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