Agribusiness, Peace Corps Panama Style

(Hilario, our coffee association president, and me, checking out the coffee trees)

When one hears the word agribusiness, mega-giants like Monsanto and Cargill might come to mind. As Peace Corps volunteers in Panama, however, the term agribusiness has a much less egregious tone. Our work pertains to communities that are typically off the map and living in poverty, and thus, our definition of agribusiness is small-scale, family or community based farming activities that are or have the potential to earn income. Examples of these activities range from selling surplus oranges or beans to a community coffee-growers association selling coffee beans in the national market to something more sophisticated, such as producing multiple hectors of hot peppers to be exported for Tabasco Sauce.

Whatever the activity may be, farmers we work with typically have had very little formal education. While they are incredibly knowledgeable about the land and the crops they produce, they sometimes lack the skills to be savvy businesspeople. Peace Corps’s Agribusiness Initiative seeks to bridge that gap. A few months ago I became the co-coordinator of this initiative here in Panama and in that time have been working to streamline our educational materials. Our training seminars walk farmers through farm planning techniques and fundamental business skills such as accounting, finance, marketing, quality control and distribution. We also focus on empowering farmers by de-mystifying legal contracts, bank loans and crop insurance policies and strengthening their relationships with buyers and government support agencies.

(Me leading a session on farm planning at an Agribusiness Seminar in the Darien, May 2009)

Currently, we are planning 3 agribusiness seminars for the first half of 2010 with a goal of training about 100 farmers on these important skills. The first of these seminars will be held in February in Bocas del Toro and we need YOUR help to make it a success! This region of the country, famous for its beautiful Caribbean islands, is home to many poor banana and cacao farmers. We are raising money through the official Peace Corps Partnership (grant) Program to provide transportation, lodging and food for our participants. Peace Corps volunteers have no access to funds, so we count on the Panamanian government and donations from around the world to fund our work. I know many of you donated or wanted to donate my latrine project, but if you are looking to still support my work in Panama, this is a very worthy (and tax-deductible) cause!

Please click HERE to be directed to our Agribusiness Seminar donation page on the Peace Corps Partnership website. On a side note, this grant is not in my name, but my fellow volunteer and friend that lives in Bocas del Toro, Janell Henry, from Ohio. Thanks a million! And I promise this will be my last pitch for financial support! Happy Holidays!

(Merry Ngobe Christmas. Stockings made with the familiar Ngobes zig-zags)

Huge thanks to all of you who supported the latrine project!

Wow! I am shocked and amazed at how quickly this grant was funded!

I want to express my deepest appreciation to all of you who gave your financial support to make this project a reality. I still do not know who you are so please contact me if you made a donation so that I may extend my personal thanks to you! The Peace Corps Partnership grant does not allow me to see who donated until long after the project is completely finished (or next May).

Your efforts will be great news for Miguel, the president of our latrine committee and the whole community of Quebrada Pabón. Although it is still raining way to much to start any kind of construction, I might be able to get a head start on the latrine seats now that the grant has been funded ahead of schedule! Nothing happens ahead of schedule here... wouldn't that be fun to see if I can actually pull it off!

For those of you that were thinking about donating or were planning to, there are LOTS of other great projects going on here in Panama that could use your support! I will be blogging about them soon in case anyone is interested.

More on the latrine project and other tales from the Comarca, soon!

Many thanks,

Kat

(Above: Miguel, the latrine committee president and myself, the white giant in a bright new nagwa)

(Happy Birthday Panama! Independence Day from Colombia, November 3rd! Parades are a huge deal around here)

Project Outhouse: The story, the solution and how you can take part!

Hello friends, family, colleagues and those who have been directed to this site via word of mouth or at the request of my # 1 fans (aka- my parents!)! I invite you to read on about the framework of Project Outhouse and encourage you to consider a contribution towards its success!

The situation

As some or most of you know by now, I have been working on a variety of community economic and social development projects since arriving in the Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé in western Panama just over a year ago. Most of my work has been about education and capacity building such as writing small business plans, home gardening classes, and beekeeping training sessions. My next project is about infrastructure, a welcomed change to the somewhat intangible soft skills that have been my focus up to this point. I have committed to helping a nearby community with dedicated leaders on fulfilling a basic need: latrines (AKA the outhouse, the loo, water closet, whatever you want to call it)! The community of Quebrada Pabón consists of about 20 families and has been consistently left out of nearly all development projects that have come to the area. While Cerro Iglesias, the larger hub community I live in, is soliciting the government to bring electricity, Quebrada Pabón, less than an hour hike away, does not have running water nor do they have access to latrines. What does that mean to their community health? Without access to running water, children are sent to fetch water from nearby rivers and streams. Without access to latrines, people do what they’ve been doing for centuries and do their business in the outdoor bidet. Read between the lines: the rivers and streams are being contaminated and then water buckets are filled for cooking. Now, this seems like an obvious no-no, but a generation or two ago, there just was not the same population density, so the community’s health was not nearly as effected. In a culture where each woman is expected to have between 5 and 10 children, exponential population growth has caused all sorts of complex issues that have had negative effects on agricultural practices, land disputes and public health. Lack of access to clean water is a well-known and common cause of illness especially in children. The following comes from the UNICEF website: "Almost fifty per cent of the developing world’s population – 2.5 billion people – lack improved sanitation facilities, and over 884 million people still use unsafe drinking water sources. Inadequate access to safe water and sanitation services, coupled with poor hygiene practices, kills and sickens thousands of children every day, and leads to impoverishment and diminished opportunities for thousands more."

