blog

October 10, 2009

So……….

Gary has written a bit about our culture week and tech week experiences, but here are a few more facts. Culture week is designed to give each volunteer a peek into the province he will serve in. Chiriqui is Panama’s richest and most proud province. It was the first province to have its own flag and is known as The Province of Workers. Indeed, this province seems to be more dynamic and innovative than the others. It is known as Panama’s breadbasket. The varied topography permits many different types of agricultural production, including a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, dairy and beef farming, and lots of coffee and plantains in the northern mountains, where we we will serve. In addition, there are beautiful beaches on the Pacific side.

Four new volunteers from our group are moving into this province, but our jobs and locations will be so different that we will have virtually no common experiences! Another telling fact that no EH volunteers serve in Chiriqui – the Environmental Health volunteers are the Marines of the Peace Corps. They are the first to go into villages, and their primary responsibilities are sanitation and health. They build latrines and aqueducts, which bring potable water into communities for the first time.

The volunteers that work in Chiriqui are members of the following Peace Corps sectors, whose names will tell you what they do: Community Environmental Conservation (including sea turtle projects, reforestation, environmental education), Sustainable Agriculture (good farming practices), Teaching English and Tourism (yep, you guessed it) and our group, Community Economic Development. The major goal of CED is to increase family income via teaching people how to plan for and manage projects and groups, how to evaluate ideas for new businesses, and finance management and accounting skills. We also assist communities to develop new activities such as recycling. We find local community leaders and teach them how to do what we do. Sometimes we work with governmental agencies to find funding for community projects. Finally, we create and maintain youth groups such as Junior Achievement, artisan groups, sports leagues and Panama Verde (a youth group concerned with environmental conservation.) We teach leadership skills to everyone we can, as another goal is sustainability – we want these activities to continue after we leave.

Anyhow, to get back to the new volunteers who will serve in Chiriqui: H., a 30-year old entrepreneur who has his own production company in Chicago, will live in a port town of 30,000 people where Chiquita Banana pulled out recently, leaving the town’s unemployment at about 55%. B., a 24-year old Afro-American who grew up in Dutch Curacao and urban New Jersey and who has Dutch citizenship (!), will be working in a ghetto in David (Panama’s second-largest city) with disadvantaged youth. Gary and I are going into a small town in the beautiful Chiriqui highlands where coffee production and organic farming are the employment mainstays and where the folks we will work with are energetic, motivated, and busily reforesting their land, doing their part to ameliorate the effects of climate change.

Our Chiriqui culture week was organized by a CEC volunteer who lives in a tiny beach community. H., B., Gary and I dug clams with machetes along the beach, rode horses, drank coconut milk from freshly harvested coconuts, trekked thru mangrove forests, participated in a baby turtle release, ate fried fish at a beach cantina, watched a culture presentation by the junior high school students, and attended talks on topics such as presenting yourself appropriately to agencies, the indirectness of Panamanians, body language and nonverbal communication. We also walked a lot. Our host family lived about 2 miles from the beach. Our sessions were either at the beach or in the tiny community’s outdoor restaurant between our house and the beach, so sometimes we walked back and forth twice a day. It was HOT.

The very next week, we reconvened with our entire CED group of 18 volunteers in the mountainous community of Hato Chami. This village is in the Comarga of the Ngobe Bugle – a semi-autonomous province where one of the three major tribes is concentrated. During tech week, we practiced various techniques we’ve been training on, most having to do with community organization, business planning, financial management and other activities that make up our bag of tricks. The community is at coffee-growing level, in the cloud forest. It is cool. We lived in Ngobe-Bugle homes, where whole families live in one room, albeit often a large room, and divide their sleeping areas by cardboard or hanging clothes. The rooms are usually of boards with corrugated metal roofs. They have no windows, only a space about 8 inches wide between the topmost board and the eaves. They have no doors, either. Sometimes a curtain serves as an exterior door. They cook on outdoor fires and eat lots of fried bananas and boiled rice or yucca. Most are subsistence farmers. Our family’s farm was about 2 hours from their home, so the husband and son often stayed in a hut on the farm for several days at a time, rather than hiking home. We were lucky, as our family grows vegetables as well as yucca and plantains. We ate onions, potatoes, chayote, carrots.

