Day 1: The three of us were really interested in getting to know what the people of Guarambare think is a major environmental problem for their city. We were not really interested in jumping straight into teaching a lesson at a local school so we decided to do some investigation. Recently we heard that Guarambare was no longer collecting trash from around the city so we decided to conduct some interviews with local merchants in the center of town to find out more about this problem. We talked with the open fruit market vendors, the supermarket owner, a small despensa owner and the environmental representative of the municipality.
Day 2: From our interviews on the first day we learned that the trash collection problem was also affecting the local schools. So we went to the largest elementary school in the city to talk with the dirrectora about their trash situation. The school currently does not have trash pick up and a major problem they are facing in the school is a lack of consciousness by students about the importance of putting trash in one specific area instead of throwing it straight on the ground. We met a wonderful teacher named Jacquelin who was very interested in working with us in her 9th grade class. She has noticed that at the school there is a lack of permanent trash cans and that these would help motivate kids to place trash in them. Usually cardboard boxes are used and then thrown in the garbage pit, but most of the time the boxes don’t make it to the pit due to the rain ruining them or kids using them as a soccer ball. We spent the rest of the day brainstorming possible lesson plans and solutions to the lack of trash cans at the school.
Day 3: We travelled back to the school to discuss with Jacquelin a little more about possible lesson ideas. During our second visit we noticed so many plastic bottles lying around and they became our inspiration. With the two remaining days we wanted to present a lesson that raised awareness and one that was hands-on and interactive for the students. The rest of the day was spent making presentation papers and creating a demo plastic bottle garbage can. Just to let you all know that in Paraguay it is more important for the presentation paper to look nice with good penmanship and artwork than grammar accuracy, a fancy border on your paper can take you a long way here.
Day 4: There were 35 students crammed in the small classroom. We broke the ice with a fun icebreaker of trying to count to 20 as a group, but if two people say the same number at the same time you have to start over at 0 (all you camp counselors out there know this one). Our focus of this lesson was to demonstrate how their use daily use of plastic bottles has a huge impact on the amount of trash at the school. We started by having the students raise their hands if they had bought a drink today that was in a plastic bottle. Over half of the class had bought at least one while others had already bought two or three. We then passed out used plastic bottles we found around the school before class to those students for them to hold on to physically. We then gathered all the bottles into a huge pile in the center of the classroom for them to get a visual representation how many bottles that class of 35 consumes in just one day. The lesson then continued with a discussion of the impacts of poor trash management and ideas for reusing their daily trash and reducing the amount of it.
Day 5: The students were excited to see us back the next week. To make things interactive with them we decided to create plastic bottle garbage cans with the students. Implementing a way to reuse a commonly found material around the school and creating some form of a permanent trash can for all the school to use. The only materials needed are plastic bottles, wire, and a plastic mesh feed bag. The students got really excited about this project, because it allowed them to be both social with each other and us and active with their hands in a school system that focuses more of its attention on written repetition for grading. While the garbage cans were a little small the students really seemed to grasp the understanding that this is a project that they can complete in their homes as well with little effort.
Brenda, Jessica and I left that last day feeling really accomplished about the work we had completed. We got to know more about a social issue taking place in the city and implement some awareness in the school setting. You all should make these trash cans back in the states as well. They are super easy and really fun at any age.
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