Bienvenida a Pro Mujer

January 25, 2012 – Sorry I’ve been slacking but wanted to update everyone on my first few days of work. First, Sunday night I met the other American intern, Angie, and an American consultant, Mariano, who is working here for another couple weeks, and we had dinner together. It was nice to know them before I walked into the office Monday morning.

I was so nervous I could hardly sleep and I woke up early Monday to study more Spanish. But no cramming really can prepare you for arriving at an office where you are expected to speak another language the entire time. Regardless, I arrived a few minutes before 8:30, hoofed up the three flights of stairs, and quickly met my boss/preceptor Doctor Alfonso Medina Bocanegra, the director of health and human development. He is very nice and welcome me right away with a long “speech” about Pro Mujer, which was great because I understood everything he said but didn’t have to speak other than to nod or say bueno/si/claro every so often. Then the other pasantes arrived and I realized there was not room for us in the office, so me and Angie moved to a conference room for the day, which was nice because we could speak in English. Doctor Alfonso sat down with me for about an hour going over some presentations with background on the organization and then sent me a work plan to start drafting. I had lunch with Angie and Carlos, a Pro Mujer employee who lives in the same building as me, (a great meal of soup and a chicken and rice dish for less than $2) and spent the rest of the day reviewing documents and brushing up on Spanish business and health vocab.

The next day was not quite so smooth. First, Angie was not here so it was a bit lonely in my conference room. In fact, I hardly spoke to anyone all day. Then I had a meeting with my boss about my work plan objectives and he gave me a laundry list of things he wants me to do in three months. As if a qualitative study is not enough, he also suggested a systematic analysis of their processes in their health centers, a review of their communications techniques, an epidemiologic and statistical analysis of their health center results, and a customer satisfaction survey. Gee, no big deal. So I pushed back a bit but overall said I’d think about what I thought was feasible. I ended up eating alone for lunch and dinner, which is no fun, because the internet was out so I couldn’t meet up with a friend. And I couldn’t Skype with anyone back home. So I went to bed feeling a bit lonely. Bleh.

The view from my office window of the main street in Puno, Jiron Lima.

 

But today was back on the upswing. In the morning I helped my boss with an urgent search for any reports on gender violence and micro-credit, which I just so happened to have because of the lit review I’m doing with Dr. Gurman. Then he took me on a tour to the two centros focales in Puno, which is where Pro Mujer clients come to pay their monthly loan payments, receive training, and access health services. All of the staff I met were very nice and while I got some strange looks from the women themselves, I think they will be welcoming once they start to see me there more often. Doctor Alfonso introduced me to the staff and each time either jokingly said that I was from the U.S. so they’d have to speak in English to me (to which they gasped and blushed until he said it was a joke) or honestly said she speaks Spanish but there are some words she doesn’t know so if she gets confused please help her. In particular I enjoyed meeting the obstetrices (basically nurse midwives) who I’ll be working closely with.

After the visits, Doctor Alfonso took me to the market because he wanted to buy some chocolate and I found peanut butter, which I had looked in no less than five other places for, so I bought it even though it was more than $5. When we arrived back at the office, the doctor invited me to lunch and we ended up going with a large group including Mariano and another Peruvian intern, Marita. I was certainly not the most talkative of the bunch but was able to mostly follow the conversation and respond when spoken too. It’s funny how my personality is different in Spanish because I have to think about what I’m going to say and can’t just blurt it out in my usual fast-talking way. Anyways, I split chicharron del mar with Marita, which was basically a bunch of fried seafood and potatoes. A little too much fried stuff for me, but good. We also had chicha, a drink made from purple maiz, and leche de tigre, which is the marinade leftover from ceviche and is apparently great for hangovers. Both were interesting and decent tasting. So far my favorite drink here (besides of course the delicious fresh juices) has been the warm wine they make with pisco in it, so basically warm sangria.

Anyways, back to work, this afternoon I finished my work plan so now I’m waiting for my boss to approve it. I managed to whittle it down to a manageable workload (I think!). Hasta luego…..