Providing access to latrines in Quebrada Pabón is just one step to solving this massive global issue.

(Nearby waterfall with a great swimming hole)

The solution

The community leaders in Quebrada Pabón are aware and concerned with this public health issue. They have contacted local government representatives and gotten no support up to this point. Almost a year ago now, Miguel, a dedicated leader in the community (see photo below) contacted me to start soliciting support for this project. His approach to this project very much embodied a spirit of collaboration and I was impressed! The project that we are proposing is to build 20 latrines in the community of Quebrada Pabón by next May. Our goal is to reach those who have never had a latrine and to inspire a cultural shift towards using latrines. We will educate the community on the benefits of latrines and the hazards of not using them properly.

I will be present for the construction of each of the latrines this projects seeks to build. Yes, I plan to become an expert at mixing concrete the old fashion way. There are several experienced volunteers in the area who have offered to provide guidance and assistance. The design of the concrete latrine floor includes handles so that when the latrine fills, the floor and seat can be lifted and used in a new location, hence, its benefits will be reaped for decades.

(Above: Meet Miguel, our latrine committee president and the sweetest man you'll ever meet)

The project in the context of sustainable development

The underlying question that we ask ourselves everyday as Peace Corps volunteers is “how can we make this project or activity sustainable?” Our goal is to promote development in a way that does not fuel the “give-me” mentality that feeds a feeling of poverty, a force more degrading than actual poverty. For that reason, Peace Corps provides its volunteers with no project funds and most of our work is educational and motivational in nature. However, this project seeks to provide basic infrastructural need that will improve the general health of the community and thus I am seeking your financial support. Good health is essential for getting on the first rung of the ladder out of poverty and without it all other development projects are hopeless.

Community contribution

The Peace Corps Partnership program recognizes the importance of community contribution in the context of project sustainability and requires that the beneficiary community support 25% of the project costs. Quebrada Pabón has committed to cover 45% of the costs for this project including: all of the labor costs, materials such as sand and gravel, all local transportation of materials (i.e. hauling 100 lb bags of cement on their backs or by horse for nearly an hour to arrive to the construction site). Each participant will be required to attend a series of educational seminars given by myself and other volunteers covering topics such as how to maintain cleaner water sources and how to avoid illnesses spread through water contamination. In addition to the hard labor and time contributed by the community, I wanted to ensure a sense of financial ownership, so I am asking every family to pay $5 towards the purchase of materials. As an added incentive to complete the project in a timely manner (before I leave next June), I am offering a $2 rebate to each family that successfully completes their latrine and is using it properly within the first month.

How your contribution will impact the project

You, the generous donor, will supply the funds to purchase materials that must come from outside of the community to make this project happen. These materials include mainly: cement, rebar, a seat mold, sheets of zinc for the roof and a few tools such as a cement trowel and a shovel. Peace Corps has strict reporting policies in place, so you can be rest assured that 100% of your tax-deductible donation will be managed properly and used only to purchase latrine materials and pay for the transportation of those materials.

I trust that this description has provided you with a more (or more than enough) detailed explanation of the project than I was allowed to post on the Peace Corps Partnership Grant website. I hope that you will please consider even a small contribution for this project. There is no amount too small! Your contribution is greatly appreciated and will leave a lasting effect in the Comarca Ngöbe Bugle!

Please feel free to contact me for any additional questions or clarifications. If you do choose to make a donation, please let me know so I can shower you with praise! Peace Corps Partnership website does not make any donor information available to me so I will not know who has donated unless you let me know. Thanks again for your support. Click here to be linked to the official page.

All the best,

Kat

(Photo above by Edward Perry, me with the girls)

It's undeniably fall in the Comarca

(Household chores: clipping weeds to make a broom and dehusking rice)



(Welcome to winter/rainy season in the Comarca)

While most of the people reading this are probably enjoying the red, yellow and orange leaves of fall, the Comarca couldn’t be any greener. When I think of fall I imagine fresh apple cider, crisp mornings and pumpkin pies. Fall in the Comarca is officially known as winter and its most notable feature is the insane amount of rainfall.

