This past week our HIV/ AIDS program traveled to the coast for our tech trip. The purpose of the trip was to visit some of our counterpart organizations in the province of Guayas and to practice giving charlas /talks to students about HIV prevention.
Sunday night we took a day bus from Cayambe to Quito and then from Quito to Guayaquil. It was great to be able to see the countryside as we descended the Andes and into the selva/rainforest and finally to the coast. We left at 8am and arrived at the Guayaquil bus terminal at 9pm…to say the least, a really long day of traveling and we were all exhausted. Our group took cabs to our hotel in downtown Guayaquil and spent the night getting settled in.
The next morning we inaugurated our brand new Peace Corps HIV/Aids office in downtown Guayaquil. I am really excited that we are the first omnibus to be a part of this program. Our program manager, Rebecca, spent the day introducing us to “Cuanto Sabes de VIH/Sida?” which is a brand new teaching tool for Peace Corps volunteers working in HIV/Aids outreach. “Cuanto Sabes” HIV/AIDS prevention education workshop is a peer-counselor training program where youth are trained to teach HIV prevention to their peers. The program and the methodology was developed by Aid-for-Aids International in New York and was brought to Ecuador through Fundacion VIHDA which adapted it and translated it for an Ecuadorian audience. Fundacion VIHDA works in HIV/Aids health care and is based right next door to our new office. Over the course of the afternoon, current PC volunteers gave us charlas about how to prepare and implement each of the lesson plans of Cuanto Sabes. The overall goal of Cuanto Sabes is to train high school peer educators who will be able to give charlas on HIV prevention to other high school students in their communities. Our hope is that this program will be sustainable and be carried out by peer educators long after Peace Corps volunteers complete their service.
Here is some more info on Fundacion VIHDA and the work they are doing in the provice of Guayas: http://www.vihda.org.ec/html/english.htm#cuanto
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week we traveled to communities in the province of Guayas to implement Cuanto Sabes and to give HIV prevention charlas to high school students. Some of the communities that we traveled to included La Libertad, Palestina, Santa Elena and Salinas, Ecuador. The first charla we gave in the rural town of Los Leones (Palestina) was challenging since the students ranged from 6 to 12 years of age. The students were very shy and it took a lot of motivation to get active participation from the class. Our group was able to improvise a little bit and we did a dynamica / warmup called “cabeza” which got the kids up on their feet to dance and sing the spanish version of “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes”. This dynamica is golden! and great to begin or end a charla.
Our second day of charlas we went to a maternity clinic in Guayaquil and spent the morning walking around an outdoor health fair. We watched doctors and nurses give charlas on proper nutrition for mothers who are breast feeding and charlas on the vertical transmition of HIV from mother to child. Caitlin, another trainee in our program will be working for the maternity clinic for her two years of service. She told me that during her site visit she was able to help delivery a healthy baby girl! 
On our third day of charlas, we traveled father west to the community of La Libertad where we gave Cuanto Sabes charlas to high school students. I was paired up with two other trainees in our HIV/Aids program to plan a charla on the transmission pathways of HIV. Over the course of the morning we visited two classrooms and gave two charlas. I was very happy with how both charlas went. By the time we were on the second charla all my butterflies were gone and I was very comfortable leading the class in spanish and speaking about the importance of anti-retroviral adherence. Overall, this week gave our group a great opportunity to practice charlas in spanish and to gain more confidence in the classroom.
On Tuesday night I went over to the apartment of a current PCV in Guayaquil. She lives in the southern part of the city, which is about 20 mins by cab from downtown. I had a great time talking to other PCVs who live in my cluster and getting to know all the other trainees in my program. This tech trip also bonded our group a little more…we were able to spend some time yesterday on the beach in Salinas discussing how each of us became involved in HIV/Aids. I’m very inspired by all the people in our group, including our program manager Rebecca who has dedicated her life to the prevention of HIV.
To say the least, I am exhausted from our trip back up the Andes. We took an overnight bus last night from Guayaquil to Quito, and then from Quito to Cayambe. This morning we ate breakfast at Cafe Aroma where my host father works as a cook – great omelettes and real coffee too! (not instant which is starting to taste good to me…yikes!)
Tomorrow we have Sunday off and then on Monday our whole Omnibus 104 meets to give presentations on our tech trips. And then the following week of the 17th we travel to Quito where we will swear in at the US Embassy as official Peace Corps Volunteers!! Almost there….
Sending Lots of Love !
xoxo
Lee
