The kids look so proud in this picture and so do I!
Ashley stopped by to help sort the recycling and take pictures. My neighbor, Maribel is in the background tallying up the students recycling items.
Only one word can articulate our first recycling day on April 2nd, 2012 and that word is Awesome!! The kids managed to bring so many recycling items from home. I was so impressed and proud of them. For our first recycling day, the environmental committee and myself held a recycling competition. The classroom that brought the greatest amount of recycling items was promised a cake and a pinata. After the morning announcements, with the help of seven mothers we went classroom to classroom calculating and separating all of the recycling. I had made notebooks dedicated to the recycling activity with a roster from every classroom as a way to determine which kids were recycling and which kids weren't recycling. I had several classrooms with over 300 items of recycling. I also had two 6th grade girls that individually brought over 200 recycling items. The winners of our first recycling activity were 11 pre-kindergardners, whom managed to recycling 1,483 items most of which were aluminum cans. Suffice it to say they deserved their cake and pinata prizes. Their win proves that environmental awareness and a willingness to protect our environment can be taught at any age. They are Membrillo's youngest environmentalists. Another great thing about our environmental recycling event was that the Ministry of Educations environmental coordinator was able to attend, as well as a representative from an environmental NGO Oruga, and the director of environmental education from ANAM--the environmental agency of Panama. I was so glad to see that our project has the support of these agencies and their attendance proved their continued support. Shortly after we had celebrated the pre-kindergarnders victory, a local politician provided the recycling transportation to the recycling center. After all of our materials had been weighed, the grand total for the day was 43 dollars worth of recycling. I was speechless. Our next collection day is the 16th and I hope the success of this project continues.
Within the next week, the concrete floor and painting of the outdoor recycling area should be done. I will take pictures of the new and improved recycling area as soon as I have the chance.
This last week I attended a Peace Corps seminar known as Project Management and Leadership. The conference is a three day long seminar that is offered to all Peace Corps volunteers and one counterpart from our communities. I had asked the treasurer of the PTA who also happens to be the president of the reforestation group. Camilo is very honest and responsible in his work and I felt the conference would be a great opportunity for him. The seminar covers topics that we may consider simple, but for counterparts in the community its helpful to practice using a budget, an agenda, learning how to write formal presentation, solicitation, and thank you letters, and also practice speaking in public. I feel that Camilo and my working relationship will grow from this experience. I learned a number of things that I hadn't asked previously. I wasn't aware that he had only attended school until 6th grade. During the seminar Camilo mentioned a number of his values and his work ethics that I really admire. The last day of the seminar Camilo mentioned future activities that he would like my help with, one of which is hosting a formal letter writing charla for all the members of the reforestation group. He would also like to learn how to type out formal letters on a computer. He also wants to host an environmental cleaning day! I think this is going to be fun!
I hope to include more pictures in future blogs, I am just waiting for Mama Esquibel's camera to arrive in the mail.
Hasta Pronto, Sonia.
