Clever tactics with stubborn teenagers!

One of my biggest challenges while working at the school here has been trying to connect with the students from the afternoon turn,  7th to 9th grade. They are extremely timid and embarrassed of just about everything. I understand that this may just be a phase that they are going through as teenagers, but honestly I have never witnessed this to such an extent., I have spoken to their teachers and they all agree that it is extremely difficult to get a word out of them. When alone they are apparently little chatter boxes, but when an "authority figure" is speaking to them they just all giggle.  I have tried many times to have a conversation with them. I have approached them from many angles trying to get some answers out of them, and I didn't see too many results, until this week that is.  Although my strategy worked,  I think that what I really need to do is just spend more time with these students in the classroom when I get back from training in September so that they become more accustomed to me and more comfortable around me. 

Last week I had a meeting with the group of Recycling Representatives that I recently formed. The meeting of course was challenging. It is so important that they participate and share their opinion, but they just don't seem used to doing that. I prepared a big poster ahead of the meeting with 7 reasons for recycling. During the meeting I attempted to create a list together with them . However even the double chocolate chip cookies that I baked for them weren't enough to get more than 2 ideas out off them. After a good effort of asking them questions that would make them think and slowly lead them to new ideas,  I showed them my poster and we went over it.  I thank asked them to give me a reason why not to recycle. They couldn't think of any besides laziness. Not a reason at all!

I then informed them that  I wanted them to all get up in front of their classes that afternoon and make a quick announcement about the next recycling day that was coming up. When I asked them to do this, the faces were priceless. It wasn't going to happen.  Or so that's what they thought. After a little practice of what they could say I informed them that I would be going to each class to make the announcements with them. Together we would present the poster to each class and go over all the benefits of recycling. And that is exactly what was done. After presenting the reasons for why they should recycle I explained to the students that with  so many reasons to recycle and no real reasons not to recycle I expect them all to bring in items the upcoming recycling day, quantity doesn't matter, just whatever they have at their house and are about to burn instead. And if they do not bring in items they need to bring in a reason written out. So this week it was "Reciclaje o un razon", Recycling or a Reason.

No surprise at all, none of them brought reasons. However, participation increased by nearly 400%! The week before only 11 students participated this week 67!  It was so rewarding to see the jump in participation. And all the students were so excited to turn in their recycling! Fingers crossed that it will continue this upcoming Monday, final recycling day of the trimester. Unfortunately I won't be there to see it but that's because my parents are arriving to Panama this Saturday! I am so excited to see them, and to show them my life here. It will be their first time traveling outside of the USA and Poland, so it will be fun to see how they react to everything! I am sure I will have some good stories and photos to share, so be on the look out!

Time for me to take a break from a crazy busy week, my 20 page report all in Spanish, and my house which keeps breaking down on me. Vaca here I come! Well deserved vacation for me and my very hard working parents! I hope they enjoy everything I have planned for us!

Building Bridges

Settling into my new house had definitely consumed a lot of my time the first week and a half. From scrubbing the whole place clean to getting a bed, to getting the parts that were apparently missing from the bed I had bought, to fixing the leaking kitchen sink, and hunting down the rat that apparently has been living in the house while it wasn't occupied, it really has kept me busy. 

The rat turned out to be a little mouse with a big appetite. We discovered that it has been storing all the fruit and candy that it found in the bottom part of my oven. My neighbors said its saving up to make a pinata for its party. Bahaha! Hopefully not for its house warming party. This is my house little guy! Luckily I didn't bake anything these past few days. That would have been a disaster. Lucky little guy, escaped again. Today however I bought a mouse trap, but I really don't know if I will use it. Ah, why must I find disease ridden mice so cute. :( Bye bye my furry little friend. 

However, besides just settling in I have been up to quite a few interesting things this past week and a half. Last week I had the chance to personally sit down with the principal of the biggest elementary school in Penonome, the city nearest my community, and advise them on a recycling program. The school was interested in starting a recycling program because of the large quantity of milk cartons that they dump out every week.  Since I have a recycling program here at my school  I was asked to go and share the experience of our school with them and give them some suggestions. Well not quite, especially since every school and community is so different that there are a whole variety of factors that need to be considered and I have only worked at one. However the important and very exciting thing is that they now have a plan and strategy and will soon be starting their  own program.  That means about 6000 milk cartons less going to the landfill every week! Woohoo! One school at a time we can change this whole city, region and then country! Well somebody can.

