Recycling, Recycling, Recycling.

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. 

You know you are a Panamanian peace corps volunteer when...

You know your a Panamanian peace corps volunteer when... 1. You are so jealous that the person next to you on the bus is eating fried chicken at 8:42 in the morning. 2. You start incorporating "thanks be to god" in daily conversations. 3. You thrill at the arrival of packages from the united states that include clothing, topatío hot sauce, girl scout thin mints, red vines, and bounce dryer sheets(!)  4. You get super excited about finding .25 cents on the ground. Or if you drop .25 cents search until you find it.  5. You travel 7 hours to hang out with friends.   6. You lose your ego and are not beyond asking for help when you need it, also referred to as "not beyond begging" for financial support for projects and accept support from sleazy local  politicians.  7. Although you didn't find Panamanians particularly attractive initially, you begin to find them attractive as more and more months pass. "So what if he doesn't have teeth?" And so what if Panamanian relationships are influenced by intense telenovelas? The peace corps Doctor Lourdes refers to these new sentiments as "jungle goggles"  8. You completely forget about holidays back home, dude I totally forgot about St. Patricks Day. Oops.  9. You eat anything, including scary looking fruit that a random man passes to you on the bus. And eat more, as he continues to hand you more... 10. Did I mention loving family members and friends so much more for taking the time to send packages?!  This list really makes me laugh. I hope others find it funny. I think humor is so important for development work. And for life. I remember asking Paul Farmer ( humanitarian that started partners in health, also Tracy Kidder wrote Mountains beyond Mountains about his work) what characteristics he thought were absolutely necessary for someone working in development work and he said patience, humility, and humor.  Success story: Saturday night I held my first community activity, a movie night at the school. The movie night was our first fundraiser for the schools recycling project. We showed Avatar! I wanted a movie with an environmental context, not realizing that i was indoctrinating my community members. If anyone has read the articles about the Ngobe indigenous protests about mining in Panama and hydroelectric construction, the parallel between the movie and Panama was actually pretty coincidental. Anyways, we raised 22 dollars! Over 65 community members attended the movie night. It was awesome. I asked both of my counterparts for their support, one of which is a teacher and works with me on the environmental committee and the other is the president of the reforestation group. It meant a lot to me that they both helped. Also my host sister collected the .25 cent entry. I am so happy that it worked out. The cable on the projector wasn't working all day and then miraculously worked Saturday night. Thank you universe. I look forward to hosting another movie night in the near future, just as soon as I am able to find the new cables for the projector.  I just finished Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, highly recommend it. The story of the extraordinary opportunities that the Beatles, Bill Gates, hockey players born in January, KIPP school, etc. We are products of parentage, patronage, and the world in which we grow up and the opportunities that that world gives us. It's super good, please read it.  This last week, I spent four days in a good friends community. Beth had been coordinating with community members to build compost latrines (also known as outhouses). In four days beth had planned on building 4 latrines. Next week she will be building 5 latrines! Essentially shes kicking ass.  Shes also coordinating with Global Brigades, which offers week trips to university students from the united states and Canada to come to Panama. During the week the students participate in projects in rural Darien. The students helped build the latrines on Wednesday and thursday while the technicians taught them to lay the bricks, pour a cement floor, seal the walls with cement, cut rebar and wood, etc. The global brigades students also all contribute 100 dollars to the community, imagine 4,500 dollars being donated to a rural community for community projects ---it's incredible. And they brought in the resources for all the latrines and were paying the technicians. Global brigades also provides communities with medical brigades, environmental brigades, and business brigades. The only bummer is at the moment they are only working in the Darien... Thats all for now,  Hasta pronto, Sonia   

Tengo Algunas Fotos de Carnivales!

Gracias Blog, 

I have been so giddy with all of the emails I have received about making donations. I need your addresses to send thank you postcards. Thank you to those that emailed me (especialmente mis primas!). I was genuinely concerned about funding for the recycling project and for the Internet stick. Last week visiting the Panamanian agencies was just so disheartening.  Randomly however the environmental agency, ANAM, dropped off five concrete sacks to my house. They apologized for only being able to provide all ten sacks but I was still pretty impressed. Transportation is still an issue. But my old supervisor mentioned to my site mate before he left that we should just begin recycling. All of it would have been burned anyways, so at least we are attempting to recycle and we are providing recycling education to the community in the mean time. I have put a lot of work into this recycling project and the invitations have been sent out for our first recycling day. Now the project is in my communities hands. My counterpart at the school, maestra Jacinta is under the impression that a lot of community members are going to participate. We shall see April 2nd...

