Twelve Weeks...

Well, it looks like we've made it to midterm week of Peace Corps Training.  This is an unofficial designation, but it seemed appropriate considering the timing and workload we all have the next five days.  Everyone who is selected for Peace Corps services goes through this time of training, and if completed, you then become a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) when sworn-in by the U.S. Ambassador in week twelve.  We are currently in week five, and it seemingly marks the transition of our training from conceptual to practical.  No longer will we be spending nine hours a day, five days a week, going from briefing to briefing, and class to class.  After this week, for week six, we will embark on a week-long technical trip, in which we get to travel through Ecuador and experience some of the work being done at other PCV sites.  We're allowed Monday and Tuesday off week seven off for Carnaval, and then will officially be assigned our sites on that Thursday.  Week eight is a week-long site visit, where we spend a week with our new host family in whatever locale we'll call home until April 2016.  Weeks nine and ten are spent preparing for all of our final exams and presentations, week eleven is "finals week", and we are then all sworn-in and depart for our sites in week twelve.

 

Coming down here a month ago, I had no idea what was in store for me during this training.  I thought it would be a time of team-building exercises, some health and security briefings, and a lot of language and culture classes...boy, was I wrong!  Let me paint you a picture.  In the next five days, I have two presentations (one for 40 minutes, completely in Spanish), to conduct a recycled art workshop for eighty school kids (in Spanish), my second language proficiency interview (LPI), an essay due on cultural challenges I face with my host family in Tumbaco, a second essay (Community Passport) due on Ecuadorian culture, an exam on Peace Corps Medical Officer health policies, and another exam on security policy.  This is intense, stuff!  To actually become Peace Corps Volunteers, we must demonstrate competency in five subject matters: language, technical training, CORE, health & nutrition, and safety & security.  Let's look closer at each of these.

 

I think it's safe to say that most of our time is spent in our language classes.  These are actually more than language classes; they involve a lot of cross-cultural training, too.  In our first week, we sat through an LPI to gauge our level of Spanish.  As a result, we were placed in a certain class with a specific facilitator.  The goal of these classes is to get us to test to the "Intermediate-mid" level of Spanish during the LPI in Week 11.  The LPI is just a Spanish conversation, which is tape-recorded, between you and a facilitator that doesn't instruct your class.  The topics range from describing your family (both in the US and EC), your likes/dislikes, hobbies, work history, and whatever conversational topic comes up in the 15-20 minute dialogue.  The lady entrusted to get me to this level is Teresa, and so far, she has been amazing.  Teresa's class has five people (three women, two men), and most of us seem to have a really nice chemistry.  She has also been fantastic to work-in several trips beyond the walls of our training center.  Other than Teresa, our host families have strict instructions to practice our language with us on a nightly basis...and Mama Roci doesn't take this lightly.  Anyways, if we don't test to that "Intermediate-mid" level by the final LPI, then we'll either be mandated to see a tutor once we get to site, or at worst, stay in the training center for another few weeks until our language is at a level that Peace Corps deems it satisfactory to be successful in our sites.  Needless to say, I'm going to doing a lot of studying before that final LPI!

 

After language, the next greatest focus of our time is in technical training ("tech").  Our omnibus of thirty people is split into two groups of fifteen.  Half with the technical assignment of teaching English in local Ecuadorian schools, the other half within the Natural Resources Conservation (NRC) side of Peace Corps mission here.  The NRC side of things is somewhat confusing, because I'm technically in the NRC group, but there are five of us in that group who have a more specialized-focus: business development.  Really, this can be a group unto itself...but they've stuck us here.  The NRC group will most likely spend their time working in organic farming, rainforest preservation, and environmental education; however, for the five of us who didn't know the first thing about planting a seed before this past week, we'll be asked to help educate small-business owners and spur some sort of grassroots economic development...albeit, ideally with an environmental focus.  Our tech training, though, really focuses more on the agricultural side of things.  We get lectures on environmental issues of Ecuador, organic farming practices, historic crop trends, and even are expected to maintain our own organic garden plot.  Seriously, I'm graded on if some seeds I planted last week will be sprouting anything green by when our time here comes to a close.  This week, I have to give a presentation on the toolkit we're expected to use when first entering a new community, and assessing their needs; AND, with a partner, teach school kids how to make jewelry beads out of old magazine pages.  Yea, when do we get to the small business part of this again?

