Rainin´ Ants!

I´m all settled into my new house, but it seems the ants were quick to follow. I can´t quite blame them as it is certainly the only dry place around (if you don´t count the leaks in the roof) since it has been raining a steady 4 inches a day here. Oh the joys of the rainy season! But thankfully there is only a month more of really strong rain. Then summer will be coming! Then clothes can dry in just one day instead of three. Oh the luxury! But that of course means that my hair will probably dry in one day too, so I´ll have to go back to taking a shower every day. Shucks!

So I tried attacking the ants that have made quite a big nest on my front stoop. I boiled up some water, added my Dr. Bronner´s soap, and had at it with my machette as I poured the water into what was once their home. They started pouring instead out of the electrical outlet. What else could I do but boil up another pot of water and pour that into the outlet. Sorry Grandpa, but I don´t use that outlet anyhow, so I don´t care what it may have done to the wiring. hehe I also did the same to another big next just down from the first. (There are nests all around the foundation of my house, which actually leads me to believe that the whole house is sitting on a huge interconnected system of ant tunnels.) The next day, the nests were reformed like I hadn´t done a thing.

Ants are also crawling around my kitchen/dinning room/work table. (It´s still the only table I´ve got in the house.) I keep that thing spic and span, so what they are doing there I don´t know. My sponge is constantly covered in ants that I´ve killed, which is kinda gross, but hey. I know I´ve eated a couple too that have been crawling in cups before I realize it. I make sure all my dishes are food free and swimming in copious bubbles, but I guess there is still some smell the ants like. In fact, I saw them crawling over the cake of dishwashing soap in the sink outside. I don´t know. It´s a losing battle, so I figure I´ll just hold out until the rains pass and hope it gets better after that.

These suckers bit though!!! I don´t think there is such thing as a friendly ant in a tropical country. Every one I´ve ever encountered no matter the size or color bites like a mother. I end up with raised pus-filled bites every time. And they typically prefer my toes or underneath my watch.

You know when you get the tingles when you are sitting some times? I often do when I am sitting, reading in my hammock. Well, in the States, I wouldn´t think of it. Here, everytime I look at the location of the tingle, it´s always a bug. Be it an ant, mosquito, cricket, moth, you name it, it´s been crawling on me. At least moths and crickets don´t bite. Or sting... Every morning my ritual is knocking off the new growth on the window (decorative cement blocks) that the wasps make every day. You´d think they would get the point by now that they aren´t gonna be able to live there as long as I am here.

And so the fight continues...

Things are going well in site if you can count all the books I´ve been able to read these past few weeks. I´ve quite enjoyed myself actually. This past week in fact I knocked off two new books from my list and started a third. Thank god for electricity so I can read into the night, or during the midday storms that fill the sky with dark clouds and blow rain into the house if I don´t have my lovely, pink shower curtain-covered door closed.

To my defense, though I really don´t feel I need to defend myself... I have been working with one of the ladies to start a women´s craft group. There is interest... just no one shows up to the meetings. They blame it on the rain. I guess that gives me free reign to read until the rain stops! I have also started digging a test hole for fish tanks. You need clay to build them to keep the water in. Well, after digging through 16 inches of black volcanic soil crawling with great worms, I couldn´t help but think why they won´t just make organic compost. Instead we made it down the first 36 inches and stopped for the day. That was two days ago... perhaps next week it won´t be raining so much and she (as I´m only digging this with one other lady) will be up for digging some more.

I haven´t done much to coordinate a Panama Verde group in my site yet. I´ve had a lot on my plate, you know between the books and all. I would have to hold meetings after 2pm when the kids get back from school (the colegio cause the elementary school rarely holds class past 10:30am). And of course that is prime time for rain and nonattendance at meetings. Oye.

My Eco-English class is still going well though. Last class I did the Ïncredible Journey¨ from Project WET and it went really well. Basically all the kids become water molecules to learn more about the water cycle. Plus, now that I spent the time to make all the game parts, I can use it again in the future with other groups.

