CAP preparation day

Buenos tardes from Chitre, Panama! Today’s leaders were Jacob and Tahlia.

Today was the start of our community action project preparation. To start the day we had pancakes, huevos, tocino, frutas, and cereal. After eating a hearty breakfast we went upstairs to start our first meeting of the day; introducing the steps to take towards our community action project (CAP). We are realizing that the CAP project is a culmination of all the things that we are learning and now we are putting these things to action for a wonderful community of people. We met the community of Borrola today and a member of the Peace Corp. Arabella Davis. Arabella has lived in Borrola for almost two years and shared with us, the challenges and structures of being an environmentalist focused on ecotourism, conservation of water, trash and waste management and female empowerment. Challenges such as coyotes attacking dogs guarding residents homes, birds eating the seeds out of the citrus fruit, cows eating the trees they plant, and projects not being completed within a timely manner stemming from their slow pace of life.

Arabella gave us a short tour of the town with a population of only 150 residents. The town only has one school with 6 children attending but even with a few amount of children it is still difficult to recieve resources and supplies. The residents of Borrola typically recieve funding through community fundraisers and support from the Peace Corps, rarely ever from the government itself because the area is so rual.

Even with a small population Borrola still manages to express their culture in many ways. We learned that panamanians like to party and often engage in balias, futbol and basquetbol games as well as communtiy work parties with environmental organizations from other cities and rual areas. Something very commmon in this region is ox pulling carriages known as carteras! On these carteras, farmers transport goods from one place to another but it is also known for carrying women through parades to show off their gowns known as partes de la pollera throughout the whole community. Not very many people in this town have cars, so, they get around either on bikes, horses, or wherever their legs can take them. We learned so much about their culture, and this gave us brighter ideas of what projects to design in order to help better their communtity in a sustainable, responsible way.

When we departed Borrola, we had arroz con maize, pollo, y ensalada de calabaza. Delicisious! After lunch we all did laundry during our free time and took a trip to the local market where Jacob gave us a fashion show and Tahlia bought guava ice cream made with goat milk. (Okay, so goat milk ice cream is a thing!) After our free time we began the longest seminar we have had on this trip! However, during this seminar our fellow glimpsers brainstormed the ideas for our CAP project based on what Arabella told us was needed in the community. Eventually we broke down the schedule, budget, and the separation of groups for the tasks at hand based on their skill set as well as responsibility and roles in each group. We were all divided into four groups: One group was responsible for the creation and design of benches made from recycled and compressed plastic. The second group was responsible for painting the Casa de Local where most of the town congregates for announcements and gatherings. The third group, is responsible for painting the new large plastic trash cans around the town and the final group, is responsible for painting a mural on the bus stop. All theses tasks must be finished within aprox. 12 hours and 50 minutes with a budget of $600.

We ended the night with tacos for dinner and our nightly meeting laying out our plans for the next day. We played a long game of Concentraction and no Hesitation with 11 people, AND Tahlia won hands down!!!

Our quote of the day, by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was, “Life’s most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” Todays activites truly helped us reflect on the meaning as this quote absorbs the essence of the responsiblity we have to uphold a service to the Borrola community for the next three days. As todays leaders, it was a priveledge to aid the process in helping a community and guiding our peers to success.

Good night all…we are truly tired!!

Tahlia and Jacob signing out! Stay tuned for our journey through the CAP project. Hasta luego amigos!