¡Recicla, Ya!

Environmental consciousness is slowly beginning to grow here in Peru. Although the streets are often lined with garbage and conservation is a foreign concept to most people, small groups are beginning to recognize the wealth of resources within Peru and taking action to protect them. The garbage and general apathy towards cleanliness and environmental protection is frustrating, so I wanted to begin environmentally focused efforts at my school. After various conversations with teachers and students, we decided to start a recycling program. I’ve given educational sessions highlighting the importance of recycling with all elementary and high school students (almost 500 students total). Many students have never even heard of recycling, so we discussed the most fundamental ideas related to reusing materials, environmental protection, and how the process of recycling actually works.

I formed an environmental committee within the school with 3 teachers from the elementary school and 3 teachers from the high school and we came up with a work plan for a school-wide recycling competition. In order to incentivize students to bring recyclable materials, we formed a competition between all the different classrooms. Each classroom elected an environmental president to help encourage their peers’ participation and was in charge of monitoring progress. In an effort to involve parents, we also sent home notes to families explaining the competition and requesting their active support and participation. The teachers are animated about the project, and we have been collecting a substantial amount of plastic bottles and used papers. It’s been several months since we’ve begun the project, and it’s had its fair share of struggles along with successes.

The elementary students have been participating actively and are excited about their contribution to their classroom’s collection of recycling. When I see them at their homes or in the street, little children are always asking me about the details of recycling and how they can help out. However, high school students have been much more reluctant to participate. I’ve been told various times (with your best whiny voice), “but Senorita Kelsi, it’s just not cool to come to school with a huge bag of gross plastic bottles… how embarrassing!” I’ve been trying to change their minds and run with the idea that “green” is cool, but it’s a battle.

During the first phase of our recycling program we accumulated well over 400 kilos (about 1000 pounds) of recycling and filled up an entire room with the contents. I coordinated with the local municipality to transport this recycling to Trujillo to sell. When the mayor agreed to offer transportation I was concerned we wouldn’t be able to fit all the recycling into one vehicle; however, when the enormous municipality dump truck arrived my fears were relieved. Working with some school staff and youth we loaded the entire dump truck to the brim with our recycling.

The following day Max (my host brother) and I woke up at 5am to meet the driver and go to Trujillo to sell our recycling. After an hour of sitting in the dark waiting for the truck to come, we’re finally relayed the message that the battery had died in the truck. Fortunately we were still able to go, just several hours later. The recycling center is not in the most beautiful area of Trujillo, so I did my best to look like a boy, rocking a baseball hat and old clothes. We piled in the front of the dump truck and made our way to “El Milagro”. The recycling center appeared to buy anything and everything- old shoe soles, creepy doll heads, rusted car parts… you name it and you could most certainly find it here. I felt like I was trapped in some Peruvian version of that bizarre animated movie about “ The Little Toaster.”

After separating and weighing our recyclables we were handed S./540 in cash for our efforts. I was really excited about this profit- to put it perspective, a teacher or nurse typically earns about S./700 per month, so this was a substantial amount of funds raised. We plan to use these funds to improve our recycling program and benefit the school, focusing particularly on environmental programs. Environmental consciousness is a slow process, especially when so many other issues are confronting a developing community, but I think this success is a testament to what will hopefully incite interest in further environmental projects here in Poroto.

Local Resources, Local Growth

A few months ago I was talking with one of the teachers at the school about our ideas for upcoming projects with the students. I’ve worked with her extensively in various classes before, and together we formed an environmental committee at the school. I wanted to plant student gardens in order to increase access to nutritious vegetables and provide the students with a a hands-on opportunity to grow their own crops without using harmful fertilizer etc. In talking with Profesora Marita she told me she’d heard something about “Hidroponia” and was interested in trying it. She asked if I knew anything about it and if I’d partner with her on this project. To be completely honest I had no idea what hidropnia was, but typical of my personality I gave her an enthusiastic “Si, por supuesto!”response and then ran home to do some research. I’ve found it is incredibly important to capitalize on preexisting interests and ideas of community partners if you want a project to be successful, so I latched on to this casual comment about “hidroponia” and ran with it.

After some research I found out that hidroponia is hydroponic gardening in English (which honestly didn’t clarify anything). However, after a bit more investigating I became really excited about this potential project and thought it would be perfect for our students. Simply, hydroponic gardening is growing plants without the use of soil. It is an innovative approach to agriculture and has been used in areas where the climate and soil are typically unable to produce vegetables, areas where food security is an issue, and in science classrooms. Hydroponic gardening allows you to grow different types of plants that wouldn’t typically grow in a particular environment, because you have the opportunity to manipulate the nutrients available to the plants. I’ll explain the process…

First of all, I began by giving educational sessions about the process of hydroponic gardening and its benefits to all 220+ high school students at Virgen del Carmen. I worked with the science teachers to organize our action plan, and they contributed substantially to the development of this project. As a whole the students were enthusiastic about the project and after seeing my photos and presentations they were excited to make their own hydroponic tables. We contracted a local carpenter to construct 8 simple tables- they’re about 3 feet tall, 4 feet long, 3 feet wide and about 6 inches deep.

