Well I had quite the day yesterday.
I woke up out of coffee and thus too lazy for a run I knew I was off to a bad
start. My whole town seems to be on vacation including the mayor and one of the
cheese makers and thus this whole past week I have been called upon to help out
with the cheese making production. However this day it seemed at my host moms
request I was not going to make cheese but rather be her replacement for
another project in town that was getting ready to sell their juice, jelly, and
liquor out of a native fruit tree at an artisan market that was going on that
weekend. My host mom had to go to the farm so I agreed to cut labels and stick
them on jars for the morning. Upon
arrival it quickly became apparent that it was a BYOS (Bring your own scissors)
type of event, and I was not informed. So after watching some cutting go down I
felt completely hopeless and ran back home to grab my scissors. On my way out
the door I ran into one of the other cookstove representatives. Last week we
had all received our lists of 27 names of households. It was expected that we
visit these houses to make sure that they would be ready for when the materials
arrived and the construction of cookstoves could begin. Each family had to buy their
own bricks, provide three buckets of ash, and prepare mud to make the stoves.
The local nurse promised me that we would go on house visits together as this
would be more fun. This was particularly important to me, as the list only had
names and I had no clue where people lived. I was simply waiting for the nurse
to call upon me and we would head off together to visit these houses.
As I was
leaving to get my scissors the other representative informs me that I needed to
be ready today to unload the car with all the cookstove materials as they were
coming that day. Panicked I asked her if she had done her house visits, to
which me gave me a look of ‘well duh’. Stress rushed through me as I informed
her that I hadn’t done any because I was waiting for the nurse to do them with
me. She made it clear that I really should get them done that day, and with
that I rushed off to talk to the nurse and get my scissors. I stormed into the
health post exclaiming that we needed to go on house visits ASAP as the materials
were coming that day and we needed to get started with building the cookstoves.
The nurse rolled around in her chair and questioned if I’d done any of mine. I
exclaimed well no, I was waiting for her. She laughed and said she’d done all
hers, except for four. Confused and shocked my mouth dropped open as I realized
she had left me to fight for myself. I whined about her not calling me to do
them, and she rolled her eyes at the silly gringa. So off I went to collet my
scissors and my list of names determined to get this done right that moment.
Once back
to labeling I showed my list to the other representative and complained that I had
no clue where any of these people lived, and thus how was I going to complete
the house visits on my own. I felt I was way in over my head and that it was a
terrible idea to elect me as a representative. She looked over my list and
standing there explained where every house was, which would have been
incredible helpful, however directions giving here lacks details. Most of the
descriptions were ‘they live up above, or they live right next to here, or they
live down below, or better yet they live even farther down below’ As the house
direction flew at me I felt even more overwhelmed and wanting to just go hide
behind a closed door. To combat my stress I was ready to get some of the house
visits done with, but I was quickly informed that there was no way I could go
to houses now for everyone was at the farm, and I had to wait until tonight. So
I put off my task and went to cutting up labels. Being a latecomer to the table
there was only one pair of scissors left, I picked them up and it quickly
became apparent that they were extremely dull. The paper folded underneath
them, and the edges they cut were not tidy. But I was determined to contribute
something, so I pushed through. It wasn’t until we were sticking the labels
onto the jars that someone asked who cut out the ugly ones, and the woman that
was standing next to me exclaimed that I had ruined all the ones that I cut
because I was using bad scissors. Well this caused another slump in my
shoulders, as my day just seemed to be piling up.
Not wanting
to ruin anything else I took on the job of unsticking the stickers, allowing
the others to actually put them on the jars. This task forced me into a
standing position and not long into this one of the little girls came up to me
and asked what I had done to my skirt. I turned it around to see that I had
been sitting in something black and the whole back of my skirt was dirty. I let
out a moan and put the stain to the front deciding this would look better.
Everything was tumbling down on me and there was no stopping it. After labeling
all of the jars I waited outside to see if the cookstove materials would
arrived, and had a few more people run through the list to give me more vague
directions.
Deciding
that the materials would not come until later we broke off and went to lunch.
Throughout lunch and self pitied myself as I recounted my morning to my host
family who laughed at me, realizing that each little thing that went wrong for
me was quite insignificant on the grand scheme of things. However we did come up
with one genius idea in that I would get a kid to accompany me to the houses as
they would know where they are. And so it was, after lunch I found my way to
some of the houses that I already knew the locations, and practiced my speech
of explaining what they needed to prepare for the cookstoves. I was overwhelmed
by the amount of houses but I had a plan in place and that made me feel a bit
better. Many of the houses had decided to go with the government program as
they provided everything for free, and it appeared would be done more rapidly.
However after seeing the government cookstove it also became clear that their
model is not as long lasting at the NGOs. The house visits were enjoyable as
people invited me in for tea and were very excited to be receiving a new
cookstove. I enjoyed taking my time and hearing how people cooked, and seeing
their kitchens.
Later in
the afternoon I headed back up to my house to put on my official vest that
represented the organization, and get more serious about my house visits. On my
way up I ran into the truck that was bringing up the materials for the
cookstoves. I complained the to governor that I had no clue where the houses
were, and he laughed at my hopelessness, but I was feeling a little more
positive. The nurse came out to help unload the car and we had a good crew
going back and forth taking materials for over 200 cookstoves out of the car.
Feeling more confident I started showing off my strength to my fellow worker
friends and decided to lift a heavy metal tube up above my head. Well my
strength was proven but my cockiness was slapped in the face as dirt and metal
dusting fell down on my face and all over my clothes. Screaming and laughing I wiped myself off
with my hands, and then wiped my hands off on my skirt, thus further staining
my skirt. The roughness of my day was clearly being reflected in the dirtiness
of the skirt.
After we unloaded everything and
enjoyed some soda to celebrate our accomplishments it was time to knock off
some of my houses as most had returned from the farms by that time. I had
recruited every kid that I had seen on the street that afternoon, and by the
end I had three kids to argue and debate the order in which we went from house
to house. They were a bit more a headache than a help but we were able to knock
off half the houses in one night. I went to bed that night feeling glad I made
it through the day, and proud to be a representative for the new cookstoves.
This week we start construction and I hope to inspire my homes to paint their
cookstoves with the best of the best designs!
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