So I´ll be plugging away at much of the same and hopefully getting into a better blogging rhythm again!

I´m Moving!

I’ll be keeping my address, aka Entrega General David, Chiriqui, Panama. Hehe. I love the mail system. They keep it so simple. My house is the first house you get to in the community, so that means my chiva ride is only $.75 instead of $1.50 to my last house family, or $1.00 for anywhere else in town. And my neighbor is the chiva drive, so I can catch a ride more often than the two trips a day. Or I cut about a half hour of my walk down to Potrerillos Arriba. Either way, transportation wise, it is better. It also means that it is a half hour walk back uphill to the center of town. Hmmm.

It has electricity, with a total of three bulbs inside and two outside. Plus it has a flush toilet, shower, and sink inside. The bigger sink to wash dishes is outside. You can think of the house as a square with a wall down the middle that divides the two rooms. The main room is your kitchen, dining room, seating (hammock) area. The lady I’m renting from switched the table on me, so now I’ve got one half the size to store all my pots, pans, dishes, cook, eat, and work on. I’ll have to find a better solution, as it’s not gonna fly. But I can’t blame her, my other neighbors got her to lower my rent from $40/month to $30/month since the going rate in town and what the previous volunteer paid was just $25/month.

The other room has my bed, complete with my mattress atop an old mattress. I feel like the princess and the pea as it is so soft. Maybe it is just normal and I’ve been used to an inch of padding over wooden boards or else springs poking through an ancient mattress. We’ll see if I feel up to moving the mattresses around again. I’ve got lots of hangers for my clothes which I can dry outside on hangers and then just hang them up inside. I’m gonna love it. And then the bathroom is in the back of that room.

All the interior “doors” are curtains. So you gotta be careful if the front door is open, the wind is blowing, and you are sitting on the toilet. I’m going to hunt for some weights I can sew onto the bottoms of the curtains. And I’ve got to find some brighter bulbs, cause these ones aren’t quite cutting it. Shelving is also on my list. Besides from that I’m all set to move in.

I splurged on my moving-in allowance. I bought a fridge for $230: the LG ExpressCool, and I love it! I also bought a $25 blender with a 3 year warrantee and a toaster over for $40 with a 2 year warrantee. I already cooked a bunch of cakes in it and it works fabulously. I can’t wait for pizzas, roasted chicken, and all the other non-fried food I’ve been craving. Then I bought Kirsten’s stuff (mattress and cookware) for $45. So out of my $300 allowance, I’ll probably end up spending $400 to be comfortable. I just don’t do the keeping meat on the counter for days thing that seems to be popular around here. My stomach has told me time and again over these last three months that it just doesn’t work. Therefore although I can get Pepto for free from the med office, I think the fridge is the wiser investment.

Oh man, I called the med office last Thursday asking for more Pepto. She offered sending it with Francisco during his visit yesterday. That sounded great at the time, as it was just because I was out, and not sick or anything. By Saturday though, my stomach was rumbing. I barely made it around town Sunday and stayed in bed all day on Monday. This was all leading up to the time when I needed to be out and about the most for my big presentation.

By Tuesday I had recovered with the help of my host fam’s bottle of Pepto and I took off to David with the chiva driver’s wife to buy my fridge. It turned into a shoe shopping trip, and after waiting in a hair salon, I split to run some errands and make it back to town. The 2:30pm chiva never left town, so the 3pm trip back up didn’t happen and I had to wait until 6pm for the chiva. I got back to my host family at 7pm and started baking at 7:30pm after dinner. I didn’t finish until 10pm popping my half sized cakes into the toaster oven one at a time. But I finished!

