I think it would be beneficial for me to describe what it is we're doing. This applies till...tomorrow...while we're working for PRISMA. PRISMA is a Peruvian-based non-governmental organization that is a partner with Freedom from Hunger, who I'm doing my internship with along with my 3 partners: Cam Nelson, Carly Chambers, and Chelsea Brothers. PRISMA offers microcredit loans to people living in poverty so that they can use the money to start or improve their small businesses or use it for agricultural purposes. Or anything, really, but those are the main reasons. So we're out in the Junín province of Peru gathering information from these people, who are mainly women, but there are also a few men. We were asked to assess 5 cities.
What we have been doing in each city is this: we have a list of 19 women (and a few men), as well as 19 more as backups, and we are supposed to give each of them a 10 minute survey about how food-secure they are. We ask questions about if they worry about running out of food or if they've run out of food, or if they have times when they have to eat the same thing over and over or if they lose weight. Then we ask a few questions and have them describe their opinions on not having enough food and what they view in their communities about hunger and food. With four of the women, we are supposed to follow the survey with an interview that takes 20-45 minutes and is a more in-depth look at their lives. We ask them a lot of questions about things now and how things were for their mothers and what they think they'll be like for their children. We also discuss their experience as a member of PRISMA. Each of the women has already taken out a microcredit loan from PRISMA. (Honestly, there are also some men. But most of them are women.) Additionally, each woman belongs to a group, because they have to take the loan out as a group and pay it back as a group. And in each area, we need to get with two groups and do a 30-45 minute discussion with them about their community. One of the discussions talks about the different months of the year and the fluctuations of income, migration, food shortage, and illness. The other has the group members divide a pile of beans (or whatever we have) into groups representing the classes of people in their community, and then we talk about the kinds of lives the people in those groups lead.
After we visit each of the cities, we're going to review all of the information, write reports on it, and give it all to PRISMA. Our hope is that it will help improve the services currently offered and know where the needs are greatest and how to meet those needs more effectively.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Chairs
I'm just going to take a moment and say that the chairs at the last few locutorios (internet and phone cafés) that I've been to have been extremely uncomfortable.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Here we are again
The days got really short all of a sudden... I've been on the internet a few times, it's quite easy to find here. Which was a little surprising, since it's rather a poor country. But there are little internet stores everywhere. Really, everywhere. But even though they abound, time has been much shorter, and I've only been able to check my e-mail quick.
Last Sunday, Mau went really well. It was a big hit with my fellow students, and we played again the following night. I look forward to many more rounds! And anyone who may be interested in playing, do say so and I'll teach you. It's a game with a few basic rules and then every round another rule is added, and the confusion grows and the fun multiplies. It's great!
The work has been progressing well, although it is more challenging than I had expected. Most of the challenges have been the logistics of finding all the women that we are looking for. I love it, though. I'm a guy, so putting my map-reading skills to use is excellent fun! I'll write more specific details in a future post, but I need to get to bed soon since we're getting up at 5:30. Yeah, if my parent's knew I was getting up that early under my own power they might have health problems associated with shock!
A few details about what we're doing though: these first two weeks we'll be in 5 different cities (although only 3 each, because after the first city we split up into 2 partnerships) and in each city we have a list of 19 women we need to try and find. With each, we do a 10 minute survey about their food security in the household, such as how much hunger they face and their food situation. With four of the nineteen, we also do a more in-depth interview of 30-45 min. and talk about their life, the goal being to have a glimpse as to what their life has been like. And in each city, we also do 2 focus groups, getting together 5-10 women and talking for 30-45 min. about their community. All of these women are already clients of PRISMA, which is a partner of Freedom from Hunger based in Peru. It's a microfinancial institution, offering microcredit loans to women so that they can start or improve/expand businesses and get out of poverty. So it's a lot of information gathering, and then going over the information we gathered. Later, we'll write reports on it and give them to PRISMA. Our hope is to know in more detail the situations of the people and then be able to improve the services offered to better meet the needs of the people.
The food is quite good here. Not as much rice as one would think when one thinks of South America, but a fair amount. Here in the area where we've been working for the last week and a half there are a lot of potatoes, and they're pretty tasty. This past Sunday, my fellow student Chelsea and I were invited by one of the women we interviewed to eat at her house, a humble house in the outskirts of a small town, and we ate "cuy." Which is guinea pig. It was interesting...but not bad. It was similar to rabbit, which I ate in Spain. Chelsea couldn't finish hers - she had a guinea pig as a pet when she was younger, and it was getting to her! Especially since we were eating next to the place where they kept all the rest of the guinea pigs and they were squeaking. :)
All continues well so far, I hope to add more details on cities and experiences soon!
