This is Where Your Trash Goes

Part of our coastal vacation included a trip to visit a fellow Peace Corps volunteer in Esmeraldas. Isaac helped him with a tourist mapping project (that will hopefully be up soon for all to see and use!), and we also got roped into doing a beach cleanup (I say "roped in" only because we thought we were going to see the mangroves, didn't, and ended up stranded on a beach with our guide and a bunch of trash bags--but it was okay!)

I've heard a lot about the Pacific Garbage Patch and the baby albatrosses who fill their stomachs with plastic. I've taught how "all our litter eventually ends up in the ocean" (which is hyperbole, but not really). But I didn't actually GET it until I saw the beach in Muisne.

I don't want this blog to be a giant guilt-fest--there's enough of that elsewhere, and I don't know if it's particularly helpful or healthy. I do want to share some photos and some of the thoughts I had while working on the beach so that you can maybe think my thoughts with me.

Let's start with a pretty landscape of the beach.

Water Conservation Education

One of the main projects I worked on from about November through February was teaching environmental education to preschool through sixth graders at the Spanish/Kichwa bilingual school in town (ages 4 through 13ish). We had ten lessons that focused mainly on water: where does it come from, who uses it, why it's important, and how we can conserve it.

Some of my students. TOTALLY paying attention to what I'm saying...

Project: Conociendo la Naturaleza en Inglés

We'd like to introduce our first Peace Corps project blog! Our project blogs will showcase a project that we have completed in our community as a part of our Peace Corps service.


Vacation Course: Conociendo la Naturaleza en Inglés

This project, which translates as "Learning about Nature through English," was a suggestion by one of our community counterparts. He originally asked for an English course for the high school students to attend during their two-month vacation from school, but our project area is Natural Resources Conservation (NRC). So we decided to teach both English and environmental education.