Work Update

October 28th

I’ve been living in Piedras Gordas for more than seven months now, and I’m happy to say that my work has been keeping me busy and a few of my projects have gotten off to a good start!

I’m still teaching in the school every Tuesday and Wednesday.  The kids are always really excited for our computer classes, and lately they have also been really excited about our environmental classes.  This trimester I’ve done a better job of planning my classes and making them more dynamic.  This trimester in the environmental classes we are focusing on humans’ impact on the environment and natural resources (recent themes have been: The world’s population reaching 7 billion people, Energy use, sources and conservation, Smog and the Ozone Cap, Climate Change, Trash Management, and Deforestation).  I’m hoping the information from this trimester will give the students a knowledge base that will encourage them to participate in the trash management and recycling project we are going to start in the school next trimester. Thanks to conversations with my mom, and making lots of errors, I’ve also learned  better ways to discipline the  students and manage their behavior.  Complimenting students in front of the class for their good behavior, not allowing students that misbehave to participate in the fun activities that day, having a “bank of good acts” that can be cashed in for a party once the class reaches a certain level, and most importantly giving out tons of stickers as rewards has made a huge difference in the students behavior and the enjoyment of the class for them and I. 

In September I started teaching a weekly computer classes for adults (15 and up).  There are currently about 30 students that are split into two groups.  One group is for people that have very little or no experience using a computer.  In this class I’ve taught them basic computer functions and vocabulary, how to use Microsoft Word, how to use the computer to write formal letters to institutions and government officials, and how to search the internet.  The second group is for people that have a little more experience using computers.  With this group we reviewed the various options in Microsoft Word and Powerpoint.  The students in this group are currently making Powerpoint presentations that they will be presenting to the class next week.  I also teach a class each week to four people on how to use Microsoft Excel.  These people asked me to teach them how to use Excel to help them in their jobs working for various government agencies, politicians, and businesses.

I’ve continued to tutor my friend Yari in English on a weekly basis.  Her English is definitely improving, and it’s a great way for me to spend time with her and her family.  Her daughter is amazing and I always have a lot of fun talking to her dad and brothers.  Lately I’ve been bringing movies over to watch in English after our classes.  Her daughter and father especially love watching Planet Earth, and last week I brought over the snowboarding video The Art of Flight, which blew them all away!

Upon the request of the teachers at the school, the president of the Padres de Familia, another father and I built a Magic Circle at the school.  We built it next to the comedor (dining hall) so that the parents who cook the school lunches and take care of the school grounds can deposit the organic waste from the lunches and school maintenance in a beneficial manner.  We planted beans, carrots, tomatoes, atoy, bananas and radishes around the Magic Circle.  It will hopefully provide an effective way to despose of organic waste as well as provide vegetables that can be used for the school lunches.  It turned out to be a great opportunity to share information about various organic agriculture practices with the fathers that helped to build the Magic Circle as well as with the parents that cook the school lunches.

A few weeks ago I was asked to attend a seminar on climate change that was hosted by ANAM (Panama’s EPA).  Every time I’ve been asked to attend an ANAM event they ask me to speak/present at the meeting without giving me any time to prepare.  So this time when I was invited to the meeting I asked them if I would be asked to speak and/or should I prepare some information about climate change.  They told me that I wouldn’t be asked to speak or present, I should just come and share my questions or comments that might arise during the meeting.  So of course at the beginning of the meeting I was asked to come up on the stage and present the information I had prepared for the meeting.  Luckily I half expected to speak even though I was told I wouldn’t have to and I have a decent amount of experience talking about climate change.  So I was able to “wing” enough of a presentation to not look entirely foolish.  However what surprised me most about the meeting was that I was the only person that talked about climate change.  The rest of the meeting was used for community representatives to ask ANAM for resources so that they could carry out various projects…so apparently I didn't look foolish.