Last Sunday, Mau went really well. It was a big hit with my fellow students, and we played again the following night. I look forward to many more rounds! And anyone who may be interested in playing, do say so and I'll teach you. It's a game with a few basic rules and then every round another rule is added, and the confusion grows and the fun multiplies. It's great!
The work has been progressing well, although it is more challenging than I had expected. Most of the challenges have been the logistics of finding all the women that we are looking for. I love it, though. I'm a guy, so putting my map-reading skills to use is excellent fun! I'll write more specific details in a future post, but I need to get to bed soon since we're getting up at 5:30. Yeah, if my parent's knew I was getting up that early under my own power they might have health problems associated with shock!
A few details about what we're doing though: these first two weeks we'll be in 5 different cities (although only 3 each, because after the first city we split up into 2 partnerships) and in each city we have a list of 19 women we need to try and find. With each, we do a 10 minute survey about their food security in the household, such as how much hunger they face and their food situation. With four of the nineteen, we also do a more in-depth interview of 30-45 min. and talk about their life, the goal being to have a glimpse as to what their life has been like. And in each city, we also do 2 focus groups, getting together 5-10 women and talking for 30-45 min. about their community. All of these women are already clients of PRISMA, which is a partner of Freedom from Hunger based in Peru. It's a microfinancial institution, offering microcredit loans to women so that they can start or improve/expand businesses and get out of poverty. So it's a lot of information gathering, and then going over the information we gathered. Later, we'll write reports on it and give them to PRISMA. Our hope is to know in more detail the situations of the people and then be able to improve the services offered to better meet the needs of the people.
The food is quite good here. Not as much rice as one would think when one thinks of South America, but a fair amount. Here in the area where we've been working for the last week and a half there are a lot of potatoes, and they're pretty tasty. This past Sunday, my fellow student Chelsea and I were invited by one of the women we interviewed to eat at her house, a humble house in the outskirts of a small town, and we ate "cuy." Which is guinea pig. It was interesting...but not bad. It was similar to rabbit, which I ate in Spain. Chelsea couldn't finish hers - she had a guinea pig as a pet when she was younger, and it was getting to her! Especially since we were eating next to the place where they kept all the rest of the guinea pigs and they were squeaking. :)
All continues well so far, I hope to add more details on cities and experiences soon!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Return of the Prodigal Son...
I really meant to write sooner than this, it's been about three weeks since my last post. For the two weeks following the previous posts, I was quite the vagabond. I spent about half of the nights at my parents' house, but I also spent several nights in Provo, a night at my brother's house in Riverton, and a night in San Francisco. I mean, why not, right? Just kidding. The night in San Francisco was actually because I went to a one day training with the organization that we're going to be working for here in Peru. I say here because here I am, I'm in Peru. We'll get back to that. The few days I spent in Provo were because I was finishing up a few days of work at my branch of Wells Fargo. They were good times there at that branch. We joked several times that we should've started a blog about "the 5th West Branch" and record all the funny/strange/awkward experiences that we had, because they were just about daily there.
So anyway, I'm in Peru now! I left on Monday, so come tomorrow it'll be a week since I've been here. Time for me has been rather more slowly than it did at home, but I suppose that is normal when someone has been adjusting to something new. It hasn't been a bad adjustment though, it's been pretty fun. I'll go ahead and give some of the main events of the days that we've been here, and give some of the highlights that I can remember. Oh, and I'm going to go backwards, since the blog format puts the newest on top. I'm all over things being in the same format! Go ahead and skip to the bottom and read upward by days if you want to follow in chronological order.
Today, Sunday, May 18: Today we were able to attend church in Huancayo at an LDS meetinghouse about 7 minutes from our hotel on foot. The meetings were great, and I enjoyed having them in Spanish once again. I was definitely reminded of how Hispanic people just don't sing the same as we Americans do in our meetings... And they like to make up their own melodies sometimes. After church, we took some time to rest. The two girls wanted to take a walk, so I'm taking advantage of one of their computers to write this. So, Peru is fun so far. I don't know what I expected, so I guess it's what I expected! The people are pretty nice, and I like the food. The driving is crazy. Lines are "more like guidelines," as Captain Barbosa said about the pirate code, and people take advantage of every inch that they can find. But I must say, they definitely know what's going on around their car, so in comparison to Utah drivers, they're much more attentive. I'm having a good time. Right now I'm off to play Mau with the girls, a card game in which we use Uno cards and add a bunch of rules. It was a favorite on my mission, and now that I'm in another country, I'm going to resurrect it!
