Where do I even begin?

Everything is off to a great start, all things considered! Although I still have my doubts as to how effective of a volunteer I will be, I am nonetheless, very happy here in my new home. Everyday never turns out as I expect, but always turns into a new adventure. I have learned that no matter what time I leave the house I should carry lots of water, a flashlight and a peanut butter sandwich, just in case.

I arrived with too much stuff and a stressed out kitten just minutes after my host family had killed a massive poisonous snake (see large thing dangling off stick in above photo). I was just glad they remembered me, as two weeks had passed since my 4-day visit. My daily activities range and will continue to be all over the board until I get a firm understanding of what exactly I will be doing over the next 2 years. Some days I walk around door-to-door, getting to know the community. (I say that, although many families, including my host family, do not have doors or walls, just a thatch roof). This very important task called, in Spanglish, “pasearing,” is the essential way of building trust and relationships in the community. It typically involves hanging out and making small talk over a cup of something they call coffee. Here in the Comarca, coffee is really just a juice made with tons of sugar and a hint of coffee concentrate. It is maybe 20% coffee, at best, served lukewarm. You get used to it.

I am also fortunate enough to have several volunteers that live within an hour walk away from my site and have been able to help them on their projects or at the very least, have their support in this semi-awkward time in my new community. We have worked on painting a world map mural on a nearby school and started laying the foundation for a composting latrine. My hands are getting some nice blisters after a few hard days of working with my host family in the rice field or in the community garden at the children’s nutrition center. I was finally able to meet the artisan/beekeeping group and we are meeting next week to build a new bee box. It will be my first chance to meet the scary African bees that produce some delicious honey!

Other than that, I am adjusting to the slower pace of life in the Comarca. If one thing is accomplished in a day, such as a meeting or even laundry, it is a success. Before coming to Panama and even during training, I had idealistic plans about projects I would be working on. Even though I just arrived, I already see that patience is essential and efficiency is not in Ngäbe vocabulary. Peace Corps has been preaching to us during training that the first three months should be dedicated building relationships and trust in the community. For example, on day two, I decided to go with the coffee association to “cargar madera” (translation: haul wood). They needed 2X4 boards to construct new dryer beds for the upcoming harvest of coffee beans. Home Depot does not deliver up here, so if you want wood, you have to go to the jungle and cut the trees down yourself. In an all day adventure, 10 men and 2 women with the help of 1 chainsaw cut and carried only about half as much wood as was necessary for the job. Let me emphasize that I was only physically able to haul one 10-foot 2X4 up the mountain, but it was a several hour climb through jungle, steep cow pasture and narrow trails. So, my point is not exactly that things are not as efficient here in the Comarca, just life here is much tougher than it is back in the States. The strength and determination of my community is humbling and inspiring. I think Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, put it best:

“We Americans think you have to accomplish everything so quickly. We’re the country of thirty-minute power lunches and two-minute football drills... Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make relationship building as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them.” (Three Cups of Tea is a story of a mountaineer who, after a failed attempt to climb K2 in Pakistan, decided to build a school for the community and then went on to build over 55 schools in the region.)

Coming into Peace Corps, I knew that I would be forced to live life at a slower pace and that I would probably gain more than I could ever give. The only difference is that now it is actually happening! Finally.

Pictures: Vicente with his snake, World Map mural project, My host brothers and sisters (photo by Arden Sherman)