Recycled Elephants

Just some quick photos from the Trash Seminar that Brandon and I mentioned in our last blog entry. We had some great opportunities to visit with some schools that were working hard to teach their students about the importance of using recyclable materials to make unique art projects and gifts. So here goes:

One of the school teachers showing me how to make a 'pollera' or traditional head-piece (more on that in another blog) out of recycled plastic bottles.

Teacher and I with finished product.

Here's a close-up example of a finished product and the bottle that it was made out of.

A recycled clothes-softener bottle, transformed into an elephant.

A paper mache vase holding paper flowers.

Some other Recycled projects... this bus was made out of a broken-down toy and a cardboard milk box.

At one of the schools there was a large fair and a competition to see who could be the most creative in coming up with a recycled outfit.... the girl's dress above is made out of hand-sewed newspapers (!.. check out her shoes too)

Check out this stud!

Her skirt was made up entirely of pre-paid phone cards- sewn together.

And this little girl's dress had bottle caps fastened all over it.

Red, Orange, Yell-ow, Green, Blue, Pur-ple...

This past week, Brandon and I began teaching English to seventeen 1st through 6th grade students. Seventeen 1st-6th graders who have had no formal English training, now walk (or skip) through the 'streets' of our small town singing the pre-school song about colors in english. Don't get me wrong, they don't actually pronounce all of the consonants (or vowels for that matter) but they definetly have the tune down. For those of you who are not familiar with this particular song (those unfortunates, like Brandon, who were cheated out of a pre-school classic) it goes like this:

"Red, orange, yell-ow, green, blue, pur-ple
Red, orange, yell-ow, green, blue, pur-ple
Red, orange, yell-ow, green, blue, pur-ple,
Makes the rainbow bright!"

It has been great to see some actual progress in our community this past month. Brandon and I had been working the first part of September preparing for a trash seminar where we learned some new techniques for helping our community start a trash and recycling program. We are hoping that we will be able to work with individual families in our community to start separating their organics from their inorganics so that we will be able to start compost piles as well as a recycling program where non-biodigradeable products will (hopefully) be sold to outside parties. This is more of a lifestyle change and mentality change, and we know that it will take a while to catch on with some people, so we are hoping that poco a poco (little by little) we will eventually have the entire community separating their trash. Right now the only trash system in town is to pour all of the garbage into a small garbage pit at the back edge of town- much like we do in our city dumps. This will be filling up quite quickly with the increase in tourists (which will be coming in a few years) and also with the over-use of plastics and non-renewables. The goal would be to reduce the amount of garbage that actually needs to be put into the landfill, thereby extending its life, while at the same time providing a small incentive for people to separate their plastics, tin, aluminum, glass etc. through the resale of their recyclables. This program would also provide a great organic fertilizer/compost that could be used in the home gardens that (cross your fingers) will be catching on soon.

We then spent the last part of the month preparing for a 'site visit' from our APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director, Aka: Boss) Francisco. His visit came the first week of October, and the intent was to gather the community together for a 'reunion' or meeting and go over what Brandon and I had learned about the community so far, what they thought our purpose in the community was, based on what we had talked to them about over the past several months, and also about what our work may be during the coming two years (a year and nine months actually!). We had been working dilligently the previous 3 months to collect information for this meeting, as well as to help us understand how the community functions, who its dominant/leading members are, the social system, health care, basically everything about how the community functions and its history. So during the end of September we were kept quite busy putting all of our found-information up on posters (the usual form of presentation here), in spanish, for all of our community members to paruse during our meeting. All in all, we ended up with over 20 posters (with full-text spanish), including a 3'x4' hand-drawn community map- to us it seemed like a 300-level final project for a spanish class. The night before the meeting I was kept busy making homemade oatmeal raisin cookies, one tray of 9 by tray of 9 as most of the ovens here are quite small and no one has a baking sheet to speak of. (It ended up taking me 8 hours to bake 150 cookies inside of a medium-sized cake pan.)

When the day finally came, everything was set up an hour or two ahead of time, but we didn't end up starting until about a half-hour late (this is actually quite punctual in terms of Panamanian time- or so we've heard.) Our boss gave a good speech to the 'crowd' of 17 people that attended (also good attendance for a town of about 60 adults), informing them of what Peace Corps is, what the Peace Corps mission is, why we were placed in this particular community, and what we would possibly be working on in the upcoming time. Group participation was decent as we asked for questions or comments, but all-in-all we were quite pleased with the people that came, the information that was provided (and hopefully retained), and the thought that people in town have a more clear understanding of why we are there (and it's not just to teach english!)

