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Welcome to Piedras Gordas

March 29th
I’ve been in Piedras Gordas for about two weeks now, and I’ve been really enjoying my time here.

 The whole goal of the Peace Corps is to build capacity and facilitate grass roots sustainable community development.  This means that for my first three months I need to integrate as much as I can into the community by getting to know the people, the environment, the culture, and the organization of Piedras Gordas.  Right now my job is to observe in the school and community, walk from house to house to meet everyone, attend meetings that are held, and work with anyone who could use an extra set of hands for the day.  So far I’ve been observing in the school two days a week, paseando (literally means walking, but it refers visiting your neighbors) to each house in the community, helping to build a vivero (tree nursery) with the environmental co-op, attending the meetings of community groups, cooking tamales with the parents of the kindergarten students, going to the river, working out, reading technical material, and attending the local soccer league’s games on Sunday. 

In June I will have to complete a community analysis, school analysis, and environmental analysis.  I will use the school analysis to help train the teachers to use more dynamic teaching methods and incorporate environmental education into their curriculum.  I will also be teaching environmental classes and computer literacy classes in the school. Additionally I’m hoping to work with the teachers at the school to start an after-school eco-club, and help build the school garden.  I may also teach English classes and computer literacy classes to adults on weekends.

The environmental analysis and community analysis will be used to help me facilitate a meeting with the community.  During this meeting I need to have to community analyze their environmental strengths and weaknesses and determine which projects they would like me to work on.  I have some ideas about possible projects (creating a landfill, building recycling facilities, and providing more efficient “eco-stoves”), but for the projects to be sustainable I need to have community partners working with me, and the projects need to address the environmental issues that the people of Piedras Gordas are concerned about.

I’m impressed by how important creating sustainable projects are to the Peace Corps’ approach to development.  I’m very glad that this process is initiated by a period of integration, relationship building, and information gathering.  This approach may be slower than other development models, but I think that time and relationship building are the foundation of sustainable change.
















Location: Piedras Gordas, Panama

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