February 24th, 2015
"Integration"
Thinking back just 3 months ago, I never would have thought I would have so much going on, know so much of the community, and truly feel so well integrated. Peace Corps has what they call the PC experience cycle --or something like that-- that says as you go through the Peace Corps experience, you will experience peaks of happiness and integration and then valleys of loneliness and isolation, even failure. Fortunately, I can pretty proudly say that I am definitely in a peak at the moment, having practically too much to do, really cherishing the down time and looking forward to having a morning free where I can just lounge around the house instead to having to go talk in Spanish to someone. I still have trouble identifying the moment this community came around and realized that I had at least a little to offer them but between the new ADI, the benches and the basketball court rapidly approaching, this community (at least the same 30 people) cannot stop seeking me out to talk about something or other everyday. What's great for me is to see these 30 people finally come together and realize that as a group they can truly achieve so much more. I have said to at least 5 different people this past two weeks that the "only thing this community lacks is organization" and honestly, it is finally coming together, with more and more people showing up to meetings, new voices being added to the discussion (for better and for worse) and new committees and groups finding new support within their own community.
Courts for Kids
We have been finally working as a community to get this project completed and it is really incredible the amount of support I have found here, from the cooperativa (...) to the ADI and all the other community committees. We had a visit from CFK this past week to see the sleeping arrangements, the court location and prove that our community is committed and able to complete the court. To prove that we are able to meet our financial obligations, we decided to have a meeting to plan the event needed to collect the rest of the funds. We invited a bunch of different committees, teachers, moms and dads, and most importantly, wealthier cattle farmers we hope to secure donations from. Well all went well except only one cattle farmer showed up and we didn't secure any concrete donations but did receive a "whatever you need, i'll help" from one farmer. So although we didn't get any donations it was the first real community conversation about the court and it went really well. The diverse representation and willingness of all those that showed up really lead to a great discussion (way off topic at times) and commitments from all those present to reach out to whomever they can to find some sort of donation. The past 10 days have been full of writing donation letters to the local government, local businesses, and banana and pineapple plantations...honestly I have written so many letters this past week with so many different people it would have been enough work to make me happy for the entire first three months. We have already secured a donation from the municipality to level the land ($200.00 saved!) and are really hopeful for more donations of materials and transportation. However, the Tortuguero trip I had been planning for them at the end of the trip may need to be scraped because it has proved to be far too expensive and complicated to transport a group of 25+ gringos from here to Tortuguero. Other than that, only good things to report and very optimistic that we can find enough donations and raise the remaining money necessary. T minus 3 months!!!
Engineers Without Borders
I really don't know what I was thinking starting this project before finishing the court but its already begun and it is going to be A LOT of work just filling out the application. Our community is located right along a river; Rio Jimenez which flows all the way out into the Caribbean Sea. On the other side of the river (a harrowing 2 minute boat ride) has schools, clean water, a medical clinic that operates more often, a bus that operates every day and a much quicker route to the larger markets of the city of Rio Jimenez, Guacimo and Guapiles. Engineers Without Boarders (EWB) is an organization that sends engineering students with experienced engineers and professors to small communities to complete community projects of infrastructure, water and bridges. Our plan is to work with the other local ADIs, the government agency INDER and the agency in charge of bridges and road, Habeba. EWB sends the team to do initial samples and testing, is in constant contact with the community and government agencies during the planning and finally sends the team to support the community build the project, supporting up to 95% of the costs up to $75,000!! Obviously this is no small project and one that is going to require a lot of time and work but one that will benefit the entire zone and most importantly open new access to the products here in the community. I have sent a request to the University of Maryland's EWB chapter and am hoping to receive a positive response, if not we will have to turn in the application to the national EWB board which is a much longer process but still viable if we can get the application in within the next month.
Recycling Committee
Well we started! We formed the committee last week and the new committee is made up of 4 colegio students and one escuela student and 3 moms that will work to provide a more mature opinion on the committee. Rafa (the science teacher) and I will work only as advisers especially during these first few months as we are working with grant money and then slowly allow the committee to make their own decisions. Yesterday, we all went to clean out the recycling center by bagging all the trash that was sitting there, sweeping all the dirt and broken glass up and cutting down some vines. The next step is to begin the recycling process with the materials we currently have; squishing down the cans, sorting the glass, separating the plastics etc. We have also started a work plan to identify the priorities and dates we hope to complete each objective. In regards to water, we decided to go the most cost efficient way and just make a manual water pump which obviously requires more physical labor when washing the materials but avoids monthly electricity costs and all the costs of making a windmill (cool idea but just too much money and work).
Community Benches
I was a little disappointed to see how quickly the benches were scratched up and marked with people names. I knew it would happen but it was within 2 days of them being built. So Ligia, Michelle and myself went back again last week and repainted them grey with the aluminum paint. Then this past weekend, I organized some kids and their parents to come up to the plaza and paint the benches with designs and colors. They all look really great and so far no further names have appeared (its been 4 days...). We had about 12-14 people come through to paint and lots more come by to take a look at what we're doing...really great looking community project.
Women's Group
We'll see if anything happens from this but there is currently a group of 25 women in a pretty defunct women's group here in the community and 15 of them sound like they want to branch off and begin their own group and utilize me to my full potential to identify a project, write a project plan and work with them to knock on some government doors for some funding. This was brought to me yesterday so I don't know much more but there is a ton of funding set aside for women's groups so we will see if they are actually motivated to do some work.
That's all for this update...all other projects are slowly coming along, English has continued but has definitely taken a back seat, the bottle project continues in my down time and on the weekends with Michelle, we have yet to bring it to the recycling committee as they have too much else going on. As you can see...IM BUSY!!! Thanks for reading!
Conor