(Aji dulce, sweet peppers provide some color and joy to my bowls of fresh rice, also reminds me of fall leaves.. ok, that's a stretch!)

For several days now, we’ve just been sitting in the clouds. The sun hasn’t bothered to make even a brief appearance. I wonder if down below at the beach it is also raining or if the rain clouds are just stuck on Church Hill. Without the sun, the solar panels at the cooperative are useless and cell phones go dead. Too much rain seems to be making the phone networks loose coverage anyway. Although we are not officially in a cloud forest, it sure feels like it. They pass right through my bamboo walls, leaving heavy wet dew on everything. Even the toilet paper is just a little too damp for comfort and now must be kept in a zip lock bag. My clothes and sheets have long since been covered with mold and its no use to wash them because they’d never dry. So, the battle with nature continues and I seem to be losing. It must be fall in the Comarca!

If I sound miserable, I assure you that I am not. All of the rain and mud has kept me indoors and has provided an excellent excuse for deep introspection. But as soon as my propane stove broke I was out of town on the next car. Life without hot beverages is just not worth living.

(Coffee drying on screens under a plastic roof that we received from the President of Panama- more on the coffee progress another day)

The only similarity between fall in the States and fall here is perhaps that its harvest season! Most notably: corn, rice, cacao and coffee. Also, many people are enjoying tomatoes, cucumbers and squash (thanks to Mr. Eadie for the seed donations – see previous entry).

(I helped out with the rice harvest with the family of my "mama")

The other obvious sign of fall in the Comarca and all over Panama is the sound of school bands for miles around. There are not one but two Independence Day celebrations coming up (… although I think they should consider a third one from the US!). From my house I can hear the drums and xylophones from several surrounding communities, depending on which way the wind is blowing. They practice rain or flood, every single day. The Independence Day school band parades are very serious business here. There are competitions and cash prizes and lots of pride to be won. (Check out the xylophone video that I posted on Flickr - it was too big for this site)

(Farmers market at the school! So much is in season right now!)

The Ngöbes have recently made national news here. Angry with international companies’ self-serving interests in mining, hydroelectric and tourism (there is no real tourism going on here, so I don’t understand that one), they have organized a 230-mile long, hot march to Panama City to protest. They even have a website dedicated to this cause! For a typically stoic, passive people, this is quite remarkable and I commend them for being passionate and standing up for their territory. However, I do believe that good old fashion protesting is in most cases, a waste of resources, especially if you do not have a strong political voice. This undoubtedly small group of protesters was not from my community. It seems, however, that revolutionary Ngöbe spirit is in the air. My community recently decided that after nearly 2 years of putting up with the director of the school, a Latina who they say did not respect their culture; they ousted her from the position. The entire community protested by not sending their kids to school for 8 days. The school is a hub for several communities within about a 3-hour radius of Cerro Iglesias and about 1000 children in all attend. Not one of them went to school until finally, the government had to do something about it. They officially fired her and named a new director of the school. I was so shocked and slightly inspired by this collaborative community effort. The kids are now back in school and the band practice is in full force, rain or flood.

(Some of the various products in season at the school farmers market (coconut, green beans, chayote, yucca, tomato, peppers, oranges, rice, corn, bananas)

Girl stands next to the healthy cucumber plants (seeds provided Mr. Eadie of Davidson, NC))

(Bebé (just turned 2!) helps his family rake the coffee every few hours so that it dries before it molds)

(Ripe cacao pod ready for making chocolate!)

Healthier soil = healthier crops = healthier people

(Ladies showing off their fruit and vegetable seeds for home gardens)

Recently I’ve done a series of seminars with various communities and groups in and around Cerro Iglesias that encourages the use of organic soil making to produce healthier crops and ultimately healthier people. My focus was working with mostly women and teenagers to promote home gardens. This seminar series was inspired by a very nice donation of fruit and vegetable seeds I received from a dear family friend, Mr. Eadie of Davidson, NC. The seeds came from a neat organization called Seed Programs Inc. Mr. Eadie provided me with several hundred seed packs including: tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, collards, watermelon and cabbage. Instead of handing out seeds haphazardly in the community, I felt that education was important and I could touch on important themes such as organic soils/fertilizers and nutrition/health in addition to providing seeds for home gardens.

