Since my service
is coming to an end and work is slow in my community, I decided to take
advantage of school summer vacation and organize a trip to the Omar Torrijos
National Park. The park is close to my community and since I worked closely
with the park director throughout my service, he offered to take me and a group
of kids.
The kids who
wanted to go to the park had to participate in a community clean-up. This was a
great success because we did the clean up right after Carnivales Holiday (4
days of non-stop drinking, rodeos and dancing). The kids came with wheelbarrows
of recyclables (mostly beer cans) which we sorted together in our community
recycling center.
There were 14 kids and 3 parents who participated and the following week we were in a car with the director heading to the park. We hiked some of the paths and the guide was able to spot out birds, frogs, caterpillers, sloths and salamanders that we would have never spotted alone. Kids were in awe and could not stop taking pictures of creatures they had never seen before. We also climbed up to the top of a beautiful view and I enjoyed hearing kids complain about how "cold" it was- being from the mountains myself it was really refreshing to not be sweating and to get a break from the tropical heat!
There were 14 kids and 3 parents who participated and the following week we were in a car with the director heading to the park. We hiked some of the paths and the guide was able to spot out birds, frogs, caterpillers, sloths and salamanders that we would have never spotted alone. Kids were in awe and could not stop taking pictures of creatures they had never seen before. We also climbed up to the top of a beautiful view and I enjoyed hearing kids complain about how "cold" it was- being from the mountains myself it was really refreshing to not be sweating and to get a break from the tropical heat!
We also prepared
presentations about the importance of national parks and Panama’s diverse
ecosystems.
One of my favorite moments of the trip was when a little girl told me that the park was super clean and there was no trash anywhere. She told me she wanted our community, La Mina, to be like that and was going to continue using the recycling center I helped implement. It touched my heart to see the kids so excited to be outside in nature and appreciate what their beautiful country has to offer.,
Moments like these have kept me going through these hell of a 2 years.
“One moment can change a day
One of my favorite moments of the trip was when a little girl told me that the park was super clean and there was no trash anywhere. She told me she wanted our community, La Mina, to be like that and was going to continue using the recycling center I helped implement. It touched my heart to see the kids so excited to be outside in nature and appreciate what their beautiful country has to offer.,
Moments like these have kept me going through these hell of a 2 years.
“One moment can change a day
One day can
change a life
One life can change
a world”
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| Super windy at the top of a mountain! |
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| Nuff said |
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