We then spent the night in town, only to leave the next morning to go to a regional meeting, where all of the PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers) in our region (kind of like a county in the states) get together to discuss what's been going on, go over office news, and things of that nature- mostly pretty boring stuff, but this time we actually found out about a great book exchange for children's spanish books through our office. Brandon and I had been thinking about a way to spend time reading with the kids as most of them don't read outside of what is required in school, and they don't have access to any children's books or literature, so we had been thinking about just purchasing some spanish-language children's books to have in town to read with the kids- like an after-school reading program. Well we found out that there have actually been a few donations from people state-side to start a lending library here in Panama for children through the Peace Corps office. We will now be able to check out a bag of books every 3 months to take back to our community and use in any way we choose. After three months, you return the bag and can check out another one. Brandon and I are really excited about this as we can use the books any way we choose within our community. We have decided that we will be starting (or try to start, depending on community interest) an after-school program where the children will sign up for a time to come and read with us in our home for an hour or so, one night a week. We will try and help them with their homework, practice their english, or they can choose to read with us one of the new childrens books that we will have in our house. It will be kind of like a 'Book-It' club, where after 10 or 15 (yet tbd) completed 'meetings' or 'sessions' they will be rewarded with an american-style dinner with us in our house. We figured that it would be a good way to get to know the kids a bit better, to help them to learn more outside of the classroom, to hopefully cultivate an interest in reading and knowledge, and to also share some of our american culture with them through a meal. It all seems great on paper, but we will see how it goes in practice- we are hoping to start in the coming weeks after we get settled into our house.

Yes! We have a house! Isn't it exciting!? We finally, after living with relatives, friends, and host families in the states and in Panama since APRIL, we finally have our own space (well technically we aren't living there yet, but will be, hopefully, by the end of this week.) We have taken the only house that is currently available for rent in town- smack-dab-in-the-middle of everything. We have neighbors on all sides, and are inbetween very frequently used trafic paths (foot trafic, as there are no vehicles in town)- but the house is great. This past week we have spent about 8 hours a day, every day, scrubbing 10 years of neglect and mold (and a bit of crumbling paint) off of the walls and floors, and finally started painting this past Thursday and Friday. We will have 3 (!!!) bedrooms, a bathroom (sans sink), a kitchen (sans refrigerator), a living room and a small porch at the front. (We will make sure to take pictures for the next blog-entry.) The outside of the house is a schmorgasboard of colors including green, red-orange and purple. The inside however, will be all white (it is currently a mix of dark blue, green and pink- all crumbling off the walls) with blue and green trim. At first we were pretty disgusted by the interior as it has been neglected for quite a while, but after a good couple of days of hard work, it seems quite liveable and we are really excited to actually have our own home.

The coming months will be quite busy for us as well-the end of this month we will be heading out to Isla Grande in the Azuero for a Sea Turtle Seminar provided by an environmental agency here in Panama. Then Halloween is right around the corner, and the most major of all Panamanian holidays- their independence days and flag day, the 3rd, 4th and 5th of November (and lets not forget Brandon's Birthday!). Then several weeks will pass and we will have another training- IST (In-Service Training) with Peace Corps where we will hopefully be learning new techniques for working with our communities and in-country agencies. The day after IST ends is Thanksgiving, and we will be headed to the western side of the country to get together with other PCV's in Panama for an american-style Thanksgiving, complete with hiking a volcano and making diner together in a hotel. Then the Saturday after Thanksgiving my sister will be coming (yay Courtney!) and will be staying with us for a couple of weeks. Then before you know it, Christmas will be here! This year already seems to be over, but we haven't even made it to Halloween yet. We hope that all of you are not feeling the end-of-year pressure yet, and that you have a wonderful rest-of-October. We miss you all, and as always, want to leave you with this message: Write to us!!! Or better yet- come visit.

Love and hugs,

Ashley and Brandon

And So It Is . . .

