Life 2.0

The End of an Era

2010-06-17T04:51:00.000-07:00

(My buddies, Florentino and Mariano, on top of Cerro Duima. A special goodbye hike we made to the top)

The latrine project is done. The beekeepers had another successful harvest this year and are going to start selling at a new hostel in Western Panama to diversify their sales. The coffee farmers had some hiccups, but are well positioned for the future. I’ve said my goodbyes, shed an exorbitant amount of tears, and moved out my little bamboo hut in Cerro Iglesias.

I am fortunate to have had an incredibly positive Peace Corps experience. If I didn’t have some amazing new adventures to look forward to, I might feel this loss more strongly, but overall, I feel ready to move on. That said, Cerro Iglesias will always be a part of who I am and will hold a special place in my heart.

My final week in site was action packed and memorable. The community organized two major despedidas, one in the upper part of the community and one in the lower part. They were very formal events, complete with songs, prayer, speeches, tons of food, a piñata, gifts, and of course, all of the wonderful people that have made these two years so special for me. It was all really touching and I’m glad that this experience has finished up on a really positive note.

(The piñata that looks strikingly like a gringa at one of the goodbye parties at the school)

On my final day in site, I had what equated to a living wake and invited everyone over to say their final goodbyes and to check out my front porch sale- with blowout prices. I had accumulated so much stuff over two years, despite living pretty minimalistically. Everything was sold at super cheap prices, nothing much surpassed 50 cents, except the big ticket items like my gas stove ($25). I wanted to eat my rooster that day, which I have been fattening up for months now, but I was too busy playing hostess. When my neighbor stopped by that evening, I was sulking on the porch, having sold all of my pots and pans-not realizing that I might still need to eat before I left the next morning. She told me I was not so smart for doing that and then walked away. A few minutes later I heard a loud “baa-gock!” come from the cacao tree behind my house where the rooster sleeps. I laughed because I knew what was about to happen. About two hours later, my neighbor came over with a steaming bowl of rooster soup and yucca! It was a really nice gesture and I was so thankful to have such a wonderful dinner with my neighbors on my last night in Cerro Iglesias. Food doesn’t get much more fresh and local than this!

In the morning a whole crew of my favorites in town came over to help me with my bags. We waited for the chiva under a zinc roof while the rain poured down around us. As the car pulled up, I got in, knowing it would be my last time, but couldn’t really convince myself of it. Tears rolled down as we pulled away. I’ll be gone for a little while, but this is not goodbye. I will be back. Mego will return, someday.

I feel like I should have some big epiphany now that it’s all over. I’m sure that I’ve changed in many more ways than I know. I’ll probably realize it more when I finally settle back into life in the States. I leave Cerro Iglesias with the slightest twinge of guilt that afflicts most Peace Corps Volunteers- the feeling of receiving more than you could ever give.

Thanks to all of you that have read this blog, followed my pictures on Flickr and supported me over the past few years. A special thanks MANY of you that came to visit!! I am so glad that I got to share this experience with you. Your support has been vital to my success and sanity in Panama.

This will be my last post on this blog, as I have reserved it for the 27 months of Peace Corps only. The next adventure starts soon and is very much inspired by my Peace Corps service. A group of friends and I are riding bicycles through Central America in an ambitious effort to continue development and capacity-building work at the grassroots, level, while enjoying the beautiful scenery and culture that this part of the world has to offer. Follow my next journey www.cyclesofchange.wordpress.com

(My knitting group ladies, coming by to buy the last of the yarn)

(Comarca girls- my main support network! Andi, Kat, Aleah and Meredith)

(One of my most adored families in Cerro Iglesias- Los Sire)

Agribusiness Seminar

2010-06-17T04:50:00.000-07:00

For the past year of my Peace Corps service I have been a co-coordinator for the Agribusiness Initiative within Peace Corps Panama. In May, we put on a 4-day seminar to train farmers from the Comarca on farm planning techniques, small business skills and legal procedures. The goal of the seminar was to give farmers the tools needed to plan for the future and keep track of costs in order to maximize yields and to make smarter decisions that will lead to higher profits. It was a lot of information, but we kept it fun and dynamic. I was so thrilled to see the culmination of a years worth of hard work and planning finally come to fruition. Over the years to come, this Initiative should grow within Peace Corps Panama and should be able to reach more farmers with tools and knowledge to improve yeilds and profits.

Here are some photos of the event:

(A session on money management)

(Another brilliant puppet show to highlight the process for obtaining legal documents for small businesspeople in Panama)

(A team-building activity "the human chair". We also did the human table, but sadly, no photos)

(The participants with their certificates after completing the 4-day seminar)

Who am I?

2010-06-11T06:27:00.000-07:00

(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.

(Mi Mamá y hermano de la Comarca)

(Pifa!! Starchy palm fruits that are life-sustaining here)

(Victoria- my hero)

(My closet- never again will it be so vibrant!)

(My Comarca family)

Cacao’s role in life, death and in fending off the boogeyman

2010-06-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

(Ripe cacao ready for harvest)

Cacao, the main ingredient in chocolate, has played an important role in the religious and economic history of Latin America for thousands of years. Cacao seeds, were once so valued that they were traded as currency in Mexico. While they might not be quite as valuable today, they are still an important part of the economy and culture in many places, including Panama.

The Caribbean side of the Comarca and the Bocas del Toro region depend heavily on the export of cacao as a major income source, while on the Pacific side of the Comarca, coffee is the main cash crop. On both sides of the Comarca, however, cacao also serves an important role in the spiritual lives of the Ngöbe people. Cacao seeds are toasted, ground and consumed as a hot or warm drink -- not as the sweet chocolate we know and love in the States. Unlike the saccharine coffee that is custom here, they take their cacao with no sugar and definitely not with milk (they probably would if they had milk though). Although the majority of people here in the Comarca now believe in some form of Christianity, cacao is still an important part of life and death rituals. For example, when a child is born, the entire family stays up for four nights drinking hot cacao in order to ward off evil spirits that might injure or kill the baby. In death, as soon as a person is buried, the entire community comes to join the family in a cacao drinking ritual for four nights. Again, this is to ward of the evil spirits that might not let the soul pass into the afterlife. One month after the death of the family member, everyone reunites one last time to stay up all night and drink cacao together. This brings a sense of closure to the loss and signifies that it is time to move on.

(Another ripe cacao pod ready for harvest)

These evil spirits that afflict the young and dead are known as the choka (pronounced “cho-gwa”) and are a huge perceived threat in the Comarca. A choka has it has been described to me in many forms. The first and most common are the choka that affect newborns and the recently deceased, but they can also come unexpectedly to wreak havoc on the healthy and fit. The choka can take the form of the devil, a demon, a witch, a ghost, a possessed animal or- in my interpretation- the classic boogeyman! The only prevention method one can take is to drink 4 cups of bitter cacao before walking alone through the woods or being anywhere alone. The seven snakes that I have killed in my house have been blamed on the choka. Their suggestion to this bizarre snake invasion? Burn tobacco and drink cacao, four cups every night for a week.

If you ever see a dog that is wandering around without an owner or a chicken that appears out of nowhere and seems to have no home, it’s probably a choka and one should take extra precautions to not be terrorized. The worst kind of choka that I’ve heard about comes in the form of a person, the size of a small child but with a long tail. This is the most dangerous kind, as they will violate men or women, turning their victims in to chokas also. The prevention and cure, again, is drinking four cups of bitter cacao. I still haven’t gotten to the bottom of why the number four seems to keep popping up in their cacao rituals. No one around here can tell me why either- “it’s just what we do,” they tell me. In any event, I have developed my own ritual of drinking delicious cacao (although I prefer it with milk and honey)- which has a ton of health benefits and has the added perk of protecting me from the boogeyman! I am so fortunate to have lived in the land of coffee, chocolate, and honey for the past two years!

(Cacao pods and coffee being harvested at the same time)

Latrines are done!

2010-06-06T11:59:00.000-07:00

(Welcome to the Inauguration of the Latrine Project!)

I want to thank everyone for all of their support on this latrine project, both for your financial contributions and your sweat labor! I still do not know who the donors were for the grant, but I thank you all for providing the funds for this project. Special thanks to Cory, Aleah, Kevin, and Iyi for helping me out with the construction and to Tara, Nick, George and Bill for coming in the spirit of helping out until plans fell through! All 20 latrines were finished on time and it was a really positive learning experience for everyone. We had an inauguration party for the project which everyone just thought was hilarious. If anyone ever needs a latrine built for them, I might just be your resident expert. Peace Corps gives you the opportunity to learn all sorts of things you never thought you'd need or want to know.

Here are several pictures throughout the process and simple instructions to make your own latrine =):

Step 1- dig a 9-15ft hole:

(15 footer!)

(Measuring the hole. I had a contest with a $5 prize for the person with the deepest hole)

Step 2- cover the hole with large sticks, but leave an opening for the seat and then cover with any old material you have

(Covering hole here with an old Feliz Navidad piece of plastic. Santa Claus was buried in the latrine floor!)

Step 3- cut the rebar with a handsaw

(Miguelito cuts the rebar into 8 pieces)

Step 4- Lay out the rebar on top of the covered hole, make the handles for each of the 4 corners so that when it fills you can pick it up and use it again over a new hole

(the bucket in the middle just holds the place of the seat, which is attached after the cement is poured on the floor)

Step 5- mix the cement with sand, rock and water that you haul on your back from the river!

