People will do anything here for an education, including selling their last water buffalo. There’s a big hit on the radio sung by a young female and it goes something like this: “I want to be in university…where I can truly open my mind.” (And in Japan, every girl knew where superstar Utada Hikaru went to college.) Does anyone know if Britney Spears or any of our MTV starlets has gone to college? And if they did, could you imagine them singing about it?
One of the newer philosophies of Peace Corps the integration of various volunteer sectors. I’m in the biz sector, but most of the volunteers in my training are here to tackle specific environmental concerns, such as water/sanitation (i.e. latrines and waste treatment) and coastal resources (i.e. dynamite fishing and beach erosion.) We all have skills and experience we can share with others, regardless of our differing disciplines. It excites me tremendously to have been placed with a group so dedicated to making this earth a place where all living things can carry on happy and healthy until the next Big Bang.
Today we had two integrated activities. We began a coastal cleanup and mangrove planting at 7:30am. I gathered lots of broken glass, rusty scrap metal, and an empty blister pack that once housed birth control pills (a rarity in this country where any unnatural form of “family planning” is heavily discouraged.) The students from Taloto Elementary dropped by to help out as well. I went through my flashcards with them. They impressed me much with their knowledge of almost all the English translations. I amused them by repeating “tawong tambok” which can mean either “fat person” or “large eggplant.” (I also go through my flashcards with the armed security guard at the farm every morning.)
After returning to the farm, we had a sweet spaghetti (tomato sauce with sugar) merienda, and a lecture on the scientific process of composting. After lunch, we built five different forms of compost heaps. We will watch these heaps over the coming days and weeks to better understand the outcomes of these systems.
Composting is quite essential in a country that is already overpopulated, whose population shows no signs of slowing (save for the blister pack on the beach), and where there is a lack of controlled dumpsites. Apparently households produce well over half the waste in The Philippines. Reaching out to communities, teaching them how easy and important it is to compost, and hopefully exposing them to opportunities to sell their compost (or use it for their own gardening and farming) will have a remarkable effect on sanitation and environmental sustainability.
I’ve seen composting in action, and even tried to get a composting program going at University of the Pacific (where plenty of food is bussed to the dishwashing station untouched due to eyes bigger than stomachs) but until now I’d never been exposed to the process. Now I’m on my way to being able to teach others to how and why composting is the way to be.
Posted by dbs at February 19, 2004 07:07 PM