Robyn in Peru: What have you been up to lately?

Well, let me tell you.

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of meetings, classes and workshops. Some pretty … others pretty ugly. All of them keeping me on my toes — which is lucky, really, considering how much mud there is.

HEALTH PROMOTER TRAINING started last week, and we were able to train in five out of the eleven who promised they’d come. We smushed all of the basic education into three days, covering everything from basic nutrition to HIV/AIDS. I flipped out when we were working on the ITS portion because the group ACTUALLY got into it. An hour-long training session turned into two because they had so many questions. When I told them about the PEPFAR project we will be working on, they all got really excited and — without details — pledged their time and energy to help. Score!

MY LIFE SKILLS CLASS began just like you might expect, considering it was full of 25 angsty, uninterested teenagers. The first class was a total disaster. I tried get-to-know you games, little exercises to get people to feel comfortable, and it all flopped.

The Human Knot, however, was the greatest of the catastrophes. You all remember the Human Knot? Students form a circle and reach across to grab the hands of two other people. It forms a giant knot of arms that They say is supposed to be untie-able. Every. Single. Time.

Not surprisingly. It was pretty difficult. Especially with 25 teens who get bored easily, and it has just started to rain. I didn’t exactly have the Spanish vocabulary either to say things like, “Try putting your arm through this space and crawl beneath here.” They didn’t believe me that it’s possible and gave up after 7 minutes.

Thankfully, the following classes have gone exponentially better. I brought in a health center nurse to teach a class on self-esteem — which wasn’t a complete flop, but I wouldn’t call it a success. And this week, I invited my friend and fellow PCV, Sarah, to help me teach a class on communication. You should have seen the grin on their faces when I told them ANOTHER gringa was coming to their class. She left to a parade of cheers and hollers. I guess they liked her.

WORKING WITH THE YOUTH GROUP has led to a long series of frustrations. I almost cried three times during a planning meeting because one of my colleagues insisted on explaining every last thing to me as if I were a 5-year-old with ADD. “No, you don’t understand, Robyn” … “No, you didn’t understand.” Truly, it was taxing. Anyway, we finally figured it out, and I’ll give y’all the short version.

So basically, we’re going to have training sessions for local teenagers on 12 different topics ranging from recycling to teen pregnancy. Each topic will be accompanied by a community activity that will put into practice or reinforce what the group learned. For example, learning about trash in the street à a clean-up day, etc. I’m personally really excited about the condom races coming on Valentine’s Day. (I get to ref.)

If we get 30 to show up for all the sessions, then great. We have 30 more kids who have the education needed to improve their own future. But the idea is that if even five or ten of those kids tell someone else — their siblings, parents, friends, whomever — then it grows exponentially. Meanwhile, the students are learning how to use their knowledge to help their community, and the whole town watches, maybe learning something, too.

As Peru is a formal nation by culture, we had to present this project to all of the bigwigs in the area with a lot of pomp and frill. You guys know me. I don’t do pomp very well. Not to mention that, in Spanish, I have the social grace of a 3-legged possum. It’s really embarrassing.

Nonetheless, as I had spent the most time making the work plan and figuring out the gory details, the other organizers thought that it would be a good idea for me to present the project during the ceremony.

Me. The 3-legged possum.

They also decided this late the night before, when I already had a long list of things to do in preparation.

It went exactly how you’d expect. They were visibly uncomfortable. Words came out choppy; I made mistakes; I forgot half of what I was going to mention; and instead of emphasizing passionately and sharply that youth will inevitably decide the future of Peru, I kept saying trite crap over and over again. It was also hot, and the room was a little sticky. I’m pretty sure I had forgotten to breathe during the entire painful ordeal. Thank God I had written it all out and made copies. Reading, I’m sure, filled in all the blanks they must have had.

People seemed to like it. They congratulated me on a job well done and wished us the best in our project. So, that was a huge relief. Now, I just hope teens actually WANT to do this thing … I promised the ten or so who came that the training sessions wouldn’t be boring, and there’d always be free soda. So … I guess we’ll have to see.

But the best part?

My colleague and friend, Pascuala, gave the traditional toast at the end. And guess whom she toasted?

Are you ready?

It’s good.

Obama.

“To Robyn’s new president,” she said, soda glass raised. “Who said he would double the size of Peace Corps. Imagine: two Robyns!”

I could have cried.