The planning for our project began and two weeks ago. For those of you less familiar with the Peace Corps’ method of international development it is based solely on the fact that you give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, or you can teach him how to fish and he can eat for a lifetime. The Peace Corps stresses the idea that you must teach and aid your community into solving and overcoming problems not just fix them.
We started our planning by meeting with a class of local school children, to get their ideas and to judge their knowledge on the environment. The children were knowledgeable on the environment and some issues surrounding their local environment. Many children mentioned the excessive trash disposal issue, the burning of tires and plastics and the conservation of water. These are environmental issues that impact their daily lives. The individuals of our village are so closely connect to their environment that they feel, see and smell every environmental issue around them. We also learned that many of the local hamams (a cross between a good shower and a spa) burn tires to heat the water and rooms they are in. This was great news to our group and explains the smell and minor repertory problems we have been facing for the last month and a half. The kids came up with some good ideas for an Earth Day Celebration.
We then met with the local Women’s club to ask them the same questions about environmental issues in the area, what we could do to solve them and how they would like to celebrate Earth Day. Just as we expected, the women present similar issues as the children with a greater emphasis on the water issues. The people of our village go weeks at a time without running water and it is both a frustrating and tiring process. When they do not have water it means more trips to the irrigation ditch, well or river to gain water. The other issues is that a lot of the well water is salty and so is the river water. As the snowcapped mountains finish melting, the river runs salty. They can use this water for cleaning, ect but it is not so good for drinking. All in all the meeting with the Women was quite a success and thanks to the cooperation of the leader of the women’s center, we got a great deal accomplished and got the women’s participation!
After we met with the women, we met with the local men’s association. They helped us crank out a more final plan for how the women, men and children of the village could celebrate together.
The final meeting we had was with the Director of the school. This man deserves an award, honestly. He was so enthauistaic and cooperative. He wanted to make Earth Day a big deal and he was happy for our help.
Here is how the day(s) went down. We decided to celebrate on two separate days so we could get a couple of things accomplished for our celebration without taking away from the minimal time the children are in school. On Monday morning we gathered the children and hosted a trash clean up. We taught the children about burnable and non burnable trash and even found some reusable bags to help in the trash collection process and off they went. For a straight hour we collected enough trash to fill a hole about 4 feet deep and about 12 feet across. There was a lot of trash, and we didn’t even get it all! On a side note, the people of our village do not have a trash collection service but rather are responsible invidiually for all of their trash. After the collection was done, we buried all the trash and the director gave a little speech about the importance of collecting and burying trash! When we walked back to the school, there were tajines and tea waiting for us, thanks to some local moms. Near the end the women showed up to help collect trash and ended up starting their own trash collection!
On day two we hosted a tree planting session and a little coloring session on what the environment means to them. This was by far one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. First off, the students starting by singing some pretty sweet song while we began digging holes to plant the trees. After we all went inside to start drawing, the kids went to work. Lots of awesome pictures about protecting and conservting water, the importance of planting trees and many other environmental issues. When we were done, we had the kids present their drawing and explain what the environment meant to them. Just as we were starting to wrap up drawing so we could start the tree planting, the women from the Women’s club arrived ready to present their drawings also. A couple of us stayed back and ended up hosting an informational session on Global Warming. I couldn’t believe me ears when one of the women of the village, who attends the Women’s Center to learn how to read and write, asked us about Global Warming and the melting ice caps. Martin and I did a short presention (complete with diagrams) on what Globla Warming is, what causes it and how it will affect the people of our village in Morocco. This was truly a once in a lifetime opporuntiy to educated people that affects them despite their sometimes minimal footprint on it. It was also truly a testimaent to the power of television. It had taught the uneducated women of our village about one of the most complex and important scientific problems of our generation!
While we were speaking with the women, the kids went outside and planted about 30 trees in the schoolyard. I am hoping to come back in two years and see how the trees have grown, along with the village.
This Earth Day was truly memorable and it is entirely due to the involvement of the community. They recognize that their environment is important. While they cannot always define the scientific processes or do the chemistry involved in them, they live a life so connected to their environmtn that conservation just makes sense. It was inspiring to see them so willing to pick up trash and plant trees! It truly gave me a renewed spirit of conservation and some more inspiration to continue my work.
To all my fellow Americans, don’t forget to celebrate Earth Day because after all, every day is earth day! Happy happy Earth day to all!
Two of my village friends!
This picture is crazy. We were doing a town trash clean up and I found some of my trash that was sent from America. Apparently our cook had been dumping our school trash just outside, so I picked up my own trash.
Some of the boys outside of school.
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