This is Marvin

My photo
Harichaur, Baglung, Nepal
Let's see, I'm currently 23 years old and I'm from Los Angeles, CA. I studied Latin American Studies at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), woot woot class of 2012!!! I let optimism and hope lead my way and I love it! I'm also currently a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in Nepal as a health volunteer for the next 27 months, so I'm super excited for the next adventures awaiting to come!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Make it Happen!!! : >


Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful X-mas and New Years along side with your loved ones!

So much has happen since I wrote “My Frist Blog in Nepal”, so again, I will try to make it short but detailed. Watch out!!!  : >


For those of you who have crossed my path at UCR and in life, you have gotten the impression that I am a character who is always on the go. However let me start this entry with something that happened to me which is completely NOT a “Marvin” thing to do. So I have been in my permanent site for almost two months. At the beginning of my stay in Harichaur all I have been doing is meeting people, going to my health center and recently I have been going to my mothers’ group meetings. However, I came to the point where I felt that I lost “my way” in a way. All I could do is introduce myself and look pretty in front of the meetings while I let my counterpart do all the talking. I came to the conclusion that for some time I became dependent on my counterpart to make things happen. I KNOW, WHAT A MESS RIGHT!!! Since when has Marvin depended on someone else to “Make it Happen”? NEVER! I had a couple of down moments since being in Harichaur, especially when I was sitting in my health center just accumulating sun like everyone else and during the mothers’ group meetings where I would stare into their eyes, picking up on words that I could understand here and there. During these moments I would ask myself “What the hell am I going to do in Nepal for the next two years?” I was sad because I wasn't doing anything and I’m the type of person who hates sitting around doing nothing. I never believed that I would feel this sense of uselessness, but I know that if I didn't I wouldn't be human and I wouldn't be a real PCV. During the couple of days that my counterpart has been god knows where and I had time to simply think. What was it that made me a “go-getter” in the states, UCR and in life? What was it that I left behind in the states? After drinking a cup of milk tea, it finally hit me that what I had left behind was my will to make it happen. If I ever wanted to make something happen all I needed was the will and persistence. I had lost that will to make it happen because I grew to depend on my counterpart and in a way believed that things would fall into place by themselves, that I didn’t have to do anything, and that was not a mentality that I had ever adopted in the states. I slapped some sense into me and told myself that I don’t need my counterpart for every step of the way, I mean it would be easy but I can do it on my own, I can make it happen in community and in Nepal.

I gathered myself up and in a way found “my way”! I remembered that I have my life’s formula…

Optimism + Hope + Persistence/Will + A Pinch of luck = Makes it Happen!!!

In regards to feeling of uselessness I came to another conclusion. Being a Peace Corps volunteer during the first few months of one’s two years service brings a lot of FREE time. I am the type of person who would get overwhelmed with too much free time on my hands. I decided to read and be more active, however I still felt that sense a lack of productivity and uselessness. I’m sure it wasn't an epic discovery, but I realized that the more time I focus on occupying my time with “personal” things, the same level of uselessness will remain because I’m still not doing anything productive in regards to work. If I am given a task I like to get to work as soon as I can. Therefore, I decided to occupy my free time with “work” related things, thus that sense of uselessness slowly diminish because I am ACTUALLY being productive! I am working on the goal for which I was sent to Nepal!

For example, two weeks ago, my fellow PCV Alida Dean and I conducted a permagardening workshop in my PHC’s forgotten garden. I love planning events and getting everything ready for the big day, therefore, I set the date, collected the materials, found the space, let the word spread like wild fire and got my Female Community Health Volunteers (my girls) ready to go and this was without my counterpart’s help. The workshop went well because the FCHVs and other members of the community who showed up found this type of technique very interesting. Everyone helped out! Thankfully, Alida was there to help me out, she’s the agriculture volunteer. We work very well together; I’m so lucky to have her. To this day, our garden has started blossoming because we have our first seedlings grow so were really excited to see what this garden can do within the next two years. During and after the workshops, Alida and I had requests from some FCHVs to help them make this type of garden in their home. The idea was to get “my girls” from all nine wards of Harichaur to pass on the idea to their mothers’ group where I will be present to help explain it, thus working towards our goal of food security. Were making it happen!