I just want to put it out there that I love emails, fb messages, phone calls, text messages for those that are reading this feel free to send messages my way (I feel that I am better at communicating if someone initiates the conversation)

What else is new? I have begun teaching recycling education at the elementary school. I have 22 teachers to work with from pre-kinder hasta sexto grado. I have worked with 8 teachers so far, they teach 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders. The activities I have shared with them have been fun. Recycling soup was the most successful activity. We threw water bottles, soda cans, batteries, white paper, and milk cartons into "our drinking water." I asked the kids if they still wanted to drink the water. They all said "que no, que no."I explained to the group that we would be recycling all of these things this year.  And then I went into recycling definitions.  I also used 3 short recycling videos on the projector which they seemed to like. I have also started observing the science teachers in the afternoon (junior high) and I would like to start working with them next week.  

I have started doing yoga at my home and I love it. I even play the long time sunshine song at the end of my workout. I forgot how difficult yoga is. Downward facing dog is so difficult.  I am using one of Deepak Chopras videos that is absolutely amazing.  I have been trying to keep it a secret from my community though, I dont know what they would think aout it. They might think, "ugh, what is that crazy gringa doing now?". They already laugh and make fun of me enough when I go for jogs. 

I have more kids participating in my English classes every week. They are so funny. We have been working on pronunciations and sounds. Today they were learning "a man" and they all kept saying "amen." Once I have an opportunity to take a picture of them, I will. They are so cute! I have decided that their homework will always be to borrow and read three books from my book shelf. Their reading levels are really behind. And their reading skills are so much more important than their English skills. 

Panama according to a friend of mine out of 139 countries surveyed ranks 129th in terms of education. The kids copy all day long. They are not asked to think critically or creatively.  In waiting for superman, the narrator refers to great teachers as professional athletes.  I am beginning to agree with this description. Great teachers take an avid interest in their students lives, their abilities, and their goals. They are willing to come early and stay late. They keep the lectures up to date. They go out of their way to support their students. I would hope that they take an interest in the community in which they teach. They are like professional athletes. I will write more about education woes in the following blog.   

Okay ya, 

Hasta Luego, Sonia 

The ask

Blog tres, "The Ask"

Randy Pausch in the last lecture says, "just ask" because we don't lose anything by asking. (***remember, "lives of service depend on lives of support")

A number of friends and family members have all been so generous with their small donations. I am not soliciting support from those who have already donated to my small fundraisers so far. You rock my socks. I am soliciting money from those who have been holding back, who have so obviously wanted to help me out, but have been waiting for the perfect opportunity. Here it is!

I am soliciting money for this great USB stick that would allow me to use the Internet in my home! It's surprisingly cheap, however my income does not allow me to pay for it all by myself. Here's what we should do, I will pay half (because let's face it, I am so looking forward to all the skyping opportunities I will now have) and you pay for the other half which I will use to teach basic Internet classes. It's win win.

Often the artisans in my community ask me to send emails on their behalf. I would love to teach them how to use a g mail account, email documents, and photos. I recently visited a friends site and his counterpart was so casually checking his email, it made me so jealous. It's very possible to teach basic Internet skills, and it would be incredible to bring the internet to the artisans in my community.

The actually cost of the USB is 37 dollars plus tax, the compatible phone is 20 dollars with the Claro chip, and 15 additional dollars for phone cards with data. The grand total comes to 72 dollars. Anyone that is willing to help, please email me at sesquib2@gmail.com

For the last couple weeks, I have been doing the run around in search of resources. I was soliciting funds today for a field trip in July to a recycling center and you should see the stack of paper work I have to fill out. Although panama has a number of agencies with money and resources, the amount of red tape is a little overwhelming. I can see why volunteers get frustrated with agencies. The money I will be soliciting requires 2 months in order to process. Concrete sacks that I solicited two weeks ago will take another two months to process.

I visited the recycling center today and hope to create an agreement with them about transport in the near future. I feel kind of like I am applying for jobs. Running around, dressing nice, and calling to make sure they still know I am interested and committed to this recycling project. I really hope everything works out.

This is the the job, creating relationships with agencies and getting resources to our sites, and navigating the red tape.

