankin new MacBook! I am in love with this computer… I walked into an apple store, got the MacBook, added an extra gig of memory, got a three year warranty, all with a student discount. And then… they gave me a free printer and iPod Touch! And only for a few hundred dollars more than it would have cost to fix my five year old crappy Lenovo Thinkpad. And most importantly, I love having a laptop again – being able to listen to my music, finish putting together a Peace Corps playlist, and start working on the Rosetta Stone!

Also, the MacBook has a cleverly built in iSight camera above the screen, which will make keeping in touch with family and friends a lot easier!

I feel a lot better having a laptop to bring with me to Peru. It has been repeatedly stressed to me by different PCVs in Peru currently that bringing a laptop with me will be essential… Here’s what one PCV had to say about laptops:

Computer:  The majority of people bring one, and almost everyone that didn’t bring one wishes they did and are having their parents bring them one.  If you are worried about bringing a laptop in an effort to be culturally sensitive, don’t worry about it.  Chances are people in your site will ask you to bring them a laptop when someone visits you.  As for electricity, you will almost certainly have electricity so that shouldn’t be a concern.  Business and Youth volunteers tend to be placed in sites that are a little less rural than the Health and Environment volunteers.  Don’t feel like you need to go rush out and buy one if you don’t have one, but if you are in anyway debating whether or not to buy one, or bring the one you have, don’t hesitate and bring it.  They are invaluable for work reasons, and nowadays most information from the PC office is sent via email.
If you don’t have internet at your site you can still use your computer to write emails, do your work, and then all you have to do when you get to internet is send.  It’s also great for entertainment. There will be down times in your site (i.e. my town shuts down at 7pm), and it’s great to be able to watch a tv show or movie (the pirated movie selection in Peru is extensive).  It’s a great way to organize and store all your photos as well.  Furthermore, there is a chance you could have wireless internet in your site, but if not, there are many places in the regional capitals that have wireless. With a computer you can stay in a hotel with wireless internet and skype your family and friends at home, thus saving money on phone cards.  The newer the computer the better.  If you bring a crappy 6 year old computer it is better than nothing, but it will most likely give your frustrations and headaches.  It’s better if you have hard drive space to spare, or bring a long a portable external hard drive.  They are tiny and lightweight, and pretty cheap nowadays. They are very useful for sharing photos, and downloaded tv shows and movies.  Sorry to write so much about computers but it is something that was debated when our group was coming and I just wish someone would have clued me in on how useful they were so I didn’t debate.

So there you have it… bring a laptop to Peru. And if possible, make sure it isn’t a Lenovo, because they are awful.

What exactly is my job going to be? July 15, 2008

Lately, a lot of people have been asking me what exactly my job in the Peace Corps is going to be. And I have had a really difficult time answering their question because there are so many aspects to my job. So here is exactly what the Peace Corps is telling me I am going to be doing in Peru as a Community Development Promoter:

As a volunteer, I will concentrate on using a variety of educational and outreach techniques to increase Peruvians’ knowledge of environmental issues, to increase their capacity to implement sustainable management and income-generating practices, and to improve their quality of life. Behavior change and community development are slow and sometimes frustrating processes, but there is little more important or fulfilling than improving lives and helping address the basic causes and effects of poverty.

Given the complexity of issues faced by rural communities and their need to satisfy their most basic short-term needs, addressing longer-term environmental problems requires creativity and flexibility. In fact, many of the activities I will implement may focus on assisting my community overcome basic organizational challenges and satisfying their most basic needs.

