A hike in the mountain with the youth
When you finish 2 years of Peace Corps, the volunteers shares his or her best and worst experiences. Here are my 1-yr mark best and worst.
BEST: When I climbed the mountain near my community with a bunch of kids, and the people in the mountains loaded me up with so many unripe avocados that for the next week I was eating guacamole for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and sometimes for snacks too. On the way down (2 hours carrying about 30 lbs of avocado) it started to downpour. The kids started falling everywhere in the mud, and I smiled, because I love being in the rain in a tropical place with a backpack full of fruit.
WORST: Hands down, the 2.5 weeks that Shakira was in heat. It caught me by surprise, because I thought she was 6 months old, but apparently it is more like 9. Take a dog, who: is always free to run and play with other dogs, disappears for the mornings helping the men herd the cows, jogs with me in the morning, and travels with me everywhere in the community, and try locking her up in the house 24/7. I had 40% of the shoes I own eaten, poo and pee everywhere, packs of male dogs swarming the house at night, fighting each other and humping my door. And the worst part was every time I left the house, having to look into those pleading eyes, “Mom, why can't I go outside with you?” “Shakira, this is for your own good, and remember when I took you out too pee yesterday and we GOT ATTACKED?!” I wrestled two dogs with my bare hands off of her. I usually don't hurt animals, but I kept a pile of rocks next to my door to fend off the packs when I exited my house. AND, some of the dogs (I guess the...smart..ones..?) started following me even when Shakira was with me. It was creepy. It was miserable for the both of us, but probably more for Shakira because it was also during this time that I saw a big white worm crawl out of her butt, and a bunch in her poo....I got her meds. Unfortunately, with all my best intentions, the door situation got a little mixed up one night (I think the cat pushed it open) and a dog (the UGLIEST one in the community) got her. And for those of you living in a fixed and spayed world, I will spare you the details of doggie sex, only saying that it was the first time I have absolutely “lost it” in the community.
A Haitian family I work with. We made vegetable noodle soup using local green leaves.
I don't really care that Shakira will be pregnant and have ugly babies, only that I failed her. But that's wrong, I failed myself, because it was me who didn’t want her to get pregs, I don’t think she cares.... I really wanted to protect her, and I couldn't. In other words: as much as I tried, my efforts were worthless. And this notion kind of embodies what I feel like all the time with everything I do here. I know what you are thinking: “No Eva, you won't see the results, change takes time. You’re doing a good job.” But I realized the following:
I can tell people to eat less white rice and more green vegetables for two entire years straight, and nobody will ever change their behavior towards eating. I can tell the girls to stay in school and not get pregnant and they will show up with a big belly 3 months later. I can plead with mothers to breastfeed their baby for two years and they will not give one child a drop. But they will always remember that there was a gringa that ate very little white rice and tons of green vegetables, and that she was healthy and kind. And she exercised every morning and didn't have children at age 25. She drank both juice and coffee without adding sugar, and read a lot. All I can be is an example, because behavior change really has to come from within.
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