The security guard at my building calls me Kabby... and some Wonk.

... and his nickname is Gato: The Cat. (He´s still the only feline I´ve met here. Which is still weird.)

So. Ok. I´m really really ready to be fluent in Spanish now.

That being said... here´s the Wonk.

Yesterday was a long day in the field: first to the town of Barva, where we met with the Mayor (who was wearing jeans and a tshirt), and a rep from the Police, the Oficina de la Mujer (the Office of Women, which has one employee), a rep from the Ministry of Health, & a rep from the Office of Transportation to go over the part of the program that is called the Observatorio. It is the piece that is trying to set up a system for tracking crime data. Currently, on a local level, there is no mechanism, so communities don´t know what´s happening in their town: they don´t know the rates of domestic violence, or home invasion robberies, or car theft, or even car accidents. As far as I can tell, murders and crime of that level is tracked by the Federal Govt, the OIJ (Dept of Justice), but, frankly, it´s all a bit confusing, and I don´t think it´s just my Spanish that makes it so. I think this country just doens´t have a comprehensive manner of tracking these things, so the Foundation is trying to help.

So, that went well, they were all really interested in the process. The Mayor actually stayed through the whole thing (way beyond the photo op!) and was asking questions, and it was very cool, because it was the first step to the program, all three parts, and I will be able to see the entire thing while I am here.

The program, that I keep referring to is this: Safe Schools/Safe Community, an is has its 3 parts:

1) The Observatory

2) The Community Component. This is a series of workshops where, ideally, the city, the police, Health services, the Red Cross, non profits, etc. all sit down together, and through a series of workshops, hammer out what the main problems are in the community, and, most importantly, what the roots of the problems are. So, it´s not just, "we have a lot of violent crime here, what should be done about it?", but rather "we have a lot of violent crime here as a result of lack of recreational spaces for kids, unemployment, etc.... and we are going to focus on those problems and concrete programs to address them." Rather, I suppose, like the Community Plans that are built in LA.

Barva, where I was in the morning, is the 6th community that they are trying this program in. And I'll get to the see the whole process, including the 3rd piece, The School Component, which I have yet to see, but I'm sure I'll tell you all about it when I do.

WONKY ENOUGH FOR YOU?

more to come.

love,

kabby