Here's a little recap of a typical moment in my life here, which happened the other morning:
Host Mom (yelling, in the shower): Ahhh! Morgan, come here, quick!!!
Me: Whats wrong?
Host Mom: Turn off this light for me...blah blah blah blah (I didn't understand this part)
Me (as I turn off the light, and get electrocuted): Oooouch!!!!
Host mom: Be careful! The switch is all wet and it's giving off an electric shock! That's why I didn't want to do it!
Oh Mami...gotta love her.
Global Youth Service Day (April 23-25)
Happy Global Youth Service Day everyone! I haven't found time to post recently because lots of things are happening at a VERY rapid pace, most of them having to do with service learning. While I still don't have time to share all that's going on here with service learning, I at least want to inform everyone that April 23-25 is Global Youth Service Day (or days), and that you might want to take a minute to check out some of the fantastic projects going on around the world to celebrate this extremely important movement at http://gysd.org. My project should be up there soon (I was a little late getting the submission in) under Costa Rica (it should be easy to find because there aren't any others registered in the country at the moment). Anyway, I encourage you all to do something out of the goodness of your heart with some young people this weekend. Even if it's as simple as picking up trash in a park, take a minute to reflect on what you did, why it was important, what you learned, and how you can provide follow-up to make what you did more sustainable in the future. Here's a few quotes that have inspired a lot of my service learning efforts here, I hope you find some inspiration in them as well...peace!
"I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand." ~Chinese Proverb
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." ~Margaret Mead
Fresh Mountain Air and the Power of Poop
Ah, Semana Santa (Holy Week) – Apart from going to Mass, basically a week during which no one does anything…seriously. My original plan for the week was to stay at home at plan, organize, clean, plan, and plan. This worked relatively well until about Wednesday, when I started to get restless and the extreme heat began to make me want to cry.
So, I decided to head up to the mountains for a few days, with the hopes of still being productive and working on workshop planning and grant proposals while at the same time being in a place where no one knows me, eating nothing but fresh, raw fruits, veggies and eggs, and occasionally needing a sweatshirt to keep warm (keep warm – I don’t even know what that means anymore). My destination of choice…Ecojoya Organic Farm, located in the mountains outside of San Isidro (about 2 hours from my town).
My first morning on the farm began with a run at sunrise, which is a beautiful thing anywhere, but even more so when you’re at the top of a mountain in one of the most beautiful counties in the world. As if this wasn’t good enough, I was also accompanied by Osito (“Little Bear), the farm owner’s adorable golden retriever/spaniel mix. The rest of the morning was spent learning about the various chores on the farm (feeding the free-range chickens; milking the goat, Betty, and giving leaves to her husband, Billy, and her baby girl, Bambi; watering the wide variety of plants in the garden, etc.). Ben, the farmer (for real that’s his name), is very clever in his attempts to make the farm as self-sufficient as possible. All food compost that doesn’t go to the chickens goes into a big, covered bin which attracts all of fruit flies to come and set up tent. They stick around long enough to morph into worms, which then walk up a ramp Ben built on the inside (knowing they would want to get out at this stage) and fall right into a bucket (or as like to call it, “death bin”) which then gets taken out to the chickens for their dining pleasure. Other self-sustaining projects that are in progress include tilapia pond and aquaponic garden which will provide each other with everything they need to make delicious organic produce and fish, as well as a system that will turn all the poop in the house to electricity (mmm…yummy). I was fascinated by every inch of the farm really, from the miracle plant (of which every part can be used for something different), the solar powered water heater, the sloths and tucans in the trees, and the presence of delicacies such as kale and sweet potatoes which I hadn’t seen since leaving the States over a year ago.
In addition to enjoying the lovely weather, running company, breathtaking views and heath/environmental wake-up call, I was also able to get a lot of work done for my projects. I was definitely inspired to find as many ways as possible to utilize all the materials mother earth has given me, base my diet on local food sources, and overall just try to do a little less damage to this planet while I am on it, so that it can be around for more people, plants and animals after me. Coincitentally, I am also currently reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, which is another great reminder to buy from local food sources and how everyone can make the world a better place by becoming a little bit more aware of their consequences of their everyday actions. I highly recommend this book to anyone who eats or needs food in order to survive.