The cakes were a big hit. Super moist cakes (out of the box) are not only a lot cheaper than the cakes they all buy for birthdays, but soooo much more delicious than their thick, dry desserts.
My visit went great and my boss was very impressed with all the work I have been doing, especially since my visit was the earliest. Yes! Now I’m off to print out my 25 page analysis and to help my friends do the same since their visits aren’t for another month.

Adjusting Nicely

On Sunday I moved into my third and final host family. It is like a combination of my first two, though only the best parts of each. I am living with a real family again, aka with kids which make for great conversation. The girls are 5, 7, and 11 years old. And my host mom is around more, which makes me feel like I don’t have to leave the house too. My host dad is awesome too and wants to take me to the waterfall on this side of the community as well as Cerro Punta on the other side of the national park. And his brother brought me home in his truck the other day when it was raining. Major points. hehe

I have my own room too. I have a double bed, instead of the single (not twin) beds I’ve been accustomed to. Plus, it is my first mattress with springs in my community. Granted all you can feel are the springs, since there isn’t any padding left in the mattress, but hey, what can you do. The first time I picked up one of the pillows on the bed, I felt like I was lifting a dead animal. I guess the best way to describe the filling is perhaps strips of jeans tied in balls, and just as comfortable… I really have no idea what it is made of or why on earth anyone would make a pillow using it. But I bought my own pillow back in Training, so I’ve got that base covered.



It is a further walk from the rest of town, but the chiva will still drop me off on that side. I´ve finally included a picture of the Toyota Land Cruiser that is typically filled with 20 people (made to carry just 10) and at times is packed with over thirty. It is our own version of those contests to see how many people you can pack in the car, only this is daily with a real purpose.

It’s pretty amazing what you get used to. By now I’ve taken for granted that I will eat whatever is served in front of me. My host families and other community members do ask me what I don’t like to eat. I try not to make my list of things I don’t like eating too long in case that is what they were planning on serving. I do let them know that I don’t eat feet. After a surprise of a piglet hoof in my tamale at a birthday party, I’ve been making sure the community knows that I do not eat feet. Pig feet, chicken feet (haha, it’s not a monkey paw Scott), oh, and cow’s feet are not to enter my digestive system. Honestly though, it is all just skin and cartilage, with hairs of the beasts prinking out. Typically I would say yuck, but I’m learning to recognize that it is yet another cultural difference. I mean, the kids fight over them, so there must be something appealing. I was pasearing the other day as one woman was cutting up a pig’s ears and plopping them in a pot of beans. I’ll have to remember to add that to my list of things I don’t eat.

I mention that they are things that don’t exist in the States, so I am simply not used to them. It seems to hold over most people, though some take it as an invitation to offer the gringo something new. After two months of warding off chorizo, I was finally served a slab for dinner tonight. In the States I would avoid the white of bacon. Here on my plate prepared by my new host mom was a half inch thick, inch and a half wide, and three inch long chunk of fried pork skin and fat. At least she was nice and gave me a small piece! I ate it, thinking of happy thoughts instead of where all that extra fat is going to pegar on my body. That’s another thing, the new question for me is “Have you gained weight?” or “You look más gordita.” Hmmm, yes I do. Could it be meals of pure fat? The fact that just about everything is fried? Or perhaps is the typical meal of top ramen and spaghetti soup, spaghetti with tomato sauce, and rice dinner? I think I’m certainly getting my fill of carbs here!!! So I can’t wait until I can cook on my own and choose what I eat again.

I start my English class on Saturday. I am a little afraid of who is going to show up. I’m labeling the class as Intermediate, but I have a feeling many beginners and little kids sent by their parents might try to sign up. Plus, I’ve decided that since I don’t really want to teach English, I am making it basically an environmental education class simply with lots of English words throw in. hehe I put in a lot of the past month planning topics, vocabulary, grammar, activities, and methods to evaluate the class. I’ve got my fingers crossed it will pay off and run somewhat smoothly. One of the gringo’s in town is going to help me with the first few classes too. After I finalize who I am going to let stay in the class and who has got to go, I’ll be making it official with the Ministry of Education. (At least that’s the plan.)

