My first day of official work was yesterday and my initial reaction, despite everything the Peace Corps told me about slowing down and lowering my expectations, I kind of freaked out at the end of the day. I was convinced that they were going to give me nothing to do and I would be sitting at an empty desk reading the newspaper for the next two years. I realize that this is overreacting perhaps but in a busy NGO where everyone has too much to do, it does take some wherewithal to stop what you are doing and find a job for an intern, no matter how lista they might be. So we shall see how that goes.
Today, I went with my counterpart Jorge to watch him give a workshop in Azogues, which is a smaller city down the road from Cuenca. Azogues is, according to Jorge, a socialist stronghold and there are several official posters of Che Guevara and an Avenida Che Guevara. There is also a restaurant called Che, which is dark and subversive looking, (and thus really intriguing, lest I be misunderstood.) It is outfitted with all sorts of posters and memorabilia of Che. When I commented favorably on it, Jorge allowed that it was cool, but pointed out that it did not make much sense, because they serve tacos, rather than Argentinian or Cuban food.
-But are they good tacos?, I asked and Jorge had to allow that they were, however inconsistent with the revolution chic motif they might be.
3 comments:
from my experience here, one needs to be extremely proactive about finding work/projects to do...you are especially lucky because you know you will be getting your stipend so you can really pursue anything you are interested in...i find that it isn´t hard to find people to jump on board if you are willing to take the lead. plus things do take time...i just ofund out yesterday that we are actually getting funding for a proposal we worked on the beginning of the fall last year and were told we weren´t going to get. so i think things will speed up eventually. also, i have a friend here whose sister lives in cuenca-she is a social worker/lawyer who works with sex workers. i can get you her info. she may be a good person to know...
For sure, that would be great, they are going to be doing work with sex workers so that would be a great connection!
haste siempre, comandante che.
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