After the tables were constructed we lined each one with sturdy black plastic and stapled it in place. Afterwards we heated 1 inch diameter pipes in order to burn holes into large sheets of Styrofoam. The sheets of Styrofoam are the same dimensions of the tables we’re using, and each sheet of has 32 holes. Meanwhile, each student was given lettuce seeds which they planted in small plastic containers filled with fine gravel. When the lettuce seeds had small roots, we transferred each small plant into a small sponge resting in a Dixie-cup with the bottom cut out.

I applied for a grant through the World Connect organization “Kids to Kids” program, presenting my project “Environmental Entrepreneurs: Local Resources for Local Growth.” This project includes recycling, hydroponic gardening, and a youth entrepreneurship class. The hydroponic gardening projects have been supported by the students themselves and this grant will allow us to continue and expand the project.

Poroto is dedicated to agriculture, so learning innovative gardening techniques will provide the community and youth with new methods to integrate into their farming. Traditional methods of agriculture here in Poroto utilize an atrocious amount of pesticides and other harmful chemicals, which not only harm the body and local environment, but also dramatically decrease the nutritional value of produce. The organic lettuce is an opportunity to improve local nutrition as well as provide local students with an innovative agricultural tool that can be used on their own. The “organic” craze has been popular for years in the US, and Peru is beginning to catch on, so students could capitalize on this emerging market in the future by considering selling organic lettuce or other vegetables to vendors in Trujillo. More than anything, hydroponic gardening has been an excellent hands-on learning tool, and the students have been actively involved in each step of the process. We recently had our first “harvest” of hydroponic lettuce and it was quite a success! Although there is room for improvement, the vast majority of lettuce worked out quite well. In fact, I shared a delicious hydroponic lettuce salad with my host family for lunch today!

Namesake

As I live out my days here in Peru, I often find myself wondering what kind of impact I will leave. Will the relationships I’ve formed with the youth, my host family, and other community members last? Will the programs or projects I’ve tried to implement be sustainable? Will the students from the colegio remember anything I taught? Will people still talk about Senorita Kelsi after I’m gone? If they do, what will they say? My personal legacy here in Poroto is yet to be determined, and I have a feeling it will include more about my cake-baking, running, and shared laughter than it will with my “work”, but that’s ok with me. However, I have recently been informed that my legacy will be remembered in a very tangible way.

Before I tell the story of my Porotina legacy, I’ll start with the first “namesake” experience I had here in Peru. A few weeks ago I get a call from a fellow volunteer who lives in Arequipa, nearly 30 hours by bus. He seemed a little flustered when he expressed that he had to ask me something. Concerned, I told him to go ahead. Our conversation went something like this…

“Well, you know how I’m always talking about how I spend a lot of time milking cows with my host family?”

“Sure…”

“Well… one of the cow’s is about to have a baby. Guess what they want to name it?”

“I have no idea.”

“Kelsi.”

“Interesting… they haven’t met me.”

“I know… do you mind?”

“Well, I guess not… I’ll choose to take it as a complement?”

“Ok, I’ll let them know. I think the cow’s going to be called Kelsi regardless of what I say anyway.”

So now there is a cow living in Arequipa named Kelsi. I even met her… she’s quite cute. I thought having a cow named after me was a pretty big deal until I had the following interaction…

I was on my way to the health post early last week when a young pregnant woman stops and asks if I have time to talk. I don’t know this woman well, but we’ve chatted before and I believe she’s attended my nutrition/cooking classes for the women at the health post. Our conversation went something like this…

“Senorita Kelsi, I need your help.”

“Umm ok, let’s sit down and talk. What’s up?”

“I just found out I’m having a baby girl. I’m due in October and I need help choosing a name.”

“Hmm… well I don’t have any kids so I don’t know if I’ll be of any help, but I’d be happy to try.”

“Ok perfect. I want something unique, that no one has here. Something that’s not traditional. Maybe an American name?”

“Ok… do you have anyone important in your life who you want to name her after?”

“No”

“Ok… do you have any names you’ve heard that you like?”

“No.”

“Ok… do you have a favorite letter?”

“No.”

“Ok… “(I continue to name dozens of names, literally every possible name I can think of… and she says no, no, no, until finally interrupting my pathetic attempts ...)

“Well, actually I just want to know how you spell your name.”

“Umm, my name? K-e-l-s-I”

“Oooh, how pretty. I like that. That will be perfect.”

“Wait, wait, you want to name her after me?”

“Yes… if that’s ok.”

“Umm, well… I guess?”

“Yes, that’s perfect. Now she has a name… but wait, she needs a middle name! What’s your middle name?”

“Really?

“Yes.”

“Umm… well, it’s Amber.”

“Ahh, ya… Kelsi Amber, that’s it. That’s perfect. Just like you.”

With that, she smiled contentedly, getting what I think she wanted all along, and happily continued on her way. My legacy here in Poroto still remains unsure, but there will be a little girl with my full name to help the entire community remember my 2 year presence here.