Thursday, April 17, 2008

Update from Palmar

April 16th

Tonight is the town meeting where the Nun, the presidents of each of the 10 barrios, leaders of local businesses and groups will meet to begin planning the Fiestas de Palmar which will be held on may 21 and 22nd. It is supposed to begin at 8pm which in Ecuador means come at 9:30, but I am still supergringa and I will show up what we Americans call- casually late but here in Ecuador is still too early. But, hey, I always come prepared with a book to read ( currently Confessions of an Economic Hit Man- which is really good by the way) or I will just chat it up with the half dozen other “early” birds.
Yesterday I met with the parents of the children receiving scholarships through the Guayaquil Archdiosis to fill out forms with the new parents and note all of the school supply requests they had. Friday I will go to Libertad ( the nearest city) with the Senora Andrea to buy as much as we can afford with the money allotted: mostly shoes, backpacks and material to make uniforms. It was really great to get to meet all of the parents at one time and it was great because I ended up more or less running the meeting by myself and afterwards- I realized that I did just fine and that I would have not have been able to do that 10 months ago when I first arrived in this country.( thats right- 10 MONTHS BABY- only 17 to go). The moms all call me Nina Hannah which I love, while the word nina means little girl, Ecuadorians use it to mean “Miss” and something about it always makes me smile. These scholarships are so very important and they are a big deal as there are only 25 slots in a town with a population of 7000 most of whom are kids and families without the extra cash that schools require. It’s not uncommon for 10 and 11 year olds to drop out of school because their families just do not have enough money.
Otherwise life continues here and as time passes I grow more and more comfortable here and am understanding better my place and what and how I can best contribute. The two biggest plans that I am working on are developing a club for moms that would provide an opportunity for new mothers and more experienced mothers to meet and share concerns, advice, remedies and support each other. Also work with local health professionals and have them give health- nutrition workshops with the moms and perhaps small business training-leadership. Also I have been studying up on Community Banks and am nearly ready to begin the process of starting several with several groups here in Palmar. We continue to give workshops on HIV-AIDs-- the other month I wrote about how we set up the ambulance and 20 people were tested. I don´t know, it never really occurred to me that any of the results would be positive. We give these talks and run these workshops, we have parades on World AIDs Day but this disease is not backing down. We tested 20 people that Saturday morning and several tested positive... what about the thousands of other people we didn´t test? Who don´t want to be tested. Who are scared to be tested. Who still aren´t sure what AIDS really is and how it isn´t something faraway but right in their own tiny fishing village.
Well, the town meeting is going to start in 15 minutes (or an hour) but either way I should be on my way.










“ A woman is like a tea leaf. When she is in hot water, she just gets stronger,” Eleanor Roosevelt

I am only one

I am only one,
But, still,
I am one.

I cannot do
everything.
But, still,
I can do
something.

I
will not refuse
to do
the something
I can do.

-Helen Keller