Peace Corps Training

For the past two weeks we have been doing in-service training with the Peace Corps.  They shortened the pre-service training, and moved some of it to July.  After four months in our site, we know more about our community and which projects will be most suitable to their needs, so the training can be more specifically tailored to those projects. 

We started out together for the first three nights. The environmental group then moved to the National Institute of Agriculture for some hands-on training.  Steve and his group learned about reforestation, mixing organic fertilizer, organic gardens, composting using worms, terracing, recycling, and building eco-friendly stoves.  There were presentations from current Peace Corps volunteers who are carrying out successful projects in their communities.  All in all, it was a very valuable experience, and Steve is ready to carry out more projects in our community.

One of the highlights of Steve’s time was the construction of eco-friendly stoves.  Most people in the rural areas cook their food over an open fire and support the cooking pot on three rocks.  We learned how to make bricks out of mud and make them into a stove.

Here we are mixing the clay soil with water.  The only efficient way of mixing is the old fashioned barefoot way.  Later we added some dry, powdered horse manure for insulation and for strength.  You don’t want the bricks of your stove to conduct the heat away from the food.

We then made the mud into bricks using simple wooden molds.  There are five different sizes of bricks for this stove.

Here is a picture of the mass production of mud bricks in the town of a Peace Corps volunteer in March.  They made enough bricks for more than twenty stoves during a three day period.

Later that day we assembled a stove using bricks which had been made a few days earlier.

The mortar is mud, manure and ashes 

The final product with the woman who will use it

On our return to our town, we found that there are many people who are interested in learning how to make stoves for their houses.  The materials are free, and the stove uses a lot less fuel and gives off a lot less smoke.  It also shields the cook from the heat, which is important in our climate.

In our training we also saw some examples of recycled material being made into items which can be sold.  Here you can see a bag made of old plastic bags which have been cut into strips and then crocheted to make the bag.

This takes a long time to do!

Here is a woman’s handbag made of food wrappers.

Heather and the Teaching English group stayed in a conference center for the entire two weeks.  She learned lots of useful information on making English teaching more communicative in Panamanian classrooms.  Fortunately the conference center was only a twenty minute walk from the beach, so that Heather was able to swim after the daily eight hour sessions were over.  They did give us the weekend off in between the two weeks, so that we were able to go to Panama City and spend a night in the old part of the city. 

Heather hung out with one of the presenters, who was her age.

Heather and Allegra

When we finished our two weeks of training, we headed to a beach with most of the Teaching English group.  We had a relaxing time swimming in the ocean and walking on the beach.  Here is a group of us in the waves.

  

Many of our group camped in tents on the beach.  Unfortunately there was a full moon that night and the tide was extraordinarily high.  At 4 am the tenters had to move their tents back further and further as the water rose.  Eventually the water reached the fence at the back of the beach and they were out of luck.  Fortunately we were in a cabaña for the night.

High tide!

Organic gardening at the Chepo school

Every two weeks a government agency comes to the Chepo school to train local people how to do organic gardening.  Steve has been taking part in the training, and will be starting an organic garden next to our house very soon.

Organic gardening lessons

Party time!

In July we had a birthday party at our house for Heather’s counterpart Ormelis.  The front porch was an ideal spot to relax and even dance to some típico music.

That's it for now.