Highlight of the week: meeting the honey bees!

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!

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?

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!

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

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

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

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