I was sitting in the hammock in main room of the hut/house staring into oblivion when I realized it was now 2011. It just doesn't seem the same when your in a place where times seems to stop. It at least doesn't seem to matter all that much. The main topic of the days are rain and because its usually raining the days seem to blend.
I'm sitting at an extension of the stove which is made of wood and seats three people. Only the guys eat here and after Adriana makes the meal she sits on the floor in the dark and eats out of a large bowl with her hands. Always. She always eats after she has served everyone else too. She has pain in her arm but nothing to fix it with. She says she works too much and I believe her. She, as all the other women who don't have female children over the age of 11 must do all the days work solo. Old enough to wash clothes and cook? Your doing it. Not only are there no questions asked when these things are mandated, but there is no fuss. This is the way it has always been and will be for some time. The women work harder here than anyone. If they are not peeling green plantains while sitting on the floor with a machete, they are hand scrubbing large amounts clothes ether in the river or at the spicket.
There is a large contrast between the way kids grow up here. This is to be expected considering the isolation and lack of education these people have endured for so long. On a normal day I watch 2 year olds roaming the street with no shoes on. Sometimes they are following a family member that is not paying attention. I see the 14 month old being left alone in a room so full of danger that any parent from the States would scream child abuse if they saw it. I constantly ask if they think its a good idea for the same 14 month old to be sucking on pieces of plastic while no one is watching her. “She won't eat it. Its not food” I'm told. I accept this and move on, keeping one peeled for sudden choking and trying to remember the Heimlich maneuver for kids. Melvin, the 4 year old can be found with a rusty machete chopping things in the yard. Sometimes he has pants on. He drinks coffee because his mother gives it to him. I put my two cents in and was met by blank stares. What do I know. Maybe rusty machetes and coffee are just quick learning devices for very young children.
Its different. Its to be expected. There is very little education and the programs the government has implemented usually don't leave the paper they written on. For example, the mother in my first host family is part of a program where she meets with a group of new mothers and shows them a book that explains proper ways of parenting and nutrition. She can't read that well and routinely contradicts the book. The information goes no where when the person giving it to you can't understand it. But its a start. These people have nothing. That is true. They do have their farms and they are more than thankful for that. They are lucky to have them and they know it. In the reservation, not so far away, there is much less hope. Most of the forest is gone, there is close to no education, and people do not own their own land like they do here. Never the less, watching kids grow up here is painful. It's like watching a hockey game. You know that eventually the puck is going to go into the net and you don't want to look away, but it rarely happens and it's only when your not fully paying attention that it does happen and you didn't see it. I hear stories about bad things happening to kids here. They are swept down river never to be seen again, they get high fevers and can never hear again (the 18 year old next door), or they cut themselves badly with a machete and don't let the wound heal properly. Or they get cuts, bumps, bruises, worms in their stomach, and scrapes on their faces and they grow up and they are tough.
Its not the worst thing. I sometimes feel that parents are way over protective in the States. If you have the small falls, cuts, bruises, and sicknesses, then what is going to happen when go directly to a big fall, cut, or sickness? It's gonna be worse. And if you don't find out for yourself, chances are your doomed to a life of calling up your mom to see if you can take two asprin at once for a headache. The learning curve is just steep here and survival of the fittest couldn't be more true.
Notes:
-Day 3 of the building the bike grinder did not go well. We tried three different ways of turning the grinder and they all didn't work. We will try two more ways in the next couple days.
-I keep spending all of my monthly living allowance way before the next one comes. This is good because it forces it me to live like the locals, but bad because it forces me to live like the locals.
-Spanish is getting better. I had an entire conversation with the Pastor today about how the government in America is trying to fix the economy and that the past government messed it up pretty bad due to close ties with banks. He understood this but thought it was a different story. His “brothers” in Tennessee (conservative pastors) are constantly feeding him right wing bullshit straight from fox news so I like to set the facts straight sometimes. The conversations are never conformational, he just usually says something like “It's the coldest it has ever been in America right now so there can't be such thing as global warming”, to which I usually answer with “So I'm not sure where you heard that from (Tennessee Tea Baggers), but its been scientificly proven that the world is getting hotter and it's because of us”. He actually usually stops there and thinks about it for a little bit and eventually agrees with me. Can't wait til I meet his friends from the states.
-I'm currently working on a grant from a private donor for 5k. If it goes through I think we will have enough to build a computer lab here with internet and a printer. I would like to build a library, but in this day and age I hate to say it, but I think a computer lab would be more useful. There would have to be a no movie or game policy and I would teach classes on how to use everything. Literally starting with “this is a computer, you have to plug it in for it to work”.
-I'm moving into my new house soon and have already built my bamboo shower. Even though it is held together with pink twine, it still looks pretty good. Next step is to inclose the inside with black plastic material the neighbors don't loose all respect for me when I take a shower. The water is cold here.
-My health is still OK. I can eat more which is good and moving into my own place with help with that. I've gained some of my weight back and doing exercises and eating out of my hidden jar of peanut butter is definitely helping. I'm hoping to be back up to my pre-peace corps weight by the end of next month barring I don't swallow some river water and get dysentery again.
-The old man who lives with us and almost died is on new medication. The medications are actually pretty cheap but the doctor prescribed a supplement called spirulina that cost 40 bucks for a one month supply. Apparently this stuff is good for diabetics but they don't have that kind of money. That is almost half the money for food a month in one bottle. I checked, and this stuff can be bought in the states for 10 bucks. So for those of you visiting me, make sure to pack a couple bottles. They will save a lot of money...
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