Global Business Brigades University of Texas Austin Club on their March 2008 trip to Madroño. Here they are working at EarthTrain's Center de Madroño.
This is a bridge at Centro de Madroño, EarthTrain's Campus. The Texans base out of this center during their brigade. It is a lovely area, surrounded by rain forest.
University of Texas students making totumas, a traditional artenisia, of Panama.
The college students watching Rolando demonstrate how to clean out the calabasa fruit to make the totuma.
Texa's students scraping out their totumas with kitchen spoons.
Once the totumas were scraped clean they are scoured with sand and water from the creek.
The final step of making a totuma, is eating sancocho out of them. Sancocho is a traditional Panamanian lunch, more or less a chicken soup.
This is the reason we are encouraging the sale of ornamental plants. To give the families alternative sources of income. This will help reduce the presure to illegally harvest wood. This is a truck leaving El Valle with black market wood.
Jeff heading out to play soccer with the local guys. The soccer ball was donated by the last Brigade in March 2008.
The local guys playing soccer. The ball was donated by Brigades. It is the only soccer ball this communtiy has.
In addition to bringing a soccer ball, the Brigade group brought coloring supplies. Here's some of the pictures that have been produced.
A close up of one of our favorite drawings made with Brigade's donated coloring supplies.
A scouting trip to Riba Smith, a Panama City grocery, showed what is currently available in ornamental plants.
A scouting trip to Riba Smith, a Panama City grocery, showed what is currently available.
Foy and Jeff visited many stores looking for the best deal on teracotta pots. The decision was made to buy pots from Machetazo near La Doña, because the price was right and it is on the way to El Valle when leaving Panama City.
Ideas on what the planters could look like.
Sophia and Foy made example pots to demonstrait what they were looking for in a pot to sell.
These pots are up at EarthTrain.
Here are the pots at Foy and Jeff's house awaiting distribution.
The two room school in El Valle. The school has their own garden to grow the ornamenal pots.
Here's a photo of the kids at El Valle's school. Five are in elementary school and seven are in kindergarden. This is a day we did battery collection and recycling.
Here's the kids counting up their batteries.
Foy working with the elementary school kids to plant the flower garden.
Here Foy and the kids plant up flower seeds.
This is the first day that the garden at the school was planted.
The August 2008 plantas ornamentales meeting.
Refreshments were served after the meeting.
Sophia and Andri in El Valle awaiting the transport.
Foy and Jeff planting up a couple things in the school garden.
October 2008, the school garden is growing and plants are being harvested to use in the pots.
Here's the tree pots growing at the school.
Participant - Leonarda
Participant - Adalina and her husband and youngest son.
Participant - Arelis (Jeni) and her daughter Jorelenis.
Participant - Yanisa (Yani) and her children.
Participant - Andrea
Participant - Leonarda and her family. She has four boys and a husband.
Making compost to ammend the soil at the school. These kindergardeners are stripping balo leaves.
Some of the students at the school helping make balo tea as a natural insect repellent.
