My First Peer Group!!!

Day 9

I got to sit in on my first peer group at MUSADE today! I was so excited!

It was a group of women who have been having problems at home with emotional abuse. In this case, the three women present were still living with their spouses, but felt trapped. Stefanie is the name of the group leader from MUSADE.

The discussiong centered on Basic Human rights. It was so interesting listening to the women´s stories and kind of sad as well. There was a lot of ¨no I don´t enjoy beign treated that way...but...¨ There was a general feeling of disenpowerment to do anything about their situation.

I felt like Stephanie had a difficult position, for obviously the women wanted a change, otehrwise they wouldn´t be there, but they had painted themselves into an inescapable box, where their domestic life was unlikely to change.

¨But he has a hard day at work and when he comes home, of course he wants dinner on the table, should I let him starve...¨

¨Well, no, but I should have had more control over the children.¨

There is one older more mature lady there who seems to bridge the gap, she sort of acted as a mediator when Stefanie would insist the women needed to care more for themselves, but it clashed with daily necessities.

I also learned from Enid today, that there is actually 1 organization in Costa Rica that helps men wo experience domestic abuse....there are 5 for women.




So Scotiabank has a strong foothold in Costa Rica.



Traffic going out of San Jose.


Impressions

• I think I am beginning to get this Spanish thing, I totally followed that Peer group.
• Hmmm...need a key so as not to get locked in the hosue in the morning if others leave before me.
• Yay Carribean next weekend!