¿Qué más? Oh, speaking of school, it’s pretty much a mess right now. No construction has happened for the past month. The representante won’t show, and class is still in the rancho communal. The teachers pushed for suspending class completely (which thankfully didn’t fly), and another meeting will be held on Monday to see what they are going to do. People are supposed to come today (didn’t happen) or tomorrow to check everything out, including the possibility of holding class in the half remodeled school. Oye. I am pushing the Padres to go to the Ministry of Education and get something done about the amount of days the teachers are missing too. So many little projects…

I’m inventorying the vivero too. Admittedly, I stopped after the second day of getting through just four species and over 500 plants when I ran into a monstrous ant nest. I have the worst luck with ant bites, and boy do they hurt! The trees aren’t going to be planted any time soon, unfortunately, so I’ve got time. Man though, one of the guys in town got bit by a scorpion when I was at his house chatting with his wife. He said the pain shot right up his arm into his chest and didn’t go away as we watched his finger turned black. Note to self, do not touch any creepy crawlies around here!

Life is going fine here in Cabecera. Hope this latest update finds you equally well! I miss you all and hope you had a great Labor Day!

Indoor Plumbing!

I switched homestays as planned into the lap of luxury… at least as good as it gets for my community. I have my OWN room, complete with bed, desk, and chair. Although the bed is still just wooden boards with an inch-thick piece of foam laid on top, it is my very own, free from coughing children and crying babies. As it is my own room, I now have space for my things, which I moved out of storage from another house in town. What difference to have my books at arms reach whenever I need to look something up! I bought a wooden shoe rack at the Do It Center which is the perfect size to hold all of my clothes and stay organized. (Although I’m still working out where I want to keep the clothes I’ve worn already but aren’t quite dirty enough to warrant a full days work to wash.)

Other improvements include a family with seating, a dining area with enough chairs for all of us, and a kitchen inside the main house. Plus all the floors are cement, as opposed to dirt. And best of all, there is INDOOR PLUMBING! Not only does the kitchen have a sink with running water, but there is a bathroom with both a flushing toilet and a shower with a drain! Yep, I’m livin’ the high life!

However, the first day I moved into my new home, I was greeted by a torrential downpour and thunderstorm. Moreover, within about a half hour of my arrival, the house was struck by lightning which burned out the TV. I didn’t have TV at the last house, so I am not complaining about missing episodes of Victoria like my host mom.

Two days later I managed to eat something that didn’t agree with me. I can’t decide if it was a sip of already fermenting juice or perhaps an empanada that I was given at the conclusion of my Producers Association meeting. Whatever it was, I was up all night with the worst gas I’ve ever had. And this is to say that every ten minutes I would sit up to release a fruity flavored, carbonated belch. I hadn’t drunk any soda or beer since I arrived in my community a month ago, so go figure. By about 3am, I decided that it wasn’t just gas coming up from my digestive system. I reached for my Nalgene bottle, and knocked it off my desk. Darn it! As it clattered on the floor, I dove for it and immediately released the building pressure from within. As it rapidly filled with the first two heaves, I fiddled with the lock on my door and emptied out the rest of my upper digestive system just past the front porch stoop.

I then took a walk into the sugar cane field to pour out my Nalgene and get some fresh air. I figured it probably wouldn’t be best to leave my little front door surprise, and used my water bottle to dilute it a little and prayed it would pour soon. I then unlocked padlock I put on the front door each night and made my way to the bathroom to finish emptying out my system, from the other end. However I was thwarted in my effort by my host mom.

It must be explained that Panamanian house construction in the campo does not involve any insulation to buffer noise levels. In addition, my host parents share a wall with my room. So needless to say, I must have made quite the introduction with my midnight symphony. She asked the obvious if I was feeling poorly. I wonder how she could have figured that out. And then proceeded to offer me an assortment of medications. No, really, I will be okay. Please, for the love of God, just let me use the toilet! She eventually let me past. Two trips to the bathroom later, I don’t think I had anything left in my system by the time morning rolled around all too slowly.

