La Asamblea

PUNCTUALITY...

Certainly an American virtue. I understand it, it does show a certain respect. But it is also an example of our rigidness, and something I´m learning to forget to expect here.

Bri, my APCD (Administrative Peace Corps Director- I believe.... essentially the boss of all the rural healthers), advised us that to begin the Asambleas at the prospective time, we shjould send invitations indicateing 30 minutes earlier. Sp 1 pm was written on my invitations, which I dispersed to the students at the school to give to their parents (much easier than going door to door), although some people who I liked and wanted to be there I delivered personally.

I imagined enough people would filter in by 1:30 to begin. Carlos, a Salvadoran and administrator who works with Bri, came around 11 to check up on how I´d been doing and help set up for the meeting. I was really happy to see him, although his presence didn´t calm my nerves.

Held last Thursday at the Casa Comunal, I had all the posters set up by 12:45, my sisters, especially Jesica, hugely helped me out with these. They were happy to help. A lot, I´d say most adults here can´t read that well or at all, so visuals are a must. I especially loved Jesica´s handy work on the illness section, symbolizing diarrhea by a drawing will always be funny.

1pm passes, about 35 chairs (all that were available) are set up, and maybe 5 of them are filled. 1:15, maybe 10, 1:25, 20. I try to keep my cool, pacing and studying my notecards, and greeting the gente I recognize. But my thoughts are occupied, I´m thinking¨Oh, man, no one´s coming. I handed out 150 invitations, and only 30 will show.¨ By 1:40 most of the seats are filled, so I figured it was a good time to start.

It was strange. I felt so ambivalent the whole time. I wanted to keep the tone breezy and comical, a tone that was received with mixed reactions.

Some parts, were very successful: with my family´s help, we opened with a skit re-enacting the hilarity of my arrival- laughs and applause. But other parts, not so successful: I found with the census that there are a lot more males than females in the 15-24 year old range (79 vs 58). wanting to use this as a platform for a joke, I said I´d like to keep these jovenes occupied, because having a bunch of young, energetic males without enough females could be trouble; ¨Because I know what they´re thinking¨- stony silence. GULP! I nervously laughed, and quickly continued, feeling the heat build and the sweat drip down my back.

I tried to break it up into different sections, pausing for questions and pop quizzes. I handed out pictures of family, friends, and San Diego, and after a certain section I would ask who had the pictures, then ask them an obvious question, and gave out cookies to correct responses (which were all of them). I also gave out cookies to anyone who attempted to pronunce my last name. And although the participation wasn´t jumping off the charts, enough were trying so that I didn´t make a complete fool of myself.

At the end, after presenting all my findings, I said something like, ¨I´m not sure of all the things I´ll do here, and I can´t promise that all of them will work. But one thing I can promise is that I will work very hard and try as hard as I can to support you with whatever you need.¨ I sighed a relief as the crowd applaided. And, as I finally really looked at the audience, I noticed something, it had greatly filled. Huge numbers were standing, gathering at the back and bursting at the sides. A lot of men showed up too (I was only really expecting mothers).

Carlos spoke to the audience after I had finished to clarify anything. He also pleaded, saying ¨Laura´s here to work for you- but one thing she needs is your support, your help, to get work done together.¨A lot of glances and nods were shot my way, it was very humbling. I wanted to run and hug Carlos.

Afterward, Carlos and I talked. He said he was very impressed by how many people showed- which ended up at I´d say aroung 100. He said the closest he had seen so far wat 60ish. That made me feel really good.

I told him how nervous I was and how I wasn´t really sure if any of the information I presented would be retained, but that I was happy to make a better impression in front of so many of the community.

However- to my delight- I actually may have raised a few brows. Later that day at the local tienda, the clerk and a neighbor talked to me about the HIV and Reproductive Health sections (no one here plans for children). They said that they usually talk about this stuff with the guys, but didn´t really know how to discuss it with women and children. They said they were happy to see a woman talk to the community about these things, and I was just as happy that 2 men were open to talk to me about it. And as for the periods of blank silence, Don Marvin (my counterpart)said that the people here are timid... so that opening up for jokes may take some time.

All in all, I was happy with the Asamblea, and even happier that it was over. After seemingly endless hiking for the census, hours of studying the results, and late nights preparing the presentation, I was completely exhausted. I slept 10 hours that night.

So- I´m optimistic, with maybe a hint of skepticism. It´s one thing to be able to identify all the problems in the community- but it is entirely another to actually begin work with the support of the gente. The next big step.

But first- I return to San Vicente this weekend for PSTII (pre service training dos). This time, it´s all about technical and logistical aspects of getting projects done- the practical matter. I´m there for 3 weeks, and then I return. And although now my official title bears the word ¨Volunteer¨I think I won´t really feel like one until I get back.