Soil:

Without good soil, it’s not worth even having a home garden so soil quality is the first topic covered. One of the toughest things about living in tropics is that once the jungle has been cut down to build houses and plant food, the soil quickly looses its fertility due to intense sun, rain and erosion. Almost everything grows in this climate, but without healthy soil, people become dependent on chemical fertilizers mostly supplied by the government to have success with their crops. These fertilizers are polluting the water sources, are dangerous for the farmers handling them and in the long run are making the soil even less fertile by stripping it of other important minerals. Although I am opposed to the idea of chemical fertilizers, I can sympathize with the fact that necessity drives this behavior (people need to eat!). I also believe, however, that a balance must be found. If we can teach people to keep organic matter on the ground instead of clearing it all away and burning it, they will need fewer chemicals for their crops. Organic soil making (composting) will improve soil fertility, thus improving crop production, thus leading to a healthier family.

To start the seminar, I asked my participants, “where does the soil come from”? From everything that falls to the ground and decomposes. When we walk in the jungle and look down, we notice that the soil is rich and black. When we walk through the farm where we have corn or beans or rice planted, the soil is reddish-brown. This soil is tired and crops will only grow if they are fertilized. In contrast, what grows in the jungle? Everything! So, in order to mimic the rich soil that we find in the jungle, we have to mimic the jungle in our own yard or at least designate an area for composting. What falls to the ground in the forest that later decomposes and becomes dirt? Leaves, animal excrement, rotten fruit, trees, ash (in the case of forest fires). All of these things can be found on or very close to our homes. So instead of chucking them and letting the chickens peck away at them, why don’t why put them in a big pile and let them decompose to turn into a rich soil? The most important idea I wanted to convey here was that composting is easy, free and can help crops in your garden or farm grow healthier with less chemical fertilizers.

(Working with school kids and teacher to chop up organic matter for the school garden's compost pile- imagine 20+ kids swinging their machetes wildly)

Gardens:

People here in the Comarca picture a garden differently than we do, typically. They picture a garden as at least a 1/2-acre of terrain to plant a single crop. I believe in the States we would just call this a farm. So, the first step is to introduce the idea of a home garden: a small space near the home where various fruits and vegetables can be grown to increase the nutritional content in our diets (i.e. something of nutritional value to go with the white rice or boiled green bananas). Each participant learned how and when to plant each fruit and vegetable seed. We also went over different creative ideas to enclose your garden without having to buy expensive chicken wire.

(making a fast decomposing compost pile near my house with my neighbors and covering it up with banana leaves to keep out chickens and heavy rains)

Nutrition:

A healthy tomato plant will produce a ton of tomatoes, which provide us not only with a delicious fruit, but also with a great source of vitamin C and other nutrients. A lot of times, poverty and lack of education do not afford desperate mothers the chance to feed their children a balanced diet. Boiled green bananas and root tubers such as yucca are the main staples here and in some places this is all there is to eat. Children in these areas are lacking important vitamins that are necessary for mental and physical development. For the people that live closer to a road and are typically better off (and I use the term “better off” in a relative sense), there is more access to the beloved white rice and snacky foods such as cheese puffs and sugary sodas. They have extra money to buy empty calories but are not as motivated to buy vegetables and definitely not motivated to grow them. Like most of us in the U.S.A., they are victims of clever marketing and pretty packages. In a sense, my role in this seminar was to make the case for vegetables – a crafty marketing scheme to promote their delicious culinary uses and exquisite health benefits. Unlike the soda or the cheese puff, my motivation is not to maximize returns for my shareholders, but to maximize the development of healthier bodies and minds for my stakeholders. Take that, cheese puff.

I taught this seminar in 4 communities: with my knitting group, my closest Peace Corps neighbor’s site (about an hour away), at my house with my neighbors, at a PTA meeting in the school in the town down the hill and with the kids at that school. In all, about 70 people (mostly women), plus about 25 children in the school received this training and received 6 types of fruit and vegetable seeds. In hindsight, I realize that a better strategy would have been to charge people a nominal fee (say, a nickel) for each seed pack. Not because I’d pocket the money (in contrast, I could have helped purchase fencing material for them), but because people tend to care more for something if they have worked for it or invested something. Oh well, live and learn. I’ve gone to visit several of the participants and many are having success so far. Below are a few pictures of them. Thanks again to Seed Programs Inc and Mr. Eadie for your support!

(Above: Cabbage is off to a great start!)

