Visiting a Sponsor Child - Part Two

Hello again!

Sorry it has taken me so long to update my blog. If you remember a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going to visit my dad's cousin's sponsor child in Visiting a Sponsor Child - Part One. Here is part 2 of that story, detailing how my day went visiting Jackeline.

I met Soledad, the Compassion trips coordinator at my house at 9:30 am sharp (I love it when things start on time!). We took two taxis (for a little over an hour total) to San Juan de Lurigancho, a district in Lima, where Jackeline lives. We had a great trip: she answered all of the questions that I had, gave me information about the family I was about to visit, and chatted about different things in Lima. A great start to the day.

Our first stop was at the local Compassion office. Here we met the Director, Marisol, and the Manager, Ilda, and they explained how the office works and what they do. Here are a few pictures to describe the location.

Kids learn about life skills: physical (to determine when they are sick with diseases such as Tuberculosis or Diarrhea), socio - emocional (to talk things through instead of to fight), spiritual (not to have fear, God is with you), cognitive (I am smart, I can do it). The examples in each category change each day, and they have a discussion with the Compassion staff about it to gain awareness and self-esteem.

Visiting a Sponsor Child - Part One

Good morning!

Several weeks ago, my Dad's cousin went for dinner at our house in Ottawa, and they ended up talking about the fact that I am in Peru, about the type of work that I am doing, etc. My Dad's cousin (Rod) told my Dad that he was actually sponsoring a child through Compassion Canada, and that she lives on the outskirts of Lima. In the days following that supper meeting, emails were exchanged, and the topic of visiting the sponsor child came up. I offered to go meet her (much to Rod's delight), thus starting a 2-month process to get everything organized and put into place.

At the beginning of March, I had a business trip to Cajamarca with one of my colleagues as a part of the pilot project and implementation of the National Pollutant Release Inventory in Peru. On our flight to Cajamarca, the topic of sponsor children came up - without me even mentioning the fact that I might be visiting one too, that our family used to sponsor a child in Bolivia, and that I know of many others who also send money abroad on a monthly basis. He brought up the case of a few organizations that work in Peru, go into certain communities, snap pictures of children, and then post them on the web for all to see in the hopes of receiving more donations. But then, where does most of the money go? Printing costs, administration, visits, phone calls, mailing documents, etc..... and perhaps very little of it actually reaches the child and the family that the funds are directed to. Some organizations are better than others he said (and some flat out don't deliver what they promise), but it is still not a very effective way to reach out to others in his opinion.

A hectic Monday morning

8:30 AM on Monday morning, March 19th: I walked into work this morning after being absent for a few days due to sickness and crossed my area's director on my way in: "Check your email Sheila, we'd like you to attend a conference this week, international ministers are coming in, and you could help us with translation." OK, sure. She had to run, so I just walked into the office (and to a warm welcome back from my colleagues), and set off figuring out what I had missed.

Not 15 minutes later, but Jaime, the director of international cooperation (and the person who accepted me to come work for the Minister of Environment) came to find me to let me know that he wanted to talk to me. Right away. I followed him into a meeting with another woman and got more information - essentially, the Organización del Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica (Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization) is having a meeting this week in Lima. The Ministers of Environment from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela are coming together for meetings for the next two days (March 20th and 21st). And I've been recruited to help out with some of the translation - mostly helping to liaise with the representatives from Guyana and Suriname, who don't speak Spanish - and help out with some of the logistics. Bonus: I get to attend the entire conference/meeting. WOW! Another wonderful experience has landed on my lap.

Promoting Sustainable Housing and Buildings for Climate Change Mitigation in Peru

Hello,

On February 16-17, 2012, I attended the Canada-Peru Workshop on Sustainable Housing/Buildings for Climate Change Mitigation, as part of my internship. This joint initiative between the Canadian and Peruvian Ministries of Environment brought together specialists from Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Germany. The first day of the conference consisted of a workshop for 60 participants in the building, governmental and financial sectors in Peru to discuss case studies in Canada and Mexico, technological advances in sustainable building technologies, and financing for such projects, among other things. Day 2 brought together a small nucleus of scientists and specialists to formulate the platform for the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action Strategy (NAMA). As an intern at the Ministry of Environment, I led break-out groups in the afternoon on the first day, and participated in discussions on the second day.

My first month working at the Ministry of Environment

Hello again!

Well, as promised, here is part 2 of the long overdue on what I've been up since the New Year. Yesterday I wrote about my Christmas holidays, surprises upon returning to Huacho, and the move to Lima. Now I'll describe a little bit more about apartment hunting, the job, and my day to day life in Lima.

So I left you off at the end of my first day of work: thoroughly enjoying the colleagues that I am work, quite a few assignments to do, and by 9pm a place to stay for the night at a friend of a friend's place. Busy day, to say the least. A little bit about where I was staying - I had my own room (with ensuite bathroom, lucky me!) in Paola's apartment (she's a friend of Juan's, my old boss/counterpart from EMAPA Huacho). Paola lives with her husband, their 8-year old son, and a girl who helps them around the house. It was a really nice apartment, lots of windows, my room was spacious enough... but no internet (or not yet, at least - they said they would be getting a connection within the next 2 weeks). I was about a 20-30 bus ride away from work, which for Lima standards is really close. And finally happy to have a place to put my things done for more than one night - living out of a suitcase is not the most enjoyable. So since they were letting me stay rent-free at their apartment for two weeks out of the goodness of their hearts, I tried to be quiet and not disturb their daily activities too much by being there. I was at work all day every day anyways.

An update on life - about time!

Hello, hello!

I guess it's about time I update everyone with what has been going on recently in my life - first of all, sincere apologies for the delay (I've been busy). I kind of had a feeling this might happen (I definitely let my blog slide by the end of my time in France when I lived there 2 years ago), but not really by choice... anyways, since today is February 29th, I'm gaining an extra day, right? (Just kidding.) But seriously, things are finally calm enough for me to take the time to sit down and write a little update about my life, so here goes! (I've also update my itinerary page in case you are interested in following my travels over the past few months.)

Last time I really wrote to you was in December - how long ago 2011 now seems. We had a wonderful last week of work before the holidays, not accomplishing very much 'work' work but instead decorating the office, throwing a Christmas party for all of the employees' children, and having a Secret Santa party between a group of 20 colleagues. I finally got into the Christmas spirit even though it was well over 25 degrees each day, and had a wonderful time - I remember leaving for my vacation thinking that I never wanted to leave Peru, and was looking forward to returning to work on January 5th.

What exactly is international development?

Four weeks ago I began a new field placement with the Ministry of Environment of Peru in Lima. Transitioning from work at the water utility in small-town Huacho to living in the financial district of Lima has been quite a drastic change, and has led me to wonder: what exactly is international development, and am I still doing it?

Discussing this topic with other international volunteers has led to quite a few interesting responses. Some people definitely think that doing ‘field work’ involves not working in an office, but the reality is that you spend most of your time in front of a computer or at meetings, just as you would back home. An American volunteer that I recently met told me that she had left her office day job in Ohio in the hopes of finding an alternative abroad (and also strengthen her Spanish), only to find herself working 40 hours a week at a desk in Lima (yet still enjoying herself).

Meanwhile, most of the international volunteers and interns that I have spoken with are experiencing the life of working for an NGO: funding difficulties, changes in mandates, employees leaving unexpectedly, shortage of supplies, and questionable governance. They are mostly working directly with the community and really contributing to development activities from the ground up.