The Ngobe fry or boil everything over wood fires. They use LOTS of oil. One of the fun things I did was to show Melida how to cook pancakes in a large pot and biscuits in a Peace Corps oven. The PC oven is a large pot inside another large pot, separated by an empty tuna can and placed over a wood fire. It bakes pretty well! We used a deep-sided pot for the pancakes, as those are the only kinds she owns. We turned the pancakes with the handle of a ladle. The Ngobe are POOR!!! Melida was bowled over when she saw that you could make biscuits and pancakes with only a tiny bit of oil, and immediately declared that with the money she would save on three bottles of oil, she could buy a skillet! She did not know how to cook anything with wheat other than ojaldras, which are basically Indian fry bread. Ojaldras are really good, but super fattening. If you’ve never had Indian fry bread, it’s like beignets or donuts, only less fluffy and without confectioner’s sugar.

The Ngobe could be living in the 1700s, except that the dresses are different and some of the utensils are plastic. All the women wear naguas, beautiful floor-length dresses with appliqued fabric designs. You’ll see some on our website if I ever get the photos organized. The problem with living as they did 200 years ago is that their land is full of gold, copper, good water, teak and other valuable resources. Mining companies are coming in, and these people are not ready. This can put Peace Corps volunteers between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the PC policy of staying out of politics, the hard place is that we are supposed to provide these people the skills to improve their lives. Many of us feel that greed will prevail, especially when the locals have no idea how to read, let alone negotiate contracts. There is a strong instinct among the Ngobe that big industry will pollute their environment, however, and they have already completed one march to Panama City about this issue.

When it can cost a ship up to $360,000 to transit the Panama Canal, there is no excuse that entire village populations still walk over a mile to collect water. Without the sophistication of political pros and good lawyers to protect their interests, I would not be surprised to see the Ngobe land severely damaged or ruined.

Putting CED volunteers into the primitive conditions of the Comarga was an experiment. It was widely thought (particularly by the EH staff and EH volunteers) that we would freak out at the primitiveness of the situation and not be able to handle the latrines, cold water outdoor showers, board beds and primitive sanitation in this poor village. EH needs to stop believing the stereotypes! We all did well, nobody cried or wanted to go home. Among ourselves, however, many of us we whispered that we were happy to be there for only six nights. About half of the CED volunteers are indeed going into primitive sites, but they have requested this type of Peace Corps experience. Every year, a significant percentage of PC volunteers do not complete their two years of service, often because they just get tired of that lifestyle. So far, we have not lost anyone in our group of 36.

Hugs to all, Peg

September 22, 2009

So—

it’s so hot and humid here that:

1) the tops of your hands sweat;
2) if you are writing, when you lift your arms, the papers come up with them;
3) the women have stopped using moisturizers and hair conditioner – they are totally unnecessary.
4) Floridians will appreciate this one: there is more water on the table around your glass than water in your glass
5) NOBODY bitches about taking cold showers.

Us trainees spent five days last weekend at the site of another volunteer. Gary and I stayed with Laura, a 27-year old woman completing her third year with the Peace Corps. She has been working with a youth coop at the high school, as well as teaching several computing classes each week. She is now working with a committee whose long-term project is completing a park in her community.

Laura built her own house for about $600. Or rather, she supervised its building, which was done by her community members. It has a bedroom, an office, and a combination living room/dining room/kitchen. The roof and two walls are corrugated aluminum sheets. The other two walls, on the sides where the rain doesn’t blow, are made of pinca, dried palm leaves. She says there are toads living under her bed, but she doesn’t mind, as they eat cockroaches and scorpions. She gave up her bed to Gary and I and slept on a cot in her office. I didn’t see the toads, but didn’t look for them, either.