(Above: Norma shows me her beautiful tomato seed bed)

Mission trip of a different kind

(Top: Ngobe women in their traditional nagwa dresses and carrying heavy bags (called chakaras) on their foreheads take a moment to enjoy the view; Middle: A complete version of a lorena stove, a more efficient way to cook with wood; Bottom: A traditional 3 stone fire for cooking in the Comarca)

“One of the least known problems of poverty is indoor smoke from cooking. … The World Health Organization estimates that indoor air pollution in a smoky hut exceeds by a factor of sixty the European Union’s standard maximum for outdoor air pollution. The sufferings from acute respiratory infections are hard to convey to people in rich societies, who no longer experience them. The lungs fill with pus, some of which the patient coughs out. The infection causes chills, fever, shaking, sharp pains in the chest, nausea, and vomiting. Death follows when the infection goes untreated. This is how indoor smoke kills. The death toll is around 1.8 million a year worldwide”. (White Man’s Burden, page 109)

I have no idea how many people are directly killed from respiratory complications due to smoky indoor cooking in Panama, but I do know that I hear my neighbors hacking away all the time and no one smokes cigarettes here. Women are primarily in charge of cooking, so they are most affected, as are infants and small children who are never far from their mothers’ side.

Cooking in many parts of the world, including the Comarca, hasn’t changed much since the beginning of time. Food is prepared in pots cooked over a 3 stone fire. I have the luxury of cooking on a propane gas stove, but this requires about a $70 initial investment and $7 for a new tank of gas each time it runs out. The high price of propane gas stoves presents an economic barrier that is too high for people here, plus many live hours away from roads and/or a store that would sell propane gas tanks. For all of these reasons, traditional, stone-age style cooking methods continue, as do the respiratory complications.

One solution is to use what is called an estufa lorena (lorena stove) that burns the firewood in a protected chamber, cooks two pots at the same time and then carries the smoke out through a chimney and away from the cooks’ face (or the house). This stove also has the advantage of burning about 50% less firewood because it has significantly less exposure to air than a traditional 3-stone fire that is exposed on all sides. So, when another volunteer met a guy who is from a community who was interested in learning more about this stove, we offered to make the trip. The community is way to far away from roads, medical care or cell phone reception for Peace Corps to send a volunteer, but that didn’t stop us from visiting to teach them how to build the lorena stove. 3 volunteers and I rode on the back of a pickup truck for an hour or so on a 4 wheel drive only road and then walked mostly uphill for 7 hours on trails to arrive in a small community called Cascabel, which lies on the continental divide in the Comarca.

I don’t claim to be an expert at making lorena stoves. In fact, I had only made one, during training, over a year ago. Even that was built between 20 or so people, so I was mostly sifting sand for a good part of the day. Fortunately, our friend, Jake, had built several and was our expert. So what is a lorena stove? As you might be able to tell from the pictures, it is a big, rectangular structure built out of clay, sand and horse manure. The mix is very similar to cob or other adobe structures. A large “door” is carved out of the side for the firewood and tunnels carry the heat up to the two holes on the top for cooking. A smaller, third hole is carved out and a chimney made out of old tin cans is attached to carry the smoke away. Pretty simple. All the materials are free and available to anyone willing to put in the labor. It was 2 days of intense work, but the benefits far outweigh the time required to build this stove.

The journey there was quite beautiful. Full of scenic mountain views and friendly Ngobes along the way. They were quite surprised to see gringos passing through these remote areas and even more surprised when we greeted them in their native language. We were sidetracked several times drinking coffee and moonshine with people along the way. Our guide also clued us in to a spot where ancient clay pots have been found. No one really knows the history behind them or exactly how old they are, which almost adds to their mystique. Another hour was enjoyed trying to dig out a huge pot with a camping fork, knife and spoon. We were not successful and left the pot for some other dedicated archaeologist to discover.

Building the lorena stove with the community was a challenging adventure, but heartwarming and unforgettable. The hike there was far and steep. We slept on the cement floor of the school (with amazing new solar panels from the government, so weird to have lights), ate mostly white rice and sardines for breakfast and dinner. No lunches. Just crackers. The stores carry the barest of minimums: rice, sardines, crackers. So that’s what we had. The water from the aqueduct was intermittent, so showering wasn’t an option. The people, however, were absolutely amazing. I have never seen such a labor-intensive project that included all generations helping out. The whole community was involved: men, women, grandmas, school-aged boys and girls, and babies that had just learned to walk were all participating. We had a great time doing a sock puppet socio-drama to introduce the idea of the lorena stove and why it might be a better option for fuel efficiency and health. Ngobes can be hard to engage, but the sock puppets were mesmerizing. At night we sat around a fire to keep warm. At one point, I counted 18 of us, all huddling around a tiny fire, laughing and singing songs both in English and Spanish. The national anthem of both countries came out, as did the chicken dance and the traditional dance of the Ngobes “the hegge.” It was the most picturesque Peace Corps experience I have had yet. The perfect blend of physical challenges, cultural exchange, fun, and getting dirty to create a sustainable product that all took part in and hopefully, all will adapt so that future generations may live healthier lives.

