Side Projects

I wanted to take some time and write about some side projects I´ve been working on aside from Playa Balsa´s aqueduct.


Sex Ed:
The nearest volunteer to me lives only 20 minutes away in Cayo Paloma where all the kids from 3 communities (including my own) go to school for preschool to 9th grade. Then it´s off to Kusapin, a two hour walk each way, for those seeking to graduate.
Throughout my year here it has been quite obvious that kids become sexually active early and simply rely on the pullout method. While birth rates alone show that this “family planning method” is not working, babies are popping out left and right, often against the mother´s desire, the newest threat is AIDS brought over from Bocas del Toro. About six months ago a girl died of AIDS in a nearby community and it was decided by the locals that it was because she ate pork. Thus, the need for sex ed was very apparent.

Mary Beth (the nearby volunteer) and I decided to go after the youngest possible age we thought we could get away with and thus chose 7th grade. We did 5 classes in total beginning with self-esteem and decision making lectures. One of my favorite activities was taken from Ashland Oregon´s Fresh Start program that I had participated and facilitated in High School. We split into small groups and each wrote a complement on a card for each member for the group, read them aloud, and then bundled them together with string. We then moved on to STIs, HIV/AIDS, and finally family planning, culminating with a condom demonstration on small bananas called buchu. I was extremely impressed by the kids maturity throughout the couse and was surprised but delighted by their excitement each day we arrived for class. Sadly, birth control including condoms are rarely accessible out here (the health center has been without any form of medicine, including birth control and condoms for 7 months now. So my hope remains in the decision making skills of these youngens. While with the previous generation many women got pregnant as early as 14, the average age seems to be more like 17 or 18 these days. Though girls still remain behind boys slightly in education level, they are catching up, leaving room for hope for the current generation.

Aside from that every Saturday I have been giving English lessons and playing games with the youngest kids in the community (4 to 11). The English is a bit of a joke given that many are just learning to read and write, but I quickly moved into more dynamic lesson plans which helps immensely. More than anything however, the kids come for the games. Duck duck goose, capture the flag, playa mar, tiger-hombre-rifle, etc. I began this tradition to justify kicking the loads of kids off my porch now and again so I wouldn´t feel so bad, but I´ve grown extremely fond of this weekly activity and the kids remain a vital element to my mental health. They always have so much energy and enthusiasm for life. They remain positive even in the most dire moments of poverty, and are all around an inspiration. Having said that, I tire quickly and certainly leave the two hour class beat.

Finally, I have been working with two other volunteers to finish a project financially supported by an Eco Tourism resort near Bocas. Much of the project has been simply damage control from some volunteers before my time. While the composting latrine built for tourists was done perfectly (although the community wouldn´t be caught dead using it) the source capture was built on top of gravel and the water quickly eroded under it. So Audrey, Luis, and I started by fixing the source capture, hooked up a 500 gallon tank and surveyed the 11 houses that could possibly benefit from the system. I then designed the aqueduct system (which will sadly only benefit 10 of the 11 houses given the height of one of the homes), sent the list of materials to the Eco Tourism Resort, and will soon be moving into construction phase of that project. Meanwhile, with Audrey´s replacement volunteer, Eric, I hope to push watershed and system management and maintenance education. I hope that Eric and I can finish the project up so it passes through no more PCVs hands and gets water to the community as soon as possible. Plus, it appears to be the perfect time filler until my PCPP funds come in to begin Playa Balsa´s system.

Oh yeah, and teaching English to the 7th, 8th, and 9th grade teachers in Cayo Paloma once a week.