One victory that I had this week was meeting with a local NGO that is dedicated to environmental education and recycling. Unfortunately they too are short on funding. They work with American started organizations like amigos de las Americas and sustainable harvest international. They deserve funding and it's unfortunate that they have to fight for it in a country that really needs their help. If anyone is untreated in making a donation to Oruga, I can make sure they receive the donation. We are in the struggle for environmental education together.

If anyone can help with funding for recycling, Internet, or Oruga I look forward to hearing from you. I need help. Thanks in advance. I am so lucky to have such supportive friends and family. Who knows where i would be without you? Special thanks to those that have already donated. Especially you Dad.

Blog Dos

Peace Corps disclaimer: the contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the US government or the Peace Corps.

Blog Numero Dos,

I have two followers! Alright! Thanks to my cousins and sister! In Mountains beyond mountains by Tracy Kidder written about a humanitarian named Paul Farmer, Farmer expresses his opinion about International development work, that “lives of service depend on lives of support.” I couldn’t agree more with Paul Farmers opinion. A family friend who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador a couple years ago mentioned that during my two-year service I would learn a lot about friends and family. The amount of support that friends, family, and family friends have already demonstrated has been incredible. Within a week of mentioning to my dad how useful a projector would be in my site, the projector had already been funded by friends of the family. Movies have been sent and books have been donated. I am incredibly grateful for this support. Not only have I received support from home, I have also had four visitors within the last 9 months. Volunteers have complained that after nearly two years in Panama and they are still waiting for their families to visit. I did threaten my family that if they didn’t come I would never forgive them. The last visitor, Mama Esquibel, has plans to visit some time in May, June, or July and I cannot wait. One of the greatest things about Peace Corps Panama is traveling around Panama. One of the three Peace Corps goals is sharing Panama and Panamanian culture with other Americans. How best to accomplish this goal? By traveling around Panama! Aside from Costa Rica, Panama might be the second most affluent Peace Corps country. Elena visited early last month and we visited Panama City, my community, Boquete, and Bocas del Toro. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Boquete, it is gorgeous community in the mountains of Chiriqui. While Elena and I were there the city was hosting their annual coffee and flower festival. Although there wasn’t any coffee, the flowers were beautiful. Elena and I stayed at a very nice hotel and we enjoyed sipping strawberry wine and hiking around Boquete. Bocas del Toro is a province of Panama that also is home to an archipelago of some two hundred + islands. Elena and I visited Isla Colon, which in my opinion could be re-named “Dirty Back-packers Paradise.” The island is full of very good looking (some-what dirty) 20-35 year olds from New Zealand, The UK, Argentina, Germany, China, The US, etc. Also the island is a boat ride away from a number of tours including zip-lining, snorkeling, diving, surfing, dolphin-watching, among a list of many other activities. Elena and I had a fantastic time while she was here. I hope she will return soon. Shortly after Elena left another good friend of mine, Alex Ireland stopped by Panama. Alex and I studied in Spain together over two and a half years ago and the girl visited me in Panama! I was am so happy that she managed to make her way down here. We had a great time bike riding, tanning, snorkeling, kissing sea cucumbers for seven years of good luck, dolphin watching, and going out. If anyone reading this blog has the slightest inclination to plan a trip to Panama to visit me, I would be absolutely thrilled. Panama is such a fun country to host visitors.

Cliff Notes for January:

Back to Panama

Beth’s Birthday celebration

Elena’s visit

Traveling to Boquete

Traveling to Bocas del Toro

Taco Tuesdays

Alex Ireland’s visit

Recycling Project

Orange Festival

Hiking to waterfalls

Visiting volunteers/having volunteers visit

(I wish I could comment about all of these events and maybe gradually I will get better at blogging as I go. For the time being though the cliff-notes version will have to do.)

A day in the life: (Sunday Febuary 5th) This morning I woke up and rushed to greet a group of students visiting Membrillo from a Panamanian University in Chitre. The students are all in their fourth year at the University and are currently working on what I believe is the equivalent to a teaching certificate for environmental science. The reforestation group that I work with in La Mina hosted all of the students today. The environmental agency in Panama, ANAM, provided this group of students with transportation. My group led the students on a tour of la Mina and even carved some soap stone figurines for the visitors. After the tour we listened to a presentation that the students had prepared for community members and elementary kids. The group left shortly after 1 pm. I was so impressed by my group today. The “convenio” was a success.