Hello to all! This blog and the one following mark the end of our almost first five months in Panama, the end of our first two months in our community and the beginning of our next twenty-two months as Peace Corps volunteers. Time seems to grind on here in Panama, and as our first months here have been reserved for getting to know our neighbors and the functioning of our community, most of our time here so far has been spent awkwardly trying to think of something to say or ask that won't come off as interrogating in our still rough-around-the-edges Spanish. To add to the awkwardness, most people here are quite comfortable sitting in silence with you for long periods of time, leaving you to wonder if they are just comfortable with you there, or waiting for you to leave. We have actually met and been welcomed by almost everyone in our community- being invited into homes when we walk by, or even feeling comfortable enough to simply walk into someone else's home (as is the general custom here.) Most everyone by now knows who we are, that we are here as volunteers with Peace Corps (and not long-term tourists), and that we will be sharing the next two years of our lives with them- though this last part is still being digested by them (and us). As for our role here in the community, it is still being worked out. Many people, while seeming to understand that we were sent here to work in Environmental Conservation, still have really only voiced interest in learning English. At the same time, we have been participating in a number of activities that lie outside of our environmental conservation scope that will need our attention- the major ones being the local water supply and the local education system. To start, our local water supply is irregular- to say the least. Since we have been here it has come and gone frequently, (with the rains, and not for reasons you may think) and is usually rust-colored or just plain brown. Brandon was able several weeks ago to walk the 2 hour jungle trek to the local water source- a small cascade of water that is diverted into a concrete box, that comes out the other side through PVC tubing that winds 11 times over streams, barely being propped up enough to clear the regular flow of water. After a hard rain, (which happens frequently here) the streams quickly fill with run-off water and debris- rising above the level at which the PVC tubes are suspended and putting enormous pressure on the joints until the piping gives way and breaks open. Thus leaving the town's water supply to join the already strong stream, and requiring someone to walk out through the now very muddy jungle to repair the line. When the water is flowing freely through this obstacle course of PVC tubes, it ends up being pumped into a filter (a large cement holding tank with a filter of sand and rocks) that is situated on a hill next to town, and then by gravity it is pushed into people's homes. The whole system is full of deficiencies, and problems arise quite frequently- leaving people in town to go to a nearby stream or river to bathe and wash clothes and dishes. Last week Brandon and I had the opportunity to observe in the school, a small building where the 17 students all gathered into one room, 1st through 6Th grade and had class for several hours. The students here are taught to memorize things, and in general are not taught to critically think. We are hoping we can somehow help with this situation. Other issues in town include a trash problem, (many people litter and burn garbage outside their homes) sea turtle problem, (many people kill the sea turtles for their meat and decorative shells and also steal their eggs for food) and poor diets (many people live on staples of rice, plantains, green bananas and other starchy vegetables with little protein and usually no nutrient-rich veggies). Brandon and I have been slowly figuring out ways to start our work (in its conventional context) here, and decided to go ahead and start a vegetable garden. While the garden is for our own vegetable production, we thought that it would be a good way to spark the community's interest in home gardens *(as to supplement their poor diets and possibly to sell for additional income). So last week we started our first home garden together. Coming from the Midwest, we realized that growing vegetables here would be a lot more work (as the ground is a mixture of sand and clay- very little organic matter), but didn't realize how much! We decided to use a double-dig garden bed technique, digging 2' deep into the ground to aerate the soil for better root production, adding organic matter to the soil (in our case 'balo' tree leaves, which contain an abundance of nitrogen and chopped up platano tree trunks, which contain an abundance of potassium) as you go. In one day we had dug a 12' long by 4' wide by 2' deep hole into the hard-packed clay ground (which had also been a trash heap in the past, and was filled with half-burned garbage) working 8 solid hours in the Panamanian heat. It was definitely rough work, but we had a great response from the community, with people stopping-by to see what we were up to and why- it was *and has continued to be* a great teaching tool. We still have a long way to go, as we have 2-3 more beds to dig, a fence to put up,shade-providing roofs to construct, plants to sow, and a compost pile to start, but we are definitely looking forward to it. We are now in a transition phase from being students and observers, learning about the history of where we are and the people who live here, to becoming teachers and demonstrators- showing what abundance can be head with little resources and some hard work. It is a difficult line to cross as we are continually defining our own jobs and status in the community, but our little garden has helped to make that transition a bit smother. This upcoming month will see the end of our host family stay, as we have been looking for a house. While our host family has been more than generous to us, after 5 months of living with families we are ready to move into our own home. There are several options available to us at the moment (which is amazing for a town of 40 buildings) , all of which have plenty of space for guests... We will be making a final decision on one of the homes in the next several weeks and hopefully be moved-in by the beginning of October! We hope that all is well with everyone and we hope to hear from you soon. Love and hugs from Panama. Ashley and Brandon.