Back in the game

My first week in coming back, I jumped right into work starting off with a medical mission that was in Jalapa. I was happy to help as a translator writing down patients’ problems and sending them to the appropriate doctor. Sometimes it was hard not to laugh when hearing how the people described the ailments: giant balls of fire in the stomach, burning that rises from the stomach to the head where it causes explosions, and eyes that feel like they had nails poking at them. When I think about it though, I am sure we describe things oddly as well.
Along with the help, I had the privilege to talk with many doctors, some who also were medical school faculty and staff. I feel so fortunate to be able to get some close looks at what it is like to go through medical school and at what the life of a doctor can be like. I am still not sure what I am going to do, but their stories certainly help and motivate me. I think the one thing that I do know about myself and how I want to work is that I have the strongest desire or passion to serve others - how I will do that is still unknown to me.
The following weeks have been spent doing lots of different odd jobs. It included visiting people within my groups and having some meetings, two in which we made toothpaste (for 2 different groups). Since the whole world seems to be picking coffee, or at least everyone in my site, part of my time was spent picking coffee. In about 4 or 5 hours, I sadly only picked about 40 lbs, which would go down here for about $9. The normal person with hands much more used to picking, could pick at least 100 lbs during the same amount of time. To my defense, I was going slow to make the job relaxing and to avoid picking off the stem, which houses next year’s coffee bean shoot. The sad story is how little money these people receive for all their year’s work. Most pay rent on their land, pay debts from buying past fertilizers or other chemicals, and have other loans from other necessities that the family has needed (including giant loans used to pay for a family member to get to the US illegally.); they have so little left over that they seem forever trapped in a cycle of barely surviving. Another barrier that I have seen through working in my town is that you are darned if you try to succeed in life, and darned if you don’t. Obviously if a family does not work, whether in the fields or going to the capital to find a job, they won’t be able to endure. The same thing, though, seems to be true for people who are industrious and innovative and want to succeed. When people see that others are getting ahead or making some money, they get robbed, or their things are destroyed or they lives get threatened. To put it plainly, people in my town and probably in other parts, are afraid to work too much, to get ahead too much. So besides burdens like debts or crop failures, there is this fear which looms over ever person. To me, I cannot imagine living like that in the US, the land of opportunity; the loss of hope it causes is just incredible.
OK, so along with that work I mentioned, I was also helping the town board with the scholarships that some of you donated to support students in my town. That work included getting the measurements of all the kids (for uniforms and shoes), finding out what school supplies were needed for each grade, buying the supplies (I think many of you cannot attest my strong distaste of spending a day buying things), and distributing them out. As much as I would have liked to give the parents the money to buy the supplies, not only did everything come out cheaper, but there was no risk that the parents would drink the money or spend it on other things. In all, having 0 administrative costs and a favorable exchange rate (the highest since I have been here) and having no tuition fees (the government deemed them illegal this year) and being able to buy the school supplies at a deep discount (a friend of the priest who owns a school supply shop gave me the discounts knowing what the supplies would be used for), we were able to spend a lot less than expected and we helped 16 students(8 girls, 8 boys) go to school! And the best part is is that there is still about $120 that is left over, which at this point I am thinking will be used for a program done mid-year as an incentive that these scholarship winners stay in school and work to get good marks. One of these students, a girl in 6th grade, has become my personal project I guess you would say. Meeting with this girl’s family often, I was curious to find out that she would not be continuing school this year because her mom could not keep up with all the chores in the house and in taking care of her husband and sons; since this girl was the youngest daughter, she was the only one left to take care of her dad and brothers and do other house chores. Well, I stuck my foot in the matter and talked with the girl if she really wanted to go to school and talked with the mom how she felt. Everyone wanted her to go to school including the student herself, especially since if she passed 6th grade, she would graduate from primary school and could go to middle school. Once in middle school, she could take classes once a week every Sunday, something more feasible for someone with a job or responsibilities in the home like her. So I offered to school her once a week, which both parents and her siblings agreeing to it. With cooperation through a teacher in the afternoon program, if she learns her stuff, she will be awarded her diploma as though she attended 6th grade normally. The teacher, who is not prepared to teach 6th this year (she is teaching 1st through 5th) is going to fudge a rule, by saying that this girl is coming to her class every day. She will still go once a week to class with the teacher just so that the kids know her and to have answered questions that I could not explain, but as I said the teacher will not teach her the materials. So I will be teaching 6th grade, or at least trying to. I am a bit nervous because that puts some pressure on me. I’ll feel good about it when it all works out for her and she graduates in October.
Finally beyond starting 6th grade classes, I have also been planning the Alternative Spring Break that my parish at MSU will be coming down here to do with me in March. I started pestering my parish last year at this time to have a group come down and after careful planning and budgeting we were able to make it happen. As you should expect, I am excited, not only to see people from MSU and St. John’s, but to show more people a completely different world.

The pictures are when I went picking one day with a family from my where I work. In the third picture, we are having lunch in the coffee patch. It's a lunch of champions...beans and eggs. The second to last pictures shows some of our day's work...my basket is a bit empty because I had just emptied it and of course because I picked slowly.