Saturday, May 17: Again, the morning was used for training purposes, and then we headed off to a bus station and got on a bus at 1:30. The ride was almost 8 hours long and took us out of Lima and into the Andes Mountains. We went from sea level to around 12,000 feet in a couple of hours, and then back down to 9000 or so. It was interesting. The mountains were breathtakingly beautiful, and I got some pictures. When we arrived in Huancayo, it was dark so we got a taxi to our hotel, went to the store and got some food, and hit the sack.
Friday, May 16: In the morning, we spent a few hours training one of our team members, and then went to lunch. In the afternoon, we were able to go to the Lima temple and Cam and I attended a session. I always enjoy going to temples that I haven't been to before.
Thursday, May 15: We spent the working hours of the day meeting with our Freedom from Hunger contact, Luís García, as well as PRISMA, a partner organization that we'll be working for during the next three weeks. In the evening, Carly, Chelsea, and I went to a church party that we got invited to. It was a different chapel than the one that we found originally. We talked to a lot of people and played some foosball on a really weather-beaten table.
Wednesday, May 14: After sleeping in a bit, I got up and Cam and I had a relaxing morning checking our e-mail and such. We met up with Chelsea around 1:30 and we walked around Miraflores, the part of Lima where we were staying, and we found the LDS chapel there. We saw the beach, or what we could of it through the thick fog/mist that seemed to stay over Lima the whole time. Also, we played soccer with some of the kids at the church. I scored a goal and was pretty proud of myself until later on I stole the ball from a kid on my own team...oops.
Tuesday, May 13: Slept in till 9 am, yee ha! Jet lag? No, I just slept through my alarm, really. I got ready for the day, and then I knocked on the door of a girl who is one of my partners. She and I were the only ones there so far, with the other two planning on arriving Tuesday night (until we found out that the other girl missed her flight, so she'd be a day later). So she and I spent the day touring around a bit. We saw a large hill of adobe bricks called Huaca Pucllana, some pre-Incan ruins. Turns out that Tuesday is the only day of the week that they were closed, so we didn't get to take the tour. Oh well. Then we went and got some food. I got ceviche, a traditional Peruvian food of some sort of seafood in a sauce, heavy with lemon and cilantro. It was pretty good, but I was a little sick of fish by the end of it. I don't really know what kind of fish or seafood it was... Then Chelsea (my partner/colleage) and I went to downtown Lima and walked around a bit. We took a tour of the Iglesia de San Francisco, on which we went to the catacombs below the church and saw more human bones than I've ever seen in my life. There were over 25,000 people buried down there, and since then it has been dug out and arranged for tourists to see. Interesting. Then we returned to the guesthouse and played some games. Cam arrived around 11 and I picked him up with a professor that he knows, and I just met. Then I slept on a couch in the professor's apartment.
Monday, May 12: Woke up nice and early to make sure I got everything packed and also to put away as much of my stuff as possible. Slept in 30 minutes more. Woke up for real to make sure I got everything done. And then the majority of this day was spent flying. My mom dropped me off at the airport and helped me get checked in and ready to go, and then said goodbye. She's so great. My flight took off at 9:50 am and I had an hour layover in Atlanta, finally arriving in Lima, Peru at 10:51 pm. They're an hour ahead of Mountain Standard Time, so essentially it was only about 10 pm for me. The flights weren't bad. On both of them I slept for a while, and on both of them I watched a movie. The movies weren't really that great, though, I watched Jumper and The Golden Compass. Both had weak storylines, in my opinion. Or just weren't well done. Anyway, I arrived in Lima, went through immigration, got my luggage, changed some money into Soles, went through customs, and found the taxi driver that was waiting for me. It was about 25 minutes till we got to my hostal/guesthouse, and then I got in and the owner gave me my room key. I stayed up for a little while because of my excitement about being in Peru, but I finally went to bed.
So anyway, I'm in Peru now! I left on Monday, so come tomorrow it'll be a week since I've been here. Time for me has been rather more slowly than it did at home, but I suppose that is normal when someone has been adjusting to something new. It hasn't been a bad adjustment though, it's been pretty fun. I'll go ahead and give some of the main events of the days that we've been here, and give some of the highlights that I can remember. Oh, and I'm going to go backwards, since the blog format puts the newest on top. I'm all over things being in the same format! Go ahead and skip to the bottom and read upward by days if you want to follow in chronological order.
