Maps and Painting

October 21, 2010        

As the inevitable wait for grant money continues, I’ve been trying to establish a regular environmental youth group…with varied levels of success. Recently, I’ve learned paint is a great motivator. I stopped by the school, and coordinated a geography day with the 4^th grade teacher to introduce the idea of geography and maps to the kids, as an intro to painting a map mural. I am continually amazed at how little recognition and awareness of places outside of Las Auyamas the kids and adults in the community have. Many of the kids have never been out of the province of San Juan, most have never visited their nation’s capital, and almost all of them have never seen the ocean. I have found a new appreciation for my mobility on this island; in my 6 months here, I’ve seen more of the country than most of my fellow community members will in their own lifetime. I feel very lucky to be in a position to visit the different parts of such a beautiful country, and I am eager to share these visits and give some perspective to what else is on this island, and in the world outside of this campo. The mural I hope can serve as a way to introduce some of these other places, and give some insight to our location and existence in this world. Building awareness for how we are connected to and part of a world bigger than just here will be a very important theme for Brigada Verde: it’s easy to throw your trash in the river if you have no knowledge of the ocean, towns, or people that exist downstream. So, I had the kids come and help paint in the provinces and label the names on the map…a good first step in building this awareness for other places.

The following week, I continued with the paint theme and painted environmentally inspired drawings on higueros.. lots of butterflies and banana trees. The higuero is a local fruit that has a woody shell which can be dried in the sun and used like you would a plastic container for just about anything. They have been used traditionally for years for storing and serving food and water. One of my peers told me that his grandmother only used higueros for storing water and eating off of until about 10 years ago…when some of her kids brought her back some plastics from the capital. Now, you can still find at least one being used in every kitchen.

Salt Water Lake - Lago Enriquillo

27 Sept. 2010

I visited this salt water lake in the Southwestern part of the country on a recent trip down to visit some other volunteers. The strangest looking ecosystem ever, it is giant salt-lake in the middle of a dry area where many farmers have grazing lands and some crops. In the middle there are a few desert islands with cacti, crocodiles, and flamingoes during the winter. The DR is such a small country, but surprisingly has a huge diversity of landscapes and ecosystems.  This lake used to be part of the ocean, and then some geological faulting and lifting processes happened to disconnect it. Also interesting is that it only has rivers flowing into it, none out. The water levels depend on the amount of rainfall, but also on evaporation rates in the area. The lake as an incredibly eerie look to it right now because water levels have been rising steadily for the last several years.

 Where I was, there was about 75m of drowned trees providing a stark contrast to the lush shoreline. Another volunteer told me it had something to do with some geological uplifting that was a precursor to the Haiti 2010 earthquake as it is part of the same fault line/system The rising water level has been detrimental to the local economy. Farmers’ land for crops and grazing adjacent to the lake has been permanently flooded making it impossible to use. Also, local tourist companies have had difficulty developing accessibility to the lake, such as the building of docks, because the shoreline continues to crawl upward and water swallows up any improvements made.