As I talk and catch up with people at home, I realize very few, if anyone (myself included sometimes), really know what it is that I am doing here in my small pueblo in Peru. So I thought I would take a few minutes to explain what I know so far about my job as a youth development volunteer in Mocupe and Ucupe.
So I am here for 2 years but that time is slightly split up, especially during my initial year.
First Months (August - December)
The most important part of my first months at site is integration - learning about my community, bonding with my family, practicing Spanish, etc. The big "work" of the first months is the Community Diagnostic - a document I write and present all about my community and the youth here in particular. It includes statistics, demographics, and information gained from observations, interviews, and surveys. Then the diagnostic will, supposedly, lead the projects I will work on in the following year and a half. (To my macro social workers - yes, I am writing another community needs assessment!)
Other work of my first months in site include "Early Wins" - or activities that are more or less easy to do and foster integration in the community and the development of confianza (trust) with community members. I'll write a post soon about the activities on which I have been working.
Summer Vacation (January - February)
The end of my first months run into the summer vacation here. Obviously, as a youth development volunteer collaborating with students in school, summer vacation affects my work. During summer vacation, I will be working on Vacaciones Utiles - essentially summer school. It usually consists of remedial academics such as math or expensive sport options in the capital city so I will work with the municipality and/or schools here to coordinate and teach different enrichment options - or something like that.
March/April 2014 - Close of Service in 2015
This is the time I will really work on projects, including sustainability efforts to continue the projects in the community past my time here and return home.
There are Peace Corps trainings sprinkled through this time in December 2013, March/April 2014, August 2014, and the Close of Service conference in Spring 2015. There are also opportunities for me to work on a few different committees like the youth initiative committee or gender equality committee that I may look into joining when applications come around.
That is probably more information than you wanted to know about the boring parts of the job of a volunteer in Peace Corps Peru but I hope it helps paint a picture of my work here for my friends and family back home. I will stop now before I bore you all to death with the mission of the Peace Corps and goals and objectives of Youth Development - but the nerd in me loves it and could go on for days ;)
So that is all for now and I look forward to sharing my activities and projects as my job develops here in Mocupe and Ucupe.
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