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El pasado taller en Coco Solo, fue increible la buena disposicion de los niños y su gran deseo de aprender y crear fue maravilloso, trabajar con niños tan talentosos siempre es una motivacion para nosotros para seguir haciendo estos talleres.
-Sebastian Garzon
PERCBODY en Coco Solo from rose cromwell on Vimeo.
I am in my last semester of grad school in Syracuse, New York. The program is great but I do not get as much time as I would like to spend in Coco Solo. I miss Cambio’s co-directors, Lorena and Mikey, and all of the kids that I have now known for over 4 years. I really value the time that I get to spend leading Photograpy workshops with Lorena. Photography was the first official Cambio Creativo workshop and I really love making images with the kids. Not only do they enjoy it, but I too get in touch my childlike imagination which I too often pack away.
I find that it is really productive to define more abstract notions like culture with the kids before going out to make images. It gets everyone focused and we reflect on how photography is really a great medium to communicate things that are hard to define with words. The Congo dancers from Portobelo had just come to our Holiday Party and I thought it would be great to define culture, why is it important, and to identify and celebrate culture that is specific to Coco Solo, Colon and Panama in general. We want the kids to be proud of what is their’s and to understand that people who are not from Coco Solo and Panama are interested to learn about their culture- that is is something special.
We spent some time the first days of the workshop brainstorming about what is culture and the kids chose something specific to culture in Coco Solo that they wanted to photograph. They really had some mature definitions, and we were pretty impressed as it is a hard thing to define. Finally after previsualizing their photographs they went out and photographed. We got some great images from these shoots. We are going to present them at an exhibition we are going to have at Los Del Patio in May- until then we may keep them under wraps- so you are all going to have to come join us at the opening to see how the kids defined culture and what they chose to show about their culture- you will not want to miss it! I can’t wait!!
Rose
click below to see a video of brainstorming in action!
Taller de Fotografia- Cambio Creativo January 2012 from rose cromwell on Vimeo.
I have been involved in the Coco Solo community for over 4 years and have recently had the pleasure of watching many of the youth grow up and become young adults. This is so rewarding, especially when you see them blossom into responsible, eager, critically thinking young people who are eager to go out and make their mark on the world. There is one young man I have in mind, and that is Carlos Munoz, also known as Papita. When I first met Papita, (when he was 14), he had recently come to live with Pastor Mikey. He was rebellious, distant, and years behind in school. Pastor Mikey had to constantly discipline him, and being one of the oldest, he wasnt setting the best example in behavior for his younger siblings. Today Carlos is one of our Cambio interns, running Study Hall sessions 3 times a week. He volunteers in the Soup Kitchen that Pastor Mikey runs without being asked, takes leadership roles in all the community activities, and has bold goals and dreams for his future. He speaks to me as a fellow adult and shakes the hand of Coco Solo visitors as a confident young leader ready to work for his community. He is a great role model for his younger brothers. He is also within a semester away from graduating high school. The dedication that Pastor Mikey has shown to him has paid off, and we try to do whatever we can to support that. You all, by supporting our fundraising- are supporting Carlos’ future. So on behalf of all of us, Thank you!!!!
This is the bigger picture- the smaller picture I will illustrate now: The Annual Holiday Party! This year was quite the party! We had a lot of entertainment. We have been collaborating with groups of youth from Portobelo (a neighboring town in Colon province)- mainly through La Escuela de Ritmo in Portobelo. A group of 17 youth came to dance traditional Congo for Coco Solo residents. Congo traditions are traditions that were brought by African slaves to Panama. Many residents in Coco Solo also also decendents of African slaves and share Congo culture with the Portobelo residents.
After the entertainment we had four rounds of crazy piñata breaking. We had a face painting station as well that kids loved and kept them busy while the food was being served. Finally we ate and handed out presents.
The motive of this cleaning was to prepare ourselves to bring in Christmas and the New Year in an environment and area where the kids could play without risk of accidents in both the Transit and Hostel sectors, we hope for the participation of each inhabitant because with the help of everyone we can make this day a unique event, that will benefit us all.
In order to make it fun, the cleanup consisted of a contest, in which in the same day cleaning rules will be said depending on the number of people willing to collaborate on the activity, they will give out basic cleaning utensils like gloves, bags, shovels, rakes, among others. We have planned a toast to the health of the participants and to finalize the prizes for the winners.
