Hello blog readers,
I was recently on a radio show here in Panama known as the
Breakfast Show with Gerry D and Sandra Snyder and I happened to share this blog
address on the air.
http://www.pbcpanama.com/index.php/this-week/friday
The full show will only be available until this Friday, August 30th
on their website.
For those of you that
were interested enough in Peace Corps Panama to find this address, welcome—I am
glad that I could spark some interest in volunteer work in Panama and with the
Peace Corps. To family and friends that continue to read this blog I need to
share my current undertaking with you… I
have recently started a new Peace Corps adventure. I am still working with waste management and
Recycling in Panama, although I am starting in a new area of the country. I am currently serving as a Peace Corps
Response volunteer in Chitre, Herrera, which is 4 hours southwest of Panama
City. My position is “Response Recycling
Coordinator.” Which means that I will be working with the municipal government
and the ministry of education in a recycling pilot project to create recycling
programs in 5 local schools. I am also
hoping to work with an environmental group at the local university to educate
15 university students how to teach about waste management and recycling so
that they can reach local schools as well. I have signed on until February, but
that date can change depending on how much work needs to be done.
I just got back to Panama last Monday and today was my first day
in Chitre “on the job.” Peace Corps Response is a very interesting experience
in that it is very independent. I couldn’t imagine a job being more independent
than my work during my Peace Corps service, but it seems to be much more
independent. During my service, I was
assigned to a community, three host families, and to work-counterparts. Here in Chitre, coordinating meetings,
finding agencies, etc. is all on me. It’s a bit intimidating, hopefully I can meet
up with some other volunteers this week so they can help 'show me the ropes."
Today I was able to visit Chitre’s open dump and it’s a
disaster. The “Landfill” is full of
vultures, no lining for leachate, and no sign of improvement. I actually visited the site with the director
of municipal services and he has been working with this site for the last five
years. Under normal circumstances,
Municipal waste collection is directly correlated with a countries income. In
high-income countries, 10 percent of the municipal resources are spent in waste
collection and 80-90 percent of resources are spent with waste management
treatment. In low-income countries, it’s the opposite, with the great majority
of resources spent on waste collection and very little spent on waste management
treatment. The situation in Chitre is
bad, but the city’s dump doesn’t stand-alone; cities all over Panama including
Panama City are facing the same environmental issues. Panama City’s open dump,
Cerro Patacon has caught fire several times, most recently in the last 5
months. The government’s reaction
however is very hush-hush. No one wants to admit that waste management is a
nightmare in Panama. Immediately after the fire began in March 2013, the
Ministry of Health said that the air was very toxic. Although later that same
day the Ministry of Health retracted their previous statements and said very
little contamination would come from the fire.
Initially they were saying that the surrounding neighborhood of San
Miguelito should be evacuated and then they only recommended evacuation for
those with “compromised lungs.” Once the fire was under control, the government
proceeded to give medals and honors to those that fought the “unpredictable
blaze.” Cerro Patacon’s fire however was and will continue to be a time bomb
that the government will have to find a solution to. The same is true for
Chitre, currently though none of the representatives want to admit to the
problem let alone contribute to its solution. Vamos a ver que pasara aca en
Chitre. I have included photos of the open dump here in Chitre below:
I would also like to share about my boyfriend, Nate Arnold’s
Latrine and Reforestation project. Nate for some reason does not want to ask
friends, family, or family friends for help funding his Peace Corps Partnership
Program Grant. He is hoping to get all 7,000 dollars funded from donors that
are inspired to donate. Which is amazing and an impressive attempt to get his
project funded, but I am not sure that it will work. For funding for projects
of my own during my service I was emailing everyone that I knew through email,
phone calls, facebook, and this blog. It isn’t to say that Nate won’t get his
grant completely funded the way that he is choosing to do it, he probably can.
I just think that if he used social media—more people would be aware of his
project and more people would donate. He is currently trying to fund a daunting
7,000 dollars. Which in Panama seems like so much money, whereas in the states
7,000 dollars seems very possible.
So I am going to include the link to the Peace Corps
donation page here to try and help Nate out: https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=13-525-029
The Peace Corps is an incredible organization and I am proud
to serve again as a Peace Corps Response volunteer here in Panama. The Peace
Corps can be a challenge in that we are expected to do a lot with very little
financial resources. The Peace Corps is
made up of human resources that identify problems in their community in health,
agriculture, or the environment and dare to improve the conditions working “arm
in arm” with community members. The amount of work that Nate is attempting to
do will help 43 homes and 285 individuals, which is about 90 percent of the community.
For 100 dollars you can help provide a latrine to a family. I hope several
people are convinced to do so. I have included a photo of Nate and I, to help put a face to the name.
Hasta la proxima,
Sonia
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