(This is where it starts to get tough)

Step 6- pour the cement in the mold for the latrine floor

(smoothing out the cement)

(team effort)

(Couldn't reach that far corner, so I got in the bucket/seat place holder)

(looking good!)

(Making my mark)

Step 7- take lots of pictures

(Take pictures of the finished product- shown here: Miguelito and Iyi)

Step 8- move the latrine floor if you didn't construct it directly over the hole

(These floors weigh about 800 lbs)

Step 9 - Let dry, attach the seat, put up roof and some kind of walls and you're all set!

(anything can be used to make walls- old clothes and blankets, bamboo, palm leaves, etc.)

(this one came out really nice!)

(some don't need four walls if they face the woods)

Thanks again to everyone who helped out!

Excursions

2010-05-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

(Scenery at Isla Coiba)

My time is quickly coming to an end in Panama and I have made sure to squeeze in some traveling over the past few months to see the amazing geographic and cultural sites of this country. I’ve visited some beautiful beaches and islands in both the Pacific and the Caribbean, as well as crossed through the mountains and over the continental divide through the Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé.

More photos, of course are on Flickr. Click here for the link.

Santa Catalina/Coiba:
My cousin Tara and her 2 friends, Nick and George, came down for a wild visit during Carnaval. We had too much fun in Panama City, roughed it in my site and then checked out Santa Catalina (a sleepy surf town) and Isla Coiba (once a prison, now national park with virgin forests and picturesque beaches).

(a private cove where the monkeys roam)

(the boys try their hand at surfing)

(island hopping in the Pacific and hours away from the mainland)

(snorkeling and SCUBA dives)

(Tara, Nick and I in rehab at the prison on Coiba)

Hike over the Continental Divide:
I went on a 3-day adventure to hike with some friends from the continental divide in the Comarca region from the Chiriquí side over to the Bocas side. We followed the Río Cricamola starting from the headwaters and ended in the remote Ngobe city of Kankintú. From there, we took a dug out canoe out to a bay that leads to the Caribbean Sea. Along the way we stayed in schools and with a nice family that let us sleep in their house and even cooked us rice. Chlorine did not seem to be strong enough to kill the parasites in the water, however, so we ended up with angry stomachs for the next month... well worth it!

(Victoria, our guide, looks down the valley to a remote community on the edge of the river)

(One of several sketchy bridges made out of sticks and rope)

(Canoe ride over to the other side of the river at a point where it was too wide to cross)

(Melissa on one of many river crossing on a rustic zip line)

(A mother sends her infant daughter in a bag on a sketchy zip line across the raging river all by itself (so nerve racking for the unaccustomed gringas!)

(A typical home in a community we hiked through and stayed at our first night)

Panama City:
While I don’t recommend Panama City as an international destination for nightlife or culture- with the right crew and creative minds, you can always have a good time.
Group 61: 1980s Prom Party Bus:

(no explanation)

Isla Escudo de Veraguas:
I visited the gorgous national reserve called with my friends: Andi, Kate and Kate’s very generous parents.

(Above: Sea turtle; Our 5-star hotel; Kate and I in our ridiculous hats bought especially for the trip)

I am still convinced that my community, Cerro Iglesias, is the most beautiful spot in Panama. As such, I will be spending as much time there as possible because my service is ending in just a few short weeks!

(View of the Pacific through the banana plants from my house in Cerro Iglesias at sunset)

Why don’t we get drunk and throw sticks?

2010-04-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

(The cultural importance of getting drunk and throwing sticks)

Once a year Ngöbes all over the Comarca come together and organize a big party within the community. This rare display of cooperation is usually designated to one community per region and is called Balsaria. This year, it just so happened that the highly anticipated event was held in Quebrada Pabon- the community where we are still working on the latrine project (finishing up this month!). The balsaria, from my understanding, was traditionally a 3-day festival to share ideas and seeds. It also served as a way to avoid inbreeding by seeking out a mate from a distant community. Like much of Ngöbe culture, its history is blurred and is not well recorded, so no one has confirmed the true origins of balsaria (at least not to my knowledge). When I ask the people around here what purpose the balsaria served traditionally, they give me the classically vague answer that it is just a part of their culture. So what exactly is the balsaria? I’d call it a mix between a folk festival, a frat party, a boxing match, a Halloween costume contest that people of all ages attend. It appears that whatever it’s original purpose, the current function of the balsaria is just an excuse to put on costumes, get belligerent, and throw sticks at each other, all for the sake of maintaining tradition.

(This is the valley of Quebrada Pabon- site of Balsaria 2010 of Nole Duima, Comarca Ngobe Bugle)

For weeks before the event started, I’d walk up the hill after a long day of latrine building as dozens of men passed, hauling 55-gallon tanks, sacks of corn and sugar down to the plaza where the balsaria was going to take place. They were preparing the chicha fuerte-homemade booze, typically made from corn with sugar added for faster, stronger fermentation. My excitement and curiosity for the event plummeted, however, when Bernardo, one of the participants in the latrine project, was nowhere to be found the day I arrived at his house to work. The balsaria was still 2 weeks away, but apparently the chicha was strong enough at that point to intoxicate and Bernardo disappeared a few days earlier when his buddies sucked him into the pre-party events. In the Comarca, when a man drinks, it is not to relax. His mission is to consume as much as he can, as fast as he can, for no other reason but because it is available. Men will drink till the chicha runs dry, spending every last dime to their name. They might come home a week later— broke, hungry and sometimes without clothes or shoes (a result of passing out and people stealing anything they can). The women in the Comarca, who typically do not drink, surprisingly, accept this annoying aspect of the local male culture. Bernardo’s wife offered the excuse that his buddies came to the house with chicha fuerte. As if he had no choice in the matter. As if his other responsibilities did not matter, because it is culturally unacceptable for a man to deny an offer of chicha fuerte. This scenario is common in the Comarca, unless the man happens to be a strong believer in God, specifically, Evangelical or 7^th Day Adventist. If there is one thing we have to thank the missionaries for, it is the near eradication of alcoholism in the religious communities in the Comarca.

I digress. Back to the non-church-going and self-indulging community of Quebrada Pabon- site of my district’s Balsaria 2010.

I decided to attend the event with 5 other Peace Corps volunteers working in the Comarca. 3 females and 3 males, we made it clear from the beginning that we were to stick together and the boys could not be more than an arms length away from the girls- just in case we needed an “I with him” escape. Drunks, while typically harmless, can be unpredictable, especially considering the amount of booze available during balsaria. As we approached the cleared space in the forest, the noise from the bull horns and conch shells echoed loudly up the mountain. We were still a about a 20-minute walk away. The closer we got, the louder the discombobulated sound of horns and conch shells grew, and the more we felt like we were entering a hyena den.

(Flight club)

We passed through the gates to find exactly what everyone had described to us about balsaria, but what we could never quite envision: men wearing their señora’s nagwas with stuffed mountain cats or slothes strapped to their backs, huge balsa wood sticks being thrown in the air, women boxing each other, swollen faces, blood, staggering drunks and wide-eyed children absorbing their traditional culture. And then there was us: the 6 stone-sober gringos, just trying to blend in. This is a moment when you wish you were a wallflower, but alas, we were like dead meat to flies. Men and women flocked to us. Everyone had a very different opinion to our presence at the balsaria. Some smiled and spoke to us loudly in Ngöbere. Some made it clear that we should not take pictures (many told us that it was against the law. Law? What law?). Other asked us to take their pictures, posed and performed for us (in fact, the same people that told us that pictures were against the law later asked me to take their picture). Some slurred and asked us if we were married, others tried to force-feed chicha fuerte to us. The peer pressure was so intense that we quickly gave up the idea of remaining sober if we were to stick around.

(Ngobe men dressed in nagwas with dead wild animals strapped to their backs. In case of no dead animal- just bring a stuffed kids toy instead)

The balsaria got its name because the main event, a sporting event of sorts, involves a dried stick made out of balsa wood that is about 6 feet long and a good 6 inches thick. The objective is for one man to throw the balsa stick at another man below the knee, from a distance of about 5-10 feet away. The man without the stick wears his señora’s nagwa so that he can do a little dance under that dress. This is an attempt to confuse the aggressor, whose goal is to launch the balsa stick as hard as he can at his opponent’s shin. Sound a bit savage? There is also traditional boxing: men vs men and women vs women. Panamanians, in general, love US boxing almost as much as US baseball. Personally, I have never understood the appeal of physically violent sports. I suppose bloody noses and broken knees create a stronger bond between your community members or maybe it just makes you feel tough. No, doubt, this sort of camaraderie can be found all over the world. I was once invited to a massive community pillow fight in New York City. Similar idea, right?

(Various scenes of balsaria activities: throwing large sticks, drinking and kids watching over their passed out fathers- so no one steals their shoes!)

One of the volunteers with us was quickly chosen by a particularly friendly Ngöbe man in a nagwa and was designated as “ti etaba” (my brother). He was whisked off by his new brother and returned a while later with a 5-gallon bucket full of chicha fuerte that had been gifted to him. Suddenly we had a crowd of people around us, literally force-feeding us chicha in whatever liquid-holding devise that they could find.

(Above: Filling up bottles of chicha- looks similar to vomit. Below: me, succumbing to peer pressure and the cute Ngobe lady responsible for the peer pressure)

There were a lot of laughs, but once we saw another 5-gallon bucket of chicha coming our way, we knew it was time to leave. A few of the guys with us had played the balsa game and were limping around in pain, so before we got more drunk and/or hurt, we took our cue, and left.

