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Panama

Students of Tarazana Elementary School conducted a collaborative project with the children of an indigenous mountain community in a central mountain town in Panama in the spring of 2006. The students wrote journal entries about their current habit-of-heart, Self-Mastery, to be interpreted for the children there. They also conducted a hikathon/readathon to cultivate empathy for what it must be like to climb high mountains for the privilege of learning. They gave the funds raised to their liaison from the MONA Foundation to hand deliver to Panama. Students who completed the hikathon received goody bags with school supplies. They sacrificed those supplies for the liaison, MONA board member Sima Mobini, to deliver to students in Panama.

The members of the student government later sent pictures and letters of thanks, which also shared information about the landscape. For example:

"The area of our Ngobe Bugle reserve is like this uphill and downhill. (House, cow, our land is like this.)"

Another child drew a cup and bird drawing, saying,

"These are our beautiful crafts from our culture,"

"Our soul is like a dove."

"Children are like plants, they will grow how they are educated."

Meanwhile, teachers at the Badi School in David, Panama expressed the need for a curriculum that would help them apply the principles of service and character education into their academic curriculum. When they learned about Full-Circle Learning from the Mona Foundation, Full-Circle Learning sent Niaz Khadem, a progressive young educator, who trained more than 20 teachers from four communities, adapting materials and translating songs to make the training adaptable for teachers working in three languages.

Niaz Khadem was the ideal trainer to send. He hailed from Kentucky's Murray State University but had lived in Central and South America for the past two and a half years. He had taught high on the Cone-Burica Reserve of Pavones in Costa Rica and was familiar with the Ngobe Bugle people and had trained in Full-Circle Learning in Bolivia.

He rose to the occasion and went to Panama, to the city of David, to train the more than 20 teachers who gathered there, representing schools from four communities. When the projector did not arrive, he was able to train them using the computers provided by the Mona Foundation, using the Full-Circle Learning DVD. Cherie Moraga had quickly translated many of the songs on tape, which he took to the villages where students insisted on playing them on the radio station. He also incorporated them into the teacher's instructions on how to integrate music into ethics and service-based education.

The teachers are now conducting their study of the habit of Understanding other nations, to connect with a local festival. They will prepare items for their global learning partners soon.

The training in David attracted teachers from David, Soloy and Molejon and from other private schools. Niaz also saved time to make the trek up to the mountain village to spend time with the students there.

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