I have come to realize this past week that one thing that I will struggle with most during my service is really just sticking to working only in my community. When opportunities like this come up it is very difficult to refuse to help. Especially when I know that they are working towards the same goal. More so, I know that work outside of my community will indirectly and sometimes even directly benefit my community. This experience was a perfect example of that. This meeting with the principal was also attended by a man who works for the mayors office. I believe that hes is the director of trash management. Unfortunately I am not certain but I will find out soon. After this meeting he was so enthusiastic to work together. Apparently if I ever need buses for a field trip with my students (Which I do!) he and the office will provide them. And better yet, he wants to organize a recycling fair with me for the whole province. Well this was a joint idea, and we both have the same venue in mind too. Like I said, sticking to my community will be difficult, especially considering that networking is crucial to reaching any sort of success in this country.  At least that's what I can tell from my experience thus far. Meeting new people and developing strong professional relationships with them is a way of forming some of the strongest bridges between them, a wonderful resource and the communities. Luckily its a pretty small country, and lucky me these first three months I have had the chance to meet lots of influential people, and they seem to be the ones constantly reaching out to me! Hopefully my luck doesn't change any time in the next to years because I really look forward to working with all of these agencies and organizations.

I also attended a meeting about a Medical gira (tour) that we will be holding here in my community in just a few weeks, well more like days now. Coincidentally it is the same man working for the mayor that is coordinating this event between the group from United States and our community. As I said earlier, building bridges, or strong relationships, is crucial for achieving things here! There will be a group of doctors and nurses coming from the United States to provide basic medical services and a pharmacy. They expect a thousand people to attend in 2 days! This is an absolutely fantastic opportunity for the members of this community and those of surrounding communities. Although many families here do take their children to the hospital with the first sneeze (I personally was not expecting this) some families still neglect to receive the appropriate medical attention. Especially when it comes to adults. Although we do have a nice asphalt road, which is a leap from the effort that was required to leave the town in the past, there are still many people that lack financial resources, education about preventative care, and honestly sometimes just the willingness to leave their house and especially the community. Although some women are extremely active inside and outside of the community, some women leave the house less then once a month. However with these wonderful services right here in our town, this will be an opportunity that will hopefully be very difficult to pass up. I have spoken to my host family grandparents that live out pretty far from the center of town, and even they plan on walking to the health center to attend this gira. I have been very persistent about promoting it. Word of mouth is a powerful tool int his community. Supposedly during the event itself I will be working as a translator. Time to brush up on my Spanish medical terminology!

In addition to building bridges with all of these agencies and organizations we will now officially be building a 100 ft bridge in my town next April!  About 2 months ago a gentleman walked into our school grounds and started to chat with me. He is the country director of Bridges to Prosperity in Panama. He was looking for communities that may need a bridge that will empower the community members by making it easier for them to cross a point that at this point becomes quite problematic and impedes their ability to participate in important activities such as education. Our community happens to have a spot like this. Well it has many spots like this. But it has one that is crossed by about a thousand people daily. This not only qualified us but also ultimately won us the opportunity. From what I know about 20 community were in the running and and only 5 will have the opportunity to go through the process and build the bridge. Two days ago I and the man who originally ran into the director in Penonome and brought him to our community, held a meeting with the community. We welcomed the director and his team of engineers and introduced the project as well as what the role of the community members will be.

 They all seem to be very excited about this opportunity, and said that they will definitely be willing to give up a week of their time to each to work on the bridge, to have a good bridge for the community for years to come.  I am in total agreement. Although construction will take about 2 months and they will have to put in some time working I think it is a great long term investment. Currently the bridge their is this narrow and very muddy bridge on which people have slipped and fell, sometimes even down into the river.

I am very happy that this problem will be getting resolved. Now I just have to make sure that we have a good committee and that will make sure we have an organized system of obtaining the necessary natural materials and later of managing the work schedule, but that is still a ways away. 

So as always, I have been busy, but in a very positive and productive way. But in just two and a half weeks my parents will be here to visit me for a week and I will definitely be ready to relax a bit! I am very excited to see them! I cannot believe it has already been 6 months, time flies by, even in Panama. I miss you all back home! I hope all is going well and you are all enjoying the last few weeks of summer! Special shout out to Danny's mom! Thank you for reading my blog!

Hasta pronto!

Never alone

Human beings, the most horrible and cruel species alive, some would argue. I remember my senior year of college I took courses such as "Political Violence" and "Terrorism" among others. That semester was a rough one for me. I am usually a very happy person, ambitious, always wanting to go out there and get to know new people around the world because I believe in the good of people. That semester however I began to lose hope when it came to humanity. No other species kills as many of its own kind without true reason like 

Fortunately, I joined the Peace Corps. Have I "changed lives" yet? I'm not sure. Probably not in any very significant yet. However, I can already say that my perspective of the world is definitely being influenced. As for these horrible human beings,  fortunately that is only one side of them. In addition to the selfish and cruel, there are also the altruistic, caring people with incredibly good hearts. Many of which I have met here in my community. I have now been living in my own house for a week. This is first time living all on my own. But honestly, I am far from being all on my own and alone. Like always I have received an unimaginable amount of support from incredible individuals.