Also, I led my first couple of mothers’ group meeting all by myself in the past few weeks and especially during this month which made me feel really good because the group was actually listening to me, me with my basic Nepali. The idea was for my counterpart to take me to the first meetings to introduce myself, however due to some small detours I wasn't able to go to all the scheduled meetings during the first month. I thought that my counterpart was going to go with my to meetings which I haven’t been to, but it got a bit busy at the PHC thus I had to go by myself. I’m not going to lie, I was a bit nervous, but thankfully it all went well and the mothers’ group received me with much warmth and hospitality. I am currently working on a way to make the meetings more interactive where we can all have a discussion about health and not have them to listen to a lecture. I am also working on conducting a health census/assessment for each ward. It’s going to take some time even though the nine wards are close in proximity of one another; every ward is different where they have different health issues to tackle. I have to find them and see what can be done to improve their health. I know this will be difficult, but now more than ever I’m excited to work with the mother groups and my girls. These past experiences give me hope for the future and it pushes me to step up my game even more.


Enough about making it happen, on to the next exciting topic. I always wanted to have a dog during my Peace Corps time, so after getting a little comfortable with my family, I asked them if I could get a dog. Unfortunately, they said no, ONLY because tigers eat them! Therefore, the dog idea was out. Then after I asked if I could get a cat, however my little sister is afraid of cats so there goes that idea. Also, the Peace Corpsdo not allow you to have monkeys either. I really wanted a pet for these next two years so I was wondering what would be okay. Then it came to me! How about rabbits? They’re easy to take care of and don’t require a lot of time for my family’s sake, lucky that was an A-OK!!! After the green light, I made a promise to myself that I would get my rabbits within a month, however I got them within a week. I got a house made for my rabbits right after the green light. I asked everyone for where I could get a baby boy and girl rabbit? Before I get any further, let me say that Alida had to persuade me to get two rabbits of the same sex seeing how they reproduce fairly quickly, thus I would have too much on my hands. I was leaning towards a no because I had already picked out their names, Artemis and Apollo (the twin Greek gods). But after much talk, Alida convinced me to get two girl rabbits! Now back to the search, after a day or two I was given an option and I went to see what it was and I was presented with two fairly grown boy rabbits. They were really cute, but I wasn't feeling it because they were too big and I wanted them as babies so I could see them grow. Sadly, I had to decline that offer and look for another option. The next following day, Alida, her host mother and I traveled to this village way up in the mountains. The trip was well worth it because I found my girls for a reasonable price! I came along many cute baby rabbits, but I spotted my two girls. Artemis Kumari is my gray little one with a white-collar neck and Athena Kumari is my black little one also with a white-collar neck. After a cup of tea, Alida’s mom puts them in her shall and off we go back home. They are so precious! Athena is such a mellow rabbit because she lets me grab her fairly easily and is always chilling. Now Artemis is a mess! She is so hyper and always puts up a fight with me so I won’t put her back in her house. Everyday I let them out to play in our garden and get some sun. They are getting so fluffy, which makes me very happy. They’re growing up so fast! I know it’s silly, but I wanted something else to do during my free time.  : >

In short, these past two months have had many ups and downs where I have quickly learned to adapt to many different situations based on my past experiences. Within my village, I have been adopted as a bother, uncle and even as a father by this one little girl who lives one house over.I got deathly sick this past week where I threw up my life into my little red bucket about 12 times during one night, but thankfully I’m getting better. Of course there has been many frustrating times during these two months,but after my “epic” discovery, I remembered that I definitely have what it takes to make it happen in my community, in Nepal and anywhere where I decide to go!: >

With much optimism and hope,

Marvin Gamez-Crespin
a.k.a Kamal

p.s I have added a “Paradise Bowl” tab where it details many of the adventures that I have experienced along side with my fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Alida Dean, check it out!