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Marumi Comes to Visit

July 2013

During the first year of service I met Marumi, a JICA (the Japanese Equivalent of the Peace Corps) volunteer, during an event organized to create networking opportunities and collaborations amongst environmental volunteers throughout the country.  During the seminar Marumi got along very well with Ernesto (the leader of Piedras Gordas’ environmental co-op) and me.  Although we are both environmental volunteers our organizations have different goals and focuses.  I was assigned to live in and work on projects in a single community for two years, whereas Marumi lived in an ANAM (Panamanian Environmental Protection Agency) complex and travel throughout the country to train Panamanians in various environmental conservation techniques.  Marumi told Ernesto and me that she was interested in coming to Piedras Gordas to work with the environmental co-op and to see some of the techniques that Peace Corps Volunteers use to manage community environmental projects.



This past July Marumi finally had the opportunity to come to visit Piedras Gordas.  In the morning she helped me teach environmental classes to the 2nd, 5th and 6th graders.  This was her first experience working with students in a Panamanian school.  I think the classroom environment in Panama came as a bit of a surprise to her.  My impression is that Japanese schools are very organized and students are expected in behave in a disciplined manner. Panamanian schools quiet different.  Teachers often leave students unattended in the classroom, school rules are loosely enforced, and students’ behavior often leaves much to be desired.  However after Marumi recovered from her initial shock she seemed to really enjoy spending time with the students, and embraced her role as a co-teacher.

In the afternoon Marumi led two workshops for the environmental co-op.  First she taught members of the co-op how to create traps for certain pests that frequently reduce crop yield.  The second workshop demonstrated how to make soap from used cooking oil.  With the addition of a few inexpensive and easy to acquire ingredients it is possible to make hand soap and dish soap from used cooking oil in just a month.  This workshop seemed to be especially popular, and everyone was pleased to take home his or her own sample.   Marumi explained the environmental benefits of reusing cooking oil instead of disposing it on the land around the home.  I also saw it as an opportunity for the co-op to create a product that can be sold in their store.  Many of the participants said they were going to start making soap at home, hopefully their excitement will translate into tangible results.




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