BajaNews
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Baja bus could become village focal point
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/18/baja-bus-coul...
Written by Sandra Dibble
Dec. 18, 2011
An abandoned yellow school bus in a windswept Mexican fishing village has been drawing unusual attention from more than 500 miles away in San Diego.
The bus and village sit on the shores of Laguna San Ignacio, a breeding ground and nursery for migratory gray whales off the coast of Baja California
Sur. For years an eyesore, the bus has become the inspiration for a cross-border effort to convert it into a library and community center next to the
village’s lone elementary school.
“This will be our autobús del conocimiento, our bus for knowledge,” said Raúl López, leader of the 500-member community known as Ejido Luis
Echeverría. “This will motivate students to do extracurricular work.”
Launched earlier this year as a service project by two sophomores at Pacific Ridge School in Carlsbad, the project has drawn the support of the
National City-based International Community Foundation. The bus has inspired designs by Carlos Graizbord, an adjunct faculty member at the NewSchool
of Architecture and Design in San Diego, as well as a group of student architects working on a class project who presented their joint design last
week.
Among the ideas generated by the projects: outside pathways made of crushed clam shells, solar ponds on the roof of the bus, a wall for film
projections. The idea is to encourage students and their parents to study the environment that surrounds them.
“It’s a magical little project,” said NewSchool professor Leslie Ryan, who worked with four of her students to draw up a design: Valley Center
resident Victor Rocha and three exchange students from Spain — Millaray Vega, Carolina Turmo and Alejandro Lorente.
Mexico’s federal government originally gave the community the bus to pick up and drop off students, López said. But parts are scarce and maintenance
is difficult, and the vehicle eventually broke down.
If the project succeeds, it could serve as a pilot for other communities in the region faced with the same abandoned-bus dilemna, López said.
Laguna San Ignacio’s high school students travel to the nearest town for class, two hours away and down a deeply rutted, largely unpaved road. The
younger students remain in the community, 68 elementary students taught on-site and 38 junior high school students who take classes through a
telesecundaria, or remote-learning facility.
For all its wealth of natural resources — whales, turtles, migratory birds and mangroves — Laguna San Ignacio is economically isolated and educational
opportunities are limited. Enter Akash Patel and Ian Torbett, sophomores at Pacific Ridge School looking for a service project in April. Patel’s
father is on the board of the International Community Foundation, and so the son contacted foundation president Richard Kiy for a project idea.
The foundation has long been involved with Laguna San Ignacio, helping broker a 2005 groundbreaking agreement through which Ejido members agreed to
limit development on four-fifths of their property — or 120,000 acres — in exchange for a $25,000 annual payment through a trust fund supported by
environmental groups.
Patel and Torbett quickly picked up on Kiy’s suggestion that they take on Project Bus, as they call it. They have raised more than $5,000, but still
have a ways to go: Depending on the design, the project could cost up to $35,000.
Patel and Torbett, now juniors at Pacific Ridge, said they already feel enriched by the experience. Patel remembers visiting San Ignacio with his
family on a whale-watching tour, but “before I took on this project, I didn’t have any idea of what the community actually was and what it needed,” he
said.
Next month, they hope to travel to San Ignacio to present the proposals directly to members of the community.
Photo by: Richard Kiy
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DENNIS
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaNews
“It’s a magical little project,” |
That's what Kesey said about his bus.
Why spend 35,000 on a bus? Why not 35,000 on a nice, big building in which they could develop their projects?
When I see efforts such as this, I'm left thinking the organizers are in it for their own ego, and education becomes secondary. Architects and fund
raisers flexing their muscles.
The expense will be ongoing and they'll soon have to say what they obviously know today, 35,000 will be a drop in the bucket for their needs.
Where will the money come from? The panhandling can will become a tiresome sight.
Must be Democrats.
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vgabndo
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Mood: Checking-off my bucket list.
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STUFF IT Dennis. Unless you want to get into a long losing discussion of your people paying Bechtel $100.00 a load to wash GI's garrison laundry!
Recycling is a good thing. If it is the only way for the kids to get some kind of way to expand their educational opportunities, then it is for the
good.
Undoubtedly, there are people who cannot afford to give the anchor of sanity even the slightest tug. Sam Harris
"The situation is far too dire for pessimism."
Bill Kauth
Carl Sagan said, "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
PEACE, LOVE AND FISH TACOS
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DENNIS
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Just seems like a lot of money spent for a couple hundred feet of floor space.
At least, that's what "my people" tell me.
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baja Steve
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I have to agree with Dennis. I have spent a lot of time in Laguna San Ignacio working the families and the schools. I know the bus and for the money
and upkeep that it will take, it would be far better to put that money into a small building which would be far bigger then the bus and would last a
lot longer. Last week I was taking to one of the parents at the laguna and they me about someone that wanted to fix up the bus and they also thought
it would be using money that could be used in better ways for education which they really appreciate the help on.
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