Community contacts

There are about 30 Volunteers-in-Training (Aspirantes) in our training group. Groups of 4 or 5 of us each live in different small communities surrounding San Vicente. Most of our Spanish classes and cultural activities take place within our own communities, and then once a week or so we head in to San Vicente by bus to meet up with the rest of the training group. The training communities are a fantastic part of our education, especially since part of our assignments are to investigate various aspects of the community in a structured way. The Peace Corps has provided us a list of "Community Contacts" that we have to make, some samples of questions we can ask the various community contacts we make, and suggested dates for completion. Our Spanish teacher, who is super-helpful, has also helped us meet people. We have met with the President of the local community government (ADESCO), the regional Health Promoter, the local environmental official in the mayor’s office, the director of the school, and many other community members. This is fantastic not only because we learn a lot about the community we are in, but also about how to make these sorts of contacts: how to do house visits, etiquette in professional settings, how to write letters of contact, what sorts of questions to ask in an investigation. I don’t know if this model of learning applies to all Peace Corps countries, and I admit that it might be a lot harder to do when one doesn’t know the language, but for students that have some grasp of the language, it is a great way of training, IMHO.