Life 2.0: Who am I?

(The view from my porch)

As I wrap up my time in Panama, I am realizing this transition period from Ngöbe culture to Gringolandia is going to be a bit harder than I thought. I’ve spent the last 2 years trying so hard to fit into this culture. Just as I’m starting to really get used to it, it’s time to leave and go back to the world of flush toilets and hot showers. I’ve taken on a new identity here and I think the thought of loosing it has put my mind in a scramble.

Here in Panama I am constantly explaining my role to everyone I meet:
No, I am not a tourist.
No, I am not a CIA agent.
No, I am not a missionary.

I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. I am Kati, a development professional, here to support community agriculture groups become more profitable and to be the good face of the American people abroad. To my community, however, I am Mego. Mego is my Ngöbe name that was given to me upon my arrival two years ago and what most people know me as in the community. Mego has taken on a bit of a different identity than Kat and I’m not sure how she is going to go back to the States after playing the role of Mego for the better part of two years. Mego wears colorful zig-zaggy nagwas, speaks enough Ngöbe to make people laugh, always has dirty feet and always carries a camera. Mego lives alone and cooks on a gas stove, so people think that’s weird. Mego lives in a house that she made out of bamboo with a million dollar view of the Pacific Ocean, which she observes from her hammock every afternoon. Mego loves white rice, 15¢ cookies, thick corn drinks, and starchy palm fruits. Mego hikes about two hours to work each day and kills snakes on a regular basis. Mego is the highest paid person in her community and a local celebrity. Mego is not like Kat at all.

The world of Mego is about to change drastically as she becomes Kat again. She’ll be getting on her bicycle and riding through Central America before she starts graduate school for environmental economics at Duke University in August. Kat will miss Mego very much and will always envy the awesome, simple life that Mego had in Cerro Iglesias.