This year Paraguay Verde was held down in Ayolas which is
the southernmost part of Paraguay right on the border of Argentina. The camp was held at the Yacyreta dam which
is a huge hydroelectric dam on the Rio Parana which separates Paraguay and
Argentina. When they were building the
dam they built a massive camp (very similar to a series of college dorms) for
the workers. So we were able to stay in
those facilities for the duration of the camp so we had plenty of space for
everyone. The camp started on Thursday
and went through Saturday morning. I
will just be going through the camp and tell about it through the pictures.
Once we arrived into camp on Thursday we had lunch and then
had a welcome from PC, A Todo Pulmon, and the dam Entidad Binacional
Yacyreta. After the introductions we had
an ice breaker activity for the campers to get to know each other. We had campers ranging in age from 11-30 and
then all of the volunteers as well with approximately 130 participants. In the afternoon we had three different
sessions the kids could choose from including worm composting, eco bench, and
how to form a local environmental group.
I attended the work composting session which is where this picture was
taken.
Romina, the girl I took from Yukyry Central attended the
session on an eco bench. This eco bench
involves stuffing two liter plastic bottles with a bunch of inorganic trash
(basically anything plastic) which we all brought to the camp. They use these plastic bottles filled with
trash as eco bricks and are actually just as strong as bricks if they are done
correctly. So once they had all of the
bottles collected they used them as well as regular bricks on the edges and
concrete and made a bench out of them.
This is a very common project in just about every PCV’s community just
because it is an easy project and a lot better than just burning the trash
which is normally done here. After they
got it all together they added various scraps of tiles for the top and smoothed
it out. I have a picture later of it actually all done and put together.
Can you see him? This
is a picture of a rather large lizard that was hanging out on the tree
supervising the eco bench.
The next two pictures involved a session where the kids were
learning about thinking both locally and globally. Ten campers were given an object such as
fruit or something else and they had to arrange themselves by how far that item
had to travel to get to them. For
example a banana just came out of the backyard of most houses where apples are
all imported from Argentina and so on.
The point was just to get kids to realize both were some of their food
comes from as well as the resources used and needed to get it to them. Romina was always the first to volunteer for
everything so here she is acting out being a house with the other objects at
differing distances depending on how far they had to come.
On Thursday night we had a recycled art night using
materials that can be found all across Paraguay and we had about ten different
stations ranging from making glasses out of glass bottles to tire chairs, and
even to a broom made with plastic bottles.
This picture is of one of the stations where the kids were making beads
out of different magazines by rolling up slips of paper around a stick and then
putting them on the jewelry they were making.
This station involved using two old tires (which can be
found everywhere here along the road) and cutting the bottom tire a little
while and putting the other tire in it making a very nice chair. I have another picture later once it is
painted and they look really nice and all the kids loved it!
This is a picture of Romina working with a PCV making a
jewelry box out of bamboo. I had not
seen this project before but it is actually a very fun project for the kids
using bamboo which can be found just about everywhere and a little wood glue
and two small nails. She made it for her
mom to give it to her for mother’s day this month.
On Friday morning we went and toured the Refugio Atinguy and
the Yacyreta dam itself. The next few
pictures are of our group touring the beautiful sand dunes. The last picture of the dunes is the group
from my original training community.
This is a picture from a distance of the dam itself that we
got to have a mini tour of.
Unfortunately they were doing some maintenance the day we toured but we
were at least able to tour some.
These pictures are of the dam itself looking into the dams
with the 20 turbines and they produce 19 thousand million kilowatt hours per
year. I actually don’t really understand
how much that it but they made it sound like a lot! Also just about all of Paraguay’s electricity
comes from hydroelectric power between this one and another larger dam on the
eastern side.
This
is a picture of where they fish come out of their special passage through the
dam system. They have a special lift
that sends a signal encouraging the fish to come into the lift and then they
move the fish then either up or down the dam and this picture is where they
come out and if you look closely you should be able to see some big fish in the
water. They talked about the fact that
it isn’t working as well as if the dam wasn’t there but between the fish lift
and some more regulations the fish populations are on the mend.
This is a picture of the backside of the dam where the water
is flowing out with all of the campers looking over the side.
This was another icebreaker game we played in the afternoon
after lunch to get everyone moving. It
involved everyone getting into a big circle and holding hands and then winding
all up together forming like a giant cinnamon roll or a giant hug.
In
the afternoon we had two different sessions.
The first involved talking about water issues here in Paraguay and
abroad as well as learning about different parameters that can be used to
measure water quality for example pH, turbidity, temperature, etc. Each of the campers then was able to assess
the water they had brought from their community using a simple testing
kit. So although this might not measure
more in depth water quality issues like contaminants it at least got the
campers thinking about water quality in their community. Also all of the test kids are free to
volunteers down here so I have ordered some so they should be here soon so I
can work with all of the kids in my community on this important issue
The next session was with A Todo Pulmon which is an
organization that formed here in Paraguay with the intention of planting trees
all over Paraguay and was also one of our major sponsors. The campers learned about the deforestation
here in Paraguay which is just astronomical and then learned what they can do
in their communities to be a positive change.
After the short session and video the kids were then able to go outside
and learn the proper way to plant a tree.
This is just a picture of one of our amazing meals and I
helped out getting set up for all the meals so when the campers arrived all the
food was set out and ready to go.
On Friday night we had a talent show where campers and PCV
alike could share different talents whether they are acting, singing, or
whatever. We also had a small bonfire
which all of the kids enjoyed.
Our breakfast consisting of fresh fruit, bread, and dulce de
leche (similar to caramel) and jam.
On Saturday morning before we left we had a wonderful
session on leadership and how anyone can be a leader and what it means to be a
leader. We had an activity where we were
taped together with masking tape and had to walk together with 5 people and
walk all the way to the line without breaking the tape which was actually super
hard but trying to teach about working together.
We then had time to sit down with the PCV’s and their
campers to talk about what they want to now go home and do in their communities
with what they learned about at camp. So
this is us with my friend Aubrey who helped us come up with various ideas for
our community.
This is a picture of Romina sitting on the finished tire
chairs which were surprising comfortable.
This is the finished eco bench using the eco bricks that has
a beautiful small mural painted on the side of a tree.
Right
before we all left, we had a closing ceremony where all of the campers and
volunteers received nice certificates which are super popular here in Paraguay
so Romina was so proud of hers!
This is a picture of everyone together at the sand
dunes. My next blog post will cover our wonderful trip/ mini vacation getting home!
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