Though I ran through a mental list of all the possible parasites and bacteria that could have caused me such discomfort, I was as good as gold by the next day. So while my first impression probably wasn’t the best on this new family, I certainly gained some confianza with them...

Week 3

I finally plugged in my computer today to charge it for the first time. The extension cord hanging into my room just can’t handle it. I bought a surge protector and have it plugged into the main extension cord that comes in through the living room window and feeds the tv, the fan (when it’s not in my room), and another extension cord. That cord is connected to the kitchen/family room/dining room light bulb, the mini-fridge for the kitchen, and an extension cord into my host family’s bedroom (parents, baby, brother). That cord feeds a light in their room, a fan that I think broke, and an extension cord that runs into my room. While the only thing I have plugged into my room is another light bulb and the fan (from the family room at night), you can probably see why it wouldn’t charge my computer and why I was hesitant to force it without a surge protector. Grandpa, you can rest assured that I’m not fearful of an electrical fire, as our house is made out of cement! So to make a long story short, I am typing up this update before I get to Chorrera. (I´m posting it today in Arrejan as I didn´t make it to internet then. The pic is of my ranchito behind my house along with some neighborhood kids I play with.)

We’ve been busy in Tech class as we’ve prepared double-dig beds, made and planted our semillero (seed growing house), took cuttings of medicinal plants and have those growing in our vivero in little bags, made special soils, 14-day compost, learned community assessment tools, leadership skills, and more! Currently we’ve split into three groups to continue work on the garden, implement a community environmental activity, and coordinate a school eco-parade. I’m in the eco-parade group, yet we are all helping each other with our respective projects. We’re also going to be do a big community assessment complete with maps of the community according to different perspectives of residents, calendars related to holidays/crops/etc, daily schedules of different types of residents, biodiversity surveys, etc, etc, etc. One part is FREESOP which includes family (f), economy (e), politics (p). Another is more specific to our sector which has been dubbed BADCEG (pronounced Bad Keg) which includes water (a), soil conservation (c), and environmental education (e). It will be great practice as we’ll be responsible for doing this assessment in our own communities once we’re on our own.

Spanish class has improved by leaps and bounds. We’re practicing a lot more and even giving mini-charlas on topics we’ve learned about in tech class. Mine today was a little disorganized as I skipped out of class just as she called me to give it. Then I jumped right into it after Carlos dropped me back off. She still had lots of compliments, and my errors included things like Islas Caribes instead of Islas del Caribe or something like that… You see how much I retain new information! My biggest problem is I know the grammatical rules, but I still don’t use them all when I talk. Poco a poco…

So as I mentioned, I went on a volunteer visit last weekend. My volunteer had a site up in the mountains of Chiriqui on the border of Costa Rica. It is coffee country up there with lots of plantations everywhere. The weather was leaps and bounds colder than here, as I don’t think I took off my polar fleece the entire time! Okay, so it was probably just around 60’, but I’ve become a wimp to the cold. I do know that it never gets above 80’ there and that’s saying something for a country so close to the equator. Her community was rather small (or at least going by the number of houses in the town center where we pasear-ed which is basically just small talking neighbors. I think the population is actually around 300. However it skyrockets during the coffee harvest when at least 500 Ngobe Bugle (an indigenous group) arrive to work in the plantations.

