Ankle Update
Well exactly two months have passed since I last wrote a
blog. I am happy to report that my ankle is getting better poco a poco (little
by little). My ankle is still a bit weak, and gets stiff in the mornings, but
it’s doing much better. About two weeks after the paro ended I had a
training to go to in Puerto Colombia (which is about two and a half hours away
from my site). My ankle was still pretty bad at that point. I had an obvious
limp, and had trouble walking down stairs without experiencing intense pain.
The PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) was going to be at the training that
Friday, and I was trying to consider whether or not I should talk to her about
my ankle. Part of me just thought that it would get better on its own. I also
wanted to avoid having any serious medical interventions that might end up in
“medical separation” aka having to go home for good early. I mentioned this to
the PC director who seemed a bit appalled that I had yet to talk to the PCMO.
She said something along the lines of “you have excellent health care at your
disposal here, take advantage of it”—so I did. After a frustratingly round
about Orthopedic appointment (that involved x-rays without protection
vests *shudder*) I was given five day physical therapy prescription. This meant
that, instead of going home, I was put up in the PC hotel (where PCVs stay when
they have medical issues) for an extra week. Every day I had a physical therapy
appointment with a very nice physical therapist. I was still in a significant
amount of pain after five days, so I was given five more appointments. By this
time I was going slightly insane. I had all of the creature comforts that I had
grown accustomed to (wifi! Air conditioning! My own space! American fast
food!). But I couldn’t do much more than be lazy in my room all day waiting for
my next physical therapy appointment. After ten days (which was about 15 days
away from site) I still didn’t see much improvement. The worrier in me thought
that I would need surgery, which would inevitably lead to a foot amputation.
But after spending literally four minutes in the doctor’s office, I was told
that it would work itself out in a month. If it didn’t, I would have to come
back for an injection (shudder). Thankfully it looks like that follow up
appointment won’t be necessary.
Tech IST
As I mentioned before I recently had a training with one of
my counterparts. This training was focused on brainstorming plans (between PCVs
and counterparts) to bring back to site, and make improvements. It wasn’t
necessarily focused on English as we were encouraged to discuss other problems
we thought existed in the school/community. PCVs were informed that we had to
choose a counterpart, and secure permission from the Rector/a (principal) for
the teacher to be absent for a few days. Now I naively thought that this would
be easy to do. What a silly thought. First I had to pick a counterpart to bring
with me. There are four English teachers in my school, and I work with two of
them. One of the counterpart’s is more motivated to work with me than the other
(and that is putting it very lightly). My other counterpart views me as
what PCVs refer to as, a “pronunciation parrot”. All she really wants me to do
is pronounce words that she doesn’t know in English, than sit back down. Now at
first I tried to fight this, and be more active in the classroom. Then I just
realized that it wasn’t working. In addition she has no control over the
behavior of the students, who typically are wild I the classroom. I came to
terms with the fact that I would not overexert myself for someone who didn’t
take me seriously (more on this in another blog post).
Basically I had to find a culturally sensitive way to invite
one counterpart, knowing that the other one would inevitably find out. I’ve had
people who know me well call me “blunt” and “insensitive” (which I think is
just a misinterpretation of my straightforwardness lol), so you can imagine how
difficult this was for me (not to mention while only speaking Spanish). I told
my “better” counterpart Viraida that I “worked with her more” (which is a lie),
so that it made more sense to bring her. She was elated and ready to go, but
unsure of whether she would get permission. Typically our Rectora sends
Catalina, who is the head of the English Department, to all PC events. She
encouraged me to speak with the Rectora—I assumed this had to with her not
wanting to “make waves”. As a foreigner it was probably easier for me to
circumvent the bureaucracy that exists in my school. Seeing as my Rectora is
literally never in the school, I was unsure how I would get a hold of her. I
ended up emailing her (in formal Spanish!) explaining the situation as best as
I could, while explicitly stating which counterpart I preferred to bring.
When I did not receive a reply from her, I emailed the PC
office to see if they had received anything. I was told that the Rectora had
chosen Catalina to come with me. Frustrated, I went back to Viraida and
explained the situation to her. She was visibly disappointment, and ready to go
with the flow and skip the training. I wasn’t about to let that happen. I
sent another, more strongly worded, email to the Rectora. I also tracked her
down in her office, and further explained why I wanted to bring Viraida. She
finally relented and gave her permission, allowing her to take advantage of the
training opportunity.
This is one of those things that I view as a mini-victory.
Community Class
In other news I have started to volunteer at a community
English class. Rudulfo, a philosophy teacher at my school, is an avid English
student. He speaks to me and the other volunteers all the time in English, and
constantly thanks us for volunteering in his country. He’s a pretty nice guy
and is only slightly creepy in the way I’ve found most, older Colombian men to
be. He mentioned a few times that he works at night teaching English to adults
in the community. I personally find this interesting as he is a Basic English
speaker but I still find it admirable—and as my mother would say “one eyed man
is King in blind man’s country”. After a few months hearing about this class I
decided to show up. The school is very close to the plaza, and I’m surprised that
I never noticed it before. It’s a really cute school and much smaller than my
own school. I enjoyed meeting the students, and explaining why I was there. It
was definitely nicer to interact with people closer to my age. Like always I
was asked if I had a husband, boyfriend, or kids. I got the customary shocked
look when I answered “no” to all three, while adding that I was completely
happy (soltera y feliz!! Sin hijos y feliz!!). This is where the
conversation got interesting. Rudulfo brought up that my marital/childless
status was due to cultural differences (which isn’t necessarily true as there
are married Americans my age with kids). He noted that this was a good cultural
difference because there were too many young adults in the pueblo with several
kids, and little education. That’s when the younger students all mentioned that
they had children of their own. The 23 year old male students had two kids, and
a girlfriend. A nineteen year old female student had one child, and all the
older students had several kids. Now at this point I had to keep a straight
face, because you know, cultural sensitivity is an important thing. I tried to
explain that children drastically change the trajectory of your life, and I
couldn’t handle that at this stage (which is the politically correct way of
saying “kids ruin your life”). Then the 23 year old, which the straightest
face, asked me “but children are blessing are they not”? To which I answered
“yes they are, but they’re not the type of blessings I need right now”. Got to
love cultural integration.
I’m currently on “summer” vacation until mid-July. I’ve
started up a project at my school where a mural of the world map is painted on
a wall. This map in particular will be color coordinated by most common
language spoken. I hope that this allows students to learn a little bit about
the world around them. Unfortunately not many of them know about life outside
the pueblo. The map directions were a bit daunting, and I managed to screw up
the pencil grid that would be later used to trace each country. I was working
alongside eleventh graders that Catalina recruited. I successfully fought down
the perfectionist delegator ( Word is telling me that this is not a word, but "one who delegates" is just so much more clunky) in me that was not happy about how lax they were
being. This was compounded by the fact that I couldn’t delegate effectively in
Spanish, which I’m sure diminished my authority in their eyes.
But anyway I’m taking this time to relax, and plan to visit
some other volunteers. Can’t believe that I’m creeping toward the one year
mark!