("Ti eteba" in his beautiful nagwa with a cup full of chicha fuerte)

So what purpose does the balsaria have? It seems to me that all cultures enjoy some level of alcohol intoxication and violent sports. If costumes, debauchery and physical pain foster a better sense of culture, brotherhood and community pride, then who needs a purpose? It’s just plain fun!

Check out a few videos on Flickr: here and here.

(Above: Aleah dances with a man in a nagwa. Below: Me with a stoic man in nagwa and his friend with the decorated bull horn)

Shine On, Church Hill

2010-02-05T05:38:00.000-08:00

(My solar phone charger)

For better or worse, the culture of the Comarca is rapidly changing. Government initiatives to push infrastructure in the form of roads, housing projects, and food stamp programs in exchange for vaccinating children and sending them to school have been more influential to social and economic development here than Peace Corps could ever hope to be. Thanks to a stable government that generates sufficient income from the canal, Panama is able to provide some social investments, although many would argue that it’s not enough: about 90% of Ngöbe people living in the Comarca live below the poverty line.

Just two years ago one had to hike in from an hour away to get to Cerro Iglesias because the road was nothing more than a muddy trail that trucks could not reliably navigate. In that time, local stores had the barebones necessities and few people could work or study outside of the community. For the most part, they were confined to these beautiful mountains. Now, however, we have a road that is three-quarters of the way paved to the top (the government ran out of money to pave the whole thing). Community members can now hold steady jobs in the nearby Latino town, San Felix, and more kids are able to attend high school there as well. The road allows many more material goods to come to us, such as the beloved vegetable truck, the egg truck and even the fish truck! Having access to a road certainly changes one’s quality of life and it is evident that Cerro Iglesias has grown substantially over the past 2 years. Is their natural next step towards assimilation into the modern world to have access to electricity? It appears so.

A few months back, I wrote a formal letter to solicit support for my latrine project from the Honorable Representante (similar to a mayor). He responded that he could be of no service to me because all of the money within his jurisdiction for community projects was going to be used to bring the electric lines to town. These lines, of course, would only be installed along the main road, where people live in more permanent houses (most built for free by the government or by relatives working in the capital). Typically, these road-dwellers have more steady incomes and are therefore more likely to be able to pay utility fees. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the population that live scattered in the mountains are drastically poorer and do not even have basic necessities such as running water or sanitary facilities! So why would our mayor want to put the cart before the horse?

A friend who recently finished her Peace Corps service questioned my logic, “Don’t you want your community to have electricity? Isn’t that a good thing?” I thought about it. Was my reaction illogical? Don’t roads and electricity represent development? Aren’t I a community development worker? Shouldn’t I be excited about electricity coming and the new opportunities that they community will have to… develop?

Perhaps I had idealistic hopes that Cerro Iglesias would leapfrog traditional electricity grids and progress to more sustainable systems such as solar or bio-digester power. While some have solar panels (thanks to the Spanish and Taiwanese governments), more of the well-to-do (that’s a relative term) families somehow have purchased gas-powered generators, which are terrible noise polluters and I’d imagine are incredibly inefficient. Generators also have a disadvantage because they require that someone leave the community and spend half a day to fill up gas containers to then haul back into the community.

But my main problem here isn’t the source of the electricity, but rather, the use of the electricity. Electricity will not just bring lights to road-dwellers, but also the number one culture-killer: the television.

I conducted an informal survey recently to prove my suspicions about what sort of changes electricity would actually have in Cerro Iglesias. Not to my surprise, nearly everyone excitedly explained that they would buy, after light bulbs, a television. If you thought that daytime television and reality TV shows in the US were a waste, I promise the telenovela is 100x less intellectually engaging. Author Jerry Mander once wrote, “TV has even worse impacts on indigenous people, causing them to lose their traditional cultural practices, making them adopt a Western lifestyle of conspicuous consumption, and severing their connection with nature and the sacred.” Hence, I fear that electricity will change the landscape of my adopted home.

So call it development or evolution or assimilation, but its undeniably inevitable: the lights are coming. If they are lucky they will find a way, perhaps through promoting eco-ethnic-tourism, to preserve their unique culture. My beloved Church Hill will sure look different when I visit within the next 5 or 10 years. I just hope that they still speak their native Ngöbere, wear those bright zig-zag dresses and cherish the tranquilo life style that makes this place so special.

(breaker box in our new municipal building)

(Traditional Ngobe lady next to a shiny new car)

Support Haiti

2010-01-22T16:56:00.000-08:00

This is old news by now, but I just wanted to share with everyone that if you haven't supported Haiti either financially or otherwise, consider this:

My little community, where the average daily wage is about $5, is raising funds through their local church to send to their hermanos in Haiti. They are poor, but they are not desperate. The Panamanian government, in fact, has also sent in 22 rescue workers and 15 tons of food and medical supplies.

As many of you know, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It is a nation that is all too often torn apart by national disasters and political instability.

My dear friend, Alex Cottin, is in Haiti now, working on the relief effort. He works for Merlin, an international nonprofit working to bring medical care and services to countries devastated by conflict, disease and disaster. Although I promised I would not be soliciting more financial support, I urge everyone to chip in for this cause. Click HERE to learn more about Merlin and donate.

If the wonderful people of Cerro Iglesias can give a little, you can too!

(Below: Text message donation that I sent to Haiti: $0.50 at a time)

Home for the Holidays

2010-01-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

(Roasting marshmellows for S'mores in the kitchen!)

I’ve been absent lately, both in body and mind, from the Comarca.

As if the torrential downpours and persistence of mud aren’t enough to turn one into an antisocial recluse during the Panamanian winter, over the past few months I have also become so self-absorbed with my post-Peace Corps academic/career goals that I lost touch with my surroundings. I became afflicted with an inner battle that wanted to be present and engaged in the community, but needed to focus on a future plan. Looking back, however, I suppose it was a means to an (hopeful) end. Nevertheless, it takes a lot of work and a consistent presence in the community to maintain a feeling of integration here and, despite winter, I haven’t been pulling my weight.

I can write about all of this now, because suddenly and quiet drastically, it’s over. One day, a few weeks ago, it just stopped raining. Just like that. The instant switch from winter rains to summer drought in Panama never ceases to amaze me. Likewise, with my future fate currently out of my hands, I have hastily emerged from my egocentric bubble and returned to the social butterfly that I truly am. Furthermore, the start of summer means I have a lot of exciting work on the horizon: latrine construction, honey harvest and the launch of a new coffee toasting business here in Cerro Iglesias!

I felt that spending the holidays at home, in the Comarca, would be a great way for me to re-integrate my mind back into the world of the people I have come to adore over the past year and a half. I did my best to create the essence of Christmas with candy canes, carols and paper cutout snow flakes, but the true spirit of the holidays is sharing time and space with the ones you care about most deeply. Although I would have loved to have been with my real family back in the States, my Cerro Iglesias family is the center of my world right now and I wanted nothing more than to be sharing lukewarm coffee and fresh guandú (pigeon peas) with them for the holidays!

So, with solar cooking and beekeeping on my agenda for tomorrow, I return, happily, to the moment!

Below are a few holiday pics from my Re-Integration-as-Full-Time-Peace-Corps-Volunteer-Again Week!

(Fresh guandú)

(Me and Luz on Christmas morning)

(The S'mores were a big hit)

(Mother's Day celebration in December)

(Mamá and me (she's dressed to the nines in her 'Finding Nemo' nagwa!))

Agribusiness, Peace Corps Panama Style

2009-12-22T15:41:00.000-08:00

(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!

2009-11-09T14:24:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-10-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

(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

2009-08-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

(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

2009-07-31T09:45:00.000-07:00

(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

2009-07-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-13T08:37:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-05-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

(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!

2009-04-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

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)

Honey harvest and tropical paradises

2009-04-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

There is so much I still have to learn about bee-keeping. I´ve been working with 2 ladies- Victoria and Maribela- since I arrived in the community. We go check on the bees about once a week to tidy up their boxes, make sure no predators are stealing honey and check on their general health. I should be an expert by now, right? Wrong. I am still a peon, but happy to use a heavy smoker to calm down the bees while I sweat and choke on the burning corn cobs or scrap wood. (Photo: Victoria and Me, gearing up)

In the tropics, the harvest takes place in the dry season, when the bees are producing the most honey. We harvest 3 times during this season: ideally once in January, the main harvest in February and the final, smaller harvest in March. We have so far harvested 2x: the first yielded about 15 gallons and the second about 5 gallons of delicious honey. There should be a final harvest coming soon, but the rains came a bit early and so we might leave what’s left so that the population can continue to thrive. As I gather, honey production slows when the rains come because the bees don’t have as much time to gather nectar and pollen from nearby flowers (They don't fly well when their wings get wet?). (Photo: Victoria holds the 'marco' while Maribela uses a fork to break the honeycomb seal, preparing to extract the honey)

I’m not sure how they do it in other places of the world, but my ladies tell me that the harvest has to be done at night. The bees don’t see well so it’s easier to steal their honey in the dark. Even at night, though, they are extremely aggressive and can see enough to find the smallest hole to climb in and sting you like crazy. I wore several layers of thick clothes and even a jacket that I’ve used for snowboarding (in the spring) and I STILL got stung many times! After we stole the honey, we put it in a steal drum that has a handle to literally spin the honey out of the comb. It’s tough. When that was done at about 3am, we had to haul all that sweet bee juice up the mountain and down the street far-far away from where the bees live. If it’s too close, they will come find it and eat it all before morning. I have no idea if that’s a fact or just a local legend. (Photo: Maribela's boys hold down the honeycomb spinner while the older one spins)

So now we’ve got tons of honey to sell and are focusing on selling more of it in small quantities to tourists in David (Panama’s second largest city), rather than the intermediary that buys it all at once at a huge discount. Ounce per ounce, the group's profits are much higher this way. For all their hard-earned, year-round bee-keeping work, they deserve it.

