The sock is thrilled! Although the 100% alpaca with cables is looking a bit large for my granny, it nonetheless serves as doodle-prevention during meetings and conversation-starter during breaks.
We had an uneventful if sleep-deprived trip, and are housed in a lovely "Apart-Hotel," which means basically a hotel in which your room consists of a little apartment complete with kitchen. I am eating all the tropical fruit I can get my hands on.
Yesterday Terry faciliated a very fruitful workshop during which a team of very smart Habitat for Humanity workers analyzed the transcripts of 17 open-ended interviews on the topic of "what sustains Habitat volunteers?" We're talking about governance volunteers, not the ones who come from the US for a week of hefting hammers with Jimmy Carter. We had some very interesting conversations about "protagonismo comunitario," which as I understand it is Habitat's new initiative to foment community ownership of development projects... a hot-button topic to me as I turn out to be something of an ideological purist when it comes to grassroots development...
Lovely people here, and strong representation from Peru! Lina Maria Obando and husband Ruben had us over for a delicious meal; Peru was all over their house: the quena music CD, the art on the walls, even the earthenware dishes and fish soup... not to mention the chakana pendant around her neck!
Today we have a little bit of down time, Thursday we resume analysis with the research team here, and Friday Terry will doing a workshop on social service vs. social change organizations. Saturday we'll probably join Lina Maria and Ruben on a church outing to the country, and Sunday maybe the beach! Monday we return to the US.
Being here certainly whets my appetite to live in Latin America again. It feels like home.
2 comments:
random "ronny" guy? This from someone called "Eep"?
um... no other homes for you!
what are you trying to do give me knitting heart attack!
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