 

Third, is CORE.  This is really what Peace Corps calls everything that doesn't fit neatly into another bucket.  It's actually, just beating the policies into our head over and over again.  There are a few non-negotiable things that, according to our Country Director, will get us sent home just as quick as she can sign the paper: no illegal drug usage, no relations with underage locals, and lying about your location when spending the night away from site...amongst other things.  So yea, if you want to go home and don't give a damn about the reference following you around, just bump a few lines with a 14 year old Ecuadorian while on an unauthorized trip to the beach.  Good thing I don't really go for that.

 

Now we come to the items that my parents and girlfriend are probably most interested in.  Well, definitely for my parents.  Andrea?  She'll just tell me to stop being such a pu**y.  The Peace Corps Medical Officers (PCMO) is a team of two M.D.'s and one R.N. whose sole full-time job is to ensure for our constant health.  Depending on the day, we could be getting briefed on malaria, reviewing common STD infections, talking about intestinal infections, and/or getting yet another shot.  Seriously though, I'm happy to have these folks on my side.  Our health is not screwed around with.  During our service, we're required to come into Quito for several routine appointments, submit stool and urine samples, send photographs of ANY injury, and report whenever we have a bloody poop.  Also, it is strictly prohibited to seek any medical attention without their approval...the PCMO is ALWAYS the first call.  Apparently, there is a network of in-country physicians that are specially cleared to treat us, if necessary.  And, at worst case, they'll petition Washington to medevac us back to the States.  We even have a black plastic box that is to go with us everywhere.  It's complete with any first-aid materials you can think of, whatever over-the-counter medication modern medicine offers, sunscreen, a rape whistle, and condoms.  All of these items are restocked on-demand, if requested.  All joking aside, I'm not sure I've ever felt as if my health was in better hands, and this coming from a guy who lived with a third-generation doctor before coming to Ecuador.  At the end our training, we have to record a sufficient score on an exam that covers policies and procedures for any medical incident.

 

Lastly, the safety and security competency.  Like the PCMO, there is a full-time office dedicated to keeping all Peace Corps personnel safe.  And apparently, the lady in charge of this office is a total badass.  I don't know personally, but I've heard stories that her law enforcement career in Ecuador is legendary.  Also, she's the person you need to call if the local cops are jerking you around (which happens)...she walks in, and things get done.  Really though, we're put through the ringer on briefings covering everything from common date-rape drugs, to restricted regions, how to avoid certain crime trends, and strategies on defusing common occurrences.  We even have multiple briefings on how to hail a taxi.  Anyways, the central piece of this involves what is called "Whereabouts".  Pretty much if we are ever to spend an evening outside of our home, we must report it.  It's just a simple text message, but its requirement has several meanings.  The American Embassy and the Peace Corps office in Quito must know where all personnel is for security incidents, in case of a natural disaster or political uprising, or even if just to contact that person with news from back stateside.  This makes sense because if a volcano erupts, and the U.S. Government doesn't know one of their people is backpacking through that forest that weekend, it would make it very difficult to rescue him.  So, yea.  Before the simulations and exams to declare us competent in matters of security, I'm almost positive there will be ten more briefings on how not to get kidnapped and the protocol necessary for traveling by bus.

 

So, there are the five pillars of these first twelve weeks.  We seriously eat, breathe, and live this crap.  We're actually kind of tired of it.  You can tell this week that everyone is just ready to move onto something else.  Double-I Double-U Double-I, though.  IIWII.  It is what it is.  I apologize if this was haphazardly thrown together, but as you’ve already read, I’m in the midst of quite a week.  I promise the blog postings will become much more organized, with much cleaner prose, once I’m out of training.