Today was extremely eventful day for me and, as a result, my entire site. The previous volunteer in my site raised over $2,700 through Peace Corps Partnerships to buy three computers, a printer, toner, desks, bulletin boards, fans, and book shelves for the town’s library. The money, unfortunately, didn’t come in until after she returned to the States. The money was therefore deposited into my bank account and I was placed in charge of completing her project. I wanted to wait a few weeks for the community to get to know me before I dropped a few Gs, and today I finally started buying the material. My counterpart, the librarian, and I went to Machala this morning to purchase the computers. I can’t really explain it, but I was really scared and first. As in, all I wanted to do is run and hide. I have been given a huge amount of responsibility for a project that really isn’t mine and I don’t want to screw it up. Fortunately, my counterpart was, as always, amazing and did most of the negotiating while I whispered exactly what we needed (the previous volunteer left good instructions) and how much each should cost. We were lucky and convinced the guy to give us a HUGE discount that was a lot less than the money budgeted. (Hey… the guy was facing two young women buying computers for ‘the children’… he never stood a chance!) Once we agreed on a price, I agreed to come back in the afternoon to make the first cash payment. (Yes, I am actually bought three computers with cash… it was NOT fun.) We then went on to buy the desks and fans.
Once we finished, my counterpart and I had to race back to my site for a meeting with parents to discuss the outfits that the children should wear when they dance for the cultural night. I had figured that since these are children from families so poor that they can’t pay for the uniforms, notebooks, pencils, exam fees, etc. that their children need to go to school (the total adds up to about $100 a year), they probably couldn’t pay approx. $12 for an outfit for one 3-min. dance. I forgot, however, to factor in how important these dance performances are in my site. No one wants to wear a costume that consists of simply an old white shirt and black bottoms if every other group has cool matching outfits. I can understand that. The parents agreed to spend the money for matching black dance leotards. More power to them!
When I was finally finished for they day, I went to the university with my host family. I hadn’t been in awhile because they usually go on Fridays, and I have been very busy these past weeks. One of the students mentioned that he was going to be doing some traveling through Peru and Argentina and I got really excited because I know those places pretty well. We ended up talking for several hours while I recommended lots of things to see and do. He was grateful and I was happy because I felt useful and smart. Sometimes I feel like people think that because I don’t speak great Spanish, I’m not exactly bright. I do know some things!
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