At 2 pm I had to visit Senor Candido who had promised he would teach me how to sew a flower made of a fiber plant. Senor Candido shared with me today that he has 45 grandchildren! How crazy is that? They took a number of pictures that I will upload for this blog. I really wanted to take Senor Candido up on his offer because everyone in my community is an artist. It would be nice to be one of them. He taught me a little today and he told me to go back next Sunday for another lesson. Eventually I will make a mobile, something that resembles chimes back home. Maybe I will send it home when I finish it to add to my Dad’s collection. haha.

Quotes from A Path with Heart that made me smile this week:

“I am a twin, and sometimes I think I got my brother to come along so I could have some company.”

“What we need is a cup of understanding, a barrel or love, and an ocean of patience.”

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

“This life is only a test--it is only a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received further instructions on where to go and what to do. Remember, this life is only a test.”

A very funny reality here: I remember when I was in junior high and some kids excuses about not doing their homework was that the "dog had eaten their homework." the other day I found my CEC binder completely destroyed by termites! If one of the kids uses that excuse next semester, I will probably believe them because it is totally possible!

(update for today) I just visited the ANAM regional office just to ask for a couple environmental guides for the new school year. The Director in charge of the environmental office was there and gave me so much stuff! I walked out of the office smiling and giggling. I now have environmental guides for grades k-6th graders, recycling guides, environmental posters, puzzles, and coloring books. I also asked about the new floor the recycling area could use and she told me just to send a letter and she would manage to get the 8 concrete sacks that we need. I love how by just asking I now get to tow all of these amazing educational resources back to Membrillo!!!! Wooh!!!!!!! I seriously can’t stop smiling. Best morning ever!

  To write well, you have to write what you know. This is what I know, I am 9 months into my Peace Corps service in Panama and I am loving it. I feel a little guilty about starting my blog now, but it's better late than never.  I am a CEC volunteer, community environmental conservation "extension worker." Which is a fancy way of saying that I teach environmental science to anyone who will listen to me. So far, I have taught kindergardeners, first graders, fourth graders, and fifth graders about photosynthesis, technology, endangered animals, recycling, reusing, the solar system( because of teacher requests), and more. We have also watched several planet earth episodes, apollo 13, and avatar (which the kids loved). After my first three months in site, I held a community meeting and based on my analysis and community members feedback my community members would like my help with home gardens and compost projects, a reforestation project, environmental education for adults, and a better way to deal with trash. My job over the next year and a half will include environmental education at the school and encouraging community based environmental projects.  Ohh, and whatever else is asked of me---which can be the most random things, I will provide more of an explanation about this in future blogs.

  A brief teaching story, I had received 50 scholastic Spanish books from the US embassy and I was reading to a class of kindergardeners about a baby polar bear at a zoo in Germany that a veterinarian had nursed through it's first year.  This one very funny kid, Gabriel, kept interrupting with his own story about some drunk that had passed out on his porch the night before. Suffice it to say after listening to Gabriel's  funny/gossip story, we finally got back to "Knuts", the baby polar bears story.  Last week, while I was visiting Bocas del Toro, my sister Elena and I went on a snorkeling trip with two Germans and I was telling them how I had used Knut's story with the kindergardeners and they loved to hear that a German zoo story had made it all the way to panama and was included  in my kindergardeners environmental science class.

  At the moment, panama's schools are on summer vacation. And my reforestation group is relaxing over the summer as well. Which means I have a lot of free time. I recently read a book called "Mighty be our Powers" written by Lehmah, a Liberian peacemaker who started a huge women's movement in Liberia. The book was published in 2011 and I highly recommend it.

  I am currently reading A Path with Heart by Jack Cornfield, a Buddhist monk that encourages meditation and finding your own spiritual path. here are some messages of his that I have highlighted so far,

One great teacher explained it this way, "the trouble with you is that you think you have time. We don't know how much time we have.  What would it be like to live with the knowledge that this may be our last year, last week, last day?In light of this question, we can choose a path with heart. " -Jack Cornfield.

"The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another, when we are there in the most attentive or caring way.  Mother Teresa put it in this way, 'In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love'."  - Jack Cornfield.

My intent for this blog is to share my experience with family and friends back home. I hope to keep it light and funny. I must warn you all that I have developed a darker sense of humor so if I start to share too many dark stories or jokes, please call me out.  I also hope to write often enough that you all won't be begging for an update months from now.  This will hopefully become an artistic outlet for me, as improvisational performances used to be in college.   

I may get carried away with my concerns about development, such as positionality in the Peace Corps.  Feel free to share any comments.

Also I will probably write in Spanglish.

Bueno pues, hasta pronto,

Sonia