The Epic Seminar, Act III
By Friday morning, the 5 PCVs heard the alarm go off at 6AM, and we knew we should get up, but it was more like 6:45 or 7 before any real movement was accomplished.
The community met us there at the meeting hall right at 8 so we were able to get started ahead of schedule. Again, this is UNHEARD OF across Panama in general, especially in my region. So epic win. We started by breaking into small groups to outline the jobs of a president, secretary, treasurer, technician, and vocale. Based on the characteristics and responsibilities of each office, we then elected a new health committee since the previous one was choosing to resign. The outgoing Health Committee VP/treasurer spoke about some of the challenges of the pilot phase and his recommendations for the future groups. In the end we elected a new committee that even has TWO women on it! (My host mom is one of them :) )
After the new committee was elected we discussed how the next families will be chosen. We are only going to continue the project by building in groups of 5, and in order to decide who gets to go next, we are going to use whoever has the most work hours already invested in the project. We had set this rule early on in the pilot phase so we jsut reiterated the details of that and unveiled the tally of work hours, anouncing the next 5 families up for the project. I was crazy nervous about this point and was expecting lots of arguments and a long drawn out discussion, but it was accepted wholeheartedly without contest. Amazing.
Finally, to close out the seminar, we had them do a goals activity. On a piece of paper with 4 quadrants, I had them write or draw...
1. what they are going to do TOMORROW to improve the health of their family
2. what they are going to do in the next WEEK to improve the health of their family
3. what they are going to do in the next MONTH to improve the health of their family
4. what they are going to do in the next YEAR to improve the health of their family
We all took the 'Eat No Poop' Pledge, which was incredibly solemn for a bunch of people promising to no longer consume fecal matter, and everyone received their certificates. We took a group picture, signed a posted I am going to hang up by the river to remind them of their pledge, and YA! We were finished....sortof!
Although the seminar ended, within an hour there were people gathering to finish work on the pilot latrines so while every fiber of my being wanted to spend the afternoon playing in the river and laying in the hammock, we set to work!
The community met us there at the meeting hall right at 8 so we were able to get started ahead of schedule. Again, this is UNHEARD OF across Panama in general, especially in my region. So epic win. We started by breaking into small groups to outline the jobs of a president, secretary, treasurer, technician, and vocale. Based on the characteristics and responsibilities of each office, we then elected a new health committee since the previous one was choosing to resign. The outgoing Health Committee VP/treasurer spoke about some of the challenges of the pilot phase and his recommendations for the future groups. In the end we elected a new committee that even has TWO women on it! (My host mom is one of them :) )
After the new committee was elected we discussed how the next families will be chosen. We are only going to continue the project by building in groups of 5, and in order to decide who gets to go next, we are going to use whoever has the most work hours already invested in the project. We had set this rule early on in the pilot phase so we jsut reiterated the details of that and unveiled the tally of work hours, anouncing the next 5 families up for the project. I was crazy nervous about this point and was expecting lots of arguments and a long drawn out discussion, but it was accepted wholeheartedly without contest. Amazing.
Finally, to close out the seminar, we had them do a goals activity. On a piece of paper with 4 quadrants, I had them write or draw...
1. what they are going to do TOMORROW to improve the health of their family
2. what they are going to do in the next WEEK to improve the health of their family
3. what they are going to do in the next MONTH to improve the health of their family
4. what they are going to do in the next YEAR to improve the health of their family
We all took the 'Eat No Poop' Pledge, which was incredibly solemn for a bunch of people promising to no longer consume fecal matter, and everyone received their certificates. We took a group picture, signed a posted I am going to hang up by the river to remind them of their pledge, and YA! We were finished....sortof!
Although the seminar ended, within an hour there were people gathering to finish work on the pilot latrines so while every fiber of my being wanted to spend the afternoon playing in the river and laying in the hammock, we set to work!
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