Event Planning and My Most Embarrassing Moment So Far

The marcha stretched for blocks and blocks (cuadras)!

This week I had two semi-large events. The first was a march for world AIDS day (Dec 1^st) and the second was a youth group meeting, supported by a local NGO. Both events ended up going well, but that’s not how it seemed in the days and hours leading up to them. I have learned a lot through my work here and some of the most useful skills I have acquired are flexibility, and not getting too attached to my own ideas or initial plans. 

World AIDS Day March

During Thanksgiving week I worked to crank out five letters for various government organizations and NGOs here in town asking for their permission and participation. I turned each one in less than a week before the march, all with affirmative initial responses. Then I left to celebrate Thanksgiving and wasn’t going to be back at work until Monday, the day of the march. In the time that I was gone for Thanksgiving, my main counterpart was studying and defending her thesis as a professional nurse. So she had no time to put towards the march either. I called my counterpart on Sunday to make sure we were still on for the march and she said we were. 

Then comes Monday morning, the march is supposed to start at 9am. I haven’t received confirmation from the high school principal, mayor’s office or the police that we’re still on for the march. I go to the health center to make more HIV/AIDS red ribbons to give to students. My Ministry of Health (MINSA) counterparts are all in their Monday morning meeting until about 8:30am. From the end of the meeting until 9am my counterpart looks for the banner that she has. I didn’t know where the students would be gathering, but right around 9:10am I was told they were all heading for the park. Not our original meeting location, but it would work. I went with my MINSA counterparts to the park and started passing out ribbons. I still hadn’t received any confirmation or sign from the mayor’s office that they were joining us with their pickup truck and loudspeakers. We waited until about 9:30, when the Red Cross ambulance showed up. The ambulance went in place of the truck/loudspeakers and just had its siren on the whole time. Without loudspeakers, we had no idea what we were going to say as we were marching. I made up some chants with the students and then with my counterpart as we were marching. It ended up being about a 20 minute route and I think we had over 200 students marching with us. We chanted: “¿Cómo podemos prevenir VIH? ¡Condón! ¡Abstinencia! ¡La Prueba!” (How can we prevent HIV? Condoms, Abstinence, Testing) and “¡Unidos podemos prevenir el VIH!” (United we can prevent HIV).

Marching

My fabulous MINSA counterpart that made the marcha a reality.

I had a fairly embarrassing moment early on in the march. I was trying to get a good picture of the banner, but with the angles of the sun on it was difficult. When we finally got to the street that goes uphill, I realized it was my opportunity. The street was packed with students, so I started running up on the side, which is kind of like a sidewalk. The sidewalk ends abruptly and I decide to jump over the gutter (filled with sewage water). Of course, I slip and fall in the sewage. Luckily I didn’t hurt myself, but my pants were covered in God knows what for the rest of the march. And because I was just about to reach  the banner at the front of the crowd, almost everyone saw me fall. But I got the picture!

I got the picture! "United for the prevention of HIV/SIDA"

Youth Group Meeting

The world AIDS day march was a piece of cake compared to my youth group meeting. I had the meeting scheduled for Friday, and the last day of class before “summer” vacation was Thursday. This means that they had exams and shortened class days all week; which was useful for the March on Monday, but made organizing the youth group meeting difficult. I had to get to the high school to hand out invitations before 8am. I didn’t have the invitations ready, for various reasons, many of which were out of my control, until 10am on Wednesday. This meant I had to show up at the last day of classes and try to pass out invitations. It was difficult, because everyone was gathered together, not in their class sections, and there were maybe 50 students in total. Many students don’t go to the last day here. I passed out about 25 of my 40 invitations.

A skit about working in groups and communication.

Later in the day I confirmed with my co-facilitators that we were still on for the youth group meeting and they both said they’d be there. I confirmed our refrigerio [snack] with my supporting NGO, and I finished making my materials.

Friday morning comes around and my NGO contact calls me at 6am to confirm the number of refrigerios and another few times to communicate other details. I go about my morning relaxed; the meeting wasn’t until 2pm. I went to my friend’s house to help her make her own pumpkin pie (it was a hit with my Nicaraguan friends and family after I made it for Thanksgiving). I get a call from my NGO counterpart around 11am asking to collect the attendance list before he heads out for the day. I was confused because the meeting hadn’t happened yet, and I wouldn’t have the attendance list until 4pm when the meeting finished. Turns out he thought the meeting was in the morning, and had already happened. He sent the refrigerio at 10am. Coincidentally there was another meeting happening at the same spot in the morning. So everyone at that meeting ate our refrigerio, which meant we were out of a snack. I had students walking in for over an hour to attend this meeting, from poor communities and at the very least we like to offer them some food; which they generally end up saving and taking it back to their house to share with their families. So I was a little frustrated by this news.

A skit about peer pressure and drinking.

Fast forward to 1pm, one hour before the meeting: I go into the health center to meet with my co-facilitator and walk to the high school with her. She all of a sudden is unable to go with me, and sends a nursing student in her place. I was bummed, because I really like working with her, but at least she sent someone to fill in for her. So I go with the nursing student out to the high school. We arrive 30 minutes early to set up the room and go over what we’re going to cover. I was expecting another co-facilitator to show up, but he never did. So I’m out my snack, and both of my initial co-facilitators. At 2pm we have about four students. It was starting to seem like that was all we were going to get. Until about 2:20pm they all started showing up. By 2:30pm we had 31 students! So we got going with the meeting. My counterpart from the NGO came to explain and apologize for there not being any food. He also offered compensation in the form of more food at the next meeting, lunch in the place of a snack. In the meeting we talked about communication and domestic/dating/parenting violence. The students produced sociodramas [skits] relating to communication styles and violence. In the end it went well, and we completed the objectives. 

A skit about communication and violence between teenagers and their parents.

From both of these events I learned a lot. From the youth group meeting I learned that having co-facilitators may not be enough. I think since I did all of the planning, it may not have seemed imperative that they make the meeting. In the future I want to try to do more co-planning as well as co-facilitating. I also will have my meetings in the morning whenever possible. I think the time of day was difficult for people and it caused a lot of confusion, because meetings are generally held in the morning here. I also need to be more specific when confirming details with everyone. From the world AIDS day march I learned that I need to be more diligent with follow-up in general. It was difficult because it was a Monday morning, so nobody was working in the two days before the event. But somehow the follow-up needs to happen. Overall, I am proud of my events this week, and I am proud of myself for staying relaxed even when I thought everything was going downhill.