After the “climate change” meeting the Peace Corps volunteers in attendance headed to the hospital down the street.  The Lions Club Panamá brought a group of American optometrists and eye glasses technicians to Penonomé for a week to provide free eye exams and glasses to poor rural Panamanians.  The majority of the of the Americans that arrived didn’t speak Spanish, so we volunteered at the clinic as translators. It was incredibly gratifying to see peoples’ faces light up when for the first time in years they could see well enough to read, watch television, knit, watch their grandchildren play etc. I was helping an elderly women find a pair of glasses that matched her prescription.  It took over twenty tries and 40 minutes to find the right pair, but it was worth it just see how happy and grateful she was once we found the right pair.

At the end of September I went to an ANAM workshop with my community counterpart, Ernesto Perez, ANAM representatives and Peace Corps Volunteers from the Province of Coclé.  The seminar was attended by Peace Corps volunteers, community environmental leaders and ANAM workers throughout the country.  The seminar was held in the community of Montaoscura in province of Veraguas. Two of my friends and fellow Peace Corps volunteers live in Montaoscura and help an environmental group that is working to protect endangered sea turtles that lay their eggs on the local beaches.  Sand extraction, dogs eating the eggs, and humans that poach the eggs to sell as food are major threats to the sea turtles ability to reproduce.  The seminar was held as grand opening for the group’s sea turtle center and to share information about various environmental themes (protected areas in the province, endangered species, how to make marketable artisan crafts out of trash).  The highlight of the trip was the nighttime monitoring of the beaches to find turtles that have and/or are laying their eggs.  Once a nest is found the eggs are counted, the tracks are photographed, the depth of the buried eggs is measured, and the specie of turtle is recorded.  The eggs are then moved and ruburied in a protected area. The first night of monitoring we only found a few nests that the dogs had found first, but on the second night we found 6 new nests, one mother that was in the process of laying her eggs, and two nests that had hatched in the protected area.

My biggest environmental project in Piedras Gordas is creating and supporting a community group that is going to start a recycling project and manage the garbage in the community.  During the Community and Environmental Analysis meeting I facilitated the community members decided that garbage was the biggest environmental (and health, economic, etc.) issue the community is facing. For the past two months I have been talking to ANAM, politicians, and NGO’s to get their support for a trash management project in the community, and I have been working to organize a group within the community.  Three weeks ago I held a meeting in Piedras Gordas to discuss the various problems connected to trash in the community, the causes and effects of these problems, and the benefits to creating a group.  The meeting was productive and those in attendance agreed that to successfully address this problem we needed to organize a group.  Unfortunately there were only around 15 people that showed up for the first meeting (I didn’t do as good of a job as I should have of publicizing the meeting and explaining it’s importance).  I explained that for the group to be successful we need to get more people involved,  and that there would be another meeting in three weeks to elect a board of directors for the group and create a work plan for out initial projects.  In the following weeks I went to each house in the community with an invitation to the next meeting, I spoke at community gatherings about the upcoming meeting , and I posted signs at all the stores in town. 

All that talking seemed to have paid off.  Around 40 people showed up to the next meeting. Either I informed enough interested people about the group or they wanted me to shut me up and figured the best way to do it was to show up to the meeting.  Whatever for the increased attendance it definitely made the meeting more productive.  During the meeting we were able to set two major goals for this year, objectives to reach our goals, and activities that will allow us to meet our objectives.  We are going to have two community wide clean-ups this upcoming week.  One is to get the community ready for the Días Patrias (independence/patriotism) celebration next weekend, and one is to clean up the mess that we’re going to have afterwards.  We also planned to speak with the president of transportation to set certain regulations about throwing trash out the windows of public transportation.  The group is very interested in holding information sessions for the community about trash management, starting a recycling program, and having an artisan group that can reuse certain types of trash.  We were able to elect a board of directors, whom I will be working closely with.  This was the most successful meeting that I’ve held so far.  I’m cautiously confident that this is the first step to creating a sustainable trash management project/service in Piedras Gordas.