(Photos: Yoga break on a beautiful over look; Kate's sock puppet demonstrating a typical Ngobe carrying firewood in a chakara (handmade bag) on their forehead; Filling in the lorena stove mold with the mud, sand and cow/horse poo mix; Cultural moment with the kids (dancing the traditional "hegy"); Me and a cute little kid- my favorite part of my work as a PCV)

Letter to new volunteers

The following is a letter that my program director asked me to write. It will be sent to the next round of volunteers in their invitation package to the Peace Corps as a sneak peak on the life of a current volunteer along with scores of other information. It briefly sums up my work and touches on my sentiments of my experience so far:

Hello and congratulations on being accepted to Peace Corps Panamá!

Should you choose to accept it this invitation, I can assure you that you will not regret your decision. You will learn so much about yourself and the cultures of Panamá while making life-long connections to the people you are here to serve. I encourage you to keep an open mind, let go of all expectations and enjoy the wild ride ahead of you!

I live in an indigenous community in a thatch-roof hut with no electricity, but with running water for most of the year. We sit high on a mountain with amazing views of the Pacific Ocean. The warm, generous spirit of the people and beautiful scenery here, more than makes up for the lack of amenities in the community. My work varies tremendously on a day-to-day basis and thus, never gets redundant and always leaves me feeling proud at the end of the day. I am constantly challenged and learning both technical and interpersonal skills in this environment. My primary work is with small community groups: bee-keepers that sell their honey to tourists, coffee producers that want to sell locally within the community and hot pepper producers that export to the U.S. through a subsidiary of Tabasco. I am one of the few SAS (Sustainable Agricultural Systems) volunteers working primarily in agribusiness, the cross-sector initiative between the SAS program and CED (Community Economic Development). The Agribusiness Initiative was created in recent years to train farmers across Panamá on fundamental business skills (i.e. accounting and marketing), improving farm planning techniques and strengthening their relationships with buyers and government agencies. We also focus on empowering farmers by de-mystifying legal contracts, bank loans and crop insurance policies on the basis that knowledge is power. Humble farmers know a LOT about the land, but with little formal education, most lack the business or legal knowledge to make informed decisions before entering into negotiations with buyers or taking out a bank loan. The agribusiness initiative seeks to bridge this gap. Most SAS volunteers will have the chance to work in agribusiness in some capacity in their communities — either with traditional cash crops for export (cacao, coffee and bananas), basic grains (rice, beans, corn) or other fruits and vegetables.

In addition to the Agribusiness Initiative, the SAS sector also has developed in recent years the Coffee Program that works with producers from high-altitude arabica coffee and low-altitude robusta coffee regions to connect them with domestic and international buyers, always seeking the best price for the farmer. This program also supports and encourages communities seeking organic and fair-trade certification. These opportunities, while not always easy to achieve, provide real economic solutions and present a much brighter future for the Panamanian coffee farmer and their families. Additionally, the SEEDERS group is volunteer-driven Peace Corps initiative to collect and save local and donated seeds for volunteers working in agroforestry and/or home and school garden projects.

Your upcoming 27 months in Panamá are sure to be the most memorable times of your life. Sure, you will feel lonely, frustrated and overwhelmed at times, but the rewards of your service FAR outweigh those challenges. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to be a self-starter as a SAS volunteer. Work will not come to you. You must go out and find it. Get involved and spend time with all of the leaders and organizations within your community. By demonstrating your commitment, you will integrate and become valued by your community members. At that point, you will be working shoulder-to-shoulder together. You will laugh with them. You will cry with them. When it’s all over you will leave a stronger person and they will hopefully be on the road to a more sustainable development. So, my future fellow SASer, get ready, all of this awaits you in Peace Corps Panamá!

I look forward to meeting you soon!

Abrazos,

Kat Fraser
SAS, Group 61 (2008-2010)
Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé
Panamá

Slithering creatures too close for comfort

So here’s a fun story that’s not necessarily “a day in the life” but it happened.. twice!

This is a story of killing a snake in my house. I found myself telling this story over and over to people back in the States when they asked about what was new and exciting in Panama. I honestly didn’t think it was a big deal at the time. People in my community don’t find this stuff very surprising, although it makes great conversation topic. They deal with it all the time. But to people back home, this is the kind of stuff that Peace Corps is made of..