Today, Sunday, May 18: Today we were able to attend church in Huancayo at an LDS meetinghouse about 7 minutes from our hotel on foot. The meetings were great, and I enjoyed having them in Spanish once again. I was definitely reminded of how Hispanic people just don't sing the same as we Americans do in our meetings... And they like to make up their own melodies sometimes. After church, we took some time to rest. The two girls wanted to take a walk, so I'm taking advantage of one of their computers to write this. So, Peru is fun so far. I don't know what I expected, so I guess it's what I expected! The people are pretty nice, and I like the food. The driving is crazy. Lines are "more like guidelines," as Captain Barbosa said about the pirate code, and people take advantage of every inch that they can find. But I must say, they definitely know what's going on around their car, so in comparison to Utah drivers, they're much more attentive. I'm having a good time. Right now I'm off to play Mau with the girls, a card game in which we use Uno cards and add a bunch of rules. It was a favorite on my mission, and now that I'm in another country, I'm going to resurrect it!
Saturday, May 17: Again, the morning was used for training purposes, and then we headed off to a bus station and got on a bus at 1:30. The ride was almost 8 hours long and took us out of Lima and into the Andes Mountains. We went from sea level to around 12,000 feet in a couple of hours, and then back down to 9000 or so. It was interesting. The mountains were breathtakingly beautiful, and I got some pictures. When we arrived in Huancayo, it was dark so we got a taxi to our hotel, went to the store and got some food, and hit the sack.
Friday, May 16: In the morning, we spent a few hours training one of our team members, and then went to lunch. In the afternoon, we were able to go to the Lima temple and Cam and I attended a session. I always enjoy going to temples that I haven't been to before.
Thursday, May 15: We spent the working hours of the day meeting with our Freedom from Hunger contact, Luís García, as well as PRISMA, a partner organization that we'll be working for during the next three weeks. In the evening, Carly, Chelsea, and I went to a church party that we got invited to. It was a different chapel than the one that we found originally. We talked to a lot of people and played some foosball on a really weather-beaten table.
Wednesday, May 14: After sleeping in a bit, I got up and Cam and I had a relaxing morning checking our e-mail and such. We met up with Chelsea around 1:30 and we walked around Miraflores, the part of Lima where we were staying, and we found the LDS chapel there. We saw the beach, or what we could of it through the thick fog/mist that seemed to stay over Lima the whole time. Also, we played soccer with some of the kids at the church. I scored a goal and was pretty proud of myself until later on I stole the ball from a kid on my own team...oops.
Tuesday, May 13: Slept in till 9 am, yee ha! Jet lag? No, I just slept through my alarm, really. I got ready for the day, and then I knocked on the door of a girl who is one of my partners. She and I were the only ones there so far, with the other two planning on arriving Tuesday night (until we found out that the other girl missed her flight, so she'd be a day later). So she and I spent the day touring around a bit. We saw a large hill of adobe bricks called Huaca Pucllana, some pre-Incan ruins. Turns out that Tuesday is the only day of the week that they were closed, so we didn't get to take the tour. Oh well. Then we went and got some food. I got ceviche, a traditional Peruvian food of some sort of seafood in a sauce, heavy with lemon and cilantro. It was pretty good, but I was a little sick of fish by the end of it. I don't really know what kind of fish or seafood it was... Then Chelsea (my partner/colleage) and I went to downtown Lima and walked around a bit. We took a tour of the Iglesia de San Francisco, on which we went to the catacombs below the church and saw more human bones than I've ever seen in my life. There were over 25,000 people buried down there, and since then it has been dug out and arranged for tourists to see. Interesting. Then we returned to the guesthouse and played some games. Cam arrived around 11 and I picked him up with a professor that he knows, and I just met. Then I slept on a couch in the professor's apartment.
Monday, May 12: Woke up nice and early to make sure I got everything packed and also to put away as much of my stuff as possible. Slept in 30 minutes more. Woke up for real to make sure I got everything done. And then the majority of this day was spent flying. My mom dropped me off at the airport and helped me get checked in and ready to go, and then said goodbye. She's so great. My flight took off at 9:50 am and I had an hour layover in Atlanta, finally arriving in Lima, Peru at 10:51 pm. They're an hour ahead of Mountain Standard Time, so essentially it was only about 10 pm for me. The flights weren't bad. On both of them I slept for a while, and on both of them I watched a movie. The movies weren't really that great, though, I watched Jumper and The Golden Compass. Both had weak storylines, in my opinion. Or just weren't well done. Anyway, I arrived in Lima, went through immigration, got my luggage, changed some money into Soles, went through customs, and found the taxi driver that was waiting for me. It was about 25 minutes till we got to my hostal/guesthouse, and then I got in and the owner gave me my room key. I stayed up for a little while because of my excitement about being in Peru, but I finally went to bed.
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