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)