I also recently spent a few days in Costa Rica learning about a green-building technique (anyone else sick of that buzzword yet?) called “cob”. Instead of using wood or concrete for house construction, the cob method takes clay, sand, cow poo and straw to make ¨bricks¨ that are used for the walls of the structure. No, it doesn’t smell like a barn… after it dries! It’s relatively simple, cheap and commonly used around the world. A few old friends from my Charleston days and I bussed it up to Costa Rica to an amazing place called Rancho Mastatal. The couple that owns the Rancho and over 500 acres of land that borders Cangreja National Park met in the Peace Corps several years ago and opened the Rancho as a learning center and sustainable living systems model. Over the years, interns and volunteers have come and contributed their skills and learned in the process. The results are beautiful and inspiring. See photos below and on Flickr.
(Photos: Various cob and bamboo hybrid building designs at Rancho Mastatal)

Back in Cerro Iglesias, the rains have begun! And the ¨honeymoon¨ (as Adam calls it) with my new house is officially over or near it. In the corner of the thatch roof, where it is hard to get a tight seal, water has found a way in. The first downpour came at 1am the other night and woke me up, frenzied, looking for a way to stop the massive leak that was splashing all over my books and clothes. I was up all night with a flashlight, looking for more leaks. The coming of the rain marks an important change in seasons. First, I won't be using the solar oven any more (sad), but more importantly for the village-folk, it means that the slash and burn traditional style of preparing the land will stop very soon. We will be planting corn and rice in the coming 2 months. The aquifers will slowly start to fill up, as water has been in short supply or no supply for several months. The mud boots will come out again soon and the umbrella will never leave my side until December.

This week a friend who just finished Peace Corps Ecuador is visiting and is going to help me build a trial cob oven so the baking can continue even in the rain! Mango season is not far off either, so get ready to see some pictures of delicious mango-baked products coming soon!

Place to call home, Part Deux

2009-04-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

The house is done. We finished over a month ago, right on schedule. Building a house is simultaneously one of the most frustrating and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. Doing it all off the grid adds a whole other dimension of challenges, but it was worth it all because this is probably the cutest house I’ll ever live in (with the most amazing view)! There is a video up on Vimeo if anyone wants to take the virtual tour ( http://www.vimeo.com/3636491 ). Warning- watch it on a laptop because you’ll need to turn the screen sideways to compensate for my horrid filming skills. As soon as I got settled into the new place, my parents and brother came to visit for a week! It was a blast to show them around the community and introduce them to all my favorite people here. I was nervous that they weren’t going to be able to rough it here, but they sure proved me wrong! They were great! We did a lot of hiking and endured insanely hot conditions with limited water supply. I am also very thankful that they brought my old mountain bike down so I can start exploring further into the depths of the Comarca. Having the bike opens a whole new world of freedom for me and I can’t wait to get out there! On my debut ride the other day, however, I got 3 flat tires. People that know me well, know how crazy I am about cycling, but not many know that I’ve never had a flat tire. Not even when I rode a good 400+ miles of the CA HWY 1 last year. I found a team of little kids along the trail to help me out, luckily. Together, we gave it 3 tries before a 6 yr old firmly told me that the tube was done and needed to be replaced. I took his advice and walked the bike home that day. Since then, I’ve been out on a few great rides along ridge roads with beautiful mountain views.
(Photos: my 'pit' crew gathering around the bike, family photo in Cerro Iglesias)

Other than hanging out in the hammock at my new place and planning for future bike rides and hikes to remote places, I’ve been busy with lots of activities in the community. The knitting class continues to go strong and is growing with every class. I will be starting another class in a different community soon, because the word got out and now those ladies want to pick up the sticks and make stuff! Thanks to my mother for hauling down more than 30 lbs of donated yarn so that these classes can continue! Many thanks also to the ladies who contributed yarn – it will be put to great use! I will, however, charge my group a very small amount (between 5 and 50 cents) for the yarn, because they need to know that in the ¨real¨ world, things don’t always come free. They will take more ownership, care and interest if they are purchasing it themselves (even though it is super-subsidized). With the money I will either have a party for them, elect a few ladies to bring to a knitting seminar that another volunteer wants to organize or purchase more supplies when we run out. The coffee group is still trying to get organized to obtain the legal documents to have access to a loan that will help jump-start their local coffee processing and sales force. Recently, the leading presidential candidate came to Cerro Iglesias and offered to donate badly needed resources that the group needs to continue down this path. Politicians are full of broken promises, but I have a pretty good feeling about this one. I have worked with one family (Jorge’s) to roast and package coffee that we sold at a Peace Corps leadership seminar a few months ago. He made $30 in 10 minutes! The other major activity recently has been harvesting honey with a few brave ladies in the artisan group. What an exhausting but exhilarating task! The next blog entry will detail that process. It’s intense.

(Photos: Roasted coffee we made to sell, Hello honey bee!, Liliana roasting coffee in a huge pot, Zulieka knits her first bag)

A place to call home

2009-02-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

In October, when I moved from a host family into the former volunteer’s homemade hut, I decided that the humble abode wouldn’t make it much longer and that a new house must be built. My vision was simple. Just a typical Ngäbe house made out of bamboo walls and thatch roof, much smaller than the current house and in a better location that includes a view of the Pacific. The house will be 12’x8’ with a lofted bed, which is larger than my last apartment, but fairly small as far as houses are concerned. Considering these modest requests, one might think that this small structure could be done in a weekend. Not so fast. That would be un-Panamanian. It seems impossible that since that time we have made such little progress, but hey, this is all part of the learning process, right?

Its very easy to blame the lack of organization and the absence of urgency in this culture, but its more complicated than it appears on the surface. For starters, successful construction only happens in the dry season, so October and November were out for gathering materials. The Ngäbes cut wood (and plant crops) according to the moon cycles. Wood can only be cut here in the second week of the waning moon. On top of that, the tide must be low in order to cut any materials that a house would require, primarily: bamboo, palm leaves (thatch) and straight, strong trees (branches for support beams; trunks for 2x4s). Considering these restrictions, this leaves about 7 days in a month, but only 4 hours in the day to cut the materials. If all of this sounds a bit loco, well, I agree. However, once upon a time, there was another volunteer who didn’t have paciencia (patience) and demanded his wood be cut on a certain date, which happened to fall on a full moon. 3 weeks later, his house was devoured by termites and fell to the ground. So, I’m practicing my patience and holding out in the old hut that is quickly being reclaimed by nature. I haven't decided if I’m living harmoniously with nature here or constantly fighting against her and her nasty creatures.

Finally, in December, when the rains stopped, we were able to cut the materials, in accordance with the moon and the tides, of course. The owner of the land where the new house is to be built and friend of mine, Florentino, was in charge of finding other community members that have the materials growing on their land. The part of Cerro Iglesias where I live is comparatively populated, almost urban in comparison to traditional Ngäbe living arrangements, so materials come from about an hour away. Once the materials are sourced, strong men are hired to cut and haul them on their backs or with a horse to the road. From the road we hired a pickup truck to drive it up to the top of the mountain where I live. These negotiations are sometimes even further complicated by differing ideas of how much material is needed to complete the job. For example, I paid a man $8 to cut the quantity of thatch needed to provide my roof, however, after he had cut what he claimed was enough, other community members told me it was not even half of the amount needed. I ended up paying another $5 for more thatch. So, I guess I paid $13 for my roof. I'm sure this sounds ridiculously cheap, but in the Comarca that is an absolute rip-off.

So far, we have 4 posts in the ground and piles of split bamboo just waiting to be become walls. Florentino tells me that he's had a hard time finding people to work for the competitive wage of $5/day, plus lunch. If that's an indicator of high local employment rate, I guess I cannot argue. But I tend to think it's more of a lack of motivation on his part or perhaps just the complete absence of urgency. So the battle for my idyllic hut in the jungle continues, but is nearing the end. New deadline is February 15.

(Photos of the work in progress)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

Just like in the States, the end of December and beginning of January is a notoriously unproductive time of year. It’s no different in Panama. Although, we have some strongly devote Christians in Cerro Iglesias, they don’t really celebrate Christmas the way we do in the States. Neither in the commercialized, nor in the religious sense. There is no snow, no caroling, no lights, no nativity scenes, no gifts, no ugly holiday sweater parties with friends. It’s all pretty much the same as usual around here. Other than family members now working in the cities and returning to visit their hometown, there was nothing Christmas-y about being in the Comarca. Panama City, on the other hand, was filled with gaudy Coca-Cola sponsored Christmas trees and oddly placed plastic decorations of a white Santa going down a snowy chimney, with large animals from the north pole parked on the roof. You’d think they would make it more culturally appropriate. Maybe a middle-aged, overweight and drunk Latino man in a red spandex Speedo, with his sombrero and machete, riding in on a horse and bringing bags of rice and sugar to scared little kids? To avoid the non-Christmas-y Christmas in site, I decided to spend the holiday with some friends in the San Blas Islands in the Caribbean. Kuna Yala, to be specific. It was a good choice.