Her house is quite comfortable, despite the fact that she has no running water. She built the house about 50 feet from that of her host family, and chose to continue using their kitchen to wash dishes. She also shares their latrine and their shower, both constructed of sheet metal and about 60 feet from the houses. OK when it is not raining. When it rains, the ground between these four structures gets really muddy. The soil is red clay, so it sticks to everyone’s shoes. Staying clean is a real problem. She has a long-haired dog and two cats, so before you know it, your clothes are full of red paw prints!

Laura’s house does have electricity – that is, there is an exterior extension cord coming from her host family’s house. When it gets to Laura’s house, it plugs into a surge protector, from which several other cords extend to the three rooms. Unfortunately, the day we got there, there was a terrible thunderstorm and the electricity went out until the next day. As Laura said, if she was living somewhere where there was no electricity, she would be prepared, with kerosene lamps, candles, headlamps, etc. But as it was, she had a couple of candles and a couple of flashlights. As usual, everyone made do – people here go to bed by 9 pm every night anyway.

Bumping up against Laura’s house is her rancho – a traditional pinca-topped hut. Some poor people, especially indigenous, still live in these, as they have for hundreds of years. Some people live in tiny concrete block house with an attached rancho serving as their kitchen. The rancho often has a dirt floor. There may be a gas stove with a propane tank, there may be a sink, there may be a refrigerator or stove. Many of the poor still cook in fogons, huge pots over open fires, in the rancho or outdoors.

Wealthier people have concrete floors in their rancho, although Laura doesn’t. Most people hang out there in the heat of the day, dozing in hammocks. Others use them as a garage, to store their grills or cachevaches (the stuff you never use but can’t bear to throw away). Ranchos owned by the wealthiest people have vinyl roofs, metal beams, painted concrete block posts and a concrete floor. They maintain the traditional square or rectangular shape and roof line. To us, they look like square gazebos.

While at Laura’s, we visited an old man who makes very cool utensils out of gourds, watched a soccer game at the community playing field, and talked a lot about the Peace Corps. Our trip was only about 4 1/2 hours to her site. Some of the volunteers had a 16-hour ride, some including rides to indigenous communities in dugout canoes. Everybody enjoyed their weekend, although some changed their opinions about where they would like to be placed. That was the purpose of the visit, of course–to see how far into the boonies the trainees really want to be. Our visit didn’t really change our minds about anything – we’d already told our program director that we need a cooler climate, electricity and running water. He has interviewed each trainee twice now, and has pretty much matched each trainee to a site. We find out Wednesday where we will be for the next two years.

Training continues to go well – four hours a day of Spanish and four hours of various things like Community Analysis, leading groups, developing leaders and project design. Sprinkled in are days when we get medical information and shots – so far, I think we’ve had 3, with one or two more to go. I have completely gotten over my anxiety about shots. The nurse who gives them is amazing! Friday, the doctor spoke about very exciting topics like diarrhea and intestinal parasites. She actually brought some worms in formaldehyde that she said came from a volunteer. Also had some photos of really nasty sores on ankles, etc. Yuck!! But she is a hoot, and makes those icky topics very funny.

The progress that some of the trainees are making in Spanish is also amazing. They are determined and work very hard.

All for now – we find out our sites this Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed that we will be somewhere you might come to visit!

Cheers, peg

August 18, 2009

So —–

we’ve been officially in the Peace Corps a little over a week now, and I am very impressed. Our three-day orientation was held in El Ciudad del Saber, a “retreat” facility about 15 minutes from downtown Panama City, adjacent to the Miraflores locks on the Panama Canal. It is part of the old Canal Zone, and includes about 75 three-bedroom homes that used to be the property of the US. Also included are administration centers, conference buildings, a gym, pool, etc. The main Peace Corps office is here, as well as various other administrative offices. It is very pretty and quite comfortable. We were esconsed in several of the three-bedroom homes. Nice landscaping, catered meals of pretty good local foods, not fancy but more than acceptable.