It’s late April, around 10pm. I’m in my little hut getting ready to go to bed. I’m exhausted and have no idea why I’m up so late. I hear a rustle in my thatch roof. I assume it’s a lizard. Lizards are a common household guest that hangs out in the thatch, looking for bugs and spiders. The locals like lizards and rightfully call them “limpia casa” (house cleaner). I look up with my dim headlamp and squint when suddenly I realize that it was not the camouflage lizard I was expecting, but a much larger, slithering creature. It was indeed a snake: bright red and black with a white belly. Immediately I guessed it was a deadly coral snake that the locals tell me horror stories about, but recently was corrected by a self-proclaimed snake expert that it was most likely the non-deadly king snake. Whatever. This snake, deadly or not, was weaving himself in and out of the thatch, directly above my bed and I was not happy about it. I climbed up to my loft as fast as I could with my machete and took a swing, but I was scared to put a hole in the roof, so my wimpy hit was a failure. He got away. I was sat still for the next few minutes, listening for his whereabouts, but heard nothing. He was weaving around somewhere in the roof, probably looking for mice, and likely to reappear at any moment. Now what? I put fresh batteries in my headlamp and held tight to the machete, waiting for any sign of life in the roof. Nothing. An hour went by. By now, it was about midnight; I was exhausted but could not sleep with a (what I thought was a deadly) snake on the loose. Not knowing what to do and overcome by exhaustion, I strung up my hammock with intentions of sleeping there. Hammocks are the safest place you can be in the tropics and now I know why they were invented. I lay in the hammock for about 5 minutes, feeling defeated and violated by this predator, when suddenly I look over and see that the snake has reappeared in a different part of the thatch: right next to my hammock! I froze. But only for a second. I reached for my camera, but was trembling so bad that most of the pictures didn’t come out so well. Then I scolded myself for not focusing on the death of this snake sooner. He started to slither away again, so I grabbed the (much smaller) kitchen knife this time to get a more precise hit. Count of three. Got’em! He fell from the ceiling, wounded, but not dead. As he fled out into the yard, I chased behind, barefoot, with machete in hand swinging violently until I was sure he was a goner. What a (ridiculous) site!

So that’s my first snake-killing story. I hope it’s my last.

P.S. Snakes get a bad wrap for being poisonous, deadly creatures, but the truth is that only a few really are and in most cases, the antivenom can be found at a hospital few hours away. Snakes are an important part of the eco-system and its terrible to promote killing them just upon sighting them. This snake, however, crossed the line. The roof above my bed is just too close for comfort, so this one had to go. Since this incident, I finally put up my bug net around my bed which sufficiently serves to keep the creepy-crawly things out of the covers.

(Pictures below: Other snake encounters over the past year in the country, in my house or otherwise)

Por fin: Back home in the tropics!

(Memorial day party at the lake near Charlotte)

(College of Charleston)

(Rodeo Beach, CA)

I just returned from a 3 week trip to the beautiful USA - land of cold wheat beers, hot showers (or running water for that matter) and crunchy organic peanut butter with no hydrogenated oils.

I’m exactly at the mid-point of my service. 1 year down and 1 year to go in Panama. Hard to believe how fast the time goes. It felt like a good time to reconnect with friends and family and try to figure out what my next step will be after Panama. I visited friends in San Francisco, went to the wedding of my dearest friends, Maria and Shawn in Wilmington, NC, reminisced in my old college town of Charleston, SC, and saw my family in Charlotte, NC for Memorial Day weekend. It was so wonderful be back and be exposed to all the changes since I’ve been gone. For better and/or worse, the States feel different. The mood has shifted. We’re at a low point, but Obamamania is strong and there is hope for the future.

Although it was great to visit the States, 3 weeks is a long time to be away from the kind of work we do as volunteers. So much is based on having strong relationships with community members and it is so easy to disconnect yourself from the challenges in Cerro Iglesias with all of the distracting comforts of the USA. I feel an overwhelming responsibility (that borders on guilt) to my community, however, and am eager to get back to site and start working again. I dearly miss my hammock and the peace of my little house with a view, but most of all, I miss the companionship of the people in my community. We have lots of on-going and upcoming projects, so I am excited to roll up my sleeves, put on my mud boots and get dirty again!

Here are a few upcoming projects:

Bees- The bees need to be moved from behind the elementary school. We have Africanized bees here, which are quite aggressive and potentially very dangerous. We are going to move them and split the colonies at the same time. Since none of us actually have any hands-on experience doing this, we are taking extra precaution and doing lots of research so that we don’t mess anything up or create a disaster. We are receiving a donation of 10 brood boxes from a private company here and are very grateful to Maliverns of Davíd for their generous contribution.

Latrines- A nearby community wants to build about 30-40 latrines for families that do not have them. While back in the States, I realized that many people have no idea what a latrine is. Basically, it’s like an outhouse, only more rustic. There are no septic systems here. There are a few types of latrines, but the most common and cheapest is a 10 ft hole dug in the ground with a cement floor and cement toilet seat on top with a little privacy wall built around it. This is going to be a huge project that might take several months to plan and complete. Don’t be surprised if I ask for your financial support out there. Latrines (and education on how and why to use them) are a vital component for improving overall community health and decreasing infant and child mortality rates. Why? I don’t want to get to deep into it, but without latrines, people do their business in the rivers and streams. That is typically where they get their drinking water as well. You get the point. Much more on this topic another day.