The Kuna are another indigenous group here in Panama that have mostly separated themselves from the Panamanian government but have their support for building roads, schools, etc. They have tactfully learned to exploit their indigenousness and beautiful landscape to attract the adventure traveler, such as myself. I found it the right mix of both cultural and geographic beauty (and not too expensive). The locals even invited us to a “coming of age” party for a young girl in the village. The men made a small, dark tent out of sticks and leaves for the girl to be locked inside of for 5 days, while the town had a big party. The men drink, the women eat and that poor girl remains confined to darkness. How do these brutal traditions get started?

For the New Year, I traveled up to the fun, but touristy islands of Bocas del Toro. Also in the Caribbean, but less beautiful than Kuna Yala, these islands are a cultural melting pot of Afro-Antilleans, Latinos, ex-pats, tourists, and indigenous groups like the Ngabes and Kunas. It was really nice to finally see some diversity, but it’s an expensive place to hang out on a Peace Corps budget. Nonetheless, we had a great time. On New Years day we rented bikes and rode 20km to the other side of the island, stopping to see some bat-filled caves on the way.

Back in Cerro Iglesias, I’m slowly getting back into my routine of working with various groups, primarily the artisan/bee group (honey harvest is just weeks away), the Tabasco pepper farmers (who are looking for funding for a small irrigation pump to be able to harvest peppers in the dry season) and the coffee group (who is filing for the legal documents to obtain a loan and expand their business). I also recently started a knitting group, thanks to another volunteer’s donation of yarn/needles and the expertise of Laura, a dear friend who visited recently. We are 8 ladies strong and they are picking it up fast! Actually, I think they are already better than I am at it. Most of them already crochet colorful purses that everyone uses here (men and women alike) called chackras but they enjoy picking up a new skill. Perhaps we can start a new knitted-bag trend in the Comarca!

(photos of Kuna Yala sail boat, my new knitting group, and the honey bees)

Happy Holidays from the Caribbean!

2008-12-22T10:03:00.000-08:00

Since last time I wrote, everything (at least in my region) has dried up! The region of Bocas del Toro is still recovering from the damages from last months floods, however. Where I live, we are officially in summer which means no rain for the next 3 months. My umbrella is now primarily used as a parasol. The days are scortching hot and the nights are relatively freezing. It's a welcoming change from the gloomy rain.

For Christmas, I'm heading out to the beautiful white, sandy beaches of Kuna Yala with a few friends. A pickup truck will drive us from Panama City to the boat launch. They tell us only reachable by 4x4 vehicle and about 4 hrs to get there. Kuna Yala is another indigenous group in Panama that are probably the most famous (there are 7 altogether in the country). Unlike the Ngabes that I live with, the Kuna Yala are extremely organized and set up for tourists. The cover of the Lonely Planet guide to Panama features an island from this region. Pictures coming soon!

Merry Christmas to all!

Be Thankful

2008-11-29T14:35:00.000-08:00

Panama is currently suffering from severe flooding, mostly in the Bocas del Toro and Chiriqui regions (including my area of the Comarca Ngobe-Bugle). It hasn’t stopped raining in 14 days. Our director made all volunteers in those areas consolidate to their regional capitals for safety reasons, but many bridges and roads had already been washed away, so some were stuck in their sites. About 20 volunteers are currently working with government and international agencies to help out with the relief effort. Those in communities that have been washed away are being trained in disaster response, as their work will now focus on rebuilding their communities. Cerro Iglesias should be fine because it is high on a mountain and not prone to flooding (unlike my house, which I’m afraid to see).

I am heading back to my site after being gone for 8 days, my longest stint away from Cerro Iglesias since I made it my home 5 months ago. My group reconnected for a required Peace Corps event called in service training. Many months have now passed since those intense first 10 weeks together. When we arrived in Panama we all had different backgrounds and experiences. Now, we share similar hilarious stories about explosive diarrhea, flesh-eating parasites and awkward host family moments. We also visited a few farms to learn more about tropical agriculture topics: Robusta coffee, permaculture techniques, how to vaccinate chickens, etc.

Due to the floods, our original plans to celebrate Thanksgiving in the beautiful mountains of Chiriqui were changed last minute to another touristy mountain town called El Valle del Anton on the other side of the country. It was amazingly well organized given the last minute arrangements and considering that many people were unable to attend due to the weather/response efforts . We had an American-style turkey dinner with all the delicious fixings.

The message I wanted to send home was that I am so thankful for all of my friends and family that are constantly reaching out to support me, no matter where they happen to be in the world. Especially in a time of disaster, like we are having here in Panama, it is important to be grateful for even the basic things like access to clean water and shelter. To my friends and family out there, I am forever grateful to you.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/WFP/4072d4281e82e2c593234bc6aa248882.htm

(I met this enormous photogenic pig on a school farm last week)

Todo bien

2008-11-19T13:49:00.000-08:00

I've received several emails today from friends and family concerned with the 6.2 earthquake that happened in Panama last night. I had no idea it was that big until I read the report! I was a few hours away from the epicenter, up in the mountains with a few other volunteers giving a seminar about HIV/AIDS to teenagers. We all stayed in the health center and woke up in the middle of the night to a pretty strong rocking and my friend saying "Earthquake! Earthquake! Should we get under the doorway?". We were all too tired, so no one moved and a few seconds later it was all over. Everything was fine!

The HIV/AIDS seminar went really well though! I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I actually really like working with kids. More updates on that later, I have to get back to my hut and see if it survived the earthquake.

Four months in

2008-11-04T16:16:00.000-08:00

I’ve been in Cerro Iglesias for 4 months now and in Panama for nearly 7. I should have been updating this blog more in recent months, but in my defense, I’ve needed that time to process my new life before I could reflect on it. Or maybe I’m just lazy.

Recently, my life here has changed, somewhat drastically. Two volunteers that each lived about 15 minutes from me, completed their 2 years and left Cerro Iglesias to travel the world and return to life in the U.S.A. Adam and Jessica were, in their own separate ways, very special to me and pivotal to my integration in this community. They completed some incredible projects and left me with big shoes to fill. I miss them dearly and am so grateful to them for sharing 3 amazing months with me. As sad as I was to be the only gringa in town, life goes on, and my community has only embraced me more since their departure. (maybe they just feel bad for me?) Thanks to so many wonderful people in my community, I have rarely spent a moment feeling lonely or bored.

I no longer live with a host family, which has been great for my personal space and eating habits. I now cook what I want, when I want. For all that were previously concerned, my peanut butter consumption has been significantly reduced. Cooking has always been a creative outlet for me, so between the limited ingredients and no oven or refrigerator, I’ve been experimenting with all kinds of crazy, half-baked concoctions. I moved into the house that Adam (previous volunteer) built which, I’m sure, in it’s prime, was a fine structure, but is rapidly declining in its livability. After being there for a few weeks, I have decided that building a new house is more practical than fixing the old. It will be constructed out of the same materials (bamboo with thatch roof), but half the size with a big front porch that will overlook the gorgeous Pacific ocean view from my hammock. Finding materials and organizing people to bring them from the forest is proving to be a huge challenge, but it will be worth it. Patience is everything here.

In work-related news, last week, I hosted a 2-day seminar for cacao producers in my area. With the help of fellow volunteers that live on the Caribbean coast of Bocas del Toro, we were able to bring 3 experienced cacao producers that have been trained in the sustainable management of their farms to teach their fellow producers in Cerro Iglesias. We received a small grant and a donation from my local political leader to help make this happen and it was a success!

We are in the height of the rainy season, which also happens to be when the coffee is ripe for picking. The beneficio (where they process the beans) has been busy buying coffee from local farmers that is then de-pulped (by hand), washed (by hand) and dried (in the sun) in the new greenhouse-like structure (secadora) that was built thanks to a grant that Adam received last year. The secadora allows for the coffee beans to dry under a plastic roof which maximizes the little sunshine that we have right now before the coffee molds.

In a few weeks I’ll be giving a charla (like a lecture, only less formal) on safe ways to dispose of the skins of coffee fruit. They are extremely acidic and many times they are disposed of near rivers, causing a lot of pollution. I hope to teach some community members (or at least myself) about how to use these skins to make rich soil compost, which can then be used as a natural fertilizer or soil enhancer.

(Pictures Above: Adam and me with a giant papaya, Me and Jessica lounging in the hammock, My temporary hobbit-esk house, Below: Bocatoreño teaching my community to graft cacao trees, Jorge spreading out the coffee beans to dry in the sun, note new secadora in background)

Hello out there

2008-10-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

Cerro Iglesias is a great place to live. So great, in fact, that I have completely neglected updating this blog. I apologize. For now, check out some recent photos, including those from a brief visit to the USofA:

http://flickr.com/photos/53265254@N00/

Meet: Jorge Guerra (Head of my host family)

2008-08-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

Jorge was the first person I met from my community. He traveled several hours by bus to pick me up at our counterpart conference and took me to Cerro Iglesias for my first visit way back in May. He met me as a favor for his father, who was originally supposed to be my community guide (before he found a job that moved him out of the community). I have now been living with his family for nearly 2 months and he has opened up substantially since those first awkward days. Most mornings he is up and about by 5am. While his wife, Liliana, is getting the 5 kids ready for school and attending to the infant, he is usually chopping wood for cooking or sharpening his machete to get ready for work. All day, every day, he is working. He dedicates himself to the production of corn, rice, beans, coffee and more recently, ají peppers. Jorge only went to school until 6th grade, as did most men his age in Cerro Iglesias, but he is a smart man. He spent a few years working outside of the Comarca, as a migrant worker on Latino farms in the fertile region of Chiriquí. He also spent a short time working in construction in Panama City, but says he prefers life in the campo because it is more tranquil: less noise, pollution and more room for the children to run around. Basically, he chose to work his family’s land because he did not want to work for the ‘man’; not an easy path by any means. Similar to most New Yorkers I know, Jorge works hard, but plays even harder. After a week of long days in the field, he will get together with his buddies and they will drink themselves silly on homemade chicha fuerte. These gatherings, usually Sundays, are planned in advance, because it takes several days to for corn to turn into alcohol. They will sit in front of the house under the mango tree, sometimes as early as 7am, and stay there until the liquor runs dry or they pass out. (The women, for the most part, do not drink). Can you blame him?

