A Reflection: Learning Sustainability is the Process

Four good friends came to visit from college. My first real visitors to the island and they were unable to make it up to my site. So I tried to tell them what I do... what I have learned from all this Peace Corps Volunteer business. This is what I came up with.


“I wanted the sour oranges from the top of the tree to make juice for our youth group. Luisito wanted to climb the tree just so that he could escape from his grandmother’s house for at least one moment. I wanted to finish collecting the oranges within an hour. Luisito wanted to sleep under the tree and wake up to the rising sun. I wanted to plant more fruit trees in our community. Luisito wanted to teach me how to save the seeds, dry them, and then plant them.

Sometimes the solution to a task takes longer than expected. The orange juice would come; however, not until many small, basic steps would make us appreciate the final product.”

My last two years in the Peace Corps have introduced me to a lifestyle that requires patience. However, not a dull and boring kind of patience, particularly when one has to wait to get oranges from neighbors’ trees. Rather, it is an opportunity to learn something new with every task. My job as a Community Environment Development Promoter, in the small, rural Dominican town of Ojo de Agua, is to develop projects that help the community focus on local environmental issues. Our youth group, “Defenders of the Environment,” dedicates two hours every week discussing and developing plans to resolve community environmental issues.

With lots of trash cluttering the creek that runs through our cozy neighborhood of 55 houses, we’ve learned that residents need a system to dispose of waste. Trash in the creek has had a negative impact on the health of people, plants and animals. Several kids have suffered from dengue--- a viral disease of the tropics that causes sudden fever and pain in the joints. This disease is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. They use the standing water in the plastic bottles and plastic wraps in the creek as a place to produce new life.

We have constructed compost bins in order to dispose of organic food scraps that make up over half of our total solid waste. In addition, food scraps have brought an abundance of flies and gnats to the creek bed.

The collection of food scraps and leaves from neighbors’ yards have provided us with an opportunity to create rich, black soil. We’ve used the soil in our community gardens and tree nursery. Future enjoyable orange juice will come from trees planted by Luisito and nourished by the ingredients in our rich, black soil.

The story is one of sustainability. A chain of accomplishments by the youth group that improves not only the trash situation in Ojo de Agua, but turns that trash into a rich soil that the kids refer to as “Black Gold.” Even more important, they’re proud of it. The new Mayor has recognized the need for a healthier community, especially with the introduction of Cholera to the island. He has appreciated our lead to cut in half the amount of waste we produce and has recently improved the collection of our non-organic materials.

As a student of environmental science, I have always wanted to live in a sustainable environment. In college I learned about the systems of waste disposal and why trash and contamination destroy our water systems and contribute to bad health. However, never have I been able to put into practice these sustainable concepts until arriving in the Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer in the small rural community of Ojo de Agua.

The youths in my community have had little or no exposure to environmental education. They have spent most of their lives in areas filled with trash. How should they know what a healthy environment looks like? Through my service I have realized that opportunity and balance go hand in hand. If someone is not presented with the opportunity to receive a decent education then they are not likely to understand why or how certain issues affect their existence. The Dominican Republic’s education system is not well supported and has done an injustice to it students. I see a need to highlight the fact that human beings need a clean and healthy natural world. So what is the sustainable plan for the community of Ojo de Agua? How are we going to rid ourselves of this trash problem?

Instead of preaching: “don’t litter and pick up after yourselves!!!” My goal has been to introduce youth to the reality of the world outside Ojo de Agua. I took them to conferences where they met youths from other communities in their own country, who share many of the same challenges. They talked with others and saw examples of how they could compost, create worm bins, plant gardens on the sides of hills, recycle, and reuse trash. It was encouraging to see their faces light up as they walked through green gardens sprouting fresh organic vegetables and realized they could use their own hands to design purses, flower vases, picture frames, dolls, bracelets and other art, all made from disposable trash.

If we want to improve communities we must be willing to expose those communities to new and healthy opportunities. Good ideas and successful models must be made accessible to all.

Just as the youth of Ojo de Agua became involved in real and practical solutions to properly dispose of solid waste, so too must the developed world become stewards of the environement though it may not see trash strewn across the streets. Where does the incredible quantities of pastic packaging go that seems to be included in every purshase we make.

Just as eleven-year-old Luisito did not have the opportunity to learn something new outside the boundaries of his grandmother’s yard; neither would I have understood what it means to live humbly in the rural hills of the Dominican Republic, if I had never left the comfort of a wealthier lifestyle in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am trying to improve the environmental health of Ojo de Agua through the lives of one youth at a time. However, I also have a duty to show my community in California that excessive consumption can also lead to ugly environmental conditions. The reoccurring California energy crises and water shortages are consequences of lifestyles that have not reached a balance between needs and wants. I feel that my experiences in the Dominican Republic have taught me much about making decisions that lead to a sustainable lifestyle.

The community of Ojo de Agua is not litter free, nor do many of the youths with whom I worked understand what sustainability is. Yet, we at least did challenge the idea that throwing our trash in the creek was unacceptable. We worked to understand that if we changed, we had a chance to empower the community to change.

Just as Luisito taught me patience in the making of the orange juice, so too, I must be patient with the friends and family whom I will return to in the states; friends and family who are thirsty for the freshly squeezed orange juice. However, together we will learn that it’s not about the great orange juice, but rather, about the learning process with its successes and failures, that might ultimately resemble a quenching sip.

Make some fresh juice and share it with someone you spend a lot of time with. You'll be humbled and satisfied.

Love from the island,
Jared