To the tune of "Flash Gordon" theme song by Queen... "Trash! Ahhhh She saved every piece of trash!"

La Feria de Reciclaje, from May 18, 2012 - photo credits by Emily Ure

“Reducir, Reutilizar, Reciclar” could be heard from small enthusiastic voices chanting in unison from across the school courtyard as myself and 4 of my colleges took over the school day at the Gregorio Gonzalez elementary to plant a seed of awareness. This same morning, Thursday, May 17^th, marked World Recycling Day, and my first attempt to initiate a school program/project in my Peace Corps community. Though chaotic and somewhat pieced together the night before the event, the recycling fair went off without a hitch and nearly according to schedule. Another noteworthy first was staring in a play in Spanish as the pollution fighting superhero Carla Conservacion (“Contra la Contaminacion!”) as she conquered her arch nemesis Senor Basura. The kids and teachers were pretty stoked to say the very least!

Recycling is a difficult concept and practice to grasp for many United States citizens, let alone a rural community lacking of ANY kind of waste management program. However, Panamanian agency and local NGO support have made it possible to realize a small scale school recycling program with the hopes of educating all community members about the 3 R’s. Luckily, the principles or reusing trash and reducing garbage produced are not so foreign, and represent everyday practices. Prime example; when I first got to my host family and went through my (inevitable) first jar of peanut butter in what is a shameful week and a half, I magically found the jar washed, dried, and filled with coffee the next day. Similarly, eating locally grown food significantly cuts down on the amount of plastic packaging that has to be brought into the pueblo. No complaints here!

The idea of recycling, however, or even separating and collecting trash, are completely new concepts here in El Cedro. In the last few days, as I attempted to hype up this Recycling Fair, I encountered questions from community members such as “will you burn the items collected to recycle?”, to which I responded “Well, no. The point is that we don’t want to burn trash and if we recycled we will have less to burn/ be saving resources and energy etc. etc.” I have to have patience and really take the time to explain things clearly. In our culture in the States, we are raised with recycling programs and “Don’t be a litter bug” campaigns.  Here, the only option is to burn or throw your wastes into the monte (aka, the wilderness behind your house).  No wonder trying to educate the community about better waste management practices is a slow and challenging process.

To quickly sum up the activities of our fair : The fair included 3 stations with slightly different topics that each classroom group visited for half an hour before cycling to the next activity. In one room we had a power point presentation given by Ruth from Azuero Earth Project (and a visiting University of Florida undergrad researcher who was such a pleasure to meet! GO GATORS!). The presentation focused on the importance of recycling and some shocking statistics about how long items such as plastic bags or bottles take to disintegrate in the environment. In Station two we presented a demonstration, commonly referred to as Pollution Soup in Peace Corps, where we polluted a clear water container with common contaminants such as oil, soap, trash and coffee grounds to represent human or animal feces. The kids progressively became more and more disgusted with the water quality and then were asked if they thought our local river and many creeks were also full of these same materials. Most of them got the point and agreed that it is VERY important to protect our water resources from pollution. The second part of this station was a recycling relay race, in which students raced to separate recyclables from trash and put items in the correct recycling tanks. Watching students hop with a green balloon between their knees to the tanks was a definite highlight! Lastly, our third class room activity consisted of a fun dinamica or ice breaker in which we demonstrated the effects of habitat destruction caused by pollution and burning on animal populations. We had all the students stand within a rope circle on the floor (their habitat) and gradually made the rope circle smaller and smaller with each environmentally unfriendly action. The kids realized how little space they had to live and some got kicked out of the circle, representing death in this case. We concluded this activity by having the kids make figurines of endangered animals of Panama with home-made play dough. They had a blast. The day concluded with a play we performed in the park and a park and school clean-up. Our park now has its first trash receptacle and is looking spiffy thanks to the work of many students’ thorough cleaning. Let’s see if they keep this up and remember to use the trash can/ recycling tanks tomorrow. Behavioral change is a lofty, but necessary goal to keep in mind.

Entonces… today I am feeling grateful and inspired. I am grateful for my friends, without whom, none of the success of the event would have been possible. On their own dime, they came to my community, got to work and forgave me for being super stressed by the whole thing. They truly had my back. I am equally thankful to Azuero Earth Project for being so easy to work with and so engaging for students and community members alike! Claro tengo que mencionar La ANAM también, que siempre me apoya tanto y viene a mis eventos. ¡Ustedes son fantásticos!

I feel inspired to get more involved. I want to continue cooking up crazy schemes to motivate and engage my community in the name of environmental education. Above all, I am inspired by my kids. Hearing their laughs as I pranced around the park in my green, trash bag chic, Carlita Conservacion costume brought an unforgettable sense of satisfaction. People are talking, people are learning, and we are making this happen!

This leaves me with a personal mantra of reflection. “Don’t be afraid to be unconventional, you only have 2 years, but the impact and friendships you make will seguir adelante (continue forward)!”

I hope to get some pictures of this event online as soon as possible!

Ending highlight of my day: When posed the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” to a group of lingering children on my door step by one of my fellow visiting volunteers, little Sugeries age 5 remarks “I want to be a Gringa like Natalia” Giving “Gringas” a good name; if that’s not a goal of Peace Corps accomplished, then I don’t know what is. Precious!