During the week, Jorge is constantly trying to keep up with the different crops he has planted and finding ways to put food on the table. The ají project, if successful, will be one of the only ways (aside from the coffee harvest) that he has to earn a living for his family. He is very dedicated to his family, in ways that somewhat defy the stereotypical ‘machismo’ description of Latin American men. In the evenings, he spends quality time with his 6 children. We usually sit with the kids and chat or help them with their homework. He quizzes them on multiplication while I help the older ones with English and reading comprehension. What Jorge wants more than anything is for his children learn English. (That goes for about every Panamanian I’ve met). It is hard for me to imagine that learning English is more important than basic math skills and Spanish literacy, but I do the best I can to mitigate the Panamanian fascination with learning English.

Despite the stresses of his life, Jorge has been gracious enough to take me in and live with his family during my first few months in Cerro Iglesias. I have already shared many unforgettable moments with Jorge and his family. Although there have been some tough and/or awkward situations, the overwhelming majority has been positive. Living with this family has been an incredible learning experience for me and a very important part of coming to understand the local culture. I just hope I can return the favor in more ways than teaching kids English...

(photo of Jorge with his 9 mo old son who they just call "Bebe". Photo by Arden Sherman)

When the peanut butter runs out

2008-08-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

July is a tough month in the Comarca. There is a saying that goes something like: "Señor Julio le roba la pila" (Mr. July robs the pot). July and August is the time just between the harvests and there is not much paid work for unskilled farmers, so families struggle to put food on the table. It’s not nearly as bad as a true famine that parts of the African continent must experience, but nonetheless, it makes for a stressful time for poor Panamanian families.

I was feeling a little guilty about not spending enough time with my host family, so I decided to go work out in the field with them one day. Our task: plant 1200 aji plants. Jorge has been trying to finish planting 15,000 aji plants on a hectare of land. There is an aji planting craze in my community right now because of the new contract with Tobasco (yes, like the sauce) that is buying peppers for export. After a full day of working in the intense sun followed by a torrential downpour, and only eating a few oranges from the nearby tree, I was starved. A few nights had gone by over the past weeks with no dinner. When this happened, I would go back to my hut and snack on a secret stash of (crunchy) peanut butter and crackers - my new staple. The peanut butter had recently run out, leaving me feeling anxious about how to control those desperate moments of hunger. I realize that this all sounds completely ridiculous especially when my host family just goes to bed hungry (although I have a sneaking suspicion that the kids were fed by the grandparents). I will contest that their bodies are more accustomed to not eating as often as most gringos. We are notorious snackers and I am the worst of them. If I had time, I’d look up some hard facts to support this claim. Anyway, as we were leaving the field in the afternoon, we stopped to harvest some yucca planted along the trail. Yucca is a tuber and requires ripping out the plant from the ground and collecting the roots, similar to a potato but with a thicker trunk. This delicious starch provides virtually no nutritional content, but serves its purpose as a filler. As we started pulling up the plants, looking for roots, they were still stuck deep in the ground and we had no tools for digging. So, I got down on all fours with my 12 yr old host brother and started digging for dinner. I was so exhausted, dehydrated and hungry, but was furiously clawing at the soil with all my might. Half laughing at myself, it suddenly occurred to me that this is what happens when the peanut butter runs out: subsistence living. Perhaps this was a fine lesson in integration. We are now more than half-way through August, and are enjoying the new harvests of corn and rice, so things are much less stressful. The other day they killed over 100 chickens in town to sell and my family got the heads to cook for dinner. I had to decline. Looking back, I should have at least tried the chicken-head soup, but I had a full jar of peanut butter and crackers waiting for me back in my hut. Maybe next time.

Highlight of the week: meeting the honey bees!

2008-07-21T06:20:00.000-07:00

Here is what I have read about the Africanized honey bees that we have in Panama (and in most parts of Central America):

“Africanized bees acquired the name killer bees because they will viciously attack people and animals who unwittingly stray into their territory, often resulting in serious injury or death.

It is not necessary to disturb the hive itself to initiate an Africanized honey bee attack. In fact, Africanized bees have been know to respond viciously to mundane occurrences, including noises or even vibrations from vehicles, equipment and pedestrians.

Though their venom is no more potent than native honey bees, Africanized bees attack in far greater numbers and pursue perceived enemies for greater distances. Once disturbed, colonies may remain agitated for 24 hours, attacking people and animals within a range of a quarter mile from the hive.”

Victoria, the master beekeeper and president of the artisan group, invited me to meet the bees this week. We met at 7am because the meanest bees are usually out gathering pollen at that time. She dressed me up in a ridiculous bee suit that made me look like a giant marshmallow. I wish I had a photo of this. We hiked out for about 15 minutes into the jungle to a safe distance away from civilization to reach the hives. Just a few yards away, she stopped to tell me that, because I was new, I would more than likely be attacked. She added that these bees were incredibly smart and would be able to get into my suit and/or sting me through it. It is not in my nature to turn back, but I was seriously considering it this time. Victoria, a devote Christian, suggested a prayer and for the first time in my life, I was more than happy to join in. Moments later, I was surrounded by millions (or maybe just thousands) of furious bees. Every drop of sweat that came rushing down my face felt like bees crawling on me. Terrifying! Deep breathing was the only thing that kept me calm (perhaps the ultimate yoga experience?). We used a smoker to supposedly calm the bees while we feed them a sugary-water mix. When it was all over, I de-suited without a single sting! Victoria commented that the bees had treated me very well and each time I go back they will be nicer. Bee keeping can be a lucrative business for this group if they can continue to have healthy bees. Each hive produces $100 dollars of honey per year. I want to work with this group to get their organic product sold in smaller bottles to tourists in nearby towns. The honey harvest will not be for several months, however, so there is time to plan.

Other highlights:
- A few volunteers from nearby sites hiked over to Cerro Iglesias to celebrate my birthday with me! We made a delicious no-bake peanut butter cheesecake that turned out amazing. It is astounding what one can still do without electricity!

- I have an official Ngäbe name! Mego. Pronounced: meh-gough. I know, it doesn’t sound very feminine, but it has become my new identity. It’s growing on me. A community leader gave me this name after the late corregidora (mayor), who was the first woman leader of the district many decades ago. They tell me that she was a very powerful and respected lady, so who can argue the name with a story like that?

- Discovered a nearby river with fun rockslides, waterfalls and swimming holes!

- Have spent a lot of time working in the children’s nutrition center garden. We have been using all natural techniques to improve the soil quality, which will hopefully serve as a good example (granted everything grows) for those who only believe in the power of chemicals.

- Homemade chocolate experiment! I finally found ripe cacao pods and am in the 2-week process of fermenting, drying, peeling and grinding the seeds. With a little sugar and spice it should turn out to be some delicious chocolate. Yum!

(photo: nearby views in the Comarca)

Hi Friends!

2008-07-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

I realize that some of you might be trying to contact me and are having no luck. I am equally as devastated, believe me! All I can say is: keep trying! I have perfect reception in my site, but for some reason, only international calls are not coming through (Skype included). I am pretty sure it is a conspiracy by the phone company (Movistar) because they do not make any money from incoming calls. I miss hearing from everyone and hope this gets resolved soon.

ps- note new address on the right side of screen (2 addresses: one for letters, one for anything bigger)

Where do I even begin?

2008-07-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

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)

Summer camp is over. Real life begins!

2008-06-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

In the short time since my last post a lot has happened down here.

I visited my site, Cerro Iglesias, for 4 days. It was awkward and awesome at the same time. Ladies and gentleman, I will be roughing it for the next 2 years! My host family for the first 3 months in site has given me my own 'house' so I am very fortunate to have my own space. My house is made of bamboo with a thatch roof (see photo). I hope to build my own house with the help of the community, but those details haven't been worked out yet. The town is very spread out and each family has a compound of huts that are separated by thick forest with steep muddy trails connecting neighbors.

After returning from the site visit we had a one more week of training in Santa Clara. In our final days, I spent a lot of time with my fellow trainees, as this is our last time all together. The friendships I have made over the past 10 weeks will be my support system over the next 2 years. We've played a lot of ultimate Frisbee, slack-lining and swimming in the river. There was even a capture the flag game one night that ended tragically when I nearly decapitated myself on a barbed wire fence. Whoops! I'm hoping it won't leave a nasty scar. We organized a huge goodbye party to thank our host families. It was tough to plan to cook and entertain 200 people but we pulled it off! As a going away gift, my host family gave me an adorable kitten. They were so excited to give it to me, so there was no way I could refuse the little guy. After a tearful goodbye with the host family, we were whisked off to Cuidad del Saber (PC headquarters). We stayed there for a few days and "swore in" as real volunteers on Thursday evening. The world director of Peace Corps, Ron Tschetter, was here to administer the ceremony and celebrate 45 years of Peace Corps in Panama at the ambassador's house in Panama City.