We peaked into La Amistad National Park which straddles the two Central American countries. It is a beautiful park filled with rolling green mountains shrouded in clouds. Howler monkeys could be heard in the distance with their bellows echoing at the start of the rains. We hiked up to an eco-lodge (pictured) an eco group in town received funds to build. However, it was a little disappointing to see parts of the park, especially surrounding the ANAM ranger station, clear cut and planted with more coffee or tomatoes. I suppose that’s part of the reason why I’m here. Teaching environmental education and developing alternative economies in my community will be an uphill battle. We’ll find out next week where we will be placed. I have my second interview with Francisco, my APCD, to help determine my placement as well as take tabs on my progress in Tech class. I think he decided many of the placements before we even got here. Many of the kids in my group already know where they are going. But at least I can put in my two cents after what I liked and didn’t like about the site I visited.

I’ll wrap this up for tonight. I’m dying to take a shower, but I want to wait until the water comes on instead of taking another bucket bath. I have no clue when that will be, but I know it’s sometime after it’s dark and the sun is setting right now. Until next time! Keep the emails coming as I love hearing from you all. And if you haven’t written yet, know that I can receive emails about once a week when we come to the city. I miss ya’ll and have been decorating my room with your pictures.

First Week of Training

Buenas!

We took two busses to our host family community and boy did we need it with all the luggage I brought! Though we were each dropped off at our new homes, I still had help carrying my bags from the roadside my house. Packing was pretty easy, as I don’t have any drawers or a dresser, so all my clothes are pretty much in a mess on the ground. I do have a table, but I basically just keep my hairbrush and a backpack that I don’t even open on there. I should probably change that…

My host family is great! I’ve got a mom, dad, 12 yr old brother (Mario, aka Piro), and 2 month old baby sister. (She doesn’t cry at all though!!!) I also have a 10 yr old brother (Juan) but he doesn’t live with us. (I still haven’t figured it all out.) And I’ve seen the 15 yr old brother only once. I have no clue where he lives, as I don’t think he lives with all of our neighboring uncles, aunts, cousins, or grandparents. So basically everyone who lives nearby is related to our family. That means that I hang out a lot with the other volunteers in those families which is nice.

I’ve got my own room with a light (yep, I’ve got electricity!!!), a FAN!, and a DOUBLE bed. I still haven’t set my mosquito net up but don’t tell anyone! My house has an indoor bathroom complete with a flushing toilet! We’ve got a shower with a showerhead and everything, but we only have water for a few hours everyday. I can never seem to figure out when, so I usually end up taking a shower by pouring a cup of water over my head from the bucket, lathering up, and pouring another cup over. I definitely invested in a bottle of Pert Plus to cut half the time out of washing my hair. We also have a minifridge which is great because I get ice in my drink for lunch and dinner. (Breakfast is of course coffee.)

Speaking of meals, did you know that you can fry baloney? That and fried hot dogs are perfectly acceptable for breakfast along with fried cornmeal, or fried dough, or fried (you fill in the blank). Some of it is quite good, and I especially liked the lunch of fried platanos (think French fries) and fried egg with ketchup!

Training is going well. I´ve learned how to properly sharpen my machete, limpiar el monte (cut down everything in sight to plant crops), and start a fast compost. And it´s only been the first week! Today we met in the bigger city for our weekly training on culture and general PC matters. Tropical diseases was probably the highlight of this one. Yes, a lot of us will be getting Dengue, so we have that to look forward to!

Last night I played soccer with my extended family (brothers and cousins). Man, I seriously never gave enough credit to those who play on the dirt with sharp rocks BAREFOOT! I could barely run as it hurts so much. By the end of these two years I´ll be an expert though! Then again, most of the kids only come up to my waist, so perhaps it´s not too high of a goal to reach. Hehe

That´s about it for now. I should be getting on the internet each week after class in the city. I still need to figure out a way to charge my computer as the pealing electrical extension cord hanging from my ceiling for power does not like my charger. (Popping sounds and melting plastic smells are NOT a good sign when dealing with expensive electronics!) Once I figure it out, I´ll try getting some pics up.

Also, the address is game to send me things. Mail is really slow coming through Panama City, so nothing big is needed at this point. (Letters may even take multiple months to get here.) Once I move outside of Panama (as the province is called), mail should be better.