I am working on two main projects and some secondary projects at the moment. My main focus at this point is the stove project. Our community suffers from upper respiratory problems due to cooking over an open fire inside of the house.  During my census in May, I discovered that 92% of the houses that cook over an open fire have chronic respiratory problems. The stoves I am making are made of sawdust, dirt, cement, and water, produce less smoke, and require less wood. I use a mold to form the stove and then remove it when the mixture is ready. I have been able to get all the materials donated and the local carpenter even made me two extra molds. I met with some community members last week to get their input and to form a committee to help me build them. The group members were excited about the stoves and agreed that this is a well needed project. That is all of the group members except one. We will just call him the Don. The Don is an 85 year old, toothless, shirtless, shoeless, stubborn, farmer that always arranges free time to attend every community meeting where he will argue against everything and everyone then abruptly leave and head to the cantina. I was in the middle of explaining that this stove would require less wood and create less smoke when the Don interrupted me to tell me that he thought those were nice ideas, but that he didn’t see how he could make all of his tortillas on this type of stove and so the stove was useless, meeting adjourned. The rest of the group tried to convince the Don that the community needs this stove but the Don was not having it. He curled up in his chair, ate his snacks, and refused to participate in the rest of the meeting. The rest of the group overruled the Don and we have scheduled a general assembly with all community members to get a count on the number of stoves we need to make. So far I have made 3 stoves with each taking about 3 hours to complete. We are estimating that we will need to make about 200 stoves at 3 hours each, equaling 600 hours of stove building. On the bright side, I doubt I will have to make one for the Don.

The neighbor kids love to help me with my projects.

These are the first two completed stoves. As you can see they have been taken over by mold but they will be fine after they dry.

I am also working to build a library for the school. As of right now they have absolutely no books. The teachers have one book to teach from and the students write down everything in their notebooks. It wastes a lot of time, especially when they only attend school for half of the day. I am working with a rotary and soliciting in the states for book donations. I have received about 40 books from USAID and I am keeping them in my house until the library is ready. We have contacted a local NGO to repair a room in the school to use as the library. Construction begins in November and I am promised the room will be ready by January. We have formed a library committee of 2 teachers, 3 students, and one parent to go to trainings on how to take care of the library. Here is a picture of the library, as you can see; we have a lot of work to do.

The NGO that is repairing the room for the library will also be building a computer building. A building that I am told I will be responsible for supplying with computers. So, if anyone has any suggestions on computer donations, let me know.

My favorite project right now is teaching English. This is only a secondary project but it takes up a large amount of time. The school director asked me to teach English when I first arrived in the community and I wasn’t too thrilled about it to be honest. I thought there were more important things I could teach besides English, but the students really want to learn it and I ended up loving to teach it. I teach the fifth and sixth graders Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour each. Starting in January I will also be teaching como planear mi vida, a life planning course to the ninth graders. I am really looking forward to the opportunity to work with the older kids and help them figure out what to do after they finish the ninth grade. Our school only runs through the ninth grade so students will either stop at grade 9 or have to figure out a way to travel to another town to attend high school. I only know of 9 kids in our entire community that are attending high school right now.

My fifth grade class.

My other secondary project is an HIV/AIDS campaign. I am working to prepare my community for World AIDS Day and the AIDS march that some fellow volunteers and I are coordinating for December 4th in our pueblo. This consists of charlas in my community as well as the surrounding cantones.

I have more projects I am looking to start in the future, like a recycling project and a women’s group, but for now my hands are full.

Other than projects, I have recently been stranded in a flash flood, I think I may have discovered a new species of caterpillar, and I now have fleas.

-Melissa

Uncategorized | RSS 2.0 | Comment it , or trackback this post.