Community Development Activity: Success!

As part of our training we had to do a community development activity, which involved exploring the good things about the community along with the problems. We did this through talking to people in the area (we found that tienda ladies are very helpful and willing to talk as long as you like) as well through more structured projects like having people in our families draw a community map. Through our analysis we found that the local elementary school had horrible bathrooms, and on top of that no water for the kids to wash their hands with afterwards. In basic san, we learned about a project called “tippytops” which are low water using, hand washing devices made from old 2 liter bottles. I along with my team of Brandon, Evan and Amanda made 4 of these for the school and took them there to demonstrate. We talked to 3 classes of 1st and 2nd graders about the importance of washing theirs hands after using the bathroom and before eating. After our hand washing speech, we had a relay race in which the kids ran to us, washed their hands, and then got cookies! The kids were adorable, loved the game, and were overjoyed to play with the gringos. They also were impressed by the ¨tippytops¨and even wanted to learn how to make them for their own homes. We left the school feeling like we had made a small, but important impact on the school.