School gardens- Thanks to the generous donation from a US nonprofit, Seed Programs Inc. and a family friend, Mr. Eadie of Davidson, NC, volunteers all over Panama will have access to various different vegetable seeds that can be used for home and /or family garden projects. I plan to work with the primary school in Cerro Iglesias to teach the students about nutrition, organic soil building and how to cultivate vegetables such as squash, kale, and tomatoes.

For now, I am delighted to be back in Panama - land of Noah’s Arc rainstorms, a sweet and watery substance called coffee, and copious bowls of white rice.

(I saw all of my favorites back in the US:)

(Laura shows off her big blue eyes)

(Lovely Maria on her wedding day!)

(Iyi and Mego: Cerro Iglesias' most famous inhabitants)

(Arden: my first visitor in Panama, she toughed it out with me in those first few rough days)

(Mai: from CHS to NYC and now in the Bay Area, no one gives better life advice!)

(Laura and I talk a walk down memory lane in Charleston)

(Kasey and Lauren: High school friends become like sisters after all these years)

Happy Earth Day!

What can you buy that will help save the earth this year? Every year it feels more and more commercialized, right? The better question is probably: what can you NOT buy that might reduce your impact on earth? 

Up where I live in the Comarca we are having an educational Earth day celebration; albeit 5 days late and 2 days of activities.  Classic Panamanian style. The local environmental government agency (ANAM) sponsored the event, which included very long, formal (yet consistently unprofessional) meetings where we talked about trash: the importance of its proper disposal, whether to burn or bury it, re-using plastic bottles and bags, etc. There was a drawing contest for kids and the prizes were baby trees to plant at home. That night they projected a Planet Earth-like movie to inspire the community to appreciate nature on the old 1-room school building under a beautiful star-filled sky . The main participants were the new tourism group in Cerro Iglesias. Yes, tourism. I think we are a few years off, but with the new road, adventurous tourists are bound to show up one of these days, seeking indigenous culture, crafts and natural beauty. A professor from the national tourism agency has been giving classes to locals, encouraging environmental conservation within the community for the sake of tourism. Enough Peace Corps volunteers have brought their friends and family through town over the past 8 years, so I think they could handle wide-eyed foreigners, if they had a bit more infrastructure (i.e.- places to sleep and eat). If people are motivated to keep the place clean and the forests protected on the chance that it might draw tourists, more power to’em!  The cerro (hill) of Cerro Iglesias has a plethora of natural springs that provide water for 13 communities in the area, so it is of utmost importance that the hill stays forested. Without vegetation, the underground water sources dry up and the beautiful tropics eventually turn into useless deserts. (photo: The noticeably flat-topped Cerro Iglesias in dry season)

Speaking of water, the dry season is hitting us extra hard this year. The rains are late this year and water is dangerously scarce. That has made my comfortable campo living quite challenging. If we are lucky (and we, at the top of the hill and closest to the source ARE the lucky ones) we get a trickle of water for about 5-10 minutes a day. I fill up every bucket and bottle I can and hope that it is enough to get by until the water comes again. Laundry hasn’t been done in a very long time and I am the new master at the 20 oz shower (12oz, in extreme cases). I shouldn’t complain, however, people further down the aqueduct line haven’t had water since December. They go to a nearby river or stream, that isn’t always so nearby and is typically contaminated. No other choice. I feel bad whining about water-woes, because there are so many others in neighboring communities that have it much worse. It’s hard to appreciate water until it’s gone. (photo: Same shot of Cerro Iglesias in rainy season)

  

 

(photo above: Slash and burn agriculture at its finest. To the left you can see how it all used to look, that's where the coffee, which demands shade, is grown)

On a sad note, I feel the need to pay some homage here to my dear friend, Antonio, who passed away recently. Antonio was my next-door neighbor and the kindest, most generous man in Cerro Iglesias. Without fail, he would always give me something when I came to visit: bananas, oranges, coffee, bowls of rice and sardines. It was Antonio that stayed up until midnight listening to the radio in his hammock and then came over in the morning to tell me that Obama had won the election. He was a huge fan. He was a dear friend to all the Peace Corps volunteers before me, even the few that were here in the 1960s. Antonio was the first teacher in our school and continued to be very active in the community since his retirement in 1991. He was the promoter of a nutrition program with a local NGO called Nutri-Hogar, the treasurer of the aqueduct committee, collaborator with the national environment agency, an active member of the church and my official Ngäbere teacher. Habu Küri. Te voy a extrañar, sobrino. 

(photo: One of many meals at Antonio's: me, Antonio, Adam, chi, Alicia)