On Sunday we moved to a small town of about 1000 people, 1½ hours from Panama City. We are living with various families. Some volunteers are in pretty difficult conditions – one girl shares a room with two daughters of the family. She is sleeping in the bed of one of the girls, who now shares a twin bed with her sister. There is no room to put her suitcase, let alone room to unpack it. All three have to walk around it, as it is in the middle of the room. Many of the homes do not have indoor plumbing, so the volunteers use outhouses. Some have showers indoors, some outdoors. Some are eating rice, yucca, beans and hotdogs every day, which are the staples of the poor. Some eat better.

Gary and I are in one of the nicest houses in town. We have a nice bedroom, indoor plumbing with a completely tiled bathroom and a huge walk-in shower. Our host mama is a good cook who gives us a nice variety of foods, including salads and vegetables, apparently rare on some of the tables here. We do not talk about our situation to the other volunteers, as some would probably slit our throats–as soon as they complete machete training, which will be held this Saturday! The only modcon we lack is hot water, but the weather is so sticky, hot and humid that cold showers are ok. The water is not icy – not tepid, but not icy. It feels good after a few minutes. Also, the only internet access is 1½ hours away in La Chorrera, which we have very litle time to visit, so you won’t be hearing from us very often!

The volunteers in this group will work in two sectors: Environmental Health and Community Economic Development. You can think of the EH group as the Marines, who go into the really primitive villages, bring in potable water by building aqueduct systems, build latrines (sanitary outhouses), etc. They are tough (or will be soon) and the girls are buffed. Most of them will learn an indigenous language–Wounan, Embara or Ngobere. They accuse us of being yay-yay – wussy, soft and in need of costly creature comforts. We say that they do the easy stuff and that our sector is a much greater challenge. Most of us will go into slightly more advanced communities, where we will try to teach much more difficult concepts, like accounting, business management, teamwork, planning, etc. In the Panama Peace Corps, there are three other groups: Sustainable Agriculture, Community Environmental Conservation, and English Teaching and Tourism.

There are 36 of us – Gary and I, a married couple in their early thirties, two other women between 50 and 60, and the rest between 22 and 35. All are well-educated, well-spoken, enthusiastic, extremely supportive of the group, and ready to work. Gary and I spend 4 hours a day with the 16 members of the CED group – four hours a day of “technical training”, where we are in one large class learning facilitation skills, group dynamics, etc. We have the large class in a “rancho” – a large thatched-roof hut . We spend 4 more hours each day in Spanish class. We were evaluated for the appropriate level. I was put into an Intermediate Low class, and Gary into Advanced Low. There are only three of us in my class. Gary is also in a three-member class. One of the other two guys in Gary’s class is from the Dominican Republic and actually has a Spanish accent. The other guy is black and was born in Dutch Curacao. Really interesting guy – grew up in Netherlands, Curacao and New Jersey! He spoke Spanglish growing up and also took university courses in Spanish. They only have one week of actual class and next week begin making presentations in the elementary schools.

My class is composed of a gringo and two gringas. The other gringa has had 7 years of Spanish, the gringo only had high-school Spanish but spent several weeks in Nicaragua. There are about 12 Spanish teachers for 35 people, as language is a necessity and major investment of PC resources. Language classes are held on the porches of various homes. It is a privilege to have this opportunity to learn a language with so much individual attention and assistance.

