Saturday Sept. 10 3:39
I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since I’ve written in here. This week has definitely been a busy one here in Zaña. I think I lack-of-sleeped myself into a cold. Today has been quite a bit calmer since it’s Saturday but I do have some work to do after writing this blog post. Today I’ve been organizing all my information and contacts and cleaning up around. I’ve been planning an event that’s coming up on the 17th. A group of youth and young adults from a nearby town are coming to visit Zaña. The group consists of people positive with HIV or that have positive family members. In the morning for the event we’ll be giving a tour of Zaña followed by lunch and some workshops and educational game. In the afternoon we’re gonna have a parade and children’s show. Afterwards we’ll have an informative presentation of HIV/AIDS and offer the quick-test.
The topic will be prevention and anti-discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS. Many people in Peru and any other country for that matter fear and discriminate against people living with HIV/AIDS because they think it can be spread from a simple handshake and that only gay people have it. I think the event will be a nice mixture of fun in the morning and education in the afternoon along with a parade…which always kicks butt and should also be a good way to spread info. September 23 youth day so we will also be celebrating this on the 17th. So this week I’ve been running around a lot making connections and writing up proposals and soliciting the heck out of everywhere for stuff for the event.
I also have been spending a lot of time with my “sister” Deyci (Daisy) who is the director of a dance club. Her group is going to help out in the event and she has been helping me out a lot organizing the event. Deyci and her family is where I was going to live in Zaña but it ended up working out better to live in the same house that Nicole, the previous volunteer lived. I’ve been spending a lot of time this week at Deyci’s house and going to events with her dance group. It’s a pretty fun and respectful group of youth. I’ve also been spending a pretty good amount of time with the music groups this week too…although they’ve been having some problems getting along so I’ve been trying to help and been planning some ways to fix the group up. I’m planning on starting to give gringo guitar lessons. I’m thinking it can be a cultural exchange where I’ll teach them folk guitar from the north and they can teach me Latino-style guitar. All the while I’ll be mixing in as much educational material as possible. I’ve got many ideas brewing up in the old brainbox but I’ve gotta rock this first big event that’s coming up in a week first.
My youth group had a pretty decently productive meeting this week, which was nice. They are playing a big part in the event coming up too…they have a ton of energy and sometimes a lack of respect but I think we can keep working with them and little by little fix them up. The committee is pretty focused usually and in those meetings we usually make the most progress.
I’m pretty tired right now and think I’m about to fall into a little siesta before being productive again. My schedule is up early for meetings and activities and up late for musical/dance/cultural events at night so the siesta is sometimes utilized. Thursday morning this week I was running really low on gas to the point where I was running low on patients, which is something you need a lot of in a country such as Peru where even official events start at least a half hour late, if not over an hour late. I was siesta-less up until Thursday, which reenergized me just to be sick the next day. That’s how it goes I guess. I’m going to a 50-year old party tonight with my host mom so I probably won’t be in bed until late again so I better do the siesta thing. I miss you all mucho mucho mucho. I’ll keep you updated the best I can. Much love, take care!! -Z
Zack In Peru 