Last Thursday and Friday was my two day youth worshop for Youth in Defense of the Environment in Salama and I am beyond impressed with the outcome. As always, I was freaking out Thursday morning, certain that it would be a huge flop ending in disaster. And, as usual I was (pleasantly) wrong. I really need to stop being to nervous before these sorts of things.
One of my presenters cancelled last minute, but Jose Luis was able to use her powerpoint to give a presenation on the Rio Platano Bioforestry Reserve so it ended up being okay. Thursday we started almost an hour and a half late (obviously running on Honduran time) once all of the participants showed up. The presentation on the Forestry laws went really well, and the students from Silca who came to talk about their recycling program did a really great job explaining everything and had some interactive activities illustrating the biodegradability of different materials and the importance of recycling in their communities. After their presentation I showed a video on the recycling process in Honduras made by a Peace Corps volunteer and the kids (and Jose Luis) seemed to love it and asked tons of questions. Eyal and Mark did a presentation on watersheds and water contamination with lots of dinamicas (activities and running around) which the kids lost their minds over, and ended up being a great end to the day. I also got them each to fill out a questionnaire on their perceptions of the environmental concerns in their communities and their involvement in their communities and their insights were inspiring considering some of them were as young as thirteen.
At the beginning of the day Karen would repeat everything I would say in Spanish because she said no one could understand me, which made me very frustrated and disheartened because I had been practicing my pronunciation for a week, but as the day went on she stopped, and I think the participants got used to my Canadian-Spanish accent and were able to understand me pretty well so I felt better. Eyal (who has never heard me speak Spanish before, but has heard me talk about my struggling with it) told me that my Spanish was phenomenal for the time that I had been here, and Mark and TJ also commented on my Spanish, so that was good to hear and gave me a bit more confidence in my Spanish ability. Another highpoint of the first day was when Adrianna came up to me at the end of the day and told me that the participants had thought this was going to be another boring taller and none of them wanted to come, but now that they knew how fun and interactive this taller was they were exited to be coming back the next day, which made me beam with happiness and made me super excited for the next day as well.
Friday started late again, and even I arrived almost an hour late because I spent the night at Maria’s in Silca instead of spending another night in a hotel (because any opportunity to spend time in Silca, and visit Maria is one I wont pass up). Breakfast was late so I started them off on a discussion of their thoughts on the environmental challenged facing Olancho presently, to be followed later that day with a discussion group getting them to think about looking towards the future. All of the activities went over really well and the participants seemed to really enjoy the group discussions and sharing their ideas and information with each other. At the end of the taller each group gave a 10-15 minute presentation that they had come up with using some of the information, skills, and activities they learned throughout the taller. I was not to sure how well this would go over, but I was blown away with the results. Two of the groups performed short skits, one group had a environment inspired reggaton/rap song, several of the groups used dinamicas in their presentation to get their peers to answer environmental trivia, and all of the groups were able to show just how much they had learned throught the two days. At the end of the presentations while we were waiting for lunch one of the participants came up to me and explained that he helps facilitate a youth group every Sunday and he was wondering if he could have some extra paper to do some of these activities and excercises with the group this coming Sunday…CHA-CHING! That was exactly what I was going for with this workshop (for the students to take the information, skills, and tools that they learned through this taller and to share it with their peers, and their communities in whatever forums or networks they have at their disposal), and I could not have been more happier. I’m pretty sure I was high with happiness for not only the rest of the day, but the rest of the weekend as well.
Mark, Eyal, TJ and I got a ride back to Juticalpa with Jose Luis and we went to see the Recycling video at the movie theater (there was a free screening both Thursday and Friday nights), and then I headed to the Salon to meet up with Silvia and Keyla. I was supposed to do something with the Peace Corps crew, but when I got home I realized how much I missed my family so I opted to hang out with them and spend my friday night playing word games with Darien and chilling with the baby, Keyla, and Tatiana.
Lots of Love,
Delaney C.
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