The life we will lead for the next ten weeks is unusual for most adults – we have absolutely nothing to do but learn stuff. Our meals are prepared by our host families, our laundry is done for us, we are given a little spending money and one afternoon a week to spend it. Our days are unbelievably tightly scheduled. We have an immense amount of material to learn. In addition to the four hours a day of Spanish class, we try to utilize our host families to practice Spanish, as well as anyone else we come in contact with, thereby not only learning conversational Spanish, but also info. about the life style, value systems, habits, etc. of Panama. Much of the technical training is presented in facilitated group sessions, rather than in lecture form. We have homework with other class members to create these presentation materials ourselves. Of course, we have Spanish homework too. Everyone is so tired at the end of the day that most of us are asleep by 9 pm. Part of that is heat exhaustion, part of it is brain fatigue.

I am having a great time. Gary is having a slightly less great time. We both feel the training is excellent, well-organized, etc. Gary says the hours are too long. He wants some downtime. We have been told there will be none of that for the next nine weeks!!! However, I believe the only planned activity for this Saturday is machete class, which is optional for the CED group. Gary has decided not to go, but I will go, if only to support our group, which will be outshone by the EH group, who have been talking about these machetes since we got off the plane in Panama City. Sunday we get the grand tour of Panama City by bus. Should be fun!

As expected, the weather here sucks!!!!! It rains every day and the humidity is unbelievable. Most of the time it is JUST manageable, but just before it rains, it is pretty much unbearable. We may or may not get used to it. The training director has obliquely spoken to Gary and I about some of the choices we may have to make with regard to our eventual site: do we want to go somewhere more primitive but more interesting, or less primitive but less interesting. For example, there are some indigenous communities with great potential, but they are in the real “campo”, with no electricity, possibly no running water, etc. Don’t even think about paved roads. Not to mention we would have to learn one of the indigenous languages as well as be conversant in Spanish! In addition to the weather!!!

I think we will opt for the more comfortable living conditions if given the choice. Fortunately, I think many of the younger people are chomping at the bit to get the difficult locations, in search of the “Peace Corps Experience”. Gary and I are very willing to give ours to them! We will not be given our options until after week 7. The people going to indigenous communities will need to know earlier so they can start learning an indian language in time to become somewhat conversant. Stay tuned!

That’s all I have time for this time. Hasta luego!

Peg

Today was mostly about working on PC projects in our office, which is really in my case a desk Anel made for me. Anel lives down the street and he produces various organic products.

In January our sector director asked me to head a project to import refurbished desktops. That is what I worked on today. This means writing letters.

But at noon I showed up at the local school, grades K-9. The government has been pumping money into IT, putting in computers and even internet access. But suddenly they decided not to send teachers. So here is a room with 15 computers (they are 15 short, so some of the computers I will import might show up here) and no teacher. So the principal told the teachers they all had to learn how to use and teach computers. Most of them do not know anything. So Peg and I are going to teach them at least the basics.

Today however was the first day of school and although the principle decided that we should start today, when I arrived things were too chaotic. So he will call when they are prepared.

Yesterday morning a volunteer friend and I drove to a cabaña high in the mountains (between 8000 and 9000 feet).  This is a good spot to see birds.  Saturday evening we walked into the forest for about an hour.  We heard a lot of birds and saw few.  Neither of us are birders and other than having a book on Panamanian birds and binoculars we are of little use to one another.   While sitting on the deck overlooking the valley, however, I saw what I think was a female quetzal. In the slide show are some of the birds I saw during my previous with Sarah, a true birder.

Sunday morning we not only heard many birds but had 6 good sightings of brightly colored birds plus a few hummingbirds.  This does not count the more run of the mill birds, such as the swifts that were flying about the cabaña.  Most of these sightings were near the forest edge and around the house.

We saw only a single monkey, a spider, but we heard howlers.

Starting at 4 (really at 4:40 by the time people showed up) there was a meeting of our local group.  It lasted until a bit after 8 p.m.!  They were about to start a project to plant a heap of celery and other crops.  The plot of land is an hour walk each way.  One member convinced the others to have each member dedicate a plot for an organic project.  The members will help one another prepare the soil and the like.  Each member will otherwise be responsible for the work and will receive whatever income results.  Organic produce, even if not certified, brings a better price.