Site Visit

About two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hosting my boss at my site when she came to do my site visit. APCDs (our program directors) do site visits for all new volunteers about three months after being in site to help smooth out any problems and see how we are doing integrating into our communities. She wanted to see me in action with the youth I work with, meet my host family and counterparts, and see my room and living environment. I had warned her ahead of time that I wasn’t sure she would be able to see me working since most kids in my town are traveling, but luckily I was able to pull my youth group together right before her visit. She (along with two others from Peace Corps staff) attended and participated in our second meeting. I did an activity about the importance of communicating clearly where the kids had to write directions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was really fun and a big hit since I brought peanut butter and shared it with everyone in the end. My boss said that the girls were adorable and really seemed to enjoy themselves. She thought they were very engaged and motivated and said that I was a natural with them! After the meeting I showed her my room (which she absolutely loved and took lots of pictures) and we went out to dinner. The last time I had really talked to her about my host family was in November when I broke down crying because she wouldn’t let change families. So she was expecting to come and me tell her that I wanted to move, but instead I told her that I’m so happy now with the family and wouldn’t change even if she gave me the opportunity! She was thrilled to hear that and told me it really shows her what kind of volunteer I am and what kind of volunteer I will be. She was very proud of me for overcoming that challenge and I was so happy because I felt like she was finally seeing me for who I really am. It took a long time to get here, but I think we really have a nice relationship now. Having her visit my site and see me in my environment really helped and it was nice for me to spend some time with her on a more personal level.

The day after my site visit, Jessica and I had the opportunity to go with her and the two other staff members to do site development in this place called La Paccha (about 2 hours from Bambamarca). In order for a community to get a volunteer, they must send a solicitud (solicitation) to the Peace Corps office in Lima and then the staff will go out and have a meeting with the community. My boss had received a solicitud from this community with the signature and finger print of every single person in this community (all 250 of them) so was really excited to visit such an enthusiastic community. When we arrived at the health center we found out that we were at the wrong community. They didn’t recognize any of the names on the solicitud even though we were in La Paccha. It turns out that it was really from this little town about 10 meters from our regional coordinator’s house in Cajamarca. He was so embarrassed when he realized this, but since we were there, we met with them anyway. It is a really beautiful community way up in the mountains and would be a great place for a volunteer (besides for how isolated it is). It was really exciting to participate in the meeting with the staff of the health center in La Paccha because they were able to meet two “real live” volunteers and hear what our life is like in the community. Listening to my boss explain our work and our goals within a community, talking myself, and seeing the enthusiasm from the staff at the health center was really exciting for me and made me feel really motivated to return to my community and do more work. One of the men from the health center commented on how much he liked the Peace Corps model because so many development places just come in and give lots of money, but don’t actually change anything. The people get used to receiving their money without having to do anything and therefore are actually contributing to the problem. He was really enthusiastic that our program is about human resources rather than financial ones in an attempt to teach the people of our communities how to be self-sufficient and make our work sustainable. After that meeting, I’m looking forward even more to expanding on my projects in Bambamarca and involving more local people to help make my work sustainable and worthwhile.