Last week Wednesday was the day I decided to clean out the whole house since I wanted to move in on Thursday. Of course shortly after arriving to my house my next door neighbor, Juan and his wonderful wife, Chela, and daughter, Astrid were by my side helping me along with Chela's two sisters. Before I knew it my fridge and oven, and shelving units were all outside getting scrubbed. Then we received another wonderful addition to the wonderful team, Omar, 11 year old. Son of Maribel, oldest daughter of my first host mom. Carrying out the shelving units with only one hand he couldn't help but to get that little smile on his face that he always gets when he is proud of himself.

 He truly is one of the sweetest and most helpful young boys that I have ever met. Never once have I heard him complain. With his dad working in Panama city, and only home once a month (theoretically, I have never seen him) and him being the oldest son, I think he feels like he needs to be the man of the house. And he does a fantastic job at it. Once the furniture was out, the kids found to brooms and started sweeping away, I in the meantime wiping everything clean of different insect eggs and insect and gecko poop. We were done in under 2 hours. I then continued to go through some old things and of course before long Maribel showed up with her other son. They went through and dusted every single book one by one. There were about 100. Unfortunately the only thing I had to offer to all my wonderful helpers was some horchata. Refreshing, but no where near what they deserved. Maribel then headed out with her kids because I was about to leave the house to go to the nearest city, Penonome, to by myself a bed and mattress, but before I had a chance to walk out my door, Astrid was climbing the hill to my house with a bowl of soup in her hands. Her parents knew that I didn't have anything to eat in my my house yet, so they sent her with lunch for me. Amazing.

Children helping me wash the leaves of my plant that was covered in dust!

A few hours later I owned a bed frame and a mattress. Now for the hard part getting it back to my community. Of course, another wonderful man from my community was more than willing to help me get it back to site. He strapped the mattress on top of his pick up truck and stuck the bed frame inside and we were on our way. When we arrived to my house as soon as Juan heard the car pull up, he was there with his family to help me get everything inside. I didn't need to ask or anything.

The next day they helped me put the bed together, which was very easy at first, and then the last tiniest part just wouldn't work. And that's because we figured out that 3 little parts were missing. Of course. But no worries I went back to the store and was able to get the parts without having to exchange the whole bed. Now I am very very happily sleeping on my comfy mattress and pillow. Good sleep = happy me. 

To ensure that I am never lonely (and to draw to their hearts content) Astrid and Omar are always over at my place. I was in Panama for the weekend, but my first day back, of course they came over. I had a long day at the school because it was one of our big recycling days and unfortunately I didn't have too many helpers. I was so excited to finally get home and take a nice long nap. Of course as I walked into my house the two little munchkins appeared. "Can we draw?" Of course you can draw! They found all the crayons, color pencils, and markers on their own. Then, I'm not sure how this even happened but they had the got the brilliant idea that they wanted me to make a cake for them... yup, there went my nap. But it was well worth it. We had a wonderful time baking brownies together. And while they were in the oven we explored my very large yard, and got some mangoes from the mango trees, and even cleaned my vegetable garden of all the weeds that grew while I wasn't living there.

Also discovered that my black beans were almost ready to pick! Super excited! After all that hard work the kids were more than ready for some brownie! They enjoyed it. Only problem was that apparently  next time I should make even more. With their stomachs content they finally got to drawing.  I now have some wonderful drawings of Panamanian landscapes that I will have to post on my wall! 

I must admit that with such wonderful neighbors close by, my house is already feeling like home sweet home. Yes, I want to put a fresh coat of paint on some walls and buy a table for my house. But honestly those things are far from what will truly make me feel happy and at home. It is the people that stop by to say hello, the children that love to make sure hat I have no time to myself, hehe, and the young couple that always always make sure that I am alright, that make me feel at home. Of course spending the evening at their place watching my favorite telenovela (soap opera) and chatting about all sorts of things helps too. Last time I was their, Juan told me how they really are happy that I am living next door and that they will definitely take care of me, because they are very fond of me. Any drunks bothering me me, and light bulb that I need to change, they are just a yell away. And so far they really have been. From the time that I didn't know how to connect my gas tank to my oven, the the time I managed to luck myself out of my bedroom already, they have always come the rescue. I think I need to back them a delicious huge cake some time very very soon!