Things back here in Buenos Aires are good (besides the hot, dry weather), and I feel a new, positive energy which will hopefully get me through the next couple months of hard work which are ahead of me. I hope everyone at home is well, having now been in country over a year the homesickness which was really only heavy in the beginning is starting to creep in every now and then. While I miss home I never for a second doubt my decision to be here, and couldn’t be more content having the opportunity to do this work. Peace and love, and keep sending me emails so I know how everyone is doing (mom, I know you’re the only one reading this…so email me please, thanks).
Ok, so as you can see I still have not mastered putting pics up on Blogger, so the disorganized array you find here shows (from top left to bottom) the view in front of the farm house before my run at sunrise, the 80 foot waterfall I walked to (there are 4 on the property), the farm house, and me sitting on the basement stairs after tangerine picking (I couldn't wait before getting up the stairs to start eating...soooo good!).
All the Cool Kids are Doing It: Service Learning
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead
April 22 marks Global Youth Service Day. Here in Buenos Aires, we be gettin' our volunteerism on early this year....
Today was one of those days when I felt genuinely proud to be a Peace Corps volunteer, and reassured me that perhaps something impactful and sustainable can come from a collaboration between myself and my community. This job provides me with countless opportunities to share meaningful and dynamic experiences with young people, and I am truly thankful to be able to observe and learn from their creativity and fresh perspective. For the past few months I have been working on a service learning training program which combines several of the resources being used by Peace Corps today, but in what I hope to be a more comprehensive, user-friendly manner. My ultimate goal is to have a document (or set of documents) that can be given to any other peace corps volunteer, community leader, teacher, or young adult, and allow him/her to train others in the design and management of service learning projects. Service learning is different from community service in a number of ways, namely that it involves a much more involved process of assessment, research, analysis and follow-up than simply completing an act of community service. As a result, participants are able to achieve more profound learning objectives and gain much more, both personally and intelectually, from the experience.
The materials I've been working on were put into use for the first time today. Along with the help of my friend and fellow volunteer Chamisa, we trained 19 leaders from 6 different community youth groups in the concept of service learning and the design and management of service learning projects. The idea is that they will go back and train the rest of their respective youth groups in the methodology, complete a project action plan, execute their projects, analyze the results, and come together in July to share what they did and what they learned with all participants from all of the other groups by means of creative presentations. The final event will also be a way to celebrate their successes and discuss follow-up plans for the projects.
The training today went extremely well, and even though it lasted for 5 hours, the most commoon feedback I received from the participants was that they wished it had been longer! It was inspiring to wacth these young people working so diligently and in such a collaborative manner as they made plans to improve their communities. So often society tries to take power away from them, and with so few opportunities to do something positive with their time it's almost no wonder they seek refuge in drugs, violence and unsafe sex. It pains me to hear adults complaining about the negative behaviors displayed by young people here, as if those same young people are completely at fault. In most cases, it is the adults who are at fault for neglecting to provide these youth with opportunities to make positive contributions to society. If young people are not given this power they are not likely to become aware that it exists on their own (and in this adult-run society I cannot blame them). Okay but before I get too off topic, what I loved most about this workshop was that the young participants were so participative, articulate and creative with their ideas, excited about the potential to make positive changes in their communities, and enthusiastic about sharing the information with their peers. I am definitely looking forward to providing support to all of the groups as they train their other members and design and execute their projects, and I expect the closing activity in July to be something quite memorable for all. Together the 6 groups cover every different part of my own community, plus Chamisa's neighboring community, so the hope is that the projects cover a lot of ground.
I have several more trainings to do (including all 98 11th graders from the technical high school and all of the teachers from three different elementary school), and getting the first one over with has been an extremely beneficial experience (the stress nearly killed me, but I'm a firm believer that what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger). I hope to write soon with updates on my other projects. It looks like water and definitely a bridge will be coming soon to the shantytown (fingers crossed! Knock on wood! wear your pajamas backwards!…..), and my 150 kindergarteners are probably going to be fluent in English by the end of this year (that was a lie but the stuff about the shantytown was true). Lots going on as usual, but I plan to make service learning my focus in this second half of my service. Pura vida!
Any Given Sunday
There are lots of good reasons to do interval training: boosts your metabolism, burns up calories, improves speed and endurance, gets you to the next level, blah, blah blah. When I came here and hurt my hip and wasn't able to run long distances anymore, I pretty much became hooked to interval and body weight strength training workouts. Then, right when I thought this type of exercise couldn't get any better, I discovered that most people were fascinated (and definitely confused) by the local gringa's crazy, spastic, motions in my backyard, and that they secretly wanted to join in on the fun. So when you walk by my house on any given day, at some point you are very likely to see something like the following...enjoy.
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