This is intended to become more frequent, trying to raise awareness in the community of Coco Solo that it is very important to maintain the cleanliness in the place in which we live.
This workshop of painting congó was directed toward children and teenagers interested in painting and it focused on the simple congó style of painting. It was directed by Gustavo Esquine De la Espada and Manuel Golden, members of the Portobelo Workshop. Through this workshop, they sought to bring participants closer to the manifestation of the congó art permiting the wide spread of this culture that is seen through its own people and foreigners with admiration and respect. These are values which we wanted them to feel involved with, and also for them to share it with friends and family.
The workshop began with providing the kids and teenagers with basic knowledge of pictorial art, its techniques, and elements that compromise their importance to the individual as a means of expression and a way of life rewarded and respected by society. We recycled every kind of objects and materials to paint as they please, taking into account that the congós use different objects that they find to incorporate in their clothing. As a final work we used a piece of canvas over a board and then applied acrylic, mirrors, and sequins.
On a personal level, this has been the most emotional and extraordinary experience that I have had as an artist. I was very impressed with the environment, I knew that in Coco Solo there were deficiencies, but not at such a level. This was something surprising to me. I don’t know if by fortune or misfortune, this is something that the people that live in this area unconsciously ignore, and that it isn’t an impediment for them to show their enthusiasm and desires to excel. This is something worthy of admiration of all of the kids with whom we worked with. While at first it is true that they were somewhat reluctant, perhaps because of their ignorance on the subject of pictorial art, by the end we succeeded in letting them have fun while learning an art that could later serve as a complement or a job in their daily lives.
They weren’t the only ones that learned from this experience. We relearned how to live happily and without apparent complications even as a child when all of life’s ups and downs come at them and they are still able to learn, have fun, and above all, smile.
-Gustavo Esquina de la Espada
The beginning of sexual relations is a problem that worries Pastor Michael Brown as teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases are affecting girls that are having sex with adult carriers in Coco Solo due to economic pressures.
One way to address the “temptations,” which is how they address drugs, gangs, and sex, is through information. For this reason, the kids solicited a workshop in sexual education. During October and November of this year, we collaborated with the team from Cambio Creativo and have created workshops on Comprehensive Sexual Education for boys, girls, and teenagers in the Coco Solo community, with the objective of presenting basic information over the distinct components of sexuality like self-esteem and other values, knowledge of our bodies, prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV.
We have the help of Delia Martínez, a social worker from the Integral Care Center for Adolescents in Colón. She is accompanied by Maruquel, one of the teenage promoters of conversations on HIV. The space was greatly enriched by the easy flow of information between young people with questions and answers on how HIV is contracted, how are those with HIV viewed, and how we can care for those infected. Meanwhile, the adults helped with inter-generational work on how to combat HIV in Colón, which is the province with the second highest level of prevalence and infection of this epidemic.
In another session, we collected signatures of all the participants and then exhanged them freely. Each signature represented unprotected sex and through this game we found that Pocho, one of the teenage participants, had become infected. Clearly, after realizing he was infected, Ponch became a little sad. We told him life goes on and that his life plan would involve looking for treatment for those already infected like himself. Afterwards, we asked them all to write on small pieces of paper material things and nonmaterial things that they appreciate most in their lives: family, to continue studying at university, to have a Play Station 3, to have a car, to be someone in life. Afterwards they closed their eyes and some of the pieces of paper disappeared – they were upset and were left grieving because of the things they lost. As this game reflects real life, they realized how an accident or a disease can take us away from what we want and love most. In the end, the lesson was to take care of ourselves and avoid risks.
On the other hand teen pregnancy is a problem for all girls. Some are thrown out of their schools and sent to night school and others are dealt with by adults who like to “pick on little girls.” As a society we are responsible for the youth, and we should ask ourselves what we give them and then what we can expect of them. The opportunities are the key. I asked myself if we are listening to the teenagers of Colon. In every corner that I listen and talk to the teenagers they tell me that what they want most is to live without violence, to live without fear of crossing the streets, and to enjoy being healthy.
To all of the businesses and people that want to help a project of social responsibility, we tell them to invest the most in the valuable part of Colón: “its people”. Because in order to make an intervention with the youth, we need their fathers, mothers, and educators, like a triangle that makes a table not fall, says Professor Mauro Gordón. Cambio Creativo is a community project that continues to plan in 2012, transforming the lives of the young boys and girls, which with very few resources and great desire have already done a lot, now in order to achieve the objective they will need the help of a responsible adult society to give the necessary support for the development of the youth.
-Tania Rodríguez G. (Social Worker and Specialist in HIV-AIDS and Youth)
Its been a long process, but with the help of friends and family in Panama and the U.S., Coco Solo now has its own library! We began with the library project back in January, when Blake Scott, a Cambio Creativo mentor, suggested it at one of our photography workshops. We immediately recognized its potential, as we have come to find that illiteracy is one of the greatest hurdles that exists in the education of the kids of Coco Solo. We sent emails out to everyone we knew, and received hundreds of books donations for our fledgling library. Nitzia Barrantes, of the Biblioteca Nacional, found out about our cause and donated hundreds of books. We also received generous donations from the Colon City library. After months of soliciting for donations, we now are in the possession of over a thousand books.
Learning Leaves!
Leaves come in many beautiful forms. Students from Coco Solo integrated many
beautiful leaves into their artwork during a workshop on coastal leaf forms. Maya
deVries collected many different types from coastal trees and bushes at the Smithsonian
Tropical Research Institute’s (STRI) Galeta Marine Lab (Maya’s field site).
Back in the classroom, Maya asked the students to explain why we see so many different
leaf sizes and forms, with invaluable help from Rose Cromwell, Pastor Michael Brown,
Valerie Whiting, Rob Aldredge, and Tate Tunstall. The students suggested that the
bigger leaves could capture more light and the smaller ones could capture less light. The
students also noticed that some leaves were smooth while others were rough or furry.
These characteristics allow plants to retain more water and/or deter predators.
Once the students learned about the leaves it was time for them to get creative! They
pasted their leaves onto paper and then drew beautiful pictures that integrated the leaves
into the drawings. Valerie and Rose then led a group presentation session where all of
the students got to present their artwork to one another. In this workshop the students
learned about plants in their own backyard, while also developing creativity and building
confidence.
Students in the “Fossiles de Panamá” workshop in Coco Solo were transported back to a
time when Panama as we know it didn’t even exist. In fact, they went back three to 22
million years ago, when there was still an ocean separating North and South America.
How did the students make this journey back in time? They studied fossils collected
from the Gatun Lake formation in Colon, Panama. The Gatun Lake formation is part of
the Gatun Lake river system, but researchers are now able to collect the fossils because
of a massive project underway to expand the width and depth of the Panama Canal. The
expansion project requires workers to dig through a lot of dirt! Luckily for the young
scientists of Coco Solo, all of this digging has allowed researchers to find to an incredible
amount of fossils that they otherwise never would have found.
Jesus David, Maya deVries, and Wendy James visited an amazing site where the
sediment from the dredging of the new canal have has been deposited. There, they found
beautiful sea shells that are millions of years old, which represent what the sea looked
like before Panama was formed.
Back in the classroom, Yiriana Romero from the Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute’s (STRI) Galeta Marine Lab described the geologic history of Panama. The
students were surprised to learn that the Earth’s surface is made up of plates that move
relative to one another. Panama was formed when two of these plate collided and created
a series of volcanoes and volcanic explosions that eventually closed the gap between
North and South America. This event not only created Panama, but it allowed all of the
animals in plant from the North to migrate to the South, and visa versa.
After this unique history lesson, Maya deVries led an activity with the fossils from the
Gatun Lake Formation, with the help of Wendy, Yiriana, Pastor Mikey Brown, and
Rob Aldredge (PhD Student at Galeta Marine Lab). The students were asked to sift
through the sediment, collect all of the fossils, and determine which type of fossil was
most abundant in the collection. They found one species of marine snail way more often
than they fond the other species, which suggests that this particular species was the most
abundant in the sea 22 million years ago, when Panama was still underwater.
The students had a wonderful time getting dirty with fossils, learning science, and
thinking critically and creatively about the world around them. This activity asked the
students to think about the world differently. They learned that the earth is very old and
what we recognize as Panama today, wasn’t always here and didn’t always look how it
does today. We hope that our workshop taught students that the world isn’t always how it
seems and so students must always question the world around them.