My specific responsibilities might include:

• Establishing and maintaining home or community gardens and tree nurseries.
• Helping families construct improved cooking stoves, ecologically designed latrines, micro-landfills, and other household infrastructure that enables them to live healthier lives with less negative environmental impact.
• Working with local authorities to design and conduct participatory analyses of communities’ environmental challenges.
• Helping local leaders design and implement environmental management plans for communities and protected areas.
• Helping municipal government officials design and implement solid waste management programs, which include recycling and composting components.
• Working with municipal government officials on the development of outreach campaigns and public education activities (eg. home visits, school-based activities, formation of neighborhood groups) toward improving local environmental management practices (eg. water use, solid waste disposal, reforestation).
• Helping community members start or better manage small enterprises that utilize resources on a sustainable basis (eg. beekeeping, handicrafts, small animal raising).
• Working with park authorities on improving visitor experiences (eg. environmental education activities, interpretation centers)
• Setting up programs for training guides in public and private protected areas.
• Developing eco-tourism circuits, and tourism-related business plans and marketing materials.
• Assisting teachers in local schools to integrate environmental education themes into the curriculum, using methodologies such as songs, games, theater, and science experiments.
• Organizing summer ecology camps, and year-around youth clubs with ecology themes.
• Organizing environmental advocacy groups, and improving the organizational capacities of existing groups.
• Building local leadership, through workshops and participatory activities.

As an active member of my community, there will be many opportunities to participate in secondary activities. I might teach bookkeeping or computer use to the local mothers’ club. I might organize and teach health and nutrition workshops to a group of community leaders, who in turn will present those workshops to other local residents. I might teach English, organize women’s exercise classes, coach sports, organize a community library, or help a local youth group with a rabbit raising project. The possibilities are endless.

And so now you see why it is so difficult to answer when people ask what exactly I will be doing in Peru. Hope this gives some clarification!

Fourth of July Weekend July 8, 2008

Well, I figured I was a bit overdue for an update. A lot has happened since I last wrote and I’m kind of in a funk, so I don’t want to write about too much negative personal business. Let’s start with the awesome: Rothbury music festival. That’s where I spent my fourth of July weekend and it was pretty much perfect. I got to see my favorite roommates (not including Jason) who both live so very far away and reunited with the old college group – it was pretty cute. Also, Thursday I got to see Zappa play Zappa (that’s Dweezil playing Frank) and some of the Mickey Hart band (which was underwhelming). Friday, I saw The Wailers (danced my reggae heart out), Snoop Dogg (3rd row), 311, Modest Mouse, Of Montreal, PRIMUS!!!!!!! (front row), and Bassnectar. Saturday was the Dresden Dolls, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Michael Franti and Spearhead (which was amazing), and Dave Matthews (the first encore song was Gravedigger, so that blew my mind). Unfortunately, I was too cold and sleepy after all that to go back out for the Crystal Method and that is my one regret of the weekend. Sunday I saw Taj Mahal, Trey Anastasio (which was great cuz he played mostly Phish songs), John Mayer (which was a waste of my time – he played all the worst songs off of Continuum and his greatest hits. He only played 2 blues songs and ended his set a half hour early) and lastly, but not at all leastly – Phil Lesh and friends!!

So needless to say it was a long amazing beautiful weekend (I already miss the Sherwood Forest). I haven’t really done anything Peace Corps related in a while and I should really start, but I just can’t be bothered. I really much prefer spending time with my friends while I can.

I got my old waitressing job at Champps back (again) and I start the day after tomorrow. Still miss Jason. This Saturday I’m starting my CPR/bloodborne pathogen/AED certification class, so that’ll make me feel productive.

Also, IBM is the devil and I highly recommend never ever ever dealing with IMB/Lenovo if you can avoid it. I sent it my laptop to get fixed because I paid to extend the warranty another year (the fan was running very hot and the CD drive was broken). They called me and told me they saw spill damage so my warranty was voided and it would cost $950 dollars to fix it. I told them to just send it back to me untouched, since I have handy friends and the CD drive just swaps right out. I was supposed to get it back within 48 hours. 6 days later, it arrives. The LCD screen is cracked – which is definitely not how I sent it in and it will not longer get past the BIOS screen. So I call IBM and they more or less tell me to forcibly insert the laptop into my anus. It’s not their fault and they can’t help me. IBM is the devil. The end.

Ok. I’ll write again soon when I’m in a better mood and it’ll even be Peace Corps related this time. Long story short – Rothbury was baller. IBM sucks.

Much love,

Sasha