9/26/06 (Day 14): PACA tools

"Wow!! Two whole weeks in the Peace Corps! The stars were birght tonight in the Sta. Eulalia Valley when Benj and I left the training center and headed home. It was a long day of learning 'Participatory Analysis for Community Action' or PACA toosl. We split up into our small groups and walked throughout the community doing interviews, drawing community maps, walking transect lines, learning about daily and seasonal schedules, etc. One main road passes through the community, a river flows through the valley just down from the road, and the dusty hills rise steeply all around us. We thought that we would do a project focused on garbage collection but learned through our various interviews that they community is very proud of the garbage cleaning situation they already have set up. Hmmm... Maybe instead we will do a series of plays on why littering is bad. Our main concern is that if successful, this campaign would put the street cleaners out of business."