Merry Christmas

First and foremost, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone at home!!! It is a little strange being away from home for Christmas. Although, Christmas here has become very americanized. They have a Christmas tree and put up lights and all that jazz. One thing I do miss is Christmas music!!!

The last couple of weeks at work have been a little bit trying. As I get more and more used to the work here I am gaining more and more responsibility—which I really like. The two people I mainly work with (Rosa my counterpart and Miguel who is the head education guy here) are really great for the most part and we get along really well. What is getting a little frustrating, however, is the micromanaging—which I think is a cultural thing. Both Rosa and Miguel are my parent’s age and have children either my age or a little younger. Since Ecuadorians live with their parents until they get married, parents have a lot more control over their children. Which makes sense, if you live with your parents, you respect your parents’ rules no matter how old you are. I think that this leads older people to be a lot more controlling of the younger generations (plus, latin mom’s can be very doting and controlling—which isn’t always a bad thing). However, I think that in a lot of ways Rosa and Miguel are starting to act like my parents since I don’t have parents here to tell me what to do. Like I’ve said, for the most part things are great. Sometimes, however, I feel like they are constantly telling me what to do. Then when I do it, they come in and take over because apparently I’m not doing it right. For example, one day Miguel called me into his office and asked me to head a project with my group of teenagers. Since Christmas is coming and my teenagers have been working a lot with skits, he wanted me to help them come up with some Christmas skits for the schools in the communities. So I had a meeting with them and I let them organize their skits all on their own. Of course I gave them some direction and ideas, but I really wanted to see what they could come up with. I left them to practice and we planned a meeting for the following week to present. Miguel came to this meeting (he had other business with the kids and I was supposed to run the Christmas skit part). However, in actuality, Miguel didn’t let me get a word in edgewise. He basically took over my meeting, which, in the grand scheme of things is fine. He basically told the kids exactly what I was going to tell them. But if he was just going to take over, why did he give me the project in the first place? There have been a couple of incidences like this with both Miguel and Rosa.

I’m trying to be patient with this. I know that 1) this is a cultural thing. Older generations have much more control over younger generations and independence, especially of younger people, is not necessarily valued. 2) Rosa and Miguel have been doing their jobs entirely on their own for the past 5 years. All of a sudden they have this person here who can help them out and they aren’t quite sure how to handle me. On a large scale, it is easy to set up projects and assign roles. The day to day practice, however, can be a little different. And 3) I know that I am an independent worker. I always have been and I like to be able to have a lot of individual freedom in my work. I need to adjust a little bit as well to the working situation we have here. Even though I hate to be micromanaged, that is how it is here so I might as well get used to it. I think things might get a little better since everyone is getting really busy with projects beginning in the New Year. There is simply too much work for all of us to be constantly working together. Rosa and Miguel both have a huge project starting with the elementary schools and thus neither really have as much time for the teenagers—which is good because that means that I will be in charge of the group. Also, I will be starting to go to the local high schools to work with the teenagers there as well, so I am anticipating a lot more freedom there. Of course, in the office I know they will still be micromanaging me, but I’m getting better at dealing with it. Since we do get along well most of the time and I really do genuinely like working with them it makes it a lot easier to handle. It would be awful if I didn’t like my counterparts AND they were treating me like a child.

What I have decided would be the best way to handle the lack of independence I sometimes feel is to have a project that is entirely separate form COCACH—which PC actually encourages. Though I love working for COCACH and my office mates, spending ALL of my time with them is a little overwhelming. I think that is also a contributing factor to my frustration with Rosa and Miguel. At the end of the day, I know they are happy to have me and really do need and want my help. Because I am so independent, I am not used to having so much attention from one group of people. It actually worked out really well. Just as I decided that I was going to try to find a small project outside of COCACH, I met a woman named Sandra when I was in Riobamba for a meeting with UNFPA (she is currently working for the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion but will be leaving this post in January). She lives in the canton of Colta. (A canton is a county. So it goes north to south: canton Riobamba, canton Colta, canton Guamote, then canton Alausi). Colta is very similar to Alausi in that there is a central city of Cajabamba with communities all around. She just started an NGO that focuses on community health. Unlike my organization, however, this organization focuses on clinical care. Many of the indigenous people of the communities lack basic health care for several reasons. Even though there is a hospital in Cajabamba, the indigenous people don’t go there because the staff is racist and treats them poorly and doesn’t speak their language. Though there are Kichwua speaking clinics in Riobamba, the indigenous people are too poor to go all the way to Riobamba for care. This organization has one doctor (who speaks Kichwua) and 2 nurses. They work on the weekends because the doctor and nurses work during the week. A lot of people come to Cajabamba on Sundays in particular because of the market. Since they are already in town, they stop by the clinic for any medical questions or check ups they may need. Since it is not a state funded organization, the consult costs $2—which is incredibly cheap in comparison to what other doctors charge for consults. Though the state does have free health care for everyone, it is TERRIBLE especially for indigenous people and thus basically not an option.

Where I fit into the picture is that the clinic has basically nothing. They have one bed and a desk. The doctor pays for all the medication and equipment he uses with his patients out of his own pocket. I am going to try to help them get some basic medical equipment. We’ll see how that goes.

I think it is going to end up being a good side project since it only functions on the weekends and I work with COCACH during the week. I’ve gone to the clinic (which is about an hour from Alausi) the past two weekends. It means, however, that I work almost every day. I really don’t mind it though. Now that I have a variety of activities, it makes it so I don’t really stress about either one as much. I can genuinely enjoy the work at both since I am not overwhelmed by either one. Plus, I came here to work, not to play. Also, I have evenings free. Since there is not really much to do in Alausi, I get to skype with friends and family back home, watch movies and read my book (and I’ve read quite a lot which I’m loving). I also really like spending time with my host family. Emily is now 2 and talking. Every time I get home she screams, “Hola Niña!” (they call me Niña Kris at home) and follows me around the house. It’s adorable.

This week my teenagers will be presenting their Christmas skits in the schools and we will be handing out candy to all of the community kids. I’m excited for it. I love how excited the kids already are about Christmas.

I can’t believe that 2010 is already over. It flew by. I also can’t believe that I have been in Ecuador for 6 months. In some ways it seems like I got here yesterday, but in others it seems like my life back in the states (studying, finals, and graduation) was forever ago. I only have 20 months left of service (which is still quite a lot). Let’s hope all goes well!