3rd Pathways to a Sustainable Future: Day 5 - 9

After hours of travelling on a bus, we’ve finally reached Bahia Negra. We’ve spent a total of 4 days with this community and the people here have welcomed us with open hands and warm hearts. Our main projects in Bahia Negra included the campaign for creating a cleaner city through the installation of trash cans around the town that we have stenciled with paint. Our campaign slogan, “Ciudad Limpia Alma Limpa” means “Clean City Clean Soul” where we want to encourage the community to become more active in maintaining a clean town. Working with the students and teachers from the local school, we’ve completed a total of 80 trash cans that got distributed all across the town. Another of our projects was the completion of a mural in the school’s cafeteria. Organized by Aunt Carol and the Mural Team, the participants brainstormed together centered on the ideas of “Ciudad Limpia Alma Limpia”, “One America”, and our campaign logo, “Ama A Dios, Ama La Gente, Ama La Naturaleza” which means love God, love humanity, and love nature. Aside from the completion of the mural, Aunt Carol and some of the participants worked together to recreate the welcome sign at the entrance of Bahia Negra. On our 8th day, we visited the indigenous village of Diana and helped refurbish the local school. The participants also had the ch

ded Sunday Service at the Catholic Church and had the opportunity to introduce ourselves to the community. Afterwards, we began our project of planting 100 trees including the Neem Trees, fruit trees, and flowering La Pacha. Although it was a load of work for us to complete, we received so much help and support from the community as well as a memorable barbeque including the slaughtering of a lamb for our feast. Later that afternoon, we ended our time at Bahia Negra where the community including the students from Diana gathered together for a night of performance and entertainment to conclude our time.