We, the newly initiated volunteers of group 61, are having one final celebration this weekend at the beach before we disperse throughout the country. I am very excited for my real Peace Corps experience to begin, but am devastated to say goodbye to my fellow gringos. We have become a family over the past 10 weeks. So, tomorrow morning, I will take all of my belongings for the next 2 years, along with my kitten, and try to make in the mountains of Panama. If I could make it in Manhattan, I can make it anywhere, right? Goodbye internet, electricity, running water. Hello adventure!

(Photo of host brothers and sisters plus kitten)

Life in Santa Clara / training community update

2008-06-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

I feel the need to take a moment to apologize for not posting about my awesome host family until now. My previous posts have been about trips we have taken within Panama, but my host family has been taking care of me for almost 2 months now! I will post some pictures soon (before I move to my permanent site, promise). The family is much like my real mother’s family in that all of the children (all 7 of them), although most are grown and have their own families now, live within shouting distance from the house they grew up in. Although it can be overwhelming, it is wonderful to have a house full of family all the time. Until recently, I was still unsure of exactly how many people slept in our house (final count: 9). Santa Clara has been the host training community for 3 years now so my family is well-accustomed to the needs of us gringos (personal space and more fruits and vegetables than the average Panamanian, to name a few). My room here is 3x as big as any room I ever had living in NYC! My host father is the local political figure (Honorable Representative) here in town so my accommodations are relatively more luxurious than most of the other volunteers in our training site. For example, my family has a car, flush toilet and tile as opposed to concrete floors. Santa Clara does not have cell phone reception or landlines so my host parents also serve as the community ambulance drivers. On several occasions they have left in the middle of the night or day to rush someone to the hospital. They are truly incredible people and I am very grateful that they have made me feel like a part of the family since day 1! (On a side note, politicians are very much like celebrities here and their photos are posted all over town. See attached billboard photo of my host father. More photos coming soon.)

Ngäbere class:
I graduated from Spanish class a few weeks ago and am focusing my time on learning the indigenous Ngäbe language now (along with sustainable agriculture techniques, but more on that another day). Panama has 7 indigenous languages, but Ngäbe is the largest group with almost 200,000 people. There are only 3 of us in the class so we are lucky to receive a lot of 1x1 attention. Our teacher conducts the Ngäbe lessons in Spanish, so there is an added level of complexity in trying to grasp the language. The multiple meanings that nearly every word contains are a constant source of laughter. For example, the Ngäbere word “Kä” means: land, name, year, weather, place. The word “Ü” means: father-in-law, ax, yucca. The word “sulia” means cockroach and Spanish language (I’m sure there is a great story behind that one but I don’t know it yet). One phrase that we learned the other day while struggling to concentrate in our outdoor classroom was: “Ti bike se antlan kamike biombo bti”. Translation: I’m going to kill that rooster with a slingshot. Seriously, those roosters are more distracting than the NYC M14-A bus that used to shake my entire apartment building. Between the roosters, semi-wild dogs and the delicious mangos that come crashing down like bombs on the zinc roofs around us, it is a miracle we get anything done. Who knew the campo would have so many distractions!

Today we are traveling to a conference center a few hours away where we will each meet our community counter-parts. All I know about mine so far is that his name is Jorge. I imagine that he works with the coffee cooperative, but not necessarily. After the 2-day conference, Jorge and I will travel together to my future site, Cerro Iglesia in the Comarca Ngäbe-Bugle. I will spend the rest of the week in site getting to know my community and compiling their expectations for the upcoming 2 years. I have no idea what to expect, but I am very excited to find out. Stay tuned!

Coffee Training Week in Boquete

2008-06-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

Directly after culture week (see last post) 6 volunteers including myself met in Boquete for a week of coffee training. Boquete happens to be a top tourist destination but for good reason. It has a cool climate and is located in a beautiful valley surrounded by lush forests and raging rivers (think eco-tourism). Boquete is also at the base Panama’s only volcano, Volcan Barú. From the top, on a clear day, you can see both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea! I will be back to make this trek!

The Peace Corps Panama coffee program is only 4 years young. It´s goals are to work with Panamanian coffee growers to increase their production using sustainable techniques and to improve the post harvest processing of the beans. We also work to empower community members by linking them with organizations, agencies and companies to find the right markets (local, domestic and/or international) and fetch the best prices for their coffee. My group will have 6 volunteers working with coffee farmers and 2 of us will be in indigenous coffee sites.

The week was filled with visits to many specialty coffee fincas in and around Boquete, which is known for producing the finest coffee in Panama. I won’t bore you all here with the details of the coffee industry (that will come later), but in a nutshell we covered how to: select seeds, prepare the soil, sow, grow, prune, identify pests and disease, harvest, de-pulp, ferment, dry, store, peel, roast, grind, cup to determine quality and price, find markets, sell, export and finally, drink coffee (preferably con leche).

We also met with coffee producers who are in the highest specialty market here in Panama. Even though the coffee production in Panama is just a drop in the bucket when compared to world production, it was interesting to speak with roasters and industry players to get an idea of the potential for Panamanian coffee abroad. For example, most farmers in Panama received between .85 cents and 3 dollars/ pound this year for their coffee. A special variety of coffee called Geisha that grows best in Panama received between $150-180/ pound. That means that each cup would have to be sold for around $25 each just to break even. Insane! Who buys this stuff? Apparently, the White House and high-end restaurants in big cities throughout the world were big buyers this year.

There were many exciting revelations this week but perhaps the best moment was finding out that the volunteer who is serving as our coffee coordinator is constructing a bicycle coffee grinder! This is the perfect combination of a practical tool and a farmers’ spinning class (ok, maybe just for me)! Grinding coffee by hand in large quantities is strenuous and the campo of Panama does not have electricity, so this could be an excellent tool for campesinos to utilize in their communities. Check back within a few months, I intend to make one of these and think it is necessary to fulfill my bicycle withdrawal! If anyone has any designs or ideas, please send them my way!

Culture Week

2008-05-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

More stories to come, but here is a quick photo of my host family this week (more on Flickr). I stayed in the pueblo of a volunteer married couple here in the Comarca Ngabe-Bugle. Highlights were: studying the local Ngabe language, learning how to build a latrine, helping to dig a fish pond on a family farm, giving the local elementary school kids a lesson on the importance of handwashing and of course, absorbing the indiginous culture by staying with a host family and being exposed to local customs (arts, dance, language, food, life without electricity, cold bucket showers, etc).

Next, I´m heading out to Boquete for coffee training this week. There, I will learn everything there is to know about coffee: from seed to cup! Updates soon!

p.s.- I have a cell phone now! Call anytime! +011-507-6645-1908

Site Announcement!

2008-05-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, Panama. This is my home for the next 2 years! For now, we are still in training, so we will not be moving to our sites until the beginning of July. Nonetheless, site announcement for a Peace Corps "aspirante" is a very exciting day!

Here is what I know so far:

My site is an indigenous site. The native cultures of Panama differ greatly from the latino culture. I do not want to speculate on those differences right now, as I have not had enough exposure to comment accurately. My current training site is latino, so I am in for a big change!

This is an agri-business assignment in a beautiful mountain town of about 500 people. I will be working in a pueblo that has a fairly progressive coffee cooperative. They even have their own processing plant to dry and peel the beans! I will be working with these farmers primarily to increase their production of coffee (and other crops) using sustainable growing techniques. My secondary projects will be working with the artisan group that produces and sells handicrafts and bee honey!! The cooperative has apparently had a great impact in the community over the past few years. It has been involved in developing activeties such as: coffee roasting and trading, chicken projects (that means I hopefully get to eat protein and not just boiled bananas) and developing microcredit loan programs! This community also has a contract with 34 local farmers that produce hot peppers for Tabasco, so I will be involved in maintaining those relationships and improving pepper yeilds.

Anyone who knows me well can probably conclude that I could not be happier with this placement!!

I will be traveling around the country during the next two weeks to learn more about the culture of the indigenous region I will be working in and to get more technical training on sustainable coffee growing techniques. Hopefully I will have lots of new stories to share then. Ciao, it´s time to celebrate!

Site visit

2008-05-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we each visited a current volunteer for 3 days in order to get a better idea of what life might be like for the next 2 years. I stayed with a agribuiness coffee volunteer in an indigenous region called the Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé in the west of Panama.

Trip highlights:
-Amazing exposure to indigenous culture and language- I think I may also live in this area!
-Organic coffee production- 5 farmers have recently been certified organic in this community
-Wildlife- Battles with scorpions, tarantulas and the hunt, catch and slow death of a Boa Constrictor
-I taught my first English class (more on the merits of this activity below)

Read on for details!

The trip there was classically Latin American. A good friend of mine (it’s amazing how close you get to someone in 3 weeks of PC training) and I traveled on a bus that was suppose to leave at 8:30pm, but left at 8pm instead. Apparently buses can do that here. We were supposed to arrive at our destination around 11pm, but the bus had some major complications and we ended up at our stop around 3am. From this point our only directions were to walk "up the hill for about 30 minutes" until we saw a bank and from there we could use the payphone to call the regional coordinator who lived in the area. Here in Panama the streets do not have names, directions are vague at best, and time is an abstract concept that should not be taken literally. “Ahora,” for example, typically means “now” in normal Spanish, but in Panama it means “later”, which could be anytime in the next few hours or even days. HA!

To arrive to the volunteer´s site (Nate), he and I hopped on a chiva for about 2 hours up and down a half paved, half dirt, mountainous road. A chiva, for those of you wondering, is simply a pickup truck with 2 long benches in the back and a cage around it so that baggage (or people) can go on top. Picture 38 people in the bed of a Toyota Tacoma (I counted, and yes, this was a record). From our drop-off point we had a 2-hour hike ahead of us to reach his site. We are now in the land of the indigenous group of the Ngöbe-Buglé. Most speak Spanish as a second language after their own Ngöbere language. The hike was strenuous; we climbed over 3 mountains, but well worth the views! His community has about 150 people living there, small for PC standards.

After spending the afternoon pasaering (Spanglish for going house to house to chit-chat) with every family in town, we had dinner with the matriarchic figure in the community, Rosa (La Famosa). Families are large, about 10- 15 people (mostly young children) all sleep together in a one room, dirt floor house with a zinc roof. There is no electricity for hours around. Our dinner was a simple soup made from a local root vegetable that was cooked over a open-air wood fire that is burned inside of the house. Now I now why this is the toughest job I will ever love.

That night, just before we went to sleep, I killed my first scorpion (with a shoe, no less)! It was about to enter Nate’s house through one of the many holes between the wood planks. I was glad to be sleeping in my hammock with the built in bug net! BYO if you plan to visit me in the next 2 years!

The next day we went to the monte (mountain) to work with one of the coffee farmers. They have already finished harvesting the beans for the season but there is always work to be done. Their coffee is grown on hillsides under the canopy of the forest at 1200m. We made barriers that will protect the topsoil from being washed down the mountain when the rainy season begins. They also showed me where they de-pulp the coffee, which is then used as compost that can be used to add nourishment back to the soil. Beautiful recycling system! The farmers are organically certified now, but only receive about $ 1-2 per pound for their product! Think about how much you pay for coffee per pound in the US? The difference goes to the intermediaries and to transportation costs. We, as agribusiness Peace Corps volunteers, are working with farmers to improve their post harvest process, eliminate the middlemen and hopefully earn a more reasonable price for such a laborous bean. I’m not sure if my particular assignment will be identical, but I think I am heading for a similar project.

That afternoon a small child informed us that they had spotted a boa constrictor and needed our help. We weren’t really sure what that meant, so I grabbed my machete and my camera and we followed the kid. Sure enough, 100m away from Nate´s house, there was a boa hissing at us from a not very safe distance. A man, I’ll call him the Matador, was attempting to catch him with a long stick that had a slipknot tied to one end. After a long battle, the Boa was captured and we followed our Matador back to the main part of town where another man was waiting to kill him by putting tobacco in his nose and down his through. Apparently, it is bad luck to just hack it up with a machete, so death by tobacco is used instead. I was planning to prepare a delicious soup with the fabulous piece of meat, however, everyone laughed at me when I suggested this. Must have something to do with bad luck. After several hours, when the boa was good and dead, a boy was instructed to haul it off to the next mountain where they have a special place to dispose of all dangerous snakes. What a waste of protein! We could have feed the whole town! There are a lot of pictures on Flickr in case anyone doesn´t believe it!

Saturday evening Nate informed me that I would be teaching an English class at 8:30 the next morning. What? Uh, I´ve never done that!

Me- Are we doing this together? Nate -No, just you
Me- What topic should I teach? Nate -Whatever you want
Me- Who is our audience? Nate- Whoever shows up

Fabulous. I would have killed for cell phone reception (you must hike straight up a mountain for an hour to even get a signal) to call a school teacher friend that could help me through my first lesson plan. I’ll pause here for a quick note on teaching English: I am the first to admit that I think it is ridiculous to be teaching English to kids in rural Panama for any practical purpose. Now, however, I am starting to realize that it is less about fluency and more about volunteers integrating with the community. First of all, its fun! Kids are learning in a structured format! This is progress! Second, I am learning their languages (Ngobere and Spanish), so it would be selfish of me to not satisfy their curiosity about English. Two out of the three goals of Peace Corps relate to exchanging cultures, so this is one way of making that happen while gaining trust in the community. Enough about that. What is the world was I going to teach? I decided to go with the colors of the rainbow. ROYGBIV. 10 kids showed up to class! I have nothing to compare it to, but I thought it was a success! I gave them the vocab words to start out, then split them into groups to make their own rainbows out of construction paper. Each group wrote and presented the colors of the rainbow in English, Spanish and their native language, Ngobere. Success!

I was very pleased with my site visit and after speaking to my director it appears that I will be in a site that is also in this indigenous area, working with coffee! I find out for sure on Wednesday! Stay tuned! I’ll post as soon as I can. Ciao, for now!

2008-04-27T14:53:00.001-07:00

ps- I was finally able to post a few pictures on Flickr if anyone is interested. Enjoy!

2008-04-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

One week of training in the Peace Corps is equivalent to 1 month of regular life. At least in the beginning. Last Sunday we moved in with host families in a small, rural town outside of Panama City. We spent every day this week having 4 hours of technical training in the morning and about 4 hours of language training in the afternoon. After ´school´we are encouraged to hang out with our families to practice language skills and start soaking up the culture.

I do not have enough time to explain all the details of my new life, so I will just run through a few highlights:

-My host family is awesome (stories and photos coming soon)!
-We live in the land of milk and honey! The following can be found within site of my house: mango, banana, plantain, orange, mandarin, coconut, avocado, cashews, yucca and more that do not have English names.
-Panamanian love chorizo (AKA deep fried HotDogs). The gringos are having a harder time adjusting to the fried spam and triple carbs diet (ironic if you consider the milk and honey comment)
-The technical training is going great so far! I find out where my site will be in 3 weeks, Ill keep you all posted as I find out more!
-Oh yeah, we have a beautiful waterfall and swimming hole that is about a 15 minute walk from town!

Life is good. Ciao for now!

2008-04-19T19:21:00.000-07:00

I've been in Panama for 3 and 1/2 days now... I guess it's only fair to update my friends and family on what is going on here. I suppose it all started on Monday afternoon in Miami with 1.5 days of "staging." This mostly entailed getting to know the fellow volunteers and logistics information. Within 1 day, I made 47 new friends! Our group has volunteers from 3 sectors including: Sustainable Agricultural Systems (mine), Community Environmental Conservation and the new program, Tourism and English Advising. I am very impressed with the diversity in our group. They come from a variety of different backgrounds: a few years work experience, fresh from college, a professor, 2 lawyers and of all ages: (23-50s). There are even 5 married couples!

We arrived in Panama City on Wednesday afternoon after the 3 hour flight from Miami (so close!). The Peace Corps headquarters are in the Cuidad del Saber in Clayton, not far from the airport. It used to be an old military base and was also once the location of the infamous School of the Americas. Fortunately, the location in now in use for international agencies with a more humane mission: Peace Corps, UN, Red Cross, etc.

The first 2.5 days were spent getting to know the staff and a few current volunteers (they are all incredible), vaccinations, safety precautions, paperwork, language training, culture training, learning to make a life jacket out of a pair of blue jeans (it actually works!) and finding out more about our programs (of course!)!

As I mentioned, I will be a sustainable agricultural systems (SAS) volunteer. Within this sector I will be working in agri-business. More specifically, I will attempt to work with farmers to improve their livelihood through the implementation of sustainable agricultural techniques that maximize production with minimal environmental impact. I indicated that I would like to work in a site that includes: coffee and/or cocao production, an interest in microfinance groups, women artesania (crafts) groups, and beekeeping. Aimee, my boss, thinks she has the perfect site for me! AWESOME! Vamos a ver (We'll see)...

Today we took a field trip to another SAS volunteer's site to see her what a "typical" site might look like. I'll post a few pics on Flickr for anyone interested. The volunteer showed us a ton of things that we will be learning about in great detail over the next 2 years: local fruits and vegetables, eco-friendly wood burning stoves (estufa lorena), the use of live/dead barriers to combat soil erosion on hills, beekeeping, worm boxes for composting, raising goats, natural bug repellents, rice 'tanks' or small scale rice production.

After a great day on the farm our trainers took us to the local hardware store to purchase our first machetes! Even though I got a smallish one and many people tell me that it will be laughed at, it still feels pretty macho to own such a massive knife. I have the urge to name it. Any ideas? I was also able to finally purchase a panamanian hat which I promise to wear everyday from here on out.

Tomorrow we move in with our host families and Monday starts our intense technical and language training. I have no idea what to expect, but I'll be sure to give a full report by the end of next week. Ciao for now!

Backtracking a little:

2008-04-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I'll be honest, I have no idea how to keep a successful and entertaining blog. Bear with me! I had high hopes to blog about the bike trip down HWY 1, but alas, I didn't even look at a computer for a solid 2 weeks! My brother, Doug, and I rode from Eureka to Santa Cruz or about 400 miles a few weeks ago. It was an incredible experience and I know there will be many more bike touring trips in my future. I will try to post a photo here on the blog, but if you want to see the full set, check it out on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53265254@N00/ . For now, my directors at Peace Corps tell me that bikes aren't too common in this country and a horse will be a more practical form of transportation. So perhaps I will be buying a horse in the next few months! Nice!

Good things are happening here..

2008-03-10T20:58:00.001-07:00

March 15: Move out my apt in NYC, duration: 1 hour

March 25: Bicycle trip down the Pacific Coast Highway, CA, duration: 2 weeks

April 14: Move to Panama with